OpenCulture

For those of you that aren’t familiar with it, NOF-Digi refers to the New Opportunities Fund Digitisation Programme - a £50m Government-backed initiative to digitise the nations cultural heritage, and in the process to generate a new generation of learning resources online.

For many, it was the first large-scale investment in Digitisation, and heralded a new era in terms of skills and understanding. Sadly, however, as is sometimes the case with project funding, many of these online resources have not been actively maintained by their host institution.

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So, the Digital Britain report has been with us for long enough now for people to have started accusing the Government of ignoring it. The popular press is making hay out of the apparent reverse double-switch on ISP lockdown for filesharers following Peter Mandleson’s latest round of international meetings. In the meantime, the publicly-funded world holds its breath waiting for a General Election and, more importantly, *that* Spending Review.

It was interesting, in this context, to have been involved in a series of recent discussions about the role the Department for Culture can play in the evolving world of Digital. As part of these discussions, I was asked to do two things. Firstly, to produce a short ’state of the nation’ piece highlighting the current activity in museum tech. Secondly, to suggest some areas which might benefit from DCMS’ attention.

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