Actas da - Xunta de Galicia

Glyn Williams
Economy rationality is replaced by learning and reflexivity so that a
mathematical formulation of this problem can only focus upon time, and
economic 'progress' becomes one of knowledge/learning accumulation. Markets
in the New Economy work on the basis of given distributions of information
and knowledge, having little to do with perfect information and full rationality.
This change in market conditions favours product differentiation as a means of
approaching and satisfying needs.
Within this transformation multimedia is an enigma in that the assoiated
activites are difficult to pin down by reference to sector (Brail / Getler 1999).
Thus we propose replacing it by the Digital Economy (DE) which we
understand as involving the fundamental elements of any economy - the
transformation of primary products or raw materials into commodified
resources which can be either marketed or worked upon to generate products
which can enter the market as part of product innovation. This relies upon the
creation of a Digital Value Chain (fig. 1) that accommodates this process. It also
depends upon the existence of a Digital Asset Management System as a feature
of the Digital Value Chain. This System organises the resources for distribution
prior to their entry into the production process. Non-digital materials are
commodified through digitisation. Consequently, materials which currently cost
money to store in museums, libraries etc. assume a new value and a new
potential for value added reformulation. Operating this potential involves
facilitating the expression of existing knowledge/content into a digital medium
while also fundamentally changing the rules of the game for new creative
expression (Negroponte 1995). Convergence opens up an entirely new market
involving eContent. The potential for drawing in regional Digital Economy
clusters (Scott 1995; Coopers / Lybrand 1996; Cardoso 1996) together in
exploiting regional cultural resources is considerable. Heydebrand (1999)
argues that the multimedia industry by its nature contributes both to providing
new images and interpretations and to redefining changing cultural traditions
and practices at the regional and local level.
Particularly important for the Digital Economy is convergence. The
integration and convergence of various modes of communication, information
processing and media into an interactive network is breaking down the cultural
and technological barriers that have separated the world of broadcasting,
publishing, communication and IT. For the first time it also integrates the
written, oral, and audio-visual modalities of human communication into the
same system. The potential integration of text, images and sounds in the same
system, interacting from multiple points, in chosen time (real or delayed) along
a global network, in conditions of open and affordable access, changes the
character of communication. The importance of these developments pertains to
the manner in which communication as discourse conditions reality within the
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