Hi Janet,
The answer is, I'm afraid that there are too many projects, and possibly not enough critical judgement in the funding process. Most of these projects have been funded on a largely exploratory basis, and too little thought and investment has gone into the organisational and strategic context in which they will sit.
The result, in my experience, is good work which lacks the surrounding infrastructure to make the transition from project to service. These developments are still regarded as incidental to the core mission of most of their organisations, many of whom will only have got involved in the project in the first place in the hope that it will release some useful funds and generate some political credibility.
This is a critical and central problem of trying to engineer lasting development using project funding. The funder's ambition is to deliver work which contributes towards a central strategic objective. The organisation's ambition is to secure money to do work which contributes to their own objectives, based on their knowledge of their audiences and collections. Whether the two sets of priorities coincide is a very hit and miss affair and 'smart' funders like the JISC Digitisation programme, which aim to provide investment to support organisations in achieving both sets of outcomes, are relatively few and far between.
Could 'Every Object Tells a Story...' have evolved to be the basis of a national collaborative online museum? Possibly. But for it to have done so would have required a sustained strategic commitment and investment. Making this ongoing commitment would have required 5 other projects elsewhere to be turned down (all of which, incidentally, might also deliver something amazing).
I very much hope that in the next few years we will move towards a tiered funding structure which aims both to seed-fund innovative exploratory work and to incubate the best products and services via sustained investment.
All best,
Nick
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of J DAVIS
Sent: 08 May 2009 14:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 'Every Object Tells a Story'
The 'stories' varied a lot: remembrances triggered by objects, memories of specific objects, stories inspired by objects...when I was invited to contribute as part of the 1st phase, the brief was to tell a story that made a personal connection with an object. It was about how people connect with objects and 'own' them.
It is dispiriting and frustrating to those of us who work on such projects to see them vanish within such a short time. It is such a waste of our time, skills and effort as well as of public money. Why can't we build upon such things? 'Every Object...' had the basis of a virtual people's museum, bringing together a wonderful selection of things from all over the country and alternative interpretations/associations that really demonstrated different ways of looking at and appreciating our cultural inheritance.
Janet E Davis
...
> The British Library's Web Archive project seems to have
> archived two
> snapshots of the site here:
> http://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/target/129046.
>
>
> It seems to work pretty well, though of course the social
> features don't
> work any more.
>
> This is my favourite bit of contributed content so far:
> http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20060702233331/http://www.everyobject.net/storya8cf.html
>
>
> I've not done a comprehensive study of this archived
> snapshot (which is
> dated to 2nd July 2006), but it appears from a quick review
> that a lot of
> the stories contributed are of a fictional/creative writing
> bent, rather
> than a more factual 'remembrance' style. I wonder
> if that was intended, or
> an unexpected consequence of using the word 'story'
> in the site's name.
>
> This is a lovely story by a V&A curator of their first
> acquisition (in
> 1984):
> http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20060702233331/http://www.everyobject.net/storye20e.html
>
> Frankie
>
> --
> Frankie Roberto
> Experience Designer, Rattle
> 0114 2706977
> http://www.rattlecentral.com
>
> Sent from Sheffield, United Kingdom
>
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