Resource Sharing Remixedfor the

Rethinking Resource Sharing IV ForumOCLC, Dublin, OH

Michael EdsonDirector, Web and New Media Strategy

Smithsonian Institution, Office of the CIO5/13/2009

Preamble• Twitter @mpedson (note the #si20 tag!)• slideshare.net/edsonm• edsonm@si.edu• smithsonian20.typepad.com• usingdata.typepad.com• Beware…The opinions in this presentation are mine,

not the official policy/strategy of the Smithsonian…

Two Talks for the Price of One!

1.A pitch for a Commons as the answer to the Smithsonian’s digital-resource sharing challenges

2.Practical advice tied to Rethinking Resource Forum’s goals/challenges

• How to affect change in slow-moving organizations• Local actions that make a difference

The 5-Minute Shakespeare Version

• We’re working on a Web and New Media Strategy

• I talk a lot about a “Smithsonian Commons”• I haven’t the foggiest idea how to catalyze

institutional change

The 5-Minute Shakespeare Version

• We’re working on a Web and New Media Strategy

• I talk a lot about a “Smithsonian Commons”• I haven’t the foggiest idea how to catalyze

institutional change

Now Discuss…

A Model Institution

Imagining a Smithsonian Commons

• The full, written-out version is on slideshare,http://slideshare.net/edsonm(Both PowerPoint and text versions, with references and footnotes!)

Vexatious Phenomena

Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy Process

Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy Process

• Currently underwayhttp://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.comAll work on public-facing wiki– Internal workshops are “wiki-cast”

• Twitter, #si20 tag– http://search.twitter.com/search?

q=&ands=&phrase=&ors=&nots=&tag=si20&lang=all&from=&to=&ref=&near=&within=15&units=mi&since=&until=&rpp=15

• Radically open, transparent, fast• Alternative to traditional committee process• Expand internal brain trust

Organizational Change

10 things I’m thinking about

1. Urgency

• John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency– HBR “Ideacast” clip, 2:30

Audio clip plays for 2:30. Advance

through next 7 slides manually

1. Urgency

• John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency

Thoughts, feelings and behaviors

1. Urgency

• John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency

Thoughts…Great opportunities/hazards

1. Urgency

• John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency

Feelings…Gut level determination that we’ll do

something now

1. Urgency

• John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency

Behavior…Hyper-alertness… commitment to making something happen with the

important issues

1. Urgency

• John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency

Behavior…We gotta get going with this because

it’s so important.

1. Urgency

• John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency

Determination and movement that’s smart and that wins

1. Urgency

• John P. Kotter, A Sense of Urgency

The rate of change is going up.

2. Disruptive Innovation

• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovators Dilemma

2. Disruptive Innovation

• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s Dilemma

Sustaining Technologiesvs.

Disruptive Technologies

2. Disruptive Innovation

• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s Dilemma

Sears was at the top if the worldin the 1960’s

2. Disruptive Innovation

• Clayton M. Christensen: The Innovator’s Dilemma

Sears was at the top if the worldin the 1960’s

They missed discount retailing.

2. Disruptive Innovation

“You’ve got about three years until you’re locked into being just a museum of stuff on the mall”

Executive from a national media/educational brand, about the Smithsonian’s digital strategy

2. Disruptive Innovation

This is one of the Innovators Dilemmas: Blindly following the maxim that good managers should keep close to their customers can sometimes be a fatal mistake.

Clayton M. ChristensenThe Innovator’s Dilemma

3. Darwin’s True Greatness

…Wasn’t that he figured out modification-with-descent but that he wrote it down—tied it down— in a way that ensured the idea would never drift away again.

Can’t find source! (Bill Bryson?)

3. Darwin’s True Greatness

So, when you figure something out, tie it down!Examples• Imagining a Smithsonian Commons

– Written-out with notes, references, links on slideshare. http://slideshare.net/edsonm

• Web-Strategy “workshop-to-wiki” process– All workshops are “wiki-cast” so what’s said

doesn’t drift away.http://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com

4. Axiom: The Third Way

Don’t get too attached to predicting outcomes to big presentations, confrontations, decisions.

