Sustaining digital projects King’s Digital Consultancy Training Sustaining digital projects © Tanner, KCL 2005

Sustainability Planning King’s Digital Consultancy Training Sustainability Planning What is sustainability? Big Picture: Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. For projects sustainability is: A product or process that can be maintained over a long period of time, especially after grant monies disappear, that is beneficial to stakeholders & the host institution. © Tanner, KCL 2005

Sustainability Planning King’s Digital Consultancy Training Sustainability Planning What to sustain? Products Services Processes Expertise and knowledge People To sustain any of these requires focus and clear objectives. It also requires a cool head to decide what to not sustain! © Tanner, KCL 2005

Sustainability Planning King’s Digital Consultancy Training Sustainability Planning What to sustain? Institutional support? Legal issues and licensing? Relationships with partners and audience? Preserving access? Potential income streams? possibility of charging other income streams new grants? Risk and reward assessment © Tanner, KCL 2005

Understanding the audience King’s Digital Consultancy Training Understanding the audience If you do not understand the audience then you cannot plan for sustainability Audience and other stakeholders define the market potential and value of your digital assets Audience/stakeholder research Build evidence base for decision making Explore your relationship with the audience Understand audience expectations Address actual information needs and goals Understand size and nature of market Identify areas to add value © Tanner, KCL 2005

Audience surveys overview King’s Digital Consultancy Training Audience surveys overview Know what you want to know, and Know how you will use the results. Define the purpose of the research. Try to find out if the information you need is already available. How much is it worth to you, to know this? Which research method is most appropriate? Who will do the research? Apply method Compare the results with your activities. © Tanner, KCL 2005

Audiences – what you want to know King’s Digital Consultancy Training Audiences – what you want to know How large is the audience? What kind of people make up the audience? Where is your audience? When does your audience use your resource? How do your audience members spend their time? How much of their time is spent being part of your audience? What type of content interests your audience most - and least? © Tanner, KCL 2005

Audiences – what you want to know King’s Digital Consultancy Training Audiences – what you want to know What styles of presentation do your audience prefer, and what styles do they dislike? Which activities, attitudes, and other effects do your publications cause among your audience? How will your audience react to a new kind of program or article that you might introduce? What is preventing people from being part of your audience? How can you increase your audience? © Tanner, KCL 2005

Understanding the audience: methods King’s Digital Consultancy Training Understanding the audience: methods Feedback – offer the opportunity to give feedback Surveys Quantitative – how many users, most used resources etc Qualitative – the richness of the experience Focus groups or advisory/steering groups “Watching” audience behavior © Tanner, KCL 2005

Building your identity, builds opportunity King’s Digital Consultancy Training Building your identity, builds opportunity Reputation Experience Identity Vision Relationships © Tanner, KCL 2005

Risk Management “We have no future because our present is too volatile. We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment’s scenarios.” William Gibson, Pattern Recognition (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2003) Risk consequence is hard to define in the digital environment the volume is enormous so selection is essential previously information sources self selected through format, durability and luck – digital conveys none of these advantages selection assumes precognition of future significance Risk management is our most important tool to spin the moment’s scenarios

Risk Management Risks Consequences high risk low consequence high risk high consequence Risks low risk low consequence low risk high consequence Consequences

King’s Digital Consultancy Training Information versus attention economies “The claim that the Internet will replace libraries often is based on questionable assumptions. Three common misconceptions are that all useful information exists somewhere on the Internet, that information is available without cost, and that it can be found by anyone willing to spend enough time searching for it.” Borgman, C. L. (2001) From Gutenberg to the global information infrastructure: access to information in the networked world, The MIT Press “iPod therefore iAm” Cover headline, Newsweek July 26, 2004 issue © Tanner, KCL 2005

What this means for sustainability Attention is vital to economic sustainability Therefore access is valued more than preservation by our consumers who are ultimately our benefactors In the information/attention economy without access there are no long term strategies that will be economically sustainable Linking access and preservation to human information desire rather than grand technical schemes will thus be most economically sustainable The question remains: how do we select what we sustain and who will pay?

Sustaining digital projects: Sources of income King’s Digital Consultancy Training Sustaining digital projects: Sources of income © Tanner, KCL 2005

Revenue models and channels to market King’s Digital Consultancy Training Revenue models and channels to market Advertising model Infomediary model Merchant model Affiliate model Community model Subscription model Utility model © Tanner, KCL 2005

King’s Digital Consultancy Training Advertising model © Tanner, KCL 2005

King’s Digital Consultancy Training Infomediary model © Tanner, KCL 2005

Merchant & utility models King’s Digital Consultancy Training Merchant & utility models © Tanner, KCL 2005

King’s Digital Consultancy Training Affiliate model © Tanner, KCL 2005

King’s Digital Consultancy Training Community model © Tanner, KCL 2005

King’s Digital Consultancy Training Subscription model © Tanner, KCL 2005

Sustainability summary King’s Digital Consultancy Training Sustainability summary Understand your audience Deliver value Consider the risks in continuing Who will pay? How much will they pay? What models best fit your needs? © Tanner, KCL 2005

Sustainability Summary II – Workflow King’s Digital Consultancy Training Sustainability Summary II – Workflow Select Scan Create derivatives Quality control Create metadata Management Back ups/digital preservation Administrative tasks Quality Control © Tanner, KCL 2005

Sustainability Summary III – Staffing & Costs Training Equipment Software Vendor costs, if outsourcing Marketing Workspace Material preparation Preservation Management Web site design Overhead