Adaptistration

2007 Canadian Orchestra Website Review: U.S. Orchestras, Take Note

Although it isn’t new for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra to offer a Chinese version of their website, it is worth pointing out (once again) that it is there. Although the Chinese version is not as complete as the English version, this demonstrates that the organization understands its potential audience and is doing what is needed to help bring them into the organization as opposed to the troubling position adopted by some individuals in the U.S…

2007 Canadian Orchestra Website Review: Grades and Comparisons

Unique to the Canadian portion of the annual website reviews, this installment examines the similarities and differences between how Canadian and U.S. orchestra websites compared in overall grades as well as the average scores category by category.

You'll also get to see how the Canadian orchestras would fare compared to the Top 10 orchestra websites from the U.S. reviews and gain some insight into which components could stand the greatest cumulative improvement...

2007 Canadian Orchestra Website Review: Rankings & Scores

Between 9/25/07 and 9/27/07, 14 professional Canadian orchestra websites were examined and ranked by how well they presented their concert schedule, sold tickets, provided organizational information, facilitated making donations, and on overall content and functionality. Overall, the average Canadian orchestra website score increased from 56.01 in 2005 to 64.03 in 2007, which means they improved by 14.31 percent since their last evaluation in 2005…

The 2007 Canadian Orchestra Website Review

After an unavoidable lapse in 2006, the Canadian installment of the Orchestra Website Review is back. Although there are fewer Canadian orchestra websites compared to their U.S. counterparts (a 1:6 ratio) they are evaluated using the exact same criteria used in the U.S. reviews, with one notable exception…

The 2007 Orchestra Website Review: What Happened To Milwaukee?

Throughout last week, a number of readers took the time to send in an email inquiring why the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) wasn't included in any of the 2007 Orchestra Website Review material. It is true, the MSO was deliberately excluded from this year's review, but there is a good reason, one which has everything to do with a new website development product that functions as blueprint template to quickly build a Tessitura integrated website, all at a cost that is well within the means of a variety of budget size ensembles ...

The Best Orchestra Website For 2007 Is In Nashville (& Chicago)

For the second year in a row, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra (NSO) and Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) websites have secured the #1 and #2 spots, respectively, in the Annual Orchestra Website Review. However, the difference between their scores in 2007 was even less than the marginal difference in 2006.

How marginal? For example, one subcategory where both groups failed to secure 100% of available points was posting "Institutional Transparency" documents. Although both groups posted copies of their Annual Reports, neither posted copies of the IRS Form 990 but if the CSO had posted the IRS Form 990, they would have moved ahead of the NSO by more than a full point. Add to that, both organizations managed to increase their score from 2006 and it seems fitting to feature both groups...

The 2007 Orchestra Website Review: Best & Worst

Riding on the coat-tails of the Adaptistration Orchestra Website Review Special Recognition Awards, the Best & Worst of 2007 highlights groupings of orchestras on specific issues as well as reporting on the largest increase/decrease in score among ensembles since the 2006 Review. 

Continuing with the policy initiated in 2006, there will be no indication for orchestras that have updated their website since the evaluation period. Instead, each orchestra was provided an opportunity to communicate any information about their respective website via the detailed ratings, which allowed them to communicate with readers in their own voice...

The 2007 Orchestra Website Review: Special Recognition Awards

During every orchestra website review, several orchestras deserve special recognition for how well they satisfied the requirements for each category or subcategory as well as demonstrating particular originality and creativity for specific website components. As such, the Special Recognition awards are designed to highlight individual achievements among orchestra websites and to promote them as benchmarks within the business...

2007 Orchestra Website Review: Trends & Detailed Scores

What a difference one year can make. From 2006 to 2007 there were quite a few changes among orchestra websites, some good and some not so good. Perhaps even more interesting, however, was the obvious amount of increased resources many orchestras directed toward website development efforts for the 2007-2008 season...

2007 Orchestra Website Review: Overall Rankings

Between 8/21/07 and 9/06/07, 84 professional orchestra websites were examined and ranked by how well they presented their concert schedule, sold tickets, provided organizational information, facilitated making donations, and on overall content and functionality. The 2007 Rankings witnessed a number of review firsts as well as an overall slight increase in the average score...

2007 Orchestra Website Review: What's New & Evaluation Criteria

Now in its fourth year, the Adaptistration Orchestra Website Review generates a great deal of interest in how each website is evaluated and how orchestras of vastly different budget size can be compared on an even playing field.

This article examines the components of an effective orchestra website, reviews the evaluation criteria in detail, and introduces new features for the 2007 review. As a special feature to the 2007 review, Arts & Entertainment attorney Elizabeth Russell will review what orchestras need to know about three crucial web-related legal issues ...

Get A Sneak Peak At The Top 10 Orchestra Websites

Next week marks the beginning of the the 4th annual Adaptistration Annual Orchestra Website Review but you don't have to wait until then to find out which orchestras are in the Top 10...

The 2006 Orchestra Website Review: Best & Worst

The final installment in the 2006 Orchestra Website Review is this year's Best & Worst. Unfortunately, there's just as much "worst" to hash over as in 2005 but on the other side of the coin, much of the "best" is just fantastic...

The 2006 Orchestra Website Review: Special Recognition Awards

During every orchestra website review, several orchestras deserve special recognition for how well they satisfied the requirements for each category or subcategory as well as demonstrating particular originality and creativity for specific website components...

The Best Orchestra Website For 2005 Is In Nashville

Not only did the Nashville Symphony Orchestra open up a $123.5 million concert hall to rave reviews at the beginning of this month, they also launched one of the most technologically advanced orchestra websites the business has ever seen. Without a doubt, several components of Nashville's brand new website will serve as a benchmark for other institutions to follow. But how much did it cost and can other orchestras follow their lead or even expand on what they have created?...

2006 Orchestra Website Review: Detailed Ratings

Unlike the overall rankings, the Orchestra Website Review detailed ratings provide an additional glimpse into how well each orchestra performed by category...

2006 Orchestra Website Review: Trends

What a difference one year can make. From 2005 to 2006 there were quite a few changes among orchestra websites, some good and some not so good. Even more interesting, however, was the emergence of some new trends...

2006 Orchestra Website Review: Overall Rankings

On the positive side, the average score for 2006 was 60.23, which is an increase over last year's average score of 58.93...

What's New For The 2006 Orchestra Website Review

Although the evaluation parameters between 2005 and 2006 have not changed as much as between the 2004 and 2005 evaluations, there have been some modifications along the following key points...

The 3rd Annual Adaptistration Orchestra Website Review

Introduction & Evaluation Criteria

Between 8/26/06 and 8/31/06, I examined 80 professional orchestra websites and ranked them by how well they presented their concert schedule, sold tickets, provided organizational information, facilitated making donations, and on overall content and functionality...

2005 Canadian Orchestra Website Review: Unique Achievements

Compared to their American and Canadian peers, some of the Canadian orchestras excelled in subcategories where most organizations languished...

2005 Canadian Orchestra Website Review: Detailed Ratings

With the exception of one less subcategory, the Canadian orchestra websites were evaluated on the same criteria as their American counterparts. They were examined on how well they presented their concert schedule, sell tickets, provide organizational information, facilitated making donations, and on their overall content and functionality...

The 2005 CANADIAN Orchestra Website Review

At the conclusion of the 2004 Orchestra Website Review, I began to wonder about Canadian orchestra websites. In particular, I began to speculate on whether or not having a system which, by comparison to American orchestras, is heavily sponsored by the federal government would have any impact on how Canadian orchestras designed their websites...

What's In a Name? Part 2

In response to yesterday's article, I received numerous email messages from readers wondering why I only focused on mostly "Big 5" and other big budget orchestras in the examples in Part 1. The short answer is simply "time"...

2005 Orchestra Website Review Surprise: What's In A Name?

When it comes to an orchestra's domain name, you can easily apply the old real estate adage of "location, location, location", but in the case of a domain name the "location" is really all about how simple it is for potential visitors to reach their internet address. As it turns out, some orchestras had the prudence to secure as many domain names associated to their ensemble name as possible. Others didn't...

The Best & The Worst of The 2005 Orchestra Website Review

Here's a list of the best and worst from the 2005 Orchestra Website Review. Make sure you read down to the part about online transaction security...

The 2005 Orchestra Website Review Special Recognition Awards

Although the average review score was lower than in 2004, there was still quite a bit within the 2005 Orchestra Website evaluations worth singular attention. In this year's installment, orchestras will receive special recognition per evaluation category...

The Best Orchestra Website For 2005 Is In Chicago. Barely.

Looking very much like the Green Bay Packers throughout the inaugural years of the Super Bowl, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra takes the prize of having the best website in the business for the second straight year...

2005 Orchestra Website Review: Overall Rankings

What makes a good orchestra website? The mere question can generate conversations which last for hours. Nevertheless, each orchestra will decide for themselves just how important their website activities are to the organization and how much of their resources they can allocate toward website development and maintenance...

2nd Annual Adaptistration Orchestra Website Review

Throughout the week of 9/12/05, you'll be able to examine the results from the 2005 Orchestra Website Review. This year's review includes more orchestras, utilizes refined review criteria, and features a few surprises which will be scattered throughout the week. You can keep up with the latest developments by visiting the 2005 Orchestra Website Review main page.

What's New For The 2005 Orchestra Website Review

The evaluation parameters between 2004 and 2005 have been modified modestly along the following key points...