From Blue Sky to Grass Roots: Issues, Challenges and Approaches to Creating Local Digital Cultural Content

Dr Karin Geiselhart [HREF1], National Office for the Information Economy and Visiting Research Fellow, University of Canberra. Karin.geiselhart@noie.gov.au

Peter Huta, National Office for the Information Economy, Canberra. Peter.huta@noie.gov.au

Abstract

Government and industry view broadband technologies as critically important for national and economic development. Reports from many quarters indicate that these technologies can assist industries and regions to realise the benefits of a true information society. Research also indicates that one substantial obstacle to attaining a critical mass of broadband users is the lack of compelling applications and content at a local level. This paper explores the issues and challenges of creating locally relevant digital cultural content, in the context of current government directions and through an action research project currentlynow underway by the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE).

The Creative Community project explores local digital cultural content creation in the Canberra region. It seeks to bring together the resources of educational institutions, the skills and abilities of students and researchers, broadband providers and content producers, not for profit (NFP) community and cultural organisations and government agencies to create appropriate local digital content. The intention is to identify collaborative approaches that have the potential to be applied in regional communities around Australia.

Introduction - Broadband's Blue Sky

The report of the Broadband Advisory Group (BAG) [HREF2] , noted that the "defining characteristics" of broadband, namely being fast and always on, could facilitate a "paradigm shift in the way people or resources interrelate." Broadband has the potential to accelerate transformations that the Internet began. Recommendations of the BAG included the need to stimulate broadband take-up through compelling local content that reflects Australiansí values, identity and character. The report also identified the continued need to demonstrate the benefits of broadband to organisations and consumers, and noted the value of experiments in urban settings.

The BAG report also emphasised the great potential of broadband to boost economic growth and the importance of a coordinated national approach to broadband connectivity. Australia currently lags behind the top countries in broadband penetration (OECD Broadband Access for Business, May 2002) A forum sponsored by the Telstra Consumer Consultative Council in February 2003 was titled "Broadband Blue Skies - The Vision from Users";. The speakers told of broadband's many possibilities for saving time and money for individuals and organisations, if only access was more widespread.

How Broad is Broadband?

Broadband encompasses quite a range of speeds. At the very high end, it can mean the very fast forms of data transfer associated with gigabytes per second. These are the speeds needed for scientific applications such as genetic analysis or atmospheric studies. For less rarified but still data intensive medical and educational applications, speeds are more likely to be measured in megabytes per second. Access to lower end video online requires at least 128 kilobits per second (and 384 kilobits per second for a more acceptable quality), but most consumers still have just 56k dial up via modems. As well as higher speeds, most people associate broadband with high interactivity and being always available, like electricity. The Regional Telecommunications Inquiry (2002) [HREF3] provides a useful set of definitions of the levels of broadband. Digitising existing film, video and other high definition content requires transferring them into suitable lower bandwidth hungry formats. The particular compression format used for the digital content, together with the speed of access, determines what kinds of content the end user can access online. Table 1 offers a general indicative guide to the issue of online content & applications vs bandwidth speeds.

Table 1 (Table prepared by NOIE staff )

Some observers believe broadband technologies will have an even larger impact on online activities than the arrival of the first web browsers in the early 1990s. Great potential is seen in health and education. [HREF4] Forthcoming NOIE research (to be released later this year) suggests that drivers of consumer adoption of broadband are applications with significant creative and cultural content, including games, video and music, but also information resources such as classified databases, online auctions, and news sites.

While the "always on" benefits of broadband are not the focus of this paper, there is evidence that when consumers have broadband access continually available they use the Internet in different ways, more frequently and for somewhat different purposes than dial-up narrowband. A rough parallel might be the difference between turning on a light switch versus having to leave the building to start a generator before accessing electrical appliances. This convenience has wide appeal to users, and in many areas broadband connectivity is increasing rapidly. For example, BBC News (March 19, 2003) reports that permanent internet connections in the UK have grown by over 200% in the last year. [HREF5]

An American report [HREF6] found other interesting impacts of broadband. These users are more likely to create and manage online content, reach out for answers from a wider range of information sources, and use more types of Internet applications daily. They have extensive file-sharing habits, and thus value an open Internet, with adequate upload as well as download speeds. They start to blur the boundaries between their on and offline approaches to information gathering, including sound and images.

