Ever since the Rijksmuseum pioneered the OpenGLAM
movement in 2011, releasing to the public domain images of artworks in its
collection, several other museums have followed its lead, including the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Finnish National Gallery. Although
studies have demonstrated that OpenGLAM provides numerous benefits to
museums, ranging from the dissemination of their collections to increased
sponsorship opportunities, the movement’s adoption remains limited. One
of the main barriers for joining OpenGLAM is the “fear of losing image licensing
revenue”, as participant museums have yet to invent new business models to
recover lost image fees. Current efforts to address this challenge include
Rijksmuseum’s Rijksstudio, a Print-on-Demand service for creating and
purchasing products featuring the museum’s artworks. However, Rijksstudio
is very similar to existing Print-on-Demand solutions for museums, which have
barely evolved over the last decade and, subsequently, it shares their limitations
(e.g. offering wall art products only). Α radically different approach that integrates
Print-on-Demand automation with emerging technologies (i.e. image recognition
and progressive web applications) to generate revenue from digitisation is the
Infinite Museum Store (IMS). In [citation] we presented the technical aspects and
innovation features of IMS, as well as the results of a pilot study held at the State
Museum of Contemporary Art (SMCA) in Thessaloniki, Greece, which
demonstrated its significant potential for generating revenue from digitised
collections. This paper examines IMS from a business model perspective. It
focuses on aspects such as viability, maintenance and long-term sustainability,
and investigates ways technical innovation can be applied and utilised as a
business model that generates revenue from digitisation, helping promote wider
adoption of OpenGLAM
