Images of Russia, during World War II and today:

At Geekosystem, Robert Quigley writes:

Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov is a master of a technique called, alternatively, perspective-matching photography or the fancier computational rephotography, which consists of precisely matching the points-of-view of vintage and modern photographs and exploring what happens where they merge. Since last year, Larenkov has been assembling a series of such photos on World War II

Some Photoshop whizzes have criticized Larenkov's work on the grounds that the mergers are too jarring in their contrasts and could be executed with greater smoothness on his part, but, in the absence of an explanation of his work, I think that's kind of the point: It clearly takes a great deal of patience and technical aptitude to create these photos, and the harshness of imposing war and its devastation on pristine modern European cities works better when it's not too slick.

Browsing through Larenko's gallery, the work is pretty uneven, but in a way that's actually revealing. Some of them just put photos of groups of people from WWII against contemporary backgrounds, or vice versa. It looks sort of like one of those kitschy sepia-tinted photos of your family dressed in old-timey clothes you might get at a theme park. Overwhelmingly, the best images, like those above, blend outdated or obliterated buildings and vehicles into the existing cityscape. It's the materiel, not the men, who matter.

Partly, this is because vintage photos of destroyed cities are just so compelling. This is an underappreciated contribution of Matthew Brady and the other photographers of the American Civil War. They kicked off a new kind of photorealist aesthetic focusing on machines and the worlds destroyed by them. All those strange geometries and fragmented buildings then funnel into the first waves of photographic abstraction. Here are some pictures of Charleston and Fort Sumter (after the allies retook the fort, bombarding it with heavy guns):

Like me, Ta-Nehisi Coates is fascinated by the way that the Civil War is a war driven by and brought to bear on stuff (human beings in the form of slaves and soldiers being just the most visible, contested, and precious kind of stuff) He quotes the historian Daniel Walker Howe:

While the growing of cotton came to dominate economic life in the Lower South, the manufacture of cotton textiles was fueling the industrial revolution on both sides of the Atlantic During the immediate postwar years of 1816 to 1820, cotton constituted 39 percent of U.S. exports; twenty years later the proportion had increased to 59 percent, and the value of the cotton sold overseas in 1836 exceed $71 million. By giving the United States its leading export staple, the workers in the cotton fields enabled the country not only to buy manufactured goods from Europe but also to pay interest on its foreign debt and continue to import more capital to invest in transportation and industry. Much of Atlantic civilization in the nineteenth century was built on the back of the enslaved field hand.

Neil deGrasse Tyson likes to point out how it's a mathematical certainty that the air we breathe and the water we drink passed through the lungs and kidneys (respectively) of everyone who ever lived. Likewise, in these Civil War photos, both the destroyed Southern buildings (one of them a US army fort) and the Northern cannons that destroyed them result from the profits of American slavery. Americans like to think about victories in World War II without thinking about the cities and people destroyed in Russia and dozens of other countries (including Japan, Italy, and Germany) that stand behind that war in no small part because we don't have to live with them, to walk down those streets, to feel those ghosts. But we're haunted all the same.

Several proven Russian entrepreneurs have formed what looks to be the first promising seed-stage venture capital firm in Russia, called Runa Capital.

This is a significant development for the country, even if the sums involved are relatively small: The firm announced this week it has already raised $30 million and plans to raise more. The news is encouraging because the fund will provide the advice traditional angel investors in Silicon Valley have provided over the years: like how to rent an office, who to hire, and how to pay them.

Last month, I wrote that if you're hoping to invest in Russia, you may want to hire a bodyguard and lay low. Russia's lack of a rule of law and scant experience with capitalism has tragically set it behind many other countries.

But I also wrote that things are changing for the good, albeit gradually: The Russian government is slowly tackling corruption and thuggery; it's investing in high-tech startups may start to diversify the economy away from its reliance on oil; and President Dmitry Medvedev is encouraging moves to bolster the legal system and business culture that could spark revival in all other parts of its economy and society.

Russia's size and wealth in both natural and human resources holds huge potential for investors. Right now, though, many sorts of businesses are vulnerable to shakedowns. While things have gotten more secure recently, hiring bodyguards to keep executives secure has been common in the past. But when angels wealthy, independent individuals with an enthusiasm for entrepreneurship start providing a different kind of protection, Russia could become very interesting very quickly.

Runa's launch comes amidst another important change. This week, Russia announced it would sell start selling off more state property, in what is reportedly the largest privatization program there since the post-Communist sell-off in the 1990s. The government will sell minority stakes in 11 companies, from its national oil company, to state banks, and a company controlling hydroelectric dams. It's not a tech boom by any means, but it will reverse the wave of nationalization over the past decade. More important, because new investors typically demand accountability in return for their investment, they'll bring more transparency to these companies. This, in turn, will reduce corruption something both U.S. and other investors have been lobbying for.

In my piece last month, I wrote it would take years for Russia to become interesting for outside investors. However, if they move carefully, laying down roots now may actually be smart for those with high tolerance for risk. Venture investments typically take years to nurture anyway. We're seeing that now in China, for example, where IDG's Patrick McGovern is reaping the benefits of that country's growth, after about three decades of patient investing.

There are other signs that Russians are starting to protest endemic corruption. Take the brave police officer Aleksei Dymovsky who stunned the country when he posted two videos on YouTube appealing to Russia's prime minister Putin about the rampant corruption in the police force, and begged him to explain what he was doing to stop it. The videos, uploaded in November, have been viewed millions of times. Of course, he was fired from his job, and thrown in jail, and continues to be harassed with relative impunity, the New York Times reported in a story this week about Dymovsky. Questions do remain about Dymovsky's character and motives, and there's clearly been no mass uprising against police. But he's since been joined by a handful of others calling for drastic reform, including a politician within Putin's party, Andrei Makarov.

What do these bigger trends have to do with small fry like Runa? There are a few early-stage venture funds in Russia, but most of them are run by investors with little experience. There's also Troika, a venture effort led mainly by one individual within a much larger investment banking operation. The emergence of firms like Runa is a crucial bolstering of Russia's move to an entrepreneur-oriented economy.

The fund is led by credible folks like Serguei Beloussov, founder and chairman of Parallels, the early virtualization company and one of only 10 or so homegrown Russian tech companies whose annual revenues have exceeded $100 million. He's joined by Alexander Galitsky, one of the earliest venture capitalists in Russia, and a founder of Almaz Capital, arguably the most credible early- to mid-stage venture firm there.

The fund will focus on software and Internet companies, and also focus on specific areas like cloud computing, machine learning, virtualization, and mobile. Runcap will limit its investments to $1.5 million into each company, and will invest mainly in pre-revenue companies or even ones that haven't formed their teams yet. It will invest in Russia and neighboring Ukraine.

I interviewed both Beloussov and Galitsky during my visit to Russia two months ago. They both seem to be in the business for the right reasons: They love entrepreneurship, and they're also realistic. While the overall return on investment in percentage terms can be high in early stage investing, it almost always yields smaller overall returns in absolute dollars than does later stage investing. Beloussov says he's ok with that, saying it is more fun. The later stage you invest in, the more money you make, but the less fun it is, he said.

Beloussov also says Russia is a much safer place than I depicted it in my original piece. High-tech, web-oriented businesses, the kind he invests in, are largely virtual. Without big physical infrastructure for corrupt fire departments to inspect, they can often escape the scrutiny of graft-minded officials. But another reason is because these businesses are puny compared to Russia's trillion-dollar oil and gas businesses. Hermitage Capital, an investor in the energy sector, now operates outside of Russia. In 2008, it claimed it was the victim of a $367 million fraud. The company continues to release new facts based in its own investigation. Despite the melodramatic tone of these recently released videos they're worth watching.

So yes, while you may need to hire a bodyguard to invest in some traditional, money-soaked sectors like oil and gas, you don't actually have to hire security to invest in technology startups. You do, however, need some lawyers. And that brings us to the real challenge for firms like Runa.

According to Runa's Beloussov, it's not corruption that stands in the way of Russian startup success as much as other Russian weaknesses. For example, his firm wants to help the Russian startups think globally early on, because Russians have tended to be slow on that front. Runa is seeking to work with other venture firms, including in the US, to join Runa in investments, to compensate for the relative lack of venture capital there. Investing in early-stage Russian companies has been extremely difficult for US firms. It entails several hundred thousand dollars in transaction costs, and that's on top of the already risky proposition of investing in a pre-revenue project. Traveling to Russia requires getting a visa. The legal and business framework in Russia can be daunting for foreign investors doing due diligence on companies, and hiring international lawyers is a must.

The firm is also seeking to build a business incubator called Runapark, where companies can grow, get mentorship and network all in the same place though Runa is still discussing ways to finance that project with its limited partners. Such an incubator is important because even basic things like renting office space are hard to do in Russia. And because Russian entrepreneurs are largely first-timers and have few role models in business in general, they need more help to sort through Russia's bureaucracy.

The fund is also considering investing in start-up efforts that get backing from Russian government's ambitious Skolkovo project, the multi-billion dollar plan to create a Silicon Valley-like high technology incubator city on the edge of Moscow.

Runa Capital's venture partners, who will help the firm source its deals, also include Andreas Gauger and Achim Weiss, co-founders of 1&1, a major hosting provider based in Germany, Ilya Zubarev, who was co-founder together with Beloussov of another company, Acronis, and Igor Borovikov, founder of the largest Russian software distributors Softline, which does about $400 million in revenue.

[Photo credit: Downtown Pictures, Flickr]

Tags: incubators, russia, Venture Capital

Companies: Parallels, Runa Capital

People: Serguei Beloussov

The top 20 countries on the Internet, and what the future might bring

Here are some standout facts and observations that give additional perspective to the Internet usage of the top countries on the Internet.

