Dear Fiona,
Thank you very much for circulating this information. It is sobering reading indeed and I think clearly indicative of some fairly basic issues which we need to address.
Reading the review, there are some strong and consistent themes emerging:
1. We have so far failed to create a consistent baseline expectation of the information a user can access on a museum site;
2. Our criteria for quality of museum sites are set too low relative to developments in the marketplace and the expectations of our users;
3. Our web publishing still feels peripheral to the delivery of 'core' services, and hence standards are allowed to slip;
4. Museum information is not sufficiently apparent in mass-market services such as Google and digital TV.
We all know that these accusations are true of some museum sites, and dead wrong about others. I have been really impressed by some of the strides we have taken in the past 2-3 years and doing a trawl of museum sites via Culture24 now is a far less depressing experience than it was 4 years ago.
The fact remains, however, that these statements are true of a sufficient proportion to drag down the public perception of the industry as a whole. Bearing in mind that this review comes at the end of a decade of totally unprecedented public investment in museums (and as we enter what is likely to be a very lean period indeed) it is, frankly, pretty embarrassing.
So...what do we need to do to ensure that we have turned this perception round by the time of the next Ofcom review?
There is certainly work to be done on a National scale. There remains the anomaly that digital service delivery forms part of Local Authority performance assessment but is nowhere to be seen in the Accreditation Scheme. There is also a clear problem that most of the available cash has come in the form of 'monsoon' funding for projects rather than long-term stable investment in skills, standards and infrastructure. On a UK level, we should be creating a clear point of entry to cultural content and using this focus to broker our stuff into services like Google in a sustainable and structured way.
Equally, though, I think we need a change of culture within individual organisations. I know that funding is constrained, but far too often web delivery is marginalised within museums to the point at which the website finds itself at the bottom of a heap of other priorities. If online really is becoming our frontline, we are going to need to get our priorities straight.
I have spoken elsewhere about the weird economy of mass-digitisation, but I honestly believe that we need to put the brakes on our current behaviour and spend some time prioritising the basic elements of 'where is it, when is it open, what can I see and can I feed the kids there?' before we address the arcane (and cash-poor) needs of the specialist researcher.
One clear issue is that, much as I say 'we' and have a view on what needs to happen, there isn't really anywhere to put this at the moment. It is 10 years since the publication of Netful of Jewels and although there are promising initiatives (such as the NMDC/Culture24-sponsored National Museums Online Project), there doesn't seem to be a single point of focus for digital strategy. The Collections Trust (formerly MDA) obviously has a stake here, but I would welcome your thoughts on specific, concrete actions we could undertake to move this agenda forward.
So...I put the question to the list - since we all have a stake in raising the game of museums overall, what could we do to sort this situation out?
Nick
Nick Poole
Chief Executive
Collections Trust
www.collectionstrust.org.uk
www.collectionslink.org.uk
www.cuturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk
Tel: 01223 316028
Fax: 01223 364658
Until the end of April 2008, the Collections Trust's legal trading name is: MDA (Europe) Ltd
Company Registration No: 1300565
Reg. Office: 22 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1JP.
The Collections Trust believes that everybody, everywhere should have the right to access and benefit from cultural collections. Our aim is to develop programmes and standards which help connect people and culture.
The Collections Trust was launched from its predecessor body, the MDA, in March 2008.
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Fiona Romeo
Sent: 10 April 2008 18:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 'The Digital Opportunity'
Ofcom's second review of public service broadcasting is available:
http://ofcompsbreview.typepad.com/summary/
The 'Arts, culture and heritage' chapter of the review of public service content online is a sobering read:
* "The genre appears poorly resourced overall, and heavily reliant on time-limited and unsustainable government grants, although the BBC and some major museums and institutions appear to have substantial budgets."
* "Overall, the content in this genre is highly fragmented, and while the major institution sites are easy to find on Google it is extremely difficult to find the most innovative and exciting content."
* "The majority of major and minor museums and galleries have web sites; taken in the round, these sites feel underresourced and out-of-date, and even the stronger sites display limited functionality and ambition beyond cataloguing and providing background information on their catalogues."
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/psb2_1/annex8.pdf (PDF)
Fiona
Fiona Romeo
Head of Digital Media
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Tel: 020 8312 6740
Email: [log in to unmask]
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