Current trends
Background research for Argos Centre for Arts and Media. Maxim Surin 2009–2010.
The creative industries are experiencing important changes that require and create opportunities for innovation. These changes include:
New technological platforms
new information technologies, and the associated digitisation of much creative content, are changing the way products are created, delivered and marketed.
Consumers
both individuals and companies are becoming more sophisticated in their tastes and choices. Consumers are sharing their views more readily among themselves and with producers, leading to more co – production of creative products.
Institutional changes
such as new regulatory requirements and the globalisation of industries, markets and labor.
New products
are being generated for new markets – for example, entertainment companies moving into educational markets, or manufacturing firms becoming service providers.
These developments are driving innovation in the creative industries, not least because competitors use innovation to gain market share and enter new markets.
Management
Organizations should focus on acquiring and developing the right skills and capabilities to innovate – especially with the help of their consumers.
Much creative industry innovation is based on ‘co-production’ with significant input from the client.
Networks, partnerships and collaborations are also important sources of innovation.
Whilst conventional project and innovation management skills remain important, innovation managers must increasingly demonstrate skills for collaboration with professionals of various types and for engagement with consumers and other firms – skills such as team building, conflict resolution, and problem solving.
Read more about innovation:
AMA
Arts Management Network
Arts & Business
Audiences Central
Cultural and Social Entrepreneurship
Digital Shift
DShed – Imagination, inspiration & innovation from Watershed
ENCATC
European network of higher educational institutions and training organisations in the area of cultural management and cultural policy. Founded in Warsaw in 1992 in the context of the fall of the iron curtain, ENCATC today brings together 134 members in 37 countries across Europe and beyond.
EU’s Digital Priorities at Lisbon Council 2009
HASTAC – Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory
Mission Models Money – Network of thinkers and doers whose vision is to transform the way the arts use their resources to support the creation and experience of great art.
National Arts Marketing Project
NESTA– NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts – an independent body with a mission to make the UK more innovative.
Non-fiction – Office for Cultural Innovation
PRO INNO Europe
Taking part in the arts – Art Council England
European Commission’s Global Promotion Project (GPP)
Mass communication (electronic media) – Multimedia communication (digital media)
Autonomy of each form of media – Media convergence
Centralized circulation – Communication-network
Passive consumption – Interactive consumption
Centralized professional production – Decentralized social production
Languages separated by media – Multimedia languages
Static broadcast-consumption – Mobile broadcast-consumption
Creation of extensive audiences – Creation of communities
National circulation – Global circulation
Study on the Current Trends and Approaches to Media Literacy in Europe.
European Commission Report 2009. download pdf
3 largest uses of the Internet,
according to a recent survey, are for personal/business communication (e-mail), finding out information about goods and services, and for general intergroup communication (networking sites).
56% of Europeans used social networking sites in August 2007.
One major publicly quoted European company estimates that approximately 30% of its Internet traffic is related to employees using social networking sites, called “horizontal communication” – between self-creating groups and individuals with shared interests.
EUXTV July 09, 2009
European Telecoms and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding on Thursday delived a major policy speech in which she outlined the EU’s priorities in the digital area for the coming years. Reding made her remarks while delivering the 2009 Ludwig Erhard lecture at The Lisbon Council in Brussels.
To read the lecture: http://www.lisboncouncil.net/media/in…
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament,
the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Brussels, 4.8.2009
Europe’s Digital Competitiveness Report : Main achievements of the i2010 strategy 2005-2009
- To ensure that all citizens benefit from Europe’s lead in ICT, in particular through first-class online public services accessible to all; safer, smarter, cleaner and energy-efficient transport and by putting the cultural heritage of the EU at our fingertips by creating the European digital library.
- More and more Europeans are online. The number of regular internet users has increased from 43% in 2005 to 56% in 2008; most of them use the internet almost daily and with high-speed internet access. Regular internet use is also becoming more inclusive, with the numbers of users in disadvantaged groups (the inactive, the less educated and those aged 55-64) rising the fastest;
- Europe has become the world leader in broadband internet. With 114 million subscribers, it is the largest world market and penetration rates are rising swiftly. Half of all European households and more than 80% of European businesses have a fixed broadband connection, three quarters of them with average download speeds above 2 Mbps. Broadband internet is available to 93% of the EU25 population, up from 87% in 2005;
- High rates of broadband connectivity have translated into higher usage of advanced services. Europeans are rapidly changing their habits, adopting new ways to communicate. 80 % of regular internet users engage in increasingly interactive activities, e.g. communicating, using online financial services, sharing and creating new content and participating in innovative processes;
Commission support for films under the EU MEDIA programme, extended for 2007 to 2013 with a budget of €755 million, has helped bring films and content made in the EU to the international screen. Many films that have won global fame would simply not have left their country of production without European support .
