Social Media Week in Berlin (19-23 September 2011)  will bring together jovoto, a creative crowdsourcing platform for collaborative idea generation together with  Start Next, a crowdfunding platform for artists, designers and inventors to undertake a unique experiment to merge the power of creative crowdsourcing with the power of crowdfunding. Together jovoto and Start Next will kick-off a cross-platform initiative to crowdfund and then produce, works of art. The concept is; three weeks of proposals to identify artists, four weeks funding followed by two weeks of art.

They believe that everyone is an artist and that everyone has the ability to create art. jovoto and Start Next will help fund artists and then enable the distribution their work over the Internet so that they can reach the broadest possible audience. The development and implementation of creative ideas through the Internet is increasingly becoming a collaborative act. Creative crowdsourcing can involve the broadcast of a creative endeavor inviting creatives to provide individual works. Alternatively, art can be formed as a result of the collective participation of many artists. Artists like Aaron Koblin have demonstrated how it’s possible to create unique work by tapping into large communities of artists, often involving thousands of individuals. Crowdsourcing both provides the opportunity for new talent to be found and new forms of art to be created.

The Concept

Over the next three weeks artistic concept concepts will be hosted on the jovoto platform and the crowd will be invited to comment and rate the proposals. Individuals or groups of artists working together will describe their concepts and will submit prior works to enable the assessment of their style and creative abilities. Participants will be able to develop their concepts further based on feedback others. Based on the online dialogue, it is also hoped that participants may also decide to invite other artists to join them to create the proposed works. The experience will lead to engagement amongst artists both before and during the creation of the works, thereby extending the collaborative experience.

The goal is to develop a virtual artist workbench concept involving "Fellow artists, friends, foe, fans, and followers" and to study how the Internet allows new relationships to form and new works to be created.

The space, dedicated to the initiative during the Social Media Week, is a central meeting place within the venue designed to model the feel of a lounge or café, thereby creating a "social" environment for encounters and conversations. Visitors to the space will also have the opportunity to also be selected and to participate in the initiative.

Crowdfunding

The concept proposals that end up being ranked highest by the crowd will be recognized during Social Media Week and will proceed to the crowdfunding phase of the project. A four week crowdfunding phase will follow to raise the finance for the successful entries enabling the artists to kick-off their projects together. The goal is for each artist or group to raise a not to exceeded budget of 3,000 EUR to fund their initiatives and pay for any associated expenses.

The initiative will be led by Nadine Freischlad from jovoto and Anna Theil from Next Start. Advisors to the project are Ela Kagel from Transmedia, Tobias Leingruber from Medienküstler and Michelle Thorne from the Mozilla Foundation.

By Claudia Pelzer, Crowdsourcing.org's correspondent in Germany. Claudia Pelzer is founder of www.crowdsourcingblog.de.