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7 Conclusions

The following section presents our professional conclusions from the analytical findings presented in the previous section. We also address some of the comments and recommendations made by the Cultural Commission in its recent final report.

The following section is broken down into the subsections:

• organisation type,
• users,
• skills,
• services,
• strategy / business plan,
• marketing,
• infrastructure / systems.

7.1 Organisation Characteristics

The audit identified differences according to certain organisational characteristics, including size and type (or sector).

7.1.1 Organisation size
The audit did identify differences depending on the size of the organisation.

From the sector-wide issues analysis of the question "What do organisations think are the main barriers to achieving their aspirations?" (Section 1.2) smaller organisations made mention of a lack of skilled staff. This implies that there is a need for better advice and support for smaller organisations. Indeed, an issue that was identified from the question "What do organisations think are the main barriers to achieving their aspirations?" (Section 1.2) is the lack of awareness in some smaller organisations, due to the lack of skilled staff, about the full possibilities of DMS. Such ICT / DMS support exists for small organisations in Glasgow and such a model could be rolled out more widely within a national network. This would support particularly smaller organisations.

The root-cause of the lack of skilled staff, according to many who answered the question "What do organisations think are the main barriers to achieving their aspirations?" (Section 1.2) was fundamentally one of a lack of resources for smaller organisations; or, rather, there was little 'give' in their budgets. Consequently, they were less likely to be able to justify specialist staff, even though they would benefit from such capacities. Larger organisations not only were more likely to have the necessary resources to hire new specialist staff, but also have the leeway to absorb the extra cost into their existing budgets. This was evidenced by some (larger organisations) commenting that their budgets had not been increased to account for the new digital media services being offered (yet had managed to develop various DMS). For example, from the question "What do organisations think are the main barriers to achieving their aspirations?" (Section 1.2) one organisation had existed on flat-line budgets for six years (during which time they had developed many DMS). Another, due to a cap in staff numbers, recognised that DMS would probably always be outsourced. This is a common situation faced by many smaller organisations, and it results in their being dependent on outside contractors; and places them in the position of having to keep up with the industry and its developments.

Those organisations that interact with the creative industries and educational establishments tended to have clients with higher expectations of DMS.

Recommendations

• Given that many organisations do not have a good grasp of the current possibilities of DMS, we think the Scottish Executive should investigate ways in which smaller organisations in the sector can have access to 'start-up' skills enabling them to contract appropriate external services on an ongoing basis. Organisations such as Business Gateway Glasgow and Glasgow Opportunities ( www.go.uk.com ) appear to have brought considerable benefits to SME's in their region and have the potential for application across Scotland, specifically in the area of providing ICT-related advice, support and training as well as broader business support.

7.1.2 Organisation type
We also observed differences depending on the type of the organisation, and indeed which sub-sector it came from, e.g. museums, libraries and higher education.

7.1.2.1 Local authorities
One interesting difference emerged between local authorities and most other organisations. Local authorities, which are there to provide services of all types to its local citizens, are looking to DMS to afford greater seamlessness between services, greater utility to the citizen in how they go about their daily lives. This was a common and strong theme running through all of our local authority consultees (of which there were four). Some cultural organisations, in the performing arts sector, also mentioned such seamless services, but they were typically restricted to e-box offices and the like. One local authority consultee said in response to the question "Are you aware of any current or planned digital media services that allow your organisation to do fundamentally new things it could not have done before?" (Section 1.8) " The development of Smartcard technologies will give another opportunity to give seamless access to information and resources." Similarly, intelligent kiosks offering DMS were also popular in the local authority sector.

7.1.2.2 Museums, galleries and libraries
These organisations tended to be focused on the provision of access to their collections, as might be expected. However, there was an increasing sense of awareness of the need to package information according to the needs of specific audiences. Digital media services were intended to provide access to audiences who might otherwise not be able to use collections due to their physical location; however, it was also hoped that they would encourage visits from users who would otherwise not have felt inclined to visit due to unfamiliarity with the collections.

Most notable with this sector was the reliance upon specialised applications to manage knowledge and information about the collections held, and the comparatively rare use of other digital media services such as knowledge and content management systems. This sector is one which feels very keenly the need to meet the needs of public users and therefore tends to focus on public-facing digital media services rather than enabling or 'back-end' applications.

Increasingly central to the development of digital media services in this sector is the availability of the People's Network as a primary channel to deliver services to a wide range of audiences. Although initially conceived as a public library service, this is now maturing into an essential means of delivering a wide range of information and digital-participation services and non-library organisations are becoming increasingly aware of its potential.

7.1.2.3 Tourism-related organisations
Organisations working in association with the tourism industry were notable in two ways. First, they were heavy users of contact and relationship management systems ( CRMS), both in terms of gathering and using information about tourists, as well as with commercial tourism organisations. They were using these applications to ensure that they were able to disseminate information effectively to a range of specific audiences. It seemed that the penetration of these applications across their organisations was particularly deep; one such organisation described their CRMS as " the life-blood of the organisation."

