The Digital Agenda in Museums 2013

The Digital Agenda in Museums
June 2013

Further info
here
Further info
here
www.collectionslink.org.uk/sustaining-digital

Current ideas and trends
1. Changing demand for museum services
2. Digital Strategy
3. Digital Benchmarking
4. SPECTRUM is your friend!
5. Create Once, Publish Everywhere
6. Digital promiscuity(!)
7. Metrics and evaluation
8. The UK funding picture
9. Mobile, social & responsive
10. Cloud
11. Public-access wifi

Changing demand
BBC Research into participation in digital media, May 2012

Changing demand
91% of teachers use technology in the classroom
60% increase in mobile devices in the classroom/on campus in 2013
86% of students believe they study better with tablet devices….

(Digital) Strategy
• The majority of museums are moving away from Digital strategy towards
embedding digital into broader organisational strategy including:
– Strategic Planning
– Marketing & audience development
– Learning & outreach
– Collections development/management
– Fundraising/income generation
– Content publishing
• The key principle is integration – digital is neither different nor separate
and is only sustainable in the context of your museum’s broader strategic
development

From ‘access’ to ‘engagement’
http://www.digitalengagementframework.com/

Digital Benchmarking = understanding where you are and
planning strategically for where you want to go

Going on a journey (sorry)
Get startedGet started Find where you
are
Find where you
are Quick WinsQuick Wins Promote
yourself online
Promote
yourself online
Open up
collections
online
Open up
collections
online
Create great
content
Create great
content
Think about
Systems
Think about
Systems
Generate
income
Generate
income
Go socialGo social
Embrace
Participation &
Engagement
Embrace
Participation &
Engagement
Manage Digital
Assets
Manage Digital
Assets
Sort out Digital
Copyright
Sort out Digital
Copyright
Measure
Success
Measure
Success
Create
Sustainable
Digital Content
Create
Sustainable
Digital Content
Grapple with
the Technical
Stuff
Grapple with
the Technical
Stuff
Plan for the
Future!
Plan for the
Future!

Digital Benchmarks
• A simple diagnostic tool
• Mapping progress
• Celebrating success
• Planning development
• An integrated approach

Digital Benchmark “Range Statements”
Strategy
Level Description
0 • The organisation has no strategic plan or statement of mission or purpose *
1 • The organisation has a strategic plan or mission which does not reference engagement
through technology
2 • The organisation has a strategic plan, which includes projects and programmes, some of
which make use of technology.
• Digital is not fully integrated into the strategy, which is not regularly reviewed.
3 • The organisation has a strategic plan, which includes projects and programmes, some of
which make use of technology.
• Digital is integrated into the strategy, which is regularly reviewed.
4 • The organisation has a strategic plan/mission in place which references the use of digital
technologies to support core delivery, or it has a separate (but connected) digital strategy
in place.
• There is at least one digital champion within the senior management of the organisation.
• The strategic plan is regularly reviewed and updated.
5 • The organisation has a strategic plan/mission in place which integrates the use of digital
technologies to support core delivery.
• The digital elements of the plan are owned and championed at a senior (Board &
management) level and supported by appropriate budgets.
• Digital technologies are embedded across all teams/departments of the organisation.
• Digital delivery and engagement through technology are embedded within the
organisation’s performance framework.
• The strategic plan is regularly reviewed and updated.

What do people want from your collections online?

What people want from online collections…
18
CONTENT
METADATA
A BIT A LOT

19
CONTENT
METADATA
A BIT A LOT
FUN

20
CONTENT
METADATA
A BIT A LOT
FUN
RESEARCH

21
CONTENT
METADATA
A BIT A LOT
FUN
RESEARCH
LEARNING
OUTREACH

22
CONTENT
METADATA
A BIT A LOT
FUN
RESEARCH
LEARNING
DATA MINING
COLLECTIONS
MANAGEMENT
AGGREGATION
OUTREACH

23
CONTENT
METADATA
A BIT A LOT
FUN
RESEARCH
LEARNING
DATA MINING
COLLECTIONS
MANAGEMENT
AGGREGATION
OUTREACH
Digitize relatively few things & invest in
depth, description & promotion

24
CONTENT
METADATA
A BIT A LOT
FUN
RESEARCH
LEARNING
DATA MINING
COLLECTIONS
MANAGEMENT
AGGREGATION
OUTREACH
Digitize relatively few things & invest in
depth, description & promotion
Digitize lots of things and put relatively
little effort into description & promotion

The good news is that browsing collections online accounts for 25-30% of
museum web traffic, can improve your search engine find-ability and tends to
have a significant impact on dwell times on your website.

What does the average museum content/collections
publishing setup look like?

