Just when you thought it was safe to leave your website in the hands of the marketing department, a whole new approach to building an online presence is about to emerge. Bill Thompson explains.
Web 2.0 is currently exciting anorak-wearing web developers around the world but it could soon be coming to an online marketing strategy near you. The new technology is about building webpages that users can interact with flexibly, about linking seamlessly to massive databases, and about sharing data easily between applications.
It would be easy to dismiss this as a lame attempt by technology companies to sell us something we dont need and dont want. But the real danger of Web 2.0 is not that its another massively hyped distraction from the real work of building audiences, raising awareness and selling tickets: the real danger is that it actually does represent a new way of thinking about your online activities. Instead of a website that draws information from your box office system, presents potential customers with up-to-date programme information and availability, and then issues paper tickets, a Web 2.0 application could do lots more.
First, the web page itself can be made dynamic and responsive have a look at Google Maps (maps.google.com) if you want to see what can be done, even today. Second, the tickets themselves can be made electronic not just records in a database like the e-tickets issued by airlines, but small messages that can be transferred to computers for home printing or to phones for hand-held use at the venue. This is a real danger for arts organisations, because other businesses will soon be upgrading their websites and raising the bar. If buying tickets from a theatre becomes a lot duller than buying from the local cinema or bowling alley, then audiences will drift away. Whether your team will thank you for tearing up their website is another matter, of course!
If youre enough of a geek or enough of a visionary to want to know more, try the essay by publisher Tim OReilly (search for web 2.0 on Google and its there).
Bill Thompson is a journalist, writer and technology critic. As well as hosting a weekly column on BBC News online and making regular contributions to the BBC World Service, he built and ran the launch site for ArtsProfessional. He will be among the speakers at Europe Talks Tickets, the conference and exhibition for all aspects of ticketing, which takes place in Barcelona from 25 to 27 January 2006.