There are a total of 1.8 billion Internet users in the world.
There are 32 countries with more than 10 million Internet users.
The top 10 countries on the Internet together have 1.17 billion Internet users. That's 65% of all Internet users in the world.
The top 20 countries on the Internet together have 1.47 billion Internet users. That's just under 82% of all Internet users.
India is the fourth largest country in terms of Internet users in spite of having an Internet penetration of a measly 6.9%. This thanks to its huge population.
China takes the top spot both in terms of population and Internet users. China has almost twice (1.8x) as many Internet users as the United States.
China together with the United States, the top two countries, make up half of the Internet users in the top 15.
Out of the top 20 countries, the five with the highest Internet penetration (not users) are: United Kingdom (82.5%), South Korea (81.1%), Germany (79.1%), Japan (78.2%), United States (76.3%).

Stephen

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

WikiLeaks, the crusading anti-secrecy organization that just published 90,000 pages of secret government documents about the war in Afghanistan, has gotten a lot of attention for its campaign to become the world's repository of whistle-blowing and embargo-busting information, and leader Julian Assange has become the star of the political talk show circuit. But the most interesting thing about WikiLeaks and the release of the secret Afghan documents isn't the details of the U.S. campaign it's what the incident says about the evolution of a truly distributed and dis-aggregated new media ecosystem.

Shadowy sources have been disclosing secret information of all kinds to newspapers and magazines for decades, ever since Watergate made it seem like a public service to do so. But in this case, there was a middleman in the process, and one with a considerable amount of power far more than any other source in a similar situation. WikiLeaks didn't get the documents directly, but was given them by another unnamed source (possibly Bradley Manning, who was the source of an earlier secret video of a U.S. military attack on civilians in Iraq). The site then proceeded to broker a deal with the New York Times, The Guardian and Germany's Der Spiegel, whereby the media outlets could have access to the documents and publish stories based on them simultaneously. Columbia Journalism Review has a detailed step-by-step account of how it happened.

Not everyone thinks WikiLeaks represents a fundamental transformation of journalism in the Internet age, mind you. Doug Saunders, the European bureau chief for the Globe and Mail newspaper, said on Twitter that Wikileaks gave us the War Logs scoop in same way the brown-envelope industry gave us Pentagon Papers or parking garages uncovered Watergate (although he later conceded that WikiLeaks was a useful vehicle). But comparing WikiLeaks and what it was able to accomplish to a source with a brown envelope in a parking garage as Deep Throat was for the Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate scandal in the 1970s misses the larger point.

As New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen has noted, even after it provided the documents to the media outlets, WikiLeaks still maintained the ultimate control over them including the ability to publish all 90,000 of them at the same time that the stories based on them appeared in the NYT, Guardian and Der Spiegel. This, Rosen says, provided an almost unprecedented check on the traditional media, since any gaps or omissions from their stories would become obvious. Typically, sources cut exclusive deals with a single outlet, and that entity has the final say over what appears but WikiLeaks has altered that traditional balance of power.

You can get a sense of how shaken up this new arrangement has made some traditional journalists, by looking at the response from the NYT reporter who worked with WikiLeaks on the documents, and from NYT editor Bill Keller. The latter defended the newspaper's decision not to link to the full storehouse of WikiLeaks documents, and also said that he felt compelled to pass on to the group the government's displeasure at the publication of U.S. government informants' names and other information, which Keller said he did at the request of the White House. Meanwhile, reporter Eric Schmitt seemed to recoil at the idea that the incident was any kind of partnership between the newspaper of record and the shadowy info-hacker organization:

I've seen Julian Assange in the last couple of days kind of flouncing around talking about this collaboration like the four of us were working all this together but we were not in any kind of partnership or collaboration with him. This was a source relationship. He's making it sound like this was some sort of journalistic enterprise between WikiLeaks, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel, and that's not what it was.

Regardless of whether Schmitt or Keller are comfortable with the existence of what Rosen has called the world's first stateless news organization, however, the fact remains that the Internet not only allows an entity such as WikiLeaks to exist, but gives it far more power than any previous non-journalistic organization when it comes to affecting the news cycle. The fact that sources with secret data can now go to an entity that doesn't have to answer to any state or even international authority gives WikiLeaks a leg up on even the New York Times, which has made questionable decisions about significant news stories in the past (such as the lead-up to the war in Iraq, for example) for a variety of reasons. As Steve Myers at the Poynter Institute put it:

In inserting itself between source and publisher, WikiLeaks has shifted power away from the monoliths that once determined what is news and toward the people who, before the Web, would have been stopped in the newspaper lobby before they could see a reporter.

Media writer David Carr of the New York Times called the WikiLeaks case an example of asymmetric journalism, in which the source of information is also a publisher, but also works together with traditional media to make secret data public for society's benefit. C.W. Anderson at the Nieman Journalism Lab called it a classic case study of the new ecosystem of news diffusion:

from new fact-gatherers, to news organizations in a different position in the informational chain, all the way to the Twittersphere in which conversation about the story was occurring in real-time, back to the bloggers, the opinion makers, the partisans, the politicians, and the hacks. This is how news works in 2010.

British journalism professor George Brock calls what happened with WikiLeaks and the two newspapers and magazine a mutualisation of journalism a term that has also been used by The Guardian to describe the newspaper's approach to modern media, which includes an open platform that allows developers to re-use its content, and blog plug-ins that allow bloggers and The Guardian to share content. And WikiLeaks has in mind its own kind of plug-in: an embeddable disclosure and upload form that would allow newspapers to solicit secret documents and then hand them over to WikiLeaks for safe-keeping.

The New York Times and other traditional media entities may not like it, but it isn't just the business model of journalism and the media that is changing; it's the fundamental structure of the industry and how it functions. And they had better get used to it. Yes, WikiLeaks needed the Times and The Guardian and Der Spiegel to draw attention to and filter some of the information deluge it had on its hands, but the balance of power between source and publication has clearly been altered, and journalism will likely never be the same.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req'd): What We Can Learn From the Guardian's Open Platform

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr users New Media Days, Menage a Moi and Yan Arief

The world is a big place, but so is the Internet. We know which countries are the largest in the real world, but what about on the Internet?

This article examines which countries are the largest in terms of Internet users, and will also look into their growth potential. That last point is very interesting to look at, because it's an indication of how the power balance on the Internet might shift in the future.

But before we head on to the charts, let's start with a few interesting findings.

Observations on Internet usage

Here are some standout facts and observations that give additional perspective to the Internet usage of the top countries on the Internet.

• There are a total of 1.8 billion Internet users in the world.
• There are 32 countries with more than 10 million Internet users.
• The top 10 countries on the Internet together have 1.17 billion Internet users. That's 65% of all Internet users in the world.
• The top 20 countries on the Internet together have 1.47 billion Internet users. That's just under 82% of all Internet users.
• India is the fourth largest country in terms of Internet users in spite of having an Internet penetration of a measly 6.9%. This thanks to its huge population.
• China takes the top spot both in terms of population and Internet users. China has almost twice (1.8x) as many Internet users as the United States.
• China together with the United States, the top two countries, make up half of the Internet users in the top 15.
• Out of the top 20 countries, the five with the highest Internet penetration (not users) are: United Kingdom (82.5%), South Korea (81.1%), Germany (79.1%), Japan (78.2%), United States (76.3%).

By Internet penetration, we mean the share of the population made up of Internet users.

Top countries in terms of Internet users

The Internet is almost like its own world, so when you're thinking about what countries are the largest in that world, it makes sense to count Internet users instead of real-world population.

Not only is China the largest in terms of real-world population, the country also has by far the largest number of Internet users. This may not come as a huge surprise, but looking past the absolute top of the list, there are some countries that may be unexpected residents in the top 20.

A few additional observations:

• The tenth largest country on the Internet is Nigeria. So although Africa as a whole is often considered to be a bit behind the curve on the Internet, it does have a presence among the top countries.
• Seven out of the top 20 countries are Asian (35%).
• Five out of the top 20 countries are European (25%). Six (30%) if you also count Russia.
• Three of the top 20 are English-language countries (four if you count India).

Internet users versus country populations

We thought it would be interesting to show you the number of Internet users these countries have in relation to their actual population size. The below chart clearly shows how much the Internet penetration differs between countries.

Why even look at this? One word: potential.

This chart identifies which of these countries have a lot of growth potential on the Internet, and which don't.

Note: This chart is still sorted by Internet users, so it has the same order as the previous chart.

Countries where Internet users make up a minority of the population have a larger growth potential than countries where Internet users are in majority. This has big implications for the future.

Many of the more developed nations already have a high Internet penetration, having already converted most of their population to Internet users. Look at the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and so on. Their size on the Internet has little room for growth.

But look at countries like India, China, Brazil, Vietnam, the Philippines, Russia. As the Internet penetration in these countries rise, the balance of power on the Internet will start to shift.

In five to ten years, the order in the top 20 list will be quite different.

Final words

The Internet is a truly global phenomenon (which probably hasn't escaped anyone), so it's nice to see countries from all parts of the world in the top 20 we presented here.

We hope we have given you some insight into what the Internet of today looks like in terms of Internet users and nationalities, and hopefully also some food for thought about the future.

Data source for Internet and population numbers: Internet World Stats

Mexican Fans by Celso Flores (image added by sombrero expert optimizer Tad of SEO 2.0)

The New SEO Search Engine Organization! is a guest post by Albert Gouyet, Vice President of Product Marketing, BrightEdge.

