Feds give Heritage more money for digitizing new and archival cultural content

Canadian Heritage is spending $20 million over the next year to digitize Canada's cultural history and to develop new online content. The first details of the program were released last week as part of the federal department's budget estimates for the current fiscal year (Part III - Report on Plans and Priorities). The funding, and the document's emphasis on digitizing cultural content, appears to signal a more strategic role for Canadian Heritage and for digital content creators in Ottawa's Connecting Canadians strategy. Heritage says it is pursuing a three-pronged approach to ensure Canadian content is available on the Internet: to connect all Canadians, particularly youth, with Canada's diverse heritage through an integrated, thematic approach to the digitization of existing Canadian cultural content to provide content creators and the Canadian new media industry with the tools and support necessary to thrive and to produce high-quality new media content over the long term to enhance the access, choice and visibility of Canadian content online, presenting it nationally and abroad While the department stops short of suggesting that Canadian content rules should be applied to the Internet, it acknowledges that something should be done to counter America's dominance of the web. The department cites a recent survey showing that of the top 25 Internet sites used by Canadians, only three were Canadian. It goes on to note that less than two per cent of public cultural holdings are digitized and available on the Internet. "To reach the full potential that information and communications technologies can offer, Canadians must produce and generate a critical mass of digital content, in both official languages, for all Canadians. We need Canadian spaces on the world's digital network," the budget document states. Another federal priority is to connect 1,000 museums across Canada to create a Virtual Museum of Canada (CNM, Nov. 23/99). The Canadian Heritage Information Network, which is responsible for developing the Virtual Museum "hub", will soon wrap up a six-week cross-Canada tour during which it has consulted with interested stakeholders on the project. The Virtual Museum is projected to reach 40 million hits, and two million visits annually by 2002. BC promises a little cash for new media New media researchers will be among the beneficiaries of $2 million in new funding from the British Columbia government. Announced March 14 as a follow-up to the provincial budget, the government has committed $2 million to the B.C. Advanced Systems Institute for a new fellowship recruitment program. The funding will enable universities to offer fellowships of up to $40,000 per year for three years to help attract researchers specializing in such areas as new media, information technology, and fuel-cell technology. New media and IT are slated to receive one third of the money. Newfoundland adopts new distance learning modelThe Newfoundland government is adopting a new model for distance learning that enables access from any computer with Internet access or CD-ROM capabilities. The new system will also involve mediating teachers with students in classrooms. The centre will be operational this spring and will enroll its first high school students in the 2001-2002 school year with expansion to adult learners in the years following. The new program is one of several initiatives stemming from recommendations in the recently released Ministerial Panel Report on the Delivery of Education in the Classroom. In other news, the government released its budget on March 22. Included among its industry initiatives is $250,000 to help provincial departments beef up their web sites, and $175,000 to improve a government online business information system about Newfoundland and Labrador.

Feds give Heritage more money for digitizing new and archival cultural content

News | 04/06/2000 4:00 am EDT

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