Get A Job in DC

Have to give a shout out to DC Arts Jobs blog.

The purpose of the blog is “An informal collection of job postings at arts organizations in the Washington, DC area, focusing on development and special events, but encompassing other functions and other cities as well. Some light commentary is provided where the author thinks she has the scoop.”

The listing isn’t comprehensive, just what comes to the writer’s attention. The thing I like about the blog is that while it is similar to some theatre blogs that only list area performances (in this case, jobs), Christina also highlights issues that could impact one’s ability to find a job. (And the entry titles clearly differentiate the news and info listings from straight job listings)

Amidst recent job listings you can also find entries with commentary and links on the economics of dance, how to deal with getting fired, how to get a job in philanthropy, planning for succession when leadership retires and the labor relations problems the Washington Ballet is having.

There are also links in the sidebar to other arts issues blogs, arts job sites, arts policy sites, headhunting companies and arts organization sites broken out by discipline.

Just wanted to bring some attention to Christina’s work because it is an interesting approach to arts blogging that I hadn’t seen before. Hopefully it will inspire other people to create similar blogs for their geographic areas.

I Am Bachelor #3

Okay, I am outing myself. In the examples Drew McManus uses in his entry today, I am indeed the person mentioned in Example 3.

Of course, the only reason I am admitting it is because as Drew noted, things have turned out fairly well for me. Partially because there were a lot of people who were interested in new uses of technology on my hiring committee. It is also partially due to the fact there are enough things to write about that it is easy to exercise restraint when the temptation to gripe arises.

However, you might be surprised to learn how incorrect assumptions about the freedoms accorded those who work in higher education are. There have been a number of stories recently in the Chronicle of Higher Education (here and here for example) and in a recent series on education that appeared on Slate which have noted the very act of blogging, regardless of the tone or even subject matter, can ruin an academic’s chance for a job or tenure.

In some cases, even tenured professors were viewed as wasting time on blogging that could be better spent on publishing in academic journals.

It is all enough to give a job applicant pause as noted in a Chronicle column by a doctoral candidate and blogger who received dire warnings about blogging at a career counseling session. She ultimately felt that the act of blogging made her a better scholar (boosted by the fact that one of her entries received fairly honorable recognition.)

I certainly feel that it has made me a better manager since reading my old entries helps remind me of some good ideas and concepts I had.

Over time I think blogging will become a more accepted method of scholarly discussion, research and publishing. This will be especially true as those who frown on the practice retire and are replaced by bloggers and those who may have benefited from reading them.

There would certainly be an opportunity for a much wider, more extensive peer review of papers than there is currently. Of course, there would be much wider, louder, and public debate over these issues. Unfortuantely, perhaps without the investment of reflective time that the current system includes.

Still the speed of receiving such replies could be helpful in scientific research, even with all the concerns about industrial espionage and intellectual property rights, by allowing scientists to posit ideas, discuss conumdrums or ask if anyone had come across materials with certain properties.

Other than Andrew Taylor, I don’t know any other arts bloggers in higher education settings so it is difficult for me to gauge whether arts faculty are any more or less accepting of bloggers in their ranks.

Step by Step Blogging

I do a lot of talking about the value of blogging, but until I came across the Great Dance weblog, it never occurred to me that I was remiss in not letting people know how they might go about setting one up for their project and arts organization.

Fortunately, Doug Fox at Great Dance has thought of that and has written up a white paper, “Embracing Blogs: A New Blueprint for Promoting Dance on the Internet” (Free Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

Doug does a good job walking a reader through what blogs are, what resources exist to set one up and suggesting how to use the blog to promote your organization to good effect and employ it as a revenue earning tool.

The only problem I saw with his paper, (and I posted a comment to that effect on his blog) was that the need to have donations and other transactions pass through a secure server wasn’t mentioned. If you are a novice at blogs, you probably need to know that as well.

Doug goes over resources for publishing blogs enhanced with video, still images and sound. He even has some interesting suggestions about using video on blogs to solicit feedback and even participation in the creation of a piece.

What Our Products Can Do For You

Back when I was registering my copy of Dreamweaver software at work, I apparently neglected to deselect a box asking them to send me info on their products by email. I usually ignore and delete the emails because I have better things to go than pursue the opt out process.

However, through either coincidence or targetted marketing, Macromedia (the guys who make Dreamweaver) got my number because the last two emails have caught my attention. The first email was about success Southern Utah University had using their software. (Granted, I might not have looked closer had I not worked at the Utah Shakespeare Festival which has its HQ there).

The second email contained a link to a short movie about the NY Philharmonic using their products. I hate to appear like I am pimping the software by posting the link here as much as I do like Dreamweaver for my modest web design needs. However, I think it is one thing to read blog entries about how technology can work for your organization and another thing to see how many ways it can be applied. It is worth watching just to look at how your website can work for you.

One warning before you watch this. While you can do all of this with the Dreamweaver program and it is fairly easy to produce a very respectable product, what the Philharmonic has done is very time consuming. Some of it requires advanced understanding and programming abilities. (Some of it only looks tough.) Note that the NY Philharmonic’s tech staff is larger than the entire staffs of most arts organizations and they farmed the work out to a design firm.

Without further ado, the NY Philharmonic Dreamweaver ad!