This Summer, Elastic City (one of our recently launched projects), is giving walks throughout New York City. But these are not your typical tourist walks. These walks are led by artists. Todd Shalom, the founder of Elastic City, realized the idea while suffering from altitude sickness in Cusco, Peru.

The walks intend to make its audience active participants in an ongoing poetic exchange with the places we live in and visit. Artists are commissioned by Elastic City to create their own walks. These walks tend to focus less on providing factual information and more on heightening our awareness, exploring our senses and making new group rituals in dialogue with public space in the city.

The walks have been featured in TimeoutNY, WNYC, Wallstreet Journal, Gothamist, and other publications.

To listen Todd talk about the walks on WNYC, click here, or hit play on the player below

Browse the walks listing and rediscover New York.

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During the 2nd class, I also listed out a few of my favorite themes and plugins. For a review of what we covered in our 2nd Class, download this document.

In this post, I’ve included a few favorite plugins. For a list of some my favorite themes, visit this post.

WordPress Plugins

Wordtube

This plugin manages the JW FLV MEDIA PLAYER 5.1 and makes it easy for you to put music, videos or flash movies onto your WordPress posts and pages. Various skins for the JW PLAYER are available via http://www.longtailvideo.com

wordTube supports the streaming video format (Format .flv or .swf), sound files as MP3 and JPG, GIF or PNG grafic files. With wordTube you can simply insert it into your blog with the tag [MEDIA not found] or as playlist [PLAYLIST not found].

Since Version 2.0 it supports LongTail’s AdSolution which allows you to run pre-roll, overlay mid-roll, and post-roll advertisements in your media player. Click here to sign up for LongTail.

You don’t need to change the WYSIWYG mode or special HTML knowledge to insert such a tag. You can show a simple media file (i.e. a flv Format) or a playlist of all your media files.

All in One SEO

Optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).

Akismet

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog’s “Comments” admin screen.
download the plugin or read more

Contact Forms 7

Contact Form 7 can manage multiple contact forms, plus you can customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup. The form supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering and so on.

Visit the plugin site

WP-Cache

WP-Cache is an extremely efficient WordPress page caching system to make you site much faster and responsive. It works by caching Worpress pages and storing them in a static file for serving future requests directly from the file rather than loading and compiling the whole PHP code and the building the page from the database. WP-Cache allows to serve hundred of times more pages per second, and to reduce the response time from several tenths of seconds to less than a millisecond.

jQuery Lightbox For Native Galleries

jQuery Lightbox For Native Galleries makes the native WordPress galleries use a lightbox script called ColorBox to display the fullsize images.

To create the below gallery, all you have to do is upload a few photos to your post, and insert into your post’s content area. No modifications are required to get the Lightbox working.

WP-Ecommerce

This is my go to plugin for any ecommerce site built using wordpress. It has everything you need to get your store up and running.

Visit the plugin site
Download the plugin

Watch how to setup the plugin

Watch the Overview

MyFTP

If you need to access your host remotely (away from your desktop or laptop, this is the way to do it. It is a WordPress FTP like plugin that can be used to manage folders and files via the WordPress admin panel.

Google Analytics for WordPress by Yoast

This plugin easily adds your Google Analytics tracking code (the new ga.js one!) to all pages within your blog. That’s it’s main functionality, it adds a few “extra’s” though.

Visit Yoast’s site to find out what those extras are. You’ll also learn a crapload about wordpress.

Find your Google Analytics Account ID

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Here’s a freakin’ awesome deal from 3rd Ward : Sign up for the WordPress Workshop (section starting 6/13), Illustrator Intensive (6/13), OR Intro to After Effects (6/19) and get a FREE Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mouse.

Starting June 13th, I will be leading a 3 week workshop on WordPress. I’ve helped many organizations build their sites using WordPress and simply love the platform (in fact, this site is running on WordPress). It’s great for blogs, portfolio sites, and creative folks. You can even run ecommerce sites using WordPress.

Go on. Register for the class

A bit about the class :

You’ll learn the in’s and out’s of setting up, customizing and running your own website using WordPress, the most popular blogging platform.

WordPress is used for top blogs like CNN Money, all the New York Times blogs, and many non-profit arts websites. Simply put, WordPress makes publishing your website much easier.

We’ll start off with the basics (like setting up your own hosting) and then move to more advanced topics like customizing a theme (through the WordPress template engine), and inserting plugins for Twitter and Facebook. We will also set aside some time to review content strategy, site architecture, and look at popular plugins to help you sell your products online. This class will work well for both beginners and experts.

You can register for the class by clicking this link.

And to learn more about wordpress, visit my wordpress archives. Really. Click on that link. Or, you can take a look at some sites I’ve built using wordpress.

