The Strategic Content Alliance was founded in March 2006 by the JISC in collaboration with the BBC, Becta, British Library, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and NICE. It aims to enhance effective collaboration in the development of digital content policy and practice from the UK public and not-for-profit sectors. The rationale for this work is that the internet has changed the world we inhabit in a number of ways, one of these is the way in which "traditional" content providers, such as galleries, libraries, archives, museums, broadcasters, universities etc develop, deliver and engage with the internet. The issues range from new and emergent internet business models through to digital curation. We recognise that no one organisation alone has all of the resources, or indeed, all of the answers in this new digital paradigm so by working collectively and collaboratively we enable our resources to be targeted for the "common good" - with each partner playing to their strengths and enabling "good policy and practice" to be disseminated freely to others.
JISC is taking forward this work in collaboration with a set of key organisations across the public and not-for-profit sectors, these are: British Library; BBC; BECTA; Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and the Wellcome Library as funding partners. The ambition and vision is supported by a range of affiliate members ranging from other funding agencies through to universities who provide a non-financial contribution, but support the activities through the provision of expertise to critique and peer review SCA policy, products and practical tactical tools and training.
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Digital content, available on the Internet, comprises a variety of formats such as text, images, moving images, sound recording, research data as well as educational resources. Digital technologies have fundamentally changed how such content is created, delivered, presented, exploited, shared and enhanced. Digital services are now used widely in the delivery of public services and have profoundly influenced provision as a whole.
However content created by the public-sector and the initiatives supporting it have so far been largely fragmented. Co-ordination has not taken place on any significant scale between initiatives to share expertise, levage the most from the public purse and avoid duplication of effort. The uncoordinated nature of the activities to date is resulting in a patchy network of content with different management and business models, and no comprehensive gap analysis or tools to support previous, current or planned activity. In this way, much content remains hidden amongst the low-quality information that clutters the web and behind technical, political, economic and administrative barriers.
The rapid growth and development of electronic content offers enormous and ever-growing possibilities for all citizens in the UK. But for this country to realize the full potential of the Web, and for each citizen to realize their own potential - in the workplace, in their places of learning, and in the home - the full range of online content needs to be made available to all, quickly, easily and in a form appropriate to individuals’ needs
For this country (UK) to realise the full potential of the Web, and for each citizen to realise their own potential - in the workplace, in their places of learning, and in the home - the full range of digital content needs to be made available to all, quickly, easily and in a form appropriate to the individuals' needs" To build a common information environment where users of publicly funded content can gain best value from the investment that has been made by reducing the barriers that currently inhibit access, use and re-use of e-content.
The Strategic Content aims to work on behalf of the public and not-forprofit sectors holistically, from content creation to curation in health, education, museums, archives, research, public libraries in a spirit of collaboration and coordination. It aims to look at how this Vision can be realised through providing a set of principles and guidelines for best practice at a practitioner and policy-maker level.
These guidelines, principles, reports and case studies have been given the title of the ‘Content Framework'[1] and have been created to enable key public sector organisations to co-ordinate their content activities therefore making the best use of the limited funds available in order fully realise the potential of this content for the benefit of the UK. The framework also investigates key political, technical, cultural and organisational barriers that currently inhibit closer co-ordination and investigate potential resolution or mitigating activities.
The framework offers ‘good practice’ tools to aid, inform and provide guidance to all those involved in the digital lifecycle from creation to curation; from those at a strategic and policy-making level, to those ‘at the coal face’. The Alliance has published a suite of products covering the different elements of its work, from audience research to intellectual property rights; the Content Framework.
All products have been developed for broad usage across the public sector, with the idea disaggregation and re-purposing in mind, therefore under a Creative Commons licence. The publications encompass guides, briefing papers, navigation guides and toolkits.[2]
Increased demands and expectations from users, coupled with budgetary constraints and the requirement to demonstrate value for money and impact, mean that it is imperative that the services delivered are wanted, needed and valued by the audiences. The publications offer useful and practical information about researching digital audiences by key activities in the lifecycle of audience research, which are driven by your target audience. The Audience Analysis Toolkit for public sector bodies has been developed for the Strategic Content Alliance by Curtis and Cartwright Consulting.[3]
As organizational budgets tighten and economic uncertainty threatens, many digital projects struggle to develop coping strategies when funding, supporting core operations and/or essential development, is not forthcoming. The publications illustrate the varied and creative ways in which leaders of digital initiatives, particularly those developed in the higher education and cultural heritage sectors, are managing to identify sources of support and generate revenue.
Work on business models and sustainability has been undertaken for the Strategic Content Alliance by Ithaka, New York, and Intelligent TV, New York.[4]
For public bodies, understanding the implications and roles of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and licensing in their capacity as a provider, aggregator and/or publisher of digital content is essential in their role in the digital content lifecycle from creation to curation, to ensure that they can deliver publicly funded content. This means that at an operational level, it is essential that the management of copyright and other IPRs, as well as consideration of permissions required, the resources required to seek such permissions, management of works where rights holders are unknown or cannot be traced2 and how end users will be able to engage with the content, form part of the digitisation lifecycle and key project management planning and decisions.
The IPR toolkit and associated material provides resources that staff working with digital content can use to help them deal with the IPR and licensing issues which might arise. This essential toolkit, which is being continually updated, has been developed for customization and adaptation to suit specific needs and requirements.
The intellectual property rights toolkit for public sector bodies has been developed for the Strategic Content Alliance by the Alliance’s IPR consultants, Professor Charles Oppenheim and Naomi Korn.