The first stage of the Creative Community project is seeking to identify the local broadband creators in the not-for-profit (NFP) cultural sector, and assess their potential for stimulating a critical mass of transformative users. This information could help in the formulation of public policy to encourage a socially inclusive approach to broadband development, and avoid a possible "digital divide" between broad and narrowband telecommunications users.

Creative Clusters

Another intention of the Creative Community action research project is to complement a joint NOIE/DCITA project currently underway: the Creative Industries Cluster Study (CICS) [HREF7] Stage One of CICS identified the usefulness of cluster approaches, and the growing importance of the creative industries for both economic and social development. It found these industries are already providing innovative services and products, and stimulating new ways of using advanced communication technologies. To do this, they require new business models and strategic alliances and new ways of working. The report noted that these are as important as new skills and infrastructure.

When cultural and recreational activities are added to the areas of health, education and entertainment, the potential scope of high quality digital content becomes almost limitless. The Australian Bureau of Statistics definition of "culture and recreation" [HREF8] includes community cultural activities, public halls and civic centres, cultural heritage, zoos, botanic gardens, broadcasting, national parks and wildlife services in this category, as well as those activities commonly labelled as cultural, such as painting, dance, cinema and live music performances.

It follows that a large segment of the service sector can be considered part of the cultural economy. Speaking at an OECD/Victorian Learning Cities Conference in Melbourne [HREF9], OECD official Josef Konvitz noted that in some cities, the cultural industries are now the major private employer, creating more jobs than any other sector.

As part of a long process of dynamic convergence, information and communication technologies are becoming more prominent and pervasive in cultural activities that also have an element of education or entertainment. Regional areas seek to lure visitors from afar to their cultural offerings, and national cultural institutions likewise use their electronic presence as an international showcase, as well as for educational purposes.

While there are large companies in the cultural sector, there are many more that are small or micro. This includes hobbyists, arts and crafts people, small galleries, part-time musicians, and many more businesses that support them with lessons, supplies, venues or markets. The role of community groups and volunteers in the cultural and recreational sector is substantial. Not for profit institutions contribute 12% to the total cultural and recreational industries, and 25% to education and research (ABS 2002). The total contribution of the cultural and recreational sector is the sum of the contributions from the for-profit and not-for-profit (NFP) sectors.

These smaller players, both organisations and individuals, whether for profit or not, face significant hurdles in meeting the challenges of an information rich environment. Many community groups have little or no technology support, and depend on adventurous staff or outside services to build and maintain their web sites. There is little scope for exploration of new media, and affordability issues such as the costs of creating and hosting broadband content often preclude its consideration.

The cultural sector is a source of inherently rich content, combining sound, images and movement. This is the natural breeding ground for broadband. Ideally, a "virtuous circle" of increasingly rich content and greater demand for broadband connectivity would fuel the development and digitisation of highly interactive cultural information, education, and recreation.

In practice this rarely occurs without external intervention. Research commissioned for CICS pointed to limited broadband penetration as a significant impediment to growth in the four industry sub-sectors investigated to date - interactive games, interactive media, advertising, education. The community cultural sector faces similar challenges.

NOIE saw that a small local experiment with creative and cultural community groups and organisations might complement the CICS focus on creative businesses as sources of broadband innovation and content. There was also interest in documenting whether the fragmentation and information sharing issues identified by CICS are evident at a local level. It was hoped that we might find general cost-effective processes to assist in increasing broadband adoption across the cultural sector.

