Page 106 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014project is an interesting one and in which they decide what merits their support. Subsequently a number of networks have been created modelled on it, such as Lanzanos and Verkami in Spain (2010) and a more recent one, Goteo, started in 2011, which adds the contribution of work to that of money, turning it alsointo acrowdsourcingsite. In Spain,micropatronagehas alreadymoved 9.7million euros.Kickstarter was named by the The New York Times “the people’s NEA” and Time named it as “best invention of 2010” and “best website 2011”.ARE THE SOCIAL NETWORKS ANY USE TO CULTURE?To conclude this article, the question posed in the title is still awaiting an answer: Are the social networks any use to the culture industry? The answer is a rotund “Yes!”. They can be used to create, to fund, to give impetus to culture and to give it a future. I hope that the more than 35 examples given have shown this to be so.Culture today is inseparable from the way people communicate with one another and live, and the statistics say that more and more we spend a large part of our time on social networks. Cultural creation must be designed to take this new reality into account, in the knowledge that there is a digital culture of which we must form part in order to encounter the most active members of the public. Culture must be opened up to this new digital culture and at the same time take advantage of what it might contribute and the cost savings it might offer for dissemination. To do this well demands a strategy, clear aims and constant evaluation.AC/EThis article will have achieved its aim if it succeeds in opening the reader’s eyes to this reality, that culture must use the social networks in order to become stronger.Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform of world renown while in Spain Lanzanos, Verkami and Goteo are the most prominentWHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 8: ARE THE SOCIAL NETWORKS ANY USE TO THE CULTURE INDUSTRY? CURRENT PAGE...106