Creation/
curation layer
Integration layer
Presentation
layer
Aggregation/
distribution layer

Creation/
curation layer
Integration layer
Presentation
layer
Aggregation/
distribution layer
CMS DAMSCollMS

Creation/
curation layer
Integration layer
Presentation
layer
Aggregation/
distribution layer
Integration
tools
CMS DAMSCollMS
API

Creation/
curation layer
Integration layer
Presentation
layer
Aggregation/
distribution layer
Integration
tools
CMS DAMSCollMS
API
Web SocialMobile Gallery

Creation/
curation layer
Integration layer
Presentation
layer
Aggregation/
distribution layer
Integration
tools
CMS DAMSCollMS
API
BBC GoogleWMUK Euro
Culture
Grid

Creation/
curation layer
Integration layer
Presentation
layer
Aggregation/
distribution layer
Integration
tools
CMS DAMSCollMS
API
BBC GoogleWMUK Euro
Culture
Grid
LOTS OF HAPPY USERS

Creation/
curation layer
Integration layer
Presentation
layer
Aggregation/
distribution layer
Integration
tools
CMS DAMSCollMS
API
BBC GoogleWMUK Euro
Culture
Grid
LOTS OF HAPPY USERS
The whole rest of the
world…

Creation/
curation layer
Integration layer
Presentation
layer
Aggregation/
distribution layer
Integration
tools
CMS DAMSCollMS
API
BBC GoogleWMUK Euro
Culture
Grid
LOTS OF HAPPY USERS
People will generate
and share new
knowledge about
your collections

The good news is that all of this stuff is a lot easier if your
practice is already based on SPECTRUM – there’s a clear line of
progression from SPECTRUM-based documentation to digital
engagement

BSI PAS 197 BSI PAS 198
ACCREDITATION BENCHMARKS
WORLDWIDE COMMUNITY (7,600)
COMPLIANCE
(23,000)
GUIDANCE
PDF/XML/PRINT
+ SCHEMA
NEW IDEAS

SPECTRUM Digital Asset Management
• Integrating the creation,
management, use and
improvement of Digital
Assets alongside your
physical collections
management
• Out now (free) on
Collections Link

SPECTRUM Digital Asset Management
Most museum management systems are evolving away from silos and towards
providing integrated or modular systems for managing the flow of information and
resources across the whole museum…

We have to stop doing things differently for each new project or
partnership, and start to develop digital content and services
that are scalable and futureproof. The strategic approach to this
is called ‘COPE’ (Create Once, Publish Everywhere)

How to COPE
• Try to break the cycle of lurching from one project to the next,
making ad-hoc decisions & hacking systems to get them ready in
time for launch(!)
• Work with your curator(s) to create content (stories and
pictures) that can travel across different platforms and websites
• Make content that other people can incorporate into their own
websites and online experiences

It’s not a question of ‘which digital platform/community should I
work with?’ – be digitally promiscuous, exploit all of them to
drive more people to your museum, your collections and your
shop

How
www.culturegrid.org.uk
Click on
this…

How
http://g-cultural-institute.appspot.com/signup and this

How
http://commons.wikimedia.org and this

Without some kind of structure for metrics and evaluation in
place, it can be very hard to see when you’re making progress.

How
Set up
analytics…
http://weareculture24.org.uk/lets-get-real-resources/

There are very few easily-accessible digital funding streams in
the UK. The main options are (a) to embed digital natively into
your funding proposals or (b) convince your museums to spend
core funds on digital…

UK Funding Programmes
• The new HLF funding framework (announced last year) permits
projects which focus on engagement/participation and which
use technology to support these outcomes
• The JISC and AHRC Digitisation funds are now closed
• Some small grantmaking trusts and foundations are still
supporting digitisation, but other than this most museums (87%
according to the ENUMERATE survey) are now funding
digitisation from core funds

Making money from digital
• Most people don’t pay for most pictures
• Where they do pay, it is for very specific iconic images for
commercial re-use
• Nobody makes money from running a picture library
• The 90/8/2 rule works (make 90% of the collection freely
available for people to share, look after the 8% you think might
have commercial potential and focus your licensing and
distribution on the 2% you know will generate revenue…)

The vast majority of your audience will be habitual
mobile/handheld users. All of your web publishing has to be
responsive (which means that it displays/works on mobile
platforms and gives the user an experience which responds to
their actions, including the ability to share with their social
community)…

Going on a journey (sorry again!)
Get startedGet started Find where you
are
Find where you
are Quick WinsQuick Wins Promote
yourself online
Promote
yourself online
Open up
collections
online
Open up
collections
online
Create great
content
Create great
content
Think about
Systems
Think about
Systems
Generate
income
Generate
income
Go socialGo social
Embrace
Participation &
Engagement
Embrace
Participation &
Engagement
Manage Digital
Assets
Manage Digital
Assets
Sort out Digital
Copyright
Sort out Digital
Copyright
Measure
Success
Measure
Success
Create
Sustainable
Digital Content
Create
Sustainable
Digital Content
Grapple with
the Technical
Stuff
Grapple with
the Technical
Stuff
Plan for the
Future!
Plan for the
Future!

An ever-increasing number of UK museums are ‘outsourcing’
their collections management IT & infrastructure by moving to
browser-based versions of their Collections Management, Web
Content and Digital Asset Management systems.
Collections Management Software as a Service and collections
data in the cloud provides secure, scalable and cost-effective
infrastructure for managing the growing body of museum
information & collections-related assets.
http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/is-now-the-time-for-collections-in-the-cloud/
Collections in the Cloud

The provision of Internet-connected terminals and public-access
wifi has had a transformative effect in Public Libraries, but has
had a difficult time in UK museums.
There are challenges to do with the nature of the buildings
museums are in, as well as establishing (and paying for) free
public wifi infrastructure.
Beyond this, there seems to be a sense that public access wifi is
a distraction from rather than an addition to the core museum
experience.
There is very little published research into this field currently
available.
Public access wifi

We’re hoping to turn this into a regularly-updated digest of
current trends, and we’re sure that there’s lots of stuff we have
missed.
What challenges are you working on in your museum that we
should know about?
Email us at nick@collectionstrust.org.uk to let us know!
What did we miss?

The Digital Agenda in Museums 2013

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