Openlab Workshop Report

A Report on the Openlab Workshop December 1-2, 2015 Arlington, Virginia

Written for the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Diane M. Zorich Cultural Heritage Consultant

Posted June 26, 2016 by user:edsonm

About this Report

This report summarizes and synthesizes the discussions that took place at the Openlab Workshop held on December 1-2, 2015 in Arlington, Virginia. It focuses primarily on the second day of the event, which was held at the offices of the American Alliance of Museums [[[Openlab Workshop Report#note1|Note 1]]].

Sources used to develop this report include the author’s own “real-time” notes, audio and written transcripts of discussions from Day 2 of the event, social media feeds and blog postings that document the event, and post-workshop discussions with Openlab’s organizers.

The narrative outline of this report follows the agenda and general trajectory of discussions that occurred on the second day of the Openlab Workshop. The report is not a refined transcript but a summary account that highlights the key ideas and themes to be discussed further by the project’s stakeholders. Major discussion points are synthesized and reported in sections where they were most frequently discussed rather than in strict chronological order.

For purposes of clarity the term “GLAM” (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) is used throughout this report to represent all memory, knowledge, and humanities-based organizations. The term “technology” is used to represent the entire spectrum of technology and practices related to computers, mobile devices, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. “Openlab Workshop” is a rubric used to refer to all events that took place on December 1st and 2nd, including a smaller workshop meeting held on the second day of activities.

1. What is Openlab?

The Backdrop

The idea for Openlab emerged from several years of work, collaboration, and discussion with people trying to bring the concepts and practices of ‘new technology’ into the work and thinking of GLAMs.

There is broad consensus in the GLAM sector that GLAMs are struggling with technology and change. Many Openlab Workshop attendees and stakeholders feel that GLAMs are conservative, 1950s-style institutions that often wrap themselves in a veneer of 21st century technologies but don’t understand or utilize these technologies to their full extent. They acknowledge that GLAMs have created exciting and innovative projects, but these initiatives have had little lasting impact sector-wide. For many attendees and stakeholders, GLAMs are not leveraging their use of technology to address the grand challenges of our time, and thus are not on the forefront of work that affects the public good.

Attendees also assert that the GLAM community suffers from its own “digital divide” between institutions who have the capacity and expertise to explore technologies and those who do not. The latter have few opportunities to leverage the knowledge and work taking place elsewhere in the sector. Many GLAMs never even hear about these efforts.

Crosscutting all these issues is the trajectory of change, which attendees assert is fast, continuous, and far-reaching in society but slow, sporadic, and isolated in the GLAM industry, with little scale or urgency across the sector. The rapid changes brought about by digital technologies in other sectors (such as medicine, publishing, or industry) will not occur in GLAMs without new efforts to jumpstart sector-wide change.

Openlab as a New Way Forward

Openlab’s central premise is that a focused effort is necessary to help GLAMs address change and harness the opportunities provided by technology. The ultimate outcome of this effort is a GLAM sector that is adept at change and able to use technology to increase the scale and impact of its work in society.

Spearheaded by digital strategist and Council of Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Distinguished Fellow Michael Edson, the Openlab concept received formal support in July of 2015, when CLIR received funding through a cooperative agreement from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Office of Digital Humanities and Division of Public Programs to host a series of events where the Openlab concept could be explored further.

Openlab’s first day of events took place at a hotel conference facility in Arlington, VA and included a public Unconference and Ignite talks designed to generate ideas and solicit participation from a broad spectrum of GLAM stakeholders. The dialogues that emerged from this day were continued and examined more deeply in a follow-up meeting (structured in a smaller workshop setting) that was held on the second day at the offices of the American Alliance of Museums.

The Unconference sessions addressed far-reaching topics such as funding and sustainability in GLAMs; issues for small and start-up organizations; communities of practice; the politics of change in nonprofits; community engagement; partnerships; solving the “grand challenges” that threaten our world; and the purpose and potential of GLAM Labs. The Ignite talks presented perspectives of 15 GLAM professionals who spoke about issues of social justice in museum practice; engaging global communities of learners; bringing GLAM data to life in new ways; getting GLAMs to look outward; and rethinking the concept of “museum time.” Several individuals proposed innovative ways for GLAMs to participate in education (e.g., “Smithsonian High,” sensory learning), and offered case studies demonstrating how hacking, historical preservation, and personal archiving can support and engage local communities.

