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.