Danny Butt and Madanmohan Rao on behalf of the
Authors’ Working Group on Content

Content plays an important role in the potential use of ICTs to develop the diverse societies of the Asia-Pacific region. In many cases, the availability of relevant content and related services motivates groups to adopt digital tools, platforms, standards and channels to create and access digital content. However, a digital content strategy also needs to include content in non-digital formats (e.g. traditional media like books, newspaper, television, radio) to raise awareness of the potential of digital content, particularly in developing countries where diffusion of digital technologies may not be as widespread.

Challenges

Challenges to content development exist in tools, standards, human capacity, financial models, political culture and legal frameworks.

The ready availability of relevant local language content is critical for the development of productive capacity in new media. One of the challenges in the early years of Internet diffusion lay in the dominance of the English language and US-centric content, with little relevance to many Asia-Pacific Internet users. Without locally relevant content in local languages, immediate uses of ICTs for day-to-day activities may not be apparent.

A starting point for local language content generation is the availability of affordable hardware and software tools (with local language interfaces and support manuals) for viewing, creating and manipulating content. Technical standards (such as Unicode) also need to represent local language content. Unfortunately, not all Asian languages have standardised Unicode representations or keyboards (e.g. Khmer). Some Asian languages being official languages in multiple countries further complicates standards issues. For example, Tamil is officially recognised in India, Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, requiring international cooperation to develop effective standards. Finally, effective tools for automatic content conversion from non-digital formats are also required.

Existing proprietary software tools for content production can be prohibitively expensive in developing Asia-Pacific countries. Open source software can provide cost-effective alternatives, with a lower total cost of ownership over the long term and significant benefits for skill development in local communities. Regulatory and licensing frameworks, particularly in developing countries, need to be supportive of open source development.

Digital content generation and design are key skills for the workforce across multiple sectors (not just the ICT industry), and capacity building in this area is a major challenge for many Asia-Pacific policy initiatives. It is difficult for formal education programmes to keep up with the pace and expense of developments in the field, and serious questions of return on investment face ICT-driven human development strategies in many countries.

Questions of cultural hegemony in the digital content sector add to and shift established conflicts in print and broadcast media. Will new media facilitate globally diverse cultural representation, or will it reinforce Anglo-American dominance in the cultural realm? Will there be a level playing field for new content from developing countries, or will the main distribution channels remain difficult for new players to access? Policy makers will need to negotiate a careful balance between local versus global content, remaining open to the diversity of foreign content while encouraging their citizens to generate local content.

Sustainable models of financial support for creation of digital content are sorely lacking, whether in government or private sector approaches. In the more advanced ICT economies of Asia Pacific, new content players are also facing stiff competition from incumbents. In the current post-dotcom climate, independent content ventures are facing particularly bleak prospects.

Innovative responses

A number of innovative actions are emerging across the Asia Pacific in response to the above challenges. For instance, local language tools, international standards and conversion programs are emerging for many Asian languages via initiatives such as the International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil. Networks of collaboration for content creation are being formed in regional groups, such as ASEAN. Digital content generation is increasingly promoted by the government, private sector and local communities, with community telecentre initiatives facilitating access to this content. New responses to the digital divide integrate education, technical support and content into the provision of ICT facilities, with a focus on the ability of people to make effective use of the technology rather than just gaining access to it.

In the more advanced Asia-Pacific economies, content translation solutions are emerging via software and outsourcing. Legal frameworks are increasingly negotiating issues of traditional copyright and innovative licensing models such as open content or “copyleft”. Financial sustainability is being explored via new models and incentives, with increasing emphasis on tri-sector partnerships between government, community agencies and the private sector. Asia-Pacific content creators are increasingly aware of the need to negotiate intellectual property rights in the global information economy, particularly where they are part of transnational production processes.

Prospects

Amplifying the published base and user applications of local content in Asia Pacific will be a long process. Long-term thinking, considerable effort and proactive alliances will be required to address the uneven development evident across the region.

In Asia-Pacific countries at a basic or intermediate level of economic development, donor agencies are increasingly involved in the promotion of content. The use of open source content tools will undoubtedly increase in the region, reducing dependence on foreign software companies for basic infrastructure. Government-generated digital content will increase in the developing countries of Asia Pacific, while more sophisticated public-private partnerships will continue to develop in the advanced information economies.

In the post-Napster world, innovative content applications and technologies such as peer-to-peer (P2P) will continue to disrupt dominant content industries and intellectual property regimes. Struggles between the promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity and the interests of dominant cultural producers will continue to expand in the digital realm. Single-language dominance of Internet content is likely to decrease with the cost of translation, while the amount of English content will not decrease; the need to engage increasingly diverse audiences will require content to be available in multiple languages.

Over the longer term, the digital future of Asia Pacific will increasingly reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of the region. Content will be a key issue on the digital agenda for the Asia-Pacific region, as a key driver of the use of ICTs.