I posted recently about the Social Media Cafe in Manchester, and by the look of it one of the members is about to start a blog. From where I and a few pals stand, things looks bright for Social Media and its use in Manchester, as elsewhere. But there are yet too many hurdles to overcome. Whilst my journalist friends are looking at the use of Social Media tools in the traditional media, I decided to narrate the two experiences I have recently had in dealing with an art depository and a fashion network’s event. In the light of this experience, Manchester has got a lot to improve.

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It’s been twice in the space of November that I had to deal with the rather suspicious attitude to Social Media, and blogging in particular. First, I went to one of Manchester’s major museums where it turned out that I needed to fill out a photography permission form. I know the collection well: I have been visiting the museum since 2002; a lot of paintings displayed there are in the “knowledge minimum” for the History of Art, which I do know well, being an historian; and, most importantly, I can access many, if not all of them, online, either via the gallery’s website or via several online museums.

The pictures I wanted to take were therefore not “for personal study purposes”: for those purposes I can browse the images online, or read a specialist monograph. I wanted to take the photos of paintings as they are in the gallery space, in frames, among other works, possibly with the visitors standing in front of them. The photos would be uploaded to Flickr and used on my Arts and Culture blog, to tell my visitors about the collection.

Some of you may already be asking themselves: who would need that, if the gallery has got a website? This is a good question. My answer is: the gallery’s website does not provide a feel of the collection. I see my duty as a blogger to tell precisely about this side of the museum, rather than some well-known facts, and for that I need pictures of the gallery space. As a visitor, I am empowered by a few means to make the gallery collection appear more vibrant and appealing to prospective visitors – and I don’t ask to be paid for it.

Update: I have been given a permission to use the photographs after I showed which ones I was going to use. I was also explained the problems the depository encounters even when trying to produce the photographic images on display for their own purposes. There are still many things that the museum can do to improve their interaction with Social Media, and their use of up-to-date means of online communication on the website is one of the things that are begging to be changed.

In hindsight, I should probably have written to the museum, explaining my intention. My only excuse is that this was the first time in England that I had to ask for a photography permission: I genuinely assumed that this would not be a problem as it has not been with very many other art collections and depositories where I have taken photos previously. I generally have no problem with photography not being allowed at the special exhibitions. But the collection in question is on a regular display.

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So, an art collection that does not deploy Social Media tools and is generally against the use thereof by others. But here we may be dealing with the case of “old-fashioned” thinking that can be pointed to a correction path by the overwhelming proof of the goodness of Social Media for museums. Another example of a very strange attitude to things comes from the fashion side. This post is only intended to highlight the problem, rather than to go into details. However, my recent experience of visiting a fashion networking event in Manchester has not left the most favourable impression. It was held in the network’s private club in Central Manchester, and the road to the hub of fashion could not be any more dangerous than the one down the abismally lit spiral staircase. Inside, however, I was greeted by a rather cold appreciation of Social Media: “huh, a blogger?” The network’s website is just as ‘private’ as their venue, and by the look of it does not aspire to become any more ’social’ in terms of the use of various SM tools.

This is the problem that I noticed across many fashion brands’ websites. Whilst I can see the necessity to restrict access to certain portions of the website, I honestly struggle to see how this necessity relates to images. The brands go the extra mile to ensure it is impossible to take a screen grab – but what they do not seem to realise is that one can use a regular camera to photograph the screen, if this is absolutely necessary. What happens next, is down to three questions: 1) will the user give a proper name to their picture (i.e. ‘paul-smith-pin-up-girls-cufflinks), in which case it is searchable, or leave it as something like ‘IMG_1234′, which really tells you nothing; 2) will the user credit the website for the use of the picture; and 3) will the brand know about this off-page activity. The answers to the first two questions are on the user’s conscience, but the third question is entirely upon the conscience of the brand.

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At the end of it all, the question I am asking myself, is: who is currently using Social Media in the UK? Naturally, people with the background in Media, Music and Marketing sectors have so far been the most outspoken supporters of this new means of communication and distribution of content – whilst the ‘Art’ and even Fashion industry lag significantly behind. But what really puzzles me is how the Social Media really is being perceived by these late adopters. The suspicion and a degree of arrogance that I noticed – and the fact that on many fashion brands’ websites there is no single bookmarking button (not even ’share this on Facebook’) – made me think that the Social Media folks are perhaps currently on the same bench, as once was the bourgeoisie class, snorted at by the old aristocracy. We know, of course, how the story went.