With the World Cup Finals in South Africa already becoming a distant memory, it's that time again to draw analogies between team sports and marketing activities. Today's topic: SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Disclaimer: if you are a soccer fanatic, still struggling to come to grips with your country's failure to win the World Cup, you probably should stop reading now! All others please read on

In this World Cup we saw the success of teams with a balanced structure that exhibited high-levels of co-operation

- think

• Spain
• Holland
• Germany

- and the failure of those that relied primarily on the brilliance of individual players think Brazil, Argentina, and England. (Italy and France were so bad, they fall into a category of their own!)

What does this have to do with SEO? In most enterprises, SEO tends to be more of an Argentina when it needs to be more of a Spain in other words, less dependent on an individual SEO specialist and more reliant on a team efforts, or a search engine organization approach.

You can have the most brilliant SEO mind in the world managing your SEO or you might have outsourced it to the premier SEO specialist firm. But if your web-developer updates your site without any understanding of the existing backlinks that are driving the authority for your natural search rankings, all their genius will count for naught! (For those of you who didn't see it, Germany, with their team-base approach, destroyed Argentina 4-0!)

SEO Team Line-up

So what is the optimum team line up for the search engine organization?

Goal Keeper Web Developer

If this guy drops the ball, you're in trouble (ask England!). Often forgotten unless he makes a mistake, the web developer needs to ensure all the key internal and external links that drive the SEO authority are pointing to the right content.

Defense Product Marketing

Very much a self-contained unit, just like the defense in a soccer team, the product marketing group lays the groundwork for a successful SEO operation. Leveraging the market intelligence generated by the SEO manager, this team incorporates the critical keywords into all marketing collateral and website material. They also need to avoid costly defensive mistakes; for example, breaking SEO by creating new content that targets keywords already covered by better pages.

Strikers Marketing Communications/Media Relations

If these guys are shooting blanks, you're not going much further than the group stages (again, ask England!) The life blood to a successful SEO operation is content that is relevant to your target market. Much of the content will be generated internally, but the real goal is to secure high profile articles in industry-respected media outlets with backlinks driving authority to your website.

Midfielder the SEO Manager

The Maestro! He/she is in the middle of everything and orchestrates the SEO play. For example, he/she ensures that the goalkeeper is aware of the impact of website changes, works with the defense to ensure the correct messaging is incorporated into all product marketing, identifies sources of backlinks that need to be targeted, and works with the strikers to develop relevant content and backlinks, etc.

Sports analogies aside, for SEO to really be successful and become an integral, revenue driving part of your marketing program, it takes a team effort that is well coordinated, balanced and based on cooperation and playing off the strengths of the entire team, not just one individual.

When it comes to being a Search Engine Organization, are you Spain or France?

Albert Gouyet is BrightEdge's Vice President of Product Marketing. He brings over 20 years of broad technology and senior management experience from Netscape, AOL, Sybase as well as venture backed private companies.

At AOL, Albert was Vice President of Web Clients and Services where he led the team responsible for developing and implementing a new strategy for Search for Netscape and CompuServe, which culminated with the game-changing partnership between AOL and Google.

For the record, Albert is a native of France and can be reached via email: agouyet at brightedge.com.

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1. SEO Company, SEO and Search Engine Optimization Google Results Are a Disgrace
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3. Top 10 Benefits of Speaking at Search Engine Conferences

The CEO of a watchband manufacturer considers opening up a factory within a "safe zone" in North Korea, but is it too risky? This fictional case study will appear in a forthcoming issue of Harvard Business Review, along with commentary from experts and readers. If you'd like your comment to be considered for publication, please be sure to include your email address.

***

"You know, this isn't just business as usual..."

Jeehee Park, CEO of watchband manufacturer Timepiece, listened carefully as the guide talked her and her small executive team through the details of the Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), a zone of South Korean manufacturing facilities located in North Korea.

"As you can see, this is a sophisticated operation," he boasted, pointing out the blazer-wearing workers exiting several nearby factories. "The KIC is a physical example of the prosperity Koreans can create when peacefully working together."

As a native South Korean, Park was more than a little skeptical. She'd grown up fearing the North Korean government a lurking threat since war had ravaged the peninsula 60 years before. But she understood why Hyundai Asan, a division of the South Korean Hyundai Group, had in the early 2000s led efforts to develop the KIC. Its goal was to promote "coexistence and co-prosperity," and with support from both Korean governments, the complex represented the largest area of economic cooperation between the two nations. Indeed, the KIC had already attracted more than one hundred firms and tens of thousands of employees: South Koreans served predominantly as managers, and North Koreans provided most of the unskilled and semi-skilled labor.

Still, Park had not thought about the KIC as a place for Timepiece to do business until a fellow CEO, who had moved his manufacturing plant there in the past year, encouraged her to visit. Government officials looking to attract more firms to the complex had set up the trip. And now she and her team were north of the Demilitarized Zone in one of the Korean kingdom's oldest cities, Kaesong.

The previous day, despite constant chaperoning by their escorts, they had glimpsed some of the abject poverty that plagued North Korea, which heightened Park's doubts. But as she took in the sprawling KIC set against Kaesong's traditionally agrarian landscape, she realized that it truly felt different. The workforce was organized and efficient. The manufacturing facilities, while basic, were well maintained and up-to-date. And there was even a branch of a South Korean bank and a familiar South Korean convenience store inside the gated complex.

Park couldn't believe it, but she was seriously considering a location in North Korea for Timepiece's new factory.

"This is impressive," she whispered to her CFO, Jaehyun Kim, as they readied for the three-hour journey home.

He nodded in agreement. "This certainly gives us something to think about."

But they would need to think fast. Park would be meeting with Timepiece's board and executive team next week to make a recommendation.

Real Benefits, Real Risks
The next morning, back at the company's headquarters in downtown Seoul, Park sipped her morning cappuccino and looked across her desk at Kim. "So, now that you've had a chance to sleep on it, what do you think?" she asked.

"Well," Kim began. "I looked through the KIC literature and phoned a few of the CFOs working for operations in the complex, and the labor savings and productivity estimates seem real."

Park recalled a comparison from a few years ago that had monthly wages paid to North Korean workers at an average of $57.50, against the $100 paid to commensurate workers in Qingdao, China, and $134 for those in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It also helped that in the KIC North Korean workers spoke the same language as their South Korean bosses, and shipping between Seoul and Kaesong was substantially cheaper and easier than arranging transport to and from Shanghai.

"Capital risk is also apparently low," Kim continued, "given the South Korean government's guarantee of 90% of our capital investment, and our privileged access to low-interest loans. For now the government seems committed to the KIC as a way of peacefully engaging the North Koreans. But I still can't shake the feeling that there are nonfinancial risks involved. On several occasions, North Korean workers have threatened to strike and force the complex to close or temporarily suspend operations. And just last year they unilaterally severed all their contracts and demanded dramatic wage increases. We could lose a lot of time and money if these types of incidents continue. Plus we have to consider how opening up a factory in North Korea will affect customs and trade agreements."

North Korea faced numerous sanctions, primarily as a result of its ongoing development of nuclear weapons, so exporting goods even those produced in the KIC could be problematic.

"Of course," Park acknowledged. "But a number of firms are already doing business in the KIC without suffering too much from the uncertainty. And global firms have always operated in politically volatile regions look at oil and mining firms in Sub-Saharan Africa and often quite profitably. Without risk, there's really no reward."

People First
"Honestly, Jeehee, I'm uneasy," said Timepiece's vice president of human resources, Mark Lee. He anxiously tugged at the watchband around his wrist. "You're as aware of the problems with locating a factory in North Korea as I am. There haven't been too many incidents with civilians over the years, but after the shooting on Kumgang Mountain and the detainment of that Hyundai employee, I'm hesitant to send our people in."

Two years before, North Korean soldiers had shot and killed a middle-aged woman who was on a South Korean-run tour in their country. More recently, the authorities had arrested a Hyundai Asan employee in Kaesong for allegedly encouraging a local waitress to run away with him.

"Not to mention that our managers will have to stay in the complex, away from their homes, for extended periods with limited communication," Lee continued. "And we haven't even begun to talk about our obligations to North Korean workers. Are we comfortable with what might be happening to them?"

Lee was broaching a particularly sensitive issue. Two days before her visit, Park had received a call from an old college friend, Shi-won Jang, who now worked at a human rights group in London. The picture he painted of both North Korea and Kaesong was grim. Wages earned in the KIC were not paid directly to workers but to the government, which then supposedly distributed some of the money back to the workers, but it was impossible to tell how much. There were even rumors which Jang acknowledged were not confirmed that North Koreans working in the KIC were considered "contaminated" and not allowed to return home. And if the human rights groups were right, North Korea more broadly was one of the most repressive regimes on the planet with no freedom of speech, draconian political oppression, and violent total control vested in a small ruling elite.

"But we would also be giving the North Korean employees access to a quality of life they've never experienced, wouldn't we?" Park asked.

"Yes, that is a possible upside. For the North Koreans, at least, our factory might provide a better work environment. But we would have no transparency and very little autonomy. The North Korean regime is very guarded about the information it provides to outsiders and wouldn't allow us to dictate any substantial changes to our plants beyond those already agreed to by the founders of the complex. Combine that with the questions I have about the safety of our employees and the broader human rights picture, and I'm not sure it's worth the risk."

"All of that is true," Park countered. "Though does that mean we can't do any business there? Textile and furniture makers deal with the risk of human rights violations all the time in countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. It just means that they must set a higher standard for themselves in terms of both employee treatment and conditions. Couldn't we do the same?"

The watchband in Lee's hands was ready to snap from all his fidgeting.

Hold the Politics
At lunch, later that day, Park's mind was still racing as she pushed a small pile of noodles around her plate. Across the table, her friend and South Korean parliamentarian Young-hoon Oh provided a counter to Lee's earlier apprehension.

