Niche or platform: what next for our institutions online?

hello. I’m Mike Ellis.

http://electronicmuseum.org.uk

http://twitter.com/m1ke_ellishttp://slideshare.com/dmje

what I’ve got to say isn’t geeky

it is a well known fact that I should only have 10 slides

number of slides >

pain10

bearable

number of slides >

pain

bearable

n

childbirth

frankly, quite unreasonable

10

instead, I am going to try the “n-slide experiment”

rest assured, however: there is no comic sans,

..no clip art...

why are we all holding hands?

..and a mere ten ideas

Idea #11:

Be nice to each other

what is the problem we need to solve?

“how do we ensure we remain relevant?”

..in a world where it would be easy to become marginalised

your site is here

Money & Resource = Freedom

No Money & Resource = Freedom

A Little Money & Resource

= Limbo

Museums, libraries, galleries, archives

Google, Microsoft, VC-Funded Apps

Kids in Bedrooms, Bootstrapped Ideas, Side Projects

..and where limbo is a problem..

thanks to @zambonini

institutional lag

one answer: we move from niche to platform

one answer: we move from niche to platform

the^

what is a "platform" ?

a place where we encourage...support...enable...our communities

let’s start at the beginning

“The Web is big. Really big. It may seem like a long way to the corner chemist, but compared to the Web, that's peanuts.”

In 1997 there were around 26M pages (URLs) on the Web. Today we estimate there are more than 1 trillion pages of content

...an average person would need six hundred thousand decades of nonstop reading to read through the information.

bing.com : http://bit.ly/a222zd

...and growing all the time

the internet

http://www.sun.com/featured-articles/2009-0325/feature

http://pewinternet.org

we do this online

and not just at our desks..

ultimately, though, people is what the internet is about

Idea #1:

The user is everything

Be a

SonDaughterMotherWifeHusbandFanBelieverTeacherEducatorPoliticianLoverFriendCrazyperson

rather than a YOU

what makes users *really* engaged?

green issues

silliness

visualisations

crumpets

musicfun

family

design

web 2.0

technology

cider

what makes users *really* engaged?

green issues

silliness

visualisations

crumpets

musicfun

family

design

web 2.0

technology

cider

“relevant stuff”

can MLA’s (anyone) provide “relevant stuff” all the time?

Idea #2:

Q: where should we be?

A: where the people are

but where are the people?

thanks to @zambonini

the “silo mentality” is tempting

what is the alternative?

less "web site", more "web presence"

Idea #3:

Connecting is a human condition, not a

technological one

selfactualisation

esteem

love / belonging

safety

physiological

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

maslow says this:

selfactualisation

esteem

love / belonging

safety

physiological

confidence

respect

community

friendshipintimacy

creativityweb2 says this:

“I don't call my parents in Canada and recount the latest additions to my daughter's vocabulary because they need to know that the kid can say ‘elephant’ and ‘potty’ now; I call them up to say, ‘all is well with your son and his family’, and ‘you are in my heart’, and ‘I love you’.”

Cory Doctorow: “how to say stupid things about social media”The Guardian http://bit.ly/5WDjsA

…and remember that everyone likes being stroked

Idea #4:

The web isn’t necessary

zine blog

radio show podcast

group project wiki

word of mouth twitter

address book social network

http://www.slideshare.net/ninaksimon

..we already do this stuff

the web just makes it easier

think about how the offline fits

Idea #5:

Do less, and do it better

start small

start internally

define your audience

lifelong learner

Idea #6:

We didn’t need Einstein to get us to

the moon

e=mc hair

“the perfect truth is perhaps not to be had, and certainly isn't necessary for startling and brilliant success”

Idea #7:

If there was only one telephone in the world,

it’d be rubbish

(however cool the telephone)

the more people who own telephones, the more useful they become.

There is a "positive externality" - a user doesn’t intend for their phone to create value for others, but it does

positive externality – the “network effect”

..but this also meshes with "start small"

"A more natural strategy is to build a system that has enough value without network effects, at least to early adopters"

Idea #8:

Open is always better than closed

What is "open" ?

standards technology

open source

information

approach

honest

this means re-use

and also a loss of control

re-use is good, and we never had "control" anyway...

"treate the web as a creative canvas"

The BBC's 15 web principles: http://www.tomski.com/archive/new_archive/000063.html

http://www.aadl.org/catalog/search/keyword/tree

Idea #9:

Think “cost curve” all the time

the what?

value

cost

n

bad

good

great

"walk away" threshold

value

cost

in short...

if you ask your user to put in some effort, provide them with something equal or greater in value as a response

http://unicorn.lib.ic.ac.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/NUewLUT6Y9/CENTRAL/122810016/38/0/POWER_SEARCH

this kind of thing is ok...

Search:

...but this is usually better

Idea #10:

Fail quickly

iterate, Darwin-style

let the successes float, and sink the failures quickly

a takeaway thought..?

1. User is everything2. Be where everyone is3. Connecting is a human condition4. Think beyond the web5. Do less, better6. Be less perfect7. Leverage the network8. Be open9. Focus on the cost curve10. Fail quickly

recap..

focus on personal connections and real users to build a platform for your [niche] communities

or...

thanks to these people

superhuman http://www.flickr.com/photos/esparta/482348262wrong way http://www.flickr.com/photos/dsevilla/97727582many me Thanks to http://gilest.org/don't panic http://flickr.com/photos/brighton/2153602543answer http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellysmith/519503962answer2 http://www.flickr.com/photos/rudiriet/525401387/simple http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmajane/2580835224problem solving http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeanlouis_zimmermann/3042616053logos 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryyo/249804450containers http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/3898801499beginning http://www.flickr.com/photos/cefeida/2167070556no http://www.flickr.com/photos/biscuitsmlp/2247299538silos http://www.flickr.com/photos/zoomzoom/304135268hair http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocularsmith/239674652moon http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/2482050441thanks http://www.flickr.com/photos/compujeramey/22029168just relax http://www.flickr.com/photos/victornuno/205239817cloth puppet http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellomokona/2907265786texture http://www.flickr.com/photos/zooboing/4099287371

and thanks to you. questions..?

http://electronicmuseum.org.uk

http://twitter.com/m1ke_ellishttp://slideshare.com/dmje