August 2007
COMMUNITY + BUSINESS + GOVERNMENT
AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND
Creating A Digital New Zealand:
New Zealand’s Digital Content Strategy
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This document was prepared by the National Library in collaboration
with a wide range of government agencies and with help from
community organisations and businesses. The final version was
informed by input from individuals, community, business and sector
groups during the public consultation undertaken in November
and December 2006. The National Library would particularly
like to acknowledge the contribution made by Daran Ponter and
Lewis Brown in the development and writing of the strategy. This
strategy forms part of the response of the Digital Strategy, first
released in May 2005, about which further information can be
found at www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz.
DISCLAIMER
Readers are advised to seek specific advice from a professional
qualified in the relevant subject area before undertaking any
action in reliance on the contents of this Digital Content Strategy.
While every effort has been taken to ensure that the information
contained in this document is accurate, the Crown does not accept
any responsibility whether in contract, tort, equity or otherwise
for any action taken, or reliance placed on any part, or all of the
information in this document, or for any error in or omission from
this document.
National Library of New Zealand
Te Puna Mätauranga o Aotearoa
PO Box 1467
Wellington
New Zealand
ISBN: 978-0-477-10118-9 (PRINT)
ISBN: 978-0-477-10119-6 (PDF)
ISBN: 978-0-477-10121-9 (HTML)
ISBN: 978-0-477-10120-2 (RTF)
www.digitalcontent.govt.nz
Contents
Ministers’ Foreword............................................. 2
Section A: Developing the Strategy.......................... 4
Introduction.......................................................... 5
Origins – the Digital Strategy................................................5
International policy context...................................................5
Understanding Digital Content....................... 6
Creating and protecting content: .........................................7
Accessing and discovering content: .....................................7
Sharing and using content: . ................................................7
Managing and preserving content: ......................................7
Understanding and awareness of content:............................7
The Digital Content Landscape......................... 8
High-speed broadband.........................................................9
Digital convergence............................................................10
Content on demand...........................................................11
Creation of the public digital space.....................................12
Examples of New Zealand’s Growth
in the PUBLIC Digital Space................................. 13
Outcome Area 3: Digital content is being
shared and used.................................................. 29
Section B: The Strategy............................................ 14
Overarching Goal...............................................................29
Creating a Digital New Zealand..................... 15
Government Priorities.........................................................15
Vision.................................................................................15
Outcomes...........................................................................15
The Digital Strategy and
Related Strategies............................................... 16
Outcome Area 1: Digital content is being
created and protected...................................... 18
In our digital future............................................................29
Why is sharing and using content important
for a digital New Zealand?..................................................29
The Challenges ahead.........................................................32
The Actions........................................................................32
The Actions from related strategies.....................................33
Outcome Area 4: Digital content is being
managed and preserved................................... 34
Overarching Goal...............................................................34
Overarching Goal...............................................................18
In our digital future............................................................34
In our digital future............................................................18
Why is managing and preserving digital
content important for a digital New Zealand?.....................34
Why is creating and protecting digital content
important for a digital New Zealand?..................................18
The Challenges ahead.........................................................36
The Challenges ahead.........................................................22
The Actions........................................................................36
The Actions........................................................................22
The Actions from related strategies.....................................36
The Actions from related strategies.....................................23
Outcome Area 2: Digital Content
is Accessible and Easily Discovered............... 24
Outcome Area 5: Digital content
is understood....................................................... 38
The Actions........................................................................27
Overarching Goal...............................................................38
In our digital future............................................................38
Why is understanding digital content
important for a digital New Zealand?..................................38
The Challenges ahead.........................................................40
The Actions........................................................................40
The Actions from related strategies.....................................40
The Actions from related strategies.....................................28
Implementation & Evaluating Progress....... 41
Overarching Goal...............................................................24
In our digital future............................................................24
Why is accessibility and easy discovery important
for a digital New Zealand?..................................................24
The Challenges ahead.........................................................27
Governance and monitoring...............................................41
Implementation..................................................................41
Updating the strategy.........................................................41
Evaluation..........................................................................41
New Initiatives at a Glance.............................. 42
Glossary................................................................. 43
2
Ministers’ Foreword
In the digital age, information is instantly at our
fingertips, markets are global, and our work,
leisure and identities are being rapidly re-shaped
by digital technology. It is an age of excitement,
innovation and transformation. But it is also an
age that comes with risk and opportunity – the risk
that we may get left behind, and the opportunity
to overcome our geography and small size, to be
among the leaders in the digital world.
Hon David Cunliffe
Hon Judith Tizard
It has been just over two years since the launch of the Digital Strategy,
and in that time there has been a huge amount happening in the
digital space in New Zealand. For the government’s part, in the last
year alone we have introduced reforms to enable more competitive
telecommunications markets that will deliver faster, cheaper broadband;
we have funded grass roots digital development projects through the
Community Partnership Fund, and seed funded broadband deployment
via the Broadband Challenge, Project Probe and the KAREN research
network; we launched a free-to-air digital broadcasting platform,
Freeview, which will offer more channels of New Zealand content,
better pictures and sounds, and interactivity in a converging digital
environment; and we have been progressing changes to the Copyright
Act to ensure the right balance of protections and opportunities are
present for creating and using digital content in a digital age.
3
Thinking forward to the digital environment that
will exist in a few years time, we will certainly see
multiple modes of content delivery, and multiple
providers. Some of the future technologies will
be hybrids of those we are familiar with today;
others will be completely new. We will have all the
bandwidth we will reasonably need, along with the
storage, mobility and computer processing power
that will make everyday devices such as TV set-top
boxes, cell phones and media players, smart and
always connected to the Internet.
It is in anticipation of this environment that the
Digital Content Strategy is identified as a key
initiative of the Digital Strategy. It provides a lens
through which we can look at digital technology
– not from the point of view of the hardware,
network and service designers and providers –
but from the point of view of the end-users. For
inevitably, as we enter a connected world in
which we can do almost anything anywhere, it
is only the end-users that know what they are
connecting for. Quite clearly, evidence of that
knowledge is all around us in the digital world
– blogs, digital photography, video-on-demand,
GPS mapping, voice-over-IP, search technologies,
and many other digital developments provide
their value in the content they deliver or enable
for end-users. That same content, when relevant
and of high quality, in turn builds our appetite for
better, more customised delivery and know-how.
It also disrupts old business models and raises
new challenges for social equity, sovereignty and
business development.
As a consequence, it is a matter of vital national
importance to consider the role of digital content
in our lives, and to specifically consider the role of
New Zealand created and accessed digital content.
If New Zealand is to transform its economy and
build its identity in the world, then we must
empower and enable our world-beating innovators
and creatives to work in an environment of
endemic, premium, Kiwi content. We must unlock
our store of valuable content by putting it in digital
form so its value can be rediscovered and renewed.
As New Zealanders and end-users, we need to
see ourselves on air and online, because this is the
opportunity to truly promote our unique heritage,
cultures and achievements, and find our place in
the digital world.
The level of interest already shown in this strategy,
and in the Digital Strategy, is a very tangible sign
of the importance of a digital New Zealand to our
common future. It is with pleasure that we release
Creating a Digital New Zealand: New Zealand’s
Digital Content Strategy.
Hon David Cunliffe
Minister for Information Technology
Minister of Communications
Hon Judith Tizard
Minister Responsible for the National Library
Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage
Section A: Developing the Strategy
Understanding
the Origins, Framework
and Landscape
5
Introduction
This strategy is about making New Zealand visible and relevant in a connected
digital world, and ensuring that we are innovative, informed and capable as a
nation in creating our digital future and telling our stories to each other and the
world. It aims to chart a course for a content-rich digital New Zealand, where
New Zealanders are actively engaged in creating, discovering, sharing and using
content in a digital form.
Content
Creating a Digital New Zealand: New Zealand’s Digital Content
Strategy is the product of research, analysis and engagement
about the things that are truly important to New Zealand in the
digital content space. It exists in an environment that is changing
so rapidly that a number of challenges identified in the draft
strategy, released in late 2006, have been moved aside by newer
and more vital ones. In this context, the major challenge overall
for New Zealand is to keep up with the pace of change that is
occurring in the digital world. The major task, for us as a nation,
is to understand and act on the full potential of digital content in
creating our digital future.
Communities
CE
EN
The Digital Strategy identifies three enablers for creating a
successful digital future – Connection, Confidence and Content
(Figure 1). Connection includes the provision of high-speed
broadband and digital television that will enable the transmission
of larger amounts of more complex digital content. It provides
the means to interact. Confidence relates to skills and a secure
on-line environment. It includes providing the capability for
New Zealanders to engage in a digital world.
ID
NF
Government
CONNECTION
Figure 1: The Three Enablers
Origins – the Digital Strategy
The development of a digital content strategy was foreshadowed
in 2005 as a key action of the government’s Digital Strategy.
The Digital Strategy is about New Zealand using the power of
information and communications technologies to enhance all
aspects of our lives. It aspires to give all New Zealanders the ability
to enjoy the benefits of the digital world through instant access
to our national knowledge resources (whether cultural, scientific,
heritage, archival, broadcasting or community); the economic
benefits that flow from higher productivity; and government
services that are customised to our individual needs .1
Business
CO
The following pages describe the origins of the Digital Content
Strategy, the international policy context, the framework
underpinning the strategy’s outcomes and goals, and the major
influences shaping the digital content environment. The second
half of this document outlines the related government strategies,
provides a discussion of each of the digital content outcome areas,
and identifies the goals and key challenges for the life of the
strategy, along with initial actions.
Access to and creation of Content, including the applications
that are vital for creating, using and sharing content, provides a
compelling means of making the other two enablers effective.
The availability of unique New Zealand content will help drive
demand for broadband and digital television, improve the return
on investment in capability, and create opportunities for community
and commercial use.
International policy context
Many countries have embarked on strategies and policies that
recognise the significance of digital content development .2
Some are focusing on the power of digital content to transform
economies, or are investing in digital content industries. Other
countries are focusing on the digitisation of heritage material and
their ability to project themselves to wider audiences.
International organisations, such as the OECD, are developing a
significant body of thinking and policy around digital content and
content standards, and are exploring issues related to social equity
1 The Digital Strategy: Creating Our Digital Future, p.6, www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz
2 A good summary is provided by the OECD Working Party on the Information Economy (2006): Digital Broadband Content: Digital Content
Strategies and Policies, www.oecd.org/sti/digitalcontent
6
and the digital divide. Their studies suggest two main digital
broadband content-related policy areas: how government
produces, procures and disseminates public sector digital
content (including addressing demand in sparsely populated
areas); and how government policies and regulations affect
digital content markets (i.e. encouraging infrastructure,
content and service provision).
“Digital content and digital delivery of
content and information are becoming
ubiquitous… Network convergence
and widespread diffusion of high-speed
broadband has shifted attention towards
broadband content and applications that
promise new business opportunities,
growth and employment.”
– OECD, September 2005
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) is
reconsidering the basis of the accepted balance between
the rights of intellectual and cultural property owners and
creators on the one hand, and the need for legitimate
access to information on the other, along with the need to
better protect traditional knowledge and indigenous cultural
property. Intellectual and cultural property are central issues in
a digital content environment.
In New Zealand, the Digital Strategy has provided the
framework and focus for the government, and has helped
bring together and kick-start a number of major responses
around telecommunications reform, copyright law, e-learning,
digital heritage, digital broadcasting, and community capability.
Despite rapid growth and significant investment, a key
government policy concern remains the level of uptake
of digital technology, especially in the area of broadband
connectivity. Internationally, the provision and uptake of
broadband across communities, business and government
is widely viewed as the key to unlocking productivity gains.
While New Zealand’s broadband adoption rate is growing fast,
our international partners’ and competitors’ rates continue to
grow faster.
Combined with our disadvantages of small size and isolation
from markets, this presents a unique mix of challenges
requiring responses that may not have been tested elsewhere.
