National Digital Forum - 2009 Conference launch

Thank you for inviting me to open your conference today, and thanks to John Garraway for his welcome and introduction.

Can I acknowledge:

-Penny Carnaby, National Librarian and CE of the National Library of NZ.

-Greg Goulding, Acting Chief Archivist and CE of Archives NZ.

-Michelle Hippolite, Acting CE of Te Papa.

I'm a big fan of the work done by the National Digital Forum and I want to tell you why.

The work you do is so important because the internet and the digital revolution are changing our society. It's changing the way we store and access information, and how we preserve our heritage as a nation.

It's all very well creating great NZ content but if we don't keep it and look after it. If we lose information about ourselves then society is the poorer.

For younger people especially, digital content is a huge part of life. The internet is the first port of call for many people looking for information these days - New Zealanders just expect things to be available online!

Technology is moving so fast these days that we're constantly finding new ways to communicate and store information. We have sites like Youtube and Facebook which are making the internet much more interactive. I know that your members have embraced this and this conference even has a twitter account set up.

Just to give you an example of how quickly things are changing. A few months ago I went to Archives NZ and they showed me a few things. You might remember the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Genetic Modification in 2005.

Those findings were stored on zip files, which are out of date already! People are using USB zip drives now and there's a risk we could lose a lot of material.

In the 1980s we were told that CDs would last for a 100 years, but new research shows that's not the case, and their true lifespan might be a lot shorter.

I want you to know that digital preservation is on the Government's agenda, and there are a lot of new initiatives I could tell you about.

Archives New Zealand and the Ministry of Education have been working together on a project which allows 300 New Zealand schools to download films and moving images.

Archives NZ also has heritage film clips posted on YouTube, which is a great way of bringing them to a wider, and younger audience.

A few months ago I launched the Digital Continuity Action Plan to stop important public records being lost. It also aims to protect usability, because there's no point saving stuff if you can't use it!

We're also helping government departments and community groups to put more information online, and make it easier to find.

You might know about a major project called "Digital New Zealand". This is being lead by the National Library (which I'm responsible for) and funded by the government. There's now one million digital objects available, much of which couldn't be found through google.

A couple of weeks ago I launched a new website "data.govt.nz" to help people make sense of government data. I've had a lot of good feedback on this site, from bloggers and even from my fellow MPs who have discovered it.

I think the government's broadband package will make the work your organisation does even more important. Within the next 10 years we want to have ultra-fast broadband available to 75% of New Zealanders.

More people online and with better connections will make the work this conference is doing even more important and relevant.

I'm sure I don't need to remind you, preserving our heritage is extremely important. It tells us about who we are as New Zealanders, where we come from, how we've changed and what we've achieved, both good and bad. It gives us a better understanding of ourselves and each other.

Thank you for all the work you are doing on behalf of New Zealanders, and I hope you have a very successful conference.