Let Us Go Boldly Into the Present :: Michael Edson

1. Michael Edson Director, Web and New Media Strategy Smithsonian Institution, Office of the CIO edsonm@si.edu | @mpedson

2. This is what I’ve been talking about recently…

3. http://www.dish2011.nl/ http://aarhus11.jboye.com/ http://www.opentext.com/2/global/products/products- opentext-social-workplace/products-opentext-social- workplace-speaker-series July 2011 NDIIPP/NDSA Partners Meeting http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/n ews/events/ndiipp_meetings/ndiipp1 1/ http://www.dkmuseer.dk/tidliger earrangementer/1186.html http://www.infotoday.com/cil2012/day.asp?day=Friday

4. Michael Edson Director, Web and New Media Strategy Smithsonian Institution, Office of the CIO edsonm@si.edu | @mpedson @mpedson

5. Michael Edson Director, Web and New Media Strategy Smithsonian Institution, Office of the CIO edsonm@si.edu | @mpedson @mpedson slideshare.net/edsonm

6. slideshare.net/edsonm Text version of this talk (with links and footnotes) http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm /michael-edson-let-us-go-boldly- into-the-present-text-version

7. Michael Edson Director, Web and New Media Strategy Smithsonian Institution, Office of the CIO edsonm@si.edu | @mpedson @mpedson slideshare.net/edsonm www.si.edu/commons

8. Michael Edson Director, Web and New Media Strategy Smithsonian Institution, Office of the CIO edsonm@si.edu | @mpedson Doesn’t make policy, not a spokesman

9. From Zero History by William Gibson Photo © Michael O’Shea

10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quartier_Commons.jpg

11. “But now he saw, however briefly but with peculiar clarity, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quartier_Commons.jpg

12. “But now he saw, however briefly but with peculiar clarity, an aerial penguin cross the intersection ahead of him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quartier_Commons.jpg

13. “Something wholly penguin-shaped, apparently four or five feet long, from beak-tip to trailing feet, and made, it seemed, of mercury. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Quartier_Commons.jpg

14. “A penguin wrapped in fluid mirror, reflecting a bit of neon from the street below. rue in Latin Quarter by Charles Hutchins, CC attribution http://www.flickr.com/photos/celesteh/396424823/in/faves-46758972@N00/

15. rue in Latin Quarter by Charles Hutchins, CC attribution http://www.flickr.com/photos/celesteh/396424823/in/faves-46758972@N00/ “Swimming.

16. Moving as a penguin moves underwater, but through the Latin Quarter air, at just above the height of second-story windows. “Swimming.

17. “Moving down the center of the street that crossed the one he walked on. So that it was revealed only as it crossed the intersection. 2008_06_27_paris_walk_06 by Doc Searls, CC Attribution http://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/4745436344/sizes/l/in/photostream/

18. 2008_06_27_paris_walk_06 by Doc Searls, CC Attribution http://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/4745436344/sizes/l/in/photostream/ “Moving down the center of the street that crossed the one he walked on. So that it was revealed only as it crossed the intersection. Swimming.

19. Propelling itself, in a gracefully determined but efficient fashion, with its quicksilver flippers. 2008_06_27_paris_walk_06 by Doc Searls, CC Attribution http://www.flickr.com/photos/docsearls/4745436344/sizes/l/in/photostream/ “Moving down the center of the street that crossed the one he walked on. So that it was revealed only as it crossed the intersection. Swimming.

20. Photo by paige_eliz, CC attribution,noncommercial, no derivatives http://www.flickr.com/photos/paige_eliz/480028794/sizes/l/in/photostream/ “Then a bicycle crossed, on the street, going in the opposite direction.

21. Photo by paige_eliz, CC attribution,noncommercial, no derivatives http://www.flickr.com/photos/paige_eliz/480028794/sizes/l/in/photostream/ “Did you see that?” Milgrim asked the cyclist…

22. “Did you see that?” Milgrim asked the cyclist…

23. I was asked to give a talk at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center this spring as part of their “Where do we go from here?” series

24. …And I thought that to answer that question you first had to think about where “here” is in the first place.

