Welcome back to Digital Works, the newsletter from Substrakt that's part of our programme of free talks, podcasts and other content, bringing arts, culture, museums and heritage professionals together to talk all things digital. I'm Katie Moffat, Director of Sector Strategy at Substrakt. Please get in touch if you have anything you'd like to share, or if you need any support with your digital projects. And if you find this newsletter useful, do forward to a friend or colleague.

Latest Things

It's only 10 days until the inaugural Digital Works conference, taking place in Leeds on 24th & 25th April! We are so excited to bring together an incredible range of speakers, talking on the topic of curiosity in a digital context. If you are free next week we still have a few tickets left. 

In perhaps unsurprising news to anyone who uses the platform, usage of X (formerly Twitter) has fallen a fifth since Elon Musk's takeover. They've also bought back free blue ticks for some accounts. 

LinkedIn may be getting in on the short video trend, with the news that it is experimenting with Tiktok-like video in its feed.

The onwards march of AI continues and in the UK Google trials answers written by AI directly in search results. Longer term this type of feature could have a significant impact on traffic to websites, one to watch.

Useful Things

A couple of reports to take a look at, firstly the Deloitte 2024 Digital Trends Report, from which a particularly staggering statistic - that 60% of GenZ prefer user generated content videos over streaming services. And secondly, the Future Today Institute's 2024 Tech Trends Report (coming in at over 900 pages so you may want to grab a coffee to go through this one!). 

A long and informative read from SFO Museum about their first steps into the Fediverse. Even if you're completely new to the topic (helpfully the article acknowledges that and includes a glossary) it offers some useful food for thought for how cultural organisations might make better use of this type of technology. 

Recently at Substrakt we have been thinking quite a lot about website engagement metrics (more on that soon), so it was interesting to see this news piece about the New York Times and 'attention metrics'. Admittedly it becomes less interesting when you realise they're talking about users paying attention to ads but good to see how it might become easier to track engagement type interactions. 

Thought-provoking, Inspiring & Entertaining Things

Synthetic Memories is a fascinating project in which researchers are "... working with different communities around the world, building visual reconstructions of their past through one-to-one interviews." In essence they are using AI to create images and video that 'reconstruct' the memories of communities whose stories have historically been overlooked. 

Over the last few weeks Tiktok users have been rapt by a woman's stories about being married to a pathological liar. This speaks to the earlier statistic about how a large proportion of GenZ prefer UGC to streaming services. Edge of your seat stuff!

Much has been, and continues to be, written about the impact of social media on society but there is less discussion about instant messaging apps, which are certainly ubiquitous in our lives. I've been enjoying this new podcast series from the BBC, Helen Lewis has left the chat, about the role of instant messaging on our personal lives, communities, professional relationships, politics and more. 

Digital Works Podcast

In addition to our regular interview podcast, we have a short Bytes series, which we release after each issue of this newsletter to discuss three of the most interesting stories. Have a listen and let us know what you think! 

And here's some of our latest interview episodes:

Raising the Curtain. Technology Success Stories from Performing Arts Leaders and Artists - Dr Brett Ashley Crawford and Paul Hansen on their new book recently published by Wiley.

Building in-house digital teams, public-private partnerships and the role that digital can play in enhancing the in-person experience - Michal Čudrnák, Slovak National Gallery

Creating immersive experiences - Samatha King, Vive Arts

How cultural organisations can unleash social media's potential - Haydn Corrodus

Crowdfunding, owning your niche, dealing with censorship and ignoring the trolls - Zoe Williams, Vagina Museum.

Getting to 1 million digital subscribers, creating meaningful metrics, and working with NT at Home - with George Montagu, FT Strategies.

What effective funding looks like and thinking differently about value and risk - with Fran Sanderson, Nesta.

The power of cultural leaders developing a 'digital imagination' - with Seb Chan, CEO and Director of ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image)

Listen to all the episodes.

Good Reads

A typically smart piece of writing from tech commentator Ben Evans, about the difficulties of effectively regulating AI. As the subheader lays out: "Can you write laws, or lay down ethical principles, for a technology that will be used in entirely different ways, for different purposes, in different industries? What does that mean if it’s changing entirely every 18 months?"

And finally, I loved this article about using AI to make art, which asks the question, "can artificial intelligence make intellgent art?"

See you soon

That's all for this issue, if you see anything interesting, surprising, fun, or useful, please do share it with us so we can include it in a future newsletter.

And if you're looking for help with a digital project or any kind of digital consultancy support, please do get in touch. Consultancy projects we are currently working on include a digital strategy for a global not-for-profit and a digital capacity review for an arts and culture organisation.

Until next time, stay safe.

Bye!