"How could you pass up an opportunity for patriotism and profit?" Oh asked.

Oh was a member of the liberal minority party, whose most recent incarnation came to be as a merger of several liberal parties in 2008. This political faction was one of the two largest in South Korea, and was dedicated to, among other things, national sovereignty and the power to engage North Korea on their nation's own terms; as such, it supported the KIC.

"This isn't just a business decision, Jeehee," Oh contended. "Opening a factory in Kaesong would be an act of public service. KIC was founded with reunification in mind, and look at all the good it has been doing. North and South Koreans are working side-by-side for the first time in decades. After 60 years of isolation, the North Koreans are getting exposure to market economics. And it's a fantastic show of goodwill toward the North on behalf of South Korean firms."

"I can definitely see that," Park said. "But there's a lot of risk and uncertainty here, not only for businesses like mine, but also for the opportunities you envision. It's not a slam-dunk proposition."

"You need to view it as a long-term investment," reminded Oh. "Just like the West Germans' Ostpolitik policy played a pivotal role in unifying the two Germanys, people will look back at the KIC as a key factor in our future reunification."

Park liked his optimism but also remembered how only two decades earlier it was thought of as treason to provide resources to the North Koreans. In fact, majority party politicians had tried on numerous occasions to shut down the KIC. Park did see merit to the argument that the KIC might aid reunification something she, with distant relatives still isolated in the North, would be thrilled to see. But politicization of the project worried her. For every person happy with a decision to open in the KIC, there would be one opposed to it.

"I'm not sure I'm ready to be a politician yet," Park said smiling at Oh. "I think I'll leave that to you. But it's hard not to want this to work."

Ticktock, Ticktock
Thinking through the conversations she'd had throughout the day, Park sat in her office overlooking the Han River, prototypes of her two new watchband designs resting atop a pile of KIC documents on her desk. In a way, she envied the Han its waters supplied by two rivers, one originating in South Korea and the other in North Korea, easily merging with no concern for national boundaries. And here she was obsessing over a decision to locate a plant in a city not even 70 kilometers away.

While many business people and politicians agreed on the economic benefits that could accrue with the arrangement, her conversations today drove home the other concerns she would have to weigh before making a decision. She could think of a ton of comparable case studies textiles in Bangladesh, business withdrawal in apartheid South Africa, business engagement with East Germany, and oil in Sub-Saharan Africa. But every situation was different. Methodically, Park listed the pros and cons of the decision in precise pen strokes on the legal pad in front of her.

By opening a factory in the KIC, Timepiece could improve the quality of life for North Korean workers, but how long before the communist regime interfered with the company's good intentions, threatening the business as well as its employees? Were the financial benefits worth the human risk? And how should politics and national pride factor into her decision?

She had to move carefully, but time was of the essence. The board meeting was only a few days away. With the options laid out before her, she quietly sipped her second cappuccino of the day, closed her eyes, and considered what once might have seemed impossible expanding Timepiece's operations to North Korea.

Should Park set up shop or not?

Patrick Chun received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2010 and a Masters in East Asian Regional Studies from Harvard University in 2004. John Coleman received an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School in 2010. Nabil El-Hage is a professor at Harvard Business School. In 2010, Chun and Coleman coauthored an HBS Case on Hyundai Asan.

Shared by Jesse Stay
I'm curious how this relates in scope to what Daniel Ellsberg did, where he leaked similar info to the New York Times, who subsequently published it. This leak led to one of the most important 1st amendment court battles in this Nation's History, leading to the ruling that NYT was in the right to publish information that was to the benefit of the American people (but perhaps painted the government in a bad light). This leak ended up leading to the Watergate scandal and impeachment of Nixon.

Is this anywhere similar in scope?

An archive of classified U.S. military logs spanning six years, more than 91,000 documents, and 200,000 pages, was today made available by WikiLeaks. The papers show a picture of the war in Afghanistan that is far more grim, and far less hopeful, than previously portrayed.

The New York Times, London's Guardian newspaper and Der Spiegel in Germany were offered early access to the archive, the contents of which show "why, after the United Sates has spent almost $300 billion on the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban are stronger than at any time since 2001," according to the NYT.

This classified military information release by WikiLeaks is its first since publishing a video in April that shows a 2007 US Apache helicopter attack which killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters photojournalists.

The NYT notes the following focal points in this massive leak:

* Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan's military spy service guides the Afghan insurgency that fights American troops, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion in U.S. aid.

* The C.I.A.'s paramilitary operations are expanding in Afghanistan.

* The Taliban has used portable, heat-seeking missiles against Western aircraft -- weapons that helped defeat the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

The "War Diary" page at Wikileaks states:

We have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm minimization process demanded by our source. After further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually, in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits.

The White House has issued a response. The statement from national security adviser Gen. James Jones emphasizes two points: first, the administration asserts that this leak of classified information endangers the lives of Americans and America's war allies. Second, the administration points out that the logs cover actions between January 2004 (when Bush was in power) and December 2009 (when President Obama announced a "new approach" to the war in Afghanistan).

"Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010" in CSV, SQL, KML formats. (Wikileaks)

"The War Logs" (NYT)

"Inside the Fog of War: Reports From the Ground in Afghanistan" (NYT)

"Text From a Selection of the Secret Dispatches" (NYT)

"In Disclosing Secret Documents, WikiLeaks Seeks 'Transparency'" (NYT)

"Piecing Together the Reports, and Deciding What to Publish" (NYT)

"Julian Assange on the Afghanistan war logs: 'They show the true nature of this war'" (Guardian)

"Wikileaks Afghanistan files: download the key incidents as a spreadsheet" (Guardian)

"Afghanistan war logs: Story behind biggest leak in intelligence history" (Guardian)

"Afghanistan war logs: the glossary" (Guardian)

[video] "Secret files: Wikileaks exposes 'unseen war'" (Channel 4 News)

Image: An interactive map available at the Guardian website shows locations and dates tied to documents in the leaked Afghanistan war logs.

As you've probably read already, Facebook has announced that it has hit 500 million users!

That's equivalent to:

• One in every 12 people in the world
• The entire population of the USA, UK, France and Germany combined
• Half the number of people that own computers in the world

So what's the secret behind this success story?

In 2003, Mark Zuckerberg started thefacebook.com while at Harvard University. The website allowed students to register their details and post information or pictures about their activities across campus with early reports stating the site generated 450 visitors in the first 4 hours of going live and 22,000 photo-views.

While these early numbers pale into insignificance compared to the figures released this week, the future was bright for the new service. Despite thefacebook.com being forced to close briefly over security concerns (sound familiar?), when it reopened it quickly expanded across every University in the US.

By 2004, Facebook received its first investment from the co-founder of Paypal and purchased the domain name facebook.com for $200,000. In 2006 it opened its doors to anyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address and today, only four years later, facebook.com has reached 500 million users and $1.1 billion of revenue.

So the big question is: what's next for the social giant?

Banner advertising has been the largest source of revenue for Facebook to date and, with a wealth of data about every user, banner advertising has never been so targeted. Users supply their age, interests, location, gender and occupation, which allows advertisers to target an exact demographic.

Facebook cites the example of a company called CM Photographic (PDF link) that specialises in wedding photography. CM invested only $600 dollars on Facebook, targeting 24 to 30 year old women whose relationship statuses on Facebook indicated they were engaged. An amazing 60% of users who clicked on the ad became a qualified lead and generated the company nearly $40,000 of revenue.

Despite this, Facebook's advertising click through rate is only 0.04%, compared to Google's 8%. Compare this to open rates than can be achieved other digital areas, such as email. Facebook's challenge is to leverage their user base and overcome user perceptions of marketing on social channels users see ads as not always relevant to them, but don't like personalised ads either as these are an invasion of privacy (source: IAB /ICD research July 2010).

So is there another way for Facebook to make more money in the future?

Social gaming

The answer may come from another favourite pastime of Facebook users: gaming. With games like Farmville bringing in over 61 million Facebook users regularly monitoring their farm growing crops and raising livestock, does online gaming offer a financial opportunity?

Facebook credits have remained fairly low key so far, but we think this could just be the next big thing.

Currently you can buy Facebook credits (one credit is equal to $0.10) using a credit card, Paypal or a mobile device. You can then use these credits to purchase premium items in some of Facebook's top games or applications and send gifts to friends.

We're not the only ones that think this could be big with RockYou, Facebook's largest game developer, recently signing a five-year exclusive deal to use Facebook credits as its online payment method. Companies like RockYou will earn 70% for every credit it sells and Facebook takes a healthy 30% too!

Facebook credits

But using credits for games is only the start. What about the ability to convert credits back into money? Would this allow social games like poker/roulette to reward users with credits which they can then convert into money that they can spend? Or how about using the service to pay your friends back money you borrowed? What about earning loyalty points in day-to-day retail stores in the form of Facebook credits?

Only two weeks ago, MOL announced it will allow customers in its stores in Asia and Australia to purchase Facebook credits in-store but also convert MOLpoints into Facebook credits.

Take this to its natural conclusion and you could even see brands giving Facebook credits to fans that post products on their wall and encourage their friends to purchase. Could this start a whole new affiliate system?

So is this the next Facebook money making idea? We suggest you watch this space!

picture credit

The first XI, in the 4-2-3-1 formation that dominated the tournament

This was the tournament in which many of the big names failed to perform, but few of this XI were unknowns before the tournament started.

No rules about number of players per country, here's ZM's all-star XI.

Eduardo, Portugal

Eduardo had a tremendous domestic season for FC Braga, who were kings of the 1-0 win, and he continued that form into this tournament. He made several key saves, and only conceded one goal in four games and even that goal, David Villa's in the Spain game, Eduardo had saved the first attempt. He was the final goalkeeper to be beaten in the tournament. His performances have earned him a move to Serie A, where he will be between the posts for Genoa next season.

