DigitalNZ launch

4 December 2008

DigitalNZ launch - uncovering New Zealand's digital treasures

Digital New Zealand, a nation-wide project to help make New Zealand digital content easier to find, share and use, was launched at the National Library of New Zealand on 3 December 2008.

John Truesdale from the National Library says "Digital New Zealand will offer all New Zealanders interactive access to a variety of rich taonga, resources, knowledge and stories from a range of organisations, communities and individuals. It will make New Zealand content of all types more discoverable, accessible and usable".

Digital New Zealand is a collaborative project, led by the National Library and funded by the New Zealand Government, which aims to test new ways to create digital content, collect and share existing digital content and build smart, freely available search and discovery tools.

A primary aim of the Digital New Zealand project is to increase the amount of New Zealand digital content available online. About two thirds of New Zealanders access the internet and of these approximately 84% browse the web using search engines. Ease of use and ease of discovery is crucial to web browsers: content that can't be easily found won't be used. Digital New Zealand will be working with content creators (including government, the education sector, cultural institutions, community groups and more) to help them get their content online in a form that can be easily found and used by web users. The 3 December launch marked the official unveiling of the Digital New Zealand website http://digitalnz.org. The website underpins several important parts of the Digital New Zealand project:

- organisations and individuals can get expert advice on creating, sharing and preserving digital content on the website

- web developers can access the Digital New Zealand API (an Application Programming Interface that makes digital content contributed by owners available to people who want to use it to build new online tools and experiences)

- the public can access search tools and online experiences that use New Zealand digital content.

On 11 November 2008 Digital New Zealand released two online experiences to mark the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day. Working with members of the National Digital Forum to collect special and unique New Zealand content relating to the end of the First World War, Digital New Zealand built a search widget (the Coming Home search) that lets people explore this content, and a video remix tool (the Memory Maker) that lets them create and share a multi-media clip using video, music, still images and more.

Important web links:

- Digital New Zealand website http://digitalnz.org

- Memory Maker http://remix.digitalnz.org

- Coming Home search http://search.digitalnz.org/cominghome

- Digital New Zealand API http://digitalnz.org/developer

- Contributors to Digital New Zealand http://digitalnz.org/about/list-of-contributors

- Special speakers at the launch, Nelson Central School, Room 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cutQ8oU9scA

ENDS