As organisational budgets tighten and economic uncertainty threatens, many digital projects struggle to develop coping strategies when the funding that supports core operations and/or essential development is not forthcoming.
The publications below illustrate the varied and creative ways in which leaders of digital initiatives and funders, particularly those developed in the higher education and cultural heritage sectors, are managing to identify sources of support and generate revenue.
All research and publications on business models and sustainability has been undertaken for the Strategic Content Alliance by Ithaka S+R, New York, and Intelligent TV, New York.
2011/12 Workplan: Digital Content Sustainability and the Host Institution
As leaders of digital content projects transition from start-up to ongoing operations, finding ongoing sources of support can often prove challenging. Many leaders find themselves relying on their host institution to provide many types of support, from in-kind contributions to direct financial support. It is clear that this support is vital to many projects. Less clear is how the institutions’ administrators decide to offer it.
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.
Deliverables, which are to include a report, case studies, a toolkit and a facilitation guide for others wishing to conduct similar investigations at their institutions, have now been published – see the Jan 2013 publications below.
Business Modelling and Sustainability publications
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- Sustaining Our Digital Future: Institutional Strategies for Digital Content: Report (Jan 2013)
- Sustaining Our Digital Future: Institutional Strategies for Digital Content: Executive summary (Jan 2013)
- Sustainability Health Check Tool for Digital Content Projects (Jan 2013)
- Framing the Case for Host Support: Action steps and questions for digital project leaders (Jan 2013)
- Institutional strategies for Universities: Short video (Jan 2013)
- Institutional strategies for Universities: Full length video (Jan 2013)
- Institutional strategies for Libraries and Museums video (Jan 2013)
- Sustaining Our Digital Future: Imperial War Museums Case Study with Diane Lees (Jan 2013)
- Sustaining Our Digital Future: The National Library of Wales Case Study with Andrew Green (Jan 2013)
- Sustaining Our Digital Future: UCL Case Study with David Price (Jan 2013)
- Video Lecture Series: Sustaining Digital Resources for Universities (April 2012)
- Video Lecture Series: Sustaining Digital Resources for Museums (April 2012)
- Video Lecture Series: Sustaining Digital Resources for Libraries (April 2012)
- Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA / Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability- Podcast
(October 2011) - Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA / Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability- Decision-making tool
(October 2011) - Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA / Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability- Briefing paper
(October 2011) - Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA / Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability- Executive Summary
(October 2011) - Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA / Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability- Summary report
(October 2011) - Revenue, Recession, Reliance: Revisiting the SCA / Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability- Full report
(October 2011) - 2011 UPDATE The Department of Digital Humanities (DDH) at King’s College London (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE Hindawi Publishing Corporation (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE The Middle School Portal 2: Math and Science Pathways, National Science Digital Library (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE University of Southampton Library Digitisation Unit (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE V & A Images (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE Digizeitschriften (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE Electronic Enlightenment (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE eBird (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE L’Institut national de l’audiovisuel (2011)
- 2011 UPDATE The National Archives (UK) (2011)
- Framework for sustainability (June/July 2011)
- Funding for Sustainability: How Funders’ Practices Influence the Future of Digital Resources EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (June/July 2011)
- Funding for Sustainability: How Funders’ Practices Influence the Future of Digital Resources FULL REPORT (June/July 2011)
- 2009 Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability – V&A Images: Image Licensing at a Cultural Heritage Institution Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
(November 2009) - 2009 The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae®: Specialised Historical Content for a Niche Audience, University of California, Irvine, California, USA – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - 2009 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Building an Endowment with Community Support, Stanford University, California, USA – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - 2009 The Middle School Portal 2: Math and Science Pathways, National Science Digital Library: Early Sustainability Planning for a Grant-Funded Digital Library, The Ohio State University, Ohio, USA – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - 2009 The National Archives (UK): Digitisation with Commercial Partnerships via the Licensed Internet Associates Programme, London, United Kingdom – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - 2009 L’Institut national de l’audiovisuel: Free Content and Rights Licensing as Complementary Strategies, Bry-sur-Marne and Paris, France – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - 2009 Hindawi Publishing Corporation: The Open Access Contributor Pays Model, Cairo, Egypt – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - 2009 Electronic Enlightenment: Subscription-based Resource Sold Through a University Press University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - 2009 eBird: A Two-sided Market for Academic Researchers and Enthusiasts; Information Science Department, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Cornell University, New York, USA – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - 2009 DigiZeitschriften: Library Partnership and a Subscription Model for a Journal Database Göttingen State and University Library University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - 2009 Centre for Computing in the Humanities: Leveraging Shared Infrastructure and Expertise to Develop Digital Projects in an Academic Department – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - 2009 BOPCRIS Digitisation Centre: Experimentation with Sustainability and Partnerships for Library Digitisation Projects, Hartley Library, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
(November 2009) - Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability (November 2009)
- Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today – Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability
(November 2009) - Sustaining Digital Resources: A Briefing Paper for Leaders of Projects with Scholarly Content (October 2009)
- Sustaining Digital Resources: A Briefing Paper for University Librarians (October 2009)
- Sustaining Digital Resources: A Briefing Paper for Curators, Archivists, and Librarians (October 2009)
- On building a New Market for Culture: Virtue and necessity in a screen-based economy (June 2009)
- Sustainability and Revenue Models for Online Academic Resources: An Ithaka Report (May 2008)
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