Call for Participation in Digital Discoverability Program

CAPACOA invites performing arts presenters to participate in a Digital Discoverability Program, as part of the Linked Digital Future Initiative. Between September 2019 and March 2020, a first cohort of 15 organizations will have the opportunity to work with Culture Creates to translate their event information into structured data readable by search engines and recommendation systems. As a result, local arts goers and tourists alike will have a much easier time finding your events, no matter what device or application they use.

Requirements

In order to participate in the 2019-2020 cohort of the Digital Discoverability program, your organization must:

1. Be a CAPACOA member;
2. Be primarily a presenting organization (either a series and/or a festival presenter);
3. Present at least 10 performances between September 1st, 2019 and March 31st, 2020;
4. Have a basic level of digital maturity and have access to the services of a webmaster;
5. Designate a discoverability lead – a dedicated staff member who will be the primary cohort participant and contact person for the whole duration of the program.

How this will work

Culture Creates develops tools and services to enhance the findability and discoverability of performing arts events by arts goers. Using natural language processing, Culture Creates’ Footlight technology will automatically harvest live events information on your website and structure this text information into machine-readable data. Upon validation with you, this structured data will be republished as html-embedded microdata on your website. It will also be populated as linked open data in the Artsdata.ca data hub and in other participatory open databases such as Wikidata.

What you should expect

Cohort participants should anticipate a time commitment of 24 to 80 hours over the course of a year. The time commitment will depend on the number of performances in your programming. Cohort participants will:

• Learn how to use digital discoverability tools in an instructor-led introductory training session via web conference;
• Validate the structured data for their events through a user console;
• Install a code snippet on their websites to republish event information as html-embedded microdata; and,
• Work one-on-one with Culture Creates to troubleshoot any technical issues that may arise.

Cohort participants may also be invited to participate in additional professional development sessions and to take on a proactive role by, for example, publishing permanent information about their organization or their venue(s) on Wikidata or other participatory knowledge base. In addition to increasing the discoverability of your live events, we also want to give you agency over other aspects of your digital presence.

Selection criteria

Cohort participants will be onboarded one at a time. Consequently, we will select participants primarily on a first come, first serve basis.

In addition, we will be needing a variety of websites and in a variety of presenting contexts. 

Applicants who aren’t selected in this first cohort will have the opportunity to apply in the following cohort, in 2020.

How to apply

Interested organizations must:

1. Fill in this application form; and
2. Complete the Digital Intensity and Digital Culture sections of the digital maturity assessment.

The deadline for applications is September 15. Applications may be closed at an earlier date if the cohort is already complete.

About the Linked Digital Future initiative

The Linked Digital Future Initiative deploys a range of research, prototyping and digital literacy activities to foster discoverability, digital collaboration and digital transformation in the performing arts.

The Linked Digital Future Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada and by the Canada Council for the Arts.