As a consequence, achieving the right policy balance between
the Digital Strategy’s three enablers is potentially more vital to
achieving good digital outcomes for New Zealand than it is in
the rest of the world.
Understanding
Digital Content
Digital content is any content
created, accessed, shared, used, or
preserved in a digital format. It is
changing the way we interact with
one another, and demanding new
delivery models for communities,
business, and government.
Digital content provides us with
new abilities to discover and
cherish our languages, cultures,
histories and national identity.
Digital content provides new
opportunities to do business,
work collaboratively and create
innovative new products
and services.
Digital content is ‘intangible’ rather than
‘tangible’, in that it takes up no physical space;
it is not subject to wear and tear, retaining its
original form regardless of how many times it
is used; and it can be perfectly duplicated or
reproduced a virtually limitless number of times
for little cost. As a result, digital content requires
a wholly different approach to its creation,
organisation, distribution and preservation.
To aid understanding and analysis of digital
content issues, a five-element framework
(Figure 2) has been developed to inform the
direction of this strategy.
7
Digital
Content
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Figure 2: Five-Element Framework
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Sharing and using content:
Two of the qualities of digital
content are its inherent ability to be
reproduced and distributed at minimal
cost, and to be used repeatedly without
becoming worn. The ability for users to
be able to find relevant content that they
can readily use, re-use, share, repurpose and
add their own dimension to, is a key feature of
the digital age.
Creating and protecting content:
Managing and preserving content:
Born-digital content is information in a new form.
It needs new skills for its creation and use, provides
unique opportunities for innovation and creativity,
and requires the means to protect it from theft
and misuse.
Digital content is capable of being stored in much
larger volumes and groupings than would ever be
possible with physical content. As different formats
and devices become obsolete, digital content also
risks being lost much more easily than its physical
equivalent. Managing and preserving content for
continued use is essential if it is to survive for more
than a short period.
Accessing and discovering content:
Content in digital form, whether born-digital,
digitised, or simply indexed digitally, competes with
billions of other items of content for the attention of
potential users. Having the mechanisms (e.g. design
standards, metadata, search engine optimisation)
for access and discovery of content is vital.
Understanding and awareness
of content:
Digital content is altering our commonly held
notions of information, knowledge, and material
value. As we transition through the digital age,
we need to understand and be aware of the digital
content environment, opportunities and challenges,
in order to make more informed decisions, choices
and investments.
8
The Digital Content Landscape
The arrival of the information age was marked by the arrival of the telegraph
line and wireless transmission of information to a mass audience through
radio and television. The advent of the IBM personal computer in 1981,
followed by the World Wide Web in 1989, heralded the beginnings of a
dramatic shift to a digital age.
public digital
space
high-speed
broadband
Digital
Content
content on
demand
digital
convergence
Figure 3: Four Influencing Factors
Through transmission in digital form, information and knowledge
– once costly and often slow to reproduce and communicate –
became available instantaneously anywhere in the world.
The digital age enabled the exchange of ideas, information
and knowledge via a means as revolutionary as the invention of
paper or the printing press.
These influencing factors are:
Research for the Digital Content Strategy, public consultation and
submissions, have led to the identification of four major influencing
factors shaping the digital content environment now and over the
next few years (Figure 3).
Each of these factors contributes in turn to the current environment
in which digital content is growing and changing. We cannot fully
understand digital content in the New Zealand context without
taking these factors into account.
• High-speed broadband;
• Digital convergence;
• Content on demand; and
• The creation of the public digital space.
9
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8
OECD Broadband penetration (per 100 inhabitants) net increase Q4 2005-Q4 2006, by country (Source: OECD)
7
OECD Broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, Dec. 2006 (Source: OECD)
35
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Figure 5: OECD Broadband Subscriptions, December 2006
Figure 4: OECD Broadband Penetration, December 2006
High-speed broadband
Access to, and use of, fast affordable broadband is the key to
successful digital knowledge creation, and the building of virtual
supply and distribution channels in a connected world. Broadband
improves worker productivity, enables access to global markets,
and increases opportunities for communication, research and
collaboration. Without high-speed broadband, as a nation we
will miss out on the benefits of the digital age, will fail to be
technologically competitive, and will be greatly limited in our ability
to present ourselves to, and engage with, the rest of the world.
Recognition of this important role of broadband is one of the
fundamental drivers of the government’s Digital Strategy. In the
year to December 2006, New Zealand had one of the highest
growth rates in broadband uptake in the OECD (Figure 4).
However, as a nation we are still well behind our international
counterparts in our adoption of broadband technology. In
December 2006, broadband subscriptions in New Zealand were
just 14 per 100 people, and New Zealand’s overall OECD relative
ranking was 21st out of 30 countries, between Portugal and Italy. In
contrast, Australia was at 19.2%, the U.K. 21.6%, Canada 23.8%
and Korea 29.1% (Figure 5).3
Broadband technologies also have the potential to contribute to
sustainable growth in our productivity by overcoming disadvantages
of smallness in size and distance from market. New Zealand ranks
21st in the OECD in terms of income per capita, and our income
per capita is more than 30 per cent below that of Australia.4 The
lack of scale in the New Zealand economy is seen by some as
reducing incentives to invest, meaning some types of economic
activity with large up-front costs are unlikely to be feasible. Digital
and broadband technologies, however, can provide the means
to compete in a global marketplace, collaborate and undertake
research internationally with larger partners, and take advantage of
new technology based markets and knowledge creation.
Affordable broadband that is widely available is essential to enable
the easy creation and exchange of content in a digital form. Over
half of New Zealand households with only dial-up Internet access
cite cost as the reason for not adopting broadband, while over a
third of rural households cite lack of availability as the reason.5
As network convergence continues, distinctions will diminish
between the content services provided across those networks.
Wireless and satellite access, 3G mobile broadband, and fast (5
megabits plus) uncapped download and upload speeds on the local
loop are also a vital part of the New Zealand digital content equation.
3 OECD Broadband Statistics to December 2006, www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband
4 Briefing to Incoming Ministers 2005, Ministry of Economic Development
5 Household Use of ICT, December 2006, Statistics NZ.
10
Digital convergence
In a digital age, New Zealanders will increasingly want to be able to
access content in a way that is convenient to them, their work and
their lifestyles.
During the 1990s, in New Zealand and most other parts of the
world, direct public access to digital content was primarily through
computer software and compact discs, with text based, static
content being available via dial-up Internet connections (email,
HTML web pages, news groups etc).
Content users are no longer restricted to a particular network
connection – wireless, cable, satellite, DSL, cellular. If they cannot
access content by one channel, they can easily look to another.
As a rule, users want content to be available and to work on the
devices of their choice, regardless of format or connection.
Users also want the means to share the content that informs and
entertains them with their colleagues, friends and families, who
are part of an increasingly digital social network. The digital social
network, coupled with smart software and firmware applications,
allows users to customise the experience of content that they
have access to, and receive recommendations or suggestions from
sources they value.
The anywhere, anytime nature of digital access means converged
delivery channels, devices, and the content distributed through
them, are at the centre of the digital age far more so than
individual platforms, devices and technologies. The distinctions
between content distributors and telecommunications providers
are disappearing: Vodafone recently acquired New Zealand’s
third largest ISP ihug, while Telecom is developing capability for
interactive triple play (telephone, Internet, television) with its next
generation broadband. These developments are becoming possible
as economies of scale improve with greater broadband uptake and
more cost-effective technologies become available.
Figure 6: Digital Convergence
The new millennium has since witnessed a rapid growth in a new
range of digital technologies, including digital television, DVDs
and high definition video, digital cameras, MP3 and mobile video
players, along with high-speed broadband, cellular and wireless
networks capable of delivering a vast array of interactive digital
content and applications. The personal computer is now just
one of many devices on which digital content can be accessed or
created on demand and to the taste of an individual user. A recent
American study, for instance, showed that 30% of mobile phone
users access the Internet on their device, and 75% of those conduct
searches.6 In New Zealand, 80% of the population had personal use
of a mobile phone at some time during 2006.7
“There is no question in my mind that
convergence is now coming to digital
entertainment and consumer electronics.
Consumer electronics products are being
built using common hardware components
from the computer industry, most of
their capabilities are now being designed
as software… and without a doubt,
broadband Internet is emerging as the major
communications and content distribution
platform into the home.”
- Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM, 2006
6 How America Searches: Mobile, April 2007, Icrossing Inc, www.icrossing.com
7 Household Use of ICT, December 2006, Statistics NZ.
11
Content on demand
With a growing pervasiveness of 24/7 networked devices, people
have more opportunity than ever to communicate, query and search
for content. Accessing the Internet for purposes of search, whether
through a desktop computer or laptop, a wireless PDA or mobile
phone, is the most common form of search access. Two thirds of
New Zealanders accessed the Internet at least once in 2006, and
of those, 84.4% undertook general browsing for information,
while 64.8% searched for information on goods and services.8 The
most popular websites visited by New Zealanders are sites owned
by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, the three largest content search
providers on the web, with between half and three quarters of online
users visiting those sites at least once in a month period.9
The invention of the hyperlink has also changed the way discovery
of information occurs. No longer is a searcher required to look
through an index, directory or contents page to find related
information – the hyperlink allows them to move through areas of
related and relevant content with ease.
Specialised Internet search aggregators exist for collecting particular
types of content, such as Google News, Technorati, Bloglines,
Yahoo Video, while an increasing number of these services offer
tagging of content by users for later reference or to improve search
results (Figure 7). A Pew study in late 2006 found that 28% of
American Internet users, and 7% on any given day, have tagged
or categorised online content such as photos, news stories or blog
posts.10
Ease of use and ease of discovery ranks highly among students,
researchers and the general public when looking for information
– if content is not visible or easily discovered, it is unlikely to be
utilised. Research on search engine user behaviour shows that
62% of searchers click on a search result within the first page, and
90% click within three pages.11 However, web search engines
are estimated to index far less than 0.1% of the total information
available on the Internet12 – the so-called ‘deep-web’ (database
generated web-pages, as distinct from fixed web-pages) is seldom
accessible through this means.
Furthermore, the amount of content online does not reflect the
variety of offline content available and of potential value and
significance to searchers. There is significant concern internationally
that large portions of nations’ histories, cultures and knowledge will
effectively disappear from the collective memory in the digital age.13
Figure 7: Content tagging on Flickr
In a world attuned to fast on-demand results from Internet search
engines, other forms of digital search such as database or catalogue
search, television electronic programming guides, and geo-located
mapping (GPS) tools are also becoming part of the first response
to finding specialised or localised information, in preference to
traditional means. Subscriptions to RSS feeds, a format that
provides syndicated summaries of changes to content, provide an
increasingly popular method of tracking updates to information in
almost real-time.
In a networked world, online and on-demand search is replacing
directories, newspapers and reference desks as the means
to find up to the minute information and content. Ensuring
comprehensive and accurate content is there to be found is
essential to establish and maintain a New Zealand content presence
in the search results.
8 Household Use of ICT, December 2006, Statistics NZ.
9 ComScore study of New Zealand Internet users, March 2007, www.comscore.com/ press/release.asp?id=1406
10 http://pewresearch.org/pubs/402/tagging-play
11 iProspect Search Engine User Behaviour Study, April 2006, www.iprospect.com
12 Google estimated in 2005 that they had indexed 170 terabytes out of a total 5 million terabytes on the web. One estimate of the
indexed web is 14 billion pages, http://www.worldwidewebsize.com/
13 See for instance “History, Digitized (and Abridged)”, 10 March 2007, New York Times
12
Formal
e.g. customer databases;
banking; inventories;
contracts; tax records;
market research; proprietary
knowledge; cultural and
traditional knowledge.
e.g. public directories and
records; official information;
library catalogues; legislation;
archives and heritage
collections; open source;
scientific and social research.
