Thursday, March 29, 2007

Why I hate the Internet; by Gabi Contesti


Well, I really didn't see that one coming! I haven't been able to log on for some time now and I'm not exactly sure why. The Internet has been throwing me some curve balls lately. I like to think of myself as Internet savvy and technically inclined, but lately I've had anything but an easy time with my viral marketing projects.
(If I were trying to study an exam, I'm sure the Internet would work without a glitch, but when it comes to trying to be productive... no dice!)

Since my last blog, a lot has happened. Our MySpace page is up and running (and looking beautiful if I say so myself!). The address is www.myspace.com/kiarts. The Facebook club is gaining more members by the day, and my latest project on YouTube has surprisingly already been hit a few times. I edited a video of our Art and All That Jazz event and posted it up on YouTube. The minute and half film is a montage of clips that will hopefully promote the monthly event. The KIA's Art and All That Jazz is a Friday night event that incorporates entertainment, live music, food, drink, and great company while touring the latest KIA exhibit. Last month was a spotlight on the Car as Art exhibit. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jCb9ya9y1o)


My latest project on the Internet (ugh) has been another difficult challenge. I am currently trying to upload some of the wonderful entries from the Teen Filmmakers Festival onto YouTube without success. I will be sure to blog as soon as they are up, as I will be very ecstatic, and I'd love to promote the students hard work. The films are really excellent!


Finally, I booked a DJ for the 2007 High School Area Show reception. A lesson I've learned quickly in my 'adventures in PR' have been that networking will make your life so much easier. A friend I made at the radio station last semester was Eric P. He is a very talented and skilled DJ who hosts a show on Monday nights. He'll add a great element to the reception and I'm looking forward to having him there. Check back for a link to the uploaded video of the High School show.


I'll check back in with more progress soon!


Gabi

Monday, March 26, 2007

an internship with perks - shocking enough


Today was really quite fun. At least, it was different than my usual day sitting behind a computer mentally banging my head against the wall because the internet is horrible. Today I got to make like I was a real photographer, photographing an ACTUAL photographer. Exciting, yes?

Lorna Simpson came to the KIA today, to take a tour of our galleries and decide where and how she wanted to set up her own exhibit that's coming here in May. Her photography quite interesting and thought-provoking, so this opportunity was quite exciting. My job was to take candid photos of Ms. Simpson during her visit. It was fun, for starters becaues I love taking pictures. I would never claim to have any professional experience or training with a camera, but I like to think I take a bit more care than the amateur with my shots. I also got to meet Ms. Simpson, who was lovely.

With my candid shots, I try to stay out of the way as much as possible. When you're actually trying to do work, having a camera up close and in your face can be ridiculously distracting and obnoxious. I try to keep this in mind.

So that was my entire day today. Such a nice change!

Monday, March 19, 2007

the end that has just barely begun

So the three of us (Paul, Gabi, and I) had our semi-standard Friday meeting last week, and the general consensus seemed to be that our project is nearly finished. At least for this semester. The Wikipedia has been set up, the Myspace is finished. Flickr and Youtube are still being investigated, of course, but the main body of the social-media marketing scheme is done.

"Done" is a rather loose term for this kind of work, though. Characteristic of the internet itself, viral marketing is always changing. A social website like Myspace can be the height of chic popularity one day, and ridiculously out of date and uncool the next. Then some other linking site will crop up, and everyone will join it, and the cycle continues. That's exactly what happened with Facebook a few years ago - an independently-run site that came out of nowhere is now the social norm for college students (and other groups) to meet people. With that in mind, this project will run on in the (hopefully) years to come, with new interns taking over where we leave off and maintaining the sites Gabi and I have created.

As for the outside projects I've been working on, I'm still doing my usual photography for events the KIA puts on. For instance, just this past weekend I went to the museum to photograph the young artists' exhibit/reception we just recently installed. Lots of adorable little kids were running around excited pointing out their artwork to their parents, it was great. I got lots of photos that look like this one. I'm also now investigating Flickr and seeing how/if that will benefit us greatly in our marketing, and if it's worth the effort to set up an account.

I should also add that the reason for lack of Gabi-posts is that Blogger is apparently being mean to her and won't let her log in. So I have re-invited her again, and we'll see if this can get her back on board. She's only had one post! And I feel like I'm jabbering! Hopefully this blog can actually become TWO-user friendly instead of just one.

I need to get back to work now, even though that's difficult what with the little kid that has entered the library and is deciding to scream at the top of his lungs. Oh well. Til later!

-Laura

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Wikipedia!

Look at what I did. I'm proud.

It's our very own Wikipedia page!

I'm pretty excited about this, mostly because I managed to figure out Wikipedia's formatting system (it's like HTML, but just different enough to be confusing). It looks like all the other Wikipedia pages I've seen. It's small as of right now, but the main interest here concerns all the hyper-links I've inserted in the text. It's the main use of Wikipedia: each article can be linked to any other articles remoted mentioned.

Again, this might just be the basic groundwork of what this page might become in the future. I'll leave it to the incoming interns where they want to take it, but as of right now I'm calling this project FINISHED.

Friday, March 2, 2007

working out some glitches, ie. I hate technology

Another few weeks of the internship has gone by. Progress has, in my opinion, been on and off due to the lovely infallibilities of technology. In essence, I hate the internet and everything to do with it because it never works when I ever need it to. But we persevere! And work has been done. Yay.

I started on the KIA's new-fangled Wikipedia page. So far, if you were to search "Kalamazoo Institute of Arts" at Wiki, there'd be a text-only profile. That is definitely better than nothing, and at least we now have a presence there. It is just one of Wiki's ridiculously comprehensive breadth of articles, but as I figure out how to resize pictures (and make them look good at the same time) and start hyper-linking, traffic/searchability should increase. One of the photos there so far is this one of our downstairs gallery.

The hyper-linking is especially crucial on the site. If a reader is browsing an article containing any shared key words, that word would be hyper-linked to our site. I even know some people (definitely not anyone I know personally like my friends or myself or anything silly like that...) that make a game out of starting on one Wikipedia article and clicking hyperlinks to see where they end up. It's a very interesting feature of Wiki that we could definitely use to our advantage to create traffic and buzz about the KIA and its exhibits.

This blog should also undergo some changes as well. The computer in the volunteer room is fixed and new, however many internet plug-ins aren't available yet. So I haven't been able to do much with it as of now. However, it's my spring break! And I'm in California, thank goodness, where the sunny weather and palm trees are putting me in a good mood to be productive. I have my laptop here with me, so I'm going to keep on working on the Wiki, as well as this blog and continuing my work updating the various tourist sites the KIA profiles.

The internet is a crazy, ever-warping place...which is part of what makes this internin' project so nifty. As much work as Gabi and I get done this semester implementing our plans, the project will never be truly finished. We'll pass off our various passwords and usernames and methods to the next batch of interns, who will (hopefully) continue to maintain these sites as a newly-integral part of the KIA's PR and marketing scheme.

In any case, there's always something new to get done. It's a good thing. Well, I'm off to go revel in weather that is actually above sub-zero (and then some). I know Gabi hasn't been able to post on here due to some...technology issues, but I'm going to see if I can work those out and get her back on board here. We'll see how it all goes!

-Laura