Dear Tehmina,
Fair point re: 'memory institution' - I'd spent 48 hours surrounded by people using it with gay abandon and hence had become blinded to its semantic inadequacies. But you are quite right, it is inaccurate!
I like your thinking about the potential forms of revenue generation over and above simple image licensing too. We have been working for the past few months on a Digital Content Supply Chain model, the main feature of which is an attempt to map out the potential forms of commercial and non-commercial reuse of this material. When you delve into what people are doing, there are some really interesting potential models out there - things like providing high-quality renders for CGI and game development workflows, or co-developing branded merchandise with a deeper consumer value than tea towels and unusually large pencils (which CultureLabel have been pushing on for a while, obviously). If you are interested, the basic version of the model is on Collections Link at http://tiny.cc/supplychain.
As luck would have it, we have heard this evening that the Collections Trust, along with Curtis & Cartwright and Ithaka, have been commissioned by the European Commission to deliver a study into current and emerging models for the commercial reuse of digital assets in museums, archives and libraries, as part of the current review of the Public Sector Information Directive. The study is intended to help the Commission get to grips with the various ways in which digital can lead to revenue (and hence to address the licensing and IPR restrictions that inhibit these activities) but I think the findings could have a broader applicability within the sector.
Similarly, there is a really interesting secondary market emerging around helping museums to monetise the various elements of their work in creative ways - including venue, content, knowledge, skill, location and collections. I would hope that this will help people to be more imaginative about the possibilities, as you suggest. Ultimately, although I might wish the past few months had unfolded differently, I can't see a benefit in doing anything other than regarding it positively as an opportunity. Greater commercial independence has its benefits, as has public subsidy, and as the latter is increasingly withdrawn, I see no reason for us to be afraid of the former. It is more how well we make the transition that concerns me. We know already, instinctively, that there is a line we would not be willing to cross in commercialising museums, but there is an awful lot of scope to increase revenue before we get near it.
All best,
Nick
Nick Poole
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tehmina Goskar
Sent: 01 December 2010 18:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Costs of Sales
Dear Nick,
I think you might have misread my comment, which wouldn't be hard as I
didn't explain it.
Firstly regarding prejudice. I don't have any particular beef against
the roles of those who work responsibly in banking and finance on
whatever scale. However, I do take issue with those who wish to advise
cultural organisations on their commercial activities, as if there is
just one way or worse a 'model' that can be applied.
What you quoted from the international financier was "Investment banks
and commercial investors would be sceptical of investing in
Digitisation of cultural heritage as a commercial proposition."
What I meant with my terse comment was, does it really take someone
like that to tell us something most of us already know? Many of us
know that the way in which commercial investments are usually made, on
the basis of returns for investment over a fixed period of time
_cannot_ work, particularly regarding digital assets. It is the wrong
way of looking at things. It is the wrong way of commercialising
cultural activities (or parts thereof).
This isn't at all the same as suggesting that the dichotomy between
the cultural value and monetary value of museum/cultural activities is
too broad a gulf to bridge. What there is a lack of is creativity and
imagination in enterprise. Instinctively we know without seeing the
figures that the costs of digitisation far outweigh the income that
could be generated from sales of rights and reproductions. But decent
merchanising and marketing based on digital assets _could_ definitely
be a good money-earner, for example. Good museum shops are like good
museum cafes and tea rooms, they are a resource in themselves for
visitors and local communities and I wish many buyers used more of
their imagination to merchandise according to their collections as
there is certainly a demand.
Memory institution is an absolutely appalling term, however much it is
used (and by whoever). It is also inaccurate.
All the best,
Tehmina
On 30 November 2010 22:11, J DAVIS <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Now *that's* an interesting idea, Richard! ;-)
>
> --- On Tue, 30/11/10, Richard Light <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> From: Richard Light <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: Costs of Sales
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Date: Tuesday, 30 November, 2010, 17:41
>> In message <[log in to unmask]>,
>> J DAVIS <[log in to unmask]>
>> writes
>>
>> The financiers do not have all the answers. If they did,
>> the question financing public culture would have been sorted
>> out by now.
>>
>> I thought it was the question of financing our financial
>> system which is being worked on right now? (This week,
>> Ireland ...)
>>
>> Maybe there is a lesson there for us: if we can persuade
>> the world that "museums can't be allowed to fail", then we
>> could screw things up royally and just wait to be bailed
>> out.
>>
>> Richard
>>
>> -- Richard Light
>>
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>
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--
Dr Tehmina Goskar, MA AMA
[log in to unmask]
http://tehmina.goskar.com/
Research Officer: ESRC History, Heritage, and Urban Regeneration: The
Global and Local Worlds of Welsh Copper
History & Classics
University of Swansea
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