Digital Media and Creative Industries National R&D Consortium

A strategic initiative, driven by the Smart Internet Technology CRC, to proactively respond to DCITA's Digital Content Industry Action Agenda was launched on Nov 29 with the first part of a two part forum held with a cross section (40 participants) of industry, research and Government participants plus an International speaker from the BBC representing the European NM2 initiative.

This forum was hosted by the CRC in conjunction with xMediaLab and focused on engagement between the industry and research community. A summary of outcomes identified 4 key areas:

Establish a National R&D Interests, Capabilities and Activities Library (project RADICAL),
Develop a library of standard IP agreements;
Establish an Emplacement Program and
Develop National Projects.

Following the success of Forum 1, Digital Media R&D Day Forum 2, was convened by the CRC in collaboration with NICTA, CSIRO, ACID, iCinema and CCI, with support from AIMIA and X|Media|Lab, was designed to draw out the issues and needs of the Digital & Creative Industries and in self organising workgroups, address those needs and commence the process of drafting project plans to drive the focus of R&D activities funded by the Research Community.

Facilitated by Tom Kennedy, CEO, MediaZoo and Dr Dean Economou, Domain Director Health and Media, Smart Internet Technology CRC, a discussion took place among 49 high-level industry activists and practitioners from the digital media industries - including the research and development sectors, commercial developers and producers, and policy agents.

The links above are the PDF summaries of the outcomes from each event. The information provided in the Forum 2 summary has been compiled from DVD footage, flip charts, notes taken and notes provided by the participants. A wiki has been established along with email groups for each team to continue to develop project ideas http://wiki.cci.edu.au/confluence/display/DMRDWG/Home

Please feel free to contact myself or the workgroup leaders (details on the wiki) to participate in the development of these project ideas or any others you wish the research community to explore.

annette.dockerty@smartinternet.com.au

Next steps

Smart Internet will continue to encourage collaboration across the industry and research communities to develop a document that details an industry preferred framework for engagement, outlines projects for immediate collaboration and the level of financial and in-kind commitment required to achieve the desired outcome. This will be submitted to DCITA and the State Governments as a way forward, driven by industry, in response to the Digital Content Industry Action Agenda, that may contribute to how they shape future programs and policies to achieve common goals.