To CIO, or not to CIO – that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of mismanaged data
Or to take arms against a sea of piecemeal information decisions
And by strategizing, end them. To define, to plan –
A CIO – and by define to say we end the heartache
of our audience once and for all,
be it one or be it one thousand?
‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
To define, to plan – a CIO – perchance to dream
Of ending battles of lord and master
Of our information; ay, there’s the rub,
Where for art the strategic IT plan?
That ‘tis obsolete when ‘tis writ? For in that plan
What dreams of organizing information
And content deployment may come? When
We have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of integrating
One trickery app twixt another.
And in the end, to grunt and sweat
With that ticketing app from who’s reporting
I.T. know not how. And in the end to grunt
And sweat with that collection information system
That puzzles the will, and dread our weary days
With it, and ne’er call the desk that is helpless,
Because that does make cowards of us all.
So, soft you now, the fair museum technologist!
Be all your sins remembered, dread of time is here
When we need a plan or decision of
Great pitch and moment to organize these things
Lest we get hit by a bus, and all our sins forgotten.

If you can tweet – and not make twitter your master;
If you can friend – and not make friending your aim;
If you can get at least one curator to write a blog entry;
Or coax a visitor to comment on a blog post;
Or one visitor to check in on foursquare and thus have your mayor.

If you can watch your legacy apps grow old and worn,
and still trust you made the right decision;
If you can heap all your development on one programmer,
And risk him leaving for a better job at the Met;
If you can put your collections online and by doing so digitize 10,000 images,
and with them capture metadata that is true to METS, or CDWA, or CCO, or at the very least Dublin Core;

If you can integrate your DAM, CMS and CIS,
And by doing so risk none of them working;
If you can talk with Curators and Educators,
And not let them think you are the devil;
If neither budget cuts, layoffs, government shutdowns, nor shiny new gadgets can derail your project
Yours is that new CTO job;
And – which is more – you’ll be a museum technologist my son.

The thing that annoys me most is the pervasive belief that transforming something into a digital version of itself, somehow magically reduces the cost and illicit’s the response of how much cheaper is it? Or, Emma Cheaper Chizzit? I’ve had a number of frustrating digital-economics discussions this week, so I feel a rant coming on…I was at CNI (Coalition of Networked Information – #cni11s) in San Diego at the beginning of the week. If you’re not familiar with CNI, think of MCN of technology steroids. Clifford Lynch is the President – enough said.

The coolest thing I saw was Memento – http://www.mementoweb.org/ a framework and protocol for adding a time dimension to web browsing. Think of surfing the internet archive, with a seamless interface, use the Firefox plugin time slider to slide to a previous date and see your web pages revert. Very cool, particularly for those of us who have web content management systems that publish time-stamped editions.

It seemed as though half of the project briefings at CNI were around the topics of digital publishing. The scientific community is ahead of the museum community on this topic and already discussing and implementing Open Access for their digital publishing efforts. I saw a couple of briefings that basically relayed the same thought process on how they are going to support a no-charge model for their intellectual property: they haven’t really thought about how they’re going to support a no-charge model for their intellectual property. Or rather, they’d thought about it but hadn’t figured out a model. In some instances they’re moving from a membership model to Open Access, because they don’t believe they can charge for their publications, so they’re just going to do it. They then start criticising the newspaper industry for now trying to put up pay walls for their content, having previously offered it for free. This is where I get upset. They’re making the same mistake, no thought about the business model, just do it and figure out out the revenue piece later. How long before they figure out they need to put up a pay wall?

That’s the scientific community, of course it has to be different in the museum community…

As I said in my presentation, printed scholarly publications are not cheap, they don’t enjoy a huge print run, we recoup some of our investment through sales, but we subsidize it because its part of our mission. Digital versions of our scholarly catalogue will not be cheap either. Not only will they not be cheap, they won’t be cheaper. If we create truly engaging online versions of our scholarly catalogues, taking advantage of the medium, they will be more expensive because they will require more people and those people are more expensive, and the platforms on which they run will require ongoing maintenance and support, and that costs money too. Something you don’t need for a book. Oh, and the online version will be free.

Forget about scholarly catalogues, I don’t how much simpler I can say this: Digital is not cheap. Digital is not cheaper.

But don’t take my word for it, I found a great quote from Theodore Gray, author of the Elements – a truly fantastic iPad app, printed book, website, etc.:

“Truly useful interactivity requires skill sets beyond those commonly found in publishing companies: videography, audio, programming. If you want to produce a great ebook (or app), you need to bring in people who can make that happen. Programmers need to be treated as top talent, just like authors.”

