So much information – so little time… I have been led here by the mcn list discussion about Creative Spaces and then bounced back and forth between various blogs, tweets and websites. Never mind the occasional intemperance – it just shows what riches a bit of passion can bring forth.

In my view we should now focus on how we move forward – maximising the value of the resources that we have created. The key phrases for the non-techie like myself are “improve metadata”, “understand search technology”, “resolve copyright issues” and please let’s have some common standards of research into “what users actually want and do”. Clearly, in our sector, funder requirements are key. Comparable projects in the commercial world have to be user-driven or they die – surely funders now need to follow this line and be far more specific about the management reports that they require from projects so that everyone’s desire to research the real value of these resources can be more efficiently monitored and evaluated. Commercial projects aren’t likely to share this kind of research – it would threaten their business models. The cultural heritage community should have every reason in the world to share their user research and findings. “Creative Spaces” and the myriad of other projects are a terrific beginning. We now need not only the ‘About’ pages that George has requested but also some beautifully-presented pages that will help the funders, and the collection managers and directors, clearly see how users are interacting with the information. Instead of this, I see acres of speculation…… We now have a fantastic fund of people who are clearly able to produce this information and present it beautifully, given the right direction. And this information can then drive the policies.

This has been a fascinating discussion with some really golden nuggets of information and many inspirational ideas. Anyone who wants to get a glimpse of how difficult it must have been to create “Creative Spaces” should check out Giv’s heartfelt blog at http://www.givp.org/2009/02/09/its-not-always-about-the-technology/ and if you haven’t seen it already check out their YouTube contribution at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3WJZreYF18 . This at least gives you their version of ‘Why?’ – and reflects the views of all the museum community online websites that I have come into contact with (many….).

As a consultant, I have spent a great deal of my own time this last few years just keeping up with the fast pace of developments in the areas of metadata improvement, search technology, and copyright issues. I don’t see the same thing happening with user analysis (although surely this cannot be true of the education sector). So, if its out there, let’s hear about it.

In this respect, a major disadvantage of cultural as opposed to commercial projects is the short term goals that funded projects have. Digitise the content, create a website (or portal), and that’s it. Too many funded projects create workflows and processes that actually inhibit sharing and integration of these resources. Projects like “Creative Spaces” and, yes, the European Digital Library (Europeana) are opportunities for research that can allow us to look back into the content and resolve most of the issues raised in these discussions. Let’s focus on harvesting the hidden values and insist on short term projects conforming to long term goals that are measured by common standards. Facts not opinions. Measurement not uninformed judgment.

I’m assuming you all agree….. (not that opinions and uninformed judgments aren’t a lot of fun of course…). Without some more attractive, user-friendly, hard information we’re never going to be able to persuade the ‘powers-that-be’ of the value.

[Apologies. I know that comments really shouldn’t be this long]