Sustainability and JISC 20 th August 2010, Royal School of Needlework Presentation for Look Here...
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Transcript of Sustainability and JISC 20 th August 2010, Royal School of Needlework Presentation for Look Here...
Sustainability and JISCSustainability and JISC
20th August 2010, Royal School of Needlework
Presentation for ‘Look Here’ project at Visual Arts Data Servicehttp://www.vads.ac.uk/lookhere
Alastair DunningJISC Digitisation Programme Managerhttp://www.jisc.ac.uk/digitisation/
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Sustainability Problem Exists Sustainability Problem Exists EverywhereEverywhereAny project will have only limited
fundingAlso difficult where money is not the
prime motivator for the project in the first place (e.g. Environmental sustainability)
Particularly true for innovation, where a project depends on a broader infrastructure to maintain it
Very true for digital content – technology changes
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Find these JISC projects !Find these JISC projects !Lemur: Learning with Museum Resources
◦ Aberdeen University, £183k , 2000-2003National Fine Art Collections
◦ The Surrey Institute of Art & Design, £? , 2001-2003Bioscience ImageBank
◦ University of Leeds, £113k, 2000-2003BuilDNER: Databank of Building Images for
the DNER◦ South Bank University, £26k, 2000-2003
Virtual Norfolk◦ University of East Anglia, c.£350k, 2000-3
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Find these JISC projects !Find these JISC projects !Lemur: Learning with Museum Resources
◦ http://www.abdn.ac.uk/lemur/National Fine Art Collections
◦ http://www.fineart.ac.uk/Bioscience ImageBank
◦ http://bio.ltsn.ac.uk/imagebank/BuilDNER: Databank of Building Images for the
DNER◦ ?
Virtual Norfolk◦ http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/
20050606184058/http://virtualnorfolk.uea.ac.uk/welcome.html
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Sustainability is not just Sustainability is not just technicaltechnical“I think it is important that you [update]
partly because I when you look at a website and it says last updated more than 12 months ago you just immediately think this is being allowed to wither on the vine and you don’t trust it. So I want to be able to if nothing else to say on our homepage, last updated or we have the version number 4.2 you know date July 2006 is a way of assuring the users that we are still paying attention.”
p29, Claire Warwick et al (UCL, 2006)
Log Analysis of Arts and Humanities Resources
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Sustainability is not just Sustainability is not just technicaltechnicalOf the NOF digitisation projects,
85% (104 out of 122) were still running five years after launch.
However, only 35 of these 122 had clear indication of having had their content or interface updated
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Digital Sustainability Digital Sustainability meansmeansRunning a service your users can rely onAdding new content when necessaryUpdating functionalityResponding to users pointing out
mistakesBuilding partnerships and new users;
offering multiple ‘products’Looking freshHaving a healthy base of committed
usersAnd having sufficient income to keep the
service going7
Multiple Multiple methods methods requiredrequiredDirect income streamsSponsorship and philanthropyDifferent audiencesCommunity engagementInstitutional buy in – senior
management, use in research and teaching
Continued project funding Larger collaborationAdded valueLeadership and ingenuity
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Institutional SupportInstitutional SupportSenior management perhaps
sceptical of external benefitsInternal benefits - Cost-saving, as
well as value-addingEmbed resources in teaching and
learningWin multiple friends in
organisation
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Revenue StreamsRevenue StreamsGetting people to pay for your
content, either digital or printedBeen tried for quite some timeStart up costs are expensiveWho is keen to pay for digital content?Can work in larger institutions; more
difficult in smaller institutionsMight others want to licence your
content?Vision of Britain example
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Vision of BritainVision of BritainSocial, political and economic
information on every town in Britain
Strongly geographical interfaceIntegrated numerous different
data sourcesAttracted UK and EU fundingAchieved licensing deals with
private companiesGoogle Ads bring in c. £6k a year
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Added ValueAdded ValuePresenting digitised content as part of
a larger suite of information or services
Great example of British History Online◦Works as a digital library, offering access
to primary and secondary resources◦Digitisation is only part of the offer
More ways to become essential rather than useful for your users
What else do you want to offer? As a single institution? Or as a group?
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Larger CollaborationLarger CollaborationE.g. VADS and Look Here !Working with similar partners to
goals common Sharing costs and infrastructureBuilds critical mass within a
subject areaBut who is responsible for leading
a consortium? Everyone wants someone else to pay
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Different Audiences / Different Audiences / ProductsProductsNot just academic users who are
interested in your contentParticularly true in the visual artsBut content needs to be
repackaged to be presented to different users
Alternatively, split up your academic users
Old Bailey example
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Old Bailey OnlineOld Bailey OnlineTim Hitchcock (Hertfordshire) and
Robert Shoemaker (Sheffield)Have achieved multiple funding
successesAre building a sustainable platform
for multiple resourcesInspired a BBC series; have their
own popular history bookPublishing academic monographs
as eBooks, with accompanying dataAnd, most importantly, are altering
history within their field15
PartnershipsPartnershipsFinding new audiencesThere are others companies,
groups, societies better placed than you to access users
They need ways to keep their users engaged
You need users to keep your content sustained
eBird Example
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eBirdeBirdWebsite for amateur and
professional ornithologistsStarted with heavy research focus.
Only took off when public was involved
Has now achieved sponsorship, licensing of software and development of kiosks for interested parties to use in specific places
Only small fraction of institutional funding now required
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Sponsorship & Sponsorship & PhilanthropyPhilanthropyWhy restricted to larger
institutions in UK?Smaller sums can still helpRelationship needs to be carefully
managedRequires expertise in fundraisingThose outside universities keen to
gain the lustre of being involved in an educational / digital project
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Leadership and IngenuityLeadership and IngenuityWorking in your traditional role will
not allow for sustainabilityBuilding out external partnerships,
undertaking new roles, forgetting parts of the day job.
Doing new things with digital content
Examples cited all rely on leaders not constrained by the traditional definition of their jobs.
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LinksLinksStrategic Content Alliance case studies on
sustainability -sca.jiscinvolve.org/wp/business-modelling-publications/
eBird website - http://ebird.org/Old Bailey Online -
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/Vision of Britain -
http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/British History Online - http://www.british-
history.ac.uk/Digitisation in the UK -
http://web.me.com/xcia0069/uk-digitisation.html
JISC Content - http://www.jisc-content.ac.uk/And VADS – http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/
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