An Australian Sports Commission (ASC)-led information network gaining international attention has reached an important milestone, celebrating its first year in existence.

National Sport Information Centre (NSIC)/Clearinghouse for Sport (Clearinghouse) Director Gavin Reynolds said the national and international stakeholders of the Australian Sport Information Network (AUSPIN) met recently to discuss the progress of the program’s first 12 months of operation.

The Clearinghouse initiative is being rolled out across the sport sector with the vision of attracting 5000 Australian sport sector members into its “knowledge-transfer space” within three years.

AUSPIN is a network of Australia’s leading sport and active recreation information and research service providers working to share information and experiences, as well as promoting, developing and facilitating access to sport information and knowledge resources.

Contributors to AUSPIN include the ASC; VicHealth; all state and territory departments of sport and recreation as well as institutes and academies of sport.

Other Australian institutions onboard include the Melbourne Cricket Club Library; the Australian College of Physical Education; the University of Canberra and the Australian Paralympic Committee. Showing the value of international collaboration, overseas partners include Chinese, German, Japanese and New Zealand associations as well as the Fiji-based Oceania Sport Information Centre.

‘With strong support from our AUSPIN partners, we aim to take the Clearinghouse out to coaches, sport scientists, sports administrators, policy researchers and other key decision makers who are delivering sport,’ said Mr Reynolds, who has worked with the ASC for 25 years.

‘It will give our members a better ability to network and make a bigger positive impact on the sector by sharing their knowledge and expertise. We’re not about information. We’re about knowledge.
‘We’re no longer just a coalition of sport information service providers. We’re into knowledge development and transfer.’

Mr Reynolds said the sharing of knowledge between organisations was providing economic benefits, enhanced learning opportunities, richer staff development environments and qualitative measures for member groups to build upon a more integrated system.

‘There are often huge inequities with budgets and capabilities between partnering organisations, so by pooling our resources we are able to deliver a more accessible national service to more clients,’ he said. ‘It gives all of us greater economies of scale.’

Mr Reynolds said it was vital for partnering and competing organisations to share information.

‘There are two main reasons why we share,’ he said.

‘Firstly, knowledge is like oxygen: it’s everywhere. We can collaborate with and learn from  other organisations and this in turn enhances our ability to source information and expertise.

‘Secondly, being open to partnering validates where we are at. It authenticates internationally who we are and if we are indeed ‘world leading’ in our field. It’s a qualitative measure. The fact that the China Sport Information Centre sent a delegation of four to participate in our recent AUSPIN gathering is indicative of our closer ties with Asia and the ASC’s and AUSPIN’s international standing. If we don’t share, we risk being left behind and becoming isolated in an increasingly connected world.

‘This knowledge-sharing ethos is requiring a huge behavioural change in how organisations operate compared with the past but it’s required as we move from the information age into the knowledge age where we need a whole-of-sport view of knowledge and expertise.’

The AUSPIN members and partners will meet annually to further discuss the progress and rollout of the Clearinghouse. The NSIC, formerly the AIS Information Centre, was established in 1982.

To learn more about AUSPIN and the Clearinghouse through the ASC website.