From Digitisation to Content Creation: new models for public valueNick PooleChief ExecutiveCollections Trustwww.collectionslink.org.uk

Digitisation plays an essential but minor part in connecting stuff with public value

There have been some gaps in emphasis in our approach to Digitisation so far

The reason we’re in this position is that funds have been limited and we have emphasised completeness over value

Faced with the choice between spending our budget on Digitisation & the other activities in the chain (marketing, narrative, user-testing, interface design) we have spent the money on Digitisation.

The problem with this approach is that it has emphasised production over the integrity, quality, and fluidity of the user experience.

Which means we end up doing things like this...

The classic product development & supply chain questions...

•Who are we doing it for?

•What do they need?

•How do they behave?

•How does what we’re creating satisfy what they need?

•How do we deliver it at the point at which they need it?

Key developments in production...

•Moving from creating digital images and database records to editorialised, narrative content

•Using a smaller number of things to create insight, rather than a larger number to illustrate

•Producing integrated narrative experiences through connections, moving beyond ‘search – find – leave’

•Understanding how far the consumer experience (and hence expectation) has come in the last 10 years

Key developments in delivery...

•You can do both:

• Create your own point of delivery which satisfies the specific needs of your specific audiences

• Allow other people to aggregate and use your digital information to create multiple points of delivery to meet the needs of other audiences

Promotion...

•A website without sustained and proactive marketing is a silo

•Social networking, content sharing and distributed re-use are the best, cheapest kinds of marketing there are

Looking ahead...

•Your users are also your collaborators, distributors, marketers and champions

•Create Value is the new Digitise Everything

•Moving from ‘Database Search’ to the flow of content through multiple channels and interfaces

•The age demands both curatorial authority and user-generated interpretation

To find out more about the Collections Trust’s work on opening up collections for use and enjoyment, and how we can help your museum, archive or library achieve more, come to OpenCulture 2014, 25-26 June, Kia Oval, London

www.collectionslink.org.uk/openculture2014

Also, don’t miss ‘Going Digital’, the Collections Trust’s new programme on technology in museums – launching November 2014

Follow: @NickPoole1 and @CollectionTrust