Ash Mann - digital expertise for cultural organisations

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Hi, my name is Ash, I'm an advisor, strategist and facilitator.

For nearly two decades I have helped cultural organisations sharpen their digital thinking and activity.

I am interested in helping you make the most of wherever people and internet technologies come together.

I can support you with projects, challenges and opportunities that involve strategy, leadership, change, users, technology and innovation.

Get in touch: [email protected].

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Ash Mann

Newsletter: Latest issue

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From ideas to pilots: shaping a digital community for the cultural sector

We’re shaping a new digital community for the cultural sector, moving from identifying gaps to testing small, practical pilots.

This week's best things

Anonymous curators at Apple Music Classical, a zero-click AI vulnerability, the illusion of alignment in digital projects, crowdsourced visioning at the National Gallery, Excel as esport, and what playgrounds reveal about gender and space. Plus: shoes, stoops, and Karel Gott.

The illusion of alignment

Misalignment in digital projects often hides behind surface-level agreement. Cultural norms like politeness, power imbalance, and rushed decision-making lead to fragile consensus. Real alignment takes trust, open challenge, and shared definitions before delivery, not after.

This week's best things

Chatbots, controversy, and what a viral side project might tell us about tech and trust in museums. Plus: open working, age verification, digital experiments, and AI that browses for you. Also: I’m planning a new community space and finally started Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar.

This week's best things

Why artists matter to tech, the unexpected power of boredom, and a new AI tool made for the heritage sector. Plus: trees, cybersecurity, detox camps, and chocolate bar nostalgia. I read Wired, Heffernan, and Turnbull so you don’t have to. Also I saw a play and bought more books.

This week's best things

Helsinki’s epic library, future storytellers, museum memory in wartime Ukraine, resisting busy-ness, the protective value of good ux, media’s traffic apocalypse, Medium's turnaround, foggy governance, Apple UI frost, sustainable comms, and a (new) podcast on building (real) things.

The rotten cult of busy-ness (part 2 of 2: some solutions)

A follow-up to Part 1 on the cult of busyness, this piece shares small, practical ways to push back against overload from rethinking delegation to making ‘no’ a strategic act. Cultural change starts with what we normalise, protect, and prioritise.

This week's best things

A radio station in a sauna, Google's AI future, resisting busy-ness, memory molecules, ADHD web design, disappearing content, digital burnout, cultural website sustainability, coolness decoded, AI clean-up crews, and one very 80s synthpop video.

The rotten cult of busy-ness (part 1 of 2: the problem)

Why are we always so busy and when will it stop? This reflection explores the cultural, structural, and personal dynamics that sustain busyness in the cultural sector, and the cost of never having time to think.