Private
Public
e.g. correspondence and
email; chat and instant
messaging; family and
holiday snapshots; personal
and family memoirs; hobbies
and creative pursuits.
Figure 8: The digital space
e.g. blogs and personal
webspaces; social networks,
forums, discussion boards;
wikis; entertainment and
news media; tagging;
memes.
INFormal
Creation of the public digital space
While email communication and the computerisation of personal
and company records have been some of the enduring uses of digital
technologies, arguably the fastest growth in digital content in the
first decade of the 21st century has been in the public digital space.
The advent of broadband and smart, powerful hardware and
software applications, have dramatically changed the way users
interact with digital content. Users are becoming interactive
creators, adding and sharing information and experiences in virtual
communities based around social and family networks, or in a rich
variety of educational, recreational, cultural and other interests.
Very often, information and knowledge is being freely shared and
exchanged in this space, in some cases with the expectation of
reciprocal benefit, in others with no expectation other than adding
to the common good or providing an outlet of expression. This
public digital space can be viewed as distinct from the private space
of email, instant messaging, customer records, propriety knowledge
etc. (see Figure 8).
The informal public digital space has been rapidly expanding with
the advent of blogging, personal web-spaces, discussion boards,
user reviews, wikis, podcasting, social tagging, and other socially
oriented content creation. Blogs, for instance, were estimated to
number some 70 million in March 2007, and are continuing to
grow worldwide at the rate of 120,000 a day.14
For commercial content creators and providers, this informal space
presents a lucrative area of activity, provided they can establish a
revenue model that works for them. Often this may involve linking
a traditional business activity with a digital one. For innovators,
creatives and business start-ups, it provides a virtual testing space
for trying out new ideas among willing users.
Digital technologies are also enabling the expansion of formal
public knowledge into the digital space, where a far wider audience
can access and benefit from it. Publicly funded science and
research, official information, heritage portals, geospatial mapping,
online databases, archives and digital collections, are all filling the
public digital space, providing an unprecedented level of access and
openness to public information and research knowledge. Much
non-profit research and knowledge is becoming widely accessed in
this way, providing a means for community groups and others to
collate, collaborate and provide resources quickly and cheaply.
The growth of the digital space, and in particular the formal and
informal public space, is both a result of, and a driver of demand
for, better connection, access, and search. In a digital age, these
influencing factors are integral to understanding the digital content
environment. In turn, without addressing digital content, the
nature of each of these factors cannot be fully appreciated.
14 The State of the Live Web, April 2007, http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html
13
Examples of New Zealand’s Growth
in the PUBLIC Digital Space
Over the past year a range of New Zealand initiatives have been put in place
across the Digital Strategy’s Connection, Confidence and Content enablers that
contribute to the growth of the public digital space. Many of these initiatives
stem from the Digital Strategy itself, the E-Government Strategy, the Public
Broadcasting Programme of Action and the ICT Strategic Framework for
Education. Others are developments from the business and research communities.
The examples below (Figure 9) provide an indication of the activity already underway, but can not do justice to the many other initiatives
being undertaken across communities, business and government, from the creation of new-born digital content, digitisation, mash-ups,
access initiatives, Web 2.0 applications, industry standards programmes, and storage and preservation initiatives.
uci3 nz’s first dedicated ict research centre
launched July 2006
internet access to judicial decisions
e-government strategy 2006
available september 2006
right hemisphere agreement
support for a world-leading 3d digital industry
announced May 2006
November 2006
education sector integration services
in development
broadband challenge
rollout of new areas
public records act standards strategy
trademe 100 millionth auction
e-learning action plan for schools 2006-10
May 2007
telecommunications
amendment act
enacted December 2006
vodafone-sky mobile tv
launched April 2007
announced November 2006
finalised June 2006
apple nz itunes store
July 2006
opened online December 2006
copyright
amendment bill
education sector federated search
April 2006
introduced December 2006
New Zealand
Digital Initiatives
geospatial research centre
www.nzlive.com
opened september 2006
launched September 2006
tvnz on demand
launched April 2007
ict strategic framework for education 2006/07 new zealand geospatial strategy
November 2006
kiwi advanced research &
education network
launched April 2007
best grid creating a fully-functional nz e-research ecosystem
in development
launched August 2006
new zealand digital
content strategy
announced November 2006
August 2007
public records digitisation standard
unsolicited electronic
launched April 2007
messages act free-to-air digital tv
enacted February 2007
launched May 2006
community partnership fund
first round of funding
reallocation of spectrum for wireless broadband
two new advertising-free tvnz digital channels
ANNOUNCED July 2006
announced November 2006
te ara – the encyclopedia of new zealand launch of “earth, sea and sky”
June 2006
education sector authentication & authorisation
April 2007
Figure 9: Recent New Zealand Digital Initiatives Cloud
Section B: The Strategy
Vision, Outcomes,
Related Strategies, Goals,
Challenges & Actions
15
Creating a Digital New Zealand
A digital society is one that is well
advanced in international terms in
the adoption and integration of
digital technologies into daily life,
whether at work, home or play.
Successfully creating a digital future like this for New Zealand will
mean having the necessary technologies and infrastructure present
and accessible; having trained and educated content creators and
users; and having sufficient knowledge creation and generation of
content in digital form. The success of the Digital Content Strategy
is dependent on the Connection and Confidence enablers of the
Digital Strategy addressing the technology and skills dimensions,
and on continued work in other areas of content.
The Digital Content Strategy is a key initiative of the Digital
Strategy, providing a dimension through which to view wider
digital issues over the next five years. The governance, oversight
and evaluation of its delivery fall under that of the Digital Strategy.
The structure of this strategy is outlined in the diagram below
(Figure 10). The various parts are described in turn.
government
priorities
vision
outcomes
overarching goals
challenges
actions and
key initiatives
Figure 10: Structure of the Digital Content Strategy
Government Priorities
The Digital Content Strategy contributes directly to the
government’s priorities of:
• Economic Transformation – working to progress our
economic transformation to a high income, knowledge based
market economy, which is both innovative and creative and
provides a unique quality of life to all New Zealanders; and
• National Identity – all New Zealanders to be able to take
pride in who and what we are, through our arts, culture, film,
sports and music, our appreciation of our natural environment,
our understanding of our history and our stance on
international issues.
Vision
In recognising the above priorities and the connected outcomes of
Connection, Confidence and Content, the Digital Content Strategy
adheres to the Digital Strategy vision:
“New Zealand will be a world leader in using information and
technology to realise its economic, social, environmental, and
cultural goals, to the benefit of all its people.”
Outcomes
The five elements of digital content help establish a set of contentrelated areas to address in achieving a digital New Zealand.
Expressed as a set of outcomes, they create five main outcome
areas for the Digital Content Strategy:
• Digital content is being created and protected;
• Digital content is accessible and easily discovered;
• Digital content is being shared and used;
• Digital content is being managed and preserved; and
• Digital content is understood.
In the following pages, each outcome area is described in terms
of its overarching goal, the challenges ahead, the actions and the
key initiatives for the next one to two years. Where current actions
from separate yet related government strategies contribute to the
challenges ahead, these have been identified.
16
The Digital Strategy and
Related Strategies
A wide number of related government strategies, programmes and actions are
contributing to creating our digital future under the Digital Strategy. Those that
have a particular relevance to digital content include:
The Digital Strategy
www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz
The Digital Strategy is about creating a digital future for all New Zealanders, using the power of
information and communications technologies to enhance all aspects of our lives. The strategy recognises
that the information we access through digital technologies can promote innovation, increase
productivity, and enrich the quality of our lives. The strategy identifies content as one of three
enablers, and under this enabler establishes the following goal:
To unlock New Zealand’s stock of content and provide all New Zealanders with seamless, easy access
to the information that is important to their lives, businesses, and cultural identity.
The E-government Strategy
www.e.govt.nz
The E-government Strategy 2006 is the all-of-government approach to transforming how agencies use
technology to deliver services, provide information, and interact with people, as they work to achieve
the outcomes sought by government. It sets out how government will carry out its obligations under the
Digital Strategy, and how technology will be used in achieving the Development Goals for the State
Services.
The strategy recognises technological innovation is transforming our world and focuses on government
meeting the challenges this creates. New Zealanders expect government to interact with them using the
new technologies they are familiar with in other parts of their lives – social networking websites and tools
(Web 2.0), as well as the full range of digital channels and Internet pathways.
It also acknowledges that government must remain inclusive, making sure those who cannot or will not
use these new technologies can still be engaged.
The E-government Strategy also looks ahead to the digital future of government. New ways of joining
up information held by government and others to provide better services and user-friendly access to
authoritative information on New Zealand issues, places, events and people, will have a significant
impact. Government-held information is increasingly available in digital form. Better information will
encourage public debate on issues and greater participation in the design of policies and how they are
delivered. Information ownership and access will continue to be key issues.
17
New Zealand Geospatial Strategy
www.linz.govt.nz
The New Zealand Geospatial Strategy, launched in 2007, is designed to improve knowledge of, and access
to, the geospatial assets owned, maintained or used by government. It recognises government’s increasing
reliance on geospatial information for a wide range of activities - from emergency services and national
defence to utilities, resource management, biosecurity, and economic development.
The purpose of the Strategy is to:
• define the approach needed to ensure New Zealand’s geospatial information infrastructure meets the
ongoing business needs of government;
• provide the framework for the leadership and direction needed for managing geospatial information;
• optimise the collective benefit from public investment in geospatial infrastructure; and
• ensure quality fundamental (i.e. priority) geospatial data is available to all.
ICT Strategic Framework for Education
www.minedu.govt.nz
The ICT Strategic Framework for Education aims to improve learner achievement in an innovative
education sector, fully connected and supported by the smart use of ICT.
The ICT Strategic Framework for Education seeks to deliver this vision through:
• a more learner-centred education system transcending organisational boundaries;
• more informed decision making within the education sector by learners, teachers, parents,
communities, public, businesses, researchers, policy makers, and administrators;
• increased ease and opportunity of access and reduced compliance costs for all participants;
• increased confidence, capability and capacity from the use of ICT by all participants in the education
sector;
• greater opportunities for the generation, application and sharing of new ideas and technologies; and
• more effective and efficient investment in ICT by education sector government agencies.
This work has already resulted in greater discoverability and access to electronic learning materials through
a federated search system allowing a single search across materials in New Zealand, Australia and the
USA, and will be extended to an even broader set of New Zealand and international resources. Role-based
authentication and authorisation is also ensuring that information and content remains protected where
necessary.
Public Broadcasting Programme of Action
www.mch.govt.nz
The government’s Public Broadcasting Programme of Action outlines six priorities to guide public
broadcasting policy development to 2010:
• achieving adequacy and certainty of public funding for broadcasting;
• strengthening public broadcasting;
• facilitating the successful development of digital broadcasting services;
• enhancing regional and community broadcasting;
• enhancing independence and responsibility in broadcasting; and
• enhancing the incentives for producing higher-quality content and schedules.
The Programme of Action is informed by issues associated with the convergence of broadcasting, the
Internet, and digital technology.
18
Outcome Area 1:
Digital content is being
created and protected
Overarching Goal
New Zealand is a world leader
in creating and innovating with
digital content.
In our digital future:
• Broadband will be an export distribution channel as significant
as shipping or air.
• Innovation in digital content products will be a key source of
new market opportunities.
• Demand will grow fastest for digital content products that are
easy to understand, enhanced versions of familiar products.
• Pervasive digital publishing of creative content will permanently
alter the way creators control their creative works.
• Traditional and cultural knowledge in digital form will require
careful management to prevent loss and misuse.
Why is creating and protecting
digital content important for a
digital New Zealand?
Overcoming the tyranny of distance
The competitiveness of business is increasingly influenced by the
speed, cost and responsiveness in getting goods to market, and
New Zealand is at a competitive disadvantage because of its small
domestic market and geographical remoteness from other major
markets. Furthermore, global distribution channels are becoming
dominated by a few multinationals, making continued access to
markets critical to export success.
