Hello
I think there is definitely mileage in supporting the cultural sector
to play the value chain, and your explanation is really helpful to
people like me whose education and professional development in the
sector have completely skirted business economics (apart from the
basics of adding up budgets and making sure you don't overspend).
My proviso is that in assessing 'likely return' you have to include
returns that are not immediate in market-based financial terms. For
example, if your data on sustainable plants can help people survive a
famine, or if your digitisation of the archive of a spiritual leader
of a displaced people would help them advocate their rights. If Social
and Biosphere capital can be woven into that value chain, you really
have the makings of a great model. I've put more thoughts on this in a
blogpost, if you have the time for it:
http://bridgetmckenzie.wordpress.com/2010/12/02/digital-culture-monetisation-and-value/
I'm not sure who sparked this whole thing off but it's really interesting.
Bridget
Quoting Nick Poole <[log in to unmask]>:
> Dear Tehmina,
>
> You've revealed stage 2 of the Cunning Plan (TM)! The idea is very
> much to set up a service which can help museums, archives and
> libraries incubate income streams, and then share the resulting
> practices and models with the wider community. I'm absolutely with
> you on the subject of shelfware, and actually much of the most
> useful knowledge comes from a 1999/2000 publication and conference
> on 'Income Generation in Museums' organised by the Museums &
> Galleries Commission - it's important to look at the whole of the
> value chain, and to take an overview of all of the potential assets
> of the museum and then to prioritise commercial activity on the
> basis of likely return (and minimising upfront capital costs).
>
> I'd really welcome thoughts from the list as to whether this is a
> viable concept - we're having to prioritise in the same way as
> everyone else, and we have some useful resources coming through on
> making the transition to Charitable Trust status, but we'd like to
> know whether a 'Cultural Enterprise Support' function would go down
> well?
>
> Any and all comments most welcome!
>
> Nick
>
> Nick Poole
> Chief Executive
> Collections Trust
>
> Telephone: +44 (0)207 022 1889
> Mobile: +44 (0) 7764 677 459
>
> Website:
>
> http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk
> http://www.collectionslink.org.uk
> http://www.culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk
> http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museums Computer Group on behalf of Tehmina Goskar
> Sent: Thu 02/12/2010 13:06
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Costs of Sales
>
> Dear Nick,
>
> Thank you for your reply. I'm sure the info on digital supply models
> will make interesting reading.
>
> However, if there was some way of turning that study into an actual
> scheme that would show the proof of the pudding to others it could be
> one of the most useful things that Collections Trust could do at this
> current time. Invite applications from actual museums or heritage
> centres or cultural institutions, or whoever, who do not already run
> their own enterprises to work with you and your partners to turn some
> of their cultural activities and assets (including ecommerce, venues
> and services) into sustainable profit-making ones. Then make these
> institutions mentors for others.
>
> I fear that another study on the shelf of a museum manager or
> equivalent will otherwise go to waste as so many are fully occupied
> with firefighting to keep the doors open. No matter the wisdom of
> advice and models, it just won't happen without a helping hand, and so
> no amount of success in getting the EC to commission these studies
> will actually transfer into a meaningful reality unless a practical
> outcome is enshrined in your aims, that you and your partners commit
> to assisting. This should be for the benefit of European cultural and
> heritage organisations, not the Commission itself.
>
> I haven't seen an overly large pencil in years in the UK, they still
> seem to be a favourite overseas. Bring back the large pencil and the
> large pencil case made to look like an overly large pencil.
>
> All the best,
> Tehmina
>
>
>
>
>
> On 1 December 2010 21:00, Nick Poole <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 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
>> Chief Executive
>> Collections Trust
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Tel: 0207 022 1889
>> OpenCulture 2011
>> UK and international Collections Management Trade Fair and Conference
>> Manchester, 7th & 8th June 2011.
>> Register online at http://www.openculture2011.org.uk
>>
>> http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk
>> http://www.collectionslink.org.uk
>> http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk
>>
>> Follow us on Twitter: @collectiontrust
>> Follow me on Twitter: @nickpoole1
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>>
>> Company Registration No: 1300565
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>> Building, No1 London Bridge, London SE1 9BG
>>
>>
>> -----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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>>
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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
>
> ****************************************************************
> For mcg information visit the mcg website at
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> To manage your subscription to this email list visit
> http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
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>
>
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> To manage your subscription to this email list visit
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