1. The Strategic Content Alliance
Internet business models

2. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 229 January 2015
The Strategic Content Alliance
The drive towards sustainability...
Stuart Dempster
Director , Strategic Content Alliance

3. A golden age...now gone?
www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 329/01/2015

4. Digital Content Bust?
www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 429/01/2015

5. Digital Content - a new paradigm
www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 529/01/2015

6. Digital Content –collaboration...
www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 629 January 2015
RSS

7. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 729 January 2015
Plenty of ‘big’ issues
Fragile and hostile economy
Government instability in the UK
UK university budgets to be cut £449 million in 2010-11, with £215 million cuts for
teaching and research funding flat
Uncertainty about what further cuts a new government might bring
Government budgets are under duress in the US
At least 39 US states have reduced funds allocated to higher education
Endowment investments in decline
American university endowments registered their worst average returns since 1974
Philanthropic foundations making smaller grants
Median annual grant-making for large U.S. foundations dropped $2.1 million in 2009
What are the consequences for innovation in higher education, cultural
heritage, and related sectors?

8. The big issues are affecting funders
For grantors, pain points at every stage in the life cycle of a funded project:
Previously funded projects returning to ask for more funding at the end
of their initial grant cycle
Once the project’s initial grant ends, less funding available for on-going
support from universities, museums, and other host institutions
More innovative projects are at the door seeking start-up funding

9. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 929 January 2015
Doesn’t Change the Fundamentals:
“Now We Mean It!””
Ithaka S+R conducted research on online resources in the
academic and cultural heritage sectors in 2008-09
In a series of twelve case studies, profiled the projects’
histories, costs and revenues, and sustainability plans
Identified five key steps for sustaining a digital resource
This underlined the challenges of trying to make each funded
project sustainable. Is there capacity to respond to a more
challenging environment?

10. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 1029 January 2015
Sustaining Digital Resources:
An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today)
 Sustainability is the ability
to generate or gain access to
the resources—financial or
otherwise—needed to protect
and increase the value of the
content or service for those
who use it

11. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 1129 January 2015
What role for funders?
The study addressed sustainability from the project leaders’ point of view:
What are the steps they took to balance costs and revenues, plan for
future investments in and updates to the resources, build a robust
community of users
The study did not address the roles funders play:
What does project sustainability look like from the funders’ side?
What are the steps they can take in this process?
What are the obstacles?

12. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 1229 January 2015
Five Steps to Sustainability
Empower leadership to define the mission and take
action
Create a strong value proposition
Creatively manage costs
Cultivate diverse sources of revenue
Establish realistic goals and a system of accountability

13. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 1329 January 2015
Empower leadership
Found that successful
projects have leaders who:
are strongly dedicated to
the projects
pursue new
opportunities and risks
hire talented staff
What can funders do to help?
How much control do funders
have over project leadership?
How can funders build capacity
for entrepreneurship and
innovation in their grantee project
leaders?

14. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 1429 January 2015
Create a strong value proposition
 What can funders do to help?
– How can funders help
ensure that value
proposition is clearly
articulated?
– Do funders discuss
impact?
– How can funders help
strengthen the value
proposition of the projects
they support?
– Do funding guidelines
give resource leaders the
freedom
Project leaders:
Create a resource that offers unique
value, and understand that value
Deeply understand to whom the
resource offers value, and why
Continue to add value to the
resource based on an
understanding of users’ needs

15. Creatively manage costs
Project leaders:
Minimise direct costs
Secure contributions
from the host
institutions
Outsource to vendors
Recruit volunteers
Need accurate and full
accounting of operating
costs
What can funders do to help?
Our research pointed out that host
institutions may be less able to
provide the in-kind support that
was possible in a stronger
economy.
Is the model of transitioning a
funded digital project to a willing
host institution still viable?
How can funders provide scaled
solutions to lower costs for all the
digital resources they fund?

16. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 1629 January 2015
Cultivate diverse sources of revenue
Project leaders:
Cultivate sources of
revenue to cover both
direct costs and ongoing
upgrades
Experiment with different
revenue models
Clearly identify the value of
the resource to the target
audiences
Consider diverse sources
of revenue
What can funders do to help?
Do foundations and granting
agencies value the development of
long-term revenue sources?
How do funder policies regarding IP
constrain revenue options for
projects?
How is progress toward revenue
generation evaluated throughout the
grant?
Do funders require revenue
projections?

17. Establish realistic goals and accountability
What can funders do to help?
Do funders require the
development of measurable
goals and objectives?
How are fundees required to
report impact to funders?
Do fundee impact reports
affect the future funding
practices of grantors? If so,
how?
Project leaders:
Establish goals and targets
with their host institutions
Determine balance between
financial and mission goals
Assess progress
Connect their broad mission
to quantifiable targets

18. What questions can funders ask themselves?
Which types of projects require sustainability?
How do funders articulate their exit strategies to
projects?
And just what does sustainability mean?
Covering just direct costs?
Covering all operational costs?
Generating enough to continue resource development?

19. In a harsher economic environment for universities, libraries,
museums, and others, difficult questions to answer:
Which projects need to be “sustained”?
How can funders and fundees better define what
“sustainability” will require and understand the steps needed
to accomplish this?
How can funders’ policies and practices improve the chances
for success of the projects they fund?
How can a funder have impact in the Five Key Areas, to help
digital resources survive and thrive?
For funders, new big issues

20. Longer-term issues rising to the top
Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access
final report pointed to continued need for attention to digital preservation
Highlighted key recommendations for stakeholder groups, including
funders and sponsors of data creation
Create preservation mandates when possible
Invest in building capacity for preservation
Provide leadership in training and education for digital preservation
Fund the modeling and testing of domain-specific preservation strategies
Suggests the importance of a more expansive role for funders over the
lifecycle of a digital project
Is this a sustainable situation for funders?

21. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 2129 January 2015
Advocacy, Adaptation and Adoption…
Policy makers…dialogue and influence Practitioners…retooling and re-skilling

22. Where you can find more information
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliancehttp://sca.jiscinvolve.org/

23. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 2329 January 2015
The End
Thank you for listening and any questions?
Stuart Dempster
s.dempster@jisc.ac.uk