25. …And I thought that to answer that question you first had to think about where “here” is in the first place. “Here” isn’t where it used to be.

26. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/23/0806 23fa_fact_thurman?currentPage=all If you lived in Southern Europe 30,000 years ago, you might have made cave paintings like this.

27. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/23/0806 23fa_fact_thurman?currentPage=all If you lived in Southern Europe 30,000 years ago, you might have made cave paintings like this. “Here” was a period of cultural continuity that lasted 25,000 years. 1,000 generations.

28. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/23/0806 23fa_fact_thurman?currentPage=all http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools _kill_creativity.html

29. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/23/0806 23fa_fact_thurman?currentPage=all http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools _kill_creativity.html Contrast that with what Sir Ken Robinson had to say at TED 2006…

30. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/06/23/0806 23fa_fact_thurman?currentPage=all http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools _kill_creativity.html “…children starting school this year [2006] will be retiring in 2065. Nobody has a clue, despite all the expertise that’s been on parade over the last 4 days, what the world is going to look like in 5 years time, and yet we’re meant to be educating them for it. So the unpredictability, I think, is extraordinary.”

31. The Future is stuff that hasn’t happened yetThe future is stuff that hasn’t happened yet…Well, that’s what we used to think. That’s what this talk is about.

32. The strategist as a visionary

33. The strategist as a visionary 15 years ago, I thought it was the strategists job to look far out over the horizon…

34. The strategist as a visionary 15 years ago, I thought it was the strategists job to look far out over the horizon… But now, much of that distant, misty future has already happened. The present is what’s interesting and difficult

35. Strategy is language that does work The strategist as a visionary

36. Strategy is language that does work The strategist as a visionary Somebody smart said “software is language that does work.”

37. Strategy is language that does work The strategist as a visionary Somebody smart said “software is language that does work.” Strategy is the same—it’s a tool that helps you get difficult things done.

38. Strategy is language that does work The strategist as a visionary This is not just idle philosophy, our work matters

39. 1997 http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/05/do-modems-still-matter.html

40. date T.F.O.

41. date T.F.O.Technology Fetish Object A pattern I’ve noticed: speakers often have a slide with a date at the top and a Technology Fetish Object at the bottom, to show how quickly the gadgets of our youth go out of date.

42. 1997 http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/05/do-modems-still-matter.html

43. 1997 http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/05/do-modems-still-matter.html [ Modems ]

44. 1997 http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/05/do-modems-still-matter.html Half of Americans who were online used one of these…

45. 1997

46. 1997No focus, zoom, or preview. Stored 8 photos at 640 x 480

47. 1997

48. 1997

49. [ Digression ]

50. Remember this? The Blue Screen of Death? People had a special relationship with their BSOD

51. http://www.techmynd.com/50-plus-blue-screen-of-death-displays-in-public/ People had a special relationship with their BSOD

52. http://www.techmynd.com/50-plus-blue-screen-of-death-displays-in-public/

56. http://gizmodo.com/282986/the-blue-screen-of-death-tattoo

57. [ Ahem… ]

58. 1997 The future

59. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/

60. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Digital Strategy!

61. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ We’ve got to be more S.F.O. Digital Strategy!

62. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ We’ve got to be more S.F.O. Digital Strategy!

63. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Yes, we must be more S.F.O…

64. We’ve got a year to decide… http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Blah blah blah broadcast

65. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Everyone is down-sampling new ideas into a familiar context, in this case the broadcast idiom (and pace) of the late 20th century

66. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Example From a real museum strategy workshop

67. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Become the preeminent place for engagement and dialogue about national identity and the accomplishment and experience of citizens Strategic Goal of the museum

68. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ “Build an online collection of 10 million portraits of citizens and their stories, created and uploaded without official curation by members of the public. Build a community around this initiative to fuel engagement with national history, biography, and artistic creativity.” Proposed

69. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ “Do a website about family portraits” Proposed Adopted “Build an online collection of 10 million portraits of citizens and their stories, created and uploaded without official curation by members of the public. Build a community around this initiative to fuel engagement with national history, biography, and artistic creativity.”

70. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invattur/4013772522/sizes/l/in/photostream/ “Build an online collection of 10 million portraits of citizens and their stories, created and uploaded without official curation by members of the public. Build a community around this initiative to fuel engagement with national history, biography, and artistic creativity.” “Do a website about family portraits” Proposed Adopted Disconnect between different understandings of the present

71. • 2002: Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs • 2002: Lawrence Lessig’s The Future of Ideas • 2005: Tim O’Reilly’s what is web 2.0 • 2006: Wikinomics • “You” were the person of the year IN 2006!!! They nailed it 5 – 10 years ago

72. 2002 Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs

73. 2002 Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs

74. 2002 Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs “The first signs of the next shift began to reveal themselves to me on a spring afternoon in the year 2000. That was when I began to notice people on the streets of Tokyo staring at their mobile phones instead of talking to them. The sight of this behavior, now commonplace in much of the world, triggered a sensation I had experienced a few times before—the instant recognition that a technology is going to change my life in ways I can scarcely imagine.

75. 2002 Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs “The first signs of the next shift began to reveal themselves to me on a spring afternoon in the year 2000. That was when I began to notice people on the streets of Tokyo staring at their mobile phones instead of talking to them. The sight of this behavior, now commonplace in much of the world, triggered a sensation I had experienced a few times before—the instant recognition that a technology is going to change my life in ways I can scarcely imagine.

76. 2002 Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs —the instant recognition that a technology is going to change my life in ways I can scarcely imagine.”

77. 2002 Lawrence Lessig: The Future of Ideas

78. 2002 Lawrence Lessig: The Future of Ideas “The open and neutral platform of the Internet has spurred hundreds of companies to develop new ways for individuals to interact. …Groups form easily to discuss any issue imaginable; public debate is enabled by removing perhaps the most significant cost of human interaction— synchronicity.

79. 2002 Lawrence Lessig: The Future of Ideas “I can add to your conversation tonight; you can follow it up tomorrow; someone else, the day after. And this is just the beginning, as the technology will only get better.

80. 2002 Lawrence Lessig: The Future of Ideas “I can add to your conversation tonight; you can follow it up tomorrow; someone else, the day after. And this is just the beginning, as the technology will only get better.”

81. “I can add to your conversation tonight; you can follow it up tomorrow; someone else, the day after. And this is just the beginning, as the technology will only get better.” 2002 Lawrence Lessig: The Future of Ideas Two years before Facebook was founded Four years before Twitter launched

82. 2006 Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams Wikinomics

83. 2006 Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams Wikinomics “Smart companies are encouraging, rather than fighting, the heaving growth of massive online communities—many of which emerged from the fringes of the Web to attract tens of millions of participants overnight. Even ardent competitors are collaborating on path-breaking scientific initiatives that accelerate discovery in their industries.

84. 2006 Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams Wikinomics “Indeed as a growing number of firms see the benefits of mass collaboration, this new way of organizing will eventually displace the traditional corporate structures as the economy's primary engine of wealth creation.

85. 2006 Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams Wikinomics “Indeed as a growing number of firms see the benefits of mass collaboration, this new way of organizing will eventually displace the traditional corporate structures as the economy's primary engine of wealth creation.”

86. 2005 Tim O’Reilly What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software

87. 2005 Tim O’Reilly What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software 1. The long tail 2. Data is the next Intel Inside 3. Users add value 4. Network effects by default 5. Some rights reserved 6. The perpetual beta 7. Cooperate, don't control 8. Software above the level of a single device

88. December 25, 2006 “You” are the person of the year

89. December 25, 2006 “And we didn’t just watch, we also worked. Like crazy. We made Facebook profiles and Second Life avatars and reviewed books at Amazon and recorded podcasts. We blogged about our candidates losing and wrote songs about getting dumped. We camcordered bombing runs and built open- source software.”