Philip Lahm, Germany

The archetypal full-back. Positionally excellent and good defensively, but keen to get forward and good on the ball. Comfortable on either flank, his return to the right-back position seems to have brought the best out of him at both club and international level, and he stuck to the right even when Jerome Boateng was selected. Lahm has been one of the best players in the tournament for the second World Cup running can any other player say that?

Carles Puyol, Spain

Started slowly in the defeat to Switzerland, but was superb after that. Often given too little credit despite being a top-class defender for the last decade he's sometimes unfairly characterized as a player who owes his status more to hard work than natural talent. His attitude is certainly spot on, but this should not detract from the fact that he is a brilliant natural defender yes, he's rugged and sometimes a little scrappy, and he sometimes looks a yard short of pace, but it's also an excellent reader of the game and composed on the ball. His winner against Germany was a nice moment his first international goal of any real importance.

Ricardo Carvalho, Portugal

Incredible. Has been a first-rate defender for many years, but his performances in this tournament were even more assured than usual. His anticipation skills and aerial ability were obvious throughout, and he seems to be more inclined to stay on his feet these days his occasional rash tackles were the one downside to his game. Also charged forward to launch attacks from deep, vital in a Portugal side that lacked driving runs from the centre of midfield. The Carvalho-Alves defensive partnership was the best of the tournament.

Fabio Coentrao, Portugal

The most impressive thing about Coentrao's display was that he looked like a natural left-back. As a recently-converted winger, his defensive abilities were questioned before the tournament, but he was rarely beaten by opposing wingers. He retains his attacking instinct his incredible acceleration and fitness levels means he was a constant outlet on the left, and he'll be a very good full-back for years to come.

Xavi, Spain

Not at his best and yet still worthy of a place in the tournament's best XI that sums up what an incredible footballer Xavi is. His position in the centre of the three attacking players in a 4-2-3-1 is probably not his favoured role he can't see as much of the pitch as he can from a deeper midfield position. But Spain won the tournament essentially by keeping the ball, and there's no-one better in the world at that than Xavi. His performance in the semi-final against Germany was one of the best individual displays of the tournament he controlled the game, playing more passes than any other player, running further than any other player, and providing the assist for Carles Puyol's goal. Also completed more passes and created more chances than any other player in the tournament.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, Germany

Schweinsteiger, Oezil and Muller celebrate their place in ZM's best XI

Schweinsteiger has finally lived up to his promise. In truth, however, no-one expected him to be an intelligent, creative and solid central midfielder he even seemed to take Joachim Loew by surprise in how well he played at this tournament. He was man-of-the-match in the best team performance of the tournament, Germany's 4-0 win over Argentina when Loew said, He was fabulous, I have to say. An extremely hard worker. He ran long distances, was a leader, the head of the whole set-up. He was the linchpin in every attack we had. The way he set up Arne Friedrich was second to none. You couldn't do that better, going through three or four players then feigning a pass and cutting out their defenders. A magnificent performance. He was similarly brilliant against England.

Mesut Oezil, Germany

Deployed in an advanced playmaker position that opponents found difficult to pick up, Oezil turned in the first top-class performance of the tournament against Australia, and scored a cracking goal in the crucial final group game against Ghana. Both England and Argentina gave him too much space and were punished, before he failed to make an impact against Spain, as his side were starved of the ball. Able to dribble, pass or shoot, Oezil is a very good player technically, but his true brilliance comes from his intelligence his positioning and movement allow him and his teammates space and time on the ball, and that resulted in some great counter-attacking goals from Germany.

Thomas Mueller, Germany

A World Cup Golden Ball winner at just 20, Mueller was the revelation of the tournament. Used behind the main striker at Bayern, the right-wing position he played here with Germany seems to suit him far more. His star performance was in the 4-1 thrashing of England where he scored two and created another, and he also started the rout against Argentina with a header. The booking that prevented him playing in the semi-final was one of the tournament's low points, but also gave us a taste of Mueller's professionalism; he went over to shake the hand of the referee (who had harshly denied him a chance of competing in the biggest game of his life) before being substituted.

David Villa, Spain

Villa was uncharacteristically quiet in Spain's semi-final against Germany and the final against Holland after being moved forward into a central striking role where he struggled with his back to goal. But it is not unreasonable to suggest that Spain wouldn't have got that far without Villa. After the quarter-final, Spain had scored six goals Villa had scored five and assisted the other. His drifts in from the left flank were extremely difficult for opposition defences to stop, and his finishing was as sublime as ever.

Diego Forlan, Uruguay

Deservedly awarded FIFA's Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament. Five goals is the headline figure, but Forlan's contribution to his side's performance was more complex than that he dropped into deep positions and provided the creativity that was lacking from Uruguay's central midfield area. He also played a variety of positions as Oscar Tabarez changed his formation throughout the tournament as the furthest-forward striker against France, as an enganche against Mexico, and something in-between against South Korea. He played each role to perfection.

A reserve XI in the style of Marcelo Bielsa's Chile, the most interesting formation of the tournament - 3-3-1-3

To complete the 23-man squad:

Manuel Neuer Some good saves and no notable mistakes.

Iker Casillas Made a big mistake in the opening game against Switzerland, but was only beaten once in six games afterwards, and that was via a wicked deflection against Chile.

Joris Mathijsen The unsung hero in Holland's run to the final, where he was probably their best player.

Ryan Nelsen - Turned in three incredible displays as the spare man in a three-man defence for New Zealand the only unbeaten team in the competition.

Diego Lugano Good positionally and composed on the ball. He started the first five games and Uruguay only conceded a single goal when he was on the pitch then he was injured for the semi-final and they conceded three in one game.

Mauricio Isla Energetic, pacey, good on the ball everything Marcelo Bielsa wants from his players

Carlos Salcido His performance against France was the best full-back display of the competition he was constantly an out-ball and played high up the pitch, stretching the play.

Sergio Busquets Solid, reliable, unfussy, disciplined. Etc.

Andres Iniesta - Tended to drift in and out of games, but provided some great touches, including the most important one of the tournament.

Wesley Sneijder Was actually quite underwhelming for most of the competition and his performances have been overrated by many, but deserves a mention for his goal count, even if a couple were rather fortunate.

Lionel Messi Sadly played deeper than he would have liked, but the extent to which he dominated games was incredible.

Asamoah Gyan Ran the channels tirelessly, in a lone striker role where he often lacked support, and his pace created chances out of nothing.

Tags: busquets, carvalho, casillas, coentrao, eduardo, forlan, gyan, iniesta, isla, lahm, lugano, mathijsen, messi, mueller, nelsen, neuer, ozil, puyol, salcido, schweinsteiger, sneijder, villa, xavi

Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

An archive of classified U.S. military logs spanning six years, more than 91,000 documents, and 200,000 pages, was today made available by WikiLeaks. The papers show a picture of the war in Afghanistan that is far more grim, and far less hopeful, than previously portrayed.

The New York Times, London's Guardian newspaper and Der Spiegel in Germany were offered early access to the archive, the contents of which show "why, after the United Sates has spent almost $300 billion on the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban are stronger than at any time since 2001," according to the NYT.

This classified military information release by WikiLeaks is its first since publishing a video in April that shows a 2007 US Apache helicopter attack which killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters photojournalists.

The NYT notes the following focal points in this massive leak:

* Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan's military spy service guides the Afghan insurgency that fights American troops, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion in U.S. aid.

* The C.I.A.'s paramilitary operations are expanding in Afghanistan.

* The Taliban has used portable, heat-seeking missiles against Western aircraft -- weapons that helped defeat the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

The "War Diary" page at Wikileaks states:

We have delayed the release of some 15,000 reports from the total archive as part of a harm minimization process demanded by our source. After further review, these reports will be released, with occasional redactions, and eventually, in full, as the security situation in Afghanistan permits.

The White House has issued a response. The statement from national security adviser Gen. James Jones emphasizes two points: first, the administration asserts that this leak of classified information endangers the lives of Americans and America's war allies. Second, the administration points out that the logs cover actions between January 2004 (when Bush was in power) and December 2009 (when President Obama announced a "new approach" to the war in Afghanistan).

"Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010" in CSV, SQL, KML formats. (Wikileaks)

"The War Logs" (NYT)

"Inside the Fog of War: Reports From the Ground in Afghanistan" (NYT)

"Text From a Selection of the Secret Dispatches" (NYT)

"In Disclosing Secret Documents, WikiLeaks Seeks 'Transparency'" (NYT)

"Piecing Together the Reports, and Deciding What to Publish" (NYT)

"Julian Assange on the Afghanistan war logs: 'They show the true nature of this war'" (Guardian)

"Wikileaks Afghanistan files: download the key incidents as a spreadsheet" (Guardian)

"Afghanistan war logs: Story behind biggest leak in intelligence history" (Guardian)

"Afghanistan war logs: the glossary" (Guardian)

[video] "Secret files: Wikileaks exposes 'unseen war'" (Channel 4 News)

Image: An interactive map available at the Guardian website shows locations and dates tied to documents in the leaked Afghanistan war logs.

Mark Rothko, an American artist who described himself as an abstract painter, once said that he was not the kind of person interested in the relationship of form, color or similars. He didn't define himself as an abstractionist, but rather as a person interested only in expressing basic human emotions such as doom, tragedy, ecstasy and so on. This was one person's vision of art, but what do we mean by art today? Why is defining the concept so difficult?

This article is an exploration of the meaning of art and an attempt to understand the relationship between art and artists, with some useful insights via interviews with both traditional and digital artists.

