The document summarizes the digital transformation of the Imperial War Museums (IWM) over several years. When Carolyn Royston joined in 2009, IWM had no digital strategy or department. She established a Digital Media department and roadmap to raise IWM's digital profile through projects like a new website and social media presence. Staff were consulted and buy-in was gained. The strategy evolved over time and new challenges addressed, like developing staff digital skills through initiatives like a "Computer Club." Digital is now integrated across IWM's operations and audiences are increasingly accessed digitally.

1. Delivering a digital strategy - IWM’s
story
7 June 2013
Carolyn Royston
Head of Digital Media
Imperial War Museums
@caro_ft

2. • 5 locations
• 600 staff
• 2.3 million visitors to our sites per year
• One of the biggest national museums
About the museum

8. • Oldest film archive in the UK
• Second largest sound archive after the BBC
• Over 11 million photographs
• Second largest 20th
Century art collection in the UK after Tate
• Millions of documents, diaries, papers
• Over 140,000 large objects
IWM Collection

9. • No Digital Media department
• No investment in digital
• Old website and separate collections online no longer fit for
purpose
• Little social media presence or relationships with 3rd parties
• Very complex IP and copyright issues
• Lack of co-ordinated approach or strategy to managing digital
rights
• Extremely risk-adverse in approach to collections and digital
space
When I joined in 2009

10. iwm.org.uk
iwmcollections.org.uk
iwmshop.org.uk
2009

11. • Establish a department
• Try to work in news ways suited to digital development
• Deliver some key priority projects on time and to budget
• Raise the digital agenda
• Not fail!
2009 – key challenges

12. • Department is growing
• Responsible for all public facing digital outputs
across 5 sites:
•Website and collections search
•In-gallery multimedia
•Mobile
•Social media
•Strategic digital partnerships with 3rd
parties
‘Digital is our most important channel going forward’ –
Director, November 2012
Digital Media department today

13. How did we make change happen?

14. • New department with new ideas and ways of doing things
• Significant corporate projects to deliver
• Involve staff throughout and be transparent about our process
• Open up thinking about what was possible
• Audience focussed
• We’re all in it together
Our approach

15. Where do you start?

16. 1. Knowledge gathering
• what digital projects are
happening around the
organisation?
• where are they happening?
• who is working on them?
• how have they been funded?
© IWM (C 1079)

17. 2. Create a roadmap
• Aims and goals
• Priorities
• Resources needed
• Budget
• Timescale
• SMT sign off
© IWM (SE 2955)

18. 3. Involve organisation
• Raise digital agenda
• Make yourself visible
• Open up thinking
• Find out what staff know
about digital
• Demonstrate leadership
© IWM (Q55176)

19. Staff wanted our online visitors to
know about the amazing range and
quality of the collection
•To be able to showcase their work
and expertise
•Create a dialogue with our
audiences
We discovered there was huge
engagement and interest in new
website project and digital across
museum.
4. Consultations with staff
© IWM (H 39089)

20. • Wanted to open up the collections – 250,000 more objects
available
• Let’s display warts and all – move away from perfection
• Be more permissive and courageous with our copyright position
• Move from risk-adverse to risk-aware
And there was more…

21. • I was able to publish a strategy
• At the heart was aspiration to open up our collections and
encourage active participation with our audiences
• Given a mandate from staff and Senior Management – had
organisational buy-in
After all that….

22. Moving from theory to practice:
© IWM (TR134)

31. Built up our social media presence

32. Facebook

33. • User engagement can strengthen our collection
Facebook

37. • Opportunity to reach out to different audiences
• Piggyback on other people’s technologies
• Use our collections in different ways and with different tools
• How can we maximise the use and effectiveness of the IWM
brand in digital spaces
• Chance to be more entrepreneurial and find partners that can
add value
And built strategic partnerships

46. • IWM moved from risk-adverse to risk-aware – this has opened
up the organisation’s thinking about digital possibilities
• IP and copyright has become more permissive
• Introduced processes to manage risk so we can be more
entrepreneurial and risk-taking
• Busted myths – e.g. about collection sales and post-moderated
comments
• Ongoing advocacy so organisation can see benefits of digital
activity
By end of 2012:

47. The work never ends

48. • Museum continuing to transform into digital organisation
• Digital as part of a wider public engagement agenda
• New digital posts appearing across the organisation – digital
learning
• Technical infrastructure in place
• Maturity on social media channels
• Back to consultations to work out new ways of working
• Update on digital strategy document to reflect change from
2010
Keep evolving

49. Digital activity increasing across the organisation
•How does this affect the way we plan and programme work?
•How do we develop the skills and confidence of staff to transform
digital capability in the organisation?
•How do we embed digital instinctively in our work?
In 2013 – new key challenges

50. • Digital part of everything we do - this is only going to get bigger
• Our audiences are increasingly digital and want to access our
content and services wherever they are, when they like and on
the device(s) of their choice
• Financial pressure is growing and we need to work in more
efficient and agile ways – digital can help us with this
• Potential for new forms of engagement and open up new
audiences, new products, new opportunities
Why is this important?

51. 1. Develop digital capability of staff – promote digital leadership
2. Deliver a number of transformational projects
3. Transform the role of Digital Media
4. Work towards greater integration with other technical teams
New strategy focusses on four key areas:

52. • We have identified the transformational projects for 2013/14
• Digital Media dept is starting to work in new ways with project
teams across museum
• New museum-wide initiative to excite staff about digital has
been launched
Today

53. Computer Club

54. • A new, informal place to develop digital skills
• Monthly lunchtime sessions
• A place to experiment, get excited about digital
• Launched in May
• Everyone in museum is welcome
Computer Club

55. 1. Learning to use Twitter
2. Games and gesture control – playing with the Xbox
3. Blogging, Wordpress, Tumblr and Pinterest
4. Using tablets, apps – difference between android and iOS
5. Facebook – set up, privacy settings, liking, commenting,
tagging
6. Make a movie on an iPad and upload to YouTube
Staff will help us decide on the next 6….
First six sessions

56. There are badges!

57. Gill Smith @gillsmith2000
28 May
@caro_ft @IWM_CC Thanks to
you all for getting this going.
Wearing my sticker with
pride!
@charliekeitch: Fully qualified to
tweet, thanks to my first badge
from #museumcomputerclub

58. The last word
• Digital strategy can act as a catalyst for change
• It provides a vision, a framework and a way of working
• It provides an incentive to deliver on time and to budget
• It has been a springboard for digital development within IWM
and a driver for positive change
• It is evolving and iterative
• It’s possible whatever the size of your organisation!

59. Contact details:
Carolyn Royston
croyston@iwm.org.uk
@caro_ft
Thank you