Michael Edson @ UGame ULearn: The Smithsonian Commons Prototype

The Smithsonian CommonsVast, Findable, Shareable, Freefor UGameULearn
UGameUlearn 2010
TU Delft Library and DOK
Library Concept Center, Delft, NL
3/31/2010
Michael Edson
Director, Web and New Media Strategy
Smithsonian Institution, Office of the CIO
edsonm@si.edu | @mpedson

Preamble
Twitter @mpedson
UGameUlearn twitter hashtag #ugul10Flickr: Ugame
Slides and documents: http://slideshare.net
Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy wiki: http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com
Coming soon: http://www.si.edu/commons
Note: I’m not an official spokesperson for the Smithsonian Institution !

The Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Strategic Plan
Four Grand Challenges
Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe
Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet
Valuing World Cultures
Understanding the American Experience

Strategy Schmatergy! We’ve seen strategy before!
A GenericHumbug

No! This is about solving big hairy problems— ”work that matters” (via @timoreilly)
Strategy Schmatergy! We’ve seen strategy before!
A GenericHumbug

Empower citizen-scholars!
Blend assets w. new technology!

Solve big complex problems!
Interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships!

Interdisciplinary
Collaborative
Entrepreneurial

“Innovative informal education” !!!

“Use our vast resources for the public good in the midst of unceasing change”

This is big, audacious, important stuff.
This is work!
This is relevance earned through a job well done.

First order questions
Where is this work going to take place?
What kind of organization, infrastructure, platforms will be needed to support it?
What is the organizational change model? How will change happen? What will it look like?

First order questions
Where is this work going to take place?
What kind of organization, infrastructure, platforms will be needed to support it?
What is the organizational change model? How will change happen? What will it look like?
“You know Michael, this strategy is just the part of the iceberg you can see above the water. Everything below the waterline is change management.”
Leo Mullen
CEO, Navigation Arts

Something strange is going onwithin our institutions

Chris AndersonFree, the Future of a Radical Price

Chris AndersonFree, the Future of a Radical Price
Huh!?
Duh!

Huh!?
Duh!

Thermocline(a metaphor)
Stratified water temperature acts as a barrier

Knowledge, communication,
action models are different
Management
Practitioners

Messages get distorted, lost

Thermocline Issues define the change environment and explain why the commons is such an important idea

Urgency
Thermocline Issues
Complacency
John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency

In exchange for public
funds and public trust,museums should
do workfor society
Thermocline Issues
Museums are for…
What could you accomplish with
$1b /year for 50 years?

Institutions built onthe model of
social entrepreneurship:
Think Big,Start SmallMove Fast
Thermocline Issues
Institutions built onthe model ofenduring wisdom*
We can move slowlybecause wisdom endures
*Via Peter Schwartz, GBN

Thermocline Issues
Focus on innovation/
discovery inside the Institution
Catalyze innovation/
discovery
outside the institution
Joy’s Law: no matter
who you are, most of
The smartest people
work for someone else

Thermocline Issues
The most interestingecosystems arein “border habitats”between the two
You can managetechnology and content
separately

Thermocline Issues
Fixation on Web 2.0
and Social Media

Thermocline Issues
The Web is a
fundamentally new
way of getting
things done
The Web is
a bigger megaphone

Thermocline Issues
“we are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions and organization …Getting the free and ready participation of a large, distributed group with a variety of skills has gone from impossible to simple.”
Clay Shirky

Thermocline Issues
Build an ascendant brandby“doing work that matters”
Make money, now
“Once [the Smithsonian] has increased user base 100x or more, many other possibilities open”
Carl Malamud
Public.resource.org
Tim O’Reillyhttp://radar.oreilly.com/2009/01/work-on-stuff-that-matters-fir.html

Thermocline Issues
The Desktop Internet
3.5 Billionmobile subscribers

Thermocline Issues
The Desktop Internet
3.5 Billionmobile subscribers
Moore’s Law means
these things will be 20X
More powerful in a few years...
It’s going to get FREAKY!

Gardeningchange model*Build a platform &cultivate Web 2.0
As a way of thinkingabout work
Thermocline Issues
Manufacturingchange model
“Lets Build Product Xand be done with it”
* Via Josh Greenberg, NYPL

Your users are heroes
In their ownepic journeys
Thermocline Issues
Provide services
to passive audiences

Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy
The updated Learning Model

Old Learning Model
Old Learning Model
New Learning Model
New Learning Model

Your users are heroes
In their ownepic journeys
Thermocline Issues
Provide services
to passive audiences
Kathy Sierra

Thermocline Issues
These thermocline issues..
Urgency
Velocity
Web 2.0 fundamentals
The mobile Internet
Moore’s law
and the changing workplace…

Thermocline Issues
…should be at the core of any responsible discussion of public institutions—knowledge institutions—and our role in the culture.

