Notes and action points from 12th November 2008 meeting

1. We reported back on the pilot workshop, held at FACT in Liverpool on 17 October 2008. Campbell has been asked to make the powerpoint presentation available, which we will then post on the FH website. The workshop had allowed participants to undertake an analysis of their individual projects and explored ways of developing an entrepreneural ethos in order to help us sustain our respective projects, rather than offering a global solution to the issue of sustainability.

2. There was general agreement that the fact of doing the workshop (in addition to the content) was useful, in that it was empowering, allowed problem sharing and the sharing of ideas, as well as promoting networking between the projects.

3. It was also agreed that it was something we could continue to do – and that there was a community need for such workshops – with possible future workshops addressing:
– technical and practical issues (metadata, MySQL, CMS)
– marketing/promotion to get resources on course reading lists etc
– metatdata descriptions for specific subject areas (such as artists’ film and video)
– ethics and IPR issues, addressing eg how to digitise moving image works, keeping the integrity of the work and sustaining the context/intellectual knowledge that goes with it.

4. However, all present agreed there was also still a need for a central support service, along the lines of the AHDS. Whilst expertise and support had developed in certain institutions, this was not uniform across the Arts and Humanities in HEIs, which was borne out by the recent AHRC ICT Programme’s report on the Sustainability of AHRC-Funded Resource Enhancement Projects.

5. In light of the FACT workshop and previous meetings, there was agreement that visibility and useage of the resources were absolutely key to their sustainability, and recognition that in the course of the 6 meetings we had discussed several possible ways to pursue this.

6. Discussion returned first to the idea of developing FH as a portal to a grouping of artists’ film and video sites/resources, but doing it in collaboration with a high profile national organisation, like the Tate for instance. But Lorna stressed, given the proliferation of portals, such a project should:
– ensure effective use of metadata to make things findable
– get a mandate from the artists’ moving image community to do it
– collect quantative data about findability and useage etc, since existing info is largely anecdotal
(Possible contacts at the Tate include Will Gompertz, Director of Tate Media/Head of Tate Online; Pip Laurenson, Head of Moving Image Conservation; Frances Morris[?], Head of Collections)

7. There was mixed response from meeting as to whether establishing FH as a portal was best or appropriate way to go, especially as it raises the issue of what resources/projects to include and thus what the inclusion criteria would be. But there was agreement that we need to increase our public visibility and extend our user groups. Other suggestions to achieve this end were using social networking, attending AV festivals, partnerships with national organisations, and getting linked to by existing portals (eg BUFVC’s Moving Image Gateway).

8. It was agreed we had ideas regarding how to increase our visibility, but lacked the resources to develop/implement a full-blown strategy tailored to our specific needs. It was suggested therefore that we apply to the Arts Council for a Grants for the Arts grant to commission someone to undertake some research to establish the best combination of activities/strategy to expand the user base and visibility of our resources. But that the results of such research could also provide the basis for assessing how useage/awareness of resources can best be quantified, and form the basis for consultancy to other projects just in the process of setting up. A list of provisional points for the application was drawn up (see below). ACTION: JK to draft application and contact AC North (James Bustard, Head of Visual Arts)

9. The rest of the meeting was spent discussing feedback and recommendations for the end of the Network award report to the AHRC. ACTION: JK to draw up list of provisional points.

10. Julia also reported that there may be sufficient funding for a further meeting, which would enable us to meet in the New Year to (a) review the draft application to the Arts Council, (b) review the draft End of Award report to the AHRC, and (c) arrange continuation of the network after the end of funding. [NB Lorna offered artshumanities.net as a way of continuing the network virtually]

11. It was agreed the next meeting will be Wed 18 February 2009 at Central St Martins, 10am-5pm. The morning will be a workshop in which existing live projects would share information about (a) how you collect user info, and (b) your existing user groups. The afternoon will be spent finalising input into the ACE application and the AHRC Report.

 

 

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