DURING A MEDIA BRIEFING in Dublin, the Minister for Communications announced wide-reaching strategies for digital technology in Ireland. I paused at several points during a chat with colleagues (evidence at left), wondering how realistic some of the enthusiasm is in its claim to create 30,000 jobs in Ireland. It would seem that some of those jobs are broadband-dependent--real broadband and not the weak imitation subsidised under the National Broadband Plan. Minister Eamon Ryan mooted the idea for an International Content Services Centre (ICSC is to be a throbbing hub of creativity, not the UN agency tracking things like daily subsistence levels) to be located in Ireland, something like the IFSC for digital content. He cites specialists in digital creative arts, legal, and accountancy as being the beneficiaries of this new centre. "The ICSC will provide content generation, distribution and management expertise. The facility will support the development of the 1,000 digital content companies currently located in Ireland." I didn't know there were 1,000 digital content companies in the Republic. If the Minister counts digital plumbers (i.e., network service providers) and the traditional publishers, he might be able to claim more than 500 companies involved in the coding, gaming, writing, recording, filming, mapping, syndicating, crawling, servicing and storing digital content. I'm flipping through my Irish media directories, trying to see how 1000 companies figure in this projection. One thing I know from first-hand involvement: there are clever ways to make an online casino function as a truly interactive experience.
The proposed ICSC "will act as a broker between digital content developers/owners and the major content distributors." That sounds a lot like a DRM facility. I wonder who is writing the ICSC Feasibility Study and I am very curious about the methodology that suggests "up to 10,000 jobs by 2020" directly as a result of the ICSC. Right now, I'm revising a third level syllabus in creative multimedia at Tipperary Institute after reading the Creative Ryan Report below.
We are scrimping and cutting in our third level institution because we need to put as much as possible into fostering creative Irish thinking, even when it means shorting some facilities or capital expenditures. We don't need to build bespoke physical stuctures to ensure Ireland emerges from the recession with a smarter economy to drive the country forward. So I'm focused on getting value for money by ensuring we're marking out standards of performance that map directly into job skills that those in creative digital industries need from their youngest employees.
The Creative Ryan Report is a 102-page Technology Actions Report today in Word Document format. The photo is one I snapped in Cafe Hans, the most excellent lunch spot in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is tagged as "creative" in my photostream.
