Title: Web 2.0 and digital art communities: applications and potentialities

Authors: Sotiris P. Christodoulou; Georgios D. Styliaras

Addresses: HPCLab, Computer Engineering and Informatics Department, University of Patras, Building B, 26500, Patras, Greece ' Department of Cultural Heritage Management and New Technologies, University of Patras, Seferi 2, 30100 Agrinio, Greece

Abstract: Web 2.0 is a term used to describe the latest trend in the use of web technology to produce applications that facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. Web 2.0 principles have been applied on various domains and changed currently used practices. In this paper we examine how current Web 2.0 applications are already used by communities of artists or could be exploited in arts and, especially in digital arts. We start by identifying the main categories of digital arts and a generic lifecycle of a digital art project. Afterwards, we present a classification of Web 2.0 applications, by providing numerous names of the most currently known applications, and we discuss how each class of applications could support the digital art projects in all categories and lifecycle steps, especially regarding collaboration. Whenever possible, we provide existing examples of art-related sites for each category. A detailed discussion follows on the potentialities of Web 2.0 applications for digital art and especially, on web-based artists' communities. Finally, we discuss about possible future work.

Keywords: Web 2.0 application classes; digital art; collaborative art; collaboration tools; art creation process; social networks; web based communities; virtual communities; online communities; artist communities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2013.057218

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2013 Vol.9 No.4, pp.535 - 553

Published online: 30 Jan 2014 *

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