Smart Cities

Collective learning has been a strong thread in the design of the Creative Community project. Projects around Australia and overseas indicate the benefits of synergistic approaches that have transformative potential. These can impact on all sectors simultaneously, with social and economic benefits. NOIE has been examining "learning communities" initiatives, and identifying common elements in successful Australian projects. Discussions with project leaders indicated that many of these learning projects are based on highly responsive and individualised liaison between learners and employers, or between businesses and educators. In a sense, they operate like brokerage systems, bringing together needs and skills for a particular purpose. Some are using a social entrepreneurial approach to achieve sustainable funding. Creating an environment and culture of individual and institutional learning is both a logical and essential step towards maximising the benefits of an information economy.

The role of information and communication technologies in education highlights the transformations already underway. Issues driving the integration of new technologies into mainstream education include pressures for lifelong learning, changing roles and relationships between communities and schools, and awareness of a need to balance economic, social and cultural objectives while pursuing equity (Kearns and Grant, 2002). Similar shifts are taking place in government, health, and especially the cultural sector. Gibson (2002) documented how musicians and other creative and intellectual workers in the Northern Rivers area of NSW are using the Internet to restructure their industries and their relations with relevant value chains. Broadband can magnify and accelerate these changes.

A small set of case studies on Australian learning (or "smart") communities prepared by NOIE has also informed the Creative Community project. Australian Communities Online (forthcoming NOIE publication) is a detailed statistical analysis of levels of Internet connectivity across Australia, and the case studies highlighted what communities do with their connectivity. As well as a number of Networking the Nation projects, the case studies included some learning city projects. These examples showed that learning, use of online technologies, and local cultural expression blend well when there is effective communication across sectors and clear goals. Recent research on digital publication in regional and rural areas also provided insights (Geiselhart 2002). Reports of a number of successful community networking projects both from overseas and within Australia also emphasise the importance of community driven efforts.

The role of local content

The importance of content creation is widely acknowledged. The World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) in its Draft Declaration [HREF10] has acknowledged as an essential requirement for an equitable information society:

"The nurturing of creativity and support for the flourishing of free flow of a multiplicity of ideas from a diversity of sources, recognising cultural identity in all its variety, linguistic diversity, and multilingualism as well as the creating favourable conditions for the production, processing, dissemination and protection of local content." and "Cooperation and collaboration are enhanced through the development of applications and content suited to local needs that encourage social and economic development, with particular emphasis on serving rural and remote areas, through supporting projects ensuring the sharing of information."

Research for the International Institute for Communication and development (IICD) [HREF11] also emphasised the importance of locally relevant messages and content if ICTs are to be an "empowerment tool". It noted that this can not happen without local interactions, underpinned by productive partnerships to harness the necessary range of "creative, technical and people skills".

The IICD also found it difficult to define local content, but settled on: "the expression of the locally owned and adapted knowledge of a community ñ where the community is defined by its location, culture, language, or area of interest."

Within Australia, the $2.1 million Broadband Content Fund [HREF12], administered by the Australian Film Commission (AFC) provides seed funding for innovative Australian broadband applications. The emphasis is on high end, high technology content, including interactive applications. There are no current federal funding initiatives to stimulate digital or broadband content by community groups or non-profit organisations. The Telstra Broadband Fund [HREF13] supports applications, tools or technologies that encourage broadband take up with wide appeal for Australian businesses and consumers. Many of these could benefit cultural, regional, and small business broadband developers, including projects on document collaboration, online music and digital rights management.

Discussions with several national cultural institutions indicate that even they are delaying broadband content development until a critical mass of users is reached. Yet some users may not take up broadband due to a lack of compelling content. These "catch 22" issues cross traditional sector boundaries. They require integrative approaches that facilitate the role of the community and not for profit sector in economic development. NOIE seeks to act as a catalyst for the Creative Community project. We are becoming actively involved in identifying and learning from the stakeholders in local digital content. The messages and relationships that emerge from this brief exercise will hopefully be applicable to other regional communities. When distilled and reflected on, with input from other participants, they might also help inform wider policy processes. At the time of writing, the government is considering several key reports, including the BAG report, the Regional Telecommunications Enquiry, the Higher Education Bandwidth Advisory Committee process, [HREF14] and the House of Representatives Inquiry into Wireless Broadband Technologies. [HREF15]

Smart cities, the importance of local content, the value of the cultural sector and creative clusters appear to have an underlying thread running through them. It could be simply stated as a research question: What might be the best ways to stimulate the creation of local digital content as part of a process that is scalable, replicable, sustainable and socially inclusive?