And so, the first Social Media Cafe has now been inaugurated at The Northern in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Centred around the “is blogging dead?” idea expressed by Wired, the Cafe has successfully established that blogging is very much alive. More than that, a blog is no longer a diary, but should be used as one’s online base where you can display your Twitter updates, your Facebook icon, and the links to all other online services where you are present.

To catch up with everything that went on, here are a few links:

Is blogging dead? The first debate @ #smc_mcr

Social Media Cafe in Manchester – a Success!

Flickr photos

Twitter channel

The Social Media Cafe is a great and fairly informal event where you can hear expert speakers and then do a fair bit of networking and idea-sharing. If this is something that tickles your web tastebuds, then consider joining a Social Media Cafe Wiki and put yourself on the list of attendees. The date for the next SMC is 8th of December.

The very first Social Media Cafe is opening its doors in Manchester tomorrow, 11th November, 2008, at 6 pm, at The Northern in 56 Tib St. It is curious in a way to see this happening, the backdrop being the much-discussed issue of whether or not blogging has died. Since 2006, Manchester bloggers have been meeting in many places across the city, and in 2007 the meet-ups were particularly powered by the BBC Manchester Blog. With its demise in spring 2008, nothing has been happening until August when I found a video on YouTube of one of the first ever blogmeets (I wasn’t even writing any blogs then yet), and boy, did I feel nostalgic! I posted about the video on my main blog, and out of a sudden a huge interest originated. So huge in fact that I saw myself co-organising the blogmeet with Sarah Hartley of the M.E.N. All of us who went there got a tour of the newsroom and a nice chat in the pub afterwards, but ideas were thrown around, particularly that of the Social Media Cafe, and having a panel of speakers.

Well, the great news is that both these ideas have now been given the green light, and I’m looking forward to The Blogging Is Dead debate. On the surface it does look like that blogging is dead, and the bloggers’ meetings are to be changed by a Social Media Cafe. Symptomatic, you may say. Not quite so, in my opinion, if only because the original “blogging is dead” article and the subsequent reactions have all appeared in blogs. What we see instead is how communication is being reinstated, and the status it is being given. A couple of years ago the talk of the town was the “communities”: how they grow, who belongs there, how to be a part or to be expelled, etc. Now the talk has shifted to “networking” and “following”. The most amazing thing is that all this is happening in real time, you can’t stop and think: should I or should I not? It does to an extent look like either being with, or out. And because you tweet quicker than you can blog, the feeling, naturally, is that of the end of the world (of blogging).

My view – regarding the “blogging is dead” statement – is very simple. Blogging as a platform has much evolved, and will continue so. Blogging as a medium has also evolved, and the word “microblogging”, in the end, does owe a part of itself to “blogging”. Indeed, there are more people who want to blog, not least because there are people who profess the beauty of blogging (and I am one of them, undoubtedly). So, what is dying then? The purpose, surely. And here is the rub, and it is actually printed on the front page of WordPress.com: you are urged to start a blog “to express yourself”. This is true even for a business blog, for in the end a business that ventures into blogging is expressing something, be it their policy, product, or expertise. Well, what happens if someone expresses their “self” better than you? Or if the whole process of “self-expression” is too much of a labour? The beginning of a blog may be a technical question, but the blog’s sustainability rests entirely in one’s personal resources. And by that I don’t mean money or even the time you have to spare on your blogging efforts. What you know, what you remember, and how you use this, are the cornerstones of a successful blogging venture. Or, indeed, almost any venture, which is why I like quoting George Orwell’s four reasons for writing: they are totally applicable to blogging. As far as Notebooks – Los Cuadernos de Julia goes, there are over 300 posts, lots of great projects highlighted and covered, and if you follow down the sidebar you’ll find the categories of the blog. It is clear even to me that there is too much to write about yet.

More to follow after the debate.