Keynote for Wikimedia UK GLAM-WIKI conference, British Library, London, April 12, 2013.
https://uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM-WIKI_2013
Also presented at the National Museum, Denmark; Danish Broadcasting; Danskkulturarv.dk; the FIAT/IFTA conference; National Museum Congress, the Netherlands; Arts Council Norway annual conference; J. Boye, Copenhagen
Scope, scale, and speed are the focus of most of my work this year.
30. How you feel about this depends
On what you think your mission is
and how you think about scale.
But either way…
31. There’s a lot of room at the top
--Business proverb
How you feel about this depends
On what you think your mission is
and how you think about scale.
But either way…
32. “We won’t even consider a new project unless it
returns 10x better performance than the last one.”
33. Hypothetical Project X, starts where
the National Gallery of Art started,
grows at 10% a year for 33 years
47. 108.4 million viewers for 2013 Super Bowl
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mbk/2241960032/ (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
2013 super bowl: 108.4 million viewers. http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-super-bowl-ratings-20130204,0,4439351.story
48. 108.4 million viewers for 2013 Super Bowl
1,341,882,399 views of Gangnam Style
http://www.youtube.com/user/officialpsy
56. 23,000% increase in sales after
posting free, high quality clips
on YouTube.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1146469/youtube-monty-python-videos-boost-dvd-sales-23000 via Merete Sanderhoff (@msanderhoff)
74. “[Somebody who reads Wikipedia is] rather in the
position of a visitor to a public restroom. It may be
obviously dirty, so that he knows to exercise great
care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be
lulled into a false sense of security. What he certainly
does not know is who has used the facilities before
him.” Robert McHenry, a former editor-in-chief of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica
2006 (Attitudes have changed!
78. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/technology/internet/17maps.html
“’It is a huge shift,’” said Michael F. Goodchild, a
professor of geography at the University of California,
Santa Barbara. ‘This is putting mapping where it
should be, which is the hands of local people who
know an area well.’”
“That is changing the dynamics of an industry…”
83. “…it provides something increasingly rare
in today’s society: a platform for an
essentially noneconomic transaction, the
kind that builds friendships and
communities. Kickstarter…is baffling by
the tenets of a self-serving marketplace.”
84. “…it provides something increasingly rare
in today’s society: a platform for an
essentially noneconomic transaction, the
kind that builds friendships and
communities. Kickstarter…is baffling by
the tenets of a self-serving marketplace.”
There is an increasing amount of
“private space masquerading as public space”
John Palfrey, Harvard Berkman Center
Digital Public Library of America
87. http://europeana.eu/
“Scale is really at the heart of the
business model for Europeana”
Harry Verwayen
Business Development Director
Europeana
Over 20 million CC-0 Records
Over 2,400 content providers
97. “The people who are supposed
to be doing universal access
to knowledge, and are getting
$12b a year to do it, are not
getting the job done”
Brewster Kahle
109. ”A free, not-for-profit, multi-media web-
book designed as a dynamic enhancement
(or even substitute) for the traditional art
history textbook.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-
taylor/smarthistory_b_785154.html
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/
110. 512 videos
247 essays
6 million visits
Viewed in 200 countries
Tech budget of $700 + two laptops
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/
123. Scale has a Z axis
X
Y
ZThe Z axis, depth, is for
emotion and impact on
individuals.
OTHER KINDS OF SCALE
124. Scale has a Z axis
X
Y
ZThe Z axis, depth, is for
emotion and impact on
individuals.
It scales, not in quantities of
individuals served, but in how
deeply we affect them.
OTHER KINDS OF SCALE
129. AND MISSIONS CAN BE SHAPED
IN DRAMATIC NEW WAYS
THE Z AXIS
Can you deepen the experiences
of the people you already serve?
http://www.yongestreetmedia.ca/features/humanbooks1208.aspx
130. AND MISSIONS CAN BE SHAPED
IN DRAMATIC NEW WAYS
http://www.yongestreetmedia.ca/features/humanbooks1208.aspx
131. AND MISSIONS CAN BE SHAPED
IN DRAMATIC NEW WAYS
http://www.yongestreetmedia.ca/features/humanbooks1208.aspx
“The Toronto Public Library held its
first Human Library event at five
branches on Nov. 6, attracting
more than 200 users who checked
out the likes of a police officer, a
comedian, a sex-worker-turned-
club-owner, a model and a
survivor of cancer, homelessness
and poverty.”
