5.2 Other National Approaches to Digital Strategies

Britain is not the only nation that has devised a strategy for its digital future. Other developed countries (e.g. Germany, France, New Zealand and Australia) have already completed weighty deliberations and have penned similar policy documents. The scope of these reflections contains some common elements that are pertinent to the issues to be addressed in the national digital strategy proposed in this discussion paper – spanning societal, cultural and infrastructural needs.

On the following page is a brief outline of some of the key concepts in the reports prepared by these four countries:

Table 3 – Selected National Digital Strategies

	Germany iD2010 – Information Society Germany 2010 (2006)	France Numérique 2012: Digital Economic Development Plan (2008)	New Zealand Digital Strategy 2.0 (2008)	Australia Digital Economy Future Directions (to be released 2009)
Societal	Allocates funds for post-secondary ICT programs and digital literacy training	Calls for reduction of the “digital divide”, between rich/poor and urban/rural, young/elderly etc. Encourages use of broadband technology to facilitate civic participation, delivery of public services	Promotes digital literacy, skills upgrading formal education in ICT	Reform IP/copyright laws, re: piracy & fair -usage Expand ICT training institutions & creating more skills upgrading centres Envisions a ICT/digital community with sustainability & environmentally sound practices
Cultural	Puts forth the notion that culturally relevant & heritage materials (should be available for public viewing online	Provides support the creation of French content, especially new media and/or that promotes French culture	Supports the creation of culturally specific content Establishes competitive tax regime to allow large productions to be made in NZ	Increase funding for digital access to publicly-funded cultural, educational and scientific collections
Infrastructure	Sets the goal that by 2008, 98% of inhabitants would have access to broadband Calls for optimizing the usage of spectrum freed up by ASO Researches into feasibility of complete content syndication between mobile, broadband and broadcast	Calls for universal access to broadband of at least 512/kbps and at a cost of less than 35€/month Complete ASO by 2011, the freed spectrum will give new mobile providers an opportunity to enter the French market	Aims for universal broadband: by 2012, 80% of users will have access to broadband connections of 20 Mbps or higher, and 90% cent will have access to 10 Mbps or higher	Improve content protection through 'geoblocking' Allow industry to take a leading role in the creation of the national broadband network Address security gaps that are boons to fully exploiting e-commerce

Table 3 (above) illustrates that some trends are clearly starting to emerge across these industrialized nations. Indeed, all the strategies deal to some extent with the following areas: education & training in ICT; promoting national culture through content; and ensuring that broadband infrastructure is universal, affordable, fast and reliable. Furthermore, these strategies all put forth specific targets for broadband access, rather than proposing a way to adjust these targets as technology and demand evolve.

While these findings are similar in many ways, they are some telling differences. Notably, the German and Australian approaches view the role of culture in a digital strategy as making relevant heritage and artistic works available online. They do not, it seems, account for the changing needs of cultural creators in a digital environment. France and New Zealand, on the other hand, see the creation of new content (and new forms of content) as central to their strategic goals. At the same time, however, the Australian approach deals most specifically with issues surrounding copyright, the use of online content, and other related legal issues.

It is evident that in order for Canada to succeed in creating its own digital strategy that at least, in part, it takes into account what other jurisdictions have already proposed. As with the Digital Britain, the solutions that work for other nations are not necessarily those that will work for Canada, but each report addresses a fairly common set of key issues that would seem appropriate to the development of a national digital strategy for Canada.