Europe

Digitization, Data, Disruptions, Diversity

Tallinn Hosts the Council of Europe’s Conference on Culture Digitization

September 22nd, 2016
Daniel Erhardt, CD News
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The ‘Culture 4D: Digitization, Data, Disruptions, Diversity’ conference on the current topic of digital culture and its effects will be held in Tallinn, Estonia, on the 29th and 30th of September. The academic discussion platform is co-organized by the Council of Europe, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Estonia and the University of Tallinn.

The focus of the conference will be to help participants to understand the advantages that the new digital infrastructures and networking platforms offer for the management and digitization of cultural content. The conference also aims to show how these platforms can be used to increase access to cultural participation and make it as universally available as possible, that way increasing cultural plurality and diversity as democratic values.

During the conference, attention will be drawn to the challenges posed by the current era of digitization of social and cultural content, especially those posed by so-called ‘big data’ management. This refers to how the collection, analysis, ownership and reproduction of cultural data can affect the formation of cultural identities. These topics will be the focus of the first day of the conference, under the title ‘Small Europe, Big Data’.

 Among other matters, trends like cloud computing and automation will be analyzed in relation to the subsequent concentration of cultural data in the hands of a few data management corporations. The conference will discuss the potential for these trends to clash with core European values like free configuration, reproduction and respect for cultural memory and diversity.

The second day of the conference will focus again on the issue of making cultural data more accessible through digitization, by debating means for universal access to digital technology. Among the challenges in achieving this accessibility are cultural barriers, which will be discussed as well as ways to overcome them by closing gaps in digital education and usage within society.

The two-day conference will be made up of a panel of 24 experts specialized in the fields of culture, sociology, museology and digital media from universities, international organizations and business from the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Armenia, Serbia and Estonia.

The conference will be followed by two networking events organized by the Cross Motion project. With a more practical approach, the Cross Motion Conference will bring the media and gaming industries together with the health, tourism and education sectors in order to investigate ways of mutual development through cross-innovation. The second day ‘Hackaton’ brainstorming event will then discuss current technological trends like 360 filming, virtual and augmented reality, and gamification, as well as their application.

The conference is an initiative of the current Estonian Presidency of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers.

 

References:

Cultural Diplomacy News