Mike, Jon et al,
Watching this thread with interest. The wonderful thing about licensing is
that it allows you to take one piece of content and publish it in many
different ways and under many different economic models.
CC has proved to be a pretty hopeless general model for museums because of
the amount of our content to which we either don't own the rights or for
which we have insufficient rights information (and hence over which we can't
apply a generic open license to).
Equally, aggregators such as Google Images, Flickr exist on the very edge of
the rights world - indeed, much of their business model depends on the
policy of 'post first, take down later'. The trade off is that they enjoy
such massive market share that it's probably worth any loss of direct
revenue because of the hugely enhanced potential for downstream revenue.
Museums exist in a weird economy. Technically, we are a public service, in
receipt of public funds to do a social good. Practically, there aren't
enough public funds coming into the sector to support the sustainable
development and preservation of collections (both physical and digital).
Hence we are compelled to commercialise a product which has previously
enjoyed a privileged dissociation from the need to make money (which is only
the same thing as is happening in education, in libraries etc etc).
As Mike says, I am increasingly encountering a generation of managers and
practitioners (for example through the Association for Cultural Enterprises
- http://www.acenterprises.org/) who are adept at making deals, but who are
equally capable of treading the fine balance which respects the core values
of what we do.
The REALLY important thing with open licensing is not to do anything which
precludes your own museum's ability to navigate this brave new world safely
and sustainably. We don't enjoy the same copyright exceptions as other
industries and we haven't made a connection with the UK Copyright Licensing
Agency as educational organisations, and hence life is a bit harder for us.
But all of these environments can be negotiated by taking an informed and
proactive approach to licensing - rather than simply adopting a 3rd-party
licensing framework like CC.
Nick
Nick Poole
Chief Executive
MDA
The Spectrum Building
The Michael Young Centre
Purbeck Road
Cambridge
CB2 2PD
Tel 01223 415 760
www.mda.org.uk
www.collectionslink.org.uk
www.culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ellis
Mike
Sent: 27 July 2007 08:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: E-commerce in Digital Images & Collections Online: Business
Evidence
Jon
While you're undoubtedly right that the landscape is changing (and possibly
right that CC is a threat to image library sales), it's worth pointing out
that the technologies provided by Google et al are massive opportunities at
traffic driving, rather than threats. If, for instance, 9% of Science Museum
website referrers at some points in time are coming from MySpace (sorry, I
know I keep banging on about this figure, but it is extraordinary..) - and
almost entirely from people "stealing" our images and embedding them
elsewhere, then this is a huge quantity of coverage from an audience which
previously didn't even exist. Audience masses = exposure = traffic and
eventually increased commerce.
The statement quoted by Guenter is painfully true and absolutely along the
lines I've experience in the sector. Museums don't *expect* to make money,
and historically have been terribly, terribly bad at doing it effectively.
Now, thankfully, we seem to be employing people who understand that cultural
products can very effectively and comfortably sit alongside "commercial"
products and that interest in one can drive traffic to the other.
<tangent>
In my first week at the Science Museum (7, ouch, years ago) - freshly
arrived from a commercial background working for Waterstone's Online - I
remember putting a ScienceMuseumStore product on our homepage. By the end of
the day I'd had 5 staff emailing or phoning and telling me this wasn't
appropriate...
Luckily we've moved on now and we're actually getting pretty good at
spotting these opportunities and making them relevant to our cultural
offering, but the remnants of those fears still exist
</tangent>
Jude, I'll forward your query on to our picture library and see if they've
got anything they can release to you or the list.
Cheers
Mike
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________________________________
From: Museums Computer Group on behalf of Jon Pratty
Sent: Thu 26/07/2007 10:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: E-commerce in Digital Images & Collections Online: Business
Evidence
This is a fascinating enquiry. Andy Sawyer's post highlighted the great
project that Debbie Richards and co conjured up in Leicester, detailed in a
readable account in the last but one MCG newsletter in case study form, as
well as that powerpoint Andy linked us to.
However, it's worth pointing out, I think, that we may need to update our
expectations and business models about image sale and re-use in the light of
the rise in use of image searching facilities by search engines like Google.
Surely Google image search has distorted the economic models we had
previously developed to make the case for sale of such digital items online?
Also, what influence do socially-minded IPR management systems (or
non-management systems) like Creative Commons have on the economics of
selling imagery online?
While funders (understandably) expect us to be thinking in terms of
developing new business models for cultural activity, web advances move the
economic goalposts all the time...
Jon
Jon Pratty
Editor
[log in to unmask]
01273 623336 (direct)
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Dicken, Jude
Sent: 26 July 2007 08:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: E-commerce in Digital Images & Collections Online: Business
Evidence
Hello,
Is recent evidence available which clearly demonstrates the power of
e-commerce in relation to the supply of digital images and other digital
resources through web collections online?
Of those museums/heritage organisations which are currently generating
income through the online sale of digital resources/prints on demand, have
any provided a statement on
- the level/scale of business
- average income generated
Apologies for the general nature of this enquiry but the supply of facts and
figures of this kind I think helps build a strong revenue and sustainability
argument for any collections online project.
(I'm happy to summarise findings for the list with the permission of
respondents.)
Many thanks,
Jude.
Jude Dicken (Miss)
Curator: Documentation Officer
Manx National Heritage
Kingswood Grove
Douglas, Isle of Man IM1 3LY
Tel: +44(0)1624 648000
Fax: +44(0)1624 648001
Website: www.gov.im/mnh <http://www.gov.im/mnh>
Isle of Man. Giving you freedom to flourish
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