Our ability to engage globally in future will be strongly influenced
by the quality of our broadband connections to the rest of the
world. In strengthening these connections, potential exists for
growth in the so-called ‘weightless’ economy, particularly where
knowledge products and digital content can be exported through
virtual supply and distribution channels. Currently only about 5%
of New Zealand’s export base is in this area.15
Boosting productivity through
innovation
Digital
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Innovation and knowledge advance are drivers of economic growth
and productivity, and in the digital world present a significant
opportunity to overcome constraints and barriers to market access.
Innovation, however, involves substantial costs, which may presuppose an earning stream or investment capital that will support it,
along with a willingness to have skilled staff working on product or
service development instead of delivery. In a ‘weightless’ economy,
there is very little certainty over returns on innovation. This is in part
because of the complexities and costs of establishing and holding
property rights on that content, and in part because of market
volatility and narrowness of margins. Commercial innovations face
high risk of failure if focused only on a domestic audience, and yet
expanding horizons to international audiences means competing
with the best in the market, and may often require raising venture
capital from overseas sources.
Innovative digital design work in New Zealand has in the past
been aided by work for government agencies, such as the work
commissioned by Te Papa Tongarewa, which led innovation when
it chose a number of interactive experiences as part of its inaugural
displays. The small companies emerging as specialists from this
work formed a cluster to continue collaborative digital design work
with an export focus.16 Significant clusters of small businesses in the
3D digital, sound and film industries have been able to grow and
leverage off work generated by larger industry players such as Weta
Digital. Fostering of creative solutions and opportunities like these
is needed to grow and retain our innovative talent on these shores
and bolster productivity.
15See So Far Yet So Close: Connecting New Zealand to the Global Economy, 2007, Skilling D. and Boven, D.
16Valuing Digital Content: Economic Perspectives, 2007, Duncan, I. et. al.
19
The digital content industry:
innovative design
The digital content industry is a growing niche industry in
New Zealand that includes visual effects and animation
(including virtual reality and 3D products), interactive
multimedia and software development (e.g. websites,
DVDs), computer and online games, educational multimedia
(e-learning), and digital film & TV production and postproduction. It is expected to contribute significantly to
economic growth and productivity over time.
Right Hemisphere, based in Auckland, is a leading
provider of Product Graphics Management (PGM) software.
PGM enables manufacturers to globally source, sell and
service products more effectively by delivering the right 2D
and 3D product graphics, in the right format, eliminating
the need to wait for physical prototypes. Customers
have included 9 out of the top 10 US aerospace defence
companies, and 5 out of the top 6 automotive companies.
Sidhe Interactive is a Wellington-based game development
studio recognised for producing high quality entertainment
titles with world-class creative and software development
skills. Developing across console, handheld, and PC, Sidhe
has created a range of innovative products including the
award winning original title GripShift® (a downloadable
game for the Playstation 3), the successful Rugby League
series and genre-defining Melbourne Cup Challenge.
UniServices is the largest university-owned research and
technology company in Australasia. Specialising in innovative
research and development, in any one year they work on
2500 projects for both public and private sectors, and with
international partners such as Roche, Genentech, Daifuku
and Siemens. For the Ministry of Education, Uniservices
have developed asTTle (Assessment Tools for Teaching and
Learning), a world-leading software assessment tool to
test reading, writing and mathematics skills. The tool has
generated considerable interest internationally, with pilots
underway in Malaysia and New York City.
As with many OECD economies, the film, television and music
industries represent a significant sector of investment in digital
creativity and innovation, while also providing an opportunity to
portray New Zealand to both domestic and overseas audiences.
The government itself invests over $170 million each year into the
production and promotion of New Zealand television, radio and
content through New Zealand On Air, Te Mängai Päho, and the Film
Commission.
The current transition to free-to-air digital broadcasting will provide
a boost for local production of digital creative content, build on
broadcasting industry synergies with the film industry, and enable
easier innovation and repurposing of content for other digital
delivery platforms and outlets, including international audiences.
Addressing New Zealanders’ demand
for digital content
Addressing growth in New Zealand’s broadband uptake goes
beyond addressing access and pricing, to a consideration of
consumer demand for the digital content that fills the broadband
bandwidth and digital spectrum.
Not adequately addressing the characteristics of content consumers
has seen dozens of consumer technology ideas, many with a digital
content focus, struggle or fail to attract consumer demand. In part,
this is because digital content applications and technologies are
frequently more complex and sophisticated to use than analogue
content. The cost to the consumer is not only the ticket price
(which may even nominally be zero), but also learning how to
‘consume’ or use the product.
Consequently, the digital content products that stand the best
chance of being used or adopted are enhanced editions of products
we already understand – ones that extend an already familiar
functionality into the digital domain, or bring together the familiar
in a new combination. New Zealand Internet content demand has
been strongest in the area of classified advertising – TradeMe, Seek,
Autotrader, and real estate websites represent a large volume of
New Zealand domestic Internet traffic. SKY Digital television has
added functionality of an integrated programme guide and digital
recorder through ‘MYSKY’, which will soon make use of broadband
connections to provide additional services. Radio New Zealand has
made their programming available streaming over the Internet and
as downloadable podcasts.
We need more of these content applications developed that
enable a reflection of New Zealanders’ interests, lifestyles and
cultures, whether as consumers, citizens or content creators. These
applications also need to take advantage of the rapid change and
growth in methods of access to digital creative content, as digital
platform convergence continues apace.
20
Adapting to digital convergence
Television, music, film, radio and print publication are all
fundamentally changing as a consequence of new digital
technologies and the need to maintain audience and income
streams. Customers and end-users increasingly want control over
the content itself, along with the flexibility to access it on-demand
via platforms of their choice; while creators and distributors want to
ensure appropriate payment, along with protection of their content
and rights.
Businesses that have largely been only providers of
telecommunication services (such as Internet Service Providers) are
now entering a market that has been traditionally the realm of
broadcasters, while those that commission and produce content are
broadening their distribution channels via the Internet and other
platforms (e.g. TVNZ ondemand, Fairfax’s Stuff.co.nz, NZ Herald,
Radio NZ, SKY Mobile TV) to compete with other Internet and
multi-platform content.
Creative Commons Licences for
New Zealand
Creative Commons licences let creators (authors, scientists,
artists, educators) offer others the freedom to use their
creative work under certain specified conditions. To be
valid and enforceable under New Zealand law, such
licences must conform to current legislation, in particular
the Copyright Act.
Work on the New Zealand licences is being led by Te
Whäinga Aronui The Council for the Humanities, on behalf
of a coalition of grassroots organisations, creative industries,
media, the arts and the humanities research communities.
Government agencies including the National Library are
being consulted. A private sector legal team is assisting to
draft the licences, to be based on the UK-England version
of the Creative Commons International licences. An
indigenous licence is being considered for possible inclusion.
Once drafting is complete, the licences will be accessed
through the Creative Commons Aotearoa NZ website at
www.creativecommons.org.nz, where current information
on the licences can also be obtained.
“There’s a big shock coming. The second
wave of digital will be far more disruptive than
the first and the foundations of traditional
media will be swept away, taking us beyond
broadcasting... On-demand changes
everything. It means we need to rethink the
way we conceive, commission, produce,
package and distribute our content.”
- Mark Thompson, BBC, 2006
Content creation is becoming a stronger focus as the channels
for delivery become diversified, while the potential for digital
platforms to provide multiple and simultaneous channels of content
is increasing. This environment is increasing in complexity, with
revenue models, particularly those based on advertising (e.g.
broadcast commercials, print advertisements) or on selling physical
media (e.g. CD, DVD, print), being potentially threatened as the
audience and market fragments. Traditional content distinctions
based solely on the delivery mechanism are becoming less relevant,
as more content is being made for multiple channels of delivery and
income generation.
Addressing content protection at the
point of creation
Part of the debate regarding ‘fair dealing’ versus the right of
creators to control their works, relates to how the Internet, and
digital technology more broadly, have changed the basis for the
creation and exchange of information, and with it, copyrighted
works and intellectual property.
Almost all digital content users, given the right technology, can easily
make and distribute their own copies of the most common forms
of digital content that comes into their possession. As a result,
maintaining a market value over time for digital creative content is
much harder. Proprietary systems and digital rights management
technology help limit unauthorised reproduction, but often also
inhibit uptake. These technologies can, additionally, create a
knowledge risk when obsolete technology cannot be migrated.
The amendments introduced to the Copyright Act in 2007 aim to
maintain the balance between copyright owners and copyright
users in an increasingly digital world. They serve to clarify the
existing rights and exceptions in the digital environment, while
maintaining incentives to ensure the creation, production and
distribution of new creative works.
21
Internationally, many creators are aware of and use tools such as
the Creative Commons licences to help manage and protect their
works. However, there is some evidence that the effectiveness
of such licences are limited by creators’ and users’ understanding
of copyright law. Creators may end up being unsure about what
rights they hold under they law, and what rights for use are they
actually licensing under Creative Commons.17
Creators need legal protections for their digital content, and
they also need good information about how to share their work
without having it stolen or misused. In a digital world, it is
important that creators decide what control and input they want
or need for their works at the point of creation, before content is
published or distributed.
Mäori language goes digital
Promotion and protection of Mäori language and culture
through creating and sharing Mäori cultural digital content is
being taken up by a growing number of rünanga, iwi health
providers, Mäori-based businesses, educators and others.
The AIO Foundation is a Mäori-based initiative created on
the basis of observations, experience and evidence of the
founding trustees about the precarious and vulnerable state
of indigenous storytelling. AIO provides whänau with the
dual opportunity of preserving their culture and heritage
digitally while endeavouring to maintain and promote
traditional Mäori values.
“Strong law is important but is not sufficient
to protect content in the digital environment.
It is also necessary to promote a strong New
Zealand culture of respect for copyright and
to provide a legal means for fair access to
copyright works.”
– submission, draft NZ Digital Content
Strategy discussion document, 2006
Protecting traditional knowledge
in a digital world
Protection of cultural property and traditional knowledge,
particularly where ownership is collectively held, as with much
Mäori cultural knowledge and heritage, is particularly important
in a digital environment. The uniqueness and scarcity of such
knowledge creates value that can be traded or utilised in digital
form for the benefit of the tangata whenua. The digital form
however lends itself to theft, misuse or dilution of respect for
cultural tradition. Protection of cultural property could be
strengthened in a digital world by applying concepts of authenticity
and kaitiakitanga (guardianship) as mechanisms to promote and
protect indigenous content in digital form.
Te Ngutu Kura is a free Mäori spell check application,
conceived by Karaitiana Taiuru and made available online by
support from the Mäori Education Trust. In addition to use
in desktop applications, the software, source code and lists
are intended to be available for developers and webmasters
to advance the Mäori language in the digital arena.
The Waitangi Tribunal is currently considering whether
New Zealand’s intellectual property laws provide adequate
protection for Mäori knowledge and indigenous flora and fauna,
and if they are consistent with the Treaty of Waitangi.18 The
outcome of this deliberation will provide further guidance on the
recognition and protection of Mäori cultural property, including in
the digital realm.
17See for instance UK Artists – Their Approaches to Copyright and Creative Commons, October 2006, http://www.openbusiness.cc/wp-content/
uploads/2006/11/ACEReport.pdf
18As part of the Wai 262 claim lodged in 1991.
22
The Challenges ahead
1 Adapting to virtual supply and distribution channels:
We need New Zealand businesses developing export
opportunities that take advantage of the ‘weightless’ economy,
while also utilising our international bandwidth connections
to collaborate on science, research and other strategic
partnerships.
2 Supporting and retaining our digital innovation:
Innovative digital content products and the skills and talent
that create them need to be supported and retained on
New Zealand shores.
