Precis Part 1
National Digital Forum 2005
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21-22 November
Venue: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa)
Writer: Lisa McMullan
Download the full document version of this precis. (RTF 0.25MB)
Introduction
The fourth National Digital Forum (2005) was organised by the National Library of New Zealand. The forum aimed to give attendees a good understanding of the National Digital Strategy (NDS). The core components of the strategy are:
- Content: develop new content and digitise existing material. Ensure that this information is accessible.
- Confidence: upskill New Zealanders to effectively use ICTs and ensure the online- environment is safe and secure.
- Connection: install broadband as widely as possible. Encourage broadband connectivity to ensure this is not a barrier to accessing content.
The forum also aimed to discuss the opportunities associated with digitisation, and ways to overcome challenges, including through greater collaboration and coordination of initiatives.
Speakers were also asked to consider ways their initiatives have dealt with the inclusion of the local indigenous people.
Opening address: Honorable Judith Tizard
Minister Archives New Zealand and National Library of New Zealand, Associate Minister of Commerce and, Arts Culture and Heritage
…collaborations are important if New Zealand truly desires to
become a knowledge based society…
In her role as Minister of Archives and the National Library the Hon Judith Tizard described the National Digital Forum (NDF) as important because it taps into New Zealand’s digital promise in a very tangible way in terms of process and content. Digital content has great educative and economic potential and the importance of information and communication technology (ICT), and creative resources, to New Zealand’s ongoing potential cannot be underestimated.
The Hon Tizard said it is very exciting for New Zealand to be seen as a leading exporter of creative product, no longer just an exporter of creative people.
She highlighted the government’s investment of $44.7 million in contestable seed funding over four years for partnership-driven activity through two funds, the Broadband Challenge and the Community Partnership Fund. Both these funds, she said, will produce innovative results in the target areas of: content, confidence, and connection.
She encouraged those present to spread the word about these funds so that exciting projects are proposed and more collaboration occurs between communities of interest.
She stressed the clear responsibility local governments have towards providing for the cultural well-being of their communities and the thrust behind this is that culture has to be local and personal before it can be national.
The Minister suggested the NDF offers the organisations represented an opportunity to gather together for a common purpose to work on good process and content for the preservation and production of cultural and heritage resources.
www.matapihi.org
www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz
A Conversation
Chair: Alison Dobbie, Auckland City Libraries
Panel: Bronwyn Dalley, Keri Kaa, Mark Stevens, Jill Koelling, Ernie Newman
What are the opportunities and impediments associated with taking up digital technologies in the cultural and information sectors?
To answer the question: Where do we want to be in five/ten year’s time?
The biggest opportunity to the cultural and information sectors
is to increase the amount of attention that people give to
cultural and heritage issues.….Mr Newman
Mark Stevens
City Archivist
City of Sydney Archives
Mr Stevens responded to the question by stating users of archives, libraries and museums expect us to be in the digital space, because they are there already. He said we need to define the space, and decide if our institutions want to occupy the same space as Google – or another space?
He said a huge opportunity exists for collaborative ventures between medium and small institutions and that in the archives world, and possibly in other strands of the sector, a pluralistic industry is absolutely essential.
Mr Stevens said the other main opportunity is to create virtual collections. He exemplified a digitisation project conducted by the City of Sydney Archives. Under the scope of this project a team gathered property research information from multiple repositories, digitised it, and made it available via one website. Accessing this information via one interface provides huge benefits to end-users.
The cost of digitising information has reduced and cost is no longer a big prohibitive factor, especially when economies of scale exist. The use of volunteers can further reduce costs. Efficient checking processes can minimise the error rate and as long as errors don’t impact on search strategies the impact is minimal.
Mr Stevens believes the desire for 100% data accuracy and fear of imperfection needs to be overcome. Unfamiliarity and fear about what technology can do exists across all users groups, and lack of awareness tends to be a problem all users face.
In five to ten years time Mr Stevens hopes to see:
- people accessing repository resources online
- online contact between users and the relevant institutions
- users acknowledging they have viewed certain information (online)
- online appointment requests by users to view/access the previously identified items.
Ernie Newman
Telecommunication Users Association New Zealand (TUANZ)
Mr Newman said that the biggest opportunity to the cultural and information sectors is to increase the amount of attention that people give to cultural and heritage issues.