Another notable characteristic in this sector is the use of digital media services to develop close working partnerships with commercial organisations. This invariably took the form of industry organisations relying on the information fed to them by agencies, but also the development of services allowing industry organisations to develop their public-facing services. One example was the development of an extranet by Historic Scotland for use by coach companies planning visits to historic sites.

7.1.2.4 Education and learning organisations
Education and learning organisations were notable for the in-depth knowledge of the needs of their target market. They have begun to understand not just who uses online learning resources and also why, but how. This means that they are able to refine the development of their digital media services to reflect closely the needs of their target audiences. This has led to the development of services with very specific functions. This sector also showed a high awareness of the potential of digital media services to combat a wide range of barriers to use; not simply geographic issues, but also social and economic concerns.

There was evidence in this sector of a wide range of partnership working, both with learners and teachers but also with content providers from elsewhere within the cultural sector, and with commercial digital media organisations, both in the development and delivery of learning resources.

7.1.2.5 Enterprise organisations
Organisations in this category were the most technology-savvy of all those consulted. They were the only category of organisation where the use of mobile devices for accessing online services was supported at a corporate level, similarly they were leading the way in terms of their use of back-end and knowledge management systems to support 'knowledge working' by staff who were required to stay abreast of a wide range of fast-moving issues relating to their area of work. They tended to be driven in part by external factors; for example the level of expectation by their client organisations ( e.g. included broadcast and new media organisations) that they should be highly literate and technologically advanced. This had bred in turn an expectation of their clients that they would either develop the ability to work effectively in the digital world, or fail to succeed.

7.2 DMS Users

DMS are developed to be used by users; they should also be designed to be used by users. In this audit we asked a number of questions relating to how organisations were addressing the issues of usability and usefulness with regard to the ultimate user of the DMS, and how they were involving the user in that process.

The results are encouraging. From the question "Is there explicit mention made of digital media services in your organisation's strategy / vision / mission statement?" we observed that organisations were looking to use DMS not only to transfer paper-based services to digital format, but to develop more innovative services in order to serve users and partners more effectively. However, from question "What do organisations think are the main barriers to achieving their aspirations?" (Section 1.2) we observed that they were not doing this without a good amount of user-research. For example, one organisation said that too many access projects are justified on the basis that " collections online will increase access to collections", without clarifying sufficiently how users will benefit. This leads us to the next question, concerning how organisations are actually carrying our user requirements.

From the question "Does your organisation carry out user requirements research to ensure that any developed digital media services do in fact satisfy an existing need in users?" (Section 1.14) the huge majority (87.9%) of consulted organisations seem to be well aware that users are important to the success of the DMS and that they need to consult their target user groups and audiences using a variety of methods to ascertain what the users value and what they ultimately need.

It has to be said, the variety of how organisations involved users and discovered what they wanted were highly varied. Everything including questionnaires, to focus groups, to e-mails, surveys, statistical tracking and user testing were employed.

As said, this is encouraging, as it speaks of a heightened awareness of the importance of users to some organisations; some consultees indicated that DMS had, to an extent, forced them to become more user-focused. That is, it forced them to address the issue of who it was they were building services for; not just DMS but their traditional services also.

The reasons for this are clear. DMS enable far wider audiences to be addressed, both geographically and type, and enable a far easier communication between those offering and those consuming the service. If the service is of no use to the user, it will be clear, with feedback being quicker, more direct and in more volume than is usual.

Concern for the users was noted in several of the questions, from those dealing straight out with audience development to those dealing with the technical competency of the organisations' audiences, their bandwidth constraints, their software and hardware constraints, and so on. Most organisations, where some element might have an impact on a user's experience, were aware of the possible impacts and took action to address the problem; however, not all organisations were able to demonstrate a full cycle of user consultation through the resource development process. Furthermore, there was little evidence of organisations sharing market research and user consultation material.

Recommendations

• Research for the Digital Cultural Content Forum ( www.digitalcontentforum.org ) indicates that although cultural organisations do undertake user consultation and market research in relation to their digital media services, much of this has yet to be formalized within the development cycle; moreover that there exists the potential to share elements of this work, particularly market research. These findings were confirmed in interviews with Scottish Cultural organisations, many of whom stated their intention to embark on user research projects in the near future. We recommend therefore that the Scottish Executive investigates the potential for market research and user evaluation to be disseminated across the sector in order to ensure that work is not repeated, and to encourage organisations to increase the extent to which user research is integrated into their product development. There is a particular need to make the link between summative and impact evaluation on resources, and subsequent products.

