How we will make ‘the beautiful thing’: Europeana Business Plan 2015

Today we published our Business Plan for 2015, which sets out how we will begin to work to our new Strategy 2015-2020, and get started on making the beautiful thing. 

So what will the beautiful thing look like? In the coming year, we will be working hard to turn Europeana into a multi-sided platform, continuing to build a truly networked organisation, working together to create the largest repository of trusted, accessible and re-usable digital heritage in the world. 

It is a vision you helped us shape; the business plan in front of you is the result of close collaboration and strategic workshops with hundreds of partners across the Network. By consulting the projects and people that are so important to the future of our work, we have become stronger and better equipped to deliver real value to our wider network. 

Together, we defined a new set of priorities for the year ahead, and a market-facing approach that will help us achieve them. With so many exciting developments on the way, we couldn’t wait to get started!
 

So what can you expect to see this year? 

The business plan will introduce you to the main aims we have for the year ahead, and each of our teams will be working together to make them a reality.

Most visibly, perhaps, our portal will undergo a dramatic makeover before the end of the year, and will re-launch with fascinating exhibitions and new content. Stay tuned for the introduction of our new thematic channels in the fields of Art History and Music, which will transform user experience and engagement, making it easier than ever to navigate our collections.

Sharing your data will become simpler too – this year, we will establish our new aggregation model, making it more straightforward for institutions that want to contribute to us.  We are developing our Statistics Dashboard to add another incentive for doing so, offering direct feedback to partners on their collections in Europeana.

Our entrepreneurial capacity will also grow; by developing more tools and services, we can create new and innovative ways to re-use content, while ensuring we operate sustainably too. 
 

Have your say!

There will be a number of ways you can get involved as we make all of this happen, and we really hope you do so. Look out for different events during the year, not least our Annual General Meeting in November, and keep supporting your elected Members Council, here to make your voice heard. 

Thanks again to everyone for their invaluable guidance and feedback that helped shape and inform this plan – we look forward to another busy, successful year!