Great gathering earlier this week. Thanks to all who came out and a special thank you to Career Transitions for Dancers for hosting us in their conference room with the cool view of Times Square (no, that’s not an oxymoron).
This month we read The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Youth Culture is Reinventing Capitalism by Matt Mason. The basic idea is that piracy develops out of independent thinking individuals who see a need in their world and break boundaries to meet that need. They can become so successful that their new product or business model can become the new way of doing things. It really highlights the idea of authentic expression; even if appropriated and tweaked from others. (sidebar: Check out the article in today’s NYTimes about Starbucks getting back to their roots and doing things their way, indie-style)
From this starting point, our conversation focused on the idea of embracing new technology in our work – administratively and artistically – to compete for the general public’s attention. Would this make our art more relevant to society; speaking to them on their terms? Does that compromise your artist’s vision? How could we get buy in (ie. unions) to free us to use Web 2.0 more? Because what definitely came across is if we do not compete, we become obsolete.
With most examples rooted in the punk scene, we agreed you come away with an idea of how youth culture and the very nature of adolescence has affected change in music, radio, and technology. Looking at the arts and not-for-profit sector, perhaps we as emerging leaders are the pirates to affect change in our fields.
If interested, you can also follow the author’s blog.
