Future of theatre on the net...

The Artful Manager had a lot of good posts this week.

In one blog, he talks about creating a more active audience. I have to agree that most of the arts are becoming more interactive – from science museums and art museums to even audience participation in theatre. Yet you also have to question what defines participation. To think that silence is equal to inaction may be a mistake.
http://www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/main/080218.php

Another of his blogs, he writes about wikipedia and hints of web 2.0 environments. I have been doing a lot of thinking around web 2.0 and I haven’t yet been able to make many resolutions in my own head. I like the theory behind wiki sites. Yet, it is possible for errors to be made. Popular knowledge is not always correct. Just because more people believe x is true and not y, doesn’t really mean that y is false – or that x is true – just that public perception believes these things. Yet, consensus enables ideas that are broad and potentially better. Web 2.0 is pretty all encompassing – from blogs, to wiki’s to social networking, just to name a few, and these all have various benefits and drawbacks. I know I posted a while back about making these tools work for theatres and to help with audience development, but I have begun to think that there is a lot more that these environments can provide, even for technical theatre. For instance, I have been thinking lately of a wiki-like open directory for sources. Anyone can enter or correct a source – and there can be categories for all types of technical theatre related products. Perhaps it can combine a wiki like site with a networking site where recommendations and such were allowed. I know several people who have in depth link pages on their websites, but it is up to that person to source and update. A sight like the one propose would allow the community of users to add and update. Check out the blog that got me started :
http://www.artsjournal.com/artfulmanager/main/080339.php