Cultural Digital #220
Hello
In this edition, we’ve got a bumper crop of online collections, product management, influence, and bumps in the road.
And hello if you’re reading this at the MCG’s Museums + Tech conference today (maybe see you there).
The Discovering Online Collections: Benchmark Report uses data from 50 institutions to understand, at a broad level, how people find digitised collections and how they’re used.
It’s part of an ongoing project from One Further. Next up, there’ll be consultations with individual institutions, workshops/roundtables, deeper dives, and possibly some partnerships for further studies.
Online collections
British Museum unveils five-year plan to fully digitise collection. “So that’s why, rather than locking the collection away, we want to make it the most enjoyed, used and seen in the world”.
Museum Data Service. A free new service that aims to “connect and share all the object records across all UK museums, large and small”.
Towards a National Collection: Funders Forum. A panel discussion about future infrastructure for digital heritage collections. Featuring people from ACE, DCMS, Museums Association and NLHF.
Unlocking value from digital heritage collections. Unlocking value from digital heritage collections: international perspectives.
Suns Explorer is part of “a series of projects created by the Harvard Art Museums Department of Digital Infrastructure and Emerging Technology that explores new and unique ways of viewing the museums’ collections".
Navigating the challenges of digitisation and museums. Fiona Morris and Charlotte Morgan from The Space discuss “the potential of cross-cultural and technical partnerships”.
How moving to the cloud took our digital collections to new heights. From the Wellcome Collection’s Alex Chan.
Influence
Why Cirque du Soleil is creating its own influencer network. The “group’s new offering touts more than 1,500 artists — their combined following totaling more than 35 million followers across social media — in which brands can pay to produce social-first content”.
NG200 programme. The National Gallery in London is “building a network of digital creators to celebrate our 200th birthday in 2024”.
Not all roses
Cyber incident update. An update on the ongoing situation The British Library are facing. “Following confirmation that this was a ransomware attack, we’re aware that some data has been leaked. This appears to be from our internal HR files”.
ACE drops reporting requirements over data platform glitches.
Other
The Audience Agency announce merger with Culture24. "The Culture24 team will lead on a digital pillar, consolidating their prowess in cohort learning programmes, leadership development, and digital transformation".
The Product Model at Spotify. A product management-centric view of how Spotify's Discover Weekly playlist came to be built.
Does coverage of Sotheby's Freddie Mercury sales show that auctions are perfect TikTok fodder? Can be.
Creative Catalyst: AI in the Music Industry. “UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £1 million for projects that develop new innovative products and services for the UK music industry”.
Thanks for reading and please share the goodness (the V&A Mused AI quiz seemed to go down well last week).
See you soon