Outcome Area 3: Digital content is being shared and used

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Overarching Goal: New Zealanders and New Zealand organisations are at the forefront of sharing and using digital content.

In our digital future:

• Those who own, control and give best access to classes of digital content will have the most influence on users commercially and culturally.
• Digital technologies will remove space, format and location limits imposed on publicly owned and held content, services and processes, making it possible for them to be fully available to the New Zealand public for the first time.
• Public domain content will be more sought after as heritage and creative works out of copyright are digitised and become a permanent part of the digital space.
• Users fluent in accessing and using digital technologies will have an advantage by being able to share, use and fully participate in the rich experiences of New Zealand’s public digital space.

Why is sharing and using content important for a digital New Zealand?

Making easy access commercially viable

The diversity of people and purposes now involved in digital content creation challenges us to think carefully about the balance of constraints and enablers involved  in the sharing and protection of intellectual, creative and cultural knowledge, and about how content in digital form needs to meet the needs of both creators and users.

The ease of reproduction of content in digital form, the fragmentation of mass audiences beyond traditional broadcast, film and print outlets, and the difficulty implementing robust micro-payment systems in a digital on-demand environment means commercial creators and content owners may need to find other models of establishing their income.

Tim O’Reilly, well known as a publisher and conference organiser, in 2004 helped coin the concept ‘Web 2.0’, which attempts to describe for professional content creators and distributors the characteristics needed to be successful in today’s Internet connected world.22 These characteristics reflect services that are in the main shaped by users’ interests and interactions rather than content creators’ interests. 

The most well known web-based services involve most if not all of these characteristics – Gmail, Amazon, Flickr, MySpace, Wikipedia, iTunes, LiveJournal, Upcoming.org, are some examples.  They provide personalised, interactive content, and the opportunity to socially network and share or contribute user-generated content. 

These qualities can be equally applied in other digital environments such as broadcasting and cellular services. Vodafone New Zealand has introduced a 3G service that allows users to create profiles and upload their own mobile videos to share. In digital broadcasting, smart Internet-connected set-top boxes and digital recorders can be easily programmed to learn and record a viewer’s preferences or provide access to online user photo albums, box office tickets and podcasts.23  Television game consoles such as the Xbox 360 connect through broadband to an online user community and unique content, as well as providing the ability to view content such as movie trailers and instant message friends and family. These types of digital services may draw television viewers to easily access and interact with far more content than could occur with analogue services. 

For New Zealand content producers – in business, community or government – interested in distributing their content digitally to a New Zealand or overseas audience on the web or not, the presence of ‘Web 2.0’ characteristics are likely to be vital to success.

Web 2.0 core competencies:

the provision of rich user experiences and services, with the ability to scale;
control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer the more people use them;
trusting users as co-developers to add value;
harnessing collective intelligence through aggregated user-generated data;
leveraging the long tail through user self-service and reaching out to the niches;
integrated services across devices; and
lightweight user interfaces, development models and business models.
Tim O’Reilly 2005

Unlocking publicly owned content

While much of the ‘Web 2.0’ discussion focuses on commercial content, the largest holders of content in New Zealand are central and local government and their associated public bodies. 

In analogue form, much of this content is either inaccessible or only accessible through limited mechanisms.  In digital form however, physical constraints (storage space, the need to protect original records from loss or damage, opening hours and location of offices) are removed, providing a basis for rethinking our approach to official information, public records and public datasets. 

Governments around the world are taking seriously their information responsibilities, and making the workings and records of government agencies routinely open to the public in digital form.24  In New Zealand, making more public records available digitally will contribute significantly to the purpose of the Official Information Act (OIA) as well as to building the formal public digital space.

The potential for the public good may be much higher when official information is digital, and may require government agencies to rethink their existing approach to user charges and copyright uses.  For example, in Canada, since April 2007, the government has removed all user charges for electronic topographical mapping data, and permitting people to freely redistribute the data, in a way that will help ensure users receive accurate and consistent information, and lead to knowledge development, innovations, and improved productivity.25 

In New Zealand, where Crown copyright lasts for 100 years, there is scope to consider appropriate copyright permissions for commercial use and adoption of standard form licences to promote easy public sharing and re-use of official information. Both commercial and non-commercial users should be able to benefit from vital data that can lead to a public good outcome for government.

New Zealand online

Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand is an online encyclopedia that aims to be a comprehensive guide to New Zealand – its people, land, culture, history and identity.
Entries are grouped under ten major themes, which are being prepared and published progressively through to 2013. Te Ara is a response to a rising demand for cultural experiences, and of rapid technological change.  With more than 150,000 unique visitors a month, Te Ara has significantly increased readership and accessibility to New Zealand content. In comparison, Te Ara’s 1966 printed predecessor sold 30,000 copies in total. Te Ara is a window on New Zealand, with about 40% of visitors being from overseas –  the United States, Australia and Great Britain are the most common international access points.

Matapihi is a search website that allows users to search the online collections of a number of New Zealand cultural organisations. The collections contain some 80,000 images, objects, sounds, movies and texts of New Zealand places, events, and people. Participating cultural organisations include Te Papa, Te Ara, the Alexander Turnbull Library, the New Zealand Film Archive, the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, the Auckland Art Gallery, the Otago Museum, and Christchurch City Libraries.