Thermocline Issues
…should be at the core of any responsible discussion of public institutions—knowledge institutions—and our role in the culture.
What is our work, and how should we do it?

Relevance

Relevance
Note: more detail, text, footnotes, links related to the following slides are in the paper Imagining a Smithsonian Commons
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/cil-2009-michael-edson-text-version

Relevance
Q: Have you ever visited a Smithsonian Web site?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5x4Sga0d1s

Relevance
Unexpected Rivals in Google Search
Google Images
Wikipedia
Ocean.com
Discoveryeducation.com
NASA
Enchantedlearning.com

Relevance
Unexpected Rivals in Reach
Google Images
Wikipedia
Ocean.com
…so much more reach than SI
that we don’t even show up on the graph…
si.edu
discoveryeducation.com
ocean.com

Relevance
Unexpected Rivals in Reach (July – Sept, 2009)
si.edu
ocean.com

Relevance
Unexpected Rivals in Reach (July – Sept, 2009)
Enchantedlearning.com is a two person team, with more online reach than the world’s largest museum and research complex!
si.edu
ocean.com

Relevance
Traffic Trending Down
si.edu – 4% reach
Wikipedia.org + 8% reach
MoMA.org + 12% reach
npr.org + 20% reach

Relevance
Brand Identity
Brandtags.net
We are the 560th of 928 brands

Relevance
We’re competing with… everybody!

Relevance
We’re competing with… everybody!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNXahIoXMw8&playnext_from=TL&videos=wEF3FIOIjaU
http://flickr.com/search/?q=spaceshipone&w=all

Relevance
The Demographic Tsunami
November 2007 data: Pew Internet and American Life Project

Relevance
“Everything we hear from people we interview is that today’s consumers draw no distinctions between an organization’s Web site and their traditional bricks-and-mortar presence: both must be excellent for either to be excellent.”
Lee RainiePew Internet and American Life Project

Relevance
Collaborative Model
“we are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the framework of traditional institutions and organization …Getting the free and ready participation of a large, distributed group with a variety of skills has gone from impossible to simple.”
Clay Shirky

Relevance
“The Smithsonian is not an Institution that understands me”
From focus group withBay Area millennials, 2009
“Surprise me!”

Relevance

Relevance
Do we behave, manage, and spend money
as if we believe this is true?

Enter Web and New Media Strategy

Smithsonian 2.0

Process: Workshops to Wiki

Process at-a-glance
“The main intent of the workshops is to move relevant information to the wiki where it can be openly evaluated, sifted, weighed, and considered by all.”

As participants are speaking, what they’re saying is being typed and saved on a public wiki

“What I say really matters (because I know it will be seen/heard after the meeting ends)”

“Not everything that matters will get said in the next hour by the people in this room. The wiki encourages thoughtful synthesis and new ideas”

Very important slide!
The advantages of public, transparent, and fast
Faster than traditional committee-driven process (Time is the enemy)
Increase size of brain trust (Joy’s Law)
Improve the odds for change
Improve odds for execution (public promises not easily forgotten)
Outside champions more likely to support “commons” goals than status-quo insiders
Walking the Talk vis-à-vis crowdsourcing and innovation model
“You get what you practice”

Web & New Media Strategy
This is a document that is supposed to DO WORK
Aspirationaland achievable
External Mission
Brand
Learning
Audience
Internal Interpretation
Technology
Business Model
Governance

Web & New Media Strategy Structure
Three Themes
Update the Smithsonian Digital Experience
Update the Smithsonian Learning Model
Balance Autonomy and Control within SI
Eight Goals
External Mission
Brand
Learning
Audience
Internal Interpretation
Technology
Business Model
Governance
Each Goal has specific program, policy, and tactical recommendations

http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

The strategy talks about an updated digital experience, a new learning model that helps people with their "lifelong learning journeys," and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons—a new part of our digital presence dedicated to stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities.
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/

What is a Commons?
A set of resources maintained in the public sphere for the use and benefit of everyone

What is a Commons?

What is a Commons?
The Anti-Commons…

What is a Commons?
An organized workshop where raw materials can be found and assembled into new things.

