Digital content: an introduction
From Digipedia
Online content is any form of knowledge, information or data stored electronically. It can range from collections of monographs, articles, objects, images or sound to research data sets and public or commercial information. It can be online gaming, digital art works and the growing body of information and opinion contained in blogs, social networking sites and the like. Online content may never have existed in any other form (born digital) or it may have been created as part of a digitisation programme, where physical objects are transferred into electronic formats.
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The importance of digital content
Without digital content there would be no World Wide Web. The Internet could continue to support communication - the transportation of content from one place to another - but without digital content websites would be no more than empty vessels; e-Bay without things to sell, Wikipedia minus the 'pedia'! So, the storage and exploitation of digital content, whether for profit, for fun, for education or wider social value are the fundamental tasks to be addressed by any individual or organisation wishing to share their content with others. Whether for the online shopper, the student in formal education or people searching for information to deal with a life choice or a hobby, it is the quality and accessibility of the online content that will define the quality of their experience.
The other significant factor to be considered is the increasingly important role that the Web plays in the lives of more and more people. There is now an expectation that every organisation will have a Web presence even if only to provide a route for people to make contact. Of course, such minimum utility is the exception and today many of the issues associated with accessibility to content are derived from the competitive nature of search engine rankings: those who get in the top ten get discovered. In consequence the public sector institution must recognise that successful online services demand the supply of content in forms and scope to meet the needs of the audiences that the institution serves, delivering public value and must find ways to compete with every other organisation working to get on the first page of search engine hits.
Digital content for knowledge, learning and research
For public sector organisations moving services on to the Web may be to make transactions easier - completing a tax return, renewing a TV licence, to promote the organisation - museum website as a marketing tool, or to increase accessibility to physical content-based services - education, health information, broadcasters, museum, library, archive.
It is in this latter category - institutions that collect and exploit content for their users where accessibility becomes most significant and where Digipedia offers the means to draw together in one place high-quality advice and experience to build greater collaboration and thus increase the chance that the use will find the content they need and any particular moment in time.
Public institutions that manage knowledge for audiences have already built up a body of knowledge and experience in the delivery of their services across the Web (see the Digipedia case studies article) for a range of good examples. However, while there is such good practice around, the changing expectation of users - that things ought to be on the Web and that they should be easily found has led to some concerns that the public sector needs to demonstrate a more 'collective' and organised approach to the digital content that it provides. That for the user, at the initial point of contact, the aggregation of content that is of interest may be more use that simply to discover a range of organisations that may have content of interest.
It is this issue that sits at the heart of the work of the Strategic Content Alliance, the organisations that saw the value in creating Digipedia as guide to digital content in public sector.
Related Digipedia articles
Digitisation
Digital content life cycle