7.2.1 Excluded users and barriers to users
One important aspect of DMS is not excluding users from those digital services; indeed, they might already be excluded from traditional services and look to DMS to include them. They might be excluded due to some kind of technical barrier, a sense-impairment, a geographical barrier or a social barrier. In this audit, we asked about how digital media services were being used to overcome certain barriers. From the question "Have digital media services led your organisation to acquire new audiences?" (Section 1.18) we observed many organisations that were using DMS to overcome social barriers, e.g. the NotSchool pilot in Glasgow that tries to help excluded children remain within the education system.

In terms of accessing excluded people, it was interesting to note that libraries, and the People's Network DMS, are picking up the most users in the centre of the socio-economic scale. Other excluded users picked up by library services include illiterate adults, interrupted-learning children, Romany groups and Silver-surfers. There have been some interesting failures though. BBC Scotland tried to involve women by initiating a Parenting resource; however, this failed through difficulties in engaging women, especially mothers, with online activities, due, it was felt, to their being focused elsewhere in the non-digital world.

Another barrier of exclusion (to traditional services) has been geographical distance (or other geographic barrier, e.g. lack of transport) from the institution's location. Notwithstanding outreach programs, where the institution's traditional services are taken physically to geographically distant areas, DMS are having a large impact on allowing geographically excluded users access to services. Many of the 'online collections' DMS, of which there are many referenced in this audit, can be said to be addressing that. For example, in answer to the question "Have digital media services led your organisation to acquire new audiences?" (Section 1.18) Historic Scotland told us they are providing 'digital access' to around 350 historic properties. Another is What Clicks, a project run in conjunction with the Hunterian Museum of Glasgow University and the Western Isles to develop means of accessing collections in schools. Another is Barrhead-Scotland.com which is a library service trying to overcome the problems of geographic exclusion.

DMS, being artifacts of technology, a technology which is constantly evolving at a truly mesmerizing rate, at a rate that seems to increase, exclusion from technical barriers are extremely important. We asked a few questions related to these kinds of technical issues and how organisations are addressing the potential for excluding people, unwittingly or not, through inappropriate technologies and technical expectations of users.

A major issue that arose from the question "Have digital media services led your organisation to acquire new audiences?" (Section 1.18) and the question "What bandwidth assumptions does your organisation make for your audience's telecommunications infrastructure? That is, do you make available different versions of your digital media service, e.g. a website, to accommodate those with broadband and those with dial-up?" (Section 1.39) was to do with broadband and how users connect to DMS. A comment made was that the role of the Scottish Executive was unclear as to resolving the broadband problem in Scotland. One example from the business sector was Project Atlas, which is an example of a project designed to generate a critical mass of demand for broadband for those businesses that would otherwise be excluded; this has been led by Scottish Enterprise in partnership with the Scottish Executive.

When asking about the technical proficiency of users, many organisations were concerned that their users maybe were not as capable as they could be. However, there are initiatives working against this. The prevalent Masterclass network initiated by Learning and Teaching Scotland has developed an 'army of champions' within schools, coordinating activities of 800 professionals and designed to raise skill levels and awareness from within the profession.

7.2.1.1 Accessibility
Accessibility has many distinctive elements. These include:

• Accessibility for sense-impaired persons
• Accessibility to fragile / valuable artefacts
• Accessibility for socially excluded persons
• Accessibility for culturally excluded persons
• Accessibility for educationally excluded persons

All such accessibility issues could be considered to be of direct interest to a government pursuing a policy of accessibility to information and services in the TCS sector, and indeed there is a Digital Inclusion strategy; only one organisation actually mentioned the digital inclusion strategy.

The Cultural Commission has said that:

" The digital divide is not related to a lack of telecommunications infrastructure, but to poverty, lack of awareness and low skill levels. The groups likely to be most affected by the digital divide are those which are already most excluded within society. The Scottish Executive is already committed to the issue of digital inclusion through a variety of initiatives including the current Digital Inclusion Strategy and new initiatives expected before the close of 2005."

We agree with those sentiments. In this audit, when we asked organisations about the skill levels assumed on behalf of their users, there appeared to be an appreciation that DMS cannot burden the user with too many technologies or complexity. Also, the connection speed is assumed by many to be the lowest commonly used.

7.3 Managerial Skills

The issue of skills came up repeatedly throughout many different questions. The typical constraints on how new DMS were designed, developed and supported essentially revolved around in-house resources: people, i.e. skills, and money; ideas were not in short supply. We asked several questions regarding how the organisation assured the awareness of its staff, especially its management, as to the possibilities of DMS helping to achieve their organisation's mission. The answers were varied, but there was a difference in terms of the size of the organisation as noted above in the section of organisation characteristics.

Further to those observations, many cultural organisations had to retrain their staff (rather than simply hiring new staff). This obviously makes sense, as, at a management level, it is domain knowledge, e.g. of art objects, that is key and not technical proficiency. Some of the newer organisations were trying to hire more technically savvy staff, perhaps reflecting the more ambitious ambits they have in relation to digital media generally, e.g. New Media Scotland. Indeed, some who answered the question "Are there organisational issues which your organisation has had to address as a result of introducing digital media services? (E.g. staffing and skills, prioritisation of organisational goals)?" (Section 1.5) were looking for very specific sets of skills. They neither wanted computer scientists with modules in the media / arts, nor artists with modules in computing, but specialised new media students, educated in digital art, which, they claimed, tend to come from out-with Scotland due to a lack of such courses offered in Scotland.

