The Strategic Content Alliance is an initiative funded as part of JISC’s Capital programmes. It began in March 2006, concluded its phase of work in March 2009, and will conclude its second phase of activity in July 2011 (see below for the second phase work plan). Its aim is: to build a common information environment where users of publicly funded e-content can gain best value from the investment that has been made by reducing the barriers that currently inhibit access, use and re-use of e-content.
JISC is taking forward this work in collaboration with a set of key organisations across the public sector, these are: The British Library; The BBC; British Education Communications and Technologies Agency (BECTa); EPSRC ; The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and The NHS National Library for Health (NLH).
The first phase of this work has taken place under the banner of the Common Information Environment. The Strategic Content Alliance aims to take this work into the next stage and look at how this vision can be realised through providing a set of principles and guidelines for best practice. This e-Content Framework will enable key public sector organisations to collaborate and co-ordinate their e-content activities so they make best use of the limited funds available to fully realise the potential of this e-content for the benefit of the UK. The framework will also reference the key barriers currently inhibiting closer co-ordination and develop an action plan to address these.
Public sector e content initiatives have so far been largely fragmented. Co-ordination has not taken place on any significant scale between initiatives to share expertise, identify suitable content and avoid duplication of effort. The uncoordinated nature of the activities to date is resulting in a patchy network of e-content with different management and business models, with no comprehensive gap analysis or tools to support previous, current or planned activity.The rapid growth and development of electronic content offers enormous and ever-growing possibilities for all citizens in the UK. But for this country to realize the full potential of the Web, and for each citizen to realize their own potential - in the workplace, in their places of learning, and in the home - the full range of online content needs to be made available to all, quickly, easily and in a form appropriate to individuals’ needs.
The Strategic Content Alliance Work Plan from April 2009- to July 2011
The main objectives of the next phase of activity are:
The implementation, management and sustainability of the Content Framework including the development of “Digipedia” (and other “routes to market”).
A development programme to kick-start the use of the Content Framework to increase the aggregation and accessibility of public sector e-content from a range of institutions.
Advocacy to UK governments and institutions to demonstrate the value to learning, research and the economy of the wide adoption of the Content Framework.
In order to achieve these objectives, the following strategic areas have been identified:
- Audience Analysis and Impact – The need to understand the online audiences in the development of e-content to ensure that public funded content remains relevant and useful at a time of rapid technological innovation.
- Business Modelling and Sustainability – The need not only to sustain, but to continue to develop e-content through revenue streams – other than JISC is critical at time of budgetary cuts and economic uncertainty. We need to build on the models and case studies undertaken in phase one in order for our community to continue developing e-content for learning, teaching and research.
- Intellectual Property Rights and Licensing – The need to address the complex legal issues surrounding e-content – contractual; copyright; licensing; orphan works for example is non-trivial and one of the significant barriers to true legally compliant interoperability.
- Advocacy and Implementation – The need not only to show case, but apply the tools developed under phase one of the initiative in a real world environment is critical – not only to hone the effectiveness of these tools, but also to enhance professional practice in e-content lifecycle development.
- Experimentation (Rapid Prototyping; Testing; and Evaluation) for example, CenturyShare – The opportunities to develop; test; and evaluate rapid experimentation across sectors – enabling sponsors and others to collaborate through joint development in an agile and innovative manner.