Me again
Jim Richardson kicked off another interesting conversation last night on Twitter - kind of related (in my head, anyway, because it is all about how value becomes distributed) to the previous one about open data.
He started it here: http://twitter.com/#!/SumoJim/status/9359205274222592 ...and then it ended up here: http://twitter.com/#!/SumoJim/statuses/9379548655263744 *
The suggestion was we pick it up again in some other forum, and I think all of the people represented in the conversation are also on the MCG list so I thought I'd repost.
The conversation (correct me if I'm skewing this!) seemed to centre on the fact that museums are ok at measuring revenue on things like image sales but seem to be vague about the *costs* associated with these sales. So in the FOI example which Jim cited (http://bit.ly/ezPqOC), the NPG says this:
"The Gallery has not calculated the cost of specifically administering the online rights programme exclusive of other Picture Library activities and therefore it does not hold the information you have requested"
..in other words - again, if I've understood it correctly - they know the revenue (£12k in 2008/9) but don't know the direct costs associated with this revenue.
There are clearly layers and layers of complexity associated with working out financials around online sales of any kind (people in the Twitter conversation talked about grants, "social" value beyond sales, giving, donations..etc) - but it strikes me that this is exactly the kind of stuff we need to get better at, especially if Nicks "..it is time to be serious" UKMW keynote (http://bit.ly/fM0XeC) holds any truth.
I guess part of the problem is that any conversation like this tends to polarise - talking about financials immediately gets lots of people very cross in cultural heritage - but I'd be really interested to hear of any other opinions, studies, figures, real-world costs, etc...
Maybe the question "Are you making PROFIT from your cultural heritage assets, and if so, HOW?" is a good starting point...?
Thanks!
Mike
* ...there's something amusing about the fact that the more people who take part in a Twitter conversation, the less room for conversation there is...but anyway...
Mike Ellis
Research & Innovation Group
eduserv
t: 01225 470522
m: 07017 031 522
twitter: @m1ke_ellis
calendar: http://mikeellis.youcanbook.me
www.eduserv.org.uk
****************************************************************
For mcg information visit the mcg website at
http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
To manage your subscription to this email list visit
http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
|