Dear Bridget,
Many thanks for this. I have read the critique of the approach, and
wholeheartedly agree with it.
I recently had an opportunity to ask two Baronesses whether, given the
choice, they would choose evidence or influence as the most important
thing in fighting for the interests of the UK's museums. Both answered
without hesitation that evidence without influence is worthless, and
that all of the value and impact models for culture & arts-sector
funding will not achieve our aim unless we have passionate and
influential champions willing to make our case in Parliament and the
House of Lords.
It is notable that all of the major periods of prosperity for our sector
(including the major programmes of investment in ICT and digitisation)
have coincided with the presence in office of a small number of
influential champions - people like Chris Smith, who argued convincingly
for the investment in Renaissance in the Regions.
Given this Government's twin aims of shrinking the public sector and
promoting Open Government there is a very strong argument to say that
what we should really, really be doing as a community right now, with
the support of the Arts Council, is identifying the Government's
'digital' leaders (people like Tim Berners-Lee, the Open Data Institute,
Chris Yiu and Chris Lockwood) and inspiring them with an understanding
of what the UK's museums can offer in terms of content, open data and
innovation.
If influence trumps evidence, then I would argue we could save ourselves
the time and effort of putting together economic impact indicators &
Cultural Value projects and instead do what museums have always done
best, which is to make things that inspire people - which is exactly
what I have always found most valuable about the Museums Computer Group!
All best,
Nick
Nick Poole
Chief Executive Officer
Collections Trust
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-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Bridget McKenzie
Sent: 26 November 2013 11:21
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MCG] What will this mean for museums?
Thanks Nick for this response. I hope others found that helpful.
I agree that a crucial aspect is the need for a sea change in our view
of value.
There is a lot of work going on by ACE, AHRC, RSA and NESTA about
Cultural Value, and wonder how this work is helping us address questions
of value of cultural assets in a digital age. One report you might not
have seen out there is Towards Plan A: State of the Arts. I like this
critique of it here
http://new.a-n.co.uk/news/single/towards-plan-b-a-different-approach-to-
arts-funding/
Thanks again
Bridget
Quoting Nick Poole <[log in to unmask]>:
> Hi Bridget,
>
> Not sure about clever, but I'll give this a go.
>
> As both computation and data become more decentralised and
> distributed, everyone becomes a service for everyone else. My sense
> from what Wolfram Alpha is saying in the post is that in the long
> term, the kinds of computational capability which are currently best
> experienced through their platform will in future be better
> experienced through countless other platforms which make use of their
> capabilities, effectively as source code.
>
> For me, this model (which as Michael points out is really a rebrand of
> cloud computation) raises two opportunities for museums - which I'll
> characterise as read/write.
>
> On the read side, my personal view is that we will be able to treat
> the world of cloud computation and the linked open data that runs
> across it kind of like a utility. Hence if we've got heavy-duty
> applications to run, or we have a body of collections information
> which requires a lot of contextualisation, we will be able to draw on
> the linked open data cloud to help us crunch.
>
> On the write side, we have a hell of a lot of data which could equally
> provide a useful utility for other consumers. If we make collections
> information massively open - so that it can flow across any platform
> that happens to be providing this kind of computation - the we could
> find ourselves with a new kind of relevance to other industries.
>
> As things stand at the moment, I think museums are starting to see the
> value of the consumption of what things like a distributed Wolfram
> Alpha is offering, but we are a long way from seeing the value of
> writing to it. The argument I'm trying to make is that a successful
> museum in 2020 will have massively distributed its collections data to
> take advantage of these developments but we're having to take small
> steps toward that aim!
>
> Particularly, we need to have some kind of sea-change in our view of
> value. To over-extend the utility metaphor if you are providing
> electricity into a grid, the end-user doesn't much care which bit of
> electricity is yours and which comes from Powergen. Similarly, if we
> write collections data into the Wolfram Alpha model, then the end-user
> of their computational heft won't (potentially) care that it's our
> data. I'm not sure how comfortable we can get with that, or how
> quickly.
>
> Equally, I may have completely and utterly failed to grasp what
> they're talking about!
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> Nick Poole
> Chief Executive
> Collections Trust
>
> Tel: 020 7942 6080
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> LinkedIn
> Join CT's Collections Management Group
>
> Visit Collections Trust online
> www.collectionstrust.org.uk
> www.collectionslink.org.uk
> www.culturegrid.org.uk
>
> Company Registration No: 1300565 Registered Charity No: 273984
> Registered Office: Collections Trust, WC 209, Natural History Museum,
> Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD
>
>> On 21 Nov 2013, at 14:04, "Bridget McKenzie"
>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Clever people, what do you think this will mean for museums?
>>
>> Big new thing coming from Wolfram Alpha
>> http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2013/11/something-very-big-is-coming-o
>> ur-most-important-technology-project-yet/
>>
>> He says:
>> "inside the Wolfram Language we have a whole computable model of the
>> world. And it becomes trivial to write a program that makes use of
>> the latest stock price, computes the next high tide, generates a
>> street map, shows an image of a type of airplane, or a zillion other
>> things."
>> And it will lead to...
>> "There?ll be the Wolfram Programming Cloud, that allows one to create
>> Wolfram Language programs, then instantly deploy them in the cloud
>> through an instant API, or a form-based app, or whatever. Or deploy
>> them in a private cloud, or, for example, through a Function Call
>> Interface, deploy them standalone in desktop programs and embedded
>> systems. And have a way to go from an idea to a fully deployed
>> realization in an absurdly short time.
>> There?ll be the Wolfram Data Science Platform, that allows one to
>> connect to all sorts of data sources, then use the kind of automation
>> seen in Wolfram|Alpha Pro, then pick out and modify Wolfram Language
>> programs to do data science?and then use CDF to set up reports to
>> generate automatically, on a schedule, through an API, or whatever.
>> There?ll be the Wolfram Publishing Platform that lets you create
>> documents, then insert interactive elements using the Wolfram
>> Language and its free-form linguistics?and then deploy the documents,
>> on the web using technologies like CloudCDF, that instantly support
>> interactivity in any web browser, or on mobile using the Wolfram
>> Cloud App.
>> Yours in bafflement
>> Bridget
>>
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