Oulu Löyly/Documentation/ORLA - Open Resource & Learning Assistant

Capacity building for open cultural collections

The following documents the work of the group discussing the role of capacity building in closing the digital transformation gap. Members of the group were:

Kerstin Arnold
Connor Benedict
Deepesha Burse
Dee Harris
Johan Kylander
Federico Leva
Vertti Luostarinen
Julia Matveeva
Steen Thomassen

Defining our problem space

To start with, we decided that we'd focus on those whose need for capacity building stems from being interested in e.g. sharing their collections under an open access directive, but don't know where or how to go on about it. This also meant, leaving aside challenges that might be omnipresent, but often cannot be influenced easily. This includes challenges before capacity building comes into the picture as well as challenges afterwards. Neither lack of funds (e.g. for digitisation or copyright clearance) or lack of staff (to conduct the necessary tasks) before, nor funds being project-bound and hence not sustained or staff being cut afterwards, can be addressed with capacity building. Lack of skills (before) or the risk of siloed knowledge (after), however, can be tackled with capacity building, same as - to certain extent - lack of or indecisive/uncertain leadership (before) or continued managerial support (after).

Inspired by a visit to the Ekho Collective’s immersive installation at Oulu City Hall, Layers in the Peace Machine, we applied the installation's four layers design to the concept of capacity building and the aspects of our problem space:

The layer of sharing represents an individual or an organisation sharing why they are interested in a topic and want to learn more about it and providing more information about preexisting knowledge, tools in place, resources available, potential barriers etc. which might influence what needs to be taken into account during capacity building.
The layer of listening represents the trainer taking this information and finding a tailored, localised approach, which shows the prospective learner what possibilities they have.
The layer of connecting represents connections the trainer might make by combining resources, tools, people with relevant skills, mentors, etc. that help the learner on their way. At the same time it represents connections the learner might establish based on what they learn to their current task, daily work, organisation set-up etc.
The layer of being represents the final objective: capacity building establishing sustained personal or organisational knowledge that can be continuously built upon

Jotting down some ideas

We then started thinking about what an output, a deliverable of our team's conversation could look like to present to the other participants. And came up with four components:

A mobile "FabLab" for localised, personalised capacity building. This might include consultancy services (sharing and listening layer), as well as resources, tools, and experts (connecting layer). Combining analogue and digital options, the "FabLab" might then also provide access to - or use as part of the process - one or both of the following components. Each of these components could, however, also be used independently in a purely digital setting.
A self-assessment tool that provides potential learners with an evaluation of where they stand and what might be suitable first/next steps for them.
An open bot that has been fed with information about cultural capacity building resources, tools, background, and other contextual information and helps the potential learner decide which of these could be a good fit. As certain information might not exist in written form, e.g. tacit institutional knowledge, we also thought it would be great if such an open bot could work with a feedback loop, where information provided by one staff member of an organisation while using the bot is taken into account as background and contextual information for the next staff member of the same organisation who interacts with the bot. The same feedback loop could then also be applied in the analogue setting, in both case helping to build a repository of community knowledge.
An open "Clippy" that recommends certain actions, once a learner has built a certain level of capacity to help them improve their skills continuously and build those skills into their usual tasks and activities.

Bringing it all together

In a last analogue step, we combined our four components in a workflow using the example of an organisation and its staff being ready to go from closed to open with their collections. Visiting the mobile FabLab and interacting with the experts there, the staff starts by using the self-assessment tool alongside their conversations. Based on the result(s) of the self-assessment, the mobile FabLab then offers the open bot to help the potential learners find resources, tools, and other services that might be needed to address their specific challenges and capacity building needs. The open bot also offers the possibility to - based on the information found - create a project plan for going from closed to open, including capacity building to start with, to go along, and to help sustain the efforts in the longer term. Open "Clippy", which is available to the organisation throughout the (continued) learning process, can then be applied for recommended actions, which supports the sustainability of the newly built or extended capacity.

Experimenting

In a final round, we then used Claude to create a prototype of both the self-assessment tool and the open bot, Orla - the Open Resource & Learning Assistant. You can try the self-assessment and find the HTML code on GitHub.

The Orla bot uses any LLM of your choice, with a collection of resources and information to provide guidance and feedback to users. It does not function as a standalone app, so you need an API key from a provider such as Anthropic, OpenAI or to self use LM Studio to run the service on your own computer; some technical skills are required. The self-assessment however functions on it's own without any additional services or providers.