They did not define this for us, but the general thrust was that current tertiary education student offerings from existing courses had skills that were too traditional. It was clear from the lucidity of their answer that there is a clear problem they have identified in recruiting the kind of people they require; instead, they were making use of students trained from outside of Scotland. Consultation with other art school organisations, however, suggested a possible route to a solution. They are encouraging local new media and games industries to participate in the development and delivery of hybrid courses. This suggests that this has the potential to be a productive alliance. Certainly, the creative application of technology is as important as the creative products produced using them, and if the success of the Scottish gaming industry is an indicator, this approach should be followed closely.

The need to have technically creative people takes the sentiments expressed by the Cultural Commission further:

" That technology will change the way that we interact and lead our lives is already well established. … However, it is important to note digital media or new media are not an end in themselves; they are new ways of packaging and delivering content. These media will be redundant without messages to communicate and without creative content. Creative individuals are needed to produce the content for any new media. This is one of the major reasons why investment in creativity in Scotland is vital for our future."

The point they are making is a requirement for people to supply content in the digital domain; what we are saying is that there needs to be a technically savvy people who can develop DMS that are fundamentally creative, and which allow creative people to create new content and experiences via them.

Recommendations

• Our recommendation, given the growing importance of DMS in cultural and artistic endeavours, is for the Scottish Executive to carry out a review of the skills gap in Scotland's work-force and tertiary education courses in relation to cultural and artistic requirements for DMS. That review could include a review of how the Scottish gaming industry, in conjunction with the local arts schools, has been successful in developing hybrid courses.

7.4 Service Tpyes

The amount, variety, and scope of the DMS projects offered, being developed, and being designed for the future (as reported in this audit) was impressive. There does not seem to be a dearth of ideas as to developing DMS in the Scottish TCS sector. Very often it was brought to our attention that resourcing was still the major problem in the delivery of ambitious DMS. One of the most positive aspects of the audit was the number of collaborative projects underway (with peer / cross-sectoral organisations). We noted several instances of collaborative projects:

• within Scotland, e.g.SCAN,
• within the Home Nations, e.g.SWISH,
• and internationally, e.g. projects with the Utah Genalological Socity.

Such an environment in Scotland of collaborative development is a very healthy sign and shows a well functioning TCS sector, especially where DMS are concerned. Indeed, we also saw a lot of cross-over between culture, heritage, and tourism in developing DMS (as well as providing for educational resources). One area where partnership might be delveloped is at the national level, which we turn to momentarily.

7.4.1 Ideas for DMS
As mentioned, the number of services, as listed under question three, were extensive and varied. It is our strong impression that there has been and will be in the future a healhy growth in DMS projects of all kinds. We see no reason to be negative or to think that there needs to be a lot of outside impetus to push the sector to develop more DMS. One of the consultees said, " We are not short of ideas.", and this would seem to be the overiding tone to the majority of the consulted organsitions. However, there are some areas of concern, for example the number and role of the different portals which are being developed in the cultural and education sectors and the need for information providers to have a clear idea of their respective positions within the knowledge marketplace. There exists some overlap between services which, to a point, is inevitable; however, there is a risk that public resources are being diverted into areas of duplication. There is a need for organisations to understand their strengths and their audiences and to focus on these.

7.4.2 User-led services
We asked a question about whether or not organisations are providing DMS to allow for users to capture and manage their own work. Some replied positively. Overall the majority were providing fairly basic capabilities, such as blogs and so on. One example of such a service was the Island Blogging service provided by the BBC which is an example of the potential of the digital medium to help build communities, enabling people to talk about things which matter to them within specific localities, e.g. wind turbine energy. Audiences from outside as well as within the islands have participated, linking emigrants with their place of origin.

The Cultural Commission has passed comment on requiring personal archives for school children recording their creative work. We also think this is a good idea and that such personal protfolios require a coordinated approach pan-Scotland by the Scottish Executive.

7.4.3 Partnership working
As we stated above, there was a great deal of (peer and sector) partnership working between Scotland's TCS organisations. Unlike the observation made by the Cultural Commission's report, the data did not uncover any sense of reduced ownership or worries about a loss of identity in those organisations partnering for services.

