Creating the Conditions
In order to reap the social and economic benefits of ICT, there are three interrelated areas for action: content, confidence and capability, and connection.
Content
In an inclusive society, all members are able to access and contribute to the national stock of ideas, information and knowledge. This ideal forms the core of a democratic society and is at the heart of our policies on education, culture, national identity and the innovation system.
Confidence and Capability
The full potential of ICT can only be realised if all New Zealanders have the ability and confidence to use ICT and consider their experience of it to be beneficial. There are two dimensions to consider: our people and the ICT environment in New Zealand.
- The human dimension: Ensuring that New Zealanders are aware of the ways in which digital technologies can enhance their well-being, and that they have the opportunity to acquire ICT skills together with the necessary technical support to use them effectively.
- The ICT environment: Ensuring that the environment for ICT use in New Zealand is trusted, secure and reliable.
Safety and Security
Cyber-attacks, spam, electronic viruses and spyware are increasing. They all cause economic loss and undermine the benefits that ICT confers. There are also well founded concerns about child pornography, the victimisation of children in chat-rooms, online scams, and harassment by email or text messaging. All these menaces, great and small, undermine our efforts to encourage the uptake and productive use of ICT.
Connection
Being connected is a prerequisite for all the other goals of the Digital Strategy: unleashing the potential of communities, creating value in business from information, and transforming government.
Being connected requires a high-quality infrastructure that connects us to global networks, giving access to the wired world. Such a network will give us access to knowledge resources, e-government services, leading-edge research and new markets, making possible collaborative communication and the production of new content.
Being connected is not sufficient in itself, as the other sections (Content, Confidence and Capability, Communities, Businesses and the Government) make plain. But without connection, nothing else can happen.
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