The Creative Economy, Digital Technology and Innovation

The rapidly unfolding revolution in digital technologies continues to have profound effects on the major institutions of the creative economy, especially the library, the publishing house, the museum and the institutions and businesses involved in the development of digital technologies. One of the major aims of this project is to link these institutions and utilize the untapped potential in knowledge exchange by creating an active interface for users and producers within the creative economy. Perhaps the most striking of contemporary developments in this new technology is the still growing potential of the mobile phone or tablet application. We think that this innovative technology brings wonderful opportunities and specific problems for the creative economy. We propose to undertake three strands of research.
First we want to explore the potential in the technology of the mobile phone and tablet application. There are already some apps in use in the museum sector - which do little more than offer a catalogue with some added sound; similarly, publishing houses can advertise their books or even circulate them in this medium, and libraries can provide access to catalogues. We think there is a huge creative opportunity here to create apps which give much deeper object histories, which link producers of knowledge with archives, which offer multi-medium experiences to enrich the experience within the museum or library. It should be possible to create an app which would link objects in different museums and countries; which link objects with published research or unpublished archives; which offer the experience of researchers or artists in producing material with audiences who have participated in events - and so forth. The creative possibilities are huge, and, with the practical help of those working in the development of apps along with those working with digital humanities in the other areas of the CE, our first aim is to develop work which will stimulate, educate and direct future development in this area.
Second we want to investigate the "best practice" for such technology. There is a strident tension in contemporary cultural life between proponents of the "creative commons", and proponents of regulation. On the one side, the difference between developed and undeveloped countries in access to knowledge is seen to contradict the liberal democratic ideals of exchange and freedom. On the other, the demands of copyright together with the concern for the circulation of illegal or damaging materials requires regulation. How can the political and social aims of the creative commons find any form of accommodation with the wishes of regulators (or the profit motives of business). We wish to produce a document in this area which will be of help for all members of the creative economy including regulators, which lays out the issues and solution in a systematic way.
Third - following from the second - we intend to research the complex legal issues of copyright in the sophisticated and rapidly changing world of digital humanities. What are the barriers to the attribution of rights to a multi-media app with material from different countries, institutions and forms of ownership? We will explore this both in a theoretical way, with regard for European law and the potential of regulation, and in a practical way by attempting to secure the permissions for a test-case app. Second, we will explore the issues of practical regulation. Recently a mother in a museum was asked to leave the museum when she wished to take a picture of her child in the "dressing up" section (part of the museum's outreach and engagement programme), because the attendant was instructed that if such a picture included an artwork in the background, it would infringe copyright. Can sensible regulations be established which take account of the demands of copyright and the power of the phone for visual reproduction?

Close collaboration with the conceptual and practical challenges regarding the development of "apps" will be demand-led by the partners of this knowledge exchange project. Regular workshops between the Research Associates and project partners will allow continuous feedback and adaptation of content and theoretical discussion to stakeholders' needs. Academic involvement will ensure broader guidance and expertise into all of the relevant different areas for the seminars and, in collaboration with CE stakeholders, will culminate in the production of a guide of "best practice" and broader exchanges at a final conference. The project therefore responds to the flux in knowledge exchange and creation originating from digital transformation in the arts and humanities and in society more broadly, as well as to the opportunities and challenges posed to museums, publishers and libraries in this regard. Hence the project has immediate impact for the project partners in the following manner:
The project links with the digital ambitions of the University of Cambridge Museums. The project will facilitate, develop and extend the Museums' plans to develop digital resources for public engagement and access to its archives that are partially supported by funding from the Arts Council England (ACE). In line with its objectives and vision, the project will be drawing from content and concepts from the museums, library and publishers for the discussion of the potential of apps as an output of this project. It will also be in direct collaboration with the development units in digital humanities at both the Cambridge University Library and other local libraries, and at Cambridge University Press, and offers the first space for the collaborative discussion of this innovative technology.
The impact of the project for the wider CE sector will be threefold, and come through the published exploration of the creative potential of the "app", the published investigation of best practice, and the published discussion of the legal implication for intellectual property raised by use of such technology. Along with these publications, each designed to be of maximum use for the stakeholders in the creative economy, there will be the direct impact on the development units in digital humanities of these major institutions from the process of the workshops, colloquia and final conferences, all of which will be promoted through the University of Cambridge Communication Office and appropriate channels of the project partners.
The three final publications will be of great help for all those working not just in the tourist, museum and publishing businesses, but also in the important potential interaction between them. This work could change the experience of museum going as an event within the creative economy.