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MCG  April 2008

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Subject:

Re: 'The Digital Opportunity'

From:

Tehmina Goskar <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Museums Computer Group <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:52:50 +0100

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (225 lines)

Dear Nick and all,

The salutary points highlighted from the Ofcom report do indeed need
to be addressed at a national level, in as much as collections
documentation, 20 years ago and more, also required some national
(even international) standard-setting for it to be successful.

As I have pointed out in many of my previous posts, we should curate
our web content with the same purpose as our physical content.  Once
it is viewed part and parcel of the collections management,
educational and curatorial activities of a cultural organisation
(museum, library, archive, visitor centre, archaeological unit..) I
think we will be able to overcome the perception that the web is still
a peripheral, luxury, 'asset'.

The Collections Trust has a role here to provide the same kind of
grass-roots support to organisations, large and small (but especially
small),  that MDA did (do) when organisations were undertaking
documentation projects and setting up collections management systems
and procedures.  Forgive me, for I have not looked, but I wonder where
websites feature in the current Museums Registration requirements?

If organisations feel they have some direct support such as a CT
representative arrive at their organisation, assess their needs in
relation to their goals, they are more likely to pay attention to
their web content and take ownership of it.

When I left one of my previous jobs, the head of service gave a
flattering speech at my leaving do and spoke of how this particular
digitisation project would "stand as a monument."  That really stuck
in my throat, especially as both my close colleagues and myself did
everything we could to ensure the future development of the resource.
I am sure he would not have said the same thing about the various
collections management systems that the organisation funded and
supported.  It should be the role of MLA and the Collections Trust to
therefore also guide organisations on how to make representations to
their paymasters about the essential functions their websites provide
their audiences. Some organisations have managed to do this
successfully so perhaps their examples could be useful to others who
are struggling to make their cases.

If standards are to be set, therefore, they must come with the
requisite support.  In addition, the individuality and creativity of
the organisation should also be encouraged to come through.  A
museum's website is their best chance of saying to the world how they
are different from all the rest and therefore why someone should
either visit or linger on the website a little longer.  It is this
kind of thing that is attractive to stakeholders (unique selling
points, as it were...)

More thought would have to be given on what should comprise the basic
standards museum websites but for me, apart from news, events,
location, opening, etc, one of the most important things is knowing
about which collections they hold and roughly how much of it you can
see on display and what else might be in stores, with more detail than
simply broad terms on typology and period, perhaps along the line of
collections-level descriptions but less treated differently to
metadata, more biographical.

Tehmina


2008/4/14 Chan, Sebastian <[log in to unmask]>:
> Hi Nick et al
>
>  The changes that need to be made in the museum world are very much about organisational structure - which is increasingly what the workshops I deliver have been about.
>
>  The web needs to be core business now and no longer seen as just an adjunct or extension of education or exhibition programmes. The best initiatives that I have seen around the world have occurred when web units are taken out of IT, taken out of marketing and placed across multiple verticals within an institution.
>
>  The web also needs to be core business in so far as staff and resources needs to be re-deployed from other areas to supplement what are usually ridiculously small web teams. Likewise, at the very least in the national museums, 90% or more of all web development should be done in house - not out sourced, so that the skills and knowledge remain in the institution and continue to build capacity rather than leaking out into the commercial sector - again this needs massive organisational restructuring.
>
>  Inside the core web team itself the skillsets required are changing rapidly and again, flexibility and an awareness of the need to keep talented staff beyond single projects needs to be internalised.
>
>  One of the greatest things to come out of our work at the Powerhouse with our OPAC2 has been that *every single curator* is a content creator - and they do so without learning a new application or logging into a new system. The web *is* now their core publishing platform - even if they don't realise it.
>
>  Seb
>
>  Sebastian Chan
>  Manager, Web Services
>  Powerhouse Museum
>  street - 500 Harris St Ultimo, NSW Australia
>  postal - PO Box K346, Haymarket, NSW 1238
>  tel - 61 2 9217 0109
>  fax - 61 2 9217 0689
>  e - [log in to unmask]
>  w - www.powerhousemuseum.com
>  b - www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog
>
>
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: Museums Computer Group on behalf of Nick Poole
>  Sent: Mon 14/04/2008 6:29 PM
>  To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Subject: Re: 'The Digital Opportunity'
>
>  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]
>
>  Any opinions expressed in this email are those of the individual and not necessarily those of the National Maritime Museum or Royal Observatory Greenwich. This email and any files transmitted with it, including replies and forwarded copies (which may contain alterations) subsequently transmitted from the National Maritime Museum or Royal Observatory Greenwich, are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient or the person responsible for delivering to the intended recipient, be advised that you have received this email in error and that any use is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error please notify the IT Manager by telephone on +44 (0) 208 3126677 or via email to [log in to unmask], including a copy of this message. Please then delete this email and destroy any copies of it.
>
>
>
>  This message has been scanned for malware by WebSense Mailcontrol for the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
>
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-- 
Tehmina Goskar, MA AMA
[log in to unmask]

Web Communication Development for Culture, Heritage and Academia
Museum Specialist
Historian

**************************************************
For mcg information and to manage your subscription to the list, visit the website at http://www.museumscomputergroup.org.uk
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