3 Building New Zealanders’ demand for digital content:
Successful content applications like TradeMe prove that
New Zealanders will use the Internet when familiar local content
and services are enhanced in a digital space. We need to take
the next step to develop broadband and digital spectrum based
content applications made with New Zealanders in mind, and
we need the skills that will make it happen.
4 Digital convergence: Digital convergence requires new models
for creating, distributing and earning income from content,
and we need to ensure the right conditions are fostered for
New Zealand to successfully make the transition.
5Putting control of digital content in the hands of creators:
Content creators need the tools and information to decide, at
the point of creation, the way they want their content to be
controlled, protected and shared.
6Protecting Mäori cultural property and knowledge:
Mäori cultural property and mätauranga Mäori is unique in the
world and valued as a central part of New Zealand’s identity.
Mechanisms are needed to ensure it remains in the control of
its creators and bearers, and protected for the benefit of future
generations.
The Actions
Action
Key Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Establish the
New Zealand 3D digital
graphics industry as
a sustainable key
niche export sector
(Challenge 1 & 2)
3D Digital Graphics Cluster
Ministry of
Economic
Development
2007-2010
$7.0 Million
between
2007-2010
Address the
development and
retention of an
innovative and skilled
digital workforce
(Challenge 2)
ICT Skills Shortages Project
Department
of Labour
2007-2009
Baseline
Ensure New Zealanders
are knowledgeable of
rights, protections and
obligations in relation
to digital content
(Challenge 5)
Copyright and New Technologies Public
Awareness Programme
Ministry of
Economic
Development
2007-2008
Baseline
Support the retention
of Mäori traditional
knowledge and
cultural property by its
creators and bearers
in the digital realm
(Challenge 6)
Intellectual Property Rights and Mätauranga
Mäori
Ministry of
Economic
Development
2007-2009
Baseline
The establishment of an industry cluster to bring
together technology development companies,
companies that use technology, and universities
and research organisations, to develop research and
commercial projects that build on New Zealand’s
existing strength in 3D digital graphics technology.
The project will ensure New Zealand has a good
understanding of the ICT workforce situation and
needs, now and in the future.
Provision of public information aimed at raising
New Zealanders’ awareness of their intellectual
property rights and obligations, and mechanisms
for protecting those rights, both generally and with
respect to digital content.
An initiative to identify ways in which Mäori cultural
and intellectual property rights in Mätauranga Mäori
(including traditional knowledge contained in digital
content) can be positively recognised and protected.
23
The Actions from related strategies
Action
Key Digital Content Related
Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Enhance the ability of
public broadcasting
funders to support
digital content
(Challenge 2 & 4)
Re-examination of the statutory definitions and
functions of NZ On Air and Te Mängai Päho
Ministry for
Culture and
Heritage, Te
Puni Kökiri
(Broadcasting
Programme
of Action)
2007-2008
Baseline
Ensure regulatory
policy is appropriate
to digital broadcasting
in a converging
environment
(Challenge 4)
Review of Regulation for Digital Broadcasting
Ministry for
Culture and
Heritage,
Ministry of
Economic
Development
2007-2008
Baseline
Ensure broadcasting
content regulation
is appropriate to the
digital age
(Challenge 4)
Review of broadcasting content regulation
Ministry for
Culture and
Heritage
(Broadcasting
Programme
of Action)
2007-2008
Baseline
This work aims to enable support for digital content
across a diverse range of formats and platforms,
and to investigate alternative processes for funding
broadcasters, taking into account the new kinds
of content made possible by developments in
technology (such as digital transmission and the
Internet).
Review of the regulatory environment for digital
broadcasting, addressing competition, standards
and intellectual property rights issues at the three
main stages of the broadcasting value chain –
content, distribution and networks. The review
will consider the implications for regulatory
policy of the convergence between broadcasting,
telecommunications and the Internet.
Review broadcast content regulation in light of digital
media developments, including the institutional
arrangements, statutory definitions and functions of
the Broadcasting Standards Authority.
24
Outcome Area 2:
Digital Content
is Accessible and
Easily Discovered
Overarching Goal
Significant New Zealand content
is easy to access and discover by
New Zealanders.
In our digital future:
• Digital content about New Zealand will be a major contributor
to our sense of national and cultural identity, and to how we
project ourselves as a nation to the world.
• The Internet will be the first choice of a whole generation of
users as a place to search and discover information about life in
New Zealand – present, past and future.
• Content not able to be searched and located online will be lost
to the majority of its potential users.
• Content from New Zealand will compete for visibility in a world
of digital content available from dozens of countries, not on
quantity or location, but on quality and relevance.
• Digital content will open doors for New Zealanders to new ways
of communicating and participating in national life and on the
world stage.
Un
awa dersta
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of c g and
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and t
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Acc ering
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A compelling reason for broadband
For Internet search to return results reflecting a New Zealand
perspective, the content needs to be there in the first place.
International experience shows a strong correlation between the
creation and use of content and the uptake of broadband services.
New Zealanders need a compelling reason to connect to broadband
and the ability to do it easily and cheaply. Being able to find
and interact with New Zealand content that is already online is a
significant part of this equation.
The TradeMe phenomenon and other classified advertising sites
demonstrate New Zealanders are quick to take to and find content
that is relevant to them. This phenomenon needs to be translated
to rich media resources of New Zealand content.
The likes of TVNZ ondemand and Radio New Zealand podcasting
have the potential to draw New Zealanders into the digital content
space, but there needs to be other sources and significantly more
content, both commercial and non-commercial, for us to access and
discover online.
Such content needs to be easy to navigate within sites that are
easy to search. It needs to provide the opportunity for users to
interact by saving searches, subscribing to updates, rating and
tagging favourite content. This will increase the likelihood of users
returning, telling others, and helping New Zealand content rise in
search rankings.
Creating and
protecting content
Digital
Content
Why is accessibility and easy discovery
important for a digital New Zealand?
d
an ent
g
t
in n
ar co
h
S ing
us
Electronic programming guides also present an opportunity to
encourage New Zealanders to locate and view New Zealand
television and radio content. New Zealand is one of the few
developed countries that does not have programme guides
publicly available online for use by digital video recorders or media
centre computers – devices that would likely require broadband
to take advantage of such a feature. SKY Network Television and
Freeview both provide these features via satellite services, but user
choice is currently limited to those platforms, and interactivity also
remains limited.
25
Making New Zealand visible
In an environment where, internationally, governments are
spending millions on projects to increase access to and presence of
content in digital form, New Zealand content has struggled to have
a meaningful presence among the volume of content available.
In one of the few studies on sources of content available on the
Internet, 55% of content on publicly accessible websites originated
in the United States.19 Whois.net listed some 94.5 million top-level
domains as registered with them in May 200720, while in contrast
some 261,283 .nz domains were registered at the end of 2006.21
Neither volume of content nor domain location is going to be
sufficient to draw attention to New Zealand content. Web-oriented
digitisation projects now underway in the U.S., Europe and the
U.K., combined with U.S. based social networking content sites
such as YouTube, Flickr and MySpace will likely skew this content
further away from sources of local content.
100% Pure New Zealand
on Google Earth
Tourism New Zealand has partnered with search engine
Google to provide information to create a new “layer” on
Google Earth. Google Earth combines satellite imagery,
maps, terrain and 3D buildings to provide in-depth,
easily accessible geographic information. The 100% Pure
New Zealand layer introduces and graphically illustrates
Visitor Centres, ‘Points of Interest’ (towns) and ‘Bubbles’
(scenic highlights) on Google Earth and provides a link to
www.newzealand.com for more extensive information,
maps, links to accommodation, transport and activities.
In television and radio, digital transmission means the ability to
deliver multiple channels of broadcast content to suit a huge range
of tastes and interests. Recent upgrades to Sky Television’s digital
satellite transmission, for instance, will allow them to provide up
to 75 channels of content. Internet radio, readily available via
broadband at high bit-rates in applications such as iTunes, can
provide hundreds of channels of free streaming content. Most of
this content will be sourced from overseas.
For New Zealand content to be visible and widely used by
New Zealanders, it needs to be more relevant, important and easily
accessible to New Zealanders than overseas content, and well
enough designed by way of metadata and other descriptors so that
it can surface among the masses of international content.
For students and researchers wanting to access the best
New Zealand has to offer in online knowledge, we also need
world-class search tools that delve into ‘deep-web’ repositories to
uncover relevant results. For those of us wanting to be entertained
or informed by radio or television content, there needs to be
affordable and easily discoverable New Zealand content at our
fingertips.
Maintaining our cultural memory
Within a few years there will be a whole generation of young adults
who have grown up in the connected digital age. Their access
to New Zealand’s culture, history and knowledge will be through
digital devices they interact with every day. They will be inclined to
take the shortest route to find information about the world they
live in, and the country they live in.
19Web Characterisation Project, 2002 http://www.oclc.org
20These were .biz, .com, .net, .org, .us
21Internet NZ statistics, http://dnc.org.nz/content/calendar_stats.html
Without ready access to content in non-digital form, large volumes
of our collective knowledge and heritage will potentially be lost to
this generation through being ignored. Yet, assuming all content
will soon be available digitally greatly underestimates the nature of
the task of digitising and making content suitable for access.
In the U.S., the National Archives and Records Administration alone
holds some 9 billion documents, and the Library of Congress over
134 million items. In New Zealand, Archives New Zealand has some
80,000 linear metres of documents, while the National Library,
including the Alexander Turnbull Library, holds over 5 million items
and a further 13,600 linear metres of newspapers, manuscripts and
serials. Matapihi, a site providing search across online collections of
ten New Zealand cultural institutions, despite major growth since its
launch, in May 2007 referenced just 80,000 items.
Local archives, museums and libraries add greatly to the potential
volumes of content that could be digitised, let alone significant
content in privately held collections, extensive audio and moving
image collections, and the many items that do not lend themselves
to digitisation due to their form, condition or copyright issues.
26
Digitisation is a powerful means
of unlocking content for wider
access and use.
Where possible, prioritised digitisation needs to be undertaken
to support discovery of New Zealand content in the digital realm,
requiring time, effort and significant financial outlay. For other
content, indexing and making indexes, directories and catalogues
of content available to digital age searchers are vital to keeping
New Zealand’s cultural memory intact.
Below are three examples of recent digitisation initiatives.
Tidal Pools is a joint project between the NZ Electronic
Text Centre and Va’aomanü Pasifika at Victoria University of
Wellington to make digitised texts available to researchers
of Pacific islands history, language, culture and politics. This
is one of the first New Zealand projects to digitise Pacific
islands-related content and make it freely accessible online.
The Chapman Collection is New Zealand’s largest and
most continuous collection of broadcast news and current
affairs available in an “as broadcast” form. The New Zealand
Film Archive is undertaking a three-year project to digitise
the collection, which was built up by Professor Robert and
Noeline Chapman of the Political Studies Department at
Auckland University. It includes audio recordings of television
news from the 1960s, and VHS recordings dating from the
1984 snap election onwards, providing a vivid insight into
New Zealand politics and society.
Te Ao Hou (“The New World”) was a bilingual quarterly
published by the Mäori Affairs Department between 1952
and 1976, to provide, as its first issue said, “interesting
and informative reading for Mäori homes… like a marae
on paper, where all questions of interest to the Mäori
can be discussed.” The magazine had many distinguished
contributors during its publication. The series was digitised
in 2005 for the National Library of New Zealand by the
New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, with the online
editions receiving nearly 25,000 visits per month from both
New Zealand and overseas, significantly extending the
original readership.
Opportunities for accessibility
Accessibility is not confined to finding content. Digital content
has the ability to provide access to content in formats that are
profoundly enabling, and languages that promote and reflect our
unique cultures in New Zealand and the South Pacific.
It is estimated that between 10 and 20% of New Zealand’s
population is print disabled in some form, while a further 10% are
hearing disabled. Digital content that is appropriately formatted,
captioned and indexed can be made more easily and cheaply
accessible to these populations than non-digital content has been,
allowing opportunities to provide digital access for all.
