Digital Cultural Communication: tools and methods for community co-creation

Only now are the communication technologies familiar to higher-end users becoming available to communities. When such technologies are married to traditional forms such as community narratives, they present an opportunity for communities to preserve their stories and distribute this knowledge to a wider audience. In some of the most remote parts of Australia, communities are partnering with cultural institutions to create digital cultural content. When communities create content in partnership with cultural institutions, both contribute to the sharing of cultural knowledge and distribution of this knowledge to a wider audience. In Queensland, a new initiative has created a mobile digital platform which travels into outlying areas of the community not just to capture and disseminate digital culture but to promote and train in new literacy. Livingstone (2003) suggests that the new literacy has limited value to communities if they cannot access technologies, nor have reason to. This paper introduces Digital Cultural Communication, an interaction design-derived Solutions Architecture which weds new literacy to multiplatform communication design by providing a cost-effective strategic infrastructure. Cultural institutions can supply training in new literacy for community co-creation and by promoting the end product, stimulate demand. Using an ambitious and exciting case study from Queensland’s cultural sector, this paper illustrates how communities can engage in the co-creation of content which both extends their digital literacy and strengthens their cultural identity. Further, by framing this case study within the domain of Digital Cultural Communication, the paper illustrates the advantages of partnerships between communities and cultural institutions in the capture, display and distribution of knowledge.