TVNZ ondemand is a website showcasing mostly New Zealand made content, from popular shows like Shortland Street, Sunday and Country Calendar, through to Kiwi classics from the TVNZ archives. Some of the shows are streamed files that play within an embedded player on the site, and some are available for downloading.  Many of the archival and current affairs shows are available to New Zealand viewers free of charge.

Building our national identity

Digital technologies and personalised access to digital content has meant that audiences are slowly becoming more fragmented and individualised, with a loss of collective, national identity being a potential consequence.  In the digital domain, public cultural institutions (whose holdings are not generally covered by the OIA) however have a new opportunity to help fill a common public space, unconstrained by physical limitations of location, floor space and operating hours. 

One means for doing this is connecting public service broadcasting, a vital part of New Zealand cultural life, with museums, libraries, archives, art galleries and others in a public digital commons space.26 

Television and radio are two of the most widely accessed and familiar technologies available for communicating about New Zealand life, and have a role to play in enabling New Zealanders to access and use digital content.  In the UK this has been in part achieved through the piloting of a Creative Archives Licence, allowing users the ability to download, exchange and re-use public content for non-commercial purposes. The BBC has recently announced plans to eventually make all its archive of broadcast content available free to the people of the UK via the Internet. 

In New Zealand there is an opportunity to translate public broadcasting values into a non-broadcasting space, connect with other online expressions of New Zealand’s cultures and heritage, and in so doing draw an audience into an online digital world.  Seamless access to, and the ability to interact with, digital content such as that found on TVNZ ondemand, the Film Archive, NZ History.net, Te Ara and Matapihi websites, among others, would create a rich cultural space that showcases our nation’s history and identity.

Strengthening the public domain

As in many countries, New Zealand’s copyright legislation sets out to ensure there is a balance between protection of creators’ and publishers’ rights and fair access to created works by protecting the ability for the creator or publisher to earn a return or livelihood from their creative works for a limited time.  There is also a public interest in allowing certain uses of otherwise copyrighted works (such as for educational purposes), and in ensuring society at large gains an unrestricted benefit in the public domain. 

In the digital age, public domain works have gained a new lease of life as classic texts and other works have become freely available on the web.  In New Zealand however, little is done to collect, organise and promote public domain content for its potential re-use and re-purposing in a digital form.  Many sound recordings, films, literary works, images and government records are out of copyright, and yet are often not promoted by the institutions that hold them as public domain, even where they have been digitised.

Given considerations of ownership and appropriateness, an opportunity exists for New Zealanders to be provided with a further rich resource of national cultural heritage in digital form.

Overcoming the digital content divide

Social exclusion from a digital New Zealand will continue to be a concern for the government.  There remains significant stratification in access to Internet, broadband and other digital technologies, which is expected to be addressed by the Digital Strategy, particularly in the area of digital literacy and access. Around 30% of households still do not have access to a computer at home, and 35% do not have access to the Internet. This compares to just 14% that do not have personal access to a mobile phone.27 

However, access to digital technologies and technology skill building needs to be sustained over time, and they are not the only factor in overcoming social exclusion. 

Integration into social networks where digital technologies are used and valued, access to people who can provide practical help and support, and feeling comfortable in a digital landscape, are all necessary parts of digital participation.  Providing appropriate opportunities for people to create, share and use digital content is an essential avenue towards creating a digital society.

Community opportunities to share and use content

Kete Horowhenua is one of a growing number of community-built digital libraries of arts, cultural and heritage resources. Kete aims to get privately owned papers and photographs out from under beds to sit alongside public archive and photograph collections. It captures memories and stories, show cases local artists, and generally celebrates the people and places of the Horowhenua, through photographs, video and audio footage and stories.

The project aims for a vibrant and lively community of Kete Horowhenua users that add value to the site by joining together related photographs and clips and documents. Writing and submitting  articles or stories that others can add their own memories and knowledge to as well is encouraged. The Horowhenua Library Trust project is carried out in partnership with the Horowhenua District Council and Levin SeniorNet, and was funded from the Community Partnership Fund.

The Challenges ahead

1. Adding value to creative works: Commercial and public creators of content need opportunities to leverage value off the content they hold in ways that keeps their content unique yet allows it to get richer over time.
   
2. Unlocking public information: Government agencies need to rethink the public good aspects of making their official information more widely and easily available and usable in digital form, along with their applications of Crown copyright.
   
3. Creating a connected public digital commons: New Zealand’s public cultural institutions need to be connected in the public digital space where users can readily make seamless connections across collections of content in a way that creates a rich digital experience of New Zealand life.
   
4. Promoting NZ public domain content: Leadership is required to help identify, collect, organise and promote public domain content for its potential re-use and re-purposing in a digital form.
   
5. Addressing exclusion in digital content uptake: Opportunities for participation in the digital age need to be created for parts of the population that otherwise face permanent exclusion or limited connectivity to digital communications networks due to age, income, location, or lack of digital literacy.

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