Creative Community Action Research Project

NOIE decided to try a local approach to a national question, and undertake a short term study to explore the sorts of partnerships that might support digital content creation. Sustainability has been an issue for previous projects aimed at local connectivity. Therefore it was considered prudent to only consider approaches that would require an embedded business model to be "designed in" from the start. While there was no supplementary funding for content creation, NOIE funded the project management for the initial three month experiment from existing resources.

The aim is to foster relationships that could develop into longer term arrangements between a combination of small businesses in the private sector, educational institutions and students, government cultural agencies, and the not for profit community cultural sector. Each of these has an interest in either producing digital content or producing workers skilled in content creation.

NOIE is acquainted with Dr Kearns and his research (quoted above) on learning communities, and he supported the project from its conception. As the project progressed, the ACT government approved Dr Kearnsí proposal for the ACT to become a learning community. This synergy laid the groundwork for the first productive partnership.

It was therefore partly due to convenience that Canberra was chosen as the site for the action research. Several unique aspects of the ACT might make it a fertile place for developing broadband content. In addition to universities and the Canberra Institute of Technology, it also hosts Australia's major national cultural institutions. In addition, the ACT Cultural Facilities Corporation operates museums, theatres and historical venues. The ACT is the only city in Australia with open-access broadband, that is where anyone with a viable business model can offer services over the infrastructure. This is provided by Transact [HREF16], a company that is partly owned by the local electricity utility, ACTEWAGL. Take up rates for broadband in the ACT are relatively high compared to other areas in Australia.

Canberra has a rich cultural, community and sporting life, and the strength of its community capacity and social capital has surprised many non-Canberrans after the fiercely destructive bushfires in January 2003. Curiously, this rich community life is not fully reflected in an online presence, and even less using broadband. It appears that many community-based cultural sector participants and arts and crafts practitioners and events have no significant online presence. For example, of the seven young writers involved with the ACT Government sponsored Edge Ezine Project, only one has a personal web site. This is for a youth oriented initiated project of "Arts at the Cutting Edge". A number of the member organisations of the Canberra Arts Marketing [HREF17] umbrella group, such as the Belconnen Entertainment & Artists Network and the well-known Chapman Gallery, do not have their own web sites.

At the same time, the major national cultural institutions which have their home base in Canberra realise the need to develop broadband content to showcase their activities and maintain parity with international cultural institutions. There are also good educational facilities for the business and multi media skills development necessary for broadband content. Thus, an opportunity exists to approach broadband content in the ACT holistically, by potentially stimulating or integrating an entire cultural value chain.

The ACT has a relatively well-educated and affluent population, with very high rates of home and workplace Internet use (ABS 2001). It is well placed to become a demonstration project of a truly knowledge driven economy, where online content, fuelled by innovative broadband-enabled technology, generates interest and involvement from students, consumers, small business and institutional players. As a prelude to this research project, the researchers started a scrapbook to document the multitude of cultural, community, craft and tourism events and news that currently only have print representation in local newspapers such as the art magazine Muse, the Canberra Times, and the suburban Canberra Chronicle. While the Canberra Times covers local cultural events fairly well, it does not include these in its online edition. The electronic commerce potential of the cultural and recreational sector in Canberra is also not very advanced. Information about events is scattered among six or seven online sites, and few venues provide online bookings. Some events of potentially wide public interest, such as the many renowned speakers visiting to Canberra, are only highlighted in their particular institution's web sites or newsletters.

