Technologies develop rapidly but quality e-content and innovative applications often lag behind. These awards promote an international dialogue around how content industries change within a digital environment and what role information and communication technologies play in transforming the competitive landscape.
While post-industrial societies have tended to pay substantial amounts for equipment and gadgets, it appears they have invested far too little in content quality. But the importance of investing in the enhancement of e-content is now recognised globally.
Until recently New Zealand has relied heavily on its commodity base, but now recognises the necessity for alternative models for wealth creation. Innovative technology is playing an important role in this new approach and can best be realised in a global and cooperative model. This will ensure the necessary economies of scale for viability in the global market.
The New Zealand Institute in a recent release states: "New Zealand is more likely to be able to compete successfully in global markets by developing strengths in the weightless economy, because such types of economic activity are less exposed to New Zealand's small scale and physical remoteness. The weightless economy includes adding more knowledge-based value to physical goods and services, engaging in foreign investment or production offshore, through to activity that can be transported virtually such as the creative industries, biotech, or business services. The opportunities and visibility afforded by WSA support this premise and are ongoing and very important to this region."
Digital content and interactive media services lie at the heart of maintaining New Zealand's advantage in the global information economy. Future technologies will be used in the shaping of New Zealand's economic prospects. The knowledge economy is one of the important New Zealand drivers.
New Zealand's future depends on the ideas/new media economy and all of the projects selected represent unique opportunities to underpin economic development for this region and demonstrate the 'clever thinking' that is occurring here.
Whilst much New Zealand e-content has been developed for domestic application, many local projects and applications are valuable globally, for example our specialist services in earthquake engineering. Unfortunately, many international research groups have ignored New Zealand's 'digital economy', preferring to include Australia in Asia Pacific or global studies, and it has been difficult to track New Zealand's progress in this area. However, the Government's Digital Strategy 2.0 : Smarter through digital underpins digital innovation as one of the key futures for New Zealand.
New Zealand is viewed globally as politically stable and trustworthy. Coupled with a disproportionate number of creative ideas, an evolving bicultural approach, small size and population and distance from the rest of the world, all contribute to a unique outlook and approach. New Zealand has much to offer internationally but to achieve well here we do need the visibility.
The beauty of the WSA is the broad cross-sector approach to digital content. The WSA philosophy provides the perfect vehicle to encourage and demonstrate digital content in the fullest sense over and beyond just the ICT environment.
The WSA framework, as developed by Professor Peter Bruck, will have increasing influence on the design of quality products and services on a global basis. The framework with its inherent clarity and simplicity, as well as its focus on content, offers New Zealand exciting different and ongoing opportunities to participate in a globalised economy.
The issues as outlined for New Zealand apply also to the Pacific Nations, however the complexities of distance, diversity and often small numbers add additional complexity to the issues raised above.
Dionisia Tabureguci also talks about e-Content in the Pacific region:
The awareness of potentials of e-content to assist in socio-economic development has therefore been slower to filter into the loosely scattered Pacific island nations. On the one hand, the monopolistic nature of communication service provision in these islands have largely discouraged the emergence of innovative communication solutions to respond to their inherent geographic challenges. Their sheer isolation has seen some island communities starved of basic communication infrastructure needs, let alone Internet. For them, any talk of e-content is out of question, although ironically, this can become the very tool for development in these remote communities.
On the other hand, the predominantly sparsely populated islands in the Pacific often pose as a deterrent for incumbent operators who, untested by competition, tend to focus on investment returns. It is often the case that this is done at the expense of the Pacific's rural communities.
Despite this however, progress have been made in other areas. For examples Pacific leaders were obviously aware of the importance of ICT in their socio-economic development when they endorsed the Pacific Plan in one of their annual meetings, held in Papua New Guinea in October 2005.
An essential component of this regional development blueprint is called the Digital Strategy 2.0, a set of aims that sheds light on what Pacific leaders want out of their ICT industries.
Hinting that they were aware of the painful need to develop e-content, the Pacific leaders stated: "Broadcasting, which simultaneously uses local, regional and global content, has been a largely neglected area of ICTs in the Pacific. Newer technologies, though the Internet, audio streaming, community FM broadcasting and digital satellite radio, offer means to better achieve coverage, improve the content in broadcasting and to improve on independent, traditional and community media. So far, countries in the region have been unable to fully utilise this cost-effective mass ICT with its potential to provide high quality education, health and other services, as well as entertainment."
Further, the Pacific leaders "recognised the role ICTs will play in the region's progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals."
As understanding and awareness of the complex ICT industry deepens in the Pacific and markets open up to competition, national focus will begin to question how ICT can be used to improve basic living standards of Pacific islanders. At this point, the WSA network will play a larger role in that it would be able to offer a pool of projects that island countries can draw from.
Some notable projects that have gone through the WSA processes are People First Network of Solomon Islands www.peoplefirst.net.sb, the Pacific Open Learning Health Net www.polhn.org and Vanuatu's Rural Communications Demonstration Project www.ranetproject.net.
In recognition that connectivity remains a key challenge for the region, Pacific leaders have also thrown their weight behind two significant projects currently in progress. These are the RICS (Rural Internet Connectivity Project) and SPIN (South Pacific Information Network), respectively satellite and cable networks meant to improve connectivity of Pacific island countries to the outside world.