Technology - it's one of those things that most arts administrators basically don't want to deal with. It keeps changing, what we have keeps getting out of date, it seems to eat up immense amounts of time and money, and, worse, it's something that many of us simply don't understand at all. What's worse, in these days when the World Wide Web seems like the only thing that people talk about, dealing with technology is pretty much unavoidable.

For an arts administrator, there are a lot of factors that are affected by what technology you have, and how it's deployed. For example, technology changes the way that people do their jobs, and it often changes the interpersonal dynamics of the office. Some people are happy and comfortable with it. Some are intimidated and frustrated. As administrators, of course, our job is to facilitate getting things done, so technology can be a wonderful asset, a pain in the posterior, or, more often than not, both.

So where does this leave the arts administrator with no real training in technology, or maybe only a little bit, who needs to figure out what technology to use, how to choose it, how to pay for it, and how to get the staff to make use of it? Quite often, it leaves that administrator quaking and quivering, or in a total state of denial.

That's completely understandable, but it's important to realize that this is a situation faced by countless organizations, both non-profit and for-profit, and that there are steps you can take that don't require you to go out and get a degree in computer science. Planning for your technology needs is really not all that difficult, and it's something that can have positive side effects within your organization by encouraging team-building, information sharing. I can also build redundant skills so that if staff members leave, at least some of their technological expertise stays behind.

An important first point to remember is that technology planning is about planning, not technology. This means that most of us already have the skills needed for this process, and that it's more an issue of plugging specific information and procedures into place. I can't emphasize enough the fact that this doesn't require that you know everything about technology in order to build a technology plan.

It also doesn't require that a huge pot of money suddenly falls down from the heavens in order to pay for the process. The bottom line is that you're already spending money on this stuff - you're paying for phones, faxes, copiers, computers, software, staff time, etc. You're probably just not doing it in any systematic way. Building a technology plan for your organization will put you in charge of the process, of your budget, of the way your organization operates.

Another important key idea is one that most people don't want to hear. It's this: technology for your organization isn't something you get to "solve" and be done with. It's an ongoing process, because technology changes, dies, becomes obsolete, and newer and better options appear. The Web, for example, has only been around since 1995, and it's only really hit the culture in the past couple of years. By and large, I advise that arts administrators treat technology in the same way that they treat the paper or the toner for their copiers - as a consumable, as something that gets used and then used up, and needs replacement. That means that technology planning is an ongoing process.

Now, unfortunately, I don't have time in this handout to go into total detail about this process. What I want to do is provide a basic overview of it, and give you some resources to check out. I'm working on a more comprehensive set of printed materials, but they're simply not done yet.

Let's start with a simple definition: what is technology planning?

Technology planning is an ongoing process that translates organizational, mission, and technological needs into concrete options and actions. It allows for change and growth. Technology planning can help your organization with the technology decision-making process by establishing standards, norms, and methods for evaluating, purchasing, implementing, and using technology. A technology plan can articulate, organize, and integrate the content and processes of an organization with integration of appropriate technologies. It must be consistent with the mission and overall strategic plan of the organization. Generally, a technology plan should cover 3 - 5 years, with specifics for 18 months. It should cover hardware, software, staff training and other IT equipment - phones, faxes, multimedia, and other specialized equipment, as well as funding and training.

How does one go about it?

There are a lot of different models available, but they have several basic components in common:

1. Assess your current technology and your organization's readiness to engage in the planning process.
2. Create a technology team, including people who ultimately can make the plan sink or swim, in terms of implementation. This can include the Executive Director, board members, administrative staff, program staff, clients/audience, local computer hardware/software companies, "friends" of the organization who have useful expertise, and significant funders of the organization.
3. State the goals of the technology plan: what are the overall goals of the organization in terms of technology, what are expected outcomes, etc. It's a good idea to create a vision statement for the plan - explain what the plan has to do with your organization's mission or there's no way it will go anywhere.
4. Work on creating the plan itself - since you've identified goals, what are the steps to get there? This means defining what options are available, what resources are needed for each option, evaluating those options and deciding which ones are most appropriate, and looking at the implementation process.
5. Establish priorities - which pieces of your plan are more critical or important than others? Get everyone to understand how the priorities have been determined. Develop a timeline for implementation.
6. Make decisions on hardware and software and develop a realistic budget. If necessary, raise the money needed.
7. Implement the technology and train staff.
8. Evaluate the technology, the implementation, your process and your plan.
9. Revise your plan to reflect changes made and needed.

This is obviously a VERY quick run-through, but those are the basic steps. Below you'll find some online resources that can take you into more detail. One caution: this is an area where the resources are changing and developing quite quickly, and the resources on the links below are likely to change. In general, that's good, as it will usually mean that more information and resources have been added. The other thing I'll note is that most of the available information is both online and geared toward school districts, as they're one of the places where this has been the most pressing issue. The principles and processes are generally the same, however, as they would be for an arts organization. The other critical thing you'll need to do is to translate all of this stuff into a scale that's appropriate for your organization.

That said, here are some resources to check out:

I maintain a site at http://www.sunwheel.org which has a great deal of information about technology planning. It has a basic outline of the process, and also the online courseware for a class I teach for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Master of Arts Administration program called "Rewiring the Arts Organization." Many of the links below are available via my site.

Arts Wire also has online courseware from the Arts Wire Technology Planning Workshop, a day-long workshop we do on technology planning. You can access it at http://www.artswire.org/spiderschool/workshops/agendaplanning.html. In particular, the section on Getting Ready for a Technology Planning Process are helpful.

The Western School Board of Canada has an excellent site at http://142.176.41.220/wsb/gqhome.htm that walks through the planning process from a school perspective.

The National Center for Technology Planning has a nice, easy to digest article with a number of printed citations at http://www.nctp.com/tp.recipe.html.

Sylvia Bodolay has put her masters thesis on Technology Planning online at http://projects.scrtec.org/%7Etechplan/techplanguide.html, and it's truly an excellent resource.

There are a huge number of other resources, but these should give you a sufficient starting point.

One final thing to remember - you're not alone if you're struggling with this. Every time I do a seminar I ask how many people have technology plans for their organizations, and invariably the number is quite small. This is the same as it used to be when I would ask people how many of them had an email address, or a web site, or bought anything online. It's a number that is slowly growing, as this is one of the important capacity issues the non-profit sector faces, and there's definite concern in the funding community about the sector's ability to compete unless we go through this process. Again, it's impossible to pull all of this together in a short handout, but I hope this will provide enough of an overview to get you started.

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