nof-digitise Technical Advisory Service
Income generation/Sustainability
Commissioned from Harvard Consultancy Services Ltd by UKOLN on behalf of
NOF in association with the People's Network
An Information Paper from the NOF Technical Advisory Service
Projects funded through the nof-digitise programme are expected to remain sustainable for at least
three years beyond the lifetime of NOF funding. Therefore projects must give consideration to ways
of establishing a sustainable basis for development. Although it is a requirement that content funded
through the programme must be made available free to users at the point of access, there are a
number of ways in which this content can be used to generate income whilst still fulfilling this
requirement.
This paper is intended to be used as a means of focussing on the issues associated with income
generation and sustainability for digitisation projects. The advice given is for guidance and should
not be seen as the only solution. It is recommended that each project should be reviewed on its own
merits, using these guidelines as a starting point.
The paper covers the range of income generating options available, their advantages and
disadvantages and issues to consider.
The range of options covered in more detail later includes:

Sale of content on-line

Subscription-based services

Licensing of collections to commercial digital library services

Advertising

Affiliate programs

Sponsorship

On-line shops

Portals
This paper has been written, assuming that most NOF projects will be working with a range of
digitised content, which includes text, imagery, video and audio. However, as the most mature area
in this sector for revenue generation is that for digital imagery, we have focussed more in this area
when giving examples.
It is also important to appreciate the difference between sustainability and income generation. The
former does not necessarily rely on the latter. For example, an institution could decide that, as a
matter of policy its digital library is a core service and maintained and developed from the central
budget as part of a re-balancing of collection management strategies. The opportunities offered by
digital collection management and the Internet are enormous and where as they may have been seen
as add-ons to existing services, increasingly they are being seen as essential core services which
many institutions’ customers will come to expect and demand.
Finally, a few words on rights. Before considering any of the income generating options, it is
important that each institution understand the rights position regarding their collections. Each
consortium must tackle this issue in its own way and come to its own agreement with all partners
and suppliers of content/images. If there is any doubt about the rights position for a consortium’s
collection it is strongly recommended that it is not used in any way to generate revenue.
A useful book on rights and related issues, Guide to Copyright for Museums and Galleries, has been
produced by Peter Wienand, Anna Booy and Robin Fry in conjunction with the Museums
Copyright Group [1].
The copyright consultant Sandy Norman has published a number of titles covering copyright across
a range of libraries in conjunction with the Library Association. More information is available from
the Library Association Web site [2].
A paper by the Networked Services Policy Taskgroup covering copyright and the networked
environment is available from EARL on their Web site [3].
In addition, the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) [4] has useful guidelines on good practice for
digitisation projects. There is also a digital library where content providers can store content,
provided that they make it available to the education market. It has a licence agreement online [5]
that may be useful, although it does not deal with the commercial sale of content.
1) Target Markets
There are a number of ways in which income can be generated directly from digitised material.
Before looking at the specific mechanisms, it is important to understand the target markets
available. Generally speaking, there are three main target markets:

The public

Commercial organisations

The culture and education sectors
a) The public
This is a notoriously difficult sector to generate revenue from, especially when using the Internet as
a channel to market. It is estimated that as at August 2000, there were over 17.5 million UK users of
the Internet, representing almost one fifth of the population [6]. In the short to medium term, this is
expected to continue growing at the rate of around 11,000 new users per ????? [6]. This rate of
explosive growth has been greater than the take-up of any other technology platform, including
radio, TV and telephone (what – even mobiles?).
Usage started to accelerate in 1995, with the largest increases during 1999-2000. As such, it is still
very much an immature medium through which to market (As an example, commercial direct
telephone services  such as telephone banking and insurance services  only started maturing in
the 1990’s, 10 or so years after they first came to market and over 115 years after the phone was
invented!) It is not expected that the Internet will take anything like this long to mature, but the
reality is that it is still a very young medium, particularly for selling.
New business models are still developing and predicting successful models is not easy. Few could
have predicted, for example, the success of online auction services, such e-bay [7] and qxl [8].
The public are also very nervous of using online commerce, especially when using credit cards.
Recent high-profile security scares from major organisations’ Web sites have done little to help this.
It should be remembered also that a large percentage of the population still do not have Internet
access or the knowledge of how to use it and many do not have credit cards. The demographics of
the Internet consumer-base are not that of a typical retail or mail order business opportunity. This
needs to be considered when reviewing potential business opportunities.
Typical revenue levels per sale are very much lower than those for commercial sales. Experience of
organisations that deliver digital content is that a typical content sale to the public will result in
revenue of around £5£15 per item. To get a sufficient return on investment, selling in this area
may require a high volume of sales per item of content.
Some examples of cultural institutions that sell content online include: The British Museum [9],
The Natural History Museum [10], SCRAN [11], and HPAC [12].
Content sales are not the sole source of income into this sector, as there will be opportunities to
generate additional revenue from other sources, such as advertising, affiliate programs and
sponsorship. These are covered in more detail later in this paper.
Finally, any business opportunities in this area will need to be supported by a marketing strategy
and related resource and budget.
What does this mean to organisations planning to sell their digital collections?
Currently, direct selling to the public using the Internet is risky and revenue levels are likely to be
fairly low. Any revenue plan based primarily around public sales needs to be realistic; detailed
cash-flow forecasts should be prepared showing likely sales and revenue figures. There may be
value in providing a public-facing sales opportunity as part of a wider offering, as long as it is not
the primary source of income.
b) Commercial organisations
This sector presents the opportunity to generate the most revenue from the sale of digitised assets.
However, it is not an easy route and is one that needs to be considered very carefully.
Some organisations can certainly generate income from the sale of content in this sector. For
example many of the leading national museums and cultural institutions have commercial photo
libraries that generate substantial revenues including ???????.
To illustrate the potential for business to business content sales in this sector, one organisation,
having similar content to a library or museum, sells conventional (non-digital) copies of its photos
and transparencies. It does not market the images and relies on word of mouth. In 1998, they
generated around £125,000 from the sale of around 5,000 images  mainly to publishers and media
organisations for use as book covers, pictures for magazines and advertising. Although this is not a
unique example it should be said that this particular organisation has excellent staff and some good
collections that are in demand, however it proves a point that revenue can be generated from
cultural content.
Few cultural institutions currently have operational business to business sites on the Web. Examples
of institutions having their own internal commercial libraries include (note that these are links to the
main site and not to a specific commercial service):
The Victoria & Albert Museum [13], Science Museum [14], Imperial War Museum [15], Royal
Geographical Society [16], Royal Photographic Society [17] and The British Library [18].
However, be very careful when trying to assess the value of your content, as many cultural
institutions believe that they are sat on a gold-mine and this is not always the case. It is all about the
real value and saleability of content. Marketing is an important consideration too as the institution
highlighted in the illustration above has a reputation and contacts built up over a long period of time
that many institutions will not have.
If the project does mange to generate a demand for their content, fulfilling the level of demand
generated can prove difficult and this is an area where ICT can provide benefits in automating many
of the processes. Turn this sentence round to read positively…ICT can provide benefits in
automating many of the processes associated with meeting customer demand for commercial
product.
However, there are several major issues associated with commercial content sales:

Protection of rights – as in any method of commercial exploitation, projects must ensure that
copyright is not abused, either intentionally or unintentionally

Billing – especially when purchasers may be from overseas, in different time-zones using their
own currencies

Marketing the service and images effectively enough to meet revenue targets
What does this mean to organisations planning to sell their digital collections?
To exploit these commercial opportunities institutions need to become, in effect, a commercial
content library.
This may not be feasible or desirable for many. However, there are several choices available that
could overcome this:

Work with other consortia to aggregate collections and share infrastructure. This collective
approach could provide the infrastructure necessary to deliver a commercial service, whilst
giving an acceptable balance between income generation and the effort required to run it.

