Have you ever been so excited about the prospects of an idea, that you’re on board before the idea has matured? That has just happened with me in regards to a new service that has recently launched, Art Babble. Art Babble is positioning itself to be the “YouTube of Art Content” by allowing institutions to post video, partnering with Museums and Art Organizations to get content from their sources. The “YouTube” descriptor is a bit misplaced as you will find out later in the post. The service is in its nascent stage, the hardest phase of development for a social media network, because this is the make or break period as to whether it will take off or not.
Currently the only content is from the partners, and content submission is currently restricted to institutional providers like museums.. I can totally see video from Juxtapose and Fecal Face making a home here, but they seem to currently accept only “institutions” which causes a problem with artists and outlets that exist and thrive somewhat outside of mainstream museum and gallery recognition. Created by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, it makes sense that they have a vested interest in keeping the content quality high, but if they have to tight a hold on the content, they will stunt the growth of their service. Users can’t currently add video, but only comment and make quotes from existing videos.
This could be big, if they are willing to let go their vice-like grip on the content and content publishing. It’s clear by what they currently have available is that they want the quality of the video itself to be high, as well as the content therein. Understandably it’s hard keeping the quality at such a high level when you open up content submission, and get Jane-16yr old posting video of herself with lame iMovie effect filters over it. So it’s makes sense to restrict content, but if they are going to be the sole decider, they definitely need to broaden the tent of providers to include more than a hand full of Museums, to perhaps allow some respected publications that have video content to contribute. There is a video into after the break.
They at least get a thumbs up for trying the idea, hopefully they are quick learners. Do join and let them know how they can impove upon their good idea. Visit Art Babble Here.
3 Comments
Just wanted to give you an update on ArtBabble. We're currently talking to about 15 new partners about joining the site and adding quality new video content. We're also discussing some exciting new features. So stay tuned for many more videos, voices and producers of art related content.
Thanks a lot for the update! We have been interested in the project since it began, and definitely want to see it succeed. We will be keeping an eye on it.
The Artnewspaper have branched out into the Webtv arena too – you might be interested in some of the content they have up there, check it out on http://www.artnewspaper.tv. There's a cool interview with Jeff Koons talking about his Michael Jackson work from the 80's.