Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 4 July 2002
Note: the comments below are the unabridged
submissions of readers and do
not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher.
From: Tom Vavasour For : The Editor (for publication) Subj: Arts funding vs net funding Here's a link that combines the 2. www.tbi.co.nz From: Against Stupidity For : The Editor (for publication) Subj: Are you high? Are you high? I'm asking this question with regards to your front page that advocates government subsidies for failed websites. Firstly, I'd ask you how this could ever work in a practical sense! How would you decide amongst the huge range of media available on the internet who gets subsidies and who doesn't. And given that the amount of information available on the internet is far higher than the number of New Zealand musicians funded by the government how are you possibly going to fund this thing?! But not only is your idea impractical, your example is totally ridiculous too and goes against any similar criteria used by New Zealand on Air. Just to remind you, your example was newsbox.co.nz a website that only had about 20-30 users a day and is an idea echoed and rehashed on hundreds of other different websites (i.e. a forum for NZers). Compare this to the instances where funding is offered for New Zealand programs. The program has to be original or there has to be a LACK of that kind of programming available on Television at the moment. But REGARDLESS of whether a program meets once of the first two criteria, a program still has to have proven mass appeal or appeal to government special interest groups such as Maori. All of the above criteria would not be satisfied by newsbox.co.nz. Internet content as a whole would also fail to satisfy the reason for NZ on Air Funding. New Zealand on Air funding is dished out because there is little to no chance of a New Zealand identity emerging on our television screens without it(because of high production costs) , yet the internet does not have this problem! There is a wide variety of NZ internet content on the web at the moment made possible due to low production costs and the ease at which material can be setup. This also means that possible "internet artists" can maintain a job whilst also maintaining a website (thus invalidating a call for an "internet artists dole"). Subsidies for "Internet Artists" are unneccessary, wasteful and are simply an example of good old fashioned stupidity. From: Anne For : The Editor (for publication) Subj: Government money for websites Government or corporate sponsorship of selected Kiwi web sites certainly seems like a sensible idea. One could argue that some of the NZ-on-air funding should go to the internet because: 1 people's on-line time is frequently 'taken' from their TV-watching time 2 the reasons for government sponsorship of Kiwi programmes (so that we see our own views, faces and lifestyles) must be just as valid for net content 3 people from overseas who wish to find out about NZ will probably use the internet -- and isn't in all our interests to have good sites in prominent positions for them to find? 4 the most effective way to up-skill NZers in the use of this new medium is to have high-interest sites of relevance to NZers to visit. Perhaps the reason there is no government funding at present is simply that no-one has suggested or asked for it. How about a campaign similar to the 'faxyourmp' campaign in Britain. In fact, why doesn't someone clever set up a similar 'faxyourmp' or 'emailyourmp' site for New Zealanders? But in the mean time, perhaps lots of people should start telling politicians that government assistance to worthy websites promoting NZ or serving NZers would be a Good Thing. From: Dave For : The Editor (for publication) Subj: Is Snobbery Stifling Local Web Content? Bruce wrote: >> Can they get government funding? >> Hell no! Your article doesn't mention who has actually applied for government funding. Have any applications with merit been turned down?Hit Reload For Latest Comments
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