Approach existing commercial content services and explore opportunities to use their existing
infrastructure and marketing to help sell collections. This approach is covered in more detail
later in this paper.
Content sales are not the sole source of income into this sector, as there will be opportunities to
generate additional revenue from other sources, such as advertising, affiliate programs and
sponsorship which are covered in more detail later in this paper.Again, it is recommended that
detailed and realistic revenue and cash-flow forecasts are created if this is a chosen option.
c) The culture and education sectors
These sectors provide further opportunities to generate subscription or license revenue. This sector
has the demand as well as the infrastructure (in most cases) to use such a service. However, funds to
date have been limited and it is unlikely that cultural institutions or education establishments would
commit to funding multiple services.
In a recent development the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) are currently
working with the National Grid for Learning (NGfL) to look at encouraging imaginative content
development, and 15% of NGfL Standards funding for 2000/2001 [19] is scheduled to be used for
‘developing and providing content’. More information is available from the Regional Broadband
Consortia [20].
It is clear that projects and consortia must consider a collaborative approach if they are to make an
in-road into this sector as far as generating revenue is concerned.
A very successful and relevant model to consider is that used by SCRAN – the Scottish Cultural
Resource Access Network [11]. SCRAN is a searchable resource base of history and culture with
photos, objects, artwork, movies and audio. SCRAN has negotiated licensing arrangements through
central bodies, such as JISC and Local Education Authorities and offers its full service to schools,
further and higher education establishments for a license fee, ranging from £60 to £2000 per annum,
depending on the type and size of institution. The five-year contract they have negotiated with JISC
pays for access from every further and higher education authority. 2,000 schools also have access.
However, the SCRAN model is not just about sustainability, it also covers rights management, IPR
issues and how contributor/providers are dealt with. SCRAN’s licensing model ensures that the new
digitised object remains the Intellectual Property of the owner of the original, while securing for
SCRAN a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive licence for its educational use.
SCRAN’s approach to rights management includes sophisticated authentication and authorisation,
as well as a dynamic watermarking and fingerprinting system, which invisibly encodes into every
copy image downloaded, an unique audit trail including the copyright status of the object, who
downloaded it, when and on which machine. So downloads of high quality content can be restricted
to users in licensed institutions, such as public libraries, and they have the means to police licensed
users to discourage unauthorised use of SCRAN content.
What does this mean to organisations planning to sell their digital collections?
To market, sell and train users effectively in this sector a collaborative approach is recommended.
Approaches to schools, further and higher education establishments are best made through central
and Local Education Authorities.
Another issue is ensuring that potential users in the education sector are aware of the resources that
are available and understand how they might use them to meet their own requirements  in a
classroom situation  for example. Projects may consider it worth while to address these issues.
This may take the form of simple awareness training, but in some cases could extend to providing
training resources, such as manuals or guidelines on how to use the service most effectively.
2) Main types of income generation
Essentially there are two main types of income generation for digitised assets on the Internet:
a) Income directly derived from the digitised material
This includes royalty payments, license fees and subscriptions from the sale or provision of access
to the digitised assets.
i) Sale of content online
This is where the rights to use content is sold online.
Users should be given the opportunity to search, browse and download content. It is recommended
that wherever possible, processes connected with the display, download and billing for content
should be automated, to minimise impact upon the institutions concerned.
It is important that consideration is given to the management and control of licensing and rights and
that appropriate steps are taken to prevent abuse of copyright. This could include a rights
management database, encryption, file locking and watermarking.
There are many providers in the market of digital library, rights management systems and services.
For more information, it is suggested that that the mda [21] could be a good starting point as they
have a register of technology providers active in the culture sector. Also providers outside of this
sector should be considered as digital library and rights management tools are very mature in
sectors such as publishing and medicine.
Issues surrounding copyright and licensing are outside of the scope of this paper however further
information on IPRs can be found in the nof-digitise FAQs section of the People’s Network Web
site [22].
To give a benchmark of likely image sales, commercial photo libraries work on the basis that 5%10% of their collections will sell every year. The British Association of Picture Libraries and
Agencies (BAPLA) [23] publishes a recommended scale of fees for image sales. The Tate Gallery
has also published its scale of charges on the Web [24].
The advantage of this revenue generating approach is that if an institution has digital assets that are
popular, the service can actively promote these to stimulate maximum possible revenue. However,
there is a risk in developing a service focusing on generating revenue from the most popular digital
assets, as it could ‘skew’ the service or divert the project from its original aim. Also, more complex
processes and systems, especially billing, need to be put in place and the project may need to ensure
that it makes a high volume of images available.
What about the option whereby the consortium/institution brokers a deal with a software company
producing – e.g. educational software/games/etc – for a licence to agreed sub-sets of its digital
material to be used in the creation of specific commercial products…not only the sale of licences
for pix to appear in books, etc. OU materials???
ii) Subscription-based services
This is where a subscription fee is charged, allowing access to a library of images. Some sites
operate on a multi-tier subscription basis, where basic information is given for free and more
detailed information is accessible for a one-off fee or for a regular subscription.
The best approach depends on the type of content and site structure and projects must continue to
ensure that NOF funded content is made available free to users at the point of access.
As an example of a subscription-type service, see the Fathom Web site [25], which is aiming to
charge for short courses primarily for the US market, e.g. a 3 hour ‘Basics of the Italian
Renaissance’ course, with free content as samples.
The advantage of this approach is that the billing process and systems can be simplified, as only a
regular subscription is required. It also allows a more regular cash flow. However, there is a limit to
the revenue levels that can be generated (limited by the number of users multiplied by the
subscription fee). There is also a need for more behind the scenes sophistication with the underlying
technology.
Another option for the generation of revenue from imagery is through the sale of licenses to third
party commercial digital libraries.
This would typically involve the agreement of a licensing arrangement, whereby the commercial
digital content libraries would undertake the marketing and distribution of images in exchange for a
percentage of the commission generated. Experience suggests that typical commission
arrangements range from 33% to 50% of the commission for digital imagery. With textual content,
organisations will pay a ‘click’ fee of a few pence, each time a textual article is selected.
The leading organisations in this sector for digital imagery are: Corbis [25],Hulton Getty [26] and
Bridgeman [27]. For digital textual context see: Lexis-Nexis [28],Reuters [29],Dialog Corporation
[30], Newsedge [31] or Ananova [32].
The advantages of this approach are:

All of the work associated with marketing and distribution of content is handled by a third party,
saving time and money

Commercial services have established distribution channels, which could be time-consuming
and difficult for projects to develop

They will almost certainly generate more sales than a cultural institution could hope to achieve
The disadvantages of this approach are:

Commercial digital libraries tend to be very choosy about which content they will accept – in
some instances institutions may find that the vast majority of their collection will not be selected
for use.

Sometimes they may insist on rights agreements which may not be acceptable or in the best
interests of the institutions concerned

Projects will have no control over how the content will be used

The institutions will lose a percentage of the sale of each item of content in commission to the
library
b) Other income associated with the publication of digitised material
This includes advertising, affiliate programs, sponsorship and merchandising.
i) Advertising
Looking at general sites on the Internet, advertising is a principal source of revenue for many
commercial Web sites. Indeed, some sites generate sufficient revenue to cover all of their running
costs and make a substantial profit. This is particularly true of portal sites such as MSN [33], Yahoo
[34] and Virgin.Net [35], which provide a range of services and links.
Advertising can take a number of forms. Banner adverts for example, are around an inch high and
run across the page and appear on the menu/home pages of Web sites. Brian Kelly’s paper
Advertising on the network [36], although aimed at options for higher education institutions may be
of interest.
If you engage in e-mailshots to users these could carry adverts too  offering more revenue
potential. This can be quite an effective marketing tool, especially if you hold user information and
can target specific user groups with specific mails/adverts. There are data protection and data
security issues to consider here of course, and it necessitates user-registration (which will put some
people off from using your service). Also, if you are visibly associated with an advertiser or
sponsor, users may be suspicious that you may be holding data about them for purposes other than
in the context of your project. Er…Spam??
The advantage of using advertising to generate revenue is that reasonable revenue generation levels
may result.
The disadvantage is that advertising can cheapen a site if done badly, particularly if not relevant or
contemporary with the subject matter, so approach with caution. Also, for advertising to be
effective, you have to have a defined audience which the advertiser wishes to address  and you
have to have throughput  there are Audit Bureau of Circulation approved ways of counting the
throughput and you need to be able to tell the advertiser just exactly what the make-up of your
visitor segments are.
ii) Affiliate programs
Another important stream of revenue is through affiliate programs. This is where a site will feature
a product or service and provide links to a vendor to supply it. The vendor will pay commission for
any products sold. The most common examples are books and CDs  all of the major online
bookshops and CD stores offer this sort of service.
The way this works is that after registering with the store, you will have a unique code and access to
promotional imagery that you can use on your site. You set up a link to the affiliate site featuring
your code and any time someone clicks through, the vendor registers that it has come from your site
and credits your account if a purchase follows.
There are several options available, if you set up a simple link from a Web site to the home-page of
the book or CD store, most vendors will pay a commission of around 5% on any subsequent
purchase made. If you make a link from your Web site to a specific book/CD and this is
subsequently purchased, typical commissions of up to 15% can be paid.
For examples of affiliate programs, see Amazon UK [37], WH Smith [38] or Internet Bookshop
[39].
This could be an important source of revenue for sites and can be targeted more specifically. For
example, if a project is featuring a specific period in history or type of collection/information, it
could be very relevant to provide links from those pages to a handful of books which provide more
information on the subject.
There are other affiliate programs, which will pay if people click through to (usually) a shopping
portal or search engine. The revenue levels per click are much lower, for example $0.01-$0.02 per
click (most originate in the US) and they can be another potential source of income. For examples,
see Goto.com [40] and : http://www.goto.com/d/ssn/overview/ AskJeeves [41].
