[PADG:1950] NINCH SYMPOSIUM The Price of Digitization: New Cost Models for Cultural and Educational Institutions

["Lorraine Olley" <lolley@xxxxxxx>]

Clifford Lynch
Director CNI

NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
from across the Community
March 7, 2003


                            NINCH SYMPOSIUM
                      The Price of Digitization:
            New Cost Models for Cultural and Educational Institutions
                      http://www.ninch.org/forum/price.html 

                           * Tuesday, April 8, 2003 *
                             New York Public Library
           Trustees Room, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York City

                    A Digitization Symposium Presented by the
             National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage
                                      and
                                    Innodata

                  Co-sponsored by the New York Public Library
                            and New York University

                   Free to the Public: Registration Required
                 http://www.ninch.org/forum/price.register.html 

                                    *  *  *  *

How does an institution begin to cost a digitization project? What 
are the elements to be included? Are there available models that can 
assist? What are the budgetary and structural ramifications for an 
institution when it moves from producing digitization projects to 
implementing a digitization program that is core to the future of the 
organization and its offerings to its public? When and how does an 
institution figure out how and what to charge for its digital 
resources?

These are some of the questions to be answered in a free, one-day 
symposium organized by NINCH in collaboration with Innodata, a NINCH 
Corporate Council Member.

The meeting will feature a keynote address by Donald Waters, Program 
Officer at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which has encouraged the 
development of economic models of digital sustainability that include 
cost and charging models. A panel of speakers, representing 
commercial vendors and nonprofit projects will report on how costs 
are determined in text, image digitization and scholarly publishing 
projects.

How does digital preservation fit into this? A panel will examine the 
cost considerations of various digital preservation strategies.

These panels will be followed by a discussion of the institutional 
changes that are being wrought as digitization projects are gathered 
into sustainable programs that are becoming core to the organization.

Participants also will hear from those who have been engaged in 
determining pricing strategies for distributing digital resources in 
various markets.

Confirmed speakers include:
* Howard Besser, New York University
* Maria Bonn, Making of America, University of Michigan
* Stephen Chapman, Harvard University
* Nancy Harms, Luna Imaging
* Heike Kordish, New York Public Library
* Tom Moritz, American Museum of Natural History
* Dan Pence, Systems Integration Group
* Steven Puglia, National Archives and Records Administration
* Jane Sledge, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian
Institution
* Donald Waters, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
* Eli Willner, Innodata
* Kate Wittenberg, Electronic Publishing Initiative, Columbia
University

This symposium has been organized partly in support of the First 
Edition of the "NINCH Guide to Good Practice in the Digital 
Representation & Management of Cultural Heritage Materials," 
(http://www.ninch.org/guide) and may be the first in a series of 
symposia on some of the key practical digitization issues faced by 
cultural and educational organizations.

"The Price of Digitization" should prove particularly useful in 
further developing and updating the information and advice given in 
the NINCH Guide's sections on cost models and workflow - see the 
Guide's chapter on "Project Planning" 
(http://www.nyu.edu/its/humanities/ninchguide/II/).

The meeting is free but registration is required. Please register at 
http://www.ninch/forum/price.register.html 


--
David L. Green, Ph.D.
Executive Director
NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR A NETWORKED CULTURAL HERITAGE
21 Dupont Circle, NW
Washington DC 20036
http://www.ninch.org 
david@xxxxxxxxx 
tel: 202.296.5346
fax: 202.872.0886