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.

At the first Social Media Cafe in Manchester Julian Tait has kindly pointed me to the Map of Social Networks Popularity. I include the November image of the map, but if you click through to the page on Oxyweb’s blog, you’ll be able to browse maps since August 2008. The map uses the data from Alexa, and social networks in each country are ranked by traffic, not by membership – which I think is somewhat of a downside.

World Map of Social Networks, November 2008

vKontakte.ru

Odnoklassniki.ru

For instance, in Russia there are two main social networks – vKontakte.ru (the Russian Facebook) and odnoklassniki.ru (akin to Bebo, aimed primarily at people who went to school together). Each network boasts over 20 millions of users (most of which, I suppose, have profiles on both networks, as I do), with over 21mln at vKontakte and over 25mln at Odnoklassniki. Despite the difference in member numbers,  vKontakte attracts more traffic than Odnoklassniki, according to Oxyweb’s map. This may or may not be true, however the rumour has it that Odnoklassniki now requires you to pay to register on the website. A wide range of additional services is also available for a certain amount of money, which has recently dismayed quite a few LiveJournal bloggers. If anything, this may certainly draw people away from using the site, and then Oxyweb’s map will be correct for many months to come. Or it may not… we’ll have to wait and see.

In Ireland, apparently, Bebo is much more popular than Facebook. The latter really seems to have taken all over the world, which is not surprising given the fact that a bunch of volunteer translators has been employed to translate the service into different foreign languages. The same, incidentally, did vKontakte: the creators appealed to users to offer their suggestions on better translation of the website into Ukranian, Belarusian, and English. As a result, there are now users from many countries, including Mexica and India. Most of them are either foreign students in Russia or the Russian language aficionados from distant lands. Odnoklassniki currently has Russian and Ukranian versions.

As for me, I certainly use Facebook and vKontakte more often than Odnoklassniki. As far as the Russian networks go, this in part has to do with the fact that the majority of people with whom I communicate regularly are registereted at vKontakte, rather than at Odnoklassniki. In addition, the entire interface and the opportunities of the network are much wider at vKontakte: e.g. you cannot have Notes in Odnoklassniki, there is no status field, limited opportunities for listing links, and no option to create separate albums, although you can upload up to 100 photos at once.