The Openlab events received sector-wide endorsement, with over a dozen cultural heritage organizations and associations providing financial, leadership, or in-kind support. (See this wiki's home page for a full list of supporters and partners.) Over 100 professionals from 80 institutions attended the Unconference/Ignite talks, and 36 individuals participated in the Openlab workshop meeting. A Twitter backchannel engaged many others in virtual conversations and sharing of Openlab information.

Information and materials from Openlab events are available on this wiki, including videos of the Ignite talks, Unconference session notes, and information about the workshop meeting and attendees.

2. The Openlab Workshop Meeting - Honing the Idea

The Goal and Process

The goal of the Openlab workshop meeting was to clarify the scope and magnitude of what is needed to accelerate change in the GLAM community, and to outline a way forward in this process. Underlying this goal was the question of whether the Openlab concept, as expressed in verbal and written form, identified a viable pathway for addressing the need, and if not, what alternative solutions might be developed.

To encourage a high level of participant engagement and reduce meeting fatigue, the workshop was divided into a series of timed “sprints.” The goal of the first sprint was to foster an esprit de corps and draw out detailed personal observations about the Openlab concept through extensive participant introductions. Attendees introduced themselves, summarized their professional backgrounds, and expressed their hopes for, and concerns about, the broad issues that Openlab seeks to address.

In the second and third sprints, participants debated what Openlab might be, who it might serve, and how it might operate. This discussion was structured around a review of the one-page Openlab Concept document that was developed prior to the meeting. The review also highlighted gaps Openlab might address, and issues that require more considered attention.

The fourth and fifth sprints offered attendees an opportunity to delve deeper into Openlab’s scope. Participants split into groups to hold informal conversations and later reconvened to share summaries of their discussions.

Sprint 1: Openlab's Relevance and Possibilities - Initial Thoughts

The extensive time allotted for introductions gave participants an opportunity to speak about their motivations for taking part in the workshop, their hopes for how Openlab might affect the GLAM sector, and their concerns about the Openlab concept as it moves forward. Their thoughts are summarized below.

Motivations

Openlab’s funders (the Council on Library and Information Resources and the National Endowment for the Humanities) and host organization (the American Alliance of Museums) felt their programs and missions aligned with Openlab’s goals. Representatives from these organizations noted that:

• Openlab supports their organization’s mission to advocate for the GLAM sector and ensure it remains sustainable and thriving
• Openlab’s ideals are so important that their organization wants to be at the forefront in supporting conversations about accelerated change in the GLAM sector (whether Openlab goes forward or not)
• The US federal endowment programs have supported the creation and use of cultural content in digital form for years and want to see these investments leveraged for greater ends
• The sector’s current model of developing an “enormously expensive…beautiful array of silos” needs to change to a model where GLAMS work together toward a greater public good.

Participants from individual GLAMs had a different set of motivations that were more personal and wide-ranging. They include:

• Inspiration

> Many attendees were inspired by Openlab’s mission and hoped the workshop would be “the disruptive event that (serves as) a turning point in GLAM culture.” Having talked about change for years, they now want to start working toward it by leveraging local efforts at their home institutions into something larger and more global. Indeed, many participants spoke of how Openlab’s model is a macrocosm of what they want to do in their own institutions. On a more personal level, attendees spoke earnestly about the value of learning from, and being inspired by, fellow attendees.

• Representing issues and ideas

> Getting “grand challenges” and marginalized issues (such as climate change, biodiversity, human migration, and social justice) on the GLAM agenda was a motivating factor for many attendees who see these topics as the critical issues of our time. They are disheartened by GLAMs’ avoidance or misguided efforts to tackle these problems and by their failure to take leadership roles to address them.

• Representing disenfranchised voices

> For many participants, a critical motivating factor was ensuring that disenfranchised communities and groups (e.g., people of color, rural communities) are represented in GLAM conversations. Several professionals also identified themselves as the voice of underrepresented members within the GLAM community (e.g., archivists, stymied change agents, smaller organizations such as historical societies.)