7.4.3.1 A common information environmnt for Scotland
One area that does seem ready for some governmental assistance is partnership at a national level; that is, common services that are offered to the Scottish Citizen, and common services open to Scotland's TCS (and perhaps other) organisaitons. We are going to use the phrase of 'a common information environment' for Scotland to cover this idea; that is, for the joining up of government and publicly funded organisations' information. It was reported to us

From the question "Is your organisation participating in any government initiatives on common data / service sharing?" (Section 1.32) we were told that one organisation had been working " with CAIRNS and SCONE … and the Scottish Common Information Environment, which is funded and supported by the Scottish Library and Information Council…" However, from the question "Is your organisation planning any new digital media services in the future?" (Section 1.7) we were informed that " [Scotland has] an embryonic common information environment …; developed by stealth and various funding opportunities." So, there is a nascent common information environment in Scotland, people believe that it will enable future DMS, but there was a concern that it perhaps wasn't being coordinated and funded as well as it should be or could be. Surely such a national framework would benefit from clear and strong leadership, coordination and funding.

Recommendations

• Given the comments we received on the common information environment we recommend that the Scottish Executive take a lead on appraising the situation regarding the nascent common information environment architecture in Scotland, how it is being coordinated, funded and steered. Also, if fully developed, what such a framework might help Scotland and her citizens achieve, and how such a framework could be developed and maintained sustainably.
• We recommend that the Scottish Executive develop a clear strategy for the development and delivery of information services being offered in the cultural sector, ensuring that this presents a cohesive view to users and in doing so, ensures the best possible use of public funds. The reasons for this include the emerging confusion about the different portals and online resources being offered by cultural organisations and evidence that specific target audiences ( e.g. teachers) are increasingly 'time poor' and are therefore disinclined to investigate the different and apparently competing, resources on offer. Cultural organisations might also be encouraged to develop partnerships within and beyond the sector whereby appropriate specialist skills can be brought to bear in the development of specific information services and products.

7.4.4 Seamless DMS: Local DMS-mediated services
Organisations consulted were very cognisent of the fact that services must become increasingly seamless. Many saw Smartcards as providing a novel way in which to provide those more seamless services. As was reported to us from the qestion "Is your organisation planning any new digital media services in the future?" (Section 1.7) some felt that " the development of Smartcard technologies will give another opportunity to give seamless access to information and resources." Typically such responses came from local authorities.

Many DMS are geographically neutral in the sense that they can largely be accessed any place (using mobile telecommunications), over any distance and at any time; this, of course, is one of the key plusses for DMS and for ICT in general, as noted by the Cultural Commission. However, there is an alternative whereby the usual DMS that are accessed over the internet are only half of the complete service; the other half is localised in the local infrastructure, e.g. iKiosks, e-box offices / mobile telephony, smartcards. We call such services hybrid services. We feel there are many important benefits for the Scottish Citizen (for this report, within the TCS sector, but the argument applies more widely) from such hybrid DMS. Indeed, some of the localities around Scotland are already developing metropolitan- or hinter-land-based geographically distinct DMS. One such example was the Grampian region, which is developing its own identity and services for that region; others are developing similar ideas. Again, these ideas seem to be laregly tied to the local authorities.

7.4.5 Distributed and remote working
A major strength of digital media services in Scotland is the way in which organisations have used them to enable distributed working. This has enabled organisations to maintain a physical presence in multiple locations. For example, from the question "Do you feel that your organisation has, since the advent of digital media services, shifted in its role in relation to its audiences or to other organisations?" (Section 1.6) we were told that " we were able to expand our service to Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh - retaining our Hub staff and information team in Glasgow."

It has enabled individuals to be mobile across the country and it has also enabled remote communities to engage with others both within an beyond their immediate localities. This strength has developed through necessity, but means that many organisations are expert at remote working and commnity-based outreach. At present the tools being used to support these activities have been at the simpler end of the spectrum; primarily e-mail and web presences with the emerging use of activities such as blogging. However, for some organisations, gains could be made from having access to more sophisticated applications such as Intranets, knowledge management applications and content management systems. There is a problem in that these organisations tend not to have the expertise and resources required to purchase, implement and manage these applications, despite the use they could make of them.

Recommendations

• We recommend that the Scottish Executive look into how DMS can be more seamless and localised, in the sense of provind providing integrated services within the local infrastructure. That is, how DMS integrate people's local lives, their sense of local belonging, and their sense of participating in services designed for them to improve their lives.
• We recommend that the Scottish Executive investigate ways in which smaller and distributed organisations can gain access to digital media services to enable them to share knowledge, information and content more effectively. This recommendation is in the light of the finding that smaller organisations do not have access to the resources and expertise to support complex applications, despite the fact that such tools could help them work more effectively. Successful measures might include facilitating shared access to enabling applications such as document and content management systems as well as access to training and support services to ensure that smaller organisations were able to make best use of these applications.

7.5 Strategy

7.5.1 Mission criticality of DMS for TCS organisations
Many of the TCS organisations that we spoke to or that completed the online questionnaire made statements indicating the centrality and criticality of DMS to their organisation's mission / business plan. Everyone saw DMS as having radically changed the way they carry out their business. However, many clarified that by saying that DMS had not fundamentally changed the nature of the services that they offered, only the nature of the delivery. That is, some organisations made the distinction between a business plan / mission and their vision / strategy; the difference being that whilst their strategy might largely be the same as it has always been their business plan to effect strategy has seen radical changes in recent years.

