The Revolution Will Be Digitised How museums can thrive in a New Media age

Digitisation (homo-nofiensis) Databases (SPECTRUM Man) Record Cards (Neanderthal Man) Distributed Content Services (homo-pratty)

Our role in Internet world is not going to be providing websites. Our role is content, context and credibility

If it has to be free at the point of use and the Government won’t pay for it and we don’t get enough traffic for advertising then where is our business model?

Create a mechanism in which market forces balance supply and demand What does it cost you to digitise one image? What do you charge a school child to use it? What do you charge Ross Parry? What do you charge Dorling Kindersly?

2% of museum content is economically viable 98% of our digitised assets are riding on the back of these Upwards of £75m of public money has gone into mass-digitisation The majority of this material is now inaccessible, unavailable, in many cases permanently irretrievable junk

Hundreds of thousands of curt, non-descriptive object records have been put online in the past 10 years, hidden behind poorly designed interfaces. Why? Who for?

We can thrive, and we can deliver unique online services, but the audience has raised its game, and so must we.

e [email_address] w mda.org.uk w collectionslink.org.uk w culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk