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Your Net presence (screen 4 of 10)
Use of the Internet in Australia
Results of a survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released in August 1998 suggested that 1,245,000 Australian households had access to the Internet from home. By September 2000, this number had increased to 3.4 million active household subscribers to the Internet.
Schools and businesses in Australia are making increasing use of the Internet. Schools use the Internet as an educational medium and a growing number have their own websites. A large number of businesses now have Internet access, with many also having a web presence.
For the most recent statistics on the use of information technology in Australian homes, business and government organisations, visit the ABS(1) site.
The Internet will impact on your business
Whatever the nature of your cultural activity or organisation, the Internet will almost certainly have an impact on it over the next few years - purely because use is growing at such a rate. It is important you recognise this and plan your response, and position your organisation to take advantage of the opportunities this new technology presents.
Will your organisation get involved in the Net or not? If it gets involved, will it have the resources to remain involved? Or the knowledge and interest?
If you are successful in promoting your organisation through the Internet, will you be able to cope with any consequent increased activity?
If you don't get involved and your competitors do, how is this likely to affect you? Will you be left to look like those people who predicted in the 1970s that personal computers were neither necessary nor particularly useful inventions?
A Net presence. Is it relevant to my organisation?
A fair question that only you can answer, providing you have sufficient knowledge of both your organisation and the Internet.
As a cultural worker you can do a number of things on the Internet, such as advertise, gather information, promote your work or your organisation, educate, communicate, sell tickets, conduct surveys, and provide goods and services. At least some of these activities you probably already do by other means.
The question is whether you could do them more effectively or efficiently on the Internet. Or if not, is the Internet a useful alternative or complementary strategy for any of these?
But more importantly, eventually anyone who is interested in your organisation and a user of the Internet will expect to find you on the Net. Just as they expect to be able to find you in the telephone book.
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