Community

Community: enjoys digital confidence and media literacy

As households take up broadband, people increasingly become 'heavy users' of the internet.⁷⁵ It is important that when Australians engage with the digital economy, they have the requisite digital confidence and skills to do so safely and productively.

Consumer digital confidence

The increase in time spent online by Australians is arguably the result of two trends. Firstly, the generations of 'digital natives'—those who do not know life without a computer, the internet and MP3s. 'Digital natives' first log–on earlier in their lives than previous generations and rarely log–off. They participate online differently to older generations, '[d]igital natives' almost never distinguish between the online and offline version of themselves'.⁷⁶

In addition to digital natives developing a lifelong clickstream 'digital immigrants' who learn and adopt the internet and related technologies later in life⁷⁷ are also spending more time online.

It is important that Government and industry collaborate to ensure that people are as capable and confident interacting and engaging via the internet as they are offline.

The Australian Government promotes consumer digital confidence by measures targeted to address three key online risks to consumers—privacy, e–security and cyber–safety. The Government is currently reviewing Australia's privacy laws to identify areas that need to be updated for the 21st Century. It has also undertaken a range of e–security awareness raising and education initiatives to improve the e–security of home users and SMEs. For example, the Government's e–security website, Stay Smart Online⁷⁸ provides information on protection against e–security threats such as malicious spam, phishing and spyware that can lead to identity theft and financial loss.

To reflect the growing importance of cyber–safety within the Australian community, the Australian Government has committed funding of $125.8 million over four years for a Cyber–Safety Plan to combat online risks and help parents and educators protect children from inappropriate material. The Cyber–Safety Plan includes funding for education and information measures, law enforcement, help line and websites, Internet Service Provider filtering, consultative arrangements with industry, child protection bodies and children, and further research to identify possible areas for additional action. ACMA also provides a range of cybersafety information and resources designed to meet the needs of children, parents, teachers, and library staff. This includes advice for young children through resources such as Cybersmart Detectives, Cyberquoll, and Cybernetrix. It also includes Cybersafety Outreach, involving professional development and presentations in metropolitan and regional centres throughout Australia.

A recent ACMA report⁷⁹ found that consumers currently place a high reliance on informal methods of training and acquiring knowledge about the internet and do not have significant concerns about their online security. ACMA concludes that while 'concerns over online security are not currently a barrier to participation' there is a 'potential need for more formal and continuing education to address knowledge gaps about appropriate and available technical and behavioural measures to mitigate online risks.'⁸⁰

Digital media literacy

Digital media literacy ensures that all Australians are able to enjoy the benefits of the digital economy: it promotes opportunities for social inclusion, creative expression, innovation, collaboration and employment.

The focus of digital media literacy policy and programs is on the development of three core skillsets:

the technical ability to engage at a basic level with a computer and the internet, for example creating documents and emails
the ability to understand and critically evaluate digital media and to understand and critically evaluate digital media content, and
the ability to create content and communications.

The Australian Government is building Australia's digital media literacy amongst schoolchildren by committing $2 billion over five years to the Digital Education Revolution. The aim of the Digital Education Revolution⁸¹ is to prepare Australian students for further education, training and employment and to equip them with the skills they need to live, work and succeed in an increasingly digital world by providing ICT equipment, broadband connections and access to training.

Case study: the Podkids—learning digital skills and connecting with the world

The Podkids started in 2006 when Orange Grove Primary School in West Australia decided to start using the one computer available at the school to make a podcast—an internet radio show. The idea was to create a school newspaper where the students would talk about what they were doing at school and conduct interviews with their parents and teachers but in audio format. When the group first uploaded their podcasts to www.podkids.com.au they thought only parents and some educators would want to listen in. However, today the Podkids have listeners in over 50 countries with at least 50 000 downloads in countries as diverse as the United Kingdom, Japan, the Philippines, Greece, Trinidad and Tobago, Lithuania, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.

In Podkids Episode 16 the students talk about what having a computer allows them to do— Maths 300 and Mathletics, helping with music instruction by allowing kids to create their own music, and learning spelling. Asked how computers have changed their experience, one response was that 'it's fun for once.' Several students also noted that using a computer allowed them to save paper, 'so we won't have to cut down trees and won't harm the animals.' Another commented that 'the internet is never boring.'