90. Note: More examples related to open content and intellectual property are in Addendum 1 at the end of this show (slide 152)

91. We’ve come to recognize a new set of patterns over the last 10 years

92. Global audiences forming around niche interests

93. “No matter what business you’re in, most of the smart people work for someone else”

94. A Trillion hours/year of time available for creation and collaboration. (via Clay Shirky)

95. Websites that get better the more people use them

96. In 12 years this device will be 1,706 X more powerful than my desktop computer

97. Billions of connected mobile users. Voice, data, cameras, GPS, sensors…

98. Your users are heroes in their own epic journeys. Your job is to help them be great. [via Kathy Sierra]

99. These are not new ideas anymore

100. These are not new ideas anymore http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/99432/jimmy-wales-aps-landing-pages-a-good-if-late-idea/ “Nothing in this [strategy] couldn’t have been written by someone actually savvy in the Internet culture five years ago. ” -- Jimmy Wales on AP’s Digital Strategy

101. These are not new ideas anymore http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/99432/jimmy-wales-aps-landing-pages-a-good-if-late-idea/ “Nothing in this [strategy] couldn’t have been written by someone actually savvy in the Internet culture five years ago. ” -- Jimmy Wales on AP’s Digital Strategy OUCH!

102. Interview with William Gibson Photo © Michael O’Shea

103. “I think that when I was first reading science fiction, which would have been in the late 1950’s, the consensual “now” was 3 or 4 years long, and with 3 or 4 years of relatively unchanging ‘now’ a writer of science fiction had the space in which to erect something Photo © Michael O’Shea

104. “I think that when I was first reading science fiction, which would have been in the late 1950’s, the consensual “now” was 3 or 4 years long, and with 3 or 4 years of relatively unchanging ‘now’ a writer of science fiction had the space in which to erect something. Photo © Michael O’Shea

105. “…With that long a ‘now’ you could build a relatively big structure before that now hauled itself into the future that made your big structure obsolete. Photo © Michael O’Shea

106. “But today, now can feel like a news cycle. It’s like the now is too narrow to allow for that big a construct. We have too many wildcards in play with regard to our future to casually erect believable futures beyond a few years.” Photo © Michael O’Shea

107. “But today, now can feel like a news cycle. It’s like the now is too narrow to allow for that big a construct. We have too many wildcards in play with regard to our future to casually erect believable futures beyond a few years.” Photo © Michael O’Shea

108. “But today, now can feel like a news cycle. It’s like the now is too narrow to allow for that big a construct. “We have too many wildcards in play with regard to our future to casually erect believable futures beyond a few years.” Photo © Michael O’Shea http://matthewsheret.com/2010/10/04/timelines/

109. [The penguins are real] Photo © Michael O’Shea

110. http://youtu.be/jPGgl5VH5go

111. The future Now

112. The future Now

113. The futureNow

114. 20 million items in Europeana 66 million books in Librarything 250 million items in Trove 6 billion photos in Flickr 100 billion photos in Facebook 19M Wikipedia articles And we have this “now” in great abundance

115. “If you wanted to start a company back in 2000 it was a lot more difficult than it was today. You’d actually have to go out and buy dedicated servers, and there was no Amazon S3. There was no EC2. To get an idea off the ground today… [compared with] even just a few years ago…over this last decade the barrier to entry has been lowered quite a bit, to where if you have something new you want to explore it really is a couple thousand dollars to get something off the ground and launch it.” Digg founder Kevin Rose This Week In Tech, episode 228, at 22:00

116. The present is far more interesting than most organizations have noticed [paraphrase W. Gibson]

117. Cheap platforms and successful examples are all around us, in abundance…

118. Now, let’s get practical. Once you believe that the present moment is interesting… What should you do about it?

119. This document describes a transformational change for the Smithsonian, which will have impact on the Institution’s culture, operations, allocation of resources, talent recruitment, and priorities. The Smithsonian Commons http://www.si.edu/commons/prototype http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/Strategy+--+Table+of+Contents