: http://www.askjeeves.com/docs/affiliates/index.asp
The advantages of the affiliate-based approach are that it is relatively simple to set up and can
generate a steady stream of income. From a user’s perspective, they will also have access to a
broader range of information on the subject matter concerned. A good way to maximise the
effectiveness of a range of affiliate programmes and other income-generation opportunities is to
create a portal (see section XXX)
The disadvantages are that it needs more work to set it up. A considerable amount of research will
be necessary to establish the most appropriate products and vendors. Also by engaging affiliate
programs, you may be encouraging and creating ways for people to leave your site, rather than
stay. Care needs to be taken in page design and layout to prevent or minimise this and to make sure
that programs are presented in a way which does not detract from your site.
iii) Sponsorship
Sponsorship is another form of revenue, although it is more difficult to obtain and needs time and
patience in developing a sustainable strategy. This would normally manifest itself as a payment to
the organisation or consortium, in exchange for which, sponsoring organisations would receive a
range of benefits including their logo and/or adverts featured on the site, a guarantee of a certain
customer “reach” as the service will be available through a given number of outlets, etc. As an
example, in some circumstances it may be appropriate to offer – in return for an agreed fee - Web
site designers and/or suppliers the opportunity to feature their name in the text ‘pages
designed/made by xyz’ or ‘powered by abc company’ that is included on every page of the project
Web site. Think of your pages as your ‘virtual real estate’, looking at every inch of screen-space as
a saleable commodity.
Although this approach is one that can generate reasonable revenue levels providing care and time
is spent in negotiating mutually acceptable arrangements over the medium/long term. iv) Shops
There are also opportunities to offer online shopping and to sell related products through the project
Web site. However, there is likely to be a significant cost associated with this as, for example, a
display and billing system will be required to manage transactions. Although it is unlikely to
generate significant revenue streams, this option could be useful as part of a broader revenue
package. Again, a collective approach is recommend for enabling this and to put the infrastructure
in place.
For examples of an online shops, see The Tate [42], on: http://www.tate.org.uk/shop/browse.htm
The Smithsonian Institute [43] or on: http://www.smithsonianstore.com/asp/root/default.asp
(they have an effective way of categorising gifts into themes)
The Victoria and Albert Museum shop [44].
: http://www.vandashop.co.uk/
The advantages of this approach are that it is relatively straightforward to establish a shop and many
institutions will already have merchandising and products which could be sold. It is important, of
course, that such e-commerce opportunities are sensibly related to the project and thus provide a
viable business case to justify time and resources invested in their development. v) Portals
In an earlier section, reference was made to portals  gateways or one-stop sites for information,
links, products and services relating to a specific subject or group of individuals. One of the limiting
factors for many commercial portals is that they do not have sufficient content themselves and have
to strike deals with a number of content providers to provide a viable service. A portal can
successfully combine many of the elements mentioned in this paper (advertising, shops, affiliate
programs, sale of content and subscription services) into one focused service.
This is one area where nof-digitise applicants have an advantage, in that they are rich in content.
Therefore one potential route for applicants – whether consortia, groups of consortia or stand-alone
parrtnerships - is to consider the development of a [NO – please don’t describe them as
cultural…confusing with DCMS Culture Online project and not necessariuly the case either] portal.
To better illustrate this multi-facted (don’t be negative!) situation, an example is given below for a
fictional organisation ‘The Museum, archive and library of Sandforshire [in our fictional buisness
plan…]:
Sandforshire MAL engage in a digitisation program and have generated a large quantity of digital
imagery, text, database records and digital multimedia assets. They have created a Web presence
and because of their geographic location, have developed it into a portal aimed at people living in or
with an interest in the region of Sandforshire
Visitors to the portal enter via an attractive home page. This presents many different options:

Free access to NOF-digi resources, whether digital collections or learning packages, this is
presented through various links which could iunclude a searchable database

A series of ‘channels’, offering targeted information on specific themes or areas of interest

Links to a virtual shopping mall, with access to partner vendors and also to Sandforshire MAL’s
own shop containing merchandise and books

Visitor information on how to travel to Sandfordshire MAL’s building, including links and
booking forms for local hotels, guest houses, other local attractions and more generic, but
relevant sites; for example, The Met Office (for weather), AA/RAC (for road travel routes and
traffic information), Railtrack/local train company (for train times and service information),
Tourist Information sites. Local links are structured so that XYZ receive a commission for each
successful booking

A site search facility allowing free-text searching on any subject

Links to other sites having information on XYZ’s region and subject matter

Pages displaying information on complementary events, places, services and people. e.g.
information on and links to craft fairs, cultural events, exhibitions, concerts, etc

Themed pages; e.g all-inclusive itineraries that encompass the travel, accommodation, entrance
tickets and souvenirs for a given subject, theme or tour. This would generate revenue for XYZ

The XYZ portal carries both sponsorship and advertising. The advertising is a mixture of
generic (i.e. larger organisations) and local (tied to local, complementary services). This would
generate revenue for XYZ

All pages displaying information upon a subject or aspect of XYZ’s collections would have
links to book, CD and gift stores with targeted products of interest. e.g. on a page focussing on
the Romans, there would be links to books of a general nature, but also to local history books,
replica jewellery, clothing and CDs of example music from the period. Each of these links
would be to specific products and services from third party services via their affiliate programs.
This would generate revenue for XYZ
This example helps illustrate how a number of methods of revenue generation can be combined into
a single service. However, it is important to note that this approach almost certainly will be beyond
the reach of individual projects and would only really work if a collaborative approach is taken.
There are few examples of these portals in the non-commercial sectors currently (although this is
expected to change). Examples of portals in different sectors include:
www.webvision.co.uk/portsmouth.web/index.htm - A portal covering Portsmouth and all it has to
offer [45]
www.msn.co.uk - Microsoft’s flagship site [46] . Has advertising, links, shops, affiliate programs
and content derived from third party sources (see below).
There’s one for the Lake District too…
www.ukplus.com [47] - A UK-based search engine and portal.
The key is to ensure that there are sufficient levels of visitors to the site and that ‘stickiness’ is
encouraged – this is to ensure that visitors stay longer on the site and keep returning in the future.
One effective way of encouraging this is to offer a broad range of additional information and links.
Sources of potential additional content (most of which is free) includes:
Type
News
Weather
Places of
interest
Travel
Entertainment
Providers
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Misc.
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Evening Standard (have a good site to which links could be made) – www.thisislondon.co.uk
ITN – www.itn.co.uk
BBC – www.bbc.co.uk/news
Met. Office (have a local weather page to which links could be made) – www.meto.gov.uk
Yahoo have local weather pages to which links can be made. www.yahoo.com
Multimap – www.multimap.com
Official site of the UK tourist board: www.visitbritain.com could be a useful starting point for
identifying attractions.
Railtrack: www.railtrack.co.uk, for train timetables
Link to BAA site for airports (includes latest flight times) www.baa.co.uk/BAAHome.htm
TrafficMaster provides information showing delays, road-works and accidents on major UK roads:
www.trafficmaster-online.com/index.asp
Euroshell offers a road route planning service: www.euroshell.com/INT/EN/index.asp
London Transport for tube and bus information: www.londontransport.co.uk/rt_home.shtml
Scoot provides a free utility that can be deployed on a site to allow searching against their database
for local restaurants, cinemas, places of interest, etc www.scoot.co.uk
Yell (Yellow pages on-line) provide a similar free service, but also provide cinema listings.
www.yell.co.uk .
Time Out: www.timeout.co.uk provides useful entertainment linkages
NME run an on-line gig guide for concerts and gigs www.nme.co.uk
Mapping information: Mapquest, Global Insight and streetmap.co.uk provide free on-line mapping
– sample attached. (streetmap.co.uk goes down to street level within Great London).
www.mapquest.com, www.globalinsight.com, www.streetmap.co.uk
Air quality: www.aeat.co.uk/netcen/airqual/forecast provides localised air quality information