In mid–2007, the school community agreed that from the start of 2008, every school student in years four to seven at Orange Grove Primary School would have their own computer. The 1:1 student/computer ratio has 'transformed everything'. Recently, the Podkids demonstrated their advanced digital skills by creating a series of 'stop–motion animation' films using clay and lego and the cameras built into their laptops. The Podkids were only able to create something as time–intensive as stop–motion animation because they had their own laptop.

Community: experiences inclusive digital participation

As digitally enabled social and economic transactions become an increasingly integral part of our economy, the detriment to those not engaged with the digital economy rises. The issue becomes particularly acute where the characteristics of the digitally excluded overlap with those of the socially excluded.⁸² As one study noted:

'Technology and social disadvantage are inextricably linked. This means that social policy goals will be increasingly difficult to realise as mainstream society continues to embrace changes in our information society while those on the margins are left further behind—disengaged digitally, economically, and socially.'⁸³

Recent data suggests that not all community groups are equally participating online. One ACMA report noted:

'While a majority of Australians use the internet and participate online to some degree, there are still an estimated 2.6 million Australians who do not use the internet. While the level of internet use is only one measure by which we can determine inclusion, it clearly shows that not all sections of the community are equally involved in the digital economy.'⁸⁴

The Australian Government has a number of initiatives in place that are designed to increase access to online services by all Australians. To respond to the needs of senior Australians the Broadband for Seniors initiative provides training in the use of the internet and in particular to help them stay connected to family and friends.

To promote media accessibility, the Australian Government is currently exploring strategies to encourage and facilitate access to electronic media by people with hearing or vision impairments and will respond on the issue in mid–2009.⁸⁵ In addition, the Government is undertaking a feasibility study into whether a disability equipment program that is independent of telecommunications carriers should be established.⁸⁶

Several other initiatives are targeted to improve the up–take of online services in regional and rural areas. The National Broadband Network will respond to one current source of inequity—inadequate access to broadband infrastructure in regional and rural areas. The Rural and Regional National Broadband Network Initiative⁸⁷ will fund coordinators to help drive broadband take–up in regional communities and fund ABC Local online to help establish community websites and portals to create 'virtual town squares' for communities to share experiences. In addition, the Digital Regions Initiative⁸⁸ will co–fund innovative digital enablement projects with state, territory and local governments to improve the delivery of education, health and emergency services in regional, rural and remote communities.

The Australian Government also provides support for Indigenous Australians in remote communities to access computers, the internet and training to be able to participate in the digital economy.⁸⁹

Industry also has an important role to play in promoting digital inclusion. This includes incorporating accessibility into the design of ICT as well as corporate programs to promote and support access and skills development among otherwise digitally excluded groups.

Community: benefits from online engagement

New and emerging Web 2.0 platforms and tools, such as blogs, wikis and social networking platforms, provide innovative and additional ways for community engagement.

The rise of user–generated content provides new ways for Australians to engage, collaborate and interact online. The top twenty websites visited by Australians includes Facebook (ranked fourth), MySpace (ranked sixth), YouTube (ranked eighth), Wikipedia (ranked tenth) and Blogger (ranked nineteenth),⁹⁰ all of which rely on user–generated content. These platforms can strengthen existing communities, for example, through the development of hyperlocal news sites, but also allow new communities to develop.

Case study: Youdecide2007—Australia's first citizen journalist experiment

Youdecide2007 was the first experiment in Australia with a collaborative, citizen journalism. It was established to run during the 2007 Australian Federal election campaign. The Youdecide2007 website was designed to enable citizen journalism coverage of the election. The site attempted to recruit citizen journalists from every Australian electorate to foster the development of locality–based content or hyperlocal news.

At its peak, the site attracted over 12 000 readers a week, more traffic than all major political parties' sites except the Australian Labor Party. Youdecide2007 published 230 stories, which were a mixture of citizen and staff–generated material. These stories came from 50 of Australia's 156 electorates. Youdecide2007 also broke stories that were picked up by the national press.

For government, there is the potential for these technologies and platforms to facilitate and enhance greater transparency and accountability, as well as more direct and open engagement between citizens and governments, particularly for policy development.

