Getting practical, harmonising Standards, Processes and Documentation for Collections Mobility

Nick Poole, CEO, Collections Trust

31.05.2010

“Men work together, I told him from the heart/Whether they work together, or apart.”

Robert Frost

Cultural heritage is a global responsibility, it has the ability to connect people, to foster cultural understanding and to promote tolerance.

If we are to make the most of the principle of cultural heritage and the potential of greater mobility, then we must address the practice of its management.

The international community is a network.

If we want to make that network work as efficiently as possible, we have to apply the principles of the supply chain and address the following areas:

•People•Processes•Systems•Information•Cost

The rate of mobility is a function of national and individual policy.

Increasing the rate depends on:

•Improving discoverability•Removing constraints•Identifying motivations•Simplifying processes•Minimising risk

The way it works today...

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Our vision is of a European (potentially Global) infrastructure which enables cultural organisations to:

•Discover collections across the Globe•Establish and maintain bonds of trust•Automate the exchange of documentation•Share a common understanding of process•Minimise costs & operational overhead•Build longer-term value

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Trusted Intermediary

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Interoperable Systems <>

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Coordinated Logistics >

In the real world...

Our current custom and practice around mobility is a luxury, accessible only to larger, well-funded institutions with an established reputation.

•Trust is expensive•Complexity is expensive•Competition is expensive•Repetition is expensive•Exclusivity is expensive

To promote mobility among the long-chain of smaller institutions, we need to create a second economy of mobility that is cheaper.

•Trust-based economies can be virtual (eBay)•Complexity can be standardised•Competition can be self-interested collaboration•Systems can remember things•Availability can be global and 24/365

All things are possible, but only where there is a value proposition that makes the reward of Mobility greater than the effort required.

If you remove competition, what is the value proposition for Mobility 2.0?

We need simple lightweight solutions which work for now:

•Ensuring that collections information can be indexed by Google (discoverability)

•Harmonising around a single European Cultural Loans Documentation Framework based on the International SPECTRUM standard (removing constraints)

• Ensuring that National Governments identify Mobility as a priority policy agenda (motivation)

• Using SPECTRUM 4.0 schema to enable Collections Management Systems to share core data automatically (simplifying processes)

• Ensuring that connections between organisations are ongoing and incremental to build trust (minimising risk)

A single European Cultural Loans Documentation Framework based on SPECTRUM

•A core, common set of elements

•A set of documents available under a Creative Commons License (so they can be downloaded, repurposed and shared)

•Embedded into national/local policies

•Embedded into Collections Systems

This...

Is technically inefficient as a network, but it has grown organically and works in practice.

If we’re going to achieve lasting improvement, we have to work with the grain of established custom and practice.

But, it is unlikely that the improvement will happen spontaneously, it needs to be driven and nurtured.

In conclusion...

Mobility depends on the efficiency of the network

There is an opportunity to make the network more efficient

Standardisation/harmonisation has been hard to achieve, is it possible?

Is there an organisation that people would trust across the EU to drive this change?

Nick PooleCEOCollections Trust

@NickPoole1

http://www.collectionstrust.org.ukhttp://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.ukhttp://www.culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk