MANCHESTER – Borrowing a page from Facebook.com and MySpace.com, two public relations professionals from New Hampshire hope to establish an online, social network for computer-savvy, performing arts fans.

AudienceBuzz.com was launched last week, using the Capitol Center for the Arts' e-mail subscriber list as a beta test. It will be presented at a national conference for performing arts administrators early next year.

Ric Waldman, one of the site's founders, said "Based on my experience as the Capitol Center for the Arts marketing director, I recognized what the ad world has been saying for the last couple years was true, that people trust their peers more when deciding what shows to see instead of top-down marketers."

Waldman and former Hopkins Center for the Arts marketing director Rolf E. Olsen, the other co-founder, say the Web site will allow performing arts fans around the world to post reviews and comments on touring artists they have seen.

"People's inclination is to talk about the positive and negative experiences they have. If you go to a show and like it a lot, you want to share it with people and the same with a negative experience," Waldman said.

Olsen said for years, performing arts centers relied on reviews from sources like the Boston Globe, New York Times or Los Angles Times to entice patrons to attend performances. Now the model is more conversational, where a venue engages patrons in a conversation, he said.

"By opening the channels of communications, the patrons become the critics, telling others about the performance and artists," Olsen said.

Waldman said rather than try to develop peer-to-peer marketing for one theatre, they hope to involve a broader audience who may have seen the show performed elsewhere and then share their experience.

Olsen said Web sites like MySpace will have extensions for specific movies or products. "You cast messages out into the marketplace and they're passed around and shared by initiators who can influence other people's behavior," he noted.

He said he and Waldman are trying to make that phenomenon work for the performing arts. "We've talked literally to people around the country and we're trying to get this up as quickly as we can so we are first in the marketplace," Olsen said.

When the Web site was activated Wednesday, 80 people registered to participate in the first 24 hours.

AudienceBuzz.com will have three main features:

"¢ An online rating and review feature where people can comment on specific performances.

"¢ A tool that allows groups to be established in a geographic area so like-minded people may meet online and plan outings.

"¢ Online forums allowing artists and members to respond to reviews and to hold discussions.

Currently the Web site has reviews of performances by Ian Anderson, Willy Porter and Ani DiFranco, and comments on other performers including jazz musician John Pizzarelli, the subdudes, Jamie Cullum and the Capitol Steps.

Waldman and Olsen will give their experiment a year to fly, but are not going to sell subscriptions or memberships to use the site. "People expect things on the Internet to be largely free," Olsen said.

They also don't want to charge venues or artists to list events.

They are expecting to generate some revenue for their project by selling targeted advertising that will appear when key words are searched.

The primary audience for large performing arts events is well educated, fairly affluent, intelligent and adventurous, Olsen said, which are the kind of people advertisers like to engage. He said banks or other financial institutions, the food and beverage industry and tourism businesses are likely to be interested in reaching their audience.

Along with the Capitol Center, the two are also working with two other venues: one in Maine and one in Vermont.

"Neither Ric nor I have ever done anything like this before. We're very excited about the concept: we think we're right on target and right on time. The question is if we can execute it in a way people adopt and embrace," Olsen said.