I am writing to invite you to the fourth Communia Salon this year, taking place on Thursday, the 17th of September, at 15.30-17.00. During the online event, organised in cooperation with the #NoWorries project, we want to discuss policies that concern digital cultural heritage. 

Our meeting will take place right after the European Commission will close its consultation on opportunities offered by digital technologies for the culture heritage sector. We also want to discuss the ongoing implementation of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive, and the rules that it will set for cultural heritage institutions.

In the consultations, the European Commission is referring to the “Recommendation on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation”, from 2011.  Almost a decade has passed since then, and large amounts of heritage have been digitised. The term “digitisation” has been replaced with the idea of digital transformation. At the same time, barriers and challenges to access and reuse still remain – heritage in digitised form is a potentially underused resource.

During the salon, we want to ask representatives of key stakeholders from the heritage sector: what are the effects of digital technologies on the cultural heritage sector, and how should we shape them with appropriate policies? With regard to copyright regulations, we want to discuss wheter the reform went far enough, and whether it struck the the right balance? We also want to consider whether any other policies are needed for Europe to fully benefit from digital heritage?

Join us for a debate moderated by Alek Tarkowski (Communia / Centrum Cyfrowe), with the participation of Paul Keller (Communia / IViR), Ariadna Matas (Europeana), Hessel van Oorschot (Open Nederland / Tribe of Noise) and Brigitte Vézina (Creative Commons).

The Salon is open for everyone to attend and will be held on Zoom. Join us on Thursday, the 17th of September, at 1530 CET, by registering here. Registered participants will receive login information ahead of the event.