The Creative Community project has three main elements:

• Identifying and initiating creative collaborations for the purposes of identifying existing local digital content and developing and digitising compelling new local creative content;
• Establishing a demonstration website for purposes of displaying the local compelling content ie to demonstrate the potential of higher bandwidth content;
• Working with major national and local cultural institutions in Canberra (eg Archives, National Gallery, Canberra and National Museums, ScreenSound) to explore the potential for how their existing digital content could be made more widely available to the community.

The project will also seek to explore strategies for:

• Providing students and other volunteers to assist NFP creative/cultural organisations and sole traders (ie artists, performers) digitise their content and make creative use of higher bandwidth connectivity; and
• Creating awareness and dialogue about higher bandwidth connectivity in the NFP creative/cultural sector, including the skills and capacity required for effective use of the technology.

Key design elements and assumptions

Because we were looking for grass roots direction setting, the Creative Community project adopted an action research methodology. This is suited to situations with unclear boundaries, where the stakeholders are encouraged to help shape the experiment. The absence of direct funding for content was another design element consistent with action research. All outcomes are dependent on the cooperation of the participants, and any resulting relationships that emerge are part of the findings. Since CICS highlighted the problems of fragmentation in this sector, it was assumed that any success at integrating various stakeholder groups would be beneficial. These relationships might include collaborative applications for funding elsewhere.

This project focuses on mapping relationships, rather than measuring things. This approach has been described as the ecological future (Capra 1982), and by extension has value for community of interest networks and social capital formation. Thus, capacity and social capital building is one project goal.

The BAG report recommends demand aggregation strategies, which pool customers to achieve better pricing agreements on broadband supply. This project seeks to explore whether similar approaches to broadband content may also be valuable. An underlying assumption is that these two aspects interact and may be approached simultaneously, since part of the challenge is raising awareness.

Original plans included an online marketplace for the cultural sector, via a database that would flexibly link up any provider of a good or service with the needs of any group or individual, including learners. This could give an indication of the scope of the local and regional cultural marketplace. Bendigo Victoria already has an online arts register.[HREF18]

NOIE initially hoped to involve the major national cultural institutions quite closely in the project, on the assumption that they would be better resourced to take on student projects and to fund broadband development. The not for profit cultural organisations were also seen as key groups, rather than small businesses in the cultural and multi-media field. Both of these areas have not been able to be fully explored within the short span of the first stage of the project, which is due to be completed within three months.

In order to engage stakeholders as the project progressed, an iterative approach to informing them has been adopted. This paper will become part of the web site, and will hopefully provide additional contextual background that might stimulate further ideas and offers from participants. Another aspect of the methodology is project documentation via an online BLOG, or web diary, with contributions from all those involved, including students. This should add a high level of transparency and also help keep a decentralised focus on the participants, rather than the researchers.

Scoping the possibilities

The NOIE project manager proceeded to liaise with potential stakeholders and interested groups to identify the possibilities for digital content creation. Action research is iterative, and project goals are determined through discussion and negotiation. NOIE's role in this case was initially to see if students could become involved in helping to meet the needs of the cultural groups through digital content. This initial scoping stage took place from February to mid March 2003. Some discussions prior to the New Year laid the ground work for follow up once the project was approved to proceed. This was important since universities in particular need to plan their course content well in advance.

Once the project was approved, NOIE set out to appropriately match up groups and students. The known "pool" of contacts was asked to suggest other people, and the list rapidly grew. An overview of the project was emailed to those who indicated a verbal interest or who had requested a meeting. Initially all possibilities were considered, but time soon ran out for this "scoping" part of the study. This was also described as the "beating the bushes" stage.

Community groups approached included the umbrella arts groups, Canberra Arts Marketing, and others with more specific arts interests, such as Photo Access, ACT Filmmakers Network, Arts Sound FM and the Australian National Capital Artists. We also contacted a Sunday craft market, several of the major national cultural institutions, and recreational groups.

