Page 124 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

Cultural business models on the Internet124philanthropists) should also “pull” the adoption of data practices in the Arts and Cultural sector, by asking the organisations that they fund for better data about their activities and impacts, and using more data to inform their operations and strategy (something which might require them to upgrade their own data and analysis capabilities).ConclusionsThere are many potential opportunities to apply data in the Arts and Cultural sector: it can strengthen the case that Arts and Cultural organisations are able to make about theirown impact, capturing in a way that was not possible before hard-to-measure public and social benefits. It can increase the effectiveness of operations and marketing, and help identify new ideas, diversify revenues and make business models more resilient. It can also provide the foundation for new products, services and experiences. As the Arts and Cultural sector continues experimenting and innovating with data, and exploring what “big data” in theArts and Culture means, it is likely to generate new ideas, tools and ways of working together (for example around data sharing) that can be applied elsewhere in the economy and society.The prospects are very exciting, but a lot of work will be needed, by Arts and Cultural organisa- tions who need to access the right skills, and adapt their processes and culture in a way that enables them to create value from data, and also by funders who should encourage and support experimentation, and increasingly demand and use data to inform their funding decisions.Of course there are also risks in this space that the sector needs to be very careful with. Privacy and data protection are in everyone’s mindsafter the Snowden revelations and controversies about targeted advertising, data leaks and online experimentation by Silicon Valley businesses. The Arts and Cultural sector should learn from this, and build its data capabilities on the basis of ethics and trust, being transparent about how it uses its audiences’ data, and offering excellent value whenever it does so. The “Friends” programme set up by the Dallas Museum of Arts69, where visitors are offered a basic Museum membership if they provide some of their data, and where only data that “Friends” “opt in” to share is tracked, is an example of how to do this.Another risk worth noting is that Arts and Cultural organisations might become too data-driven, and forget that intuition, passion and risk-taking should also be essential ingredi- ents of the way they make decisions. Accepting that data and analysis are much better at providing answers than asking questions is one of the first lessons that an analyst learns, and this is another reason why it is so important that the Arts and Cultural sector advances its data and analytical capabilities: so that it understands the limitations of data, as well as its potential, for only with the understanding that comes from experimentation and practice, will it be ableto create the rights sorts of value as the data revolution continues unfolding.Using data to create value in the arts and cultural sector