Theodore Gray, author of “The Elements”

So it’s a double whammy, not only is it more expensive but now we don’t get to offset any investment. Its time to take a hard look at our revenue model.

Source: Museum Financial Information 2009. Edited and with Commentary by Elizabeth E. Merritt and Philip M. Katz. 2009. AAM.

Museum’s have four basic revenue streams: Government, Private, Investment and Earned. The first three are becoming either more volatile or diminishing – look how many museum development jobs there are. Despite this, museums still insist on blindly basing the fourth stream, their earned income, on an intrinsically limited, geographically-based pool, when a revolution is happening in the digital economy – pay to play. And I mean revolution in the literal sense of the word – the same thing coming around again. I used to subscribe to my printed magazine and my printed newspaper, now I subscribe to my magazine and newspaper online. I truly don’t understand why everyone has such a hard time over subscription for online content. The newspaper industry has finally realised that this is the only model that makes sense and they are conveniently training our public in the concept of paid subscription for online intellectual property, on our behalf – thanks. The only museum I’m aware of that has even remotely addressed this is Brooklyn with their 1^stfans membership.

(It occurs to me that our kids will wonder why we call it the news “paper” industry, a bit like “dial’ this number.)

As a private non-profit, funded by an endowment and no membership, my institution has the luxury of being able to make our digital publications free with minimal disruption to our model, because its not based on revenue. We also have the luxury to be able to subsidize our print publishing. I think we’ll take a last-man-standing approach to the demise of print publishing.

However, for museums that rely on paid feet through the door and membership that offers discounts on things you can only experience when you’re physically at the museum – in the store, free parking, advanced exhibition viewing, etc., you’re going to have a problem. Its time to stop trying to inch those membership numbers up or hike the prices – that delicate balance between charging more but not pissing of too many people who’ll drop membership altogether – and go for a different model.

I’d love to know if anyone has an alternative solution to how to address that online audience outside of subscription. Putting a couple of trends together: people are starting to pay for content, more and more people are consuming on mobile devices, mobile devices will become our payment systems. I think that a subscription model based on micro-payments is the only viable solution: 50c for a museum article on Monet? Accept? Yes. Would you like to “supersize” that zoomed image for an additional 25c? Accept? Yes.

Digital costs. Get over it. Pay for it.

Ignite Smithsonian, April 11th, 2011

And the link is here

- Del.icio.us, Dec 2010

You may have seen the news that the future may not be tasty for Del.icio.us. It doesn’t look like del.icio.us is going away, but its future seems certain not be on the Yahoo menu: Yahoo Claims It’s Not Killing Delicious

OK, enough of the culinary allusions, this is good news. No, not because Yahoo can’t organise a piss-up in a brewery, but because it reminds people that sites like this are temporary, in this case it looks like it will end (temporarily) happily ever after.  That is, until the next company that buys it can’t figure out what the business model for a social bookmarking site is.

The business model for many internet or software startups is predicated on them being acquired by one of the giants. See

• Google acquisitions
• Yahoo acquisitions

for a taster.

It should come as no surprise that you can’t guarantee that the software you’re (temporarily) using is, well, temporary. As painful as it is to hear, the truth is that corporations don’t care about those pesky freeloading users, its all about the up-sell and those coverted paying users.

We use many platforms and frameworks to get the word out about the intiatives we are doing, but we acknowledge that they are transient, it is throwaway work, throwaway editorial content or derivative media and graphics. Anyone posting master content to a platform or site that they don’t control needs to be beaten about the face and neck and thrown roughly to the floor.

The one internet thing you do control is your own website. Hopefully. So all these web 2.0 applications you’re using should be directing traffic and users to where your real content is. They’re called web 2.0 because they’ll be web 3.0 and we’ll all discard our web 2.0 stuff, just like the iPod Touch 3 that’ll be passed down when I get my hands on the iPod Touch 4 that’s waiting in my stocking.

What’s in your stocking?

Season’s Greetings!

Lesson 1 of 5

A man is getting into the shower as his wife is getting out, when the Doorbell rings. She quickly wraps herself in a towel and runs downstairs. She opens the door to Fred, the next door neighbour.

Before she says a word, Fred says, ‘I’ll give you $500 to drop that towel.’ After thinking for a moment, she drops it and stands naked in front of Fred. After a few seconds, Fred hands her $500 and leaves.

Wrapping herself in the towel, as she gets to the bathroom, her husband asks: ‘Who was that?’

‘It was Fred the next door neighbour’ she replies.

‘Great!’ the husband says, ‘did he say anything about the $500 he owes me?’

Moral of the story: If you share critical information with your management you may be in a position to prevent avoidable exposure.

