BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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October 7, 1999; revised Nov. 10, 1999
The end of this fiscal year marks the end of the three-year "start-up" for NINCH with evidence from a steadily increasing membership that this coalition has succeeded in creating a new engine of activity in digital issues in the arts and humanities. These are early days and NINCH represents immense potential for galvanizing concerted activity in the field, and I believe, and members' statements attest to the fact, that a solid foundation has been built and we are now in a good position both to put into production NINCH's own developing projects and to facilitate joint production among and between members.
I believe that one important sign of NINCH's potential has been the reaffirmation of support from the Getty Trust, after its dissolution of the Getty Information Institute, one of the original creators of NINCH. Given the very fast personnel turnover rate in this field in general and specifically with all three directors of NINCH's founding organizations no longer in their positions, I believe that NINCH is showing signs of having taken root in the community, beyond the efforts of a few notable individuals.
I believe I have managed to steer NINCH along a course that has emphasized inclusivity and community-building. Initially there were pressures to rapidly develop show projects to demonstrate what we could do: I thought it best to listen to the community and develop a community network of information sharing. Although we have a lot of work still to do here, I believe we are now ready to deploy some strong projects as a result of listening to each other enough to know which directions to move in. The year before this, we strongly debated our definition of advocacy and the level and kind of advocacy NINCH should be involved in, specifically around intellectual property. Active debate and wide consultation produced an advocacy statement and a stronger sense of involvement by many of NINCH's members. Now I believe that the balance to be struck is between the pressures for answering immediate issues and problems and an interest in developing deep thinking about the needs of our community in the future. Envisioning and designing a future is as important as responding to the present: both need to be at the heart of NINCH's activities.
Bringing two complex projects before funders:
Conceptualizing the "Best Practices" project (the production of a "Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation and Management of Cultural heritage Materials,"), organizing a ten-person working group representing all elements of the NINCH membership, chairing, directing and co-ordinating the group (including the replacement of two members) as it defined the project, produced a set of core principles (and derived criteria for evaluating practice), wrote a Request for Proposals, selected a consultant and prepared and submitted a funding proposal to the Getty Grant Program (now fully funded at $140,000).
Creating, co-chairing and co-ordinating the Building Blocks Steering Committee, working with a very diverse group to further delineate this very ambitious project, enlisting 24 societies and associations to participate and writing funding proposals for a variety of funders. The Getty Grant Program and the Rockefeller, Kress and Mellon Foundations have been visited to date; proposals have been submitted to the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Rockefeller, Kress, Markle and Mellon Foundations. To date, the Rockefeller Foundation has awarded us $105,000 towards the project.
Good working relations with the chairs and members of the Strategic Planning and Advocacy Working Groups and Nominating Committee that made possible the creation of a new governance structure, a new Board now in place, and a plan for new fiscal, membership and advocacy structures for NINCH.
Conceptualization and creation of a structure that expresses NINCH's commitment:
This matrix (see Appendix B) showing projects in chronological order, measured against key values is proving a very useful tool both for planning and for explaining NINCH's direction.
Production of the NINCH brochure: not only in itself (and it has been very well received by members and the community) but also in its embodiment of the long and thoughtful work, mostly by the Advocacy Working Group, that produced our Vision and our Core Values statements.
My interest in developing international visibility, connections and partnerships has resulted in
Best Practices: focusing on building web resources, and perhaps print publications, guiding the community to proven "best practices," in the areas of digitizing, information standards, preservation and access; working towards an articulation of the underlying principles and broader best practices in digitizing and networking cultural heritage;
This very broad goal is being met with the very specific "Best Practices" project that will result in a print publication and an ongoing web resource.
Joint Projects: working to engage as many members as possible in joint projects
It is still too early to be able to report on members developing joint projects as a result of the facilitation of NINCH. However, through a variety of means, the mechanisms for such facilitation are now being put into place. The Best Practices Working Group is drawn from diverse sectors and is the first example of NINCH members working together on a specific cross-sector project. Part of the point of the Building Blocks project is, after the first round of discipline-based workshops, to actively facilitate joint projects between participating societies and associations, working with computer and information scientists. The Copyright Town Meetings series has also drawn much interest and draws together representatives of libraries, publishers, museums, visual resources, faculty, university administration and university legal counsel. We are beginning to think about a third series.