New Zealand has to think beyond achieving this solely in the
government sector, to encouraging private sector content
distributors and web developers to adopt accessibility standards
as a way to improve services and market reach. The benefits of
this have already been seen with almost universal use of sub-titling
for DVD movies. The potential benefits of providing other digital
content in accessible formats are even greater.
“Digital content can be a powerful means of
reducing the disabling effect of a society that
does not provide all citizens with the same
level of access to its written information.
Digital content that is developed from
the beginning in a flexible, standardsbased, interoperable way, rather than in a
proprietary format or converted from print, is a
cornerstone of an inclusive digital society.”
– submission, draft NZ Digital Content
Strategy discussion document, 2006
While much search content on the Internet is in English, many
other languages are also accessible through tailored search results.
However, of the forty-one languages Google, for instance, allows
a user to search for, none are from the Pacific region, including
the Mäori language. Language is very much at the core of cultural
expression, and yet the unique languages of our region are at risk
of being invisible in a digital world. Care and attention is needed
to ensure this part of our cultural identity is reflected and accessible
through digital content.
No. 49 November 1964 Cover: Miss Kiri Te Kanawa, a talented
Auckland soprano who has had a remarkable series of successes in
competition events, was this year’s winner of the John Court Aria
contest at the Auckland Competitions.
27
The Challenges ahead
1 Optimising digital content for search: New Zealand digital
content needs to be optimised for visibility by search engines
and made accessible by ‘deep-web’ indexing, connected search
layers, portals, and social tagging tools.
4 Indexing significant non-digital content: Where significant
New Zealand content cannot be digitised for reasons of
cost, timing or practicality, that content needs to be indexed
electronically, with those indexes being searchable online.
2 Discovering New Zealand content easily: To compete
successfully for visibility on the basis of quality and relevance,
New Zealand digital content needs to be affordable, easily
discoverable, and at our fingertips.
5 Appropriately designing and formatting digital content:
Our digital content needs to be presented for accessibility and
usability by being appropriately designed and formatted for
users with different levels of skill and ability, for the official
and major languages of New Zealand and the Pacific, and
for different modes of connection (e.g. personal computer,
mobile, portable player, Braille reader, console) and speeds of
connection (e.g. broadband, dial-up, wireless).
3 Setting priorities for digitising content: The scale of
New Zealand content relevant to our national and cultural
identity is vast, and yet will be lost to searchers if it is not
digitised. Priorities need to be set to get the best results from
future investments in digitisation.
The Actions
Action
Key Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Develop Mäori and
Pacific languages
metadata standards
(Challenge 1 & 5)
Te Reo Mäori and Pacific Languages Metadata
Project
National
Library of
New Zealand,
Te Papa
Tongarewa,
Archives
New Zealand
2007-2009
Baseline
Make collections
of New Zealand
digital content
more accessible
to New Zealand
communities
(Challenge 1, 2, 3 & 5)
Digital New Zealand
National
Library of
New Zealand
2007-2011
$3.3 Million
between
2007-2011
Enable ongoing search
and discovery of
New Zealand’s publicly
funded research
(Challenge 2)
National Research Discovery Service
National
Library of
New Zealand
2007-2008
Baseline
Establish agreed
priorities for
digitisation of
significant and
important publicly held
content
(Challenge 3 & 4)
Digital New Zealand: Digitisation Policy
Framework
National
Library of
New Zealand
2007-2008
Funded
under
Digital
New Zealand
Developing a Te Reo Mäori metadata standard,
followed by a range of Pacific language (e.g. Cook
Islands Mäori, Samoan, Tongan, Niuean, Tokelauan)
standards based on Dublin Core. The metadata
standards for Pacific languages will be prioritised in
consultation with the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs.
Progressively enable communities around
New Zealand to connect with, access and create
content for digital content repositories that reflect
their rich histories, stories, cultures and environment.
Extending the Tertiary Education Commission’s
institutional repository pilots to develop a nationwide
network of research repositories to ensure the
ongoing online availability of New Zealand’s publicly
funded research outputs.
Developing and implementing a robust framework for
prioritising digitisation of significant and important
publicly held content in order to make strategic use
of public funds for digitisation. The framework
would establish approaches to digitisation standards,
interoperability, preservation issues, online indexing
alternatives, and other relevant criteria.
28
The Actions from related strategies
Action
Key Digital Content Related
Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Ensure that
government geospatial
information and
services can be readily
discovered, appraised
and accessed
(Challenge 1)
Develop and maintain geospatial metadata in
accordance with an agreed geospatial metadata
standard, and align with international standards.
To be confirmed in
2007-2008
(NZ Geospatial Strategy)
2007-
Baseline
or new
funding
Support more efficient
and effective discovery
of education-related
resources and more
efficient work practices
for cataloguing content
(Challenge 1)
Education Sector Metadata Schema (ESMS)
Education
Sector
Agencies
(ICT Strategic
Framework
for Education)
2007-2008
Baseline
Provide teachers,
learners and the
general public with
more effective and
efficient access to
education-related
resources
(Challenge 1)
Extension of Education Sector Federated Search
Education
Sector
Agencies
(ICT Strategic
Framework
for Education)
2007-2009
Baseline
Managing the govt.nz
space:
People have ready
access to reliable,
authoritative, and
trusted government
information and
services across the
Internet
(Challenge 1)
Manage the govt.nz domain to promote trust
E-government
Strategy
2006-2010
Baseline
Ensure that
New Zealanders are
able to interact with
digital broadcast
content
(Challenge 2)
Freeview Digital Television Platform
Ministry for
Culture and
Heritage
(Broadcasting
Programme
of Action)
2007-2011
$25 million
between
200/7 and
20011
Ensure enhanced
delivery of public
service broadcasting
through digital
television services
(Challenge 2)
TVNZ Digital Services
Ministry for
Culture and
Heritage
(Broadcasting
Programme
of Action)
2007-2012
$79 million
between
2007-2012
Te Puni Kökiri
(provided by
the Mäori
Television
Service)
2007-2011
$23.1
million
between
2007-2011
Develop to include a core metadata schema standard
for all sector and government systems needing to
catalogue education-relevant resources for discoveryrelated purposes.
Providing discovery-level access to all education sector
resources regardless of where they are physically
catalogued or hosted, through a brokerage service
for sector systems requiring discovery-level access to
education-relevant search engines
Review emerging technologies, including search, to
assess how they can best be used to provide access to
government information and services.
Develop standards and guidelines to encourage
collaboration in the govt.nz space.
Support for the Freeview consortium to launch a
hybrid (satellite and terrestrial) free-to-air digital
broadcasting platform. The creation of new digital
content will be actively encouraged by the allocation
of spectrum.
Establishment by TVNZ of two new digital services,
to feature significant levels of both new and timeshifted New Zealand content, delivered across multiple
platforms. This business transition will also ensure rights
issues associated with digital content are addressed.
Mäori Television Enhanced Services
Providing a platform to support Mäori Television’s
move to digital television, including new programming
content and establishing infrastructure for
expanded broadcasts.
29
Outcome Area 3:
Digital content is
being shared and used
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.
Un
awa dersta
ren ndin
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of c g and
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and t
ing onten
ess
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Acc ering
ov
disc
pr Ma
es na
er gi
vin ng
g an
co d
nt
en
t
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.
Creating and
protecting content
Digital
Content
Why is sharing and using content
important for a digital New Zealand?
d
an ent
g
in nt
ar co
h
S ing
us
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.
22What is Web 2.0, Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software, O’Reilly, T., 2005,
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
23The most well-known of these is the U.S. Tivo, but adaptations of these are beginning to appear in New Zealand with Sky Television’s
introduction of the MySky personal video recorder.
30
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
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.
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.
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.
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 noncommercial users should be able to benefit from vital data that can
lead to a public good outcome for government.
24The United Kingdom has for instance publication schemes and an
online information asset register, while Australia digitally publishes
indexed file lists of public records six monthly.
25See http://www.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/media/
newsreleases/2007/200728_e.htm 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.
31
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 repurposing 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.
26For a discussion see Building the Digital Commons: Public Broadcasting in the Age of the Internet, 2004, Murdock, G.,
http://www.kulturteknikker.hivolda.no/filer/505.pdf
27Household Use of ICT, December 2006, Statistics NZ.
32
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.
4Promoting 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.
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.
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.
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.
The Actions
Action
Key Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Provide seamless access
to the nation’s science,
research and academic
resources
(Challenge 2)
New Zealand Scientific and Research Programme
of Action
Ministry of
Research,
Science and
Technology
2007-2011
Baseline
Provide business,
local authorities and
communities with
free online access to
statistical data
(Challenge 2)
Making More Information Freely Available
Statistics
New Zealand
2007-2011
$6 million
between
2007-2011
Provide seamless
access to the nation’s
research, culture and
heritage collections
and resources online
(Challenge 3)
National Heritage Programme of Action
Te Papa,
Archives
New Zealand,
National
Library of
New Zealand
2007-2011
Baseline
Build opportunities
for participation in
creating and accessing
digital content for
communities facing
exclusion or other
limiting factors
(Challenge 5)
People’s Network
National
Library of
New Zealand
2007-2011
$4.4 Million
between
2007 and
2011
A collaborative programme of action between
agencies involved in commissioning and undertaking
science, research and academic content, to efficiently
unlock content for access, as appropriate, by
New Zealanders.
A roll-out of around 250 million pieces of statistical
information over 4 years, available free on the
Internet, to help businesses identify market
opportunities, assess their competitiveness,
implement informed investment planning, and
benefit local authorities and communities.
A collaborative programme of action between
three agencies to cooperate on standards and
interoperability, cross-sector collaboration, capability,
understanding user needs and enhancing access
to achieve seamless online access to New Zealand’s
culture and heritage collections.
Enhancing New Zealand’s public library network
by establishing free Internet access via libraries;
computer and ICT hardware; onsite support and
skill building; tools to encourage users to create,
access, share and preserve content; and community
repositories for citizen created content.
33
The Actions from related strategies
Action
Key Digital Content Related
Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Produce world-class
online curriculum
content to encourage
student learning and
support teachers in
schools
(Challenge 1)
Implement the Learning Federation Phase Three Plan,
including producing a further 4,000 items of high
quality, globally recognised, online content for all
Australian and New Zealand schools.
Education
Sector
Agencies
(ICT Strategic
Framework)
2006-2008
$4.1 million
over 3 years
Adding value to
information:
People know
government
information is wellmanaged and they can
readily access digital
content and heritage
held by government
(Challenge 2)
Review the Policy Framework for Government-held
Information.
E-government
Strategy
2007-2008
Baseline
Enhancing public
engagement: People
are able to contribute
online to government
policy and service
design, development,
and delivery, and
interact with
government
(Challenge 2)
Develop a framework for building online
participation.
E-government
Strategy
2006-2010
Baseline
Ensure that
government geospatial
information and
services can be
readily discovered,
appraised and accessed
(Challenge 2)
Make fundamental geospatial datasets discoverable
and accessible according to agreed policies and
standards.
To be
confirmed in
2007-2008
(NZ
Geospatial
Strategy)
2007-
Baseline
or new
funding
Develop Guidelines for managing intellectual property
for ICT applications and data holdings.
Research and use participation and engagement tools
and their application by New Zealanders, including
innovative web applications (Web 2.0).
Encourage public agencies to make their nonfundamental datasets discoverable and accessible
according to best practice policies and standards.
Enable industry to access fundamental geospatial
datasets and add value.
34
Outcome Area 4:
Digital content is being
managed and preserved
Overarching Goal
Content important to New Zealand
is managed and kept safe for use by
present and future generations.
In our digital future:
• Management and preservation of content will have to be
addressed at the point of creation of content in order to avoid a
future digital ‘dark age’ and loss of knowledge.
• Digitised content will require regular migration as part of the
lifecycle of management.
• Licensing and maintenance of digital masters will be more
complex as the potential for re-issuing and re-purposing grows.
• Trusted repositories will play a central role in managing and
preserving important digital content for the long term.
Digital
Content
pr Ma
es na
er gi
vin ng
g an
co d
nt
en
t
and t
ing onten
ess
c
Acc ering
ov
disc
Un
awa dersta
ren ndin
ess
of c g and
ont
ent
Creating and
protecting content
d
an ent
g t
rin con
a
Sh ing
us
Why is managing and preserving
digital content important for a
digital New Zealand?
Preventing a ‘digital dark age’
Digital publishing of creative content is not constrained by a single
physical medium, platform, or outlet. As a result, the notion of the
product lifecycle for digital creative content is being altered, as the
absence of wear and tear means a creative product can be re-issued
in new formats an unlimited number of times after its original
release, to new generations of customers and users.
Digital content is information in a new form that requires new
models for its collection, use, management and preservation. For
the economic life of digital content to be sustained, it needs to be
well managed. For the economic, cultural and heritage value of
digital content to be sustained, digital content also needs to be
able to be regularly migrated as part of the content management
lifecycle. The biggest single risk to these processes is software
formats that are proprietary and non-interoperable.
There is a significant legacy of digital content, including much
commercial content, created between the 1970s and the 1990s
which is unreadable due to lack of migration policies and a
multiplicity of proprietary formats. In the 21st century, digital rights
management technologies create similar risks, as the technology
is permanently applied to content that may have value well past
its copyright life and the life of the technology creators. Solutions
exist to resolve these problems – in particular, open, internationally
adopted content format and interoperability standards can help
ensure new content can be managed and migrated over time.
Technical expertise and long-term quality assurance and disaster
protection is also needed from organisations charged with housing
and maintaining repositories of digital content.
“Digital storage is easy; digital preservation is
not. Preservation means keeping the stored
information catalogued, accessible, and usable
on current media, which requires constant
effort and expense. Furthermore, while
contemporary information has economic value
and pays its way, there is no business case for
archives, so the creators or original collectors
of digital information rarely have the incentive
– or skills, or continuity – to preserve their
material. It’s a task for long-lived non-profit
organisations such as libraries, universities, and
government agencies.” – Stewart Brand,
Escaping the Digital Dark Age, 1999
35
Untangling digital rights issues
As the usual physical signs of age are absent from digital content,
and because it can be continually re-purposed or modified for
new uses, copyright, licensing and ownership issues may become
more complex over time. There is a risk that resolving rights
issues, particularly for potentially orphaned works, will become so
complex that content ceases to be cost-effective to manage – for
instance, large online content companies and services have no
incentive to maintain content over time from creators that cannot
be immediately traced or billed.
“There can be significant problems in
identifying who in fact is the inheritor of
various copyrights. Obviously this is not a
problem solely for the digital environment.
But the reality is that the inability to get
copyright permissions may significantly limit
the kinds of materials that can be made
available through the digital environment, and
prevent the creation of new works based on
those works.” – Geoff McLay, Strategy and
Intellectual Property – Scoping the Legal
Issues, 2007
Digitally reformatted content can make the original work impossible
to date, thereby preventing assessment of copyright status.
Specialist rights and royalty agencies may be required to ensure the
accessibility and survival of commercially created content. Standard
form licences, such as Creative Commons, may be beneficial in
encouraging original creators to be identified over time, making
rights management easier and reducing the obscuring of public
domain content when copyright has expired.
Identifying the trusted repositories
Public collecting institutions will continue to play a major role in
collecting and maintaining New Zealand’s cultural, scientific and
heritage knowledge. As the trusted repositories for conserving
physical originals, they will be looked to first to be the repositories
for digital content, both digitised materials and born-digital
materials. This will require a new approach to collecting
and providing access, along with new technologies and new
competencies for preserving content.
Digitisation worldwide is rapidly emerging as the main means of
both preserving and making accessible 2-D analogue content – one
exception to date is preservation of film, due to the storage costs
for a digital master, but this in time will become cost-effective.28
Almost all digital preservation work is undertaken for the purposes
of access, and is distinct from, and additional to, conservation of
the original.
Funding for digitisation is however, still expensive, primarily due
to the post-digitising activity required to make it accessible, and
the vast scale of content able to be digitised. The difficulty this
poses both as a logistical and a financial task should not be
under-estimated, and the role that collecting institutions will play
in preventing major losses of digital heritage through careful
migration and management over time needs to be recognised.
Managing the public record
Well-managed government records are a vital component
of democratic accountability, enabling citizens to hold
government to account for its actions. Increasingly, these
records are created in digital form. The Government
Recordkeeping Programme, managed by Archives
New Zealand, ensures that government information is
created and managed in such a way that New Zealanders
can rely on it as an authoritative record of government’s
actions and interactions. The programme includes:
• developing standards, including standards for metadata,
digital recordkeeping systems and digitisation
• providing advice to central and local government
organisations
• connecting with other programmes such as
e-government
• utilising the monitoring powers under the Public
Records Act to evaluate how well government agencies’
records are kept.
New Zealand has been one of the first countries in the world to
adopt electronic legal deposit as one means of helping to preserve
our national digital heritage, but other mechanisms are needed to
ensure the massive scope of content, particularly local and specialist
histories and perspectives, along with public records are addressed.
28Most new cinematic films today are created from digital masters, so this exception relates mainly to legacy film from the last century.
36
The Challenges ahead
1 Adopting open interoperable standards and formats:
Proprietary systems and formats create knowledge risks where
they limit migration of content and accessibility by different
hardware and software. Open standards and formats need to
be promoted as a means of maintaining economic and heritage
value over time.
3 Recognising the role of trusted repositories in preserving
digital content: New models for collection, access,
management and preservation of publicly held content will
be needed, ensuring collecting institutions are networked,
technologically capable, and have complementary policies for
their digital holdings and digitisation programmes.
2 Adapting copyright licensing regimes to the digital realm:
Much important digital content may be lost due to difficulties
associated with managing rights. Licensing methods designed
for digital content that are cost effective and encourage use
throughout the life of digital content will be needed.
The Actions
Action
Key Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Promote open
standards, formats and
interoperability as a
means of maintaining
knowledge and
heritage over time
(Challenge 1)
Digital New Zealand: Standards Development
National
Library of
New Zealand
2007-2011
Funded
under
Digital
New Zealand
Ensure collecting
institutions have
appropriate policies
and technologies for
their digital holdings
and preservation of
publicly held content
(Challenge 3)
Digital Archives Preservation Strategy
Archives
New Zealand
2007-2011
$1.9 Million
between
2007 and
2011
Ministry for
Culture and
Heritage
2007-2008
Baseline
Work on standards development and dissemination
and the provision of advisory and support services to
organisations and groups working on digital projects.
A national strategy and supporting business case to
ensure that electronic public records are appropriately
maintained by government agencies and are accessible
as public archives for as long as they are needed.
Documenting Creative and Performing Arts
Project
A project investigating the need for and feasibility
of digital archiving of publicly funded and nationally
significant creative and performing arts for public
access or preservation.
The Actions from related strategies
Action
Key Digital Content Related
Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Ensure that geospatial
datasets, services and
systems owned by
government agencies
can be combined and
reused for multiple
purposes
(Challenge 1)
Establish a framework of policies, standards and
guidelines for discovering, accessing and using
geospatial information, according to best practice.
To be
confirmed in
2007/2008
(NZ
Geospatial
Strategy)
2007-
Baseline
or new
funding
Promote the adoption this aspect of the e-GIF
framework through education, dissemination of
information and advice.
Provide technical support, where requested, to
agencies around interoperability best practice.
Promote the adoption of interoperability
specifications and technologies through targeted pilot
schemes and case studies.
37
Action
Key Digital Content Related
Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Building standards
and interoperability:
Government adopts
and uses common
standards to ensure
agencies and their
partners can work
together, and users
can access government
services and
information
(Challenge 1)
Develop and implement a government federated
enterprise architecture.
E-government
Strategy
Ongoing
Baseline
Preserve digital
content for future
generations
(Challenge 3)
The National Digital Heritage Archive
National
Library of
New Zealand
2004-2009
$24 million
between
2004 and
2009
Ensure efficient and
effective arrangements
for the management
and preservation of
New Zealand audiovisual content
(Challenge 3)
Review of audio-visual archiving arrangements
(including digital content)
Ministry for
Culture and
Heritage
2007-2008
Baseline
Ensure the capture,
preservation and
maintenance of
fundamental (priority)
geospatial datasets,
and set guidelines
for non-fundamental
geospatial data
(Challenge 3)
In consultation with the principal geospatial
information stewards and customers, confirm/
determine the fundamental geospatial datasets that
New Zealanders need, in priority order.
To be
confirmed in
2007/2008
(NZ
Geospatial
Strategy)
2007-
Baseline
or new
funding
Manage and promote the E-government
Interoperability Framework (e-GIF).
Continue to develop standards to support
e-government service delivery initiatives.
The development of a large-scale, trusted digital
preservation solution designed to store, preserve
and provide access to ever-growing digital
heritage collections under the National Library of
New Zealand’s guardianship.
Review institutional arrangements for the
preservation of audio-visual content, including agency
functions and responsibilities for archiving.
Identify stewardship, custodianship and service
principles and responsibilities for each fundamental
dataset.
Evaluate fundamental datasets against an agreed
standard/quality, and define its base data or the
starting point for collection.
Ensure datasets meet the ongoing collective needs of
New Zealanders.
Develop and promote best practice policies,
guidelines and practices for the management and use
of non-fundamental geospatial datasets.
38
Outcome Area 5:
Digital content is understood
Overarching Goal
New Zealanders are well informed
about the role and potential of digital
content in our digital future
In our digital future:
• Connected digital devices will be as familiar as the radio,
Why is understanding digital content
important for a digital New Zealand?
Having an overview of our digital
environment
Until recently in New Zealand, there has been little information
available about how New Zealand is reacting to the changing digital
environment, and how that reaction may be different from or
similar to other parts of the world.
television and telephone are today
• Broadband and wireless networks will be utilities every
household and business naturally expects to have
• Our children will grow up knowing digital content as a
predominant means of producing, recording and accessing
their culture
Digital
Content
pr Ma
es na
er gi
vin ng
g an
co d
nt
en
t
and t
ing onten
ess
c
Acc ering
ov
disc
Un
awa dersta
ren ndin
ess
of c g and
ont
ent
Creating and
protecting content
d
an ent
g
in nt
ar co
h
S ing
us
In the same way that geographical factors –distance from markets
and a small, dispersed population – uniquely affect our ability
to do business with the rest of the world, technological factors
are affecting the way New Zealand is growing and developing in
the digital space. New Zealand’s broadcasting environment, for
instance, is unlike almost any other in the world – we need to
anticipate how our country is likely to respond to a fully digital
broadcast environment in order to make better investment
decisions now.
“There is a real need to take a much broader
perspective and record the social impact of
the Internet and how it affects all of us. It is
essential that we recognise how our society is
changing as a result, what new challenges lie
ahead in the digital age and whether further
assistance or support is required for various
groups. Research opportunities to see where
New Zealand is positioned alongside the rest
of the world should not be missed.”
– submission, draft NZ Digital Content
Strategy discussion document, 2006
Since 2006, a number of benchmarks and key statistics have
begun to emerge, such as the annual benchmarking report
on the comparative performance of our telecommunications
regime29, and the biennial Household Use of Information and
Communication Technology Survey, first published in April 2007.
However, we need to better understand the digital environment,
and in particular digital content, in the same way that nations
such as Ireland, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia
and Malaysia already do.
Without that kind of understanding, we cannot plan for
sustainable growth, track our progress to date, or identify
characteristics and potential barriers important to technology
markets or social participation.