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This Spring and Summer, I’ll be leading a series of workshops and classes at 3rd Ward. Topics will focus on ecommerce, online marketing, social media, online communications, building an online audience, and finally – a 3-part wordpress workshop.

The classes were initially designed to be taken together, but are now flexible enough to be taken as individual components. Below is a description of all the courses.

Curious about past courses and workshops I’ve led? Want to peruse lots resources or just kill a Saturday nigt? Great. Check out my new archive of workshop resources.

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Misnomer Dance Theater
Live from Symphony Space, April 3rd | Saturday at 7pm

Premiering Cellophane, Misnomer’s newest piece – watch the rebroadcast here :

About Misnomer
Founded in 1998 by Artistic Director and choreographer Chris Elam, MISNOMER DANCE THEATER creates contemporary dances about human relationships that are informed by cross-cultural and international perspectives. Elam approaches dance both as a choreographer and ethnographer, which informs the technical and conceptual complexity of his choreography.

Misnomer has performed, done research, and created new work in Cuba, Brazil, Indonesia, Ireland, Holland, Ukraine, France, and Turkey, as well as throughout the United States. Based in New York City, the Company has performed locally at Dance Theater Workshop, the Skirball Center, Symphony Space, Danspace Project, PS 122, Joyce Soho, and at the River-to-River Festival.

Named one of the top ten dance performances for 2006 by The New York Times and as one of the “25 to Watch” for 2007 by Dance Magazine, Misnomer was awarded year-long residencies from both The Joyce Theater and the Skirball Center. Residencies also have been received from the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, ORT, Dragon’s Egg, New York University, Union Street Dance, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange. The Company has received commissions and fellowships from The Yard, Summer Stages Dance, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, The American Music Center, New York State Council for the Arts, The Jerome Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Bates Dance Festival, the Portland Center for New Dance Development, and DanzAbierta in Cuba.

Misnomer continues to partner with institutions locally and abroad in educational outreach. Past engagements include Brown University, Hofstra University, Harvard University, Summer Stages, and the State Conservatory for the Arts in Turkey.

Misnomer’s unique aesthetic and extensive online work has lead to collaborations and projects with Bjork, Apple Computers, Business Week, and Danish Dance Theater. Musical collaborators who have set scores to dances by Misnomer include Andy Teirstein, Scott Killian, Mike Vargas, Jesse Manno, the Talujon Percussion Ensemble, and Evan Ziporyn.

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Why should you develop your mobile site before investing in an iPhone app?

Heather from DIOSA Communications addresses this questions in her latest article. Below are the 5 main points. For the full explanation, visit the original article.

1) Almost anyone with a mobile phone can access your mobile website whereas only iPhone users can access your iPhone App.

There are 4.1 billion mobile subscribers worldwide (277 million in the United States) and just a small fraction of those are iPhone users.  

2) Mobile websites are easy to update whereas if you want to update an iPhone App, then the user has to download the Updates.

Essentially, updating an m.yoursite.com is a bit easier than updating your app and asking users to download the update.

3) As the smartphone market expands, are you then going to also launch multiple versions of your App?

Are you going to also create Apps for Palm, Blackberry, Android, etc.?

4) Social networking sites all have mobile websites and their traffic grows every single month.

(think m.twitter.com, m.facebook.com, m.youtube.com)

5) Text alert campaigns need mobile websites to be successful.

If you’re engaging customers via text messages, a mobile compatible site that loads quickly is absolutely essential

Related Links:

Four Reasons Why Nonprofits Need a Mobile Website
10 Nonprofit Mobile Websites
PhotoKast’s Guide on How to Build an iPhone App

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As part of SMartCamp, we also ran a 4 hour Social Media Bootcamp. The workshop, which was limited to 20 participants (broken up into smaller groups of 5), allowed attendees to develop the foundations of a social media strategy, or workshop an existing social media strategy in a small group setting with one-on-one support from workshop leaders.

The workshop leaders included
Farra Trompeter
Maryann Devine
Damien Basile
and me, Jaki Levy.

Each facilitator gave a short 10 minute presentation, and then led a conversation within the small groups. All 4 presentations are included below (for even more SMartCamp presentations, go here).

We also took participants through a series of questions and shared resources (which were gathered by all the facilitators in a google doc). For your reference, I’ve also posted those resources below.

Enjoy!

