Research group for Media, Innovation and Contemporary Technologies

AIB - Archives in motion

About

This project is focused upon the storage and more particularly access to the digital cultural heritage at Flemish and Dutch broadcasting companies, with a focus on visual material. By choosing this project, we are opting for a digital ‘new start’: a large number of broadcasting companies have already begun to store their archive material digitally.

Our initial aim is to acquire insight from a user’s perspective into the mechanisms which influence the use of broadcasters’ archives. In this respect, one of the main topics is the motivations and thresholds for use. Various types of user will be looked into: the professional audiovisual sector (broadcasting companies, production companies, the film industry and gaming), educational institutions, the cultural sector, government bodies and, finally, residential users. We are also gaining more substantive insight into the need for personalisation: tagging, rating and also the wish to add one’s own content to the archive (Web 2.0) / the preference for the distribution channel (iDTV, internet, mobile TV) in a multi-channel context and the willingness to pay for various types of service (billing) / and also service provision in accordance with the usage profile with the aid of adjusted targeting, such as the creation of a personal archive/database with preferences and personalised marketing. Secondly, this research is also developing a number of business plans/user scenarios on the basis of the results from the first part. In doing so, use will be made of the STOF model. The STOF model (Bouwman, Haaker and De Vos, 2008) comprises a design approach which makes it possible to arrive at a business plan/user scenario on the basis of users’ wishes. Attention is paid not only to the service to be created, but also to the necessary business model in terms of Service, Technology, Organisations and Finance (i.e. STOF). The focus of this research component also includes the development of a demonstrator. In the third part of the project, the experiences of the implemented business plans will be recorded. Usability research among users from both Flanders and the Netherlands will evaluate the various aspects of these services. It is therefore a validation of both the motivation and the threshold model, as well as the STOF model. This component of the research also sees material form given to the Flemish-Dutch collaboration.

Such insights into the mechanism of thresholds and motivations amongst various types of user, as well as supply and demand, will make the archives of the National Institute for Sound and Vision and the Flemish broadcasting companies more accessible and will therefore create an added value for the public domain. Furthermore, thanks to the collaboration between the Netherlands and Flanders, the social value of the initiative can be further increased: if the needs and demands of users are attuned to one another, an exchange of material between the two regions could also be a possibility.

The added value of this research is that it takes the wishes, needs and thresholds experienced by users in order to arrive at one or more concept services which can be delivered from the broadcasting archives. Therefore, with this type of valorisation it is not just about the service in question, but also about the corresponding business model. The development of a demonstrator allows us to take the first step in the direction of commercialisation. The scientific validation of both the threshold and the motivation model and the STOF model takes place by means of a comparison of the Flemish and Dutch situations.

Duration of the project

The project runs from 01/09/2008 - 31/08/2012.

Staff involved

  • Prof. dr. Lieven De Marez
  • dr. Cédric Courtois

Clusters

  • Media Production & Distribution
  • ICT & Society

Financed by

  • iMinds