On Wednesday, 28 February  2024, at 2:00 pm UTC, CC’s Open Culture Program will be hosting a new webinar in our Open Culture Live series titled “Maximizing the Value(s) of Open Access in Cultural Heritage Institutions.”

One common concern for GLAMs thinking about going open is the potential loss of revenue from image licensing — however, open collections are said to often draw in more viewers, onsite visitors, and (financial) supporters. There are also costs associated with the work of granting permissions on an image by image basis in employee time and legal fees. Ultimately, how do the costs and benefits stack up? How can we ensure the value of cultural heritage collections continues to support their financial sustainability?

We will be joined by a panel of experts including:

• Kristofer Erickson, Professor of Social Data Science at University of Glasgow
• Douglas McCarthy, Open GLAM Researcher and Author
• Elliott Bledsoe, Co-Lead of Creative Commons Australia & Wikimedia Australia Committee Member
• Giovanna Fontenelle, Program Officer, Culture and Heritage at Wikimedia Foundation

We will dive into some important questions like:

• What are the financial, commercial, and economic impacts of open access in cultural heritage?
• Is the cost of a licensing mechanism worth the revenue it might generate?
• If not, what are some of  the more creative ways to share open collections in ways that do not compromise the institution’s financial sustainability?
• What are some of the new opportunities for revenue generation that go hand in hand with the open ethos?
• How can GLAMs develop an economic model that enables them to offer services aimed at sparking creativity, cultivating a deep connection with heritage, and expanding meaningful learning opportunities in the spirit of their public-interest mission?

Register here.

CC is a non-profit that relies on contributions to sustain our work. Support CC in our efforts to promote better sharing at creativecommons.org/donate.

What is Open Culture Live?

In this series, we tackle some of the more complex challenges that face the open culture movement, bringing in speakers with personal and professional expertise on the topic. 

• Back to Basics: Open Culture for Beginners 
• Respectful Terminologies & Changing the Subject 
• Whose Open Culture? Decolonization, Indigenization, and Restitution