Alliance Vision and Workplan

The Strategic Content Alliance Vision

To build a common information environment where users of publicly funded 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.

The Strategic Content aims to work on behalf of the public sector holistically, from content creation to curation in health, education, museums, archives, research, public libraries in a spirit of collaboration and co-ordination. It aims to look at how this Vision can be realised through providing a set of principles and guidelines for best practice at a practitioner and policy-maker level.

These guidelines, principles, reports and case studies have been given the title of the ‘Content Framework’ and have been created to enable key public sector organisations to co-ordinate their content activities therefore making the best use of the limited funds available in order fully realise the potential of this content for the benefit of the UK. The framework also investigates key political, technical, cultural and organisational barriers that currently inhibit closer co-ordination and investigate potential resolution or mitigating activities.

The Strategic Content Alliance Work Plan from August 2011 to July 2012

The main objectives of the next phase of activity are:

1) Digital Entrepreneurship Programme

The aim of this project is:

To scope, design, pilot and test a holistic and integrated syllabus, from which we will create a course which will aim to provide leaders of digital projects  with the skills, resources, mindsets and networks to help them create robust and sustainable strategies for digital innovation. 

2) Business Modelling: Digital Content and Host Institutions Support Strategies

The 2011/12 programme of work aims to research the techniques and strategies being deployed by grant-funded digital content project leaders in the higher education and cultural heritage sectors in eliciting support from institutional decision makers, and the practical and strategic concerns that determine what support institutions choose to offer.

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.