Gradually some definite possibilities emerged. Students of multimedia, community development and web design at the University of Canberra, and students of information technology and marketing at the Australian National University, were all approached through their lecturers. The value proposition offered to each was slightly different. For example, the web design students needed organisations without web sites for their course requirements, whereas the multimedia students could focus on broadband content for existing web sites. The community development students were offered a number of cultural community groups, with the hopes that they would select one to work with over the whole year. The larger research project could then synthesise the findings and recommendations across the several groups, and identify common areas where online content might contribute to their goals. This might be called the "befriending the fauna" stage.

Current state of project

As of late March several student groups have agreed to work on particular projects. These include two groups of multi media students, and several web design students who will work on the project web site, creativecanberra.net. Two final year student interns from the Australian National University are working in NOIE part time for 10 weeks on the project, helping with practical issues such as the web site and locating existing local cultural broadband content. They are also researching and documenting similar projects elsewhere and government policy on content stimulation in other countries. There is a possibility of university marketing students working on possible business plans for the longer term sustainability of the project.

One group plans to create a broadband mini documentary about local filmmakers, and legal enquiries are underway to get copyright clearance to digitise some local films for the site. Another student is liaising with a small local multimedia company with a view to starting on a project to produce a DVD or CD about the Canberra bushfires. Several small groups or individuals have offered online broadband content, and a source of hosting for this content is being explored. One teacher of multimedia has offered to provide video streaming of an upcoming folk festival if a host can be found. The site for the project is not broadband enabled, as this would have incurred additional costs.

Early observations

Perhaps the first "reality check" for our research has been that broadband content cannot be pursued as an end in itself. To begin with, most organisations (and some of the national institutions) are not able to either produce or distribute broadband. This is partly due to affordability of both creation and hosting, but also due to the "catch 22" of not having a critical mass of users who can access it. Therefore, we have shifted our focus to richer digital content more generally, with broadband as the longer term goal.

The most productive relationship so far is with the Canberra Learning Community Committee. Dr Kearns has been very helpful, and others associated with that project are very receptive to working together and developing joint projects. In addition, nearly everyone else we have approached has expressed interest in the project. At all levels, community, university, schools, government, small business and national cultural institutions, stakeholders have indicated awareness of a need to collaborate and communicate more closely to achieve better digital content.

Virtually all groups have highlighted the importance of intellectual property (IP) issues. This is clearly an issue at the most local level, as well as the national. Straightforward solutions do not seem to be at hand, although at least one practitioner had developed a template for copyright release. Most were unaware of the Creative Commons project [HREF19] and its possible application to Australia.

So far, the Canberra work confirms the CICS finding that the small business creative sector is a very important partner for all the other stakeholders in this sector: community organisations, the research community, and educational institutions. They are often involved with teaching, whether formally or informally, and are also inclined to undertake community focussed projects on a non profit basis. They are deeply connected and committed to their local community, and a valuable source of knowledge and initiative.

At least three of the community/entrepreneurs contacted indicated that they had been planning database or marketplace concepts very similar to the initial ideas for this project. Some of these had the potential to become substantial electronic commerce applications for their industries, if seriously funded. We also found a number of existing ongoing student internships and project collaboration between cultural organisations and students. Thus, some of the currents in the project seem to have potential for further exploration.

The national and local cultural institutions maintain very high professional standards in all areas, especially technology and promotion. Ironically, this inhibits their ability to join in a project with a short time frame, as their business plans and resources are closely mapped out. They also cannot afford sub-standard production outcomes or the inefficiencies that may result from student involvement without careful and time consuming supervision. Longer term interns are probably more useful for larger organisations than brief student involvement.

Stakeholder liaison is a crucial activity. We are striving to communicate the potential of the project while at the same time inviting stakeholders to contribute their ideas and experience to help shape the project. In doing so, we are emphasising the experimental nature of this project and seeking to carefully participants' expectations and work toward achievable project outcomes.

