User demand must drive federal digitization: Wall Communications report

A new report on federal cultural agencies online suggests organizations such as the National Archives of Canada and National Library of Canada must pay closer attention to user demand in future digitization efforts. That, and other key recommendations for creating online cultural content, is in the recently released A Study of Business Models Sustaining the Development of Digital Cultural Content prepared by Wall Communications Inc. for the Department of Canadian Heritage. Heritage officials say the point is well-taken, though other recommendations such as potentially implementing user-pay models likely aren’t on the table. The report examines the performance of the National Library and National Archives, as well as the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the CBC, the National Film Board, the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions (CIHM), and the Historica Foundation of Canada, since digitization efforts began in earnest in and around 1995. It concludes that government financing has been the prime funding engine but that several alternative mechanisms should be examined to ensure long-term viability. On a positive note, Wall Communications notes that funding from federal coffers to date has done more than put content online: it has also allowed the organizations being studied to build crucial infrastructure and expertise. But, the report notes, the sheer volume of material yet to be digitized raises the critical question of picking and choosing more carefully the projects to which they dedicate resources. Above all, says the report, user demand must drive future decisions. "In Wall Communications’ view, any new digital products that are to be developed should meet actual user needs in a user-friendly format. More-over, there should be a complementary strategy to attract and grow an audience for the digital product, and raise the ‘visibility’ of the product among potential users," the authors write. The report concludes that, "(for) cultural and heritage institutions to successfully deliver online digital cultural content in the future, with significantly less reliance on federal government funding, they would need to adopt a more commercial approach to creating digital products and marketing those products. This implies that these organizations may need to re-focus their digital products to satisfy more narrowly targeted market segments or user groups." Heritage officials acknowledge that early digitization efforts haven’t been rigorously examined for users’ needs but say that in very recent times that trend has been reversed. Michel Murray, a manager of research and economic analysis with the department, says that even since the report was commissioned, significant work has been done in the area. "We want to make sure that we’re not just creating content that is going to be on the Internet, but to make sure it’s being seen by as many Canadians as possible. We want to make sure that our target audiences are reached," Murray tells Canadian NEW MEDIA. His colleague, manager of the Canadian Culture Online Program (CCOP) Harold Boies, agrees, and says progress is already being made. "We looked at the situation very early in the delivery process for all these institutions. This is an important consideration. At the time of the report, the National Library and National Archives were only starting their second-year cycle in the creation of digital content…If the report was re-published today, I think there would be much improvement." Still, even focused production of content to make the most of meager resources won’t be enough to wean federal agencies from taxpayer funding in the near term, according to the report. Current funding models, which rely mostly on grants from programs such as the CCOP, are the bare minimum to continue building libraries of content, and will have to continue for the foreseeable future, the reports’ authors write. "Consequently," they write, "if government funding were removed or cut back significantly in the near term to medium-term, it would be unlikely that surveyed organizations would be in a position to readily offset the loss in funding. Moreover, funding reductions could jeopardize an organization’s ability to sustain existing digital products as well as retain existing in-house expertise and technical capabilities to develop new and expanded digital product in the future." There are several alternatives to grants, however, most of which are already being used in one form or another by the organizations being surveyed. Wall Communications lists advertising or sponsorships, user fees, the sale of products or related services, cross-promotion with traditional media or commercial operations, and digital content licensing as the five most likely approaches. Of these, a user-pay approach, in which content is offered either on a micro-payment or subscription basis, is bound to be one of the most contentious. While organizations such as the CBC are experimenting with the model, nobody has yet fully embraced it, with the possible exception of CIHM, which charges library intermediaries for the content. Making users pay for the content they consume, though, isn’t necessarily an attractive option to government officials. Asked whether it was being pursued as a model, Boies responds: "I’ll be quite frank…It’s taxpayers’ money. We’d like to give this content back to taxpayers for free…So far, we’ve insisted that they definitely offer the content for free, even when there is some copyright clearance involved. We said that we would pay up to 75 per cent of the costs involved. We’ve been trying to facilitate this. Not to say that at one point it won’t be necessary. It’s one business model for sustainability." More likely, say Heritage officials, is a continued emphasis on partnerships. The department has said for years that the burden of putting cultural content online can’t be the government’s entirely. "We don’t think, for instance, that the small- and medium-sized not-for-profit or cultural organizations have the expertise, necessarily, to put good content online. They have to rely on the new media sector to do this. But, there’s got to be some leverage here. $70 million per year (in federal funding) may seem like a huge amount of money, but it’s not enough to fill the need," Boies says. Another area in which the government is not willing to cede entirely to market demands is in the area of linguistic duality. While market demand for digital product is clearly not equal between French and English users, Heritage officials have no intention of boosting the amount of funding to the larger English segment. Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps has made commitments both to Parliament and to the Commissioner of Official Languages to produce content in both languages equally. "It’s a public policy objective," Murray says.

User demand must drive federal digitization: Wall Communications report

Broadcast | September 6, 2002

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