He described how the dynamic experiences provided by Te Papa are a long way from his own reluctant childhood experiences of the local museum. He used the example of Te Papa now being available online and accessible from lounge rooms to illustrate this.
Mr Newman predicted that computer usage will inevitably increase and the challenge facing cultural and information sectors is to compete with all other possible activities to get a greater share of the national mind for cultural and heritage issues. He highlighted the need to stand out, and attract attention by creating content that is interesting, compelling and fruitful. To achieve this it is necessary to identify the big markets.
The biggest impediment to achieving connectedness, he said, is the shortsightedness of phone companies and poor policy setting. He suggested current interface speeds, services and pricing are currently driven by the investment policies of one telephone company rather than the needs of the nation.
Mr Newman said he believes New Zealanders have good competency levels by international standards and they are early adopters, this includes the younger generation who often assist adults with ICT. There is not a lot holding New Zealand back in the area of competency.
The relationship between content and connectedness was described as being similar to that of the chicken and egg relationship i.e. which comes first? To address this issue New Zealand shouldn’t shelter behind the short comings of the reach of the connectivity, but instead should forge ahead with creating imaginative content.
In the future Mr Newman would like to see New Zealand become a digital leader and use this as a mechanism to improve our standard of living. He highlighted a number of digital divides that New Zealand must be aware of. These include New Zealand vs. the rest of the world, country vs. city, socio-economic and capability. He suggested good management will help to close these divides and stressed the need to ensure culture drives technology rather than the other way around.
Bronwyn Dalley
Chief Historian
Ministry for Culture and Heritage
Ms Dalley sent apologies from Mr Jock Philips.
Ms Dalley agreed that there is an obligation to digitise information because it is there. Another reason is because of the resurgence of interest in cultural and heritage information and people are turning to digital media to access this information. She posed the question, if we don’t provide the information – where will people find it?
Ms Dalley said the lack of communication between uninstitutionalised people and the larger national players is an impediment. To reduce replication of digitisation projects, she highlighted the need for organisations in different locations to talk each other about planned projects and goals.
In 5-10 years, Ms Dalley would like to see:
- people accessing information via digital doorways
- integrated multi-media packages
- Internet research applauded instead of derided.
Keri Kaa
Ngati Pourou
Trustee National Library of New Zealand, free lance arts and education consultant, board member Tairawhiti Museum, advisory member Radio Ngati Porou, Te Ara project reference group, board member Te Waka Toi, New Zealand Commission for UNESCO.
Huakina mai ngā tatau o tō whare
kua kite ae ngā rawa
i mau ae ngā mātauranga o tō whare akoranga.
Open the doors of your house so that I can see what you have
got, so that I can grasp both the small knowledge and the
broad knowledge of your house of learning.
Computers have opened the world up to many of Ms Kaa’s whanau. She said that for people who live hours away from the nearest city a computer is a magical piece of equipment to have. She also highlighted the fact that access to ICT is dependent on access to electricity and she stressed that not everyone has access to this resource.
ICT informs people that the whole world is out there and accessible. It provides exciting opportunities and provides access to resources and information which may otherwise be inaccessible.
Keri expressed spiritual concerns about tapu ((private/sacred) information being made available to people whose business it is not. People outside the whānau having access to tapu information online is dangerous because the information could be misappropriated. She stressed that this issue is of huge concern to iwi and also an impediment.
With regard to impediments, Ms Kaa said that Māori frequently have to create new words and phrases in Te Reo to express ICT terminology. She gave the title of this forum as an example.
In the future Ms Kaa said she would like ICT to be cheaper, more accessible and more portable.
Jill Koelling
Executive Director
Collaborative Digitization Project
Ms Koelling stated that we need to digitise repositories because ‘people expect it’. She said fulfilling peoples’ expectations to access complete digital reposititories online can be problematic, usually due to time constraints. Once a plan is in place it is possible, through consultation, to prioritise (eliminate and select) what users want to access online.
Institutional and contextual differences mean impediments vary from project to project. The use of professional vocabulary and the use of acronyms may also impede digitisation projects. She suggested using a glossary to minimise barriers and difficulties in these areas.
