Transcript Developing Economic and Organizational Models to Support Preservation Kevin Guthrie JISC-CNI Meeting, York July 8, 2006

Developing Economic and Organizational Models to Support
Preservation
Kevin Guthrie
JISC-CNI Meeting, York
July 8, 2006
Outline
• Definition of the e-preservation problem
• Historical highlights of e-preservation efforts
• Introduction to Ithaka and its role
• General lessons learned about developing sustainability models
Digital Preservation Presents a New Problem
• Simply put, in the print world, you had to possess an item in
order to read it, to access it, to use it.
• Possessing the object enabled the owner to care for it in
whatever way it might want. Libraries tend to preserve, or at
the very least, hold materials for the long-term
• A redundant system of preservation of the scholarly record
evolved from this natural marriage between preservation and
access.
• Digital materials do not follow this pattern – access and
preservation are now separable.
Historical Highlights of E-Preservation Efforts
•
May 1996 – The Task Force on Archiving of Digital Information (jointly
sponsored by RLG and the Commission on Preservation and Access)
issued its report. (http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub63.html)
•
December 2000 - Library of Congress NDIIP (National Digital Information
Infrastructure Program) launched. ~$175m with matching
•
Fall 2001 - Mellon E-Journal Archiving Program. Two approaches tested.
LOCKSS (Stanford) pursued a distributed replication strategy, while
Harvard, Yale, Penn, Cornell, MIT and the NYPL pursued a centralized
strategy working with publishers or disciplines.
•
October 2005 – “Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Scholarly Journals”
statement issued following meeting of 17 university and college
librarians. (http://www.arl.org/osc/EjournalPreservation_Final.pdf)
The Challenge
• Structure a sustainable model that motivates collective action to
achieve an important community goal
Ithaka’s Mission
• Ithaka’s overarching mission is to help the scholarly community
take fullest advantage of advances in information technologies
• We pursue that mission by creating, nurturing and assisting
innovative organizations and projects that use technology to
facilitate change and save resources. We engage in three types
of activities:
- Strategic Services
- Research
- Shared Services (IT, HR, Finance)
• Think of Ithaka as a not-for-profit venture capital incubator
Separate the project from the organization
• The project needs to be able to see challenges and opportunities
with fresh eyes
• There must be a sense of entrepreneurial accountability
• There must be a fear of failure (“nothing focuses the mind like
the sight of the gallows”)
Define the mission of the enterprise
• For not-for-profits, this is absolutely essential
• The mission (or a set of objectives off a broad mission) must be
defined narrowly enough to help prioritize and guide difficult
decisions
• Objectives must be defined (beyond financial) that enable some
verifiable measures of delivery on mission
Hire a great leader
• Successful venture capitalists say they invest in people, not
products or services
• The leader must be 100% committed and dedicated to the
mission of the enterprise
• The leader must have a vested interest in the enterprise’s
success
Establish a Governing or Advisory Board
• If an independent organization, an effective board is critical. If
part of an existing organization, a strong advisory board vested
with close to a governance role is necessary.
• Board members should have the perspectives of the various
stakeholders in the enterprise.
• The board should have a diverse membership, and should not
just include “practitioners”.
• Board members should not be regarded as “representatives” but
should bring a diverse set of backgrounds, ideally including legal,
strategic planning, and business experience.
Establish an effective governance process
• The board should meet a minimum of 3 to 4 times per year
• Background documents for board meetings should include
financial statements, updates on progress and important
strategic challenges
• The board of a start-up should never be expected to act as a
rubber stamp for management’s proposals. The information
provided to the board should enable them to engage in the
issues and help guide early development of the enterprise.
• The goal is candid and thorough engagement. Not board
“management”
Allow the leader the flexibility to adjust
• The board must allow, indeed encourage, the leader to adjust
the strategy when necessary
• Changes in approach, within reason, are a natural part of the
process and should not be regarded as a failure of leadership or
execution.
• There is a period of research and investigation, sometimes
incubation, that is required by most start-ups.
Provide sufficient capital
• Start-ups require capital and this is a challenge in the NFP sector
• There must be sufficient resources to hire excellent staff, and yet
not so much to enable complacency
• The board must insist as soon as practicable on seeing a
business plan for sustainability.
• This plan must demonstrate reasonably that there are
stakeholders that will value the organization sufficiently to
generate the resources to sustain it.
• This is a guide. The plan will have to be adjusted and updated
regularly during initial years
Match Value to Support
•
Considerable effort needs to be expended to determine who benefits
from the work of the enterprise and how much. Listen.
•
Those that benefit from the work of the organization should then be
sought to provide support for it
•
Revenue generation models must be tested, and the only way to reveal
willingness to provide support is to ask for it
•
This does not presuppose any particular model. It could be continued
philanthropic or government support, open access (author or research
supporter pays) subscription, advertising or other hybrid models
•
A diverse set of revenue sources should be sought
Communicate the value you offer
• It is essential to develop effective ways to communicate the
value you bring to the stakeholders that will support you.
• This is part of a continuing dialogue with those stakeholders
about their evolving needs and the services and ability of your
organization to address those needs.
• Determine ways to validate that you are delivering on your
mission and communicate the progress being made.
Developing Economic and Organizational Models to Support
Preservation
Kevin Guthrie
JISC-CNI Meeting, York
July 8, 2006
An assertion about Venture Capital
“…a dollar of venture capital appears to be about three times more
potent in stimulating patenting than a dollar of traditional
corporate R&D.”
Kortman & Lerner, “Assessing the Contribution of
Venture Capital to Innovation”, RAND Journal of
Economics