132. SPECIAL KINDS OF SCALE
0 to 1
http://channelviewpublications.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/education-and-literacy-in-ethiopia/
133. SPECIAL KINDS OF SCALE
0 to 1
Going from the total
absence of something to
the basic presence of it
is its own kind of scale.
http://channelviewpublications.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/education-and-literacy-in-ethiopia/
134. Room to Read is a non-
profit that builds libraries
and schools in places
where literacy and
education are wanted,
but absent.
135. • 850 million people lack
basic literacy
(2/3 are women)
• 100 million primary age
kids are not in school.
UN Estimates via
http://books.google.com/books?isbn=006112
107X
136. Distributed 10 million books
Built 12,000 libraries
Built 3,200 schools
Since 1998 Room to Read has…
137. “There are no books for kids in some
languages, so we had to become a self-
publisher,” Wood explains. […]
Room to Read has, so far, published 591 titles
in languages including Khmer, Nepalese, Zulu,
Lao, Xhosa, Chhattisgarhi, Tharu, Tsonga,
Garhwali and Bundeli.
138. “In 20 years,” [founder John Wood] told me,
“I’d like to have 100,000 libraries, reaching
50 million kids.
139. “In 20 years,” [founder John Wood] told me,
“I’d like to have 100,000 libraries, reaching
50 million kids. Our 50-year goal is to
reverse the notion that any child can be told
‘you were born in the wrong place at the
wrong time and so you will not get
educated.’ That idea belongs on the
scrapheap of human history.”
142. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/10/uk-lost-200-libraries-2012
"Working men and women in the north-east have fought,
generation after generation, for the right to read and grow
intellectually, culturally and socially – to be as 'civilized' as
anyone else. It is a heritage that took decades and
decades to come to fruition but will be wiped out in a
moment. You are not only about to make philistines of
yourselves, but philistines of us all."
Billy Elliot playwright Lee Hall
144. Everything I am is based on this ugly building on its lonely lawn--lit
up during winter darkness; open in the slashing rain--which
allowed a girl so poor she didn't even own a purse to come in twice
a day and experience actual magic: traveling through time, making
contact with the dead--Dorothy Parker, Stella Gibbons, Charlotte
Brontë, Spike Milligan.
A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an
emergency exit, a life raft and a festival.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caitlin-moran/libraries-cathedrals-of-
o_b_2103362.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003&utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
145. No new libraries will be built to replace them. These libraries will be
lost forever.
And, in their place, we will have thousands more public spaces
where you are simply the money in your pocket, rather than the
hunger in your heart. Kids--poor kids--will never know the fabulous,
benign quirk of self-esteem of walking into "their" library and thinking,
"I have read 60 percent of the books in here. I am awesome."
Libraries that stayed open during the Blitz will be closed by budgets.
A trillion small doors closing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caitlin-moran/libraries-cathedrals-of-
o_b_2103362.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003&utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
146. No new libraries will be built to replace them. These libraries will be
lost forever.
And, in their place, we will have thousands more public spaces
where you are simply the money in your pocket, rather than the
hunger in your heart. Kids--poor kids--will never know the fabulous,
benign quirk of self-esteem of walking into "their" library and thinking,
"I have read 60 percent of the books in here. I am awesome."