When dealing with sensitive cultural information Ms Koelling said it is necessary to consider why the information is being made available online. She described the consultative process used to engage with the Hopi people in Arizona. She outlined how face-to-face meetings were held with tribal elders and piece-by-piece, page-by-page cultural collections were reviewed and then the elders identified which items would, and wouldn’t be displayed online. As a result some pages and items are blacked out and web users are invited to contact the holding organisation to arrange personal viewing, if appropriate.
In the future, Ms Koelling would like to see online information facilitate serendipitous-like discovery i.e. interfaces that are more sophisticated and allow people to find things they wouldn’t have otherwise thought of.
Ms Koelling said she would also like to see more conferences and meetings, and all budgets designed to accommodate digitisation requirements.
Questions and answers
The speakers were asked who they are developing services for, and who their users are?
Ms Koelling responded that it is necessary to conduct research to prove and identify large audiences. Research shows that that a wide range of users access information digitised through the Colorado Digitisation Project. Users include: students; teachers; staff; researchers; genealogists and practitioners.
The Digital Strategy and Creating New Zealand on-line
Sue Sutherland, Peter Macaulay
Peter Macaulay
Programme Manager, Digital Strategy Secretariat, Ministry of Economic Development
…the strategy is aimed at an outcome of a connected, informed and creative New Zealand…
Mr Macaulay delivered an overview of the Community Partnership Fund (CPF), the Broadband Challenge and an update on the National Digital Strategy (NDS).
The goals of the strategy - connection, content and confidence - need to interlock seamlessly to enable smooth access to users who lack technical knowledge and detail.
To achieve this government, business and communities need to also interlock seamlessly so that end-users are oblivious to the details behind the interfaces they will access, and how they came to be. ‘Digital immigrants may express fear and resentment’.
User capability varies between people born into the digital era and those who are ‘immigrants’. It is necessary to make experiences safe, painless and desirable to enable uptake.
The NDS has government-wide support and contains clear, workable targets and vision. It will involve 30 major initiatives carrying more than 200 projects. A total spend of more than $400 million will result over the next four years. The strategy expresses a clear desire to link these initiatives so that every project and every person in New Zealand benefits.
An evaluation framework is being developed to measure: inputs, outcomes and what people feel about the projects.
The two contestable seed funds are:
- Broadband Challenge – focuses on delivering community connections.
- The Community Partnership Fund (CPF) – focuses on developing content and confidence.
Three groups exist to oversee the way the strategy works.
- Steering group – comprised of senior managers within government who act as a board to oversee the way the strategy works.
- Advisory group – influential people outside government who work together with senior managers of government departments. These people link organisations outside of government with government representatives.
- Secretariat – Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and Ministry of Economic Development (MED) staff who work with community representatives and contractors to deliver operational outcomes.
The NDS aims to deliver broadband capability across a wide range of technologies in an affordable manner to all New Zealanders. Increased demand, improved skills, and affordable access are expected outcomes. Over the next three years, $24 million will be allocated to 15 – 20 cities and large towns to install optic fibre networks to facilitate these expected outcomes.
The broadband challenge will support innovative partnerships made up of local authorities, telephone companies, Internet providers, other organisations, along with municipalities, universities, schools and hospitals (MUSH networks).
Aims of the CPF:
- build skills and capability
- deliver new and exciting content
- create and digitise New Zealand content.
Applications for the CPF Fund will follow two stages:
- Expressions of interest stage: preliminary application by 12 December 2005. The purpose of this stage is to determine which applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal.
- Full application stage: selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application and detailed supporting documents. The full applications will be assessed against the criteria and the level of funding (if any) will be determined at this stage. It is estimated that funding agreements and fund transfers will take place June – July 2006.
Mr Macaulay said that the CPF will not fund 5,000 small websites but that it is aimed at projects of significance. Project management support will be provided to ensure synergy of projects.
Sue Sutherland
Director Policy and Information Democracy, National Library of New Zealand
…doing nothing is not an option, this is about getting New Zealand online...
Ms Sutherland discussed the thinking behind developments with the National Digital Content Strategy and what has been done to date.
The focus has been on cementing a project team, commissioning research and technical papers and involving other people through meetings with sponsors, the reference group and the ‘Imagineers’ group.
The goal of the content strategy is 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 project is seen to have three parts:
- Mapping the content – what digital content do we have now, who has it and what content gaps exist?
- Identifying the technical infrastructure needed to enable easy and seamless access (standards of metadata, interoperability, authentication and the possibilities for search).
