I’ve spent the last couple of hours looking for Web 2.0 sites that might be helpful to the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs and the Western States Arts Federation as they work on using social software to advance the arts. Here are a couple of intriguing sites I’ve been playing with that I will probably include in a presentation on Web 2.0 that I’m scheduled to give at the Denver Commission on Feb. 6:
ConvinceMe: This new site makes it easy to set up a debate topic and then argue your side and see whom you can convince. It’s easy to find existing debates, and I weighed in on one dealing with whether or not Mitt Romney can win the presidency. ConvinceMe’s tagline is “A New Way to Argue.” The possible connection with the arts in Denver is to imagine a similar site which invites Denver residents to weigh in on artistic and cultural issues. Which public art project do you love or hate, and why? Is Denver a better music town or a movies town? What is the best undiscovered art venue in Denver?
goodreads: This site, which describes itself as “what your friends are reading,” provides an elegant, addictively easy-to-use interface for posting books that you’ve read and finding out books that others have read, with reviews and comments. The arts connection here would be, again, to link people in Denver together around a common interest in the arts. goodreads provides code so I can put a widget on my blog, to wit:
I’m having a ball on this hunt for new ways to advance the arts through Web 2.0 creations, which are proliferating like lovely weeds. With the discovery of these two sites I’m confident I’ll have a good show to put on at the Commission meeting.