[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that there is a Smashing eBook Series? Book #2 is Successful Freelancing for Web Designers, 260 pages for just $9,90.]

1. What Is Art?

This question pops up often, and with many answers. Many argue that art cannot be defined. We could go about this in several ways. Art is often considered the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations and ways of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics. At least, that's what Wikipedia claims.

Art is generally understood as any activity or product done by people with a communicative or aesthetic purposesomething that expresses an idea, an emotion or, more generally, a world view.

It is a component of culture, reflecting economic and social substrates in its design. It transmits ideas and values inherent in every culture across space and time. Its role changes through time, acquiring more of an aesthetic component here and a socio-educational function there.

Scott Marr

Everything we've said so far has elements of truth but is mainly opinion. According to Wikipedia, Art historians and philosophers of art have long had classificatory disputes about art regarding whether a particular cultural form or piece of work should be classified as art.

The definition of art is open, subjective, debatable. There is no agreement among historians and artists, which is why we're left with so many definitions of art. The concept itself has changed over centuries.

The very notion of art continues today to stir controversy, being so open to multiple interpretations. It can be taken simply to mean any human activity, or any set of rules needed to develop an activity. This would generalize the concept beyond what is normally understood as the fine arts, now broadened to encompass academic areas. The word has many other colloquial uses, too.

In this article, we mean art as a form of human expression of a creative nature.

2. The Evolution Of The Concept Of Art

While the definition of art has changed over the years, the field of art history has developed to allow us to categorize changes in art over time and to better understand how art shapes and is shaped by the creative impulses of artists.

Having a solid grasp of art history, then, is important. I spoke with Alexander Daniloff and Jonathan Ball about the concept of art through history and about whether tracing a line through traditional and contemporary art is possible.

Alexander Daniloff is a Russian artist who lives and works in Italy. His focus is painting, although he has worked in several media. Lately, he has worked on children's illustrations. He has participated in various events and illustration competitions and has illustrated three books. He has held numerous individual and group exhibitions in Italy, Russia, Holland, Spain, Finland and the US.

Jonathan Ball is the creative behind Poked Studio, an innovative company committed to developing creative visual solutions. That's not all: among its services, Poked Studio offers illustration; Web, graphic and blog design; 3-D rendering and visualization; motion graphics; children's book illustration; Flash websites; and games.

Question: Can we trace a line from traditional to contemporary art?

Alexander Daniloff: I don't think we can say anything without falling into controversy, even me. I have a traditional view and prefer artwork that speaks for the artist or period. I can't explain what contemporary art is, or at least what it's meant to be. Yes, you can trace a line from traditional to contemporary art, but not a straight one. Perhaps it is a parabola that goes up and then down, or a spiral. We don't know. All we can say is that the art market has developed, which affects the art itself. With what we call contemporary art, words and explanations are always worth more.

Visual arts have been transformed by articles and critical essays; meanwhile, the works themselves have become mute. In the theater, the curators and critics have taken up the front row. This is my view on the difference between contemporary and traditional art.

I personally prefer art measured in human dimensions: art that whispers and doesn't shout, art that covers me and makes me fly and does not crush. But I must confess, some of these modern things attract me; for example, mural painting (graffiti) and abstract things.

Trips to real and mythological ages and changes in theatrical costumes and decor are a part of Alexander Daniloff's style. The style gives his paintings a special grace, showing both the festive and dramatic sides of life on stage. The style is also infused with a sweet irony that shakes up the painting. Precision, flexibility in design and subtle color harmony free up the artist's movement between different artistic conventions, playing with light and shadow, line and color.

Jonathan Ball: Yes, most definitely [we can draw a line from traditional to contemporary art]. Many of the same techniques are used, just in slightly different ways and with different tools. The same principles apply, however you create art.

I see a line particularly running through the stylized form of Japanese art such as Hokusai and contemporary stylized graphic illustration.

Question: Compared to the evolution of traditional art, how would you describe the development of digital (or new media) art?

Jonathan Ball: Digital art has obviously developed much more quickly than the thousands of years of hand-crafted techniques. A whole generation has been brought up on Photoshop and other tools, whereas earlier generations used pen and pencil.

Still, I believe that digital art is still in its infancy. Despite what seems an enormous amount of progress in computer hardware, general computing and even the computing available to most design studios is just not fast enough to easily reproduce art on the scale and level of detail possible with traditional media. Go to any national gallery, and you will see works on an enormous scale. Try reproducing a 10-foot canvas with the resolution of a hand-painted work of art in a 3-D program, and you'll find it can't cope. In fact, most programs will struggle to render a detailed picture at, say, 300 DPI at just A4 size.

While a painting may appear to be just splotches and blobs, when you go up to it close, the patterns are beautiful by themselves, full of color, intensity, saturation and texture. Go close to digital art or a TV screen and you'll see a mess of distortion and artifacts.

Once screen resolution is on par with printed media, and once computer technology allows us to easily create large, highly detailed work at speed, then digital will have caught up to traditional media.

Most digital art of the early-21st century is designed to be viewed on low-resolution devices. Much of this art will be obsolete when higher-resolution screens and devices are developed over the next century. And much that has been stored only on hard drives will be lost forever as drives fail and websites close or are redeveloped.

I find it a shame that so much great work is reproduced at such a limited resolution and scale and not stored in a way that keeps it safe for future generations.

Jonathan Ball

Question: Tell us about your favourite art movement.

Jonathan Ball: Difficult, because I like so many styles. But I find that if I'm in an art gallery, I love contemporary painting because it holds so many surprises and is less predicable than previous eras.

I love quirky contemporary illustration, particularly low-brow art forms and gothic-mythology mixtures.

3. Aesthetics In Digital Art

Moving into the mid-20th century, the conceptual transformations that arose from new approaches to art led to a crisis of aesthetics, as was manifested in new art media.

Alberto Cerriteo

While borrowing many of the conventions of traditional media, digital art can draw upon aesthetics from many other fields. But various criticisms have been made against it: for example, given the variety of tools at their disposal, how much effort do digital artists really have to put into their work?

I asked Jan Willem Wennekes, also known as Zeptonn, for his opinion on this. He is a freelancer who specializes in illustrative design and art direction, with a focus on eco-friendly and environmental projects.

Jan Willem Wennekes: The question seems a bit ambiguous. On the one hand, there seems to be a question about the effort required to create digital art. That is, some people may think that using digital media to create art is easier than using traditional media. On the other hand, there seems to be a question of whether digital art is an art form in itself (or maybe at all?).

With respect to the first question, I think that working with digital media (mostly the computer, mouse, Wacom, scanner, software, etc.) does not have to differ from creating art in other media. The computer and all the tools generated by the software are still what they are: tools! You have to master those tools just as you have to master any other tools. For example, if you do not understand how light works, you won't be able to create artwork with correct lighting, and so on. If you don't know how the pen tool works in Illustrator, then you won't be able to create good artwork, just like a traditional artist who doesn't know how to use a pencil. You still have to master color theory and all the other things that are essential to creating a good or stunning piece of art. In that sense, it doesn't matter whether it is a painting or a print. Simply put, you have to master all the tools and theory, just as you had to master them before. And the better you master them, the better your artwork can be.

Jan Willem Wennekes

Jan Willem Wennekes: Now, one can wonder whether digital art is a distinct art form. This is a difficult question and not easy to answer. I think the difference here is that digital art is more of a group term than just one art form. There are many types of digital art: some look a lot like paintings, some look like photographs, some look like drawings, while others appear quite new and unique (e.g. computer generated artwork). So in a sense, digital art consists of both overlapping and new kinds of art. Photography was once viewed as a competitor to portrait painting, but in the end it became its own art form, with many directions and fields of interest. In effect, painting benefitted from the rise of photography, and each added to the other and renewed interest in art in general. Nowadays, we don't view photography as a competitor to painting; we see them as different media, with different benefits and drawbacks. I think the same holds for newer digital art forms.

Zeptonn's work can be described as positive, eco-friendly, simple, wacky, colorful, fantastical and illustrative. It is distinguished by its hand-drawn elements, sweet patterns and curvy line work. And you might find a creature popping up here and there. For more, visit his website or follow him on Twitter.

4. Art As We Know It Today

The 20th century was a turning point in our conception of art, which is mainly why contemporary artists frequently reach for new concepts, break with tradition and reject classic notions of beauty. All these factors have given birth to abstract art. The artist no longer tries to reflect reality, but rather tries to give expression to their inner world and feelings.

The old definitions of art have become obsolete. Today, art is an evolving and global concept, open to new interpretation, too fluid to be pinned down.

Dan May

I interviewed Nate Williams and Travis Lampe to explore new elements of contemporary art and to answer the question, what new elements and principles are evident in today's art.

Nate Williams, also known as Alexander Blue, is an artist, illustrator and designer from the US. He has extensive experience in various facets of the illustration industry, and he has a wide variety of clients. His illustrations are aimed at both adults and children. He has also worked in the advertising world and in publishing, music, fashion, textiles, home decor, merchandising, posters, press and social expression.

Travis Lampe is an illustrator who currently lives and works in Chicago. He worked as an art director in advertising. After a two-year stint in Warsaw, he returned to Chicago and tried his hand in the art and illustration scene. He enjoys making art and toys, and he has shown in fine galleries throughout the US and in Europe.

Question: How much influence does new media have on your work? What is your relationship to digital art? Do you consider yourself a traditional artist?

Jonathan Ball: It has a lot of influence. I think because of my knowledge of programming, it influences my work. I think in terms of modular parts and variables.

Nate Williams: My definition of art is play, be curious, discover, express.

