Thanks Tehima. I'm interested in your comment about TV, film, etc - and
why you think their impact can be felt before being measured? How so?
Is this not the same for culture and the arts?
I agree that there is not enough investigation into use of digitised
cultural heritage - we're working on it here at UCLDH! - but in the
meantime, I can recommend Lorna Hughes' latest book (2012, just out):
"Evaluating and Measuring the Value, Use and Impact of Digital
Collections". http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=7203 for a
current roundup of method, issues and problems.
I was thinking about the comparison for physical versus digital visitors
again. For me, I think the comparison gives a barometer of what would be
a goodly amount of digital visitors. In a world where there are over 2
billion people online, how many visitors to a website is "good" or
"enough"? Of course, you can never say - but if we can say "this is how
many physical visitors there are to an institution" then it gives a kind
of rule of thumb of the level of interest in its holdings IRL? Can we
use that to say "yes, this website is doing really well!" in comparison?
Would that be even fair?
m
On 08/03/2012 12:04, Tehmina Goskar wrote:
> Dear Melissa and all,
>
> I think the key word here is 'use'. You are absolutely right, the potential
> for current and future digitised cultural heritage content available freely
> online should absolutely be one of the precursors for a more rapid roll out
> of superfast broadband, particularly in rural and more remote areas of the
> country.
>
> However, I cannot see how visitor stats will ever successfully demonstrate
> actual use when are are competing with film, TV and retail whose impact can
> be felt before it is even measured.
>
> Who is collecting data related to the use and repurposing of digital
> cultural information in the form of learning resources, apps, gallery-based
> applications, teacher's packs, skills training, collaborative projects,
> e.g. with the Wikimedia Foundation etc?
>
> There is a fair bit of this going on but as far as I can tell (and I
> haven't looked very hard) it is hard to gauge and measure this usage to
> make ballpark visitor stats meaningful.
>
> If the digital cultural heritage sector as a whole (if it is a whole) is to
> make its voice heard there needs to be a coordinated attempt at gathering
> the qualitative data too, and not just from the nationals that DCMS is
> concerned with. There are so many online resources that contain incredible
> information but may be/are poorly exploited, Culture Grid, regionally-based
> digitisation projects that still exist from the NOF era, high-capital
> university-based digital projects, an array of aggregating projects that
> have disappeared, new projects like Europeana, and more.
>
> To extend this discussion further, the problems of reuse caused by
> institutional territorialism and copyright fears (and the pressure many
> organisations are under to use their digital assets for income generation
> even if it isn't profitable) have created real barriers to people who are
> ready, willing and able to use digital resources in new and innovative
> ways, but are put off by the sluggishness and lack of cooperation of from
> organisations who can be suspicious of letting go of ultimate control over
> 'their' information (especially in my experience the publicly-funded ones).
>
> That statement is deliberately provocative because there are several
> examples where this isn't true and where instituions such as museums have
> worked brilliantly well with tech companies, businesses, educational
> bodies, authors, artists and individuals for mutual benefit and have really
> taken the idea of not just producing digitised resources but their use with
> purpose to heart.
>
> I don't think this scenario is anywhere near the norm, though. And if it
> was, there would be a fantastic case, and one more easily made, to be made
> to the House of Lords for taking account of digital cultural heritage near
> the top of their agenda.
>
> You have compelled me to write my written evidence for the enquiry--perhaps
> others who have long and short term views on this might think of doing
> likewise?
>
> All the best,
> Tehmina
>
>
--
Melissa M. Terras MA MSc DPhil CLTHE CITP FHEA
Co-Director, UCL Centre for Digital Humanities
Reader in Electronic Communication
Department of Information Studies
Foster Court
University College London
Gower Street
WC1E 6BT
Tel: 020-7679-7206 (direct), 020-7679-7204 (dept), 020-7383-0557 (fax)
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/infostudies/melissa-terras/
Blog: http://melissaterras.blogspot.com/
General Editor, Digital Humanities Quarterly: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/
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