Presentation on how to maintain a multi-annual partnership with a private foundation centered around digital development in museums. Museum Computer Network, 2 November 2016, The Sheraton, New Orleans. All artworks by Jamie Seaboch / EyeQ Innovations CC BY-SA 4.0 - unless otherwise stated.

1. The Difficult
Second Date
Museum Computer Network
2 November 2016
Merete Sanderhoff
Curator / Senior Advisor
slideshare.net/meretesanderhoff
@MSanderhoff
Merete Sanderhoff
Curator / Senior Advisor
slideshare.net/meretesanderhoff
@msanderhoff

2. Artworks by
Jamie Seaboch / EyeQ Innovations
remixing public domain art from SMK
CC BY-SA 4.0
unless otherwise stated

3. The National Gallery of Denmark
Western art from 1300 to the present
260,000 artworks
State funded since 1848
Our collection belongs to the public
We are here to serve everyone

4. 2008 – the first date
SMK Digital, 5 year dev project
Applied: 22 mill DKK
~ 3.2 mill USD
Potential: 30 mill DKK
~ 4.4 mill USD

5. A great match
We support
the good life

6. Immature organization
No real understanding of digital
No experience with defining and
achieving KPIs in digital projects
No sense of UX design
Naïve approach to user engagement
No updated infrastructure or resources to
run the supertanker we had set out to build

7. All the classic mistakes
Everything at once
Vague definition of target users
Focus on products, not on processes
Shiny things that weren’t viable
Lack of overall management
Hired the wrong kind of people
Spent large part sums on external consultants
No basic infrastructure
No operational budget

8. Stuff that happens
in a project period
5 times maternity leave
4 key managers left for other jobs
Social media, mobile, and tablets changed the game

9. A fail forward project

10. Breaking the waves
• Open source
• Open licensing
• User engagement
• Collaboration
“SMK has introduced a paradigm shift
in the Danish museum sector, by inviting
us to collaborate instead of competing,
and by opening up the archives and
democratizing the collections.”
Colleague museum interviewed by the external evaluator

11. A very expensive pilot
“SMK Digital might have benefitted from a
pre-project that could have clarified whether
SMK was ready to run a big digital
development project and had the right
competencies in place.”
From the external evaluation report

12. Some of the really great things
that came out of SMK Digital
were not in the original
project description
• Open licensing / public domain
• Sharing is Caring conference
• Wikimedia collaboration

13. 2012-16
Trying to go on a second date
Evaluations, critical questions,
endless iterations on new
application

14. Why was it so difficult
second time around?

15. How a project
develops
in practice
How a project is
perceived in the
project plan
Tidying up Kandinsky, by Ursus Wehrli

16. The nature of digital – rapid change, disruption, perpetual beta –
can be difficult to align, not only with a museum mindset,
but also with that of a foundation
Foundations expect value for their money, project plans that are
followed minutely, annual reports on progress, and evident ROI

17. Finally, the second date
2016 – SMK Open
Applied: 21.5 mill DKK
~ 3.1 mill USD
Granted: 11.7 mill DKK
~ 1.7 mill USD
Support for the development
of basic infrastructure

18. More than a funder
– a valued partner
Forcing SMK to take responsibility
for what we had started
Necessary to ensure operational costs
and proper implementation to obtain
new funding
The collaboration has sharpened
the museum’s digital mission

19. Mutual learning process
Digital development is subject
to rapid change
Focus on processes rather than products
Difficult to pin down ROI and impact
Projects will change direction
More viable to invest in infrastructure
than shiny things

20. The hows and whys of maintaining a close,
multiannual collaboration centered on digital
developments with a private foundation

21. How
Build trust – be patient
Sustained dialogue and information flow
Understand the nature of digital
museum practice together
Demonstrate impact beyond your
own institution

22. Why
Learn from the approach of a
private foundation who thinks
in investment and return
User-centred approach
– we support the good life
Mutual learning process to the
benefit of the entire sector

23. Let’s share!
#MCN2016
Merete Sanderhoff
Curator / Senior Advisor
slideshare.net/meretesanderhoff
@MSanderhoff
Merete Sanderhoff
Curator / Senior Advisor
slideshare.net/meretesanderhoff
@msanderhoff