GENERAL RESOURCES

NTEN: We Are Media
http://www.wearemedia.org
Case Foundation: Gear Up for Giving
http://www.casefoundation.org/social-media-tutorials
Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media
http://beth.typepad.com
The A-to-Z of Social Media for Brands
http://econsultancy.com/blog/3965-the-a-z-of-social-media-for-brands
5 Must-Read Social Media Case Studies
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-must-read-social-media-marketing-studies/
A List of Articles on Social Media
http://www.arrowrootmedia.com/tag/social-media/

Audiences

Social Technographics
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2010/01/conversationalists-get-onto-the-ladder.html
http://www.arrowrootmedia.com/2009/05/10/the-pyramid-of-engagement/
The Conversation Prism http://www.theconversationprism.com
Social Media Demographics http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2009-social-network-analysis-report/
Museum 2.0 http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/
Twitter Directory (search, find Twitter users) http://wefollow.com/
Twiangulate (Relationship analysis tool) http://twiangulate.com/search/

Strategy (including staffing)

The POST Method
http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2007/12/the-post-method.html
Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report
http://nten.org/research/2009-nonprofit-social-network-survey-report
(participate in this year’s survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R8PL9RB)
How much time does it take to do social media?
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/10/how-much-time-d.html
Should CEOs and Executive Directors Use Social Media
http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2010/02/should-ceos-and-executive-directors-use-social-media.html
How to Deveop A Small-Scale Social Media Plan
http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-develop-small-scale-social-media.html

Monitoring and Listening

Frog Loop: Build Your Own Listening Dashboard… http://bit.ly/3JIwZ
A Recipe for Social Media Buzz http://nten.org/blog/2010/02/17/recipe-social-media-buzz

Metrics

Nonprofit Social Media Benchmark Study
http://www.e-benchmarksstudy.com/socialmedia/
Nonprofit Text Messaging Benchmark Study
http://mobilebenchmarks.org/
How To: Measure Social Media ROI
http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/social-media-roi/
Using Social Media to Meet Nonprofit Goals
http://www.idealware.org/sm_survey/download.php?key=14586454

Policies

Social Media Policies
http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php
What’s in a Social Media Policy and Why You Might Need One
http://www.bigducknyc.com/blog/?p=228
Nonprofit Communications – Weekly Roundup
http://www.bigducknyc.com/blog/?tag=roundup
Sample Policy for Responding to Comments (US Air Force)
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/01/usaf-blog-respo/

Relationship/Community Building

Online community building: Gardening vs. landscaping
http://www.socialbrite.org/2009/08/06/online-community-building-gardening-vs-landscaping/
5 Tips for Creating Non-Profit Online Communities
http://mashable.com/2010/02/12/non-profit-communities/

Twitter

Twitter Guide Book
http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/
Twitter: I think I get it. Now what do I tweet?
http://www.bigducknyc.com/blog/?p=329

TOOLS

Tweetdeck monitor conversations + posts on twitter : http://tweetdeck.com
Hootsuite.com helps you manage twitter accounts online: http://hootsuite.com
Facebook Page Analytics (find similar pages + fans) : http://fanpageanalytics.com/
Mailchimp (some of the best email marketing software around) : http://mailchimp.com

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ABOUT SMartCAMP

Taking place during art fair week, SMartCAMP will be tackling some of the most important topics in social media as it relates to the cultural sector. Designed to give an overview of how professionals working in the arts can put these new communications tools to work for them, SMartCAMP will be offering a series of panels, presentations and case studies to help artists and arts professionals put together a course of action. For those already familiar with the social web, it will be an opportunity to deepen their knowledge, hone new skills, refine social engagement strategies and gain inspiration from distinguished peers and colleagues working at the intersection of art and social media. For social media professionals who are looking to connect with arts organizations, SMartCAMP offers an opportunity to learn about the challenges and possibilities unique to the cultural space.

“Social media is changing the way people share and discover content, the way they consume information, the very essence of modern-day communication itself,” says Julia Kaganskiy, ArtsTech founder and SMartCAMP program curator. “No industry, especially one as socially significant as the arts, can afford to ignore the social web.”

SMartCAMP will address a variety of topics; social media strategies, technology art start-ups, emerging trends and measuring social media success. The program will begin on each day with keynote speeches from Marc Schiller, Founder of Wooster Collective and CEO of Elecrtic Artists, and Maria Popova, founder and editor-in-chief of Brain Pickings, respectively. The remainder of the day’s agendas will include case studies from artists and institutions, a mobile media presentation, an online ‘video kit’ instructional and a bloggers panel.

In addition to this agenda, several top social media and branding strategists will lead a small group workshop entitled Social Media Bootcamp. The workshop, which is limited to 20 participants broken up into groups of 5, will allow attendees to develop the foundations of a social media strategy, or workshop an existing social media strategy in a small group setting with one-on-one support from workshop leaders.

For full symposium schedule click here
For full speaker list click here
Website: socialmediaartcamp.com

Follow on Twitter: twitter.com/SMartCAMP

Friend on Facebook: facebook.com/SMartCAMP

REGISTER FOR SMARTCAMP

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REGISTER HERE

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Running an online store enables you to sell your works and products without the constraints of time and space. This seminar serves as a crash course in running your own online business. Two main topics will be covered:

The basic mechanism of e-commerce: who’s involved in transacting online? What are the roles of different parties? What happened when users click the “Submit Order” button?

