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Jon (and Mia), Thanks for this useful prompt. You are talking about an advocacy campaign which takes a basic principle (that cultural institutions should have a responsibility to make their data publicly and freely available on the network) and articulates it in terms of the benefits to specific target groups. It would be a worthwhile exercise to consider who those groups are and the mechanisms by which they can be influenced: - There is a local case to be made in every single museum, and this case requires bringing the management, the Authority/funder AND curatorial colleagues on board. This usually involves demonstrating how online delivery and participation in large-scale services like Europeana can deliver against local or immediate concerns and KPIs (viz Dylan's earlier point); - There is a regional case to be made for a FAR better-coordinated digital offering within the Hub context (although I have some concerns about pinning actual infrastructure on the Hubs when they are currently only a medium-term proposition); - There is a national case to be made to sector organisations such as MLA and DCMS for sustained, longitudinal investment in digital programmes. Almost all digital activity to date has been seed-funded, and we all know how difficult it is to monetise a new digital project independently within 3 years of development; - There is a broader case to be made within UK Government (ie. DCSF, DIUS, UK Intellectual Property Office) and Europe that not only CAN we develop these systems, we MUST - because the future prosperity of the sector depends on it. It has to be said that the fundamental argument - that releasing data into the network leads to downstream secondary benefits which outweigh the scope for upstream transactional value - is far from made, even though it is becoming axiomatic in our community. It still looks like an awfully big risk to most managers schooled in the traditional ways of sales and marketing. The MCG can't hope to cover off all of these angles in a sustained way - proper advocacy requires money and time. But by working with organisations such as Collections Trust, Culture24 and soon Digital Access Scotland to establish some common themes and messages, we can turn it into a much more vocal lobby. Collections Trust, Culture24 and UKOLN are currently working with the MLA on their Digital Strategy, and one of the interesting corollaries of that process is seeing exactly how remote digital delivery is from mechanisms such as the Museums Accreditation Scheme and Renaissance. I would suggest that this was a prime place to start. 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 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 Jon Pratty Sent: 11 July 2008 18:42 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Who do we need to talk to? Was: Let's crowdsource... Mia wrote: "Who do we need to talk to, and how do we organise that conversation?" Clearly, from this positive and engaged discussion, there's lots of willingness within MCG circles to move on with the machine readable internet. Equally clearly there's a deal of frustration within our ranks about how we get to the next level of development institutionally and strategically. I'd suggest this is exactly the sort of advocacy task that the MCG should take on in the future. We need to position ourselves as independent, informed, but passionate about the need to take the best of the new technologies, from inside and outside the sector, (as Nick perfectly illustrates with his point about datasets and measuring traffic) and really help things to move on. Clearly the other professional sector associations like the MA (and GEM) lack the necessary technical understanding of new media issues and opportunities; but MCG can be an expert advisory group that helps guide decision makers in the right direction. We also must make sure these ideas get heard at the right level within MCG. Within the MCG committee we're right now putting together the next stage of our organisational evaluation and we feel strongly that this next phase of activity should not take too long. I'd urge any MCG members with ideas for MCG development to email them to Ross Parry or myself, and we'll make sure they are discussed and factored into the evaluation. Things will be coming together very quickly in time for the Autumn MCG AGM at the LT Museum - so do keep those feedback emails coming in, they are indeed being read and factored in. All the best Jon Pratty MCG Committee Editor 24 Hour Museum -----Original Message----- From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ridge, Mia Sent: 11 July 2008 18:02 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Let's crowdsource an idea for Showusabetterway? Nick Poole wrote: > What it has done is throw into sharp relief the slightly embarrassing > fact that most public sectors can get together and publish a coherent > collective dataset, but we can't. > Whatever the technical solutions and possibilities, we are going to > have to find a way of shifting this discourse out of the tech-world > and into the head of managers, politicians and funders. The last MCG conference was a good case in point. Everyone in the room has a good idea of what we need to do, we might even argue we have a responsibility to open up our collections for cross-sector searching and for a virtuous circle of engagement with our audiences. It's lovely that we all agree, even if we quibble over the details, but warm fuzzy feelings don't translate into action. How many curators, managers, directors, CEOs were in that room? How many of us went back to our institutions and discussed it with the people who should have been in that room but weren't? Did any of us manage to convince someone higher up to push for change in the metrics by which we're judged? Do our directors even know we think the metrics should be changed? Who do we need to talk to, and how do we organise that conversation? Can we look outside the sector to other public sectors that have managed to make that transition? More immediately, is there any reason why we can't use the MCG list/site to share success stories, and the lessons learnt from the failed projects? cheers, Mia Mia Ridge Database Developer, Museum Systems Team Museum of London Group 46 Eagle Wharf Road London. N1 7ED Tel: 020 7410 2205 / 020 7814 5723 Fax: 020 7600 1058 Email: [log in to unmask] www.museumoflondon.org.uk Museum of London is changing. Visit www.museumoflondon.org.uk to find out more. 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