From Artifacts to Context: Developing a Digital Content Engine at The Henry Ford
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Presentation given at the Museum Computer Network (MCN) 2016 conference in New Orleans on 11/3/16, covering The Henry Ford's digital platform and digital content efforts. Audio of presentation located here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExQLVbXItok
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From Artifacts to Context: Developing a Digital Content Engine at The Henry Ford
- 1. From Artifacts to Context: Developing a Digital Content Engine at The Henry Ford Ellice Engdahl, Digital Collections & Content Manager Museum Computer Network November 3, 2016 @ErisuEEE
- 2. The Edison Institute, Founded 1929 Francis Jehl, Thomas Edison, President Herbert Hoover, and Henry Ford at Menlo Park Laboratory in Greenfield Village, 1929 (P.O.4556)
- 3. Five Venues Henry Ford Museum Greenfield Village Benson Ford Research Center Giant Screen Experience Ford Rouge Factory Tour Henry Ford Museum, 1953 (P.B.3002) Old Car Festival, 1959 (2005.0.9.18)
- 4. • ~250,000 objects • ~25 million archival documents and photographs • Historic audio and video • 200+ objects on loan to dozens of institutions • ~21,700 artifacts on display in Museum and Village (~5- 10% of non-archives collection) • More than 30 distinct collections storage areas totaling nearly 200,000 sq. ft. Eye Portrait, circa 1800 (61.151.40) Our Collections: “The Bottomless Pit of Wonderfulness”
- 5. Digital Vision: 2020 • Embrace the Connected Consumer – Deliver world class user experiences and exclusive content to consumers on all screen sizes and device types • Drive Global Accessibility – Curate digital-first content that effectively blends with physical experience to drive global access to America's most important history collection • Consumer Experience & Data Focused – Cultivate a consumer experience focused and data driven culture. Leverage data driven insights to optimize a consumer experience that effectively blends the physical and digital worlds • Monetization – Leverage digital technology and distribution models to optimize and create new and innovative revenue streams Advertising Photograph, Model with 1979 Ford Mustang interior Door and Seat (88.400.52)
- 7. New Digital Collections Interface • Findable • Responsive • Robust • User-friendly • Improved backend infrastructure
- 9. Explore
- 10. Skills • Content strategy & program management • Collections imaging (museum & archives) • Web implementation • Digital design • Cataloging • Collections management • Content authoring & project management • Conservation • Video production • Social media Women Employees Receiving Approved Coverall Uniforms at Willow Run Bomber Plant, 1942 (P.833.76946.F)
- 11. Process • Idea generation • Initial discussion • SME follow-ups • Idea finalization • Content creation – by or in collaboration with SME(s) • Content vetting – by or in collaboration with SME(s) • Content publication • Content distribution 1924 Ford Motor Company Institutional Message Advertising Campaign, "Organized Economies“ (64.167.19.601)
- 12. Content Types/Destinations for Storytelling • NEW – Connect3 videos – What If stories – Exhibit stories – Curating/Preserving stories – On-the-floor digital kiosks • REVAMPED – Expert Sets – Popular Research Topics • EXISTING – Other videos – Blog posts – Online exhibits (Google Arts & Culture) – Social media posts – TV show episode pages – On-the-floor digital kiosks • FOUNDATIONAL – *Digitization (can include 360˚ views, narratives, extended narratives, specs, etc) Grand Panorama of Cinderella, circa 1890 (59.48.2)
- 13. What If? Stories
- 14. Connect 3 Videos
- 15. Some Results So Far • ~11% of our unique pageviews March-mid-October 2016 are for content or Digital Collections pages • 11% year over year growth in visits to thf.org for August 2016 • 72% year over year growth in Digital Collections usage for August 2016 • Referrals from social and search engines growing • Rosa Parks What If is a top draw • Low usage of Connect3s
- 16. Provide Visibility • Content takes more time & staff than anyone might think – Challenge: Track & explain time • Much of our collection is not as well-understood as we’d like – Challenge: Reveal hidden stories • Collections content provides opportunities – Challenge: Understand opportunity benefits & costs • We’re more than our top 10 stories – Challenge: Find ways to popularize our less well-known stories Cutaway View of a General Motors EV1 Car, 1997-2002 (2002.76.2)
- 17. Prioritization Is Key • Our collections really are the “bottomless pit of wonderfulness” – Challenge: Pick topics wisely • We have many institutional messaging needs – Challenge: Create content that serves multiple purposes • Demand outstrips supply – Challenge: Not everyone will be happy Boys in Brooklyn Children's Museum, 1899-1915 (32.351.38)
- 18. No Fear • Our collections are the root of our institution – Challenge: Derive message from collections vs other way around • Clear roles & responsibilities are needed – Challenge: Resolve lack of clarity, even when this is difficult • “Fit & Finish” vs “Minimum Viable Product” – Challenge: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good • Not everything will work as expected – Challenge: Treat failure as a learning opportunity Lillian Boyer Performing Stunts with an Airplane in Flight, circa 1922 (68.160.1.25)
