Page 123 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2015123such as those being used in the Arts Data Impact project I mentioned in the previous section.The second challenge I would like to mentionis to build data capabilities in the Arts and Cultural sector, something that goes beyond accessing skills, and also involves identifying examples of good practice in the design and management of data projects, understanding what is the potential and limitations of different data sources, and creating case studies and examples of how to go from data to impact.As more Arts and Cultural organisations start exploring this space, peer support groupsand knowledge sharing initiatives can be very helpful, by creating spaces where these organi- sations can discuss their experiences, learn from each other and even identify opportunities for collaboration and data sharing. Culture24,66 a UK organisation supporting digital innovation in the Arts and Cultural sector, recently ran Let’s Get Real,67 a set of collaborative action research projects to define and measure online successin the cultural sector. In addition to generating benefits for the participating organisations, the project has produced a series of reports codifying its findings to upgrade the capabilities in therest of the sector. The Audience Finder project I referred to previously also embraces the potential of peer-based learning, by encouraging the cre- ation of networks that bring together Arts and Cultural organisations in different geographical and sectoral clusters across England.The third challenge for the Arts and Cultural sector is to find the time and resources to invest in innovative, exploratory data projects.Arts and cultural organisations are often small, and lack the resources to invest on analytical capabilities with real costs in the present and uncertain benefits in the future. Their situation is often different from commercial organisations where market imperatives impel the adoptionof new technologies. For this reason, funding and support bodies have a central role to playin creating spaces for experimentation forthe sector, and helping it connect with other businesses – such as digital agencies and start- ups – who can support the upgrade of their data and analytical capabilities.Knowledge sharing initiatives create spaces for discussing experiences, learning and identifying opportunities for collaborating and sharing data.This is precisely what the £7 Million Digital R&D Fund68 for the Arts set up by the Arts Council England, Nesta and the Arts and Humanities Research Council has been doing in England. This fund is designed to bring together Arts and Cultural organisations, digital technology companies and evaluators in a way that generates collective learning about digital innovation in the sector. A recent call for “Big Data projects” undertaken as part of the fundis supporting several of the projects that I have talked about above (including Culture Counts, The Unusual Suspects, Art Data Impact, and Arts API).In addition to a “Supply push” effort to provide more resources for experimentation in this area, funding bodies (including foundations andJuan Mateos García