Archives for the Digital Public Sphere

Session 3

Archives for the Digital Public Sphere

Friday 04.06. 14.00 - 16.30 / Semperdepot, Prospekthof
Archives, more than ever, are a key component of the cultural landscape. In the context of individualized access and on-demand cultures, the live aspect of digital production has grown comparatively less important. The fact that more is being produced than anyone of us can access in real-time puts emphasis on ways to store, archive and retrieve cultural production after the fact. Last, but not least, in age where sampling and editing have become basic operations of cultural production, archives and open access to their treasures are central to cultural evolution. Commercially, the heightened value of archives has been recognized for a long time, and corporations like Corbis and GettyImages? have already privatized and commodified large parts of our (digitized) pictorial heritage. But what we need are archives that make their contents available freely and promiscuously, otherwise, experimental culture cannot flourish.

Participants

Paula Le Dieu: The Creative Archive: fuel for a creative nation
The Creative Archive is at heart an initiative to open up the BBC's audio and video archive through the creation of a rights clear, digitised, highly distributable archive and the licencing framework necessary for its consumption. But as it is only early days in the BBC's plans, this presentation will focus on discussing the inspiration and thinking behind the initiative and the progress made so far.
Paula Le Dieu (UK)

Brewster Kahle: Universal Access to All Knowledge
The goal of universal access to our cultural heritage is within our grasp. With current digital technology we can build comprehensive collections, and with digital networks we can make these available to students and scholars all over the world. The current challenge is establishing the roles, rights, and responsibilities of our libraries and archives in providing public access to this information. With these roles defined, our institutions will help fulfill this epic opportunity of our digital age.
Brewster Kahle (US)

Istvan Rev: Open Society Archives
Istvan Rev (HU)

Moderation

Thorsten Schilling (DE)