Canadian Digital Information Strategy

The Digital Strategy

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Part II: The Proposed Strategy

A framework for action

Vision
Canada's digital information assets are created, managed and preserved to ensure that a significant Canadian digital presence and record is available to present and future generations, and that Canada's position in a global digital information economy is enhanced.

Key assumptions
Several key assumptions have guided and informed the discussions that led to articulation of this Strategy:

• The time is now - All digital information is at risk and there is significant urgency to implement the Strategy in a timely manner. If we delay, many of the digital assets currently being created will surely be lost, as will economic opportunities arising from improved information asset management.
• Change is constant - Digital technologies will continue to change rapidly, requiring a Strategy that can evolve, together with a sustained effort to act upon it.
• Stakeholders are supportive and engaged - Overcoming digital information challenges requires collaborative effort and investment within and across jurisdictions and sectors. There is support for an inclusive and distributed strategy to achieve the vision-one that is respectful of jurisdictions, that builds on existing capabilities and ongoing initiatives, and that supports smart partnerships and synergies.
• Interoperability and open access strategies are key - The management and flow of information is advanced by widespread adherence to open international standards that foster interoperability, by adoption and sharing of emerging best practices, and by reducing barriers to access.
• Information access and use supports Canada's societal goals - In society, equitable information access fosters equal opportunity for learning, creative and commercial enterprise.
• Information access and use supports Canada's economic goals - An information-rich society is vital to Canada's competitiveness in knowledge-based industries and to the country's economic growth.
• Investments must be strategic, leveraged and rewarded - There are costly dimensions to the challenges of digital information. The Strategy aims to inform and encourage strategic investment by Canadian governments and the private sector.
• The model must be distributed - The Strategy advances a networked model, building on strengths and building strength, across the country.
• Canada can be a world leader - We have the leadership and collaborative capacity to coalesce our resources, our technological capabilities and our efforts in order to achieve the vision.

Three challenges we see

The Canadian Digital Information Strategy addresses itself to three significant challenges and frames them as opportunities for our future as a highly developed information society:

1. To strengthen content
2. To ensure preservation
3. To maximize access and use.

Three outcomes we seek

Three long-term outcomes are expected from the actions proposed in this Strategy:

1. Canada's information assets and accumulated knowledge are in digital form.
2. Canadians have ongoing access to their country's digital knowledge and information assets, and future generations will have evidence of contemporary intellectual, scientific and creative accomplishments.
3. Canadians have optimal access to Canadian digital information important to their learning, business and work, leisure activities, and cultural identity.

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