What is a Commons?
Note: more detail, text, footnotes, links related to this topic are in the papers Imagining a Smithsonian Commons
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/cil-2009-michael-edson-text-version
and
Museum Commons: A professional interaction
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/museum-commons-a-professional-interaction-museums-and-the-web-2010-michael-edson-and-rich-cherry

12 dimensions of a commons

1. Federated
Assets from separate databases or repositories are presented together, irrespective of what organization or department they came from

2. Designed for usersToolsets to allow specific user groups to effectively use the combined collections and data

3. FindableSearch and findability are strongly emphasized

4. ShareableThe architecture of the commons emphasizes persistent URL's and linking/embedding tools that enable and encourage sharing

5. Reusable: Intellectual property policies are uniform and clearly stated

6. FreeAssets are free to access and use

7. Bulk downloadThe commons platform provides for bulk download of assets

8. Machine readableAssets are presented in machine readable formats

9. High resolutionAssets are made available in high resolution and not unnecessarily restricted.

10. Collaboration without controlThe commons platform, through a combination of the attributes above, enables collaboration and research without the necessity of formal contracts or agreements.

11. Network effectsCommons platforms are designed to take advantage of network effects from user contributions

12. The Public DomainParticularly for collecting institutions, understanding and advancing the public domain (U.S. law) or “CC-0” (Creative Commons “zero”) is, or should be, a core activity

Later, encapsulated as
Vast, Findable, Shareable, Free… (stay tuned)

How do we talk about this?

What does this mean for staff and users?

What does this mean for staff and users?
A lot of Thermocline topics here, which we know can be confusing and devisive…

Let’s Build a Prototype!
Huh?

What’s a Prototype?
An audio-visual presentation that shows the attributes of a fully completed Smithsonian Commons as seen through the eyes of our users.

What’s a Prototype?
Push / pull between understanding what this thing is and understanding how to sell it

http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com

The Smithsonian Commons Will…
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/Experience+Brief+-+Addendum+-+The+Smithsonian+Commons+Will

Conceptual Development: “Low Rez” Wireframes

Conceptual Development: Paper Prototypes

To maximize speed and promote the values of prototyping (as opposed to polished end-product development) we put rough process videos (via YouTube embeds), storyboards (via Scribd embeds), scripts, notes, comments…all on a public wiki. For example: http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/Experience+Brief+-+Story+2+-+Teacher-Family

The Attributes of the Smithsonian Commons

Vast
Anyone in the world can have access to the whole Smithsonian, including access to deep collections and the vitality, curiosity, and creativity of our staff, visitors, partners, and our extended global community. The Smithsonian is at the center of an amazing network of ideas, collections, and people. No other institution can offer so much to so many.

Findable
Through the Smithsonian Commons the vastness of the Smithsonian can be discovered because search, navigation, and the overall user experience is about helping people to find the content they’re interested in, in the ways they expect to find it, including through recommendations and comments by staff experts - - and visitors - - external search sites, and social networks.

Shareable
Sharing is the foundation of collaboration and learning. The Smithsonian’s impact can be greatly amplified if what we have and what we do is easy to share. The Smithsonian Commons is about catalyzing creativity and innovation by encouraging the use and re-use of our collections and expertise for work and pleasure, in social networks, on mobile phones, and in the classroom, workshop, and laboratory.

Free
The Smithsonian is built on the idea that the tools of discovery and knowledge creation should be available to all, and the Smithsonian Commons will be built on the idea that free, trusted, high-quality resources can create a lot of good in the world…

Art is the lie that helps ustell the truth
Pablo Picasso
The prototype…

Screen capture from Smithsonian Commons prototype(coming soon @ http://www.si.edu/commons)

http://www.si.edu/commons(coming soon!)

Trailhead
The Smithsonian Commons Prototype
http://www.si.edu/commons (coming soon!)
Strategy Process
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/michael-edson-mcn-09-smithsonian-web-and-new-media-strategy-drivers-process-and-execution
Strategy Wiki
http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com
Imagining a Smithsonian Commons
Paper, ppt, link to video at http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/cil-2009-michael-edson-text-version
Formal paper about the strategy & process
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/michael-edson-the-smithsonian-web-and-new-media-strategy-what-it-is-how-we-made-it-and-why-it-makes-a-difference-3656578
Paper about the attributes of a commons
http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/museum-commons-a-professional-interaction-museums-and-the-web-2010-michael-edson-and-rich-cherry
Thermocline, process maturity, other presentations/papers
http://slideshare.net/edsonm
Twitter: @mpedson, #si20

Thank You!!!

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Michael Edson @ UGame ULearn: The Smithsonian Commons Prototype

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