- 19. Thank you! Ellice Engdahl Digital Collections & Content Manager, The Henry Ford @ErisuEEE
Editor's Notes
- Talking about development of a new Digital Content Engine at THF
- Currently known as The Henry Ford, but founded 1929 by Henry Ford as Edison Institute, on 50th anniversary of Thomas Edison’s invention of electric light Henry interested in significant achievements of industrial history (like Edison’s) but also everyday life for Americans before changes from automobile and industrialization
- Two large venues: Henry Ford Museum Museum = 600,000 sq. ft. Greenfield Village, open-air historical village Village (developed) = 81 acres ~80 historic structures Also have Benson Ford Research Center = portal to our collex, incl. reading room Giant Screen Experience theater (45,000 sq. ft.) Run Ford Rouge Plant factory tour for FMC In addition have on campus Henry Ford Academy, a public charter high school with 485 students
- Quote at top from Curator of Public Life Donna Braden– gets at both good & bad things about vast collection About ¼ million objects--estimates vary depending on how you count, but that’s estimate for accreditation Vast archives and lots of material in storage
- Developed by Digital & Emerging Media Director (my boss) as an extension of 2020 institutional strategic plan goals Four key points Embrace Connected Consumer Recognize that most people now have smartphones, tablets, etc, and that this has changed their expectations Drive Global Accessibility Become a digital content publisher & distributor ->really the point of the Digital Content Engine Ties to strategic goal around collections access—recognizing that not everyone will ever visit, but web can increase our reach worldwide Consumer Experience & Data Focused Our goal not only to create great experiences, but use analytics & other data to determine where they aren’t working and improve based on data Monetization We only draw about 40% of our annual budget from revenue from our endowment—about 60% is earned through ticket sales, retail, events, etc. This is a big deal for us—we brag about it often—so finding new ways to maintain that ratio as the world changes around us is important. Potential content licensing, branded content, plus revenue conversions through drawing people into our site Key on this plan and the next slide: Note marketing-centric nature. DEM director has marketing background; though it springs from collections access, this was sold largely on its marketing potential.
- “Content is king”—my boss’s slide Slide that sold this plan to our board Shows Continuing to digitize and maintaining a digital collections database online But expanding to use digital collections as atomic elements for storytelling Then distributing those stories via numerous marketing channels CONTENT MARKETING! 'You think you're in a museum, I think we're in a data vault' – Eric Schmidt, Exec Chairman of Alphabet, Google’s parent company -> museums have in quantity an asset everyone wants – interesting stories to tell Both want to share collections and expand access but also tie this to the promise of expanded reach and revenue -> this is what got everyone excited about developing DCE – and willing to fund
- New institutional website launched February 2016 Whole site has great SEO/findability, is responsive (works on any size device) Includes new digital collections interface Robust – good indexing, advanced search, related objects, new multimedia types, high-res image ecommerce New backend infrastructure Automated daily harvests from our collections mgmt. system – no need for manual intervention used to not harvest when DBA was not here, now the digitization team controls Images pre-processed; pre-cropped for speed and best appearance
- Another key feature of the new website to mention Artifact cards – automatically created for every artifact in our Digital Collections Compact, portable, sharable versions of our digital collections objects Designed to be embeddable—in your blog, or in our website Hope to draw in those who might not visit Digital Collections database; also hope to encourage social sharing of collections in a fun and interesting way
- Play one minute video Storytelling hub -- home for most DCE content Designed to be browsable & suck you in Explore section contains new types of content developed just for DCE plus repurposed existing content such as blog, video oral histories, etc—more on those soon
- All the different skills we need to pull this off Need someone to manage the priorities and process – me Need resources that continue to work on digitization – conservation, registrars, archives, photography Need folks to write and manage putting the content together Need folks to design and implement content on the web (or other digital interface) Need production staff to put videos together Need social media & marketing resources to share the content Across all those roles added 6 new FTEs seems like a lot but spread across all those needs doesn’t go as far as you’d think increased 2 staff from PT to FT Moved 4 staff from soft money to hard money; this wasn’t a net increase in bodies because all came with existing work but it at least means they are permanent Reminder: Funding for all of this came via the promise that this effort can become self-sustaining from a revenue standpoint some day
