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DRAFT - - very preliminary text/visuals/structure For discussion 5/12/09. Georgetown University Web Redesign Proposal November 19, 2008. Web and New Media Strategy in Context 3 Project Methodology 4 Beginning the Inquiry 5 Inputs from the Pan-Institutional Strategy 6
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DRAFT - - very preliminary text/visuals/structure For discussion 5/12/09 Georgetown UniversityWeb Redesign ProposalNovember 19, 2008
Web and New Media Strategy in Context 3 Project Methodology 4 Beginning the Inquiry 5 Inputs from the Pan-Institutional Strategy 6 The Smithsonian’s Learning Model 7 The Smithsonian Experience Online 8 Web and New Media Business Requirements 9 Facets of the Web and New Media Strategy 10 Web and New Media Strategic Goals - Mission 11 - Education 00 - Brand 00 - Technology Platform / Services 00 - Financial Models 00 - Governance / Structure 00 The Smithsonian Commons 00 Risk Factors 00 Table of Contents
Web and New Media Strategy in Context The Smithsonian is a uniquely American institution that plays a fundamental role in educating us about ourselves and about others. To a large extent, the Smithsonian Institution helps place the American experience in meaningful context, as it helps all of us to better understand our historical, cultural, scientific and artistic heritage as well as our impact on other nations and other cultures. Much more than a collection of famous museums, the Smithsonian is also one of the world’s foremost scientific research institutions continually creating knowledge crucial to the advancement of the human condition. This Smithsonian Institution’s Web and New Media Strategy is an outgrowth of an initiative announced by Secretary G. Wayne Clough in January 2009: “For the Smithsonian to remain a vital institution at this important time in our history, we need to fully engage younger generations with our collections and our knowledge. We need to use new digital technologies to their fullest potential, so that we can fulfill the Smithsonian's 19th century mission--"the increase and diffusion of knowledge"-- in a thoroughly 21st century way for the benefit of all Americans and people around the globe”. This Web Strategy is one element of that initiative which includes a larger, more comprehensive pan-institutional strategy continuing through the rest this year. The strategic recommendations included in this report are closely aligned with the Institution’s overall direction and synchronize with special sub-initiatives underway considering the issues of digitization and revenue generation. This Web Strategy report supports the following pan-Institutional strategic goals identified in its Strategic Plan for 2006-2011: - Strategic Goal 1: Increased Public Engagement (Diffusion of Knowledge) - Strategic Goal 2: Strengthened Research (Increase of Knowledge) - Strategic Goal 3: Enhanced Management Excellence - Strategic Goal 4: Greater Financial Strength
Project Methodology This Web and New Media Strategy was created collaboratively through a series of intensive, facilitated workshops with representative stakeholders of the Smithsonian Institution. Stakeholders were invited to participate in one or several of the workshops depending on their area of expertise and or interest. Each workshops had a specific theme that was served as the basis for discussion and debate. The workshop themes included: - Education - Business Models Opportunities - Technology and Operations - Curatorial and Research - Directors’ Perspective Each of the workshops and planning sessions were documented by a real-time transcription of the proceedings posted to a wiki established for this purpose. The main intent of the workshops was to move relevant information to the wiki where it can be openly evaluated, sifted, weighed, and considered by all. The wiki was the platform on which this strategy was sketched, discussed, debated, refined and finalized, all within the view of those who care most about The Smithsonian. The inputs from these discussions were filtered to inform both the long-term “aspirational” goals of the Institution, as well as the most achievable short-term tactical implementation of the new strategy. Ideas were evaluated by comparing them to the project goals and prioritized by their perceived impact on SI audiences, level of effort to execute, and their potential to stimulate transformational change across the Smithsonian Institution.
