Controversial web portal recommended by CCOP advisory board in vision report

The advisory board formed a year and a half ago to help craft Canada's online cultural strategy has quietly issued its first report outlining its vision for future priorities and initiatives (CNM Update, April 10/02). The document, which is slowly snaking its way through to industry stakeholders in the absence of any public announcement from the department of Canadian Heritage, contains several controversial proposals, including one regarding a proposed Canadian portal for cultural material that has elicited producer responses unfit to print in even Canadian NEW MEDIA. The new media production sector will likely chafe at timelines that don't see an emphasis on the creation of original content as a main priority until several years from now and at the proposed gateway that is costing taxpayers roughly the equivalent of two-thirds of the Canada New Media Fund (CNMF). The gateway proposal, dubbed culture.ca, forms a significant portion of the advisory board's report. Being built both internally and by external consultants, the site to be launched this fall will have four main elements. First, it should promote and distribute existing content such as that owned by the CBC, the National Archives of Canada, various museums and the National Film Board. Secondly, it should promote new content, especially that funded by the Canadian Culture Online Program (CCOP). Thirdly, it should be interactive, with mechanisms for Canadians to make suggestions and contribute their own content. Finally, the advisory board has recommended that it make reaching out to youth a priority. The goals, however, won't come cheap. According to figures provided to CNM by the department, $6.07 million has already been spent on culture.ca in 2002-2003 and $7.5 million is expected to be spent in the next fiscal year as final construction costs are combined with a marketing push (see table). Producers with whom CNM spoke are uncertain why Ottawa needs to spend the money on a gateway instead of bolstering the Canada New Media Fund - currently only a $9-million-a-year program. They are quick to point out that the CBC already exists as a natural portal for digital content and several express fears that the portal, with its large budget, could end up becoming another national gun registry fiasco. Many also point to the distribution envelope of the CNMF, which has gone untapped and is now being re-directed, as reason to believe that little demand for a gateway exists (CNM, Dec. 20/02). The head of the CCOP, Ted Bairstow, defends the government's commitment to culture.ca. In a broad-ranging interview with CNM this week, he says the gateway will take time to prove itself but that the need is there for a Canadian portal. "I think a lot of it is coming from a sense within government that there needs to be a way for Canadians to find Canadian material," he explains. "It's from the people who are doing digitization projects and from the advisory board which thinks that one of the reasons we're not getting the kind of use of Canadian material that we'd like is that people can't find it. They don't feel drawn to it and the intent is to make it serve that kind of function. "I think that they're looking at a launch this fall at official level - with the minister and that kind of thing. Only after we've had a chance to promote it appropriately and get it up there with a full push towards Canadians willing to find out where they can have that kind of impact - and it could take a year or two. … It's always been, I think, an idea that was about helping Canadians find their way to the stuff on the Internet about Canada." Asked about the potential to become a multi-million dollar boondoggle along the lines of the $1-billion gun registry that doesn't work, Bairstow says: "You can't say much more than diligent attention to what's being done and how it's being done and a constant focus on getting results in terms of getting to the Canadians that we think don't have access. Are they coming through? Are they finding things? Are they spending time with it? Are they going to the sites that we're featuring and are they spending time they wouldn't have otherwise? Does it matter to us that it's featured on culture.ca? Do you get a spike in usage when you're site of the week on the front page of the People and Places part of culture.ca? It's measuring all those kinds of things over the next year or so that's really going to give us a sense of whether we're making that kind of difference and sufficient business to justify the investment." But one industry analyst who asked not to be named says the thinking behind the portal is already outmoded. "This is a supertanker towing a drilling rig looking for an iceberg. I find it particularly offensive that the content industry is struggling to become a viable business in this country, yet their bit of direct project funding has just been cut (CRTC/Bell Fund re-allocation) and they appear only nominally involved in the planning for this project. This project, before anything, is a very large research and strategy gig. I see none of that. Look at the report. I don't know where to start or stop with this thing. The marketing budget alone - assuming it is built - would have to be millions a year. No, this thing is a product of political hallucination from another digital age circa 1998. The agenda is comprehensive enough to be untenable. I stand to be corrected but the report gives me zero confidence and confirms my worst fears." New media producers are also unlikely to find much cheer in the proposed time frame recommended by the advisory board to put the main thrust of the CCOP firmly on new content. According to the report: "CCOP should shift its funding priorities within the current balance, so that by 2006-7 the majority of funding will be used for new content and for innovative approaches to existing content," the report reads. It notes that currently, 27% of CCOP funds are spent on creating new content, 45% on creating enhanced access, and 28% on other costs. But, the board writes: "It is new content along with new approaches to existing content that can best take advantage of the 'language' and possibilities of digital media, because it will be designed from conception with that language and those possibilities in mind. New content can keep up with changing audience demands, the changing nature of cultural content and the changing technology of digital media itself." Canadian Heritage is currently in discussions to renew the CNMF, possibly with greater funding (see story in this story). A full copy of the CCOP advisory board report is available at http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/pcce-ccop/pubs/discanada/index_e.cfm.

Controversial web portal recommended by CCOP advisory board in vision report

News | 09/12/2003 4:00 am EDT

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