Is it hot in here?

If you go to the narb.me website right now you might notice some changes that we have been releasing over the weekend. The biggest of these changes is a rather radical departure from ratings between 1 and 10 to a comparison system based on temperature. Using simple math, puppies and potato skins we are now able to order a list of venues, exhibitions, art pieces and even people based on their NARB temperature.

The NARB temperature of art is not based on a simple number between 1 and 10, a number that could mean something different to any one person adding or reading it, but it’s based on the collective activity for that expo or art piece.

So how does that work?

When you look at any list items on narb.me you’ll see the ones with the highest temperature on top and the lowest on the bottom. Then to make sure each new item gets an equal chance we give it a set high temperature to start it off with. In time each item will cool off slowly dropping to the bottom, especially with exhibitions currently running ones are more interesting than older ones that already closed. An exhibition takes about a week to lose half it’s temperature.

Then, to make things a bit more lively, we add a bit of heat to each item that receives the interest of the public at large. When people view, rate, tag, like, collect items and more the temperature goes up and they rise again in the hot lists on our website. This is an experiment but we have the feeling it’s a really great idea.

We are not doing it yet but at some point in the future we will start showing a visual clue to an items rating and how it came to be.

Is that all?

Nope. Instead of rating something you can now like it. You can become a fan of a venue. You can add exhibitions to your agenda and many more tweaks and doodles all around the site. All of these things still need a lot of work before they become really useful but as you’ve become accustomed to we believe in releasing early and often. Even when it’s not really finished yet. This is the fate of using a beta site. Sorry about that. Hope you still love us!

—Tijs

NARB visits ArtBrussels

Tijs and I will be at ArtBrussels on Monday 27th April. Mail us or send us a twitter message @narbme if you want to meet up for drink if you are in the area.

What’s on your dashboard?

Since about a week we have been giving some of the galleries with a presence on NARB access to their own gallery dashboard from which they can manage all their venue, exhibition and art piece details themselves. This initial version of the dashboard is a first step towards a full suite of gallery and museum services we’ll be rolling out during the rest of the year.

If you manage a gallery or work at a museum and would like full control over your exhibitions as they are presented on NARB just let us know and we’ll turn this feature on for you as well.

Come and have a drink with Tijs and James plus friends at this location at 11pm in Rotterdam for Museum Night if you are in the area.