Beginning the Inquiry Five workshops, conducted in two weeks, included more than 000 SI stakeholders from 00 museums, research centers and business units. These discussions revealed an astonishing amount of passion for, and commitment to, the Smithsonian. They also brought forth a torrent of bold ideas, tactical suggestions, and familiar frustrations which were captured in real time on a publicly available wiki. Some of the strongest themes included:
Inputs from the Pan-Institutional Strategy Insight from the pan-institutional strategy process (thanks to David Allison) confirmed many themes and directional shifts expressed by participants in the web and new media strategy workshops:
The Smithsonian’s Learning Model The Smithsonian Institutions was conceived by James Smithson as an ideal learning model for 19th century scholars. His method was to collect and curate artifacts that provided important snapshots of our American heritage and to preserve those physical assets in perpetuity, making them available to those willing and able to make the pilgrimage to Washington, DC. This new web strategy seeks to improve the efficacy of Smithson’s learning model by making those artifacts and related knowledge more broadly available to geographically and demographically distant audiences through the use of digital technologies. It also seeks to create stories and experiences that provide contextual relevance and stronger interactions between SI and all of its audiences beginning on the exhibit floor and extending to post-visit engagement. Furthermore, the strategy seeks to engage these audiences in ongoing collaborative dialogues that enrich our understanding of our collections and stimulate education and innovation around global social issues.
The Smithsonian Experience Online Many of today users experience the Smithsonian Institution online as a collection of loosely related museum and research sites and less as an integrated whole. While strong research and museum sites are important, the vitality and relevance of the Smithsonian brand depends upon users understanding the totality of SI’s educational portfolio and being able to follow themes or ideas that across multiple sites or business units. The future online model should strengthen the perception of SI through its portal and provide opportunities for SI’s content to be available to communities of interest outside the SI domains. Insert Google Graphic Here
(Reference materials) Smithsonian Portal Successful hit for entire site 41,109,701 Home Page hits 609,126 1.48% NMAI Successful hit for entire site 15,388,664 Home Page hits 87,403 .56% NMNH Successful hit for entire site 16,530,960 Home Page hits 1,193,786 7.22% NMAH Successful hit for entire site 31,857,162 Home Page hits 191,545 .60% NASM Successful hit for entire site 24,669,749 Home Page hits 1,281,033 5.19% National Zoological Park Successful hit for entire site 77,182,729 Home Page hits 254,096 .32% SAAM Successful hit for entire site 11,980,127 Home Page hits 107,418 .89% SI Libraries Successful hit for entire site 5,307,136 Home Page hits 15,822 .29% Note, this is an incorrect analysis of the data. The data shows that ~98% of total hits are on home pages, not that traffic is entering from home pages. [MPE, 6/4/09] 98% of all SI site traffic is entering from some location other than the homepages! Hummmm…can 100MM visitors be trying to tell us something?
Web and New Media Business Requirements • In conversations with more than 000 SI stakeholders representing more than 00 units, the following business requirements were identified as crucial for the new web strategy: • Strengthen the SI master brand in relation to its unit brands • Clarify institutional priorities and reflect them online • Organize SI online to support the roles and goals of its user audiences • Support the core mission to increase knowledge and become much better at diffusing knowledge • Increases the availability of SI’s knowledge to audiences worldwide • Provide better connections between researchers and those who consume the research • Increases the access and relevancy of SI to younger demographic audiences • Strengthen the institutional focus on education (and better define what that means) • Provide new learning experiences that make education fun and engaging • Provide means and opportunities for SI to facilitate communities of learning • Provide new tools and techniques for deriving compelling stories from our collections and research • Make available more of SI’s artifacts and assets in digital format • Make Si-wide content easier to find, understand and share • Make SI available to audiences interacting with mobile devises • Create opportunities for online interactions that can extend and enrich the in-museum experience • Enable users to share SI knowledge and collaborate in its creation • Stimulate greater levels of funding and staff resources to support Web and New Media initiatives • Enable SI staff to create new online experiences more easily and inexpensively • Leverage online technologies to generate new revenue sources • Get the bureaucracy out of the way of doing business • Clarify the rules of operation and governance around online initiatives • Provide a core platform that can easily and effectively support the creation of innovative programs • Develop comprehensive, pan-Institutional data to measure investments in and use of digital technologies • Make the cost of IT infrastructure and operations more visible to senior management • Provide better metrics and analytical data about how audiences interact with SI • (More requirements, what about groupings?)