EU added value is not just to fund these artistic productions, but to bring European life and culture to a wide international audience by making European films available within and outside Europe.
The new initiative builds on existing research priorities; e.g. the FIRE (Future Internet Research and Experimentation) Facility has started offering services to the research community to experiment on new networking and services paradigms.
The European Technology Platforms have also broken new ground by acting as open platforms for cooperation between industry, academia and research institutes.
Consolidating the online single market
We have yet to achieve an online single market, despite solid progress during the past years.
Europe still faces legal fragmentation, with payment systems, security, privacy and other obstacles that discourage businesses and consumers to go digital. . This applies also to the market for digital content where fragmentation makes it difficult for European citizens to access the full span of rich and culturally diverse online offer available across the EU.
Promoting users’ creativity
The new digital habitat (WEB 2.0 and beyond) offers an unprecedented chance to unleash the creativity of Europe’s citizens. The internet today is an interactive political forum, a vibrant social network and a vast source of knowledge. With new participative platforms and services, users have become active players, producers or ‘prosumers’ and it is essential to put in place new policies to encourage users’ creativity and participation.
Making modern and efficient public services available and accessible to all
Using ICT to improve the quality of life of EU citizens by unlocking the storehouses of Europe’s cultural heritage and bringing it online.
The 2008 eInclusion initiative showed the socio-political and economic importance of this and the ‘eInclusion business case’ is now stronger than ever to overcome the main aspects of disadvantage, such as age, education, gender and location. In the current economic downturn, disenfranchised people in particular risk being further excluded from society and the labour market.
The digital research programme is part of the Arts Council’s digital opportunities programme. It is a three-year investigation of three core areas:
- the impact of digital technology on how the public perceive, understand and engage with the arts
- how digital technology is transforming art and artistic practice
- the implications for content creation, distribution and ownership
March 2010. Results of phase two
A key objective of the recently agreed Public Value Partnership between Arts Council England and the BBC is to use digital technologies to better connect publicly funded arts content with audiences through digital services and platforms.
A key strand of the partnership includes a strong focus on opening arts archives to the public. As part of this work, and in order to assess the potential, the Arts Council and the BBC agreed to undertake a research project.
This report looks at the extent and type of content held by selected Arts Council England regularly funded organisations and looks at the level of interest in making content available via online platforms.
Arts content online: assessing the potential
Arts content online: assessing the potential
About the digital research programme
Digital opportunities is one of the Arts Council’s four priorities for 2008-2011. Part of the programme is a three year research programme. The research will perform three key functions:
- generating in depth knowledge of the way digital technology is changing the context in which artists, arts organisations and the Arts Council are operating
- providing a clear understanding of the opportunities and challenges that this changing context creates for artists, arts organisations and the public
- identifying where the Arts Council could intervene in order to create most public value
The findings will inform and be informed by the work of the digital opportunities programme as a whole.
To read more about the key research questions click here [64.5 KB].
July 2009. Results of phase one
Click on the links below to read the two commissioned reports produced during phase one of the digital research programme:
Digital content snapshot [1.9MB]
Digital content snapshot [5.6MB]
MTM London’s content snapshot assessing the current online presence of the Arts Council’s regularly funded portfolio
Consuming digital arts [708kb]
Consuming digital arts [364kb]
In depth qualitative research conducted by Synovate examining current public attitudes to and experience of arts content online.
You can also read Arts Council’s background paper on existing evidence and a summary of findings from phase one:
Digital world: a review of the evidence [162kb]
Digital world: a review of the evidence [289kb]
Our summary of existing data and evidence on levels of access to and patterns of use of digital technologies among the public.
Phase one summary [2.1MB]
Phase one summary [ppt 3.6 MB]
Arts Council summary presentation highlighting the key findings of phase one of the research.
Arts Council England is committed to supporting public engagement. This site provides information and guidance on how to be more community and customer focused.