Sustaining digital projects

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.

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!

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

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

Audience surveys overview 1.Know what you want to know, and 2.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.

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?

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?

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

Building your identity, builds opportunity Reputation Relationships ExperienceVisionIdentity

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

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

Revenue models and channels to market Advertising model Infomediary model Merchant model Affiliate model Community model Subscription model Utility model

Advertising model

Infomediary model

Merchant & utility models

Affiliate model

Community model

Subscription model

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?

Sustainability Summary II – Workflow Select Scan Create derivatives Quality control Create metadata Quality control Management Back ups/digital preservation Administrative tasks Quality Control

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