Facets of the Web and New Media Strategy The Smithsonian Web and New Media strategy has profound implications for both the public who interact with the Institution through digital media, and for the employees and volunteers who are active participants in communicating and collaborating with their audiences online. The process has identified six unique facets of this new digital strategy, illustrated below, with three being closely related to the public’s perception of the Smithsonian, and three having significant impact upon the Institutions internal stakeholders.
Mission Finding: The Smithsonian Institution’s mission revolves around two key themes that were expressed in James Smithsonian’s original bequest; the increase of knowledge through research, and the diffusion of knowledge through exhibits, public programs, and access to collections. In the past several decades, the world has experienced profound changes in the ways in which knowledge is created, distributed, and consumed by those who seek to benefit from it. These changes have been driven by the enormous proliferation of knowledge itself, and by cascading waves of enabling technologies that could never have been imagined in James Smithson’s era. Today the Smithsonian Institution faces both the opportunity and the responsibility to re-synchronize itself with the volumetric growth of knowledge and with the tools and technologies for sharing it. Web and new media technologies are crucial for the Smithsonian to remain true to its founding mission and to secure its future growth and relevance. These digital technologies are core tools for knowledge creation, and for promoting deeper and more sustainable relationships with all potential audiences for Smithsonian knowledge, including engaging younger generations and those geographically disbursed. Strategic Goal #1: Ensure that digital technologies are prioritized across the Smithsonian Institution and understood as vital to realizing the Institutional mission.
Mission Policy / Program Goals: Leadership: The Secretary should become a visible advocate for the use of digital technologies across the Institution Training: Provide training and skill building opportunities that allow SI employees to better understand the potential of digital technologies and to incorporate such tools in their program development Budgeting: Allocate budgetary resources to digital technology initiatives that are commensurate with their importance to the future of the Smithsonian Compensation: Align incentive-based compensation to reward those practitioners who excel in use of digital technologies which best support programmatic objectives Tactical Implementation Goals: -Strengthen communications from the Secretary’s office in support of SI’s digital future - Goal - Goal - Goal - Goal
Education Finding: The Smithsonian Institution provides many different things to many different audiences. mission revolves around two key themes that were expressed in James Smithsonian’s Web and new media technologies are important enablers of the Smithsonian goal to be a primary educational force . By enabling an informed and educated citizenry through anytime-anywhere learning, the Smithsonian Institution … Strategic Goal #2: Redefine the Smithsonian Institution’s value proposition in terms of its educational impact on America and the world.
Brand • Exposing our passion and personality: the new SI brand user experience • Repositioning thinking away from “collections of old stuff” • Defining a new way of using history, science, art and culture to stimulate educational innovation on a national and global level • Assets, storytelling, and user experience • Brand architecture: defining the preferred relationship between master brand and sub-brands (museums, units, etc.) • Making SI relevant to younger demographic segments • Making SI accessible and understandable to geographically distributed audiences • Strategic Goals: • Tactical Goals: • Key Performance Indicators:
Technology Platform / Services • Striking the balance between centralized vs. de-centralized technologies and services • Findability • Interoperability • Mobility and platform independence • Tool kit for social networking • Collaboration internally and externally • Digitization and storage • Strategic Goals: • Tactical Goals: • Key Performance Indicators:
Financial Models • Framework for creating social and economic value • Investing in future growth (not just recovering costs) • Shifting investments from bricks & mortar to digital environments • Premium content / experience on the web • Maximizing revenue opportunities • Subscription sites • Premium in-museum digital experiences • Corporate sponsorships and the web • Advertising and the web • Membership and the web • eCommerce, merchandising and the web • Licensing content (fee vs. free) and the web • Micro- donations / endowments and the web • Availability of free content on the web to build brand credibility and drive traffic back to sites • Strategic Goals: • Tactical Goals: • Key Performance Indicators:
Governance / Structure • Visionary leadership that incorporated web in pan-institutional planning • Enabling a more nimble, proactive, can-do bureaucracy • Policies that guide an institutional view of the web • Balance between centralization and unit independence • Balance between curatorial control and “unfiltered” data • Aligning budgeting with institutional priorities • Web governance framework • Policies • Operations and standards • Ownership and enforcement • Evaluation, review and revisions • More after workshop #3 • Strategic Goals: • Tactical Goals: • Key Performance Indicators:
