Quebec gets a move on!
In November 2011, we received two new reports examining the impact of digital technologies on Quebec. The first from SODEC, Porte grande ouverte sur le numérique, reports on a consultation undertaken in 2010. The second report comes from the Quebec Council of Arts and Letters (Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec or CALQ) and a summary is provided below.
SODEC: Doors Wide Open on Digital
This report details the impact of the digital technologies on the cultural industries in Quebec: music, books, crafts, film, television, and digital productions.
Not surprisingly the government is looking into the subject, “Today, this interconnected world amounts to more than 5 billion users on mobile phones, and more than 2 billion people with access to the internet. Facebook, the leader in social networking, amounts to more than 800 million active accounts. Every day 2 billion videos are watched on Youtube, and more than 10 billion songs have been sold on iTunes since the creation of the service in 2001. More than 12 million e-books are available on Google Books.
Quebec is actively participating in this effervescence. At least 4.3 million (64%) of citizens own a mobile phone and 73% access the internet. At least 2.2 million among them watch videos online and 1.3 million download music.”
SODEC is proposing that the Minister of Culture, Communications and the Status of Women, Christine St-Pierre, open up 3 new work paths that look to fill the gap; facilitate the creation and distribution of original content, conceived and adapted to the digital sphere; and stimulate the development of innovative content applications and new services.
We will be returning to the content of the report in the coming months and elaborating on what the findings mean for specific industries as well as some recommendations.
CALQ : Let Quebec Culture Shine in the Digital World
On November 11 it was CALQ’s turn for their report on digital technologies, entitled Faire rayonner la culture québécoise dans l’univers numérique — Éléments pour une stratégie numérique de la culture (Let Quebec Culture Shine in the Digital World — Elements for a Cultural Digital Strategy). This report is available in French only.
The results of the survey showed that among artists and organizations, “80% of artists and 98% of organizations that responded to the CALQ’s survey use their own websites for distribution, promotion and market development and 65% of artists and 83% of organizations use web 2.0 for the purpose of distribution and promotion. The use of web 2.0 for creation-production amounted to 37% of artists and 43% of organizations. In all, 85% of artists and 87% of the organizations surveyed confirmed that the have integrated digital technologies into their practices and their artistic and literary activities.
The report recommends supporting new artistic practices that, thanks to digital technologies, integrate different elements of the creation process, production, broadcasting, promotion, marketing, distribution and conservation of works in all disciplines. It recommends that we favour models of development that allow the creator to realise their projects in an adequate environment. Finally, it insists that we need to favour models of production that assure fair remuneration for creation and improves the working conditions of artists and writers.
The report stresses that the CALQ should create a fund for the development of digital cultural content that would digitize existing content and ensure a presence of Quebec artistic content on digital platforms.
The Mouvement des arts et des lettres (Movement for Arts and Letters) du Québec has praised these two reports, saying that they provide a clear view of the challenges in the digital age. MAL also insisted that the funding needs to support this vision.
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