I'm interested in statistics on the production and consumption and
global 'trade' of online content generally. And especially in relation
to by source of production and Australia's contribution to global
output relative to its population and GDP. Also I've a special
interest in rich media such as digital video online.
In particular, I'm interested in metrics that provide evidence,
indicators or clues as to:
> How much online content is there in the world?
(in bytes, pages, by type, genre, country or other metrics)
Is produced by country of origin (OECD and in particular Australia)
Is Australia punching "'above its weight"' or ''below its weight''globally?
How much locally produced content is consumed by country relative
to imported material (In OECD countries in particular in Australia
specific interest)
How are these stats trending?
eg http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/archive/wcp/stats/intnl.htm
[I note in the above study Australia was 2% in 1999 of public sites
but fails to rate in 2002 data ?]
> Any metrics on imports and exports of online data/information
[especially relating to Australia]
> Any data in relation rich media online (video, audio, animation)
on useage, consumption and production by country, genre type etc
---------------------
Background
For a number of economic and cultural reasons Australia, like many
other OECD nations has a variety of government-led responses to media
policy to ensure there's a diverse mix of international and local
interests represented, voices heard on our tv and stories told in our
newspapers, that we have a national cinema etc. These include
regulation to ensure there's a percentage of local material produced
for television, theres funding for arts including national film
funding and regulation to ensure some degree of local and diverse
media ownership.
In the film arena, the strong support of government since the mid
seventies and the creation of a world-class dramatic arts (NIDA think
Mel Gibson, Cate Blanchette, and Geoffrey Rush) and Film school (AFTRS
think Jane Campion, Philip Noyce and Jane Campion) and a national film
arts promotion body and financing body has led to a very strong
Australian Film industry - that is now recognised worldwide.
Anecdotal evidence would suggest Australia is underweight in its
contribution to global (cultural) online content.
Also indicators I've been shown suggest growth in online traffic to
overseas cultural institutions by school children in Australia way
oustrips that of (our) local and national institutions. I'm sure this
is a global phenomena too - if you're studying French impressionism at
any school worldwide why not go to the Louvre website in favour of
your local museum. Conversely I guess we clearly have some things that
may have global interest eg Arguably the Worlds best shoe collection
(powerhouse museum, sydney) and clearly world's best collections of
Australian Aboriginal Art
In traditional media, its pretty easy to see for example how much
Canadian content is consumed in a given (global) market (look at the
TV guide, box office takings etc). In the global networked economy
there's no easy way to see, at least for me, who is producing and
consuming what. Peer-to-peer technologies seem to complicate this even
further.
Any additional clues or thoughts are most welcome. |
