Simon Tanner - MCN 2009 presentation
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Transcript of Simon Tanner - MCN 2009 presentation
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
Economics 911:
The economics of digitizing cultural collections
Simon TannerDirector
King’s Digital Consultancy Services
King’s College London
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009King’s College London: www.digitalconsultancy.net
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH)
www.cch.kcl.ac.uk/research/projects/
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© Tanner, KCL 2009The nature of projects/programmes now
On-line publication
Multi-disciplinary / inter-disciplinary
Multiple technologies
Multiple source types & formats
Multiple audiences and uses
New methodologies
Stakeholder needs over-ride technical demands
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
Introduction
Cost factors in digitisation projects
Human intervention and digitisation costs
Reducing costs = optimising the human factor
The importance of the human factor
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
Cost Factors
Effective utilisation of resources in developing digital content and establishing digital collections equals:
Start up costs of creating or purchasing digital content
Implementation costs for establishing access
Implicit costs in managing and maintaining digital resources in the future
Digitisation cost – the key factors:
Nature of the original item to be digitised
Digitisation processes possible
Information, content and delivery objectives
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
Human cost factors – central thesis
The higher the human intervention in any process the greater the likely cost of the process.
Selection for digitisation
Handling original artefacts for imaging/scanning
Managing digital objects
Describing digital resources and other metadata
In other words – consider aspects of optimal performance
Physical
Intellectual
Management
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© Tanner, KCL 2009
Cost Reduction in Digitisation
http://www.minervaeurope.org/publications/costreduction.htm
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© Tanner, KCL 2009
Cost matrix of potential factors
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© Tanner, KCL 2009
Reducing human cost factors
Reduce cost of labour:
Outsource – e.g. offshore
Automate
Deskill activity through better tools and guidance
Offer alternate opportunities to low cost labour
Optimise productivity:
Invest in training
Improve workflow – remove inefficiencies
Value and reward ability and reliability
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
Reducing human cost factors
Quality Assurance:
Ensure is focussed and systematic
Goal of QA is to find errors in process, workflow or human errors
Use QA to optimise activity - make QA proactive and pervasive
Handling originals:
Can be very costly – consider mechanisms to ease this
Training again can reduce costs as can some automation
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© Tanner, KCL 2009The continuing importance of humans!
Management and vision
User needs
Intellectual activities are not easily replaced, for example:
Descriptive metadata
Selection of content
The ends of information are human ends
Digitised information exists because humans
create it
consume it
desire it
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
Some top tips for success
and some life lessons for your
digital futures
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
1st Top Tip for Success
Planning and communication are essential!
“Planning is an unnatural process. It is much nicer to just get on with the job: failure then comes as a complete surprise instead of being preceded by a period of worry and doubt.” Sir John Harvey-Jones
Technology project fail because:
32% - inadequate project management & control
20% - lack of communication
17% - failure to define objectives
17% - lack of familiarity with project scope & complexity
14% - incorrect technology & project sizeFigures courtesy of KPMG
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© Tanner, KCL 2009
2nd Top Tip for Success
Employ a great project manager!
Great collaborative projects are “owned” by everyone
The project manager just owns all the projects problems
Do you want to be that person?
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
3rd Top Tip for Success
Generate trust and honour your partners!
Binding agreements
Mutual benefit
Mean what you say
Don’t be mean
Value and protect the relationship
Listen to each other
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
4th Top Tip for Success
Remember your infrastructure!
Infrastructure survey: can your goals be achieved with the technology available?
Ensure it is sustainable and you have a digital preservation strategy
Ensure early scheduling of equipment delivery
Remember: IT staff cannot guarantee success, but they can definitely deliver failure
www.digitalconsultancy.net
© Tanner, KCL 2009
5th Top Tip for Success
Read the F’ing Manual! (RTFM)
Quote from a technology magazine:Product Manuals: “introduce you to religion through a series of parables.Possibly. We haven’t read them, as we are men.”
A huge amount of failure and mis-communication can be avoided by reading the manuals or documentation