Niche or Platform - what next for our institutions online?

Niche or platform: what next for our institutions online?

http://electronicmuseum.org.uk http://twitter.com/m1ke_ellis http://slideshare.com/dmje hello. I’m Mike Ellis.

what I’ve got to say isn’t geeky

number of slides > pain 10 bearable it is a well known fact that I should only have 10 slides

number of slides > pain bearable n childbirth frankly, quite unreasonable 10 instead, I am going to try the “n-slide experiment”

..no clip art... why are we all holding hands? rest assured, however: there is no comic sans,

..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?”

your site is here ..in a world where it would be easy to become marginalised

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 thanks to @zambonini ..and where limbo is a problem..

institutional lag

one answer: we move from niche to platform

the ^ one answer: we move from niche to platform

a place where we encourage... support... enable... our communities what is a "platform" ?

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

green issues silliness visualisations crumpets music fun family design web 2.0 technology cider what makes users *really* engaged?

green issues silliness visualisations crumpets music fun family design web 2.0 technology cider what makes users *really* engaged? “ 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

self actualisation esteem love / belonging safety physiological http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs maslow says this:

self actualisation esteem love / belonging safety physiological confidence respect community friendship intimacy creativity web2 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

lifelong learner define your audience

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”

"A more natural strategy is to build a system that has enough value without network effects, at least to early adopters" ..but this also meshes with "start small"

Idea #8: Open is always better than closed

standards technology open source information approach honest What is "open" ?

this means re-use

and also a loss of control

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

The BBC's 15 web principles: http://www.tomski.com/archive/new_archive/000063.html "treate the web as a creative canvas"

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

Idea #9: Think “cost curve” all the time

value cost n bad good great the what?

"walk away" threshold value cost

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

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 everything 2. Be where everyone is 3. Connecting is a human condition 4. Think beyond the web 5. Do less, better 6. Be less perfect 7. Leverage the network 8. Be open 9. Focus on the cost curve 10. Fail quickly recap..

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

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

http://electronicmuseum.org.uk http://twitter.com/m1ke_ellis http://slideshare.com/dmje and thanks to you. questions..?

Niche or Platform - what next for our institutions online?

by Mike Ellis on Mar 05, 2010

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Niche or Platform - what next for our institutions online? — Presentation Transcript