Early reaction to CCOP report positive; excitement around new charter

Early reaction is positive to a bombshell report recommending that a new agency be created to oversee funding to the new media community, and that the federal government’s Culture.ca portal be operated by an arms-length body. A report by the advisory board to the Canadian Culture Online Program (CCOP), A Charter for the Cultural Citizen Online released just before Christmas, also calls for a "charter" that defines the industry in language that stresses interactivity and the role all Canadians play in shaping online content. Ian Kelso, president of Ontario’s New Media Business Alliance, said he personally applauds the direction taken by the Senator Laurier Lapierre-chaired advisory board, especially the recommendation for a new organization to oversee Culture.ca. "(It’s) a very interesting idea, and one that I’ve talked about for a couple of years now. I think institution-building is vital. Where would television be without the (National Film Board) and the CBC?…Having a distribution point in a public space for new media could be a great thing," he says. "But, I think it would have to be a fairly ground-up reinvention of Culture.ca from my point of view. I don’t think they really developed the portal to date with a real engagement with the online industry…You know, there still isn’t a listing on Culture.ca for online or interactive culture. If you go there, you’ve got all the other arts, all the other sectors represented, but somehow it seems to miss online and interactive as part of community and culture, which is kind of ironic for an online gateway." Kelso is less certain about the benefits of a new agency to oversee new media funding. He says the current arrangement makes use of economic efficiencies – such as for a single well-paid chief executive overseeing all of Telefilm Canada – but that a new-media-specific agency has its own selling points. "(Cost) is the million dollar question…It’s really all about the people who are put in place, I think – the people having strong ties to the content creation industry online. Being able to communicate effectively with the industry. Being able to deliver programs that are meaningful. Being able to design and implement those programs that could cut through the crap, could cut through the bureaucracy and create a thriving relationship between the government agency and the community. On the other hand, I think we’ve enjoyed some efficiencies being under the wing of Telefilm," he says. The proposed separate new media agency would oversee funding for the industry, including public money earmarked for the Telefilm Canada Canada New Media Fund. In its report, the advisory body recommends an agency on equal footing with Telefilm that would oversee all CCOP funding for innovative projects, except for those directly involved with Canadian Heritage such as money being spent on the digitization efforts and new media programs of institutions such as museums or the National Gallery. The board argues that a new agency would overcome the problem of the new media industry being overshadowed by other media in monetary terms. "The board sees confusion in having the online cultural industry under the guardianship of Telefilm, an agency dedicated to film and television, when the specificities of new media and video are entirely different. Moreover, because funding for film and TV dwarfs that for new media, the public perception is that the federal government is less committed to new media," reads the report. The arm’s-length body suggested for the culture.ca portal is envisioned to look more like the CBC than a department initiative. The report reads, "It would be unthinkable in our modern democratic society that, say, a public television network should be under the direct, exclusive guardianship of a government department. The same is true of culture.ca." The portal has seen significant criticism since its launch by the government because it is seen as being out-of-synch with industry needs. Private sector new media players were angered to learn that over $13 million was set aside to launch CCOP (CNM, Sep. 12/03). Officials with Canadian Heritage have defended the site as a grassroots, interactive gateway to non-commercial content easily accessed by all Canadians (CNM, Nov. 7/03). At the root of the board’s recommendation for new governance of the Culture.ca portal is the new Charter for the Cultural Citizen Online that it has proposed. The charter, a collection of six points that stress ownership over online space by the broad Canadian society, is the linchpin of the report, and emphasizes the role ordinary Canadians have to play both in shaping and engaging with online content. Though underplayed in the report, to the chagrin of some, the board also recommends putting greater funding into new media, partly as a bulwark against American web content that now pervades online space. The board writes: "The prevailing cultural logic of the Internet is the dictum of the world’s greatest economic and technological power, our neighbour to the south. If this logic is played out, American culture will increasingly dominate online spaces, putting Canadian culture, especially English-Canadian culture, at risk." The board does not attach a dollar figure to the recommendation, however. Industry players agree that care will need to be taken with a new agency such as that proposed by the advisory board. "I think that any institution like that would have to be somehow integrally linked across the different media. I mean, we’re still interconnected. The development of online properties is often – or at times has a definite link to the other cultural media. We definitely have to keep the communication lines open," says Kelso. "But, I think, (new media players) haven’t really had a proper seat at the table when it comes to the other cultural sectors. They’re sort of shunted into a corner and sort of offered ice cream. A young industry like ours needs sort of a well-planned and kind of a rich diet to grow strong." The head of the CCOP, Ted Bairstow, says the department has only just begun a thorough analysis of the report, and to contemplate the financial implications of the recommendations, as well as how those fit in to a broader discussion of Canadian cultural policy. Adding to the complexity is new legislation that clarifies the funding parameters and business lines for Telefilm, which is expected to be proclaimed shortly after the government returns from its winter break. "(That legislation) will clarify the current legal situation with respect to Telefilm undertaking the Canada New Media Fund. Once that happens, then we’re in a position to take a look at this recommendation for the creation of a new agency and think about it in the context of what really ought to be the future of Telefilm, and how should it relate to the various different business lines that it’s currently involved in," he adds. He states, "Certainly, the advice that I would be giving (Canadian Heritage minister Liza Frulla) about the new media industry is that she should be looking at it as an emerging part of the broader audio-visual industry – but one that’s characterized by something that’s fairly unusual, which is interactivity and which, therefore, is distinctive from those other things, although it’s related to them…The fact that Telefilm hasn’t been looked at carefully for quite a few years is another big driver, and the need to clarify the situation around television funding is another big driver. This report will continue the momentum to review those activities and to look at them in different ways." Bairstow says it will likely be a year or two before it can implement the changes the board is recommending, should they be accepted. He says the charter, however, will likely find its way into government thinking well before then. "My expectation is that at the very least, the kinds of things that they’ve raised in the charter, which they clearly want to point out as big signposts in terms of the changing nature of the engagement and exchange that happens on the Internet, particularly in cultural spaces on the Internet, will be taken into account as we think about how we should develop and grow the programs that we have now. My guess is that, at the very least, the spirit of that charter and possibly some language from it will find its way into future briefings and future presentations on what our strategy is around culture online," he said. "But, until we actually get to working with it and have had a chance to really think through the implications of the text of the report, it’s really hard to anticipate how that’s going to happen. My guess is that next fall, if I have to make a presentation to somebody in Europe about what Canada is doing in this area, part of what I’ll want to talk about will be shaped by the ideas behind that charter." Some elements of the report will require more consultation, Bairstow says. For example, the advisory board has suggested a new funding mechanism for innovative content and tools, a recommendation that seems to overlap with existing programs. Asked by Canadian NEW MEDIA to expand on that recommendation, advisory board chair Lapierre says the need for research and exploration of online culture goes beyond current thinking about the nuts and bolts of technology. "I think that we’ve gone beyond culture," Lapierre says. "We’re now entering into an entirely new phase of interconnectedness – and what happens in that kind of a space nobody knows. But, we do feel that something is going to happen to the way we express ourselves in art, the way we express ourselves in politics, the way we express ourselves as individuals." Lapierre stresses that the new potential for engagement between people on the Internet is changing the way government must focus on online culture. "I think we’re entering a new world. I think our values are going to change. Our dialog is going to change dramatically. The way we express ourselves, our poetry, the stories we write. Maybe even the way we make love! Who knows? I think we are in – the words themselves enter us into another realm. I love new realms. I’m tired of the one I’m in."

Early reaction to CCOP report positive; excitement around new charter

News | 01/20/2005 5:00 am EST

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