CULTU(RE)GION ONLINE! FUTURE GOES BY!

The regional conference Cultu(RE)gion online! The Future Goes By, dealing with the significance of culture portals, the need to utilize the potential of Internet development and opportunities and challenges on the path towards innovative cooperation in the region will take place on 8-9 December 2008 in Belgrade. It is organized by Goethe Institute Belgrade and the Portal for Culture of South-Eastern Europe, SEEcult.org.

The conference be held in the premises of Goethe Institute in Belgrade, and it is an activity within the two-year project for development of Informal Network of Cultural Portals of South-Eastern Europe inSEEcp (Informal Network of South-East European Cultural Portals), supported by the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.

Minister of Culture of Serbia, Nebojša Bradić, will open the conference. In addition to the representatives of some twenty cultural portals from the region, participants in the conference will be the founder of Berlinergazette.de Krystian Woznicki and one of the pioneers of net-art and lecturer Vuk Ćosić from Ljubljana, who will speak about the phenomenon of social networks on the Internet.

Representatives of local and state authorities, cultural, academic and research institutions, art associations, non-governmental organizations, foundations, media and web-magazines, as well as artists, activists and other representatives of target groups of culture portals are invited to attend and participate in the discussion.

The conference has the aim of highlighting the potential of the network of cultural portals, as a platform for innovative cooperation in the region, but will point also to the obstacles that portals, as non-profit projects, face, in view of the inadequate cultural policies in the region and on the European level. New opportunities and challenges in the areas of culture and arts will be discussed, as well. A workshop will deal with the social and cultural aspects of web 2.0, presenting practical uses of portals, blogs, social web services and free software in culture and arts.

This will also be an opportunity to add new members to inSEEcp, for the moment only from the region of former Yugoslavia. The new visual identity of inSEEcp, designed by the Belgrade graphic designer Andrija Nikačević will be promoted, as well as a booklet on inSEEcp in the original languages of the portals, as well as German and English.

Members of inSEEcp are the portals Artservis.org, Evrokultura.org and RadioStudent.si from Slovenia, Culturenet.hr, Kulturpunkt.hr, Culturelink.hr, Knjiga.hr and Teatar.hr from Croatia, Kulporter.com from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pro-story.org from Montenegro, Culture.in.mk from Macedonia and SEEcult.org from Serbia. An associated member is Stacion.org from Pristina, while Plagij.at from Macedonia, Montenegrina.net from Montenegro and Creemaginet.com from Belgrade have started the process of association.

Representatives of portals Startmontenegro.com from Montenegro and Forumskopje.com will also be among the participants of the conference.
InSEEcp is a result of workshops, meetings and on-line activities of culture portals in Southeast Europe, initiated in 2006, at the first regional meeting organized by SEEcult.org and Goethe-Institute Belgrade.
Given the importance of digital culture, common problems of culture portals in the region, and rapid technological advancement, InSEEcp was launched for the purposes of on-line and off-line advocacy and promotion of culture on the internet, facilitation of a free flow of information about the diversity of cultures in the region, exchange of experiences, and professional enhancement, with a view to supporting and furthering quality production in culture and the arts, and drawing attention of the widest possible public to such production.
At the very outset of its development, InSEEcp has gathered portals from the former Yugoslavia, and has thus formed a natural starting point for further networking in the SEE region, especially in light of related cultures and languages, and historical links of nations in the region.

The first regional workshop of culture portals, titled “Culture on the Internet / Networking Participants in the Cultural Domain in Southeast Europe through Specialized Internet Portals” was held in Belgrade, in November 2006. Representatives of German portals Signandsight.com and N-ost.de were also present at the event. A round table – “Significance of Culture Portals”, hosted during the workshop, brought together representatives of target groups of portals, and attracted undivided attention of expert and wider audiences.
Some InSEEcp members had already met each other at the round table of the Culturemondo international network, co-organized by Culturelink.hr, in Dubrovnik, in October 2006.