Information Hub: continuing to be an information hub for future possibilities in the arrangement of our digital futures that will affect the treatment, preparation, digitization and use of cultural materials.
As this year has focused on the creation of future governance, financial, membership and programmatic structures for NINCH and on the rapid development of two very specific practical projects, attention has wandered from active, further development of NINCH as information hub. The NINCH-announce list is still very strong and popular but the website needs focused attention (including professional re-design) this next year. The proposed "mapping" project, defined by the Advocacy Working Group, deploying latest web technologies to represent the digital activity of all NINCH members could be a boon here.
Organizational Future: developing with the board a plan for the next phase of the organizational and financial support structure of NINCH; developing with the Board the next Strategic Plan; delegating responsibility, creating an organizational structure and mobilization strategy that will enable more working groups to proceed with their developmental agendas with the participation, but not necessarily under the constant direction, of the executive director;
The creation of the Strategic Planning Working Group and the effectiveness of our working relationship has produced a solid new governance structure and new board and is putting into a place a plan for NINCH's future fiscal, membership and programmatic structure.
The programmatic working groups, however, still depend on the direction of the executive director. Finding chairs who will pursue program aggressively and independently appears to be a longer-term goal.
To achieve independent 501(c)(3) status and meet our financial and membership targets. Developing the organizational infrastructure (to parallel and make possible the development of our projects) is the first priority of this year. This will include our becoming an independnt organization; determining precise relationship with ARL, achieving 501(c)(3) status; increasing our membership to meet the year-end goals set by the Membership Report; and exploring the possibility of foundation support for our core organizational budget.
To raise sufficient funding to be able to move into production with the Database, Best Practices and Building Blocks projects. Best Practices is now fully funded upto delivery of manuscript; we next need to develop a publishing strategy. Building Blocks is partly funded and we are developing a modular approach that will enable us to successfully produce part one (with practical project proposals resulting from the first set of workshops) without necessarily being committed to part two (the development of a much longer-term research agenda). The Database project has to produce a rich, fully complete prototype with the NEH records suppied, and then needs to move into a production stage with more extensive funding.
To re-design the core NINCH web site, paying particular attention to information architecture and the community's needs, working with the Communications Working Group and a professional designer.
To make substantial progress towards meeting the goals in the program areas outline by the Advocacy Working Group:
Working directly with our membership is important, but there is value in developing partnerships with parallel, peer, cross-sector organizations and agencies, both here and abroad. Working further with the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services seems self-evident but important to emphasize. But I would also like to develop specific, strategic initiatives with the Center for Arts & Culture (that would define our work as an aspect of cultural policy development) and with the Digital Library Federation.
October 1998-September 1999
April 6, 1999
"Promises & Challenges in Networking Cultural Heritage." University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
October 14, 1999
"Promises and Challenges of Networking Cultural Heritage: Elements of a Cultural Action Agenda, as Demonstrated by the Experiences and Plans of the US NINCH," Museums, Cultural Heritage and Digital Revolution. Ministry of Culture, Prague, Czech Republic.
November 17, 1999
"Promises and Challenges of Networking Cultural Heritage: Elements of a Cultural Action Agenda, as Demonstrated by the Experiences and Plans of the US NINCH," Royal Academy of Arts and Letters, Stockholm, Sweden.
September 1998
"Coming Together: Three Comparative U. S. Approaches to
Networking Cultural Heritage: AMICO, American Strategy and the
American Heritage Virtual Archive Project," Digital Resources in the
Humanities conference, Glasgow.
Organized
January 9, 1999
"Historical Research and Resources in the Digital Age," American
Historical Association Conference. Washington, DC.
February 11, 1999
Copyright Town Meeting, College Art Association, Los Angeles.
April 26, 1999
"Connecting Collections: The Museum Digital Library Collective,
the Cultural Tourism Gateway and Museums and the Online Archive of
California." American Association of Museums Annual Meeting.
Organized
September 24, 1999
"Constructing and Implementing a Research Agenda for Networking
Cultural Heritage." Computer Science and Humanities Informatics
session. ICHIM 99 Conference, Washington, D.C.
Organized