29Benchmarking the Comparative Performance of New Zealand’s Telecommunication Regime, http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/
StandardSummary____12151.aspx
39
Connecting the digital enablers
If New Zealand is to be a leader in innovative digital content,
become known for its access, use and sharing of content in digital
form, and have world-class management and preservation practices
for digital content and heritage, it needs a population that is aware
of and understands the connections between digital content, digital
technology and digital literacy, and how important it is to ensure
all three of these dimensions are addressed in creating a digital
New Zealand.
Researching New Zealand
perspectives on digital content
During the development of the Digital Content Strategy,
research reports were commissioned to help fill in some
of the gaps in available New Zealand information.
Two of these reports are described below.
Valuing Digital Content: Economic Perspectives was
commissioned to help establish an economic and policy
context for the strategy. The paper identifies the makeup
of the digital content sector, international trends, different
international approaches to digital content, industry
connections between the digital content sector and other
sectors, potential future approaches to measuring the
contribution of digital content to the New Zealand economy,
and opportunities and obstacles for growing the digital
content sector and competing in the global marketplace.
Barriers to Accessing and Sharing Content Digitally:
Discussions With Users outlines barriers to accessing
and sharing content digitally that were identified during
discussions with users of digital content. Interviews were
conducted with over 100 participants from a range of
organisations involved in architecture and design, business,
education, health, history and genealogy, legal, Mäori,
not-for-profit and the sciences. The barriers identified by
these participants fell into areas of availability, affordability,
literacy, behaviours and attitudes.
The process of developing the Digital Content Strategy provided,
perhaps for the first time, an avenue for the consideration of
information and communications technologies from the perspective
of New Zealanders – individuals, communities and businesses that
create, use and share content in digital form, and that are eager to
explore and adapt to the possibilities of what digital technology has
to offer.
This work however has not concluded with the publication of the
strategy. There remains the need to deepen the future engagement
of the strategy’s challenges with the business sector and, in particular,
the digital content industry – including broadcasters, other media,
web designers, the Nextspace cluster and New Zealand’s other
leading content businesses.
The government needs to confidently embrace a future focus
for digital content across a range of connected activity, including
leveraging current funding focused on content production to support
digital content; linking and addressing convergence issues in the
broadcasting, telecommunications, IT and content sectors; and
identifying ways to further develop the commercial content industry
and enhance business productivity through smarter use of digital
content.
Opportunities also need to be created to promote and publicise
successes, encourage and assist small business and community
groups to adopt digital technologies and make use of digital
content, and generate a public enthusiasm for creating, protecting,
using, sharing and preserving content through digital technologies.
Preparing for our digital future means finding these digital
opportunities in our present.
“The essential requirement of a government
strategy such as this is the positive affirmation
of the public interest and common good.
Content is not ‘future neutral’, and we must
provide ways of communities participating
in the emerging future that strongly enables
local democracy, community voice, and brings
together all the content that supports them in
making informed and wise choices.”
– submission, draft NZ Digital Content
Strategy discussion document, 2006
40
The Challenges ahead
1 Drawing together New Zealand research and data to
establish a view of our environment: We need to better
connect the data we do have and generate research for data
we do not have in order to track and plan our progress to a
digital New Zealand.
2 Raising awareness and deepening engagement between
communities, business and government: Opportunities are
needed to generate understanding and enthusiasm for digital
content matters, deepen engagement with digital content
challenges, and provide a future digital content focus across a
range of connected activity.
The Actions
Action
Key Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Improve knowledge
about New Zealanders’
use of and access to
the Internet
(Challenge 1)
Digital Scorecard: World Internet Project
National
Library of
New Zealand,
supporting
AUT
2007-2011
$0.3 Million
between
2007 and
2011
A longitudinal survey conducted every two years
by Auckland University of Technology (AUT) of
New Zealanders’ digital content interactions, to
provide community, business and government
organisations with robust and internationally
comparable information.
The Actions from related strategies
Action
Key Digital Content Related
Initiative Description
Lead
Timeframe
$
Building awareness of
digital related actions
and opportunities
(Challenge 2)
2007 Digital Future Summit
Ministry of
Economic
Development
(Digital
Strategy)
2007-2008
Baseline
An event for community business and government
to present and discuss New Zealand’s current digital
developments and to prioritise the next stages
towards our digital future.
41
Implementation and
Evaluating Progress
The Digital Content Strategy provides
one dimension through which wider
digital issues can be viewed, and
where content can be the central
consideration.
The Digital
Strategy
E-government
Strategy
ICT Strategic
Framework for
Education
Implementation
It is important that the implementation of the Digital Content
Strategy involves both those that are expected to implement
the strategy and those that will benefit from it. Through the
consultation phase of the strategy, it was evident that interest in
the strategy and in digital matters was high across a diversity of
individuals and groups.
As the lead government agencies roll-out new actions from the
strategy, they will need to continue building engagement with
interested stakeholders across a wide range of communities,
business and local government, who will all be involved as creators
and users of digital content. These stakeholders will be encouraged
to provide their input into existing actions, but also to contribute
their perspective on what future actions may be needed to meet
the challenges identified in this strategy.
Updating the strategy
New Zealand Digital
Content Strategy
Public Broadcasting
Programme
of Action
New Zealand
Geospatial Strategy
The digital content landscape is changing very fast. This is driven in
part by digital technology, by more people taking advantage of the
opportunities presented by access to digital content, and by changing
attitudes to the ownership and use of information. In a fast changing
environment such as this, any strategy will date very quickly.
In order to ensure that the Digital Content Strategy remains
relevant to New Zealanders and in pace with developments,
an online version of the strategy will be maintained, accessible
through the Digital Strategy website and through
www.digitalcontent.govt.nz.
The online strategy will be periodically updated with:
Figure 11: Related Strategies
The other related strategies identified in this document provide their
own, equally important, dimensions through which to consider
digital issues (Figure 11).
These different perspectives add value and insight to the
understanding of what is currently a complex and rapidly changing
area. Tying these perspectives together is the government’s Digital
Strategy, which is the mechanism for ensuring related actions are
connected and government money is being best spent.
Governance and monitoring
The governance, monitoring and reporting on the progress of the
Digital Content Strategy and the new actions that stem from it,
will be co-ordinated as part of the Digital Strategy. At present,
this entails reporting via the Digital Strategy Steering Group to the
Minister for Information Technology and an ad-hoc group of Digital
Ministers, with the Digital Strategy Advisory Group providing advice
to both groups.
Actions from related strategies will continue to be reported through
their established lines of accountability.
• new contextual information on developments, challenges
and opportunities
• links to digital content actions and innovative responses to
the challenges of the strategy, as undertaken by communities,
business and local government
• new links to related digital content actions being undertaken
across the government sector
• additional or revised actions as agreed from time to time
by the government.
Evaluation
The Digital Content Strategy is designed with the recognition of
its interdependencies with the Digital Strategy and related
strategies. Consequently, the evaluation of the strategy will be
made at two levels:
• The extent to which the identified challenges have been met
with successful actions over the life of the strategy
• The degree to which the outcomes identified by the strategy are
being met by and across the range of actions occurring in the
strategy and related strategies.
42
New Initiatives at a Glance
Initiatives
2007/08
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
Lead
Creating and Protecting
3D Digital Graphics Cluster
$7.0 Million
ICT Skills Shortages Project
Baseline
Copyright and New Technologies
Public Awareness Programme
Labour
Baseline
Intellectual Property Rights and
Mätauranga Mäori
Economic Development
Economic Development
Baseline
Economic Development
Baseline
National Library, Te Papa,
Archives NZ, Pacific Island
Affairs
Accessing and Discovering
Te Reo Mäori and Pacific Languages
Metadata Project
Digital New Zealand
$3.3 Million
National Research Discovery Service
Digital New Zealand: Digitisation
Policy Framework
National Library
Baseline
National Library
Funded
under Digital
New Zealand
National Library
Sharing and Using
New Zealand Scientific and Research
Programme of Action
Baseline
Research, Science and
Technology
Making More Information Freely
Available
$6.0 Million
Statistics New Zealand
National Heritage Programme of
Action
Baseline
People’s Network
National Library, Te Papa,
Archives NZ
$4.4 Million
National Library
Funded under Digital New Zealand
National Library
Managing and Preserving
Digital New Zealand: Standards
Development
Digital Archives Preservation Strategy
Documenting Creative and
Performing Arts
$1.9 Million
Baseline
Archives NZ
Culture and Heritage
Understanding and Awareness
World Internet Project
$150,000 every second financial year, starting 2007/08
National Library, supporting
AUT
43
Glossary
Application
Computer software or a software system designed to do a particular task, such as a word processing program
or a database program.
Authentication
The process of identifying or verifying an individual through a computer connection, usually based on a user
name and password.
Blogs
Weblogs, usually shortened to ‘blogs’ are Internet based published journals or article sites, usually organised by
chronological entries. Their authors are often referred to as bloggers.
Born-digital
content
Content that was created for the first time on a computer or other electronic device such as a video camera or
sound recorder. Distinct from content that has been converted from a non-digital source (digitised).
Broadband
A method of two-way transmission for high-speed, high-capacity Internet and data connections. Many times
faster than dial-up, a broadband internet connection can be provided by ADSL, cable modem, satellite, ISDN or
T1, and line-of-sight wireless signal.
Digitisation
The process of converting already existing information into a digital format, such as through scanning, digital
photography, or data-input.
Firmware
Software programmed into the hardware circuits of an electronic device such as a computer or a television
set-top box.
GPS
Global Positioning System, a worldwide satellite-based navigation system
ICT
Information and communications technology, a general term used to group the range of computer and
telecommunications technologies.
Interoperability
The ability of different types of computers, networks, databases, programmes, etc to work together effectively.
Megabits
A unit of data transfer speed, such as the speed of an Internet data connection (usually expressed in Kilobits or
Megabits per second).
Megabytes
A unit of information storage. In terms of data transfer speed one megabyte equals eight megabits.
Metadata
Data used to describe other data. Metadata describes how, when and by whom a particular set of data
was collected, and how the data is formatted. Metadata often includes keywords that can be indexed
and searched by a search engine, and is essential for understanding information stored in data or digital
warehouses.
PDA
Personal Digital Assistant. Handheld devices, often with wireless Internet connections, that provide personal
information management, email and basic web surfing and multimedia experiences.
Podcasting
A method of publishing files on the Internet, that allows users to subscribe to a ‘feed’ and receive new files
automatically by subscription.
Portal
A website or service that provides an entrance to other sites on the Internet. Portals often offer a range of
resources and services to attract users, such as email, forums, search engines, and on-line shopping.
Repository
A central location for storing digital library collections, databases and files, often for access over a network or
the Internet.
RSS
Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, a format for easily distributing news headlines and other
content across the web.
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Glossary
SMS
Short Message Service. Commonly known as text messages, they are short messages that can be sent to a
mobile phone.
Tags
Tags are used to store information about a document, image or other online content to help searching. Social
networking websites such as Flickr.com (photo-sharing) and del.icio.us (bookmark sharing) use membercreated tags as a means of organising and popularising content.
Video on demand
An interactive video service providing the ability to start viewing a movie or other video program in an
individual web browser or TV whenever the user requests it.
Virtual supply
and distribution
channels
Avenues for the supply and distribution of digital products and data by electronic means, through high-speed
broadband, satellite or datalinks, and whether by dedicated connection or through the world wide web.
Weightless
economy
A term attributed to economist Danny Quah, the weightless economy covers economic activity relating to
information and communications technology (ICT) including the Internet; intellectual property, including not
only patents and copyrights but more broadly, namebrands, trademarks, advertising, financial and consulting
services, health care (medical knowledge) and education; electronic libraries and databases, including new
media, video entertainment, and broadcasting; and biotechnology, including pharmaceuticals.
Wiki
A webpage or similar website feature that allows users to add, edit and update content collectively or
collaboratively. Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia, is perhaps the most famous example of a wiki.
WIPO
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations, established
by the WIPO Convention in 1967 to develop a balanced and accessible international intellectual property (IP)
system. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.
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