CAPACOA’s Linked Digital Future Initiative (LDFI) recently wrapped up the second edition of the Digital Discoverability Program. From September to March, representatives from 20 CAPACOA member organizations worked with Dessa Hayes (Digital Discoverability Consultant, CAPACOA) and Tammy Lee (CEO, Culture Creates) to modernize their websites for Web 3.0 –– a new generation of internet driven by artificial intelligence (AI).
The main goal of the program is to help the cohort explore ways to add structured data to their event pages. This type of computer code helps robots understand the name, date/time, location and other key information about events. In other words, it makes it easier for Google, Bing, Siri and Alexa to recommend participants’ webpages to arts goers who ask “What events are happening near me?”
Aside from adding structured data and refining other SEO (search engine optimization) practices on their webpages, participants learned how to use Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons to enrich their CAPACOA member profiles and boost the discoverability of their organizations (and venues) as a whole.
In this interview, Nicholas Beach (General Manager, Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre) shares his experience as a Digital Discoverability Program participant:
This year’s cohort included:
- Arts Commons
- Cecilia Concerts
- City of Fort Saskatchewan
- The Cultch
- Eastern Front Theatre
- Imperial Theatre
- Intrepid Theatre Company Society
- Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre
- Kabir Cultural Centre
- Living Temagami (Northern Arts Connection)
- Market Hall Performing Arts Centre
- monstrARTity Creative Community
- Music on Main Society
- The Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils
- Prismatic Arts Festival
- Small World Music
- Under the Spire Music Festival
- Vancouver Independent Music Centre
- Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre Society
- Yukon Arts Centre
Interested in applying to the next Digital Discoverability cohort? Email dessa.hayes@capacoa.ca or check our program page in summer 2023 for more information.