Hope and Change: Thoughts on What Openlab Might Do

The reasons for attending the workshop often foreshadowed the attendees’ deeper hopes and aspirations for the types of transformative change Openlab might engender. These aspirations include:

• Leading and driving change

> Openlab was envisioned as a sector-wide leader who might lead in a manner similar to a coxswain - simultaneously guiding and serving, helping a crew row toward a common goal. Some tangible suggestions for how Openlab might accomplish this feat include: enabling small but bold steps that have intrinsic relevance to communities; marshaling resources and energy to undertake community wide projects that match GLAM beliefs and values; scaling up innovative, individual efforts and helping them catalyze the community; and proposing collaborative ways to address common challenges facing GLAMs.

• Putting a focus on the “grand challenges” of our time

> Openlab might help GLAMs collectively address critical global issues that have local impact, such as climate change, human migration and conflict, social justice, education, etc. By positioning GLAMs to address these issues, Openlab would work with them to reshape the public good.

• Bringing the local to the global

> Openlab might help GLAMs leverage local issues and needs in ways that involve the global public, bringing smaller community concerns to larger audiences.

• Establishing a value proposition for GLAMs

> The purpose, role, and value of GLAMs increasingly are being called into question by industry and political leaders, and by the public at large. GLAMs have responded to the skepticism in separate and unconvincing ways. Openlab might help them establish a cogent value proposition for why GLAMs are integral to the public, and what makes their work and collections so interesting and necessary to the world.

• Empowering GLAMs

> GLAMs struggle to provide their communities with an “emotional, passionate connection to cultural heritage.” Openlab might help by promoting efforts to democratize access to culture and science through technologies, enabling communities to tell their own stories, and facilitating user innovation.

• Offering a lifeline

> GLAMs frequently serve as a lifeline for rural and dispersed communities who need access to larger communities and to information. But GLAMs that serve these communities are now struggling to maintain these lifelines. Openlab might help them reconnect with their communities in new ways through technologies. In a similar vein, Openlab might serve as a lifeline for the many GLAMs who do not have the in-house capacity to think creatively about technology, or do not have the opportunities to learn from those who do.

• Serving as an innovation hub

> The sector needs an independent innovation hub that can help build infrastructure, develop collaborations to support GLAM needs and interests, and foster organizational adaptation to technological and social change. It also needs an organizing agent and space to bring together the different groups of people (representing different voices and points of view) that are necessary to foster true innovation. Openlab might serve as this hub and agent, helping to establish a “partnership with future generations by building an environment … that will be used by those who come after us.”

• Serving as an information hub

> Information about technology in the GLAM sector is widely dispersed. Openlab might serve as a central source and distributor of this information in both the GLAM sector and further afield.

Concerns and Risks

Openlab will face some difficult issues as it moves forward. Participants identified the following areas as key challenges for the initiative:

• The echo chamber

> GLAM audiences are a mirror reflection of GLAMs themselves, with little diversity of people and opinions. Participants characterized GLAMs as “echo chambers,” holding conversations that are self-serving and ideologically “safe.” Indeed, the attendees at Openlab events were not spared this characterization, with one participant forcefully commenting that “the problem is in the room.” [[[Openlab Workshop Report#note2|Note 2]]] Transformative change will not be possible until GLAMs address their homogenous workplaces, acknowledge that this homogeneity hinders their capacity for public dialogue and engagement, and develop an inclusive workforce that represents the diversity of people and voices in our society.

• Dichotomies

> GLAMs are pulled in different directions by opposing forces. > - For example, they struggle with working together as a community while needing to “bring glory to our individual institutions.” They also have different notions about the centrality of the user. Indeed these distinctions played out in the context of the workshop, with disagreement among attendees on whether users should be the focus of all GLAM and Openlab efforts. Those who disagree with this notion observe that users (and their identities and interests) change at undetermined times and in unknown ways. Because of this “shape shifting,” GLAMs should focus instead on developing agile infrastructure, which can be altered as needed to suit users in different contexts. > - The sector also struggles with dichotomies that exist in the wider world. For example, some participants felt that digital technologies, which were designed to foster communication and share information, increasingly move us away from the very public conversations and dialogues that GLAMs need to foster.

• Retaining GLAM values

> Change can be disruptive, and accelerated change even more so. GLAMs must ensure that their enduring values as communities of practice are not lost or diluted by the accelerated change that Openlab is hoping to achieve.