Concurrently with the continuation of on-line activities, the second inSEEcp regional workshop, titled “Networking and Cooperation of Culture Portals in the SEE Region”, organized by SEEcult.org and Goethe-Institute, and supported by the Stability Pact for SEE, was held in Belgrade, in December 2007. A round table “Cultural Policy and Culture on the Internet – SEE and Europe” was held within the workshop. Representatives of the German portal Perlentaucher.de and target groups participated in discussions.

InSEEcp presented itself for the first time to the international expert audience in Ljubljana, on 12 June 2008, at the “Re-Network!” conference, organized by CCP Slovenia / SCCA Ljubljana.

InSEEcp members also took part in the international round table “Intercultural Dialogue and Digital Culture”, hosted by Culturelink.hr, in Zagreb, in November 2008.

Within their two-year activities aimed at networking portals in the region, SEEcult.org and Goethe-Institute Belgrade, with the support of the Stability Pact for SEE, hosted a working meeting of inSEEcp in Belgrade, in October 2008, and also are organizing a regional conference “Cultures of the Region Online!_Future Goes By!” in Belgrade, on 8-9 December.

More information: http://www.seecult.org / http://www..goethe.de/belgrad / http://inseecp.blogspot.com
Contact: info@seecult.org / inseecp@gmail.com
Vesna Milosavljevic, vesna@seecult.org, + 381 63 214 893

New Book: Digital Culture, The Changing Dynamics

The book 'Digital Culture: The Changing Dynamics' has been published by the Institute for International Relations (IRO). The title was edited by Biserka Cvjeticanin and Aleksandra Uzelac, Scientific Researchers at IRO and Editors of the Culturelink publications.

Aleksandra Uzelac: How to understand digital culture: Digital culture – a resource for a knowledge society?; Rob van Kranenburg: New realities, new policies?; Helena Popović i Hajrudin Hromadžić: Media users: from readership to co-creators; Tomislav Medak: Transformations of cultural production, free culture and the future of the Internet; Jaka Primorac i Krešimir Jurlin: Access, piracy and culture:  the implications of digitalization in Southeastern Europe; Joost Smiers: Copyright and the digital age: a contradictio in terminis; Biserka Cvjetičanin: Challenges for cultural policies: the example of digital culture; Vesna Čopič: Digital culture in policy documents: the national(istic) perception of cultural diversity - The case of Slovenia;Ana Žuvela Bušnja i Daniela Angelina Jelinčić: Managing culture in virtual realms: policy provisions and issues - A European perspective; Herve Fischer: Ecology of the media and hyperhumanism; Jane Finnis: Turning cultural websites inside out: changes in online user behaviour, Web 2.0 and the issues for the culture sector; Lidia Varbanova: The online power of users and money: can culture gain?; Carlos A. Mas Zabala i dr.: A glance at the Cuban culture through its cultural portals.

Digital culture is a new complex notion: today digital trends are increasingly interloping with the world of culture and arts, involving different aspects of convergence of cultures, media and information technologies, and influencing new forms of communication. The new possibilities created by ICT – global connectivity and the rise of networks – challenge our traditional ways of understanding culture, extending it to digital culture as well. So, culture today should be understood as an open and dynamic process that is based on interactive communication, and we cannot think of it as an enclosed system which makes up a 'cultural mosaic' with other similar or diverse cultural systems. The ICT and especially the Internet, has given these interrelations a new dimension, by changing our relation towards knowledge and knowledge society, by intensifying the flow of cultural goods and services, and by causing a new understanding of cultural creativity.

The book entitled Digital Culture: The Changing Dynamics, is the result of discussions among experts, members of the Culturelink Network and IMO's researchers, in the course of the past few years on the impact of information and communication technologies on culture and the changes that in the context of the information era affect established cultural practices and concepts. The inspiration for producing this book rose from the meeting of experts at the Culturemondo conference, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia in 2006, hosted by Culturelink. Informal debates led to the proposal to unite different approaches, opinions and reflections about the phenomena transforming the world today into one book focusing on digital culture.

If you want to order the book
More info about the book 'Digital Culture: The Changing Dynamics' click here

Video from the Re-network! conference in Ljubljana (June, 2008)

Here is video from the Re-network! conference which took place in Ljunljana on 12th June 2008. This was the first international conference where inSEEcp presented its members and activities.

