Web 2.0 for artists

I have spent the last few months building a Web 2.0 application for artists. My idea is to create an artist social community that encourages the artists to roam from web page to web page and bookmark the sites that they feel are worth sharing. All of their bookmarks will be shared and placed on a map to help the entire community use that information for a collaborative project. We will discuss this progress on a blog, share the updates through an rss feed, and display the results in the form of videos that we share with other artists that are looking for events to attend in their own town.

The name for this concept has been narrowed down to these possibilities; RSSTubeo, DiggerArtFull, ArtQuesteo, and MappleUponArto.

Yeah right! Welcome to my mashup nightmare.

Since the beginning of Web 2.0 I have seen some really ridiculous concepts. But if you have the stamina to wade through the crap, you will find that there are also many brilliant concepts.

There are well over 100 video sharing sites, three times as many social book marking sites, and social communities that are in numbers that are too high to count. Although all of the social community sites have really large groups of artists coming together; the sites that are specifically art focused 2.0 sites are considerably lower in number. In fact there seem to be very few. But the numbers are growing.

However conflicting it might seem the oh so open minded artist is sometimes reluctant to accept change. Most of the artists I meet offline tell me about reluctance to learn their way around the internet. Luckily there are also a large number of artists that have embraced the internet and realize that it can help build their career.

If you fall into the first category of artists- don't kid yourselves. Just like the Internet, Web 2.0 is here to stay. Don't be afraid of it- embrace it. Here are a few Web 2.0 sites for artists with great concepts and staying power to help you get more comfortable:

Million MasterPiece

This site boasts to be the largest artistic collaboration in the world. Undoubtedly so. The idea is to allow each artist a square that they create them selves and piece it together to form one work of art. They will not finish until they reach 1 million artists. They have an enormous dent in that number already.

http://www.millionmasterpiece.com/

RedBubble

An artistic social community, you are allowed to share your images and discuss them with other artists. This is a great place to receive constructive feedback and meet other artists. They publish a newsletter to keep you informed call Bubble Wrap.

http://www.redbubble.com/

MyArtSpace

Another great art site. You have the ability to create a profile and share your images and video with other artist groups. They also have interviews and sponsor competitions. Great site!

http://www.myartspace.com/

DeviantArt The largest art community in the world. This is the only art related site that has made Alexa's top 100 most visited sites in the world. Signup is free and you will be provided with your won URL to display work, create a profile, and share thoughts. They also have a large artist forum and allow you to ability to share prints of your work.

1000 x 1000

The One Million Course Art Manual. This site allows artists to provide their wisdom with other artists by linking their self created art tutorials to each other in an easy to sort through grid. The idea is to promote art education. The manuals will be published in increments of 100 in similar subject matter. http://liqwidart.com/grid/

ZeWall

This is a really fun site. It allows you to paint online and place your art in a virtual art city.

http://www.zewall.com

This is by no means a complete list. There are many art 2.0 sites that we will discuss another day. But have fun getting your feet wet. After all you must have known all those reflections had to come from somewhere.