Hello and welcome to the Digital Snapshot, bringing you all the latest digital news, inspiration, tips and guidance for the arts, culture, museums and heritage world.
How about some introductions? I'm Alec Ward and I'm your new author. There's been a bit of change at The Audience Agency (TAA) recently. Adam Koszary has moved on to a new post at Canon. We're all missing him and wishing him the best of luck. You may also have spotted the news that TAA has merged with Culture24. Exciting stuff! Through the merger, the Culture24 team, including Jane Finnis, Anra Kennedy and myself, will be leading on TAA's digital work. To find out more about the merger, check out the announcement. Want to know more about how we can support you? See our digital support offer.
Latest News 📰
- One of the first opportunities to come out of the merger is the next Let's Get Real project, an action learning cohort programme focusing on the ways that using digital can add value for audiences, communities and organisations. We want up to 25 forward-looking cultural organisations to join the cohort, and we'd love to have you along! Find out more on our website, sign-up is open until Thursday 11 January 2024.
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You've likely seen that The British Library has fallen victim to a ransomware attack. Whilst it's very difficult to fully protect yourself (and your organisation) from these kinds of attacks, the National Cyber Security Centre has some useful guidance on how to improve your general cyber security at a low cost.
Useful / shareable 🤓
- There was some interesting discussions on the Museum Computer Group's JiscMail list the other day around policies on using AI in the workplace. Liz McCarthy, University of Oxford, shared some interesting links: University of Cambridge’s communications guidelines for using AI tools, the BBC’s plans on generative AI, Gov UK’s guidance to civil servants on using generative AI and Wired’s generative AI policy.
- Pinterest has compiled user data and behaviours to predict trends for next year. As lots of people use Pinterest to plan their future activities and projects, it makes sense that they've got a wealth of data predicting people's interests.
- The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) has commissioned a snapshot of what innovation in AI looks like across the UK heritage sector. A survey conducted by the NLHF in June highlighted that 24% of respondents were using AI, but that 65% had not considered how they might use it in the future. If you've not started those discussions in your organisation, this might be a good link to share to get the ball rolling.
Distracting / entertaining / inspiring 💥
- What happens when AI plans your entire social strategy? Hootsuite gave it a go.
- The V&A’s new Mused platform looks interesting, serving a range of content around their key themes and collections for a younger audience. You might have seen their recent quiz getting you to pick between a collection image and one generated by AI (it’s quite tough). Kati Price, Head of Experience and Digital at the V&A, has shared some interesting audience insights related to that quiz.
- All In is a new UK-wide access scheme for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people with an ambition to create a new digital system that enables people with access requirements to securely store and share their personal data with participating organisations. Check out their website.
- This is a really interesting look at how the makers of Pokémon GO (Niantic) tried, and somewhat failed, to reinvent theatre in partnership with Punchdrunk. Hat tip to Ash Mann for sharing in his excellent Substack round-up.
Something good 👍
- Here’s an AI meme. People have been using generative AI to re-edit images, each time asking it to ‘make it more’ i.e. they ask it to create a picture of a spicy curry, each time feeding the image it makes back into the programme and asking it to ‘make it more spicy’.
- This is an interesting look at the controversial 2000s website 'HOTorNOT' and its influence on the internet.
And that’s all for this edition.
Don't forget we're here to support you with training, research and consultancy, so please do get in touch.
Alec Ward
Consultant - Lead for Digital Content and Skills, The Audience Agency