Steps to set up and run your own online store. Get an Internet merchant bank account. Find a reliable host. Learn how to go about your ecommerce technology. Consider buying an off-the-shelf solution, renting technology from a 3rd party provider, or using open-source or free shopping cart software packages. Learn about payment processing with PayPal, 3rd-party hosting and doing it yourself. Get familiar with shipping methods, managing inventory and your products, securing online transactions, designing your store appearance, and basic search engine optimization (SEO).

Instructor
Jaki Levy founded Arrow Root Media, a New Media Production and Consulting company. Jaki has worked with multiple non-profits, including: Issue Project Room, The Field, Dance/USA, Rockaway Waterfront Alliance, Queens Council on the Arts, DanceBrazil, and Soundstreams.  His online initiatives and work with Misnomer Dance Theater helped the company secure over $1.25 million in grants from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation to help develop new initiatives for the arts online. He was also the recipient of Cisco’s $25,000 Digital Incubator grant. In 2010, he will be officially launching elastic-city.com, a full ecommerce site devoted to artistic walking tours in NYC.

Location
573 Metropolitan (btw Lorimer & Union), Brooklyn

REGISTER HERE

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Instead of the usual discussion of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, we wanted to take a look at some of the most inventive implementations of social media we’ve come across: social media art experiments. We’ll be taking a look at how artists are incorporating social media in their art-making practices. You want to talk about creative community engagement strategies? Look no further than this round-up.

The speakers:

Nic Rad is a Brooklyn based artist working with traditional materials focused on social media concepts and conflicts. His project “People Matter” is comprised of 99 media figures at varying degrees of fame, influence, and recognizability. The works will be given away freely on the closing night of his solo show at Rare Gallery in April.
http://www.nic-rad.com
http://www.peoplematter.info

Adam Smith is the Marketing Manager for Dance Theater Workshop and an ensemble member of the New York Neo-Futurists. He produces online video for both organizations. Through the Dance Theater Workshop Twitter account (@dancetworkshop), he & dance artist Jillian Sweeney created the Twitter Community Choreography project, a program that “tweet-sources” dance movement that are performed for the camera.
Community Choreography # 1, Jillian Sweeney
Community Choreography #13, Lauren Sharpe
Community Choreography #16, Tyler Ashley

An Xiao uses social media like Twitter and Facebook as a performance and public art space. Her work has been featured with the Brooklyn Museum, Yale/Haskins Laboratories, The New York Times and ARTNews. She founded and directs @Platea, a global online public art collective, and blogs on art and social media technology for Art21.
www.anxiaostudio.com

William Powhida is a visual artist and art critic born in 1976 in New York. He is known for controversial subject matter that addresses thecontemporary art industry itself as well as combination portraits drawn entirely from memory. In a satirical way, Powhida constructs work deliberately about growing his own fame, addressing the major obstacles facing emerging contemporary artists. Controversial topics have included creating an “enemies” list as well as letters addressed to famous contemporary curators (such as Zach Feuer Gallery), collectors and critics, requesting recognition. He is known for staging acts of destruction to his own work, creating his own press coverage and promoting his shows as being curated under duress.
www.williampowhida.com
williampowhida.blogspot.com
@powhida

Rachel Perry Welty was born in 1962, in Tokyo, Japan. She holds a BA from Connecticut College and a Diploma and Fifth Year Certificate from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Recently Welty participated in group shows at The Drawing Center, New York and at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts where her video “Karaoke Wrong Number” has entered the permanent collection. She has had solo shows at Barbara Krakow Gallery (Boston), Yancey Richardson Gallery (New York) and will open a solo show next month at Gallery Diet (Miami) in 2010 with work she created as a MacDowell Colony Fellow this past Fall.
www.rachelperrywelty.com
http://www.icaboston.org

Yanira Castro has made dance installations for theaters, warehouses, bathrooms, a cellar, a former bathhouse, a confessional. She is interested in constructing scenarios for people that engage different ways of experiencing live performance. Past performances include Center of Sleep, which placed audience and performers together in an aural and physical installation of mirrors and platforms at Dance Theater Workshop. Her work has been presented by PS122, The Chocolate Factory, XØ Projects Inc, and HERE Arts Center, among others. Her latest dance installation, Dark Horse/Black Forest, has been presented in the public bathrooms of the George Bacovia Theater in Romania; the Daile Theatre in Latvia; the tanzhaus nrw in Germany; the Zoellner Arts Center in Pennsylvania and the Gershwin Hotel in New York City. Yanira is the instigator and director of a canary torsi.
http://acanarytorsi.org

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