Monday, January 31, 2011

OurGoods: Past, Present, and Future

Recently, I asked a mentor of mine if he'd be a reference for me on an application. He said, "Sure, but why don't I get regular reports about OurGoods? How IS OurGoods doing?"

So, this post is a report in 7 parts.
(I should do this more often)

#1) We're 2 years old.

In 2008, I applied to get funding from The Field's ERPA initiative for the idea that became OurGoods. As The Field explains, "ERPA (pronounced ur·pah) grows from the premise that the traditional non-profit model of fundraising does not support the majority of performing artists in New York City. ERPA aims to thus revitalize performing artists’ and arts organizations’ economic lives for long-term impact." In 2008, The Field took a risk and gave me $5,000. By the end of 2009, OurGoods.org had 5 co-founders (Jen Abrams, Louise Ma, Carl Tashian, Rich Watts, and myself) and an alpha site built. Jen Abrams and I applied for the next round of ERPA funding on behalf of OurGoods.org, and we recieved $10,000 for ERPA in 2010. We just applied for ERPA funding in 2011, and we are absolutely thrilled to hear that The Field is giving us $20,000! That's $35,000 in three years for five people, or just over $2,300 for each of us per year.

#2) We just received a $20,000 grant for ERPA Phase 4!

Thankfully, The Field understands that Economic Revitalization can mean an increased exchange of goods and services via barter, not just cash. OurGoods connects creative people who want to trade skills, spaces, or objects. And yes, even barter websites need legal tender to pay for web hosting, materials, and some labor. We encourage a hybrid economy, moving between non-monetary exchange and the cash economy. OurGoods gives creative people more opportunities for non-monetary exchange, and funding OurGoods with a little cash creates a lot of valuable non-cash exchanges for a lot of people.

#3) Online participation always increases with off-line events (in real space).

We have 1182 people using OurGoods and it's been open to the public for 3 months, so I'm glad that many creative people are interested in barter. But we have far fewer completed barters than we'd like. To really engage people in OurGoods, we need more live events. We had a handful of "live barter workshops" in November and talked openly about the awkwardness of action-oriented conversations about value, so that helped bring thoughtful users to the site. We also spent time helping people identify valuable skills (most people say they don't have anything to offer), and that helped people use the site more fully as well. Tomorrow, Trade School will open again, so increased face to face time with a barter-interested community should help build trust and energy around OurGoods as well.

#4) A major site upgrade is coming soon.

We are overdue for another interface design upgrade. Co-founders Carl Tashian, Rich Watts, and Louise Ma will be integrating the "dashboard" (what you see when you first go to OurGoods) in March so that a first time visitor to OurGoods.org can browse the site more deeply without having to make a profile. Co-founder Jen Abrams and I will be calling individual users to ask them what works and what doesn't. Here's a chart we use to gauge how we're doing.

#5) We started working with other organizations as partners for our events.

Lots of groups have sent one or two emails about us (especially in the theater/dance community) for the live barter events, and some of them list us as an opportunity of their website (Queens Museum, Exit Art, BAX). I feel supported by generous people at many organizations, who all care deeply about cooperation and reciprocity. I'm still not sure we're asking them to do enough, or engaging them properly though.

#6) I continue to read about barter, money, alternative economies, and corporations.

I've been reading a lot of economic anthropology texts and connecting to grassroots economic organizers. Do you know SolidarityNYC? Through a meandering research path, I met people who connect land trusts, co-ops, alternative currencies, and others under one framework: the solidarity economy. On another note, I hope to teach a class about the morality of barter and its relationship to identity, trust, and mutual aid. I'm writing about barter as a space between gift and market economies, and hopefully I will be confident to post about that sometime soon!

#7) Meet me in person at Trade School!

It's so nice to open Trade School again, especially now that OurGoods.org is open to the public (last year it was in a closed alpha phase during Trade School). It seems like teachers and students are just as enthusiastic about trading knowledge for goods this year as we are. Plus, we'll be featured in the Wall Street Journal tomorrow, for our opening day! I love imagining barter on Wall Street.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

More nuggets-o-wisdom from the wise Morgan von Prelle Pecelli!

In the final class of Project, Proposals and Pitches, Morgan asked students to bring in a 2-page proposal containing a project description, artist statement, artist or company bio and an image representative of their work. Once in-class, students were asked the following questions to measure the efficacy of their proposals and find new ways to better communicate their work.


First Impressions:
Clarity: did you understand what you read?
Impact: did the text express an urgency and clear outcome?

Second Read through:
List the questions you had for the writer. Whatever questions came to mind as you read the 2-pages no matter how minute or conceptual. (not suggestions, questions).

Indepth interrogation:
1. When reading their bio paragraph did you get a sense of their
- history
- values
- vision for the future

2. When reading their project description did you understand
- what the project was?
- how the audience would experience it?
- who was working on it?
- what support it already had?
Did you "see" the project in your mind?

3. When you read the artist statement paragraph did you understand why the artist needed to do this project
- for themselves? (personally and professionally)
- for their audiences?

4. When looking at the image did it
- inspire interest?
- reflect the text/ideas described?
- reflect the artist's voice?
- make you want to see more?
What did it tell you?

5. When reading the entire 2 pages
- did you understand WHO the reader should/could be?
- what if anything was really not clear?
- was the layout (font and format) easy to read? did it also reflect the artist?

For more tools and tips from this Morgan, visit www.idratherwatchthefatkiddance.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Under the American Presenters' Radar of Realness

Are you showing work at APAP, UTR, Coil or American Realness or __________ this year?

Do you plan on getting gigs at the Walker or Jacob's Pillow or the Red Cat or __________?

Or do you hope to chat it up with Mark or Mark, Vallejo, Ben, Philip, Ella or _________?

How are you going to make it happen for your 2011?

I usually find this time of year so distressing. Too many quickie excerpted shows with terrible lighting and no sets. Too many desperate artists hawking their undervalued wares. too too too much.

When I read the Belarus news today though I was reminded of how luckyluckylucky we are to do all the things we do.

Congratulations to all the artists and arts-lovers who worked hard to free the Belarus Free Theater. Now go see their show at LaMaMa.