LOVECULTURE
where life meets art
News
I Just wanted to update you on Love Culture.
We were successful with receiving some additional funding through We Play and are now working on some extensions to the functionality of Love Culture. This should include the following:
1) More functionality around the host site fan page, with editable content for each host site to implement.
2) More functionality around the user profile, with editable content for each user to implement.
3) Integration with Twitter / Facebook
4) Uploading media files.
5) E-mail notifications
This development is happening right now and will unfold within the interface over the course of the next month.
Please be aware that functionality is being tested during this initial period, not all functionality will be fully operational.
Your feedback is important to the devlopment of Love Culture in the future.
We are now taking pilot organisations into the trial phase.
Organisations in Lancaster participating during the trial period currently include:
folly - now live
The Dukes - now live
Ludus Dance - now live
Nuffield Theatre
Storey Gallery
More Music
We have aso worked exclusively with Lake District Summer Music to introduce Love Culture and SMS messaging to their audience as part of this years festival during August. See http://www.ldsm.org.uk
Look out for the Love Culture icons 
to leave comments and reviews for the organisations.
If you are an ACENW RFO and want to be part of the next stage early adopters please contact janie.ash@folly.co.uk
Overview
LoveCulture is being developed by folly as part of Art of Digital.
The Cultural Widget now known as LoveCulture was originally defined as follows:
"The Cultural Widget is a project to allow audiences to discuss, share and rate content on cultural websites.
This will enable audiences to discover new content, which may interest them and to allow cultural organisations to better understand their audiences and thus reach out to new audiences."
Since then as the project is being developed we feel this can be crystallised more directly by the following statement:
The core purpose of this project is to create and make visible a community of cultural participants. Our members will come from organisations that are Arts Council supported. Our community will come from people who engage in all forms of art and culture. We will aim to attract all users from both within the physical and the virtual space to create a vibrant interactive community.
Why?
Our aim is to challenge people to think differently:
Ask the big question: Do people want to share this, rave about it, add to it, play with it?
Today is not about grabbing attention, consumers are not the same, technology is not the same.
People still want to watch – but they want to comment, play and chat with like-minded friends from all over the world.
We want to create exciting ways to get emotional connection, participation and fun.
The average cultural organisation sees the physical experience e.g. going to the theatre and the Virtual experience e.g. checking performance times / downloading a podcast /
posting to a form as separate and independent activities.
Folly’s idea is to explore where there can be more fusion between the physical and the virtual and conversely the virtual and the physical. This is something that we are increasingly seeing as being evident in the way people behave on the internet.
For consumers there is one brand. The interaction on-line and in the real space is seen as a simultaneous whole experience. As devices and connectivity becomes more pervasive this is likely to become the norm and Cultural organisations should be the leaders and early adopters of this convergence.
Why Arts organisations?
We want to support all Arts organisations with digital strategies to make the most of digital technology
Benefits:
Understanding your on-line audience.
Engaging with your on-line audience
Cross selling and promoting your programmes
Increase your knowledge of your audience with data and statistics
Create a digital strategy
You will be able to market more cost effectively
You will be able to get your messages to market more quickly
You will be able to be more flexible and responsive to promote and sell your shows and events
You will be able to engage with your audience on a one-to-one basis
This is the jewel in the crown for customer relationship marketing
What you need to do?
The more you and your whole organisation embrace this technology then the more successful it will be. Your job is to get your people excited and talking about Love Culture so that the community is built organically through respect and friendship.
Being part of Love Culture is easy and will cause you absolute minimum input and interruption, it’s just 1 line of HTML and no other changes to the site
Why Arts community?
We want to encourage people who engage with all culture and at any level to join this social networking, review and information site
Benefits:
See what’s going on in arts organisations around the North West
Share your opinion, review and rate
Make friends
Get special offers, previews and invites
Be part of a unique cultural community
How it works?
This bespoke software has been specially developed for the cultural community. It expands upon and offers similar functionality to systems such as:
Google Analytics / Facebook / Twitter / bespoke user forums etc.
What’s in the future?
Future ambitions for the project may include:
• a mobile phone application
• a GPS enabled functionality for location based interaction via mobiles and other devices
• links with API’s from other social networking applications and tools
• extension to other UK wide areas
• extension to other cultural organisations – not just Arts Council supported
• creative projects embedded within the interface or that use the interface as a key component
• non UK cultural organisations
• physically embedding data streams in cultural venues
Our partners
folly is currently working with Axiom Tech as a technology partner to develop the back end system using open source applications such as PLIGG (http://www.pligg.com/)
Branding and design work is being undertaken by Foundation Marketing Communication www.foundationltd.co.uk
Contact
For further information please contact:
Janie Ash
E: Janie.ash@folly.co.uk