Travis Lampe: I'm a traditional artistI work in acrylicbut I wouldn't be able to operate without computers. When I design toys, for example, I use computers to scan and create vector art from my original paintings. I don't create digital art in and of itself, though. Purely digital work can be beautiful, but for me there is value in having a tangible and unique product, as opposed to a set of data.

No doubt, though, I've been influenced in my traditional art by being exposed to ideas that I've discovered on the Internet. It's a great place to find old-timey cartoons, for example.

Question: Travis, if the purpose of art was once to create beauty and to imitate nature, today the concept has evolved dynamically and is constantly changing. In your opinion, how has the Internet and new ways of communicating influenced the development of visual arts, its conceptual premises and its physical execution?

Travis Lampe: The Internet most influences the development of art simply by exposing more people to more art. Unfortunately, a lot of it is really, really crappy, as you would expect. Anyone with a ballpoint pen and digital camera can post their art for the world to see. And that's okay. I think the cream just naturally rises to the top. Ideas are still what's important, far more so than technical skill, and the Internet hasn't changed that at all. I've seen a lot of ballpoint pen art that I really like.

As far as physical execution goes, it's evolved the way it always has: as soon as a new medium arrives, there's a scramble to use it in new and creative ways. I don't know that the Internet has affected the physical execution of art so much as computers themselves have. It's just made it easier to disseminate.

Travis Lampe

More communication is great for PR and in that way is a great help to artists. And more communication should equal more ideas bouncing around, which ideally should result in better conceptual thinking. But most of the communication is fluff. And I think there's a threshold beyond which the constant connectedness ceases to be helpful. Artists need some disconnected time for the creative ideas to coalesce. Successful artists are the ones who are disciplined and able to balance all of this, I guess.

Question: Would you say that art and the new, social Web have a connection? Are social media a viable way to improve artistic communities?

Jonathan Ball: Of course. Art has a connection to anything in our environment that influences its creators. As far as social media goes, I think being able to communicate better is always an improvement.

Travis Lampe: Social media is great for sharing results; it's allowed me to connect with and see the work of other artists who I admire on a constant basis. And it makes working long hours in a basement a bit less of a lonely enterprise when you can show the world what you've done the moment you've finished. On the other hand, social media are a constant distraction. When I want to get work done, I disconnect. So I love it and hate it equally.

5. New Media Revolution And Its Relationship To Artists

Visual arts comprise many forms of artpainting, drawing, sculpture, music, literature and performance art being the most widely recognized. However, with the technological revolution, others forms have emerged.

Leandro Lima

So, what exactly is the relationship between these new forms of expression and contemporary artists? Max Kostenko and Pino Lamanna kindly answered my questions, giving us insight into the topic.

Max Kostenko is a Russian illustrator. He specializes in 3-D digital illustration and character design. He works as a freelancer for many Russian studios and agencies worldwide, such as Kotetkat and Lemonade.

Pino Lamanna, also known as SchakalWal, is an illustrator and graphic designer from Germany who specializes in corporate design, character design and typography.

Question: Please introduce yourself and your work. How did you get started in the field?

Max Kostenko: My name is Max Kostenko. I'm 23 years old, and I am an artist and illustrator from Moscow. I have been doing illustrations for about one year. Before, I worked for three years as a Web designer in various Moscow Web studios.

Pino Lamanna: Hi. My name is Pino Lamanna. I am a 27-year-old half-Italian, half-German digital artist living and working in the city of Wuppertal, in Germany.

I currently work as a freelance designer, specializing in unique branding, handmade typography and character design. Most of my work is highly influenced by graffiti and street art, old-school cartoons and the music I listen to. My aim is to create stylish, unique and useful designs with an urban twist.

I took my first steps as a designer as a little kid, drawing comic strips with my own superheroes. Later, in my teenage years, I became interested in the graffiti and street art movement.

The first thing that attracted me to digital art was photo manipulation. Through that, I was introduced to Adobe Photoshop and several digital art communities. Later, I switched my focus to illustration, branding and typography, which I think suits me best.

Question: Tell us a bit about your artwork. What software do you use? How hard was it for you to learn?

Max Kostenko: In my work, I use only Photoshop. I started studying it when I wanted to start working as a Web designer. But as years passed, I understood what I really wanted to work on, because I found the job of designer boring, and so I started drawing some silly little men; that is, I tried to understand many of the principles by drawing them. In Photoshop, I do not use many tools to make my work look artisticI just choose my normal round brush and start drawing.

Max Kostenko

Pino Lamanna: Even though for the kind of work I specialize in, working in Illustrator or other vector tools would be common, I create most of my work in Photoshop. That might sound strange, but I can't help it. There isn't much of a difference at all, because Photoshop has vector editing capabilities, too.

Once I am happy with my design, I copy and paste to Illustrator to create the final output.

I cannot say that mastering Photoshop was difficult, because working in it has always been fun. The very first steps were kind of hard, though. I remember being overwhelmed by the gazillion options. It was learning by doing. I did a lot of tutorials, which I found online, to become comfortable with different techniques and methods.

Learning Illustrator wasn't hard, either, because I was already used to the Adobe interface and I knew a lot of stuff about vector editing from Photoshop. And of course, there are tutorials for Illustrator everywhere.

Question: What is the main inspiration for your pieces? And how has the digital art community influenced your work?

Max Kostenko: My inspiration comes in different ways: sometimes after watching a film, sometimes from something I see in the street or on public transport. I always look for the work of known artists: it stimulates me to grow and improve my skills. I became acquainted with digital art through the Society of Digital Artists, and the first thought that came to mind was, I could never draw like that. But then I gradually drew things like leaves. Still, I've only began to walk the path of the artist and still have much to learn.

Pino Lamanna: Inspiration can come from anything, whether a cloud in the sky, an old movie or a box of sushi. My style has always been influenced by urban culture, music, movies, cartoons, etc. As a matter of fact, the digital art community has influenced my work a lot. Thanks to the Internet, I've gotten to know many interesting people and designers from all over the world, and in the end those communities have helped define me as an artist.

Question: How would you describe your creative process? What are some of its most important aspects?

Max Kostenko: The most important thing is a basic idea, I guessa plan. If you have one, you can start drawing. Sometimes I get in my head a general sense of the result, and so I begin with the big shapes, placing them in a composition. When I've got the result, I start to color it, the most difficult thing for me. At the end, I complete the final details.

Pino Lamanna: I always have pen and paper by my side, even in my bedroom. You never know when ideas will pop in your mind, and you better save before you forget.

Brainstorming and sketching are crucial for me. If ideas pop up while working on my computer, I'll usually put aside all the stuff I am doing and try to directly realize that idea in a design.

Pino Lamanna

When working for clients, research is very important. Without a detailed brief, finding a design to match the client's needs and expectations can be tricky. Therefore, I always ask clients to fill out my design questionnaire.

Another important aspect of my creative process is patience. Often, I find a good flow and can't stop working on a particular design until I am happy (and exhausted). However, before publishing, I always force myself to wait till the next day. I'll often find things that need to be changed, tweaked or tuned up, when I am looking at my work with a little distance.

Question: Have you ever gotten into traditional art? If so, tell us something about that experience.

Max Kostenko: The thing is, I wasn't trained in an art school. But since childhood, I have liked drawing and thinking of stories. I've always drawn with a simple pencil. After school, I tried to enter the Automotive Design College but was rejected even having passed the drawing exams marvellously well.

Pino Lamanna: As mentioned, I was into comic drawing as a kid, and I trained hard to create the world's most powerful superheroes and villains. I can remember only a single character from these days: Super-Frog. (I know that's lame, so don't be mean!)

Later, I got some experience with graffiti and street art. Never made it to the All City Kings, though.

So, I don't have much experience with traditional art, because my main focus for the last couple of years has been on digital.

Question: How would you define your relationship to traditional art? Who is your favourite artist?

Max Kostenko: I often visit the Tretyakov Gallery, and I can't believe people could draw like that on a canvas centuries ago. I am surprised every time by the talent of classical artists.

I like Russian landscape artists. Vasily Polenov and Ivan Shishkin are top in skills for me.

6. Communication And Self-Promotion In The New Web

The artist's life is not as simple as it may seem. Standing out from the crowd is not easy, which is why self-promotion is essential.

I queried Bob Flynn, Alex Dukal, Jayme McGowan, Chris Piascik and Irma Gruenholz for their thoughts on the art of self-promotion; on how to spread ideas, concepts and a deeper vision of their work; and on the impact of this kind of marketing.

Bob Flynn is a cartoonist who is interested in illustration, comics and animation. He currently resides in Boston, where he works as an animator and game designer for the children's media company Fablevision. His work has appeared in publications such as Nickelodeon Magazine and Improper Bostonian.

Alex Dukal is an illustrator who was born and raised in Patagonia, Argentina. From a very young age, Alex has published comics and illustrations in the legendary Fierro magazine.

Back in his home town, he dedicated some years to painting and teaching illustration and comics. After working for some time mostly in Web design, Alex decided to get back into illustration. At the moment, he's working mostly on children's books and creating illustrations for design agencies.

Jayme McGowan is a freelance artist and 3-D illustrator based in Sacramento, California. She works with cut paper and posts her artwork in her project journal.

Question: Do you have a portfolio website? And which social networks are you currently on?

Bob Flynn: I have a website, but I'm very lazy about updating it. And I find I get less traffic there compared to, say, my blog, which is infinitely easier to add to. A portfolio website is more of a structured presentation, which is great for art directors and people looking to make a professional assessment of your work. It's often static, and it offers little to no opportunity for two-way communication. You get little to no interaction with the art community except for a friendly email or two a month. A blog is dynamic and opens that dialogue. I now think of my website as a hub to help direct people where they need to go.