Governments all over the world are experimenting with and exploring Web 2.0 technologies and platforms.⁹¹ Specific examples include the Digital Britain Forum⁹² in the UK, which provided an opportunity for citizens to comment on the Digital Britain interim report⁹³ and included a blog. Another example is the US President Barack Obama, who ran an online town hall style forum on the White House's website in March 2009. The forum welcomed questions from citizens and allowed them to vote for questions they wanted answered. Over a hundred thousand people participated and more than three million votes were recorded. The President then answered some of the popular questions in a press meet which was also streamed live on the White House website.⁹⁴

Several Australian Government agencies are learning by doing and hosting blogs. For example, the Department of Defence's blog through which the Department to communicates about defence related topics.⁹⁵ In December 2008, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy hosted a Digital Economy Blog for people to provide comments on the topics being explored in this paper.⁹⁶

Numerous Australian Government agencies have also established YouTube channels.⁹⁷ In addition, Australian state, territory and local governments are also successfully engaging with citizens online for policy development. For example, the City of Melbourne hosted the Future Melbourne wiki to garner public input to help shape future planning for the city.⁹⁸

These examples show that governments are experimenting with innovative means to engage with their citizens using Web 2.0 tools. The challenge, however, is to make the most effective use of these tools to promote efficiencies, transparency and constructive dialogue. As one commentator acknowledged in relation to the Digital Economy Blog:

'it's probably worth remembering: as untried as government consultation blogs are at the federal level in Australia, so too are citizens unused to being able to engage with their government in this way. They may be new at it, but so are we—and both sides still have a lot to learn about the other.'⁹⁹

The Australian Government has established a Government 2.0 Taskforce to assist in making government more consultative, participatory and transparent. The Taskforce will also advise on strategies to maximise the extent to which government utilises the views, knowledge and resources of the general community.

Return to Elements of a Successful Digital Economy

[75] Supra n 41, p. 8.

[76] John Palfrey & Urs Gasser "Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives", (2008) p.20.

[77] Id. P 4.

[78] See www.staysmartonline.gov.au

[79] Australian Communications and Media Authority, Australia in the Digital Economy, Report 1: Trust and Confidence (March 2009) p. 1–2 (available at: http://acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_311655; last accessed: 25 June 2009).

[80] Id.

[81] See www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/DigitalEducationRevolution/Pages/default.aspx

[82] For a discussion on the characteristics of social exclusion, see for example, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Social Inclusion: Origin, concepts and key themes, October 2008 (available at: www.socialinclusion.gov.au/Documents/1Economicimplications.pdf; last accessed May 10, 2009).

[83] UK Department for Communities and Local Government, Digital Inclusion: An Analysis of Social Disadvantage and the Information Society, (Oct. 2008), p15.

[84] Australian Communications and Media Authority, Australia in the Digital Economy, Report 2 -- Online participation (May 2009) p30 (available at: http://acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_311655; last accessed: 25 June 2009).

[85] See www.dbcde.gov.au/.../television_captioning_discussion_paper

[86] See www.dbcde.gov.au/.../independent_disability_equipment_feasibility_study

[87] Senator the Hon Stephen Conroy, 'Budget 2009: Rural and Regional NBN Initiative to drive broadband benefits to communities', Media Release 12 May 2009 (available at: www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/043; last accessed: 25 June 2009).

[88] See www.dbcde.gov.au/communications/digital_regions_initiative.

[89] See www.dbcde.gov.au/communications/indigenous_communications_program.

[90] Supra n 80, p 16.

[91] See for example, an illustrative list of examples of international government agencies using Web 2.0 technologies and platforms http://government20bestpractices.pbwiki.com/United+States+Government

[92] See for example, http://www.digitalbritainforum.org.uk/

[93] Digital Britain, The Interim Report (January 2009) (available at: www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/digital_britain_interimreportjan09.pdf; last accessed: 25 June 2009).

[94] See www.whitehouse.gov/openforquestions/

[95] See www.defence.gov.au/defenceblog/2009/0119_0125.htm

[96] See www.dbcde.gov.au/.../future_directions_blog

[97] See for example, Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts: http://au.youtube.com/user/DeptEnvironment; The Child Support Agency: http://au.youtube.com/user/ChildSupportAgencyAu; Department of Defence: http://au.youtube.com/user/DefenceJobsAustralia; the Royal Australian Air Force: http://au.youtube.com/AirForceHQ; the Australian War Memorial: http://au.youtube.com/user/AustWarMemorial.

[98] See www.futuremelbourne.com.au/wiki/view/FMPlan

[99] Snurb, 'What if you build it and they do come?' gate watching 19 December 2008 (available at: http://gatewatching.org; last accessed: 25 June 2009)