AMIA 2009By: Kim Schroeder

Technology Costs You

Technology Costs You

You have to really define your ACTUAL costs.

Technology Costs You• Hardware• Software• Training• Maintenance

• Poorly Implemented Technology Costs You MUCH More

We need to instill common business practices

The basics of Marketing, Budgeting, Fund-raising and Needs Assessment are a help and not a hindrance.

Let’s lean on what has been proven to work.

Needs Assessment• Readiness Question:

I love Twitter so I am going to start a Twitter program at my Archive.

Are you ready to go forward?

No!• A great Twitter program has to have an existing

business need. You need to be able to identify if that need is there and exactly what that is. Examples

You have a strong collection or programming that youths and young adults would enjoy.

You have a technology-intense user base that is always looking for newly digitized collections or programming from you.

You want to have a strong technology/youth base of users and you have a collection to support that.

You want to reach out to the growing middle-aged audience on Twitter.

Readiness Question:• We need to set-up a MySpace account to

reach youth.

• Are you ready to go forward?

We need to set-up a MySpace account to reach youth.

What is your business reason for the time to do this? The staffing to monitor and update it? Have you examined the differing audiences in MySpace versus Facebook?

Readiness Question• Second Life can be built as a solid

representation of our Archive.

Are you ready to go forward?

Second Life can be built as a solid representation of our Archive.• No, but Yes!

Only if you have the budget and knowledge to build it. You have to buy land to build your collection. There is a serious learning curve to build it and learn how to design buildings. You will have to buy chairs tables, etc. or design them.

See the next slide for a snapshot of the Stanford Archives SL site.

Making a decision is equivalent to a small business plan.• Needs Assessment• Research• Budget• Develop Written Plan

Define your use Why waste your staff time? Do not risk future budget. Why risk your reputation?

Be sure that you recognize your use versus users needs

Only two years ago, I would have been shocked at the legitimacy that these social networking tools are giving our institutions.

As an indexer and archivist what drew me to the profession was the ability to structure information, to make sure it is correct and quality controlled.

Thus patron access to modifying information is counter to my training and natural instinct. Folksonomies and Social Networking tools were not in my professional toolbox.

This does not mean that I am untrainable! This means that I, like many archivists were cautious about the uses of these tools.

My marketing research/customer service background did allow me to become open to these tools.• So, what can we do with these tools?

Friendster, MySpace and now Facebook have taken over the net.

According to Facebook itself, they have 300 million ACTIVE users. Fifty percent log on each day!

This outreach tool is now recognized not just for its personal social value but also for its institutional outreach value.

From the Facebook Press Room

General Growth More than 300 million active users 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any

given day The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old

and older

User Engagement Average user has 130 friends on the site More than 8 billion minutes are spent on Facebook

each day (worldwide) More than 45 million status updates each day More than 10 million users become fans of Pages each

day

From the Facebook Press Room

General Growth More than 300 million active users 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any

given day The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old

and older

User Engagement Average user has 130 friends on the site More than 8 billion minutes are spent on Facebook

each day (worldwide) More than 45 million status updates each day More than 10 million users become fans of Pages each

day

From the Facebook Press Room

Applications More than 2 billion photos uploaded to the site each month More than 14 million videos uploaded each month More than 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog

posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week More than 3 million events created each month More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site

International Growth More than 70 translations available on the site About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

Platform More than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than

180 countries Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with

Platform applications More than 350,000 active applications currently on Facebook

Platform

From the Facebook Press Room

Applications More than 2 billion photos uploaded to the site each month More than 14 million videos uploaded each month More than 2 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog

posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week More than 3 million events created each month More than 45 million active user groups exist on the site

International Growth More than 70 translations available on the site About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

Platform More than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than

180 countries Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with

Platform applications More than 350,000 active applications currently on Facebook

Platform

Early in 2009, Twitter jumped from 22nd place to 3rd in terms of monthly visits. Facebook has taken over the number one spot from MySpace.

Facebook has about 1.2 billion monthly visits while MySpace’s equivalent is about 80 million.

According to istrategylabs and Pew Research, Twitter users are almost half women and around half (depending on the study) are college graduates or post-grads.

Interestingly, household income is widely and evenly distributed.

Does this sound like a group that you want to reach?

Business leaders say that you first have to set goals and then envision yourself succeeding in that goal.

Can you see yourself getting 50,000 hits or even 500 more than you are?

What would the extra traffic do for you?

Typical Answers for the under-funded• I already have enough work to do, I do not

need more!• I would shut off my computer!

Answers with Vision• It would allow me to better outreach which

could result in: More fundraising More staffing More media coverage Reaching an international audience for help in

identifying my content

According to a business marketing survey 34% of businesses ranked blogs as their number one market tool in 2009. Granted this was conducted on a blog but that Online Marketing Blog has 17,000 members!

http://www.toprankblog.com/

But, Archives are not businesses? Are they?

From Lenhart and Fox As of December 2008,

• 11% of online American adults said they used a service like Twitter or another service that allowed them to share updates about themselves or to see the updates of others.

• Nearly one in five (19%) online adults ages 18 and 24 use Twitter.

• 20% of online adults 25 to 34. • Only 10% age 35 and of 35 to 44 year olds and 5% of

45 to 54 year olds using Twitter. • A rapid decline of usage among older folks resulted in

4% of 55-64 year olds and 2% of those 65 and older use Twitter.

So should we conclude that this is not a stellar method to reach retirees?

Perhaps, but in a year those stats will change.

Almost a year later and the stats now are very different with middle-aged men being the most rapidly growing group.