Libraries that stayed open during the Blitz will be closed by budgets.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caitlin-moran/libraries-cathedrals-of-
o_b_2103362.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003&utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
154. PUT THE TOOLS OF KNOWLEDGE CREATION
INTO MORE HANDS
SHARE THE JOY AND MEANING OF ARTISTIC AND
CULTURAL EXPLORATION WITH MORE CITIZENS
NURTURE THE HABITS OF A CIVIL
AND SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY
DEEPEN ENGAGEMENT WITH THE CHALLENGES
THAT FACE OUR SPECIES
155. PUT THE TOOLS OF KNOWLEDGE CREATION
INTO MORE HANDS
SHARE THE JOY AND MEANING OF ARTISTIC AND
CULTURAL EXPLORATION WITH MORE CITIZENS
NURTURE THE HABITS OF A CIVIL
AND SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY
DEEPEN ENGAGEMENT WITH THE CHALLENGES
THAT FACE OUR SPECIES
This is our job in society… But can we do this
quickly enough and at big enough SCALE
to make a substantial difference in the lives of
Individuals and the fate our our species?
158. Scale can be confusing
If scale matters, are 1 billion TED videos
better than 2.4 million museum visits?
159. Not necessarily, but the vast difference
in scale is evidence that something
significant—rich in potential—is going on
There are more powerful
ways of accomplishing
museum missions than
getting people through
the doors.
162. “Page expects his employees to create
products and services that are 10 times better
than the competition. That means he isn’t
satisfied with discovering a couple of hidden
efficiencies or tweaking code to achieve
modest gains. Thousand-percent improvement
requires rethinking problems entirely, exploring
the edges of what’s technically possible, and
having a lot more fun in the process.”
163. “Page expects his employees to create
products and services that are 10 times better
than the competition. That means he isn’t
satisfied with discovering a couple of hidden
efficiencies or tweaking code to achieve
modest gains. Thousand-percent improvement
requires rethinking problems entirely, exploring
the edges of what’s technically possible…”
164. We have all this money, we have all these people,
why aren’t we doing more stuff? You may say that
Apple only does a very, very small number of things,
and that’s working pretty well for them. But I find that
unsatisfying. I feel like there are all these
opportunities in the world to use technology to make
people’s lives better. At Google we’re attacking
maybe 0.1 percent of that space. And all the tech
companies combined are only at like 1 percent. That
means there’s 99 percent virgin territory.
165. We have all this money, we have all these people,
why aren’t we doing more stuff? You may say that
Apple only does a very, very small number of things,
and that’s working pretty well for them. But I find that
unsatisfying. I feel like there are all these
opportunities in the world to use technology to make
people’s lives better. At Google we’re attacking
maybe 0.1 percent of that space. And all the tech
companies combined are only at like 1 percent. That
means there’s 99 percent virgin territory.
This “small scale/boutique” rationale
is often used by GLAMs to avoid the
challenge of scale and speed
166. We have all this money, we have all these people,
why aren’t we doing more stuff? You may say that
Apple only does a very, very small number of things,
and that’s working pretty well for them. But I find that
unsatisfying. I feel like there are all these
opportunities in the world to use technology to make
people’s lives better. At Google we’re attacking
maybe 0.1 percent of that space. And all the tech
companies combined are only at like 1 percent. That
means there’s 99 percent virgin territory.
167. We have all this money, we have all these people,
why aren’t we doing more stuff? You may say that
Apple only does a very, very small number of things,
and that’s working pretty well for them. But I find that
unsatisfying. I feel like there are all these
opportunities in the world to use technology to make
people’s lives better. At Google we’re attacking
maybe 0.1 percent of that space. And all the tech
companies combined are only at like 1 percent. That
means there’s 99 percent virgin territory.
168. We have all this money, we have all these people,
why aren’t we doing more stuff? You may say that
Apple only does a very, very small number of things,
and that’s working pretty well for them. But I find that
unsatisfying. I feel like there are all these
opportunities in the world to use technology to make
people’s lives better. At Google we’re attacking
maybe 0.1 percent of that space. And all the tech
companies combined are only at like 1 percent. That
means there’s 99 percent virgin territory.
Larry Page
169. We have all this money, we have all these people,
why aren’t we doing more stuff? You may say that
Apple only does a very, very small number of things,
and that’s working pretty well for them. But I find that
unsatisfying. I feel like there are all these
opportunities in the world to use technology to make
people’s lives better. At Google we’re attacking
maybe 0.1 percent of that space. And all the tech
companies combined are only at like 1 percent. That
means there’s 99 percent virgin territory.