Obviously, some of the organisations either exist exclusively in the digital domain, e.g. Scran, or have the digital domain as a large part of their business plan and daily operations, e.g.BBC Scotland. For both of them DMS are indeed central to their being and their strategy.

Many of the organisations reminded us that this situation has only really matured in the past two to four years. There was, however, one area where DMS have fundamentally changed the nature of cultural organisations and their relationship with their audiences. This is in the ability of DMS to facilitate two-way communication as noted above: " We are the BBC - what's your news? What would you like to tell Auntie?" There was evidence too, that this relationship has increased users' sense of ownership of cultural organisations. Many organisations have embraced this change; others need to be encouraged to do so.

7.5.2 Why are DMS mission critical?

7.5.2.1 Dissemination
We should remind ourselves that the things DMS are good at are largely those involving the near instantaneous dissemination of information across time and space, as well as across other barriers such as impaired senses and differing levels of intelligence, cultural appreciation and social involvement. ICT can also make business processes more efficient for different combinations those reasons.

These characteristics of DMS are common to many ICT systems in place in many companies, organisations and governments. The application of DMS in TCS organisations is not radically different. As the Cultural Commission say:

" New technologies, especially digital access, will provide a way of addressing the constraints of geography and the logistics of travel. Existing technologies can provide everyone in Scotland and worldwide with direct access images and information about Scotland's national collection through their computer. Investment and leadership and can achieve this. The Commission sees this as a key priority."

We support this view.

As mentioned, the speedy dissemination of information across large distances as well as providing permanency are two great ICT characteristics that have revolutionised modern organisations and their management of information. TCS organisations are no exception.

Many of the projects we talked about were those that involved the dissemination of information about services offered as well as disseminating the actual service itself, if it was amenable to being so simulated digitally. As the Cultural Commission say:

" Technology should also be used to promote the sector to the public, using digital access to stimulate a desire to see the physical objects, as well as providing information about museums and galleries services."

As mentioned above, dissemination of information on traditional services is an important function DMS, especially websites, have played and will continue to. As we mention below, however, DMS, e.g. the digitisation of archives, open up all sorts of novel functionalities. DMS can be there to inspire users of them to come and see the real object; but that is not the only option to aspire to for DMS. They can provide novel services, as we discovered when we asked just this question. Many of the organisations believe they are providing novel services, some of which they consider premium and charge for that they would not normally offer.

However, in the case of dissemination of digitised images of objects and art, some of the consultees from question "What do organisations think are the main barriers to achieving their aspirations?" (Section 1.2) saw problems: " digitisation is not enough. There has to be an expressed need for the resource, we need to ensure that resources are usable and that people [will] use them." So simply providing a disseminating service is not enough.

Obviously, the main DMS of the past few years has been the public-facing organisation website accessible over the WWW using a standard browser. There is not much to say on this topic, apart from the fact that a large number of organisations consulted told us that they continue to upgrade the technology platforms and sophistication of those offerings.

7.5.2.2 Efficiency
Efficiency relates to how services can be provided more efficiently through the use of DMS, such as e-mail and Intranets. The large majority of the organisations (92.1%) answering the question "Has your organisation used digital media as a means to support and manage its current services in a more efficient way?" (Section 1.10) thought they were now carrying out their business plans more efficiently.

7.5.3 Culture and learning
Many of the organisations consulted by the question "Does your organisation provide digital media services to support education?" (Section 1.20) responded by telling us that the have extensive resources for education (78.8%); both curriculum-related as well as for students / researchers and life-long learners. This is not including those digitized images provided for by Scran that might have been contributed by those organisations. One area we did not enquire into was whether or not those educational resources developed by individual organisations (rather than value-add bodies such as Scran and Learning and Teaching Scotland) are being structured according to educational standards; for example, are they clearly linked to the curriculum; are they being described by standardised metadata; are they being structured for inclusion in larger learning objects. All of these capabilities depend on learning metadata and information standards.

One of the recommendations of the Cultural Commission is to replicate in Scotland the Global Leap Video conferencing with museums. As they say:

" Conceived in 2001, the Global Leap Video conferencing programme enables school classes in the UK to interact with education officers in museums and galleries and engage creatively with people around the world. Over the last two years this project has enabled hundreds of schools to use video conferencing to add real value to lessons, as well as providing a resource for educators to get help, advice and support to find video conferencing partners and book interactive lessons. … However, it appears that there are no Scottish cultural institutions yet involved in the project."

This is one way of increasing interactivity between schools and museums digitally. From the data collected in the audit, we found no answers that mentioned this initiative.

Recommendations

• Conduct a review of whether or not the learning resources being produced by the (source) organisations are truly re-usable, re-configurable, standards-based resources that can be exploited by modern virtual learning environments, e-learning systems, and so on, in use in Scotland's primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions.