In addition to having a blog (my primary point of communication), I'm currently on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and, most recently, Google Buzz. Is being on all of them worth it? Probably. I've found that you really can't be in too many placesthough there is certainly a sanity threshold. A different audience traffics each social space (with some overlap), so the way to reach the most people is to be everywhere.

Twitter is currently the best place to track people in the industry and to communicate with your peersbut not everyone is there. Facebook is where most everyone else is, although juggling friends, family and business is admittedly cumbersome. You have to weed through the clutter (I'm less a fan of its increasingly unwieldy interface), but you can certainly get traction over there. Flickr is the most straightforward: upload artwork, leave and receive comments. Buzz is new to the game and still hasn't developed an identity of its own. But it's another place you should probably be.

I can track most job leads and connections back to a tweet here or a comment there. Not to mention great friendships. Simply by spending time in these spaces, saying Hi and participating in a positive way, you really can't go wrong.

Driven by an obsession with off-beat cartoons that are grounded in optimism and tinged with the grotesque, Bob Flynn keeps busy spinning nonsensical creatures into comics, illustrations and animation.

Alex Dukal: Yes, I have had a portfolio online since 1998, and I currently use Facebook a lot, Twitter not so much. I really like Flickr. I used Orkut when it first came out. I tried Google Buzz and did not like it. Every now and then I take a look at Google Wave to see if it'll ever turn into something interesting. I have a Netvibes account that I hardly use. I have an account on Dribble. As you can see, I like to test new tools.

Jayme McGowan: Yes, I have a website for my portfolio, and pages on Facebook, Flickr and Etsy, and I recently caved and am now on Twitter as well.

Question: Do you write articles for your own blog or for other blogs and publications? Would you consider either an effective way to get your name out there?

Bob Flynn: I regularly post artwork to my blog, and I have written a few Flash drawing tutorials. Simply having an online presence is a good start, but think of the impact you could have by sharing information, ideas and helpful tips. People enjoy reading about process, so document your methodology as you work, and it will make for more interesting posts.

I wouldn't be in this just to get my name out, though. If you're all for show and self-promotion, you risk turning people away. Participation is key: I enjoy reading about what everyone else has to say. There's more value in that, really.

Alex Dukal: I started writing little news on my website using Grey Matter, an old tool for blogging. Then I switched to Textpattern, and finally I separated my portfolio and blog (now in Blogger) as a matter of convenience. In the blog from time to time, I'll write an article or tutorial. Judging from the feedback I get, I'd consider it an effective method of promotion.

Jayme McGowan: I have a blog where I post images of my work in progress and updates on current projects I'm involved in. I use it to give readers some insight into my process. I think it definitely gets people more involved in my work. Most of the visitors to my main portfolio website were directed there either from my own blog or from someone who did a post about my work on their blog. I think if you keep your blog up to date and post regularly, it will be an invaluable tool for getting your name out there.

Question: What are the challenges of creating a self-promotion strategy? Have you implemented a self-promotion strategy for yourself? Has it worked? If one is starting from scratch, how long does it take for a strategy to start working in their favor?

Bob Flynn: To be honest, I can't say I've ever architected a real strategy. You're talking to a guy who's never even sent out a promo card. My approach has been to put myself out there and see what happens. Sort of the like old adage, Just be yourselfthat's how you stand out from the rest of the pack. I try to update my blog at least once a week to keep people coming back. Keeping up with your website's stats is a good way to see what's sticking (i.e. where your traffic's coming from and what your most popular posts are).

Alex Dukal: Yes, of course, as a freelance artist, self-promotion is absolutely necessary. I think the first challenge is having something to say, something to show, a reliable portfolio to back up that promotion.

Personally, I placed my bet on a portfolio that shows my best work, something that showcases the illustrations rather than the website interface and that makes it accesible and simple. And then there's the blog, which allows me to maintain other kinds of contact with people: social networks, forums, contacts database, etc. It's a big garden; one must water and take care of it every day.

I think a strategy of this kind should be thought of in different phases. And you can't expect a miracle before six months (though miracles do happen).

Alex Dukal

Jayme McGowan: My self-promotion strategy is fairly simple and involves social networks, as I mentioned earlier. When I got started creating a presence online, I came up with a plan by looking at the networks that successful artists who I admired were involved in, and I tried to do something similar. I was fortunate enough to generate interest in my work early on just by posting photos on Flickr and becoming an active member of the Etsy community. Many people who commission work from me say they found me on one of those two websites.

Now I use Facebook and Twitter (and my blog, of course) to keep people posted on what I'm up to. But to succeed in promoting yourself on any of these networks, you have to be truly interested in making friends and business contacts. You can't just scream, Hey, look at me! all the time without giving anything back. I guess I have a subtler approach to self-promotion: let people know what you're up to from time to time, and trust that they'll follow you if they like what they see.

Question: Do you regularly submit your work to online galleries? Is that useful for gaining credibility and getting feedback on your work?

Bob Flynn: I created an account on a great website run by Nate Williams called Illustration Mundo a few years back, but I've never put my work in an online gallery (or paid for anything of the sort). I guess I view my blog as having that purpose. Flickr is a kind of gallery, though.

Alex Dukal: Not at all to both questions. Ten years ago, if someone invited you to show some of your work in an online gallery, it was cute, flattering. Today, I think we have to be careful, because the selection criteria is often not that great, and one must pay attention to those details as well. If you display your work in the wrong place, it could have a negative result. In principle, credibility should come from the work itself.

Jayme McGowan: I have a profile on Illustration Mundo, which is a great website that functions mainly as a directory of illustrators, not a gallery per se. Honestly, I don't participate in any online galleries. I'm sure that's a great way to get feedback from your peers, but I don't know that it will give you added credibility as a professional. I can maintain only so many Web pages myself, so I try to limit them to the ones I get the most benefit from, those where I believe art directors and buyers might find me.

Jayme McGowan

Chris Piascik is a freelance designer and illustrator who is active in the design community. With six years of professional experience at award-winning firms in New England, he has had work published in numerous books and publications, including the Logo Lounge series, Typography Essentials and Lettering: Beyond Computer Graphics. He currently posts drawings on his website daily.

Irma Gruenholz is a Spanish illustrator who specializes in clay and other materials, allowing her to work in volume. Her work is used in books, magazines, advertisements and online marketing.

Question: Are you an active participant in every social community you have joined? How much time do you set aside to interact in social media? Do you commit to posting new work and personal updates regularly?

Chris Piascik: I stay active in quite a few social communities. I admit that I have joined some that I couldn't keep up with though! I don't really schedule time for social networking, although that's probably a good idea. Instead, I scatter it throughout the day, whether it's browsing Twitter on my iPhone while exporting a big file on my computer or procrastinating the start of a new project. It's all about multi-tasking! I think the biggest thing that has helped me with social networking is my daily drawings. I post a new drawing Monday to Friday on Flickr, and from there I post it to my personal website, and those updates flow to my Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Chris Piascik

Irma Gruenholz: Yes, I have a blog, and I participate in some social communities, such as Flickr and Behance. Unfortunately, I don't have much time for a very active presence. I would like to devote more time because it is a good way to keep up with and see the work of other artists.

Question: At the moment, which community is the most valuable for finding job opportunities?

Chris Piascik: I think most of the networks out there have value. I do think Flickr works really well, though. My Flickr page seems to get the most traffic out of all my websites. Flickr is so vast that a lot of people use it for image research. I think my daily updates help my work not get lost.

Irma Gruenholz: Based on personal experience, Behance is a good platform for showing your work to art directors and art buyers. I've gotten some work through it.

Question: How important is crafting the messages you send out and keeping your website looking professional?

Chris Piascik: I don't censor myself that often. I think keeping things honest is a good thing. My work has some personality; much of it has a loose qualitypairing that with a cold or professional Web presence would seem odd. Expanding your social networks requires you to be yourself just as long as yourself is interesting!

Irma Gruenholz: Internet presence is very important for the artist. It is the best way to exhibit your work to the rest of the world. So, keep your website updated, and make it easy to communicate with people who want to follow your work.

Irma Gruenholz

Question: How do you make time for social networks? Are you committed only to websites from which you can get some professional benefit?

Chris Piascik: I have completely given up sleep. I really just sprinkle it throughout my day. It's a nice way to start my day while drinking my coffee or eating some lunch. I wouldn't say that I limit myself only to websites that I benefit from, though my opinion is that all networks help. Visibility is visibility. I use social networking to stay in touch with friends as well, so it's not strictly business for me.

Irma Gruenholz: I have little time to devote to social networks, so I prefer to focus on communities related to my profession.

Featured Artists

To grasp the meaning of art and how it has evolved over time, I interviewed Alexander Daniloff and Jonathan Ball. To explore the aesthetics of digital art, I spoke with Jan Willem Wennekes, who touched on some important points related to the differences between digital artists and other artists and the nature of digital art itself.

I also feature Nate Williams and Travis Lampe, in an effort to learn more about their work and their relationship to technology, including digital art tools and social media, and to explore the way the Internet influences the development of art.

To better understand the relationship between contemporary artists and new methods and tools for creating art, I've interviewed Max Kostenko and Pino Lamanna. I focused on their creative process and professional experience, from their entry into the field right up to their current sources of inspiration.

Finally, I interviewed Bob Flynn, Alex Dukal, Jayme McGowan, Chris Piascik and Irma Gruenholz, asking their opinion of the challenges that artists face when promoting themselves and their work in the new Web, trying to capture their experience with social media and online art communities.

Each of these artists has a particular style and is an active member of the artistic community. As such, they could be a source of inspiration to many. I hope their insights are helpful.

What about you? What does art mean to you?

(al)

Marilina Maraviglia for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: art, Design