• The Openlab business model

> Some participants felt the community must be realistic about how a concept such as Openlab might be sustained. One attendee noted that philanthropy alone cannot support it, so alternative means of support - such as commercial relationships - are likely to be part of its business model. However, other participants felt discussions of business models were premature. As one participant noted, Openlab needs to move quickly from “conversations about the vision to focusing on the vision” before it can develop a business plan and operationalize.

• Risk of failure

> Some individuals expressed doubt that the GLAM sector, given its entrenched behaviors, will accept or support a concept such as Openlab. One individual candidly admitted, “I’m not really convinced we can do this.” Another suggested Openlab might be received skeptically because the purpose of GLAMs is “to conserve, not to “rabble-rouse and instigate.” Still others expressed doubt that change can come from inside the sector, believing it will take an external existential threat (much like what the Internet posed for the newspaper industry) to instigate change. >

Sprints 2 and 3: Deconstructing the Openlab Concept

The Openlab Concept Statement

The statement is reprinted in its entirety below, with each paragraph of the statement numbered to provide reference points in the subsequent discussion section. [Note: the concept statement is also on this wiki page user:edsonm]

(1) OPENLAB is a solutions lab, convener, and consultancy designed to accelerate the speed and impact of transformational change in the GLAM (gallery, library, archive, and museum) sector.

(2) GLAMs have some of the most profound and important missions in society: to increase and disseminate knowledge; to encourage civic dialogue and engagement; and to support individuals in their right to access and participate in culture. These outcomes are critical if we are to have strong, happy citizens and wise, resilient communities in the century.

(3) Technology provides GLAMs with new opportunities to dramatically increase the scale and impact of their work. The Internet connects more than half of humanity; and digitization, open access, and new forms of collaboration and production expand the capabilities and obligations of all civic institutions. But change is difficult and GLAMs struggle to recognize and exploit these opportunities.

(4) Small institutions struggle to experiment and begin the process of digital engagement. Large institutions struggle to innovate and begin the process of digital transformation. Visionary institutions struggle to sustain innovation and deepen the impact of their programs. Everyone struggles with disruption and change.

(5) OPENLAB is a group of funders and partners who help GLAMs use technology to see beyond their own traditions and imagine new ways to work, share, and create value in society. OPENLAB does this work through three complementary programs.

(6) OPENLAB SOUTIONS is an instigator, incubator, and digital studio that accelerates the adoption of technologies and best practices across the GLAM sector. The Solutions team creates disruptive prototypes and pragmatic turn-key solutions; tests new business models; conducts leadership and technology training; and publishes case studies, standards, and how-to guides to catalyze sector-wide change.

(7) The OPENLAB COLABORATIVE is a consortium of innovation labs from across the corporate, government, and social sectors. Labs are a nexus of talent and innovation but they tend to work in isolation: members of the Openlab Collaborative pool their expertise and resources to attack annual challenge goals and sponsor a cultural sector X-Prize.

(8) The OPENLAB NETWORK is the global community that provides the governance, support, and leadership framework for OPENLAB. The Network includes the Openlab Fellows program, which advances targeted research and change initiatives; and Openlab Chapters, which enable mission to be championed and scaled at the local, regional, and national/international levels. Openlab StartCamp workshops and conferences provide a forum for professional development and knowledge exchange; and blog and social media presence builds the expertise and accomplishments of network members into a movement and validates the importance of emerging practices.

(9) OPENLAB accelerates change across the global GLAM sector for less than 0.004.% of the combined annual budgets of American libraries and museums.

Discussion Issues

As participants examined the Openlab Concept document, they challenged implicit assumptions, identified gaps in coverage, and clarified terminology. Their discussion took two forms: “big picture” comments about purpose, activities, and audiences, and more focused conversations about concepts in the statement that warranted further thinking.

Notes

#note11. A parallel and complementary effort will focus on the Unconference and Ignite talks that began the workshop on December 1st. See the Openlab wiki at https://openlabworkshop.wikispaces.com for more information.

#note22. A workshop participant made this statement during the Unconference, and it resurfaced as a theme in the workshop. Adrienne Russell expanded on this statement further in her post-workshop blog. See: Russell, Adrienne. 2015. “The Problem is in the Room.” Blog post. Council on Library and Information Resources//. http:connect.clir.org/blogs/adrianne-russell/2015/12/17/the-problem-is-in-the-room.