The discrepancy among different ethnicities’ use of Twitter has also dramatically changed.

In a year, you might find that there is a collection that you need to reach youth for.

What about using them to get to grandparents to help you identify collections?

You certainly have your choice of these outreach tools and as we have seen today, they are fairly approachable (with good planning).

Have you thought about using YouTube to outreach? Some of our most successful AMIA members are well-represented on You Tube.

This is an easy way to tease the world with your great content.

• Conferences• User Groups• Universities• Classes• Tutorials• Professional Literature• Local Technology/Library Science/Archival

Students

• Talk to an Expert Whether a colleague, a student, or via

listserv, user group, email, phone or in person

• Be sure that you understand the pitfalls and advantages of a technology Examples for FREE Remember that you will ALWAYS need IT

support More than you expect

Nothing runs like you would like A reality of technology

• Develop a real budget – Not just software costs Set-up Fees Research Incompatibilities Training Inexplicable Downtime Unimaginable Roadblocks New Ideas New Content

A Cost Accountant’s View of Budgeting for New Technologies

Hard Costs Software Upgrade $225

Soft Costs Staff time to upload the upgrade to all

computers $25 x 15 hours = $375

Problem-Solving• Realities of Resolving Problems that are Incurred

with the Upgrade $25 x 1.5 hours = $37.50 Actual Costs

$225 + $375 = $637.50

Needs Needs AssessmentAssessment 5 hrs5 hrs

$25 x 5 = $25 x 5 = $125$125

Developing Content for Twitter/Developing Content for Twitter/Competitive ResearchCompetitive Research

10 10 hrshrs

$25 x 10 = $25 x 10 = $250$250

* You should start with * You should start with a backlog of contenta backlog of content

Developing Institutional ProcessDeveloping Institutional Process 5 hrs5 hrs$25 x 5 = $25 x 5 = $125$125 * Minimum!* Minimum!

Setting up Setting up AccountAccount

.5 .5 hrshrs

$25 x .5 = $25 x .5 = $12.50$12.50

Monitoring Monitoring AccountAccount

2.5 2.5 hrshrs

$25 x 2.5 $25 x 2.5 = $62.50= $62.50 * Per Week Minimum!* Per Week Minimum!

Uploading Uploading ContentContent 2 hrs2 hrs

$25 x 2 = $25 x 2 = $50$50 * Per Week Minimum!* Per Week Minimum!

On-going Develop of ContentOn-going Develop of Content 2 hrs2 hrs$25 x 2 = $25 x 2 = $50$50 * Per Week Minimum!* Per Week Minimum!

TotalsTotals $512.5 $512.5 Start-up Staff TimeStart-up Staff Time

$162.5 $162.5 On-going Weekly CostsOn-going Weekly Costs

Establish deliverables• Number one problem is being realistic• Managing expectations is difficult when

doing something new• Manage Management as well as the project

Ex. First round template will be done by November 15th.

Feedback from committee/stakeholders/users by December 1st.

Why isn’t this done?

Why isn’t this done?• Most of us are so short-staffed that we rush

to “get something up” or do not venture into these technologies at all.

• Many of us need to slow down and use our research skills on these projects in order to get them right.

• These principles can be fruitful in order to outreach to more users BUT only if planned out and done right.

If we do get this right? Users will LOVE us Media will praise us Fundraising will be easier and eventually we

will be able to build our own Second Life exhibit. This can be the crème de la crème of outreach technologies and digital exhibition.

Here are some examples, courtesy of Ball State University and the University of Detroit – Mercy.

Assess your institution, your skills and your knowledge base.

Marry that with your users’ needs.

Where do you want to be?

You are the driver for your own success

Many institutions have not let limited resources whether staffing, training, IT or basic funding stop them from experimenting!

Play with these sites personally first. Have vision and guts to experiment. The old “It is better to apologize later, than

ask for permission first.’ principle applies. If you do not “jump” into these new

paradigms you will not give yourself a chance to learn.

Session after session we are seeing archivists with the guts to jump into some really successful and innovative projects.

They did not succeed by accident!

It was a LOT of planning to create an implementation that mirrors the user needs, meets the budget constraints and forces on-going professional development of the staff.

Second Life• Second Life Ball State Classes• http://google.bsu.edu/search?sort=date%3AD

%3AL%3Ad1&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=default_frontend&site=default_collection&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&q=second+life&GoButton.x=1&GoButton.y=17

• SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ball State University/28/218/22/

• Stanford Archives• http://slurl.com/secondlife/FAS%20West/

74/19/24/?title=History%20of%20Race%20Exhibit&msg=Race%20Exhibit%20Entrance

• Second Life University of Detroit Mercy Black Abolitionist

Archive• http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sunpixels/

66/30/25/?img=http%3A//slurl.com/_img/default.gif&title=Black%20Abolitionist%20Digital%20Archive&msg=Welcome%20to%20the%20University%20of%20Detroit%20Mercy%27s%20Black%20Abolitionist%20Digitial%20Archive

Duke University Ad Archives on ITunes• http://library.duke.edu/blogs/digital-collections/

2009/10/21/adviews-3000-new/

Social Networking Stats• http://sampadswain.com/2009/02/statistics-

facebook-bypasses-myspace-and-twitter-stronger-than-ever/

Please keep in touch and let us know what “risks” you are jumping into this year!

Kim Schroeder, Archive Media Partners: kim@archivemediapartners.com

Alexis Braun Marks, CHWMAAH: amarks@maah-detroit.org

Lisa M. Rabey, Wayne State University, lrabey@wayne.edu