Larry Page
There’s a lot of room at the top!
By lipjin
Lip Jin Lee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/levoodoo/3109578001/
CC-BY-NC
By lipjin
Lip Jin Lee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/levoodoo/3109578001/
CC-BY-NC
By lipjin
Lip Jin Lee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/levoodoo/3109578001/
CC-BY-NC
By lipjin
Lip Jin Lee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/levoodoo/3109578001/
CC-BY-NC
By lipjin
Lip Jin Lee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/levoodoo/3109578001/
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By lipjin
Lip Jin Lee
http://www.flickr.com/photos/levoodoo/3109578001/
CC-BY-NC
By State Library of New South Wales collection
State Library of New South Wales
The Reading Room, Public Library of NSW, 1942, by Sam Hood
By Maarten1979
Maarten Heerlien
Black Rhinos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65847118@N06/7434602616/
CC-BY
By Powerhouse Museum Collection
Powerhouse Museum
(Australian) Museum, Sydney
http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/2632247069/
State Archives of North Carolina
PhC42_Bx18_Museum of Natural History_F14
http://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/6950672326/
By r0sss
http://www.flickr.com/photos/r0sss/3506548476/
CC-BY-NC
By Pierre Metivier
Pierre Metivier
CC-BY-NC
http://www.flickr.com/photos/feuilllu/3730244402/
NASA's Chandra Finds Massive Black Holes Common in Early Universe: A composite image combines the deepest X-ray image ever taken with optical and infrared data from Hubble.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/6261058381/
NASA Goddard Photo and Video
NASA's MESSENGER Satellite Captures Spectacular Color Mosaic of Mercury
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/5574949104/
CC-BY
New Acropolis Museum
by Visit Greece
http://www.flickr.com/photos/visitgreecegr/5159059503/
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/w49b/
W49B is a highly distorted supernova remnant, produced by a rare type of explosion.
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/w49b/
W49B is a highly distorted supernova remnant, produced by a rare type of explosion.
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/w49b/
W49B is a highly distorted supernova remnant, produced by a rare type of explosion.
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/w49b/
W49B is a highly distorted supernova remnant, produced by a rare type of explosion.
Wikipedia data: http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/
Unique visitors: world
Wikipedia founded january 2001
2010-11 operating budget of $28.3M (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2011-2012_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Answers#What.27s_the_total_budget_in_this_year.27s_annual_plan_and_how_does_it_compare_with_previous_years.3F)
2011-12 plan assumes $25m in donations (
Wikipedia data: http://reportcard.wmflabs.org/
Unique visitors: world
Wikipedia founded january 2001
2010-11 operating budget of $28.3M (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2011-2012_Annual_Plan_Questions_and_Answers#What.27s_the_total_budget_in_this_year.27s_annual_plan_and_how_does_it_compare_with_previous_years.3F)
2011-12 plan assumes $25m in donations (
2013 super bowl: 108.4 million viewers. http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-super-bowl-ratings-20130204,0,4439351.story
Open Street Map Wiki: Statistics, http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Stats. Edit number 14,947,636 million was made on February 7, 2013. http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/changeset/14947636
18
18
Via conversation with the author, March, 2013
Via conversation with the author, March, 2013
http://www.librarything.com/zeitgeist
http://www.librarything.com/zeitgeist
Crystalline Radical
Kazue Asano
Oil refinery at night
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystallineradical/1783352044/
By Avard Woolaver
Museum of Natural History, Halifax, NS
http://www.flickr.com/photos/avardwoolaver/7027279667/in/faves-46758972@N00/
CC-BY- NC
"in a corner"
by By ghbrett
http://www.flickr.com/photos/orpost/3190831641
CC-BY
Depicting Ron Mueck's sculpture Untitled
from the Hirshhorn Museum exhibition
Strange Bodies: Figurative Works from the Hirshhorn Collection
Untitled
By dolanh
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reneeanddolan/199561644/
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Untitled
By dolanh
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reneeanddolan/199561644/
CC BY-NC-SA 2.0