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June 23, 2008, 03:53 PM ET
How to Keep an Online Project Going After Your Grant Runs Out
So you got a startup grant to get your digital monograph, e-journal, or wiki up and running. What kind of impact will that nifty new project have, and how will you keep it going once the grant money runs out? The answer: know your user.
A new report from the Ithaka group says that many academics have not been thinking hard enough about those questions. Ithaka is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the innovative use of technology in higher education.
The report, “Sustainability and Revenue Models for Online Academic Resources,” calls for “a shift in mind-set” among the creators of online scholarly projects. It concludes that too few have figured out what users need and want, or who those users are. Too few appreciate the quick-time changes of the digital environment, and that they’re operating in a competitive environment even though they are not commercial enterprises.
Ithaka’s president, Kevin Guthrie, emphasized in an interview that the report was not intended to be a criticism of grant-driven academic culture. “It’s highlighting a difference in emphasis,” he said, “and how the Internet has broken down some of the insulation or separateness that the academy has had.”
The report is the first step in what Mr. Guthrie expects to be a longer investigation. It takes a first stab at sharing lessons learned in more-commercial spheres — the newspaper business, for instance. And in a preliminary way, it lays out some sustainability models that have worked.
The bottom line? “Know your user,” Mr. Guthrie said, “and know who cares about your user.” —Jennifer Howard
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