120. Design Patterns for Going Boldly to the Present 1. The extra-terrestrial space auditor 2. On ramps and loading docks 3. Edge to core 4. Focus on mission 5. Place the bet

121. Oh, and please stop innovating… Failing fast… Risk taking… Collaborating…

122. Oh, and please stop innovating… Failing fast… Risk taking… Collaborating… Don’t focus on having more innovation! Focus on making progress towards well defined goals—doing “work that matters” [via Tim O’Reilly]. If you need more innovation or collaboration to get there, then remove the obstacles and step on the gas. See Forget innovation, from Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund http://www.sitra.fi/julkaisu/2011/forget-innovation

123. 1. Extraterrestrial Space Auditor http://www.flickr.com/photos/markusram/2060743986/sizes/o/in/photostream/

126. 1. Extraterrestrial Space Auditor http://www.flickr.com/photos/markusram/2060743986/sizes/o/in/photostream/ The British navy, "at the peak of their dominance in the 17th century," took 150 years to adopt a proven remedy for scurvy Via Scott Berkun The Myths of Innovation

127. 1. Extraterrestrial Space Auditor http://www.flickr.com/photos/markusram/2060743986/sizes/o/in/photostream/ The British navy, "at the peak of their dominance in the 17th century," took 150 years to adopt a proven remedy for scurvy Via Scott Berkun The Myths of Innovation

128. 1. Extraterrestrial Space Auditor http://www.flickr.com/photos/markusram/2060743986/sizes/o/in/photostream/ “Andreessen’s advice to old media…”

129. http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/06/andreessen-media-burn-boats/

130. 2. On Ramps and Loading Docks

131. 2. On Ramps and Loading Docks http://www.flickr.com/photos/debcll/2359690453/sizes/l/in/photostream/

132. 2. On Ramps and Loading Docks http://www.flickr.com/photos/debcll/2359690453/sizes/l/in/photostream/ “I’m all about building flexible networks so we can move ideas and goods between us and our customers, partners, and beneficiaries—quickly knowingly, and efficiently.” Carl the Loading Dock

133. 2. On Ramps and Loading Docks http://www.flickr.com/photos/cycleologist/3780757186/

134. 2. On Ramps and Loading Docks “A platform beats an application anytime.” Tim O’Reilly What is Web 2.0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/cycleologist/3780757186/

135. http://www.flickr.com/photos/cycleologist/3780757186/ 2. On Ramps and Loading Docks “A platform beats an application anytime.” Tim O’Reilly What is Web 2.0 …But think expansively about what constitutes a platform.

136. 3. Edge to core http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcocastelli/3313416138/sizes/l/in/photostream/

137. 3. Edge to core http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcocastelli/3313416138/sizes/l/in/photostream/ “Innovation at the Edges: A Commons in the Middle” Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy

138. 3. Edge to core http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcocastelli/3313416138/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Innovation becomes infrastructure

139. 3. Edge to core http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcocastelli/3313416138/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Innovation becomes infrastructure Help it!

140. 3. Edge to core http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcocastelli/3313416138/sizes/l/in/photostream/ Innovation becomes infrastructure Help it! Even if the edge and the core are outside your own organization

141. Smithsonian Strategic Plan Grand Challenges 1. Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe 2. Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet 3. Valuing World Cultures 4. Understanding the American Experience 4. Focus on mission

142. 4. Focus on mission 65 million people died in World War II

143. 4. Focus on mission The National WWII Museum is very focused on their mission

144. 5. Place the bet

145. 1. What world am I living in? 2. What impact does my country, my city, my organization want to have in that world 3. What should I do today?

146. 1. What world am I living in? 2. What impact does my country, my city, my organization want to have in that world 3. What should I do today?