- Process for digital content development - work in progress but right now… Ideas for possible digital content are submitted in theory by anyone but mostly from marketing, education, & historical resources Discussed by stakeholders to assess potential strategic value (from interesting story through potential promotional tie-ins) – discussing the topics for discussion, not formats Follow-up discussions with subject matter experts (usually the curators) to refine & determine format(s) for the topic Content authored by DCE resources in collaboration with the SME – or by SME as time permits (DCE resources still often do project management/implementation/web requests) – always vetted by the SME at several steps in the process to ensure historical accuracy Then published & shared – still working on refining these pieces as we do “the first one” of everything
- Wanted DCE to have a “wow” but also recognize even with added staff can’t do everything At bottom—digitized collection records as the foundation Next – repurpose (and/or continue to create) existing content where that makes sense Types of content we already created or must maintain (like kiosks on the floor), plus partnerships like Google Arts & Culture Rethink/revamp Presenting existing content in different ways, covering more broadly, or including expanded functionality Brand new New type of video – will show you one in a bit New type of narrative story based around a “what if” question – more later Behind the scenes stories showcasing the way we care for artifacts, put exhibits together So new we’ve just begun discussing – new ways to develop content for digital kiosk experiences on the floor
- Example of a What If story on Bucky Fuller & the Dymaxion House behind me in Museum Currently have 8 What If stories in production, one more on the Wright brothers nearing completion Take a very narrow focus of a key moment around one or more artifacts and tell 800-1400 word story (5-7 minutes reading time) Richly designed pages, lots of multimedia and in some cases interactive elements
- Connect3 videos – other content type we’re proud of Collections experts pick three artifacts that might not have a clear connection and elaborate on one Play two-minute video Our hope is that these are pretty quick, simple, templatized to put together, but we’re finding the more intriguing the idea, the more thinking they require. Still working on productionizing these and getting more than three online.
- Some early findings since the new site launched. Chart shows content-based unique pageviews in relation to rest of site Most visitors come to site for visit info, but 6% of pageviews for Explore and 5% for Collections & Research, which contains Digital Collections Seeing more visits to our website in general and LOTS more to content pages Increasing referrals from search and social channels as content is shared Really great results from Rosa Parks What If Very low views for Connect3s—want to figure out how to improve this (may improve as we create more)
- Now, lessons learned and related ongoing challenges in several categories Visibility Making sure people understand how much time things take researching, writing, project managing all take more time than you might assume esp. for areas of our collection not under great intellectual control/well understood/well researched But latter is key to true collections access – not just the stories we already tell all the time, but revealing our hidden gems Opportunity cost back to bottomless pit of wonderfulness our problem has never been lack of opportunity to do cool things with our collection – these are virtually unlimited instead need to analyze the potential cost and potential returns from each opportunity—may not always be obvious
- More bottomless pit of wonderfulness – have much, much more material than we could ever adequately cover, so employ strategic thinking Including institutional needs – where can we create content that serves multiple purposes Institution will always want more than we can provide Accept this, try to create content that does as many things as possible, and communicate clearly on priorities and their rationale
- On related note… You can’t be afraid—or at least need to conquer fear Remember why we’re doing this Effort is rooted in our collections, and our collections are the reason we are here. We have a strong brand identity, but make no mistake—our stories are our message With new work / workflows comes potential lack of clarity on roles & responsibilities Have to take on these difficult conversations “Fit & Finish” is one of our five pillars, but it can get in the way with a start-up effort like this “Minimum viable product” – concept from Agile where good enough is good enough 80-20 rule But embrace potential collision of this mindset with “fit and finish” live our innovation message back to branding: we don’t have to say “innovation” if we are doing innovation Last, things will fail They will take too long, they will be a mess, they will be abandoned THIS IS OK Learn and move on Again, live innovation mindset
- And that’s it!