7.6 Business Models

(This conclusion comes largely from questions on chargeability of DMS, future DMS, supporting processes more efficiently with DMS, quality control of DMS, inspiration to use DMS, capturing of user requirements, and supporting professional partnerships.)

In terms of business models, there was quite a wide divergence between differing organisation's views on how DMS are to be used to develop or implement current or new business models.

From the question "Do you charge for any digital media services your organisation provides?" (Section 1.4) we discovered that the balance between those organisations that charge for their DMS and those that do not was evenly split, with the balance towards not charging: ('yes': 41%; 'no': 51.3%). We conclude from this, unsurprisingly, that organisations are approaching the development of their business models as they seem fit for their organisation and their users and stakeholders. We should also expect the balance to favour non-chargers as most of the organisations were public sector.

7.6.1 Premium services
Some organisations are viewing DMS as a route to charging for previously free services. One example being the NAS who, whilst still providing free access to archives for those visiting their buildings onsite, have decided that the digitised versions of those archives, if accessed remotely, are to be considered a " premium service" and can be charged for. This does raise a question about whether information ostensibly sourced and managed by a public institution but in the digital domain should be treated differently from its usual or traditional services. The NAS were not making the case that it was the extra functionality that was the premium being charged for, but, rather, the remote access, which seems an incongruously excluding digital media services policy.

The vast majority, however, were charging for any commercially valuable images they happened to hold IPR on. This is a sensible move as there is an obvious market for such services for those wishing to use unique cultural / heritage / art images and resources for commercial gain. There seemed to be several organisations who were managing such commercial activities on their own terms. We turn to digitisation business models momentarily.

7.6.2 Inspiration to develop new business models and novel DMS
As mentioned before, it is also not at all clear that government policy is going to have that great an impact on the kinds of creative services the organisations consulted end up developing. They all answered that new and improved DMS would be developed over the coming years and that they did not require any intervention or inspiration from government to inspire that development. Inspiration, they claimed, for DMS business models does not come from government initiatives but from users; we asked the consultees such a question and received this resounding answer. Indeed, organisations became quite defensive over any perceived interference in how they use DMS to help them execute their organisation's business models.

7.6.2.1 Quality assurance
An important aspect of business models is the quality control that can be effected to assure the end product or service being offered to the user or customer. The majority of consultees suggested that quality had probably increased due to the quick turnaround of mistakes that can be effected in the digital domain. Many also liked the democratisation of quality control that could be effected, believing that led to better ownership and greater quality of product. Others again were following processes for quality assurance as they had before the introduction of DMS. However, the key point is that few believed DMS offered real challenges as far as quality went.

Many of the consultees said that they were developing business models that involved partnering with other organisations via DMS.

7.6.3 Digitisation business models
Indeed, from the question "Do you charge for any digital media services your organisation provides?" (Section 1.4) some organisations have started charging for access to digitised images that they feel may hare a commercial value. Most of the cultural organisations we spoke to who have any sort of collection of real-world artefacts that can be represented as digital facsimiles or who otherwise hold collections of digital images are attempting to run business models that exploit this.

7.6.3.1 Scran
Such business models have obvious implications for organisations of the like of Scran who have tried to make it their central business model to broker and publish others' IPR (typically digitised images of objects and art).

We are also going to talk about whether organisations, including educational establishments, can or should source their own digital content as opposed to buying it from others. An important development in Scotland over the past few years has been Scran. The Cultural Commission say:

" The Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network (Scran) is a charity whose aim is to provide educational access to digital materials representing our material culture and history. The learning resource service hosts over 300,000 images, movies and sounds from museums, galleries, archives and the media. It can be used generically, as a substitute for clip art, or for particular learning applications. The service works by subscription. This resource bank is enormously useful but needs enhanced marketing and promotion. The service itself is making strides in new search tools. If the service is to be fully developed it may have to find enhanced support to replace subscription."

Discussions with cultural organisations revealed contrasting views as to whether or not the Scran models should be sustained in its current form. On the one hand, as technology has advanced in line with the appreciation of managers as to what can be done by those organisations who hold important collections of digitised images, the relevance of having a specialised digitisation and IPR holding organisation is not as critical as it once was for some. We asked several questions related to brokering and sourcing content and we discovered that many are involved in their own digitisation programs, and that if the organisation feels it has content which would be commercially valuable, they will take advantage of this. Many of the organisations provide education resources already and feel that they are able to continue this type of work. On the other hand, Scran has a body of expertise, a critical mass of content and a strong and growing user base which is increasingly taking up the packages and value-added resources which it has to offer. Moreover, Scran also has a technical infrastructure, personal contacts and specialist knowledge ( e.g. authentication, IPR management skills, digitisation best practice, and audience knowledge) which it is able to use as a cohesive force for the sector. In particular, it provides a vital service for smaller organisations that would otherwise not have access to digital media services to allow them to share their content with a wide range of users. It has, and continues to, build capacity across the sector.