Lesson 2 of 5

A priest offered a Nun a lift.

As she sat in the car, she could not help but reveal a leg.

The priest nearly had an accident.

After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’

He removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.

The nun once again said, ‘Father, remember Psalm 129?’

The priest apologized ‘Sorry sister but the flesh is weak’.

Arriving at the convent, the nun went on her way.

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Psalm 129. It said, ‘Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory.’

Moral of the story: If you are not well informed in your job, you might miss a great opportunity.

Lesson 3 of 5

A sales rep, an administration clerk and their manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.

They rub it and a Genie pops out.

The Genie says, ‘I’ll give each of you just one wish’.

‘Me first! Me first!’ says the admin clerk.

‘I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world’.

Puff! She’s gone.

‘Me next! Me next!’ says the sales rep. ‘I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of Pina Coladas and the love of my life’.

Puff! He’s gone.

‘OK, you’re up’, the Genie says to the manager.

The manager says, ‘I want those two back in the office after lunch’.

Moral of the story: Always let your boss have the first say.

Lesson 4 of 5

An eagle was sitting on a tree resting, doing nothing. A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, ‘Can I also sit like you and do nothing?’

The eagle answered: ‘Sure, why not.’ So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested.

All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Moral of the story: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson 5 of 5

A turkey was chatting with a bull.

‘I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree,’ sighed the turkey, ‘but I haven’t got the energy.’

‘Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?’ replied the bull. ‘They’re packed with nutrients.’

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally, after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story: Bulls–t might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.

And so ends the lesson, season’s greetings…

click for the YouTube the link

Bilal will undergo surgery to have the camera implanted in coming weeks (the camera itself will actually be affixed to a piercing-like attachment) and will wear his camera for a year as it snaps still pictures at one-minute intervals, beaming them live to the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar for visitors to observe.

While in itself, the article is “damn interesting”, the comments are better:

Does anyone know of any other sites that are good for Science articles like this? I like reading PopSci during my work day but there just aren’t enough articles to stimulate me through the entire day nor are these articles long or in-depth enough. Thanks for the help.

and the reply…

This is your boss. I recommend working at work to stimulate you through your work day.

Thank You,

Your NOW previous Boss

Followed by a litany of websites to stimulate you throughout your day…

Our cunning plan was to keep the music low while the guests were eating, give them a chance to digest their food, then announce that the party was about to start. We would “fake” a small explosion, switch off the power to the whole rig, giving the impression that all was lost and the party would be a bust. We would then flip the power back on and lead with the number one dance-party hit of the day, the crowd would shout hooray! and the party would be an enormous success.

“Lucky Eddie” was in charge of flipping of the power and he would signal yours truly with a flick of his foot, because at that point, yours truly was crouched under the turntable desk, with a Scalextric transformer (a large 12V battery), a pair of wires and an overly-large theatrical explosive. Just before it exploded, I remember thinking it was probably bigger than we needed.

You know that Wile E. Coyote cartoon when something explodes in his face and its all black with his fur sticking up and backwards? That was me, sans hair and eyebrows. We were both thrown backwards about 10 feet and the table, turntable and records went the other way onto the dancefloor. Luckily no one was dancing at that point.

The next thing I remember was being carried down some stairs, slung over the shoulder of some guy and I remember thinking how organised the evacuation appeared to be going. As it turned out, the Father of the Bride was the Fire Chief and he was best mates with the Police Chief, who was also there. Needless to say Lucky Eddie and I were “detained”. Miraculously, no charges were filed, but we had to do a significant number of free weddings for the fire and police departments.

If you’ve read The Horizon Report – 2010 Museum Edition, you’ll know that there is no mention of turntables or DJ-ing. However, on the time-to-adoption horizon of four-to-five years you’ll note there is mention of Gesture-Based Computing. In what is probably the best example of a multi-touch table that I’ve seen, a great post from a recent BFA graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute that steps through the design process of a DJ turntable interface:

A recent bfa graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, Gerg Kaufman chose to redesign a tool for music as his final Senior project, the DJ table. As a DJ himself, he saw an opportunity to make a change that would drastically influence DJing by not only thinking about the tool but also the logistics of owning and transporting the equipment. He found the process of DJing cumbersome and inefficient as DJs must go through an arduous process of preparing and transporting the equipment. Heavy, bulky, expensive and tedious are the tasks of set up and tear down. There is also the risk of dropping and damaging the equipment as you move back and forth between venues. Gerg saw an opportunity to consolidate these obstacles by developing and designing a digital DJ turntable.

Here’s the link: Multi Touch Light Table

I wonder if it can withstand theatrical explosions?