Baku Conference – First Platform Exchange on Culture and Digitisation

"Creating an enabling environment for digital culture and for empowering citizens"

4-5 July 2014, Baku, Azerbaijan

The conference took place under the Chairmanship of Azerbaijan Council of Europe June 2014 - November 2014

What is the impact of digitisation on culture? How are public cultural institutions fairing in their transition from the pre-digital to the digital era? And what are the needs of the cultural sector, i.e. its actors, as regards access to, creation and dissemination of cultural content? How can we stimulate cultural participation and overcome the digital divide? How can we empower citizens and create an overall enabling environment for digital culture?

These were the key questions addressed by senior policymakers, cultural practitioners, artists, representatives from International Organisations and researchers participating in the First Council of Europe Platform Exchange on Culture and Digitisation.

The Platform identified five main areas of concern for future work by the Council of Europe:

1. Create awareness of the impact of digitisation on society and culture and the need to overcome the digital/pre-digital divide, underlining the role of culture in achieving this;

2. Scale-up and implement media and information literacy (MIL) inside and outside schools and in life-long learning;

3. Adapt the mission, mandate, mind-set and governance of cultural institutions to be able to exploit the offline and online dynamics;

4. Protect and promote the rights to access, create and distribute cultural content across multiple platforms;

5. Enhance information and monitoring of cultural policies and their implementation related to digitisation.

Guided by the Council of Europe’s principles and values with regard to human rights, democracy and the rule of law, policy guidelines will be developed as from autumn 2014. The process is open and an online platform will be made available for on-going multi-stakeholder consultations.

Background

Digitisation is shaping the 21st century: not only in terms of new technology, but also in terms of our information environment’s culture, and is having a significant impact on our societies. In this context, the Council of Europe has highlighted the importance of users’ individual and collective needs, the risks for European cultural diversity and the need for adequate conditions for cultural content production and creativity. Future cultural policy will need to tune into the digital world if it is to continue ensuring the widest possible access to and participation in culture and full usage of the opportunities for individual and collective creativity.