I love to see a client fully embrace the power of content and that’s precisely what’s going on with the Queensland Government in Australia. These people are serious about content, and a lot of other institutions (and businesses) could benefit by taking a page from their deck.
Fostering the creation, use and re-use of digital content is a critical element to achieving the economic and cultural goals of present and future Queenslanders.
Queensland’s digital content is already valuable in supporting individuals, communities, entrepreneurs, government planners, and creative and knowledge-intensive industries.
But many challenges remain. Much of Queensland’s important heritage material remains to be digitised. Many people are unaware of the wealth of digital content that can assist them, or they lack the skills to access this content. Much important digital content is not in formats or locations suitable for easy and immediate access.
Strategies which ensure ‘digital continuity’ through the life-cycle from content creation to potential long-term preservation are now essential for governments and other organisations which have archival, compliance or evidential responsibilities.
You’ll note the special attention given to “creative and knowledge-intensive industries” in the text above. I have to say I’m impressed with how a civic initiative like this can create jobs directly through the need for archivists, but also indirectly by providing the necessary infrastructure for documentarians, filmmakers, authors, scholars, journalists, and yes, advertisers. Stories may seem shiny and new upon impact, but they’re not. Stories that resonate do so because they skillfully repurpose a thousand other stories that came before.
[via @halvorson]