This information is by no means exclusive, but does give examples of types of services that could
be made available.
3) Conclusion
When considering ways to sustain projects beyond the initial funding period, it is probably worth
considering multiple income streams to generate the maximum possible revenue.
Each project should look at its own individual business needs when developing theitsbusiness plan
and business requirements specification, an approach that is standard practice for IT projects
generally and a requirement of the New Opportunities FundThe business plan should include
revenue generation and cashflow forecasts.
It is important that potential solutions, especially IT solutions, should not be considered until this
process has been undertaken. Each solution can then be matched against the needs and it may be
that one of more of the solutions outlined in above are considered appropriate.
Cashflow and revenue generation forecasts should be realistic, tested wherever possible upon the
market and take into account each of the revenue streams.
Again, concerning rights, before considering any of the income generating options, it is important
that each institution understand the rights position regarding the material they are going to use..
Each consortium must tackle this issue in its own way and come to its own agreement with all
partners and suppliers of content. It is strongly advised that a licensing and rights management
system be put in place. Some content might have been created with the permission of third party
rights holders, and all of it will be created with public money. We all have a duty of care to protect
this. Without an appropriate rights management system, anything put online will be effectively in
the public domain and potentially used for the profit of others. Even if a project has established the
right to exploit its content, entering into commercial activities may prejudice (future) relationships
with content provides who may be reluctant to provide content (on favourable terms) if it is going to
be exploited for profit. The New Opportunities Fund expects projects to demonstrate they have
understood this issue and will require successful applicants to indemnify the Fund against any
future action over ownership or misuse of content.
To conclude then, although content must be provided free at the point of use, there is scope to
generate income through exploiting content and services imaginatively, provided that adequate
projection is afforded to the IPRs of the content and that a sound business case can be established.
This report prepared and presented by:
Chris Meaney
Managing Director
Harvard Consultancy Services Ltd
Bexin House
2-3 St. Andrew’s Place
Southover Road
Lewes
East Sussex
BN7 1UP
Tel: 01273 897517
Fax: 01273 471929
E-Mail: chris@harvardcs.com
References
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2000. ISBN: 0415217210.
2. Library Association
http://www.la-hq.org.uk/directory/publications.html
3. EARL Network Policy Taskgroup Issue Paper
http://www.earl.org.uk/policy/issuepapers/copyright.html
4. Visual Arts Data Service
http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/
5. VADS License Agreement
http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/depositing/deposit-licence.html
6. source: NOP Research Group, August 2000
7. e-bay
http://www.e-bay.com
8. qxl
http://www.qxl.com
9. The British Museum : http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/
10. Natural History Museum : http://owen.nhm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/newbrowsing/piclib.pl
11. SCRAN http://www.scran.ac.uk
12. HPAC : http://hpac.org.uk/places.htm
13. SCRAN - http://www.scran.ac.uk
14. mda www.mda.org.uk
15. People’s Network: nof-digitise Stage Two  FAQs
http://www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/nof/faqs.html#IPR Issues
16. British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies – http://www.bapla.org.uk
17. Corbis : http://www/corbis.com
18. Hulton Getty : http://www.hultongetty.com/en-us/HultonGetty/
19. NGfL Standards funding
www.dfee.gov.uk/standardsfund/ngfldevo.html
20. Regional Broadband Consortia
www.dfee.gov.uk/standardsfund/ngflrbcs.html
21. mda
22. nof-digitise FAQs
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http://www.bapla.org.uk/
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http://www.tate.org.uk/shop/charges.htm
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http://www.fathom.com
26.
Bridgeman : http://www.bridgeman.co.uk/
27. Lexis-Nexis : http://www.lexis-nexis.com
28. Reuters http://www.reuters.com
29. Dialog Corporation : http://www.dialog.com
30. Newsedge http://www.newsedge.com
31. MSN (http://www.msn.co.uk)
32. Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.co.uk)
33. Virgin.Net (http://www.virgin.net
34. Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/subst/partners/associates/associates.html/026-41880699380467
35. WH Smith: http://www.whsmith.co.uk/whs/Go.ASP?Partnership=Y&shop=4317
36. Internet Bookshop: http://www.bookshop.co.uk/par/parpge.asp?siteno=1&Shop=56
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/articles/vine-120/article.html