Let's beat Artsopolis (and Silicon Valley) and save NEO artists money. The following article plugs an arts portal in Silicon Valley that they claim is getting the attention of lots of other arts organizations around the country. I do use Artsopolis when in SF and the protal is good, but it is no better than we can do here - and we need this capability to promote one of our greatest regional assets... the arts!!!

I've been pushing for this to happen in NEO for years and this is one of the primary motivators for my developing REALNEO - to make these capabilities and technologies available to everyone in the NEO arts world - FOR FRE. I've even registered "May Show" and "Cleveland School" to give the initiative familiar branding - and I do that for the community... NOT FOR PROFIT!

In the next few weeks, I'll launch a REALNEO protal just for the region's arts community and I will push all commnity leaders to use that to promote local arts world-wide. This is not intended to replace what they already do with the internet, or discourage anyone from investing in their own innovations and continuous improvements - this is designed to meet the common needs of all artists and arts organizations and patrons - for free - NOW. We have the technology, not available before.

Stay tuned - updates and the mayshow will post here sooner than you can imagine (just waiting for a bit of new code to post at our host). For now, read about the "competition" and see what they're trying to sell us out of Silicon Valley.

Arts groups look to Valley for tech help

By K. Oanh Ha

Mercury News

Entrepreneurs have long sought out Silicon Valley's talented techies
in hopes of striking it rich. Now, out-of-state arts groups are
catching on, employing the valley's tech savvy to boost much-needed
patronage and visibility.

Through word-of-mouth, arts groups across the country are
approaching San Jose non-profit Artsopolis Marketing Partnership to
license its innovative calendar Web site software. The groups are drawn
to Artsopolis' Web site, artsopolis.com, because it represents the
emerging trend in the arts world of organizations banding together to
cross-promote one another.

Artsopolis began hosting the calendar site of Alliance for Audience
of Phoenix in September. A licensing agreement with the Cultural Arts
Council of Houston and Harris County, Texas, is nearly completed.
Artsopolis is in discussions with a third group from Southern
California.

In addition to an extensive calendar, the sites also try to create
an online community, with message boards, jobs and audition notices and
profiles of artists and performers. Artsopolis charges $25,000 for the
set-up and $15,000 each year after to host and manage each calendar
site. Included in the price are custom-designed features that clients
request. Artsopolis also hopes to generate revenue through ticket sales
at the sites.

Though many arts groups have Web sites, many don't have the
technical skills, time or money to put together a comprehensive
calendar site, said Artsopolis director Ed Sengstack. Artsopolis' site
is powered with software written by a laid-off programmer now employed
by the group, Sengstack said.

``Even the arts groups in Silicon Valley aren't necessarily
technically savvy,'' Sengstack said. ``The vast majority of arts groups
are dealing just with their artistic product. That's all they can do to
keep alive.''

Artsopolis started in 2001 with a grant from the John S. and James
L. Knight Foundation to market and promote the 320 arts groups in
Silicon Valley. Artsopolis is also affiliated with Arts Council Silicon
Valley.

It now hosts and manages the online calendar, showup.com, for
Phoenix-based Alliance for Audience, a non-profit group that promotes
arts in the region. Showup.com, which has the same look and feel as
artsopolis.com, will market and sell tickets for nearly 300 arts groups
in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

The group was impressed by Artsopolis' site because ``it was easy to
use, sophisticated and rich,'' said Alliance for Audience executive
director Matt Lehrman. ``It wasn't just a database presentation. They
have a sexy presentation with good displays of photographs that draw
you in. . . . They make it easy to sort and plow through tons of
information. No one else had that.''

Artsopolis hopes to sign up six clients a year. Coupled with revenue
from ticket sales (and another third of its revenue in grant money),
that will keep it alive to fulfill its primary goal: ``Our mission
isn't to license out technology,'' Sengstack said. ``We're going to
drive revenue to our program so we can still be here to drive revenue
to arts in Silicon Valley. It's a means to an end.''

See the article here

See Artopolis here