Supporting Creative Micro-

enterprises
Extract from a proposal to the European Commission 1999. Authors: Kieran O’Hea and Frank Boyd

Many of the most innovative and imaginative people and organisations developing innovative multimedia in
Europe work on a freelance basis or in very small companies. These creative micro-enterprises have the
potential to play a vital role in collaborative research and in the exploitation of European strengths in the
global information society; but without appropriate supporting infrastructure they are unable to contribute to
the R&D programmes in the Commission’s Framework programmes.

Such companies are made up of artists, producers and developers who work between the Arts and the
Entertainment industry. They create award-winning programmes across a range of delivery platforms,
extending the uses and applications of multimedia technologies, but they struggle to survive by jumping from
small arts grants to small commercial commissions. Europe will not be able to capitalise on the potential its
huge resource of talent unless support measures are devised which enable such new media artists to
undertake creative R&D free from short term market pressure and to collaborate as integral partners in major
research programmes

It is the objective of Working Group 1 to address the needs of such creative professionals and micro-
enterprises by undertaking a thorough analysis of what they lack in technical, managerial and financial
expertise and resources. A set of measures to address those needs will be devised and tested with a focus
group of companies. The Working Group will establish a ‘creative cluster’ whose individual members have each
demonstrated talent, ability and mastery of different aspects of interactive media.

The Working Group will also develop contacts with technology companies, broadcasters and publishers,
financiers and business consultants. These members of the Working Group will have two roles: as advisers or
mentors and as beneficiaries. They stand to gain a great deal from finding effective ways of working with the
companies in the creative cluster.

It is proposed to work over a period of two years to establish a model for developing creative clusters which
could be emulated elsewhere in Europe, working towards a network of people and companies who will build
Europe’s capacity to lead the world in creative applications of digital media.

During the two year support action Working Group 1 will undertake 5 work packages which can be seen as the
first stage of an iterative design process: study needs, define specification, build demonstrator, test with users,
exploit/dissemination. By undertaking these work packages the Working Group will develop a model
framework of support for Europe’s digital artists and creative professionals

The working group will be composed of professionals from a number of disciplines that reflect the objectives
above. It will promote creative research and will explore technical, social and economic issues affecting the
creative industries. A test-bed comprising a small number of creative micro-enterprises will be established. It
will experiment with new content formats, technologies and platforms and will be used by the working group
for validation purposes. WG1 will provide the means for these organisations to experiment with new forms of
content while supporting them with badly needed legal, financial and business advice.

The creative industries can play a vital role in collaborative research and in exploiting European strengths in
the global information society. At present, however, there are few industrial models and little infrastructure
for the digital artist in Europe and the industry is generally geared toward game development. Creative micro-
enterprises AudioRom and XPT are a good example of companies that are made up of artists, producers and
developers who work between the Arts and the Entertainment industry.

With Awards ranging from BAFTA's for Art direction and Design, a Milia d’Or for entertainment and leisure and
Millennium Awards for innovation and design, AudioRom and XPT still struggle by jumping from small arts
grants to small commercial commissions.

While their work is recognised and flagged as being at the forefront in terms of innovation and content these
organisations and organisations like them need an infrastructure that will support business growth specifically
in relation to this new and creative industry.

Investment is needed in terms of legal advice, representation and management in order to support the
industrialisation of artists. Investigation and elaboration of research needs is also required. Areas to be
addressed include:

 Investigation of what NEW CONTENT and types of content can be and what will really take advantage of
and work on new platforms and technologies, specifically creating ORIGINAL 'made for the medium' not
versioned content. As the big names play safe leveraging brands, creative micro-enterprises can be agile in
coming up with the next generation of creative ideas.

 PLATFORMS / TECHNOLOGY - understanding the platforms and tools, the systems, and the skills needed to
develop for them in the most creative way. Costs involved (e.g. getting 'interactive' tags into broadcast
streams, understanding head-end issues of open TV) are often prohibitive for small new companies.

 INTERNATIONALISATION - The need to work with systems and technologies that work across national
boundaries. Issues to be investigated include language versioning, the internationalising of product, the
consistency of technology standards from region to region, testing issues, different types of system and
content for different audiences

 WORKING PRACTICES - new platforms and new media require new skills, old skills re-shaped, new team
structures and dynamics, new relationships with third parties such as writers, camera-crews, TV
production companies and other partners including distributors, publishers and broadcasters.

 NEW BUSINESS AREAS in terms of funding, markets and distribution. All the way from finding out who
from/how to get funded/commissioned to suggesting business models and helping potential
commissioners/distributors to understand possibilities. Also understanding their perspectives, markets
and strategies both domestically, trans-nationally across Europe and the world.

 All aspects of DEAL-MAKING including IP, rights, contracts, etc. Existing print/TV/film people understand
these in terms of their own media which is not necessarily conducive to production of original 'interactive'
content and because they are big and established, creative micro-companies are having to learn their
languages and adapt to them in order to deal.

The participating companies will be a mixture of micro-enterprises experimenting with new forms of content
who wish to enter the market with high-quality, innovative product, and those that are seeking to develop
tools and content for arts and cultural development. They are often prevented from doing this either through
lack of in-house research and development skills or by fiscal pressures arising from their involvement in an
industry that has yet to establish effective business models and revenue streams. The CREATIVEGROUP
support action will counter this by providing co-ordinated representation and administrative support that
allows content creators the space and time to develop their ideas for the most effective channel, whether that
be commercial, cultural or through collaborative research.

The project will facilitate networking, resource sharing and access to other professional services and
communities e.g. legal, business planning, scientific, social and educational, broadcasting and publishing. It will
also facilitate the development of meaningful partnerships with comparative organisations in other Member
States. The project deliverables will include:

 Intensive, interdisciplinary seminars and workshops bringing together leading players from different
sectors of the digital media industries: artists, scientists, engineers, managers, financiers, lawyers,
publishers and distributors.

 Access to new and developing tools and technologies combined with access to specific production
facilities;

 Access to a network of creative, technical and business mentors to provide individual support and
guidance;

 Reciprocal placements and residencies in companies, research labs and creative organisations (artist-in-
residency and engineer-in-residency schemes).

Activities will be trans-European and will be organised so as to create better working relationships and to
foster nascent collaborations, fuelling concrete partnerships’ and collaboration and accelerated progression
toward commercial exploitation.

A web site will document the progression of each project and also the workshops. This can become a model of
practice for others. In addition, each year the work done under the support action should be published on disk.
This will aid promotion of the projects, raise the profile of the whole network and highlight needs to other
funding bodies and potential partners.