- Defining a policy framework.
A draft strategy will be delivered by June 2006. This will then be used for public consultation.
Content is the reason that connection and confidence matter. The development of the content strategy will consider the following content arenas:
- Authorative content/formal knowledge which is held in repository institutions. It is expected that work currently happening in these organisations will be a major contributor to the content strategy. Te Ara, the Film Archive, the Electronic Text Centre and Matapihi were used to exemplify this type of work.
- Community content which lives and grows on the web. The ‘Imagineers’ have been following and considering future users, implications and developments in this arena and how users can drive social heritage content e.g. the New Zealand entry on Wikipaedia, and an individual’s tribute to Janet Frame.
- Digital content and products created by businesses for economic gain. Challenges include development costs, sourcing venture capital and intellectual property issues.
Multiple examples of how content may shift between the content arenas were given. Examples included an interactive 3D disc brake assembly diagram, Hit Lab’s (Christchurch) human interface technology and the Cochrane Library online (recently purchased by the Ministry of Health).
Through the content strategy it is necessary to address the need for: increased digital content, better access through a single search facility, and an authentication framework to address intellectual property and privacy issues.
Policy and strategy development will consider: national and community interest, national identity, business and government implications and responsibilities, and how to create economic and social value from the content and the knowledge that is developed from it.
Ms Sutherland said future considerations are: a national digital management office, financial sustainability, the community space, venture capital, technological developments, access to enabling tools and what is best left to others.
Questions and answers
The Chair asked Ms Sutherland to define the term ‘the Imagineers’.
The ‘Imagineers’ is a group of people who operate in the web environment.
They have developed fictitious personas of ordinary citizens who currently
create material online. The purpose of this is to provoke acknowledgement
that these people want to access collections held by repository institutions,
and stimulate thought about how to address this user need.
The presenters were asked to describe what type of licencing regime will be used for NZ Online?
The response was that it is too early to say. Varying levels of access will
have to be considered.
A comment from the floor indicated that the current privacy legislation is
restrictive and provides advantages in this area, expected developments
in this area in the near future will also be beneficial.
Another comment from the floor highlighted a personal concern that public consultation about the draft content strategy may not be sincere in that decisions may have already been made. Sustainability re on-going costs for small communities was also questioned.
The response from the Chair was that hundreds of people were consulted,
and listened to, through the development of the NDS. The Chair assured the
audience that consultation will be genuine and encouraged feedback if
participants feel otherwise.
Ms Carnaby agreed that sustainability is an issue. Mr Macaulay indicated
that he hopes the quality of the expected outcomes will generate economic gain.
Another question enquired about the relationship between the standards and interoperability work being done in relation to the national content strategy. And what criteria will be used to assess applications to the CPF? Will policies and criteria be in place by the time applications are assessed?
Mr Macaulay said the aim is to have a significant subset of criteria available by assessment time. Whether this is possible or not is another matter.
Ms Carnaby said that the MOE is looking at an interoperability standards based framework and Te Papa, Archives New Zealand and the National Library are developing a closer working relationship in this area. Also some of the funds allocated through the CPF may go towards increasing confidence
in this area.
One participant enquired about the type and level of support that will be given to CPF recipients and how the content strategy will address preservation of existing and developed projects.
Mr Macaulay’s response was that the secretariat is not part of the decision making process so staff are available to provide advice.The business planning component of projects may require support,
including technical standards, to ensure sustainability. Open-sourcesoftware and indigenous rights will require special attention.
A response to the second part of the question came from the floor and indicated that alot of work is currently being done in the preservation area. Authenticity of material over time and the assurance of the provenance and access to those objects in perpetuity are pillars - multiple formats and web
harvesting are components.
Is there a plan for technological services to be offered online, for example, in the areas of annotation, metadata, rights management and preservation services?
Ms Carnaby pointed out that currently Te Papa (National Services) and the National Preservation Office offer some of these services. She also suggested that perhaps a bus traveling New Zealand could service these needs. Mr Macaulay said the CPF is aimed at partnerships that can address these needs.
A question was asked which aimed to explore if capability building projects may be considered more favourably in the early stages of the funding allocation process, given that the content strategy is still being developed.
Mr Macaulay said capability developing projects will not be considered more
favourably than projects aimed at content development.
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