5. The enablers: Content

5.2 Digital culture priority and challenges

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Content actions on digital culture will be coordinated around this priority:

  • Improving the creation, discovery and use of New Zealand-grown content.

In the past century, broadcasting has been a major driver in the production and delivery of New Zealand creative and cultural content to national audiences and, in more recent years, international markets. Broadcast technology is now rapidly converging with telecommunication technologies, spurring a major rethink of how we need to use the digital world to provide the best cultural content we have to offer on screen and online for New Zealanders to explore and interact with. For that to be successful, along with having effective localised discovery tools, we need continued investment in producing and digitising quality creative and heritage content.

Combined with the massive growth of audio-visual content now available online, governments, academic and commercial interests around the world are going to significant lengths to digitise and distribute vast amounts of cultural and heritage content. While a key motivation is to improve access to this content, without localised discovery tools, much of New Zealand’s ‘deep web’ content risks being buried and therefore invisible to searchers.

In addition to shifting public broadcasting to a digital platform through the Freeview consortium, the government is reviewing the regulatory environment as part of its Broadcasting Programme of Action.  The government has also made initial inroads into digitisation and discovery tools for New Zealanders through New Zealand’s Digital Content Strategy. It is also ensuring that collecting institutions have the appropriate policies and technologies for their digital holdings and the preservation of publicly held content.

The government will build on this work by engaging further with commercial, community and public content creators and producers.

BUILDING A CREATIVE INNOVATION ECONOMY //////
In February 2008, New Zealand and Australian cultural ministers endorsed and released the report Building a Creative Innovation Economy – Opportunities for the Australian and New Zealand creative sectors in the digital environment. The report highlights the creative sector’s value in driving innovation and growth throughout the economy.

The report identifies creative, cultural and commercial opportunities and key priorities for the creative sector in the digital environment in fields such as music, the performing arts, film, television, radio, games, writing, publishing, architecture, design and the visual arts. These include:

  • improving access to culture in the digital environment
  • increasing production of creative digital content
  • developing skills for artists and executives
  • strengthening creative sector partnerships
  • commercialising the creative innovation economy
  • building a creative innovation economy.

The report is the result of a year-long mapping exercise in New Zealand and Australia by the Cultural Ministers Council Creative Economy Roundtable, a working group of government officials from both countries. It is available for download from the Cultural Ministers Council and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.


1 Responses to "5.2 Digital culture priority and challenges"
POST A NEW COMMENT
Reduce the cost for the taxpayer. Dont assume that government must do it all and own it all.

Create an ICT environment which allows taxpayers to create/store their New Zealand-grown content, in a way that meets their requirements and also the government's need to archive/record such content.

We don't need 2 copies of the information, (1 held by me, 1 held by govt) - we need a single copy, with access rights by both parties, accessible using the Internet.

Everytime government
mike(p)
Friday, May 23, 2008 10:14 AM