Guidelines for contributors
By Hans Hoegh-Guldberg (Economic Strategies Pty Ltd, editor, knowledge base)
Last updated: 11 September 2008
- 'Mapping', 'swot' and 'issues'
- How long should they be?
- Numbers versus stories
- We are appealing to people who know their scene
'Mapping', 'swot' and 'issues' articles
We favour a flexible approach to contributions to the various topics in the knowledge base. Ideally, each topic starts with an article or paper that maps (describes) the scene. Statistical 'mapping papers' appear in the statistics section, verbal ones on the appropriate page of the 'context', 'creation' or 'support' sections of the knowledge base. Contributors are reminded that up to half the visitors to the website are from overseas countries and even Australian residents are unlikely to be familiar with all aspects of the Australian music scene. This makes it extra important to describe a topic before describing issues associated with it.
In 2008, the MCA asked people from various parts of the music sector to provide a 'swot analysis' describing the strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats facing their particular area of expertise.The results will help develop such an analysis for the whole music sector.Meanwhile, the 21 analyses received are of intrinsic interest because they forma link between the descriptive mapping of a particular part of the music sector and the issues and challenges it faces.
Another significant boost to the knowledge base followed the MCA's summit, Australian Musical Futures: Towards 2020, at the Sydney Conservatorium on 5 September 2008. The summit was modelled on the comprehensive summit organised by the Rudd Labor Government in April and was the first event inspired by the Rudd summit which was aimed at a specific sector of the Australian society and economy.
Australian Musical Futures: Towards 2020 brought together 100 prominent members from across the music sector in an orchestrated learning situation featuring four subject groups: education, infrastructure, communities, and the new music industry in a digital age. The briefing papers on each subject group are being incorporated into the knowledge base in time to be followed by analysis at the annual MCA Assembly in Adelaide on 27-29 September 2008. The result will add to the understanding of the Australian music sector's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and the identification of key issues facing its various segments.
The third main type of article takes up key issues. If such 'issues papers' appear before a mapping paper has been written, or where the description is in the statistics section, they are preceded by an introductory note until properly mapped. In short, we welcome descriptive ('mapping') contributions, 'swot' analyses, articles that take up issues, and papers that start with descriptions and then develop a 'swot' analysis, or issues, or both. Our overriding motive is to tap the knowledge and ideas of all those at the coalface, wherever they may be situated within the music sector; and we accept that not all contributors take the same approach.
So there are multiple ways in which contributions can be arranged. The article on orchestras provides one of many good examples of narrative description or 'mapping'. The pages on music in schools contains both a mapping paper and one discussing issues based on the 2005 National Review of School Music Education. Other pages contain descriptive papers that go on to develop issues (some of the statistical papers fall into that category). Finally, the article on choral music is one of several taken directly from one of the 'swot' analyses received in response to MCA's request in 2008 (it is introduced by a brief narrative describing Australian choral music activities).
The length of the contribution is also flexible, varying from a few hundred words to several thousand. The median is around 2,000 words or four normal typed pages, but this is not sacrosanct. Some papers exceed 7,000 words where the author has felt it was necessary to get the story across in all its relevant detail.
Often the length can be limited by referring to other websites. This is especially appropriate where there is a national website containing details, such as the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR). There are numerous other examples including a cooperation with the Australian Music Association (AMA) on provision of import statistics for music products.
We welcome such links which are always opened in a separate window to avoid undue interruptions to the reading of the main MCA knowledge base story.
The knowledge base describes the Australian music sector in numbers and words. Both components are important. Whether or not there are substantial statistics to back a narrative, the latter plays a role in its own right. To take an example from the statistics section, the analysis of several successive Australian census takings in Musicians in the Census started with the statistics, but the narrative brings out the points and issues which might be lost if the analysis was purely numerical.
For many topics - far too many for comfort - the statistical base is weak and we have to rely unduly on verbal description backed perhaps by some ballpark numerical estimates of limited validity. The idea of the knowledge base grew from Dick Letts' and my 2005 report on a statistical framework for the music sector commissioned by the Cultural Ministers' Council through its Statistics Working Group. The report strongly advocated the urgent development of an improved statistical base for the Australian music sector, which would also improve the basis for narrative description.
Narratives ("stories") about the music sector remain very important, including an understanding of the background. Consider this in the context of questions such as:
- What is important in a national economic, social, cultural and policy sense about preserving and nurturing musical and other cultural diversity?
- Why is there a new emphasis on creativity, whether of an artistic or technological nature, and what unique opportunities for music follow from this?
- Why, then, is the statistical knowledge base on music so weak, and why isn't more done to remedy this?
The first two questions are important for the understanding of the strategic direction of the music sector. It fits in with the MCA's September 2008 summit on Australian Musical Futures. This and other initiatives will contribute importantly towards providing coherent and actionable responses to these and other basic issues facing the music sector and Australian cultural activities generally.
We are appealing to people who know their scene
Such questions, and many others that deal with specific segments of the music sector, must be addressed by people who are in there already.
In summary, we are looking for factual descriptions of particular parts of the Australian music sector, across the spectrum of the music sector, and we are looking for contributions that highlight the issues facing these activities. While we ask our contributors to adopt a balanced and objective attitude, there are many ways of writing about a particular topic in the knowledge base. In addition to statistical or verbal descriptions (mapping papers), we welcome discussions of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and what are the key issues and challenges that face a given part of the music sector.
top
Leave A Comment
Email This Article