Recommendations

• There appears to be a need for Scran to review its business model in a way that reflects the current organisational needs across the cultural sector. The current polarisation of the community with regard to its role and operations is neither helpful for Scran itself, nor for the wider community. Substantial investment has been made which should not be disregarded or discarded; however, there is a clear need for Scran to reflect the rapidly evolving digital environment. The Scottish Executive should consider facilitating such a review in a way which reflects the needs of the sector and with due regard for the achievements of Scran to date.

7.6.3.2 Others
Some have active large scale digitisation programs underway. Recently, the Scottish Museums Council commissioned a project to assess the success of digitisation projects in the Scottish museums sector.

The Cultural Commission has commented on digitisation. They make mention of projects at the NAS for digitising church records, wills and testaments and they say it is an

" …important and worthwhile investment, which can be subsidised through charges for downloading and research time. Educational use, however, should be free…There are already charges for viewing personal registers online. This should be maintained. It will take some time before archives are visited as readily as the online services. Public understanding is still limited."

We think that such digitisation projects are crucial for providing not only accessibility, but actually better services. We do not believe that people will ultimately end up visiting the archives; not because public understanding is limited, which it probably is, but because for those using the digital services are using the DMS for a reason, that they provide ease of access, functionality not possible with paper records. They will already understand something of what the archive holds, or they will do after using the DMS. It was reported on to us in this audit that the number of people visiting the some organisations is falling in response to more people using the DMS provided. That is a positive thing; it is misguided to believe otherwise. There is an issue of whether publicly developed DMS should be charged for (to the Scottish Citizen; foreigners might expect to pay). This then opens up a discussion on how people are identified to use the DMS. Some solutions already mentioned in this report are the common information environment which could facilitate a log-in once environment for all publicly funded DMS.

7.7 Marketing

Even though DMS are becoming a firmly established channel for delivering services and information about services to users and stakeholders, the availability of certain services still need to be advertised. Indeed, there are three types of advertising possible:

• Advertising DMS via DMS
• Advertising traditional services via DMS
• Advertising DMS via traditional routes

In this audit, organisations do seem to be aware that advertising is key to raising awareness of not only their traditional services but also of their DMS.

Marketing is clearly something that is essential if DMS are to be used to facilitate accessibility. To enable accessibility to traditional services and as well as new DMS they require to be correctly marketed to the target audiences. In the audit, a number of interesting marketing efforts were noted, in particular the extent to which the cultural sector is working with the tourist industry to develop good relationships between public bodies and commercial service providers. It was also noted that chief among the staff being used as the voice of organisations are marketing and communications staff, who appear to be successfully integrating many digital media services into a range of activities across cultural organisations.

Recommendations

• We recommend that the Scottish Executive identify and facilitate the sharing of best practice in the development and use of digital media service across the cultural sector. This would allow the cross-fertilisation of ideas between organisations and departments within organisations including those focusing on:
• The packaging of digital media services for specific audiences, e.g. teachers, students, leisure users and commercial organisations.
• The development of partnerships with SMEs within areas such as tourism and the visual arts.
• The delivery of layered and in-depth content for specialist users.
• The use of digital media services for sharing knowledge and information between professionals.
• The use of digital media services to target, consult with and engage the participation of, specific users and markets.

7.8 Infrastructure and Systems

The technical infrastrcuutre of Scotland's TCS organsitions would appear to be adequate and developing. Many of the organsations consulted have a content management system in place, and some are moving to more spohisticated content management systems that allow for a more dynamic publishing model using metadata and tags, etc.

The large majority of the consulted organisations used a combination of in-house development and third-party organisations usually of a small and local nature. The decision on when to appropriately use outside help was usually an objective cost-benefit analysis one. Many collaborative projects, either due to their size, importance or obvious politics of joint ownership, were devloped with more outside help.

7.8.1 Technical standards
The situation regarding the adoption and use of technical standards was a little hard to quantify due to a lack of content on some of the more technical questions. However, as far as we can tell, there are efforts, where applicable, to follow government frameworks and standards. Indeed, some are even following them purely from a best practice point of view.

We have already recommended looking at the issues important to having a common information environment in Scotland. One of these issues is standards. The CIE is, by its nature, a standards-based project.

There are already various international standards for representing collections, archives, objects and so on that are applicable in the Scottish sectors.

The Cultural Commission has recommended that there be a Scottish infrastructure for the digitisation of objects and art. We do agree that there is a need for a framework to make digitised images nationally accessible in an environment where digitised content can be accessed in an open and interoperable manner. How that environment is established is beyond the scope of this audit, but we do think such a framework should be aware of any nascent common information environment and its standards.

Recommendations

• We recommend that the Scottish Executive look into developing further standards for a common information environment (specifically for the TCS sector).

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