I always think “It’s either going to go this way or that way” but it’s always some third way I couldn’t predict.

Example: “Smithsonian 2.0 event”

5. Know What to Leave Out

• From a series of tweets @ Smithsonian Web and New Media Strategy workshops.

• Excruciating process of boiling down the Smithsonian to its essence.

6. Capability Maturity Models

A framework for understanding what kinds of projects you are capable of doing successfully in the future!

6. Capability Maturity Models

1. Initial

2. Managed

3. Defined

4. Quantitatively Managed

5. Optimizing

Understanding the levels

People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Understanding the levels

People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Success depends on individual heroics

Understanding the levels

People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

“Fire fighting” is a way of life

Understanding the levels

People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Relationships between disciplines are uncoordinated,perhaps even adversarial

Understanding the levels

People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Success depends on individuals

Commitments are understoodand managed

People are trained

Understanding the levels

People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Project groups work together,perhaps as an integrated team

Training is planned and providedaccording to rolesv

Understanding the levels

People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Strong sense of teamworkexists within each project

Understanding the levels

People

Processes

Measurement

Technology

1 2 3 4 5

Strong sense of teamworkexists across the organization

Everyone is involved inprocess improvement

6. Capability Maturity Models

• More in “Good Projects Gone Bad” on SlideShare

http://www.slideshare.net/edsonm/good-projects-gone-bad-an-introduction-to-process-maturity-1384375

7. Thor Hyerdahl & Shark Wrestling

7. Thor Hyerdahl & Shark Wrestling

• On the Kon Tiki raft, he did an outrageous thing “just to show everyone why he was the captain” (As remembered from a speech at the National Geographic.)

• Sometimes you have to do crazy things

7. Thor Hyerdahl & Shark Wrestling

Web Tech Guy and Angry Staff Person

http://smithsonian20.typepad.com/blog/2009/03/web-t.html

8. Do Stuff that Matters

8. Do Stuff that Matters

• Tim O’Reilly http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/01/work-on-stuff-that-matters-fir.html

1.Work on something that matters more than money

2.Create more value than you capture3.Take the long view

8. Do Stuff that Matters

Cutting the “let’s collaborate more” crapWe don’t get paid to collaborate, we get paid to

do important stuff—stuff that matters!Dedicate yourself to important work, measure

progress towards those goals, and fix anything that gets in the way. Collaboration is a means to an end.

8. Do Stuff that Matters

Don't be afraid to fail. There's a wonderful poem by Rainer Maria Rilke that talks about the biblical story of Jacob wrestling with an angel, being defeated, but coming away stronger from the fight. It ends with an exhortation that goes something like this: "What we fight with is so small, and when we win, it makes us small. What we want is to be defeated, decisively, by successively greater things."

Tim O’Reilly

8. Do Stuff that Matters

What Failure Looks LikeToday's session was appalling to me. The topics that

curators were there to discuss -- especially open access vs. curatorial control -- were never on the table, and it seemed engineered so that would happen. It seemed clear that you had marching orders and were asking "leading" questions to point the audience toward centralization as the solution…

--Post-workshop evaluationhttp://smithsonian-webstrategy.wikispaces.com/Curation+and+Resarch+Post-Workshop+Evaluation

Do Stuff that Matters

• Tim O’Reilly http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/01/work-on-stuff-that-matters-fir.html

• Don’t be afraid to think big• Success as a byproduct of your goals• Let others make more of/with your ideas,

assets, work

9. The Majestic Vision

• We’ve drifted from the Majestic Vision (Peter Schwartz’s term) – And it’s needed now, in a time of great change– A lot of organizations looking hard at their mission

statements now

– Widsom-making? The Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge?

10. Give Courage to Others

• The difference between leading and managing• What you do and say gives me courage to

push a little farther, be a little bolder, have confidence that I’m not a fraud or crazy

• My job is, in part, to give others around me confidence to take a stand, speak out, and move forward.

[Clip available on request]

Thank you!

Michael EdsonSmithsonian Institution