Perspectives in Media Management

History

The Smithsonian Institution (SI) is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums, nine research centers, a zoo, and research activities throughout 90 countries.  The Smithsonian is funded by a combination of federal appropriations, earned income, and private donations.  Over 25.2 million visitors enter Smithsonian museums each year, and an estimated 178.2 million visitors access its website.

The release of the 2010-2015 strategic plan emphasized SI’s intent to create a pan-institutional approach to education that will leverage unit resources, streamline communication, and promote collaboration via “interactive, Web-based technologies” (Smithsonian Office of Policy and Analysis, 2009, p.4).  Over the course of 2009, a series of conferences were held in Washington D.C. to address policy issues, themes and logistical matters concerning the implementation of this policy goal.

The first took place during a two-day conference in January 2009, titled Smithsonian 2.0.  Presenters included over 30 leaders from commercial, educational and non-profit leaders from the Web, digital and new media sectors.  SI employees were invited to attend and generate answers to questions such as:

• How does SI effectively serve its visitors? 
• How does SI interpret its mission in a 21^st century digital environment?

The Smithsonian Forum (link to webcast) followed up in April 2009, when SI employees were again asked to debate the three dominant themes which had emerged from input gathered in January:

• Museum-controlled information versus public participation
• Unit Autonomy versus centralized control of web development
• Providing free resources versus charging a fee

The Smithsonian 2.0 blog and wiki allowed ongoing public participation and commentary.

The efforts of these conferences culminated in the July publication of SI’s Web and New Media Strategy report.  In it, Smithsonian Commons is identified as a web site intended to unify policy goals and themes in response to extensive stakeholder input.  

Main Issues

Throughout the conference, blog, wiki and report documents, it is evident that the launching of a web and new media strategy is a significant transformative policy process, designed to overhaul and create new platforms, unify the online presence of individual SI units, and therefore maintain the institution’s reputation for cultural relevancy and expertise.  During the Smithsonian Forum webcast, Secretary Wayne Clough emphasizes that educational relevancy is not only a mission-based obligation, but a strategic policy which supports ongoing federal appropriations and encourages private donors.   

The Web and New Media Strategy report clearly articulates the SI’s major strategic issues and their subsequent eight goals, “dedicated to stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities” (p. 3):

• Prioritize web and new media programs with via leadership, budget priority, and accountability measures.
• Strengthen brand, moving the SI image away from “the nation’s attic” and towards an action-oriented, relevant and responsive image.
• Facilitate dialogue in a global community of learners  with new media, acknowledging that dialogue is crucial to the learning experience and user-generated content can stimulate engagement and inquiry.
• Attract a larger audience and engage them in long-term relationships by facilitating an interactive online SI experience.
• Support the work of SI staff by providing adequate training in new media.
• Develop a platform for participation and innovation via a core Web site, compromising between unit autonomy and central SI control.
• Increase revenue from e-commerce, similar to Google or Amazon models.
• Design and implement a pan-institutional governance model to develop, implement and assess online and digital policies.

The report concludes by proposing Smithsonian Commons, a Web site which will increasingly serve as a core platform featuring “collections of digital assets contributed voluntarily by the units and presented through a platform that provides best-of-class research and navigation; social tools such as commenting, recommending, tagging, collection, and sharing; and intellectual-property permissions that clearly give users the right to use, re-use, share and innovate with our content” (p. 19).  I’m including a link to a 2008 power point presented to SI stakeholders, as the rationale/explanation of the potential of Smithsonian Commons, which isn’t yet functional…

Stakeholders

In terms of strategic planning, the Smithsonian Office of Policy and Analysis (2009) summarizes  Smithsonian stakeholders as the following:

• Smithsonian staff, volunteers, interns, fellows, and donors
• Smithsonian Museum, Program, Research Center and Office Directors
• Members of the Smithsonian National Board
• Members of all Smithsonian Advisory Boards
• Members and Staff of the U.S House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and the Office of Management and Budget
• Representatives of peer organizations in the educational, scientific, and cultural fields

 … and I’d like to add the American public, since we pay for a lot of those salaries!