Sustainability and JISC

Sustainability and JISCSustainability and JISC

20th August 2010, Royal School of Needlework

Presentation for ‘Look Here’ project at Visual Arts Data Servicehttp://www.vads.ac.uk/lookhere

Alastair DunningJISC Digitisation Programme Managerhttp://www.jisc.ac.uk/digitisation/

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Sustainability Problem Exists Sustainability Problem Exists EverywhereEverywhereAny project will have only limited

fundingAlso difficult where money is not the

prime motivator for the project in the first place (e.g. Environmental sustainability)

Particularly true for innovation, where a project depends on a broader infrastructure to maintain it

Very true for digital content – technology changes

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Find these JISC projects !Find these JISC projects !Lemur: Learning with Museum Resources

◦ Aberdeen University, £183k , 2000-2003National Fine Art Collections

◦ The Surrey Institute of Art & Design, £? , 2001-2003Bioscience ImageBank

◦ University of Leeds, £113k, 2000-2003BuilDNER: Databank of Building Images for

the DNER◦ South Bank University, £26k, 2000-2003

Virtual Norfolk◦ University of East Anglia, c.£350k, 2000-3

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Find these JISC projects !Find these JISC projects !Lemur: Learning with Museum Resources

◦ http://www.abdn.ac.uk/lemur/National Fine Art Collections

◦ http://www.fineart.ac.uk/Bioscience ImageBank

◦ http://bio.ltsn.ac.uk/imagebank/BuilDNER: Databank of Building Images for the

DNER◦ ?

Virtual Norfolk◦ http://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/

20050606184058/http://virtualnorfolk.uea.ac.uk/welcome.html

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Sustainability is not just Sustainability is not just technicaltechnical“I think it is important that you [update]

partly because I when you look at a website and it says last updated more than 12 months ago you just immediately think this is being allowed to wither on the vine and you don’t trust it. So I want to be able to if nothing else to say on our homepage, last updated or we have the version number 4.2 you know date July 2006 is a way of assuring the users that we are still paying attention.”

p29, Claire Warwick et al (UCL, 2006)

Log Analysis of Arts and Humanities Resources

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Sustainability is not just Sustainability is not just technicaltechnicalOf the NOF digitisation projects,

85% (104 out of 122) were still running five years after launch.

However, only 35 of these 122 had clear indication of having had their content or interface updated

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Digital Sustainability Digital Sustainability meansmeansRunning a service your users can rely onAdding new content when necessaryUpdating functionalityResponding to users pointing out

mistakesBuilding partnerships and new users;

offering multiple ‘products’Looking freshHaving a healthy base of committed

usersAnd having sufficient income to keep the

service going7

Multiple Multiple methods methods requiredrequiredDirect income streamsSponsorship and philanthropyDifferent audiencesCommunity engagementInstitutional buy in – senior

management, use in research and teaching

Continued project funding Larger collaborationAdded valueLeadership and ingenuity

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Institutional SupportInstitutional SupportSenior management perhaps

sceptical of external benefitsInternal benefits - Cost-saving, as

well as value-addingEmbed resources in teaching and

learningWin multiple friends in

organisation

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Revenue StreamsRevenue StreamsGetting people to pay for your

content, either digital or printedBeen tried for quite some timeStart up costs are expensiveWho is keen to pay for digital content?Can work in larger institutions; more

difficult in smaller institutionsMight others want to licence your

content?Vision of Britain example

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Vision of BritainVision of BritainSocial, political and economic

information on every town in Britain

Strongly geographical interfaceIntegrated numerous different

data sourcesAttracted UK and EU fundingAchieved licensing deals with

private companiesGoogle Ads bring in c. £6k a year

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Added ValueAdded ValuePresenting digitised content as part of

a larger suite of information or services

Great example of British History Online◦Works as a digital library, offering access

to primary and secondary resources◦Digitisation is only part of the offer

More ways to become essential rather than useful for your users

What else do you want to offer? As a single institution? Or as a group?

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Larger CollaborationLarger CollaborationE.g. VADS and Look Here !Working with similar partners to

goals common Sharing costs and infrastructureBuilds critical mass within a

subject areaBut who is responsible for leading

a consortium? Everyone wants someone else to pay

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Different Audiences / Different Audiences / ProductsProductsNot just academic users who are

interested in your contentParticularly true in the visual artsBut content needs to be

repackaged to be presented to different users

Alternatively, split up your academic users

Old Bailey example

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Old Bailey OnlineOld Bailey OnlineTim Hitchcock (Hertfordshire) and

Robert Shoemaker (Sheffield)Have achieved multiple funding

successesAre building a sustainable platform

for multiple resourcesInspired a BBC series; have their

own popular history bookPublishing academic monographs

as eBooks, with accompanying dataAnd, most importantly, are altering

history within their field15

PartnershipsPartnershipsFinding new audiencesThere are others companies,

groups, societies better placed than you to access users

They need ways to keep their users engaged

You need users to keep your content sustained

eBird Example

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eBirdeBirdWebsite for amateur and

professional ornithologistsStarted with heavy research focus.

Only took off when public was involved

Has now achieved sponsorship, licensing of software and development of kiosks for interested parties to use in specific places

Only small fraction of institutional funding now required

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Sponsorship & Sponsorship & PhilanthropyPhilanthropyWhy restricted to larger

institutions in UK?Smaller sums can still helpRelationship needs to be carefully

managedRequires expertise in fundraisingThose outside universities keen to

gain the lustre of being involved in an educational / digital project

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Leadership and IngenuityLeadership and IngenuityWorking in your traditional role will

not allow for sustainabilityBuilding out external partnerships,

undertaking new roles, forgetting parts of the day job.

Doing new things with digital content

Examples cited all rely on leaders not constrained by the traditional definition of their jobs.

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LinksLinksStrategic Content Alliance case studies on

sustainability -sca.jiscinvolve.org/wp/business-modelling-publications/

eBird website - http://ebird.org/Old Bailey Online -

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/Vision of Britain -

http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/British History Online - http://www.british-

history.ac.uk/Digitisation in the UK -

http://web.me.com/xcia0069/uk-digitisation.html

JISC Content - http://www.jisc-content.ac.uk/And VADS – http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/

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