147. 1. What world am I living in? 2. What impact does my country, my city, my organization want to have in that world 3. What should I do today? Keeping these three things in working memory at the same time is what we have to practice and get good at. This is it. This is the job.

148. Think Big Start Small Move Fast

149. 5. Focus on mission Thanks! @mpedson slideshare.net/edsonm

150. Addendum 1 The following slides were added to the “They Nailed It” section for Sharing is Caring: Digitized Cultural Heritage for All Copenhagen, Denmark, November 11, 2011 They are specific to that conference’s focus, intellectual property policy and openness in heritage organizations. ;)

151. • 2001: Creative Commons founded • 2001: MIT Open Courseware founded • 2002: Lawrence Lessig’s The Future of Ideas • 2002: Howard Rheingold’s Smart Mobs • 2006: Wikinomics (IBM) • (2008: Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy) They nailed it 5 – 10 years ago

152. 2001 Creative Commons founded

153. 2001 Creative Commons founded http://katiejane12.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/my-creative-commons-license/

154. 2001 MIT Open Courseware founded

155. 2001 MIT Open Courseware founded “I was amazed that a university such as MIT would freely give access to its educational information.” Triatno Yudo Harjoko University of Indonesia

156. 2001 MIT Open Courseware founded Other universities may be striving to market their courses to the Internet masses in hopes of dot-com wealth. But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has chosen the opposite path: to post virtually all its course materials on the Web, free to everybody.”

157. 2001 MIT Open Courseware founded Other universities may be striving to market their courses to the Internet masses in hopes of dot-com wealth. But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has chosen the opposite path: to post virtually all its course materials on the Web, free to everybody.

158. 2001 MIT Open Courseware founded ''Selling content for profit, or trying in some ways to commercialize one of the core intellectual activities of the university seemed less attractive to people at a deep level than finding ways to disseminate it as broadly as possible.'’ [Professor Stephen Lerman] Faculty Chairman Professor Stephen Lerman

161. 2001 MIT Open Courseware founded ''Selling content for profit, or trying in some ways to commercialize one of the core intellectual activities of the university seemed less attractive to people at a deep level than finding ways to disseminate it as broadly as possible.'’ [Faculty Chairman Professor Stephen Lerman]

162. 2001 MIT Open Courseware founded 100 million users in first 10 years

165. 2002 Lawrence Lessig: The Future of Ideas “If the Internet teaches us anything, it is that great value comes from leaving core resources in a commons, where they’re free for people to build upon as they see fit.”

168. 2006 Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams Wikinomics

169. 2005 A dumb company gave away $10 million in IT patents…

170. 2006

171. $100 million investment returned to the Linux commons …generated a 500% profit 2006

172. 2008 The Public Domain James Boyle

173. 2008 The Public Domain James Boyle

174. 2008 The Public Domain James Boyle “The public domain is not some gummy residue left over when all the good stuff has been covered by property law. The public domain is the place we quarry the building blocks of our culture.

175. 2008 The Public Domain James Boyle “The public domain is not some gummy residue left over when all the good stuff has been covered by property law. The public domain is the place we quarry the building blocks of our culture.”

176. 2008 Smithsonian Institution Web and New Media Strategy

177. 2008 Smithsonian Institution Web and New Media Strategy

178. Goal 7. Business Model “The Smithsonian’s basic business model is to create social and economic value through the increase and diffusion of knowledge… Ultimately, the most valuable business asset we can cultivate—and the one that is most fundamental to our core mission—is a community of engaged and committed Smithsonian enthusiasts.”

181. Goal 7. Business Model

182. Goal 7. Business Model Revenue Generation in Harmony with Mission Attempting to directly monetize access to, and use of, museum content does not appear to be a sustainable business model. Through these low-margin business practices, we alienate users, perpetuate the practice of institutions charging each other, discourage research and publications, and undermine our civic mission. It is likely that the Smithsonian will make more money by promoting “free” resources to a large audience than it can make charging small amounts for small transactions to a small audience, and it is a much better fit with the mission.

186. (Thanks again!)