The ACT Government is on the Internet and it is part of a much wider cultural picture. The Australian Computer Society has created a “”homepage” on the World Wide Web for the Chief Minister’s Department at http://acslink.net.au/???tomw/actgov.html. Subs please replace the three question marks with one tilde _ that is the squiggly hyphen).
For those who know nothing about the Internet that long string of characters is what you key in to get the home page. After that it is all point and click. People can get in to it (usually with a local call) from anywhere in the world. The start has been a modest one, according to the society’s Tom Worthington. At present there are entries for the Chief Minister’s Department and the Tourism Commission. The latter also links to up-coming School of Music concerts and School of Art exhibitions as well as details of major up-coming events in Canberra, such as the Science Festival and Folk Festival. The School of Art’s entry contains details of exhibiting artists with thumbnail samples of work which can be expanded to full screen. This should entice people to see the real thing, in the same way that televising football (initially thought of as a crowd-shrinker) has contributed to interest and a desire to see the real thing. The Tourism Commission’s entry includes an electronic version of “”The Story of Canberra” prepared as part of the Australian Computer Society’s “”Australia This Minute” community multi-media project.
The aim of the project is to help the community to document Australian culture on the World Wide Web, and as a supplement to the Government’s “”Australia on CD” project. Worthington says that while the people of other nations wait for their Government to lead, Australians get on and do it themselves. In this spirit fits well with the organised anarchy of the Internet. So the society has started the Australia This Minute project for a community based on-line Internet multimedia guide to Australian culture. People are invited to offer to publish details of local cultural community organisations and events and town or suburb history. Details of local projects can be cross referenced by location and topic to the ATM home page. Maps will be added later. Under the Australia on CD program, the Government will provide $7.6m over two years for 10 interactive CD-ROMs on cultural themes. The CDs will be made available to all primary and secondary schools throughout Australia and Tenders for the first five are being called now.
The society thinks that there is a danger that the project will concentrate on “”big culture” and not ordinary Australian life. Also only a small amount of Australian culture will fit on 10 CDs, and once pressed they cannot be changed. ATM will be much larger and will be constantly being updated. Worthington hopes, however, that those preparing “”Australia on CD” can then take a snapshot of ATM. The CDs can then represent a small sample, of a moment in time of our culture. Details on how to contribute to ATM are available on the Internet at: http://acslink.net.au/???tomw/atmhow.html”