RE-NETWORK from toni poljanec on Vimeo.

inSEEcp members at the Intercultural Dialogue and Digital Culture round table in Zagreb

The Culturelink Network is organizing the round table entitled Intercultural Dialogue and Digital Culture, to be held in Zagreb, Croatia, on 20-21 November 2008, marking the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (EYID) 2008.

Culturelink is one of the founding member of inSEEcp.

inSEEcp will be presented by Dusan Dovc from Evrokultura / Artservis, whilst Aleksandra Uzelac (Culturelink),  Dea Vidovic (Kulturpunkt) and Deborah Hustic (Culturenet) will attend the event on the behalf of their portals.

The event aims to discuss and share knowledge about the possibilities that digital culture provides for intercultural dialogue and to identify examples of existing good practices that allow for participation of users in virtual cultural projects, thus enabling democratic participation of citizens in the building of virtual/digital culture.
We feel that issues related to digital culture and intercultural dialogue are insufficiently discussed and researched. In the roundtable discussions, we hope to clarify issues that often have diverse and imprecise meanings, focusing on the following topics:
- Intercultural dialogue – concept and its realisation (clarifying issues)
- Digital culture - how it relates to intercultural dialogue
- Digital culture participatory practices - building shared spaces?
- Digital culture new trends – portals, blogs, participatory internet: does the cultural sector recognize the current trends as a tool for enabling intercultural dialogue?
So far a number of speakers have confirmed their participation, including Colin Mercer, Don Foresta, Myriam Diocaretz, Kelvin Smith, Rob van Kranenburg, Katherine Watson, Vesna Čopič, Vuk Čosić, Filip Stojanovski and Tomislav Medak.
The round table is supported by UNESCO-BRESCE, the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the City of Zagreb.
The working language of the symposium will be English.
See here more detailed programme

(Text by Culturelink / inSEEcp)

Re-network! (short overview of the conference)

Re-network!

International conference on networking in the cultural sector

12 June 2008

City Hotel Ljubljana,

Dalmatinova 15, Slovenia

Short overview of the conference

The international conference dedicated to the topic of networking and stimulating transnational cooperation and free flow of information in the cultural sector hosted altogether 150 participants, mainly representatives of various international cultural networks, including ca. 50 delegates of European Cultural Contact Points.

A lively and sincere discussion involving speakers as well as the audience has reaffirmed the absolute significance of transnational networks while highlighting their specific roles as:

- »guardians« of the public domain (the power of networking is sharing),

- common platforms for identification of and discussion on relevant issues,

- »translators« (mediators) between different stakeholders,

- empowering structures (survival and self-education; visibility and recognition),

- enablers of the decentralisation of cultural industry.

In general it was stressed that culture should not be seen as a mean (illustration, decoration, PR) but as a value as such. As a concrete example of anachronistic notion of the role of culture in our society, the obsolete and unproductive category of »Ambassadors« supported within the EU Culture Programme was pointed out. This financial support should be rather used to stimulate networks and festivals which can actually enhance transnational cooperation.

Appropriate conditions on the national and regional levels as well should enable and enhance transnational cooperation through programmes stimulating mobility of cultural workers. The EU support programmes should broaden the geographical scope and substantially include the EU neighbourhood (more should be invested on future Members and regions “on the borders”).

Existing definitions related to networks are out of date and networks should adopt more innovative conceptions of operation and contemporary, synthetic approach. We should avoid thinking in paradigm of a rigid and stable structure (‘network’) but rather of a fluid and changing process (‘networking’).

Alenka Pirman, moderator
Mateja Lazar, organiser (CCP Slovenia)
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The international conference Re-network! was organised within the Informal meeting of European Cultural Contact Points (Ljubljana and Maribor, 11–14 June 2008) being one of the official events of the Slovene EU Presidency cultural programme.

Re-network! was organized by Cultural Contact Point Slovenia / SCCA, Center for Contemporary Arts-Ljubljana with a support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the European Commission (DG EAC) and Executive Agency (EACEA), Government Communication Office of the Republic of Slovenia, Slovenian EU Presidency Secretariat, CCP Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia and other partners.

This conference reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.