Envirodigital

Sustainable Ability
The new National Theatre Wales is never underestimating the power of the web. As a start up organisation, they are already trying to digitally develop in an environmentally sustainable way. Envirodigital is working with NTW to ensure that all NTW digital developments are low carbon impact/carbon neutral - and flexible: sustainable ability.

We have set up all NTW internal operational processes to be on the cloud - project management tools, calendar sharing, digital content storage are all in the cloud: so there's less need operationally for big computers and servers eating lots of energy. Where we can, we'll chose providers of cloud services who in turn chose greener hosting.

Envirodigital Communities
NTW have also set up an online social network - so what has that got to do with being green, you might think? Well, its an important statement for a couple of reasons: its saying that NTW as a theatre company doesn't want to run an EGO system, where they push, control, dominate the distribution with monologue. Its saying NTW wants an ECO system - open conversation, collaboration, a cultivating culture! NTW's crowd is also in the cloud!

Perhaps some of NTW's content should be there in the cloud too? Perhaps audiences could make use of a digital application that made car-pooling easy, so that less people would end up driving to live events? What more could NTW be doing through digital mechanisms to reduce NTW's impact, and NTW's audience's impact, on the environment? I'll keep you up-to-date as we discuss this more with with NTW's networks and stakeholders.
UPDATE!!! 20.10.09

So what? You might think - loads of organisations have 1000 members in their online social networks. But National Theatre Wales is an organisation that hasn't yet announced its programme (5th Nov '09) and doesn't begin showing work to audiences until next year. The community has grown organically, and we haven't marketed it at any point, either. Every member has been personally welcomed by a member of the NTW team. It'll be thrilling to see what happens once audiences start to engage with the network, as currently the make up of members could probably be defined as "fans and professionals". The network has its own feel and personality right now: a place for colleagues to debate and develop work. We're about to launch some research that will enable us to gather even more feedback from the network's current members about how they feel and what they would like to experience more of.

The network however is likely to change! The destination website will launch publicly on 5th November: this site particularly to let people know what's on and how to buy tickets, as well as pulling in content from the network. We will also be signposting people (audiences) back out to the community, and once they're there, I think we'll see a slight change in tone: audiences will be wanting to rate/rant/rave about the brilliant theatre they will have seen, and introduce us to their own creativity. What I hope is that the initial network listens and welcomes - what could be a more attractive proposition to a newbie!