Although several dozen groups had been contacted, and the researcher met with a number of meetings with national institutions, matching up students and groups is clearly a longer term process of relationship building. Since NOIE is not a program delivery agency, it has no capacity to support ongoing community liaison.

Fragmentation, in the form of less than optimal information sharing, collective learning and collaborative experimentation, is clearly a problem within Canberra's cultural sector. It may be the case that regional areas are actually better placed to build these networks, as they are smaller and more likely to know each other. In Canberra, many of the stakeholders know of each other, but some have not met face to face. Opportunities for networking seem to be relished by these cultural content groups.

Still to come

Now that some likely broadband content has been identified, hosting is a priority. We are approaching all possible providers of this service, hoping that some will provide this on a pro bono basis so that this cost can be distributed among providers. We are also having discussions with the local infrastructure provider Transact, as they are developing a community portal as part of their service.

Creation of a database with community offers and requests in relation to cultural needs is probably not realistic within the time frame, so a directory is being prepared as an example of the sorts of content that might be included in such a database. Items for inclusion might be: a request for restoration of old German dollhouse furniture, a business offer to assist with oral history, an organisation offering to assist with the recovery and duplication of photos lost in the bushfires, and a service called "the renovator's friend". We hope to set up WEB Log software for collaborative project documentation, and list the project currently underway.

We are also looking at the forms of data collection appropriate to evaluation of the project, and expect that much of this will be qualitative. Discussions with university researchers continue, as there is interest from several in identifying more detailed, longer term topics for study.

At this early stage, it is important to find appropriate opportunities for both formal and informal networking between stakeholders. NOIE is consulting with stakeholders to gauge interest in a possible workshop about intellectual property issues for the sector, with information and experience sharing. Others have indicated interest in meeting each other and networking in a social setting rather than through a formal process.

Current research on broadband concludes that there is no single killer application. Rather there are many, and the power lies in the overall flexibility it offers (Benton Foundation, 2003). Even after just "dipping our toes" in the waters of local cultural content development, it appears that flexibility and grass roots interactivity may also be the keys to reaching for the blue skies of broadband.

References

A Broadband World: the promise of advanced services (2003). Benton Foundation and the Alliance for Public Technology. [HREF20]

Australia's Broadband Connectivity: The Broadband Advisory Group's Report to Government [HREF21]

Australian Bureau of Statistics, (2001). AusStats Catalog Number 8146.0 Household Use of Information Technology, Australia.

Australian Bureau of Statistics, (2002). Non-profit institutions (NPI) Satellite Account 1999-2000.

Broadband in Education: Availability, Initiatives and Issues. (2002). Discussion paper prepared by NOIE for the Broadband Advisory Group (BAG).

Broadband in Health: Drivers, Impediments and Benefits. (2002). Discussion paper prepared by NOIE for the Broadband Advisory Group (BAG). [HREF22] 

The Broadband Difference: How online Americans behavior changes with high-speed Internet connections at home [HREF23]

Capra, Frijtof. (1982). The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

Collecting and propagating local development content: Synthesis and conclusions.(2002) International Institute for Communication and development. [HREF24]

City of Greater Bendigo Arts Register [HREF25]

Connecting Regional Australia, the Report of the Regional Telecommunications Inquiry (2002). [Also known as the Estens Report] Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. [HREF26] 

Creative Industries Cluster Study Stage One Report [HREF27]

Geiselhart, K. 2002. 'Digital Book Production in Regional and Rural Communities' in Cope, B. & Brown, R. (eds) Value Chain Clustering in Regional Publishing Services Markets, Common Ground Publishing, Altona. [HREF28]

Gibson, Chris. (2000) Decentred Sounds: Systems of Provision for Popular Music and a Regional Music Industry, PhD, University of Sydney.

Kearns, Peter and Grant, John. (2002) Enabling pillars : Learning, technology, community and partnership - a report on the Australian policy context. Global Learning Services. [HREF29]

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