#3: The Digital Public Sphere

Program Line #3: The Digital Public Sphere

In this program line “Digital Public Sphere” research will explore new distribution opportunities and business models of online audiovisual material, building on program lines 1 and 2. The goal is to develop knowledge about the above mentioned and embed this within education practices where the professionals of tomorrow are trained.

Questions
As cultural collections are becoming increasingly digitized new questions arise for collection holders, but also among the creators (whose work is included in collections) and developers who train the future cultural and education professionals:

  • What is the value in the online distribution of creative works (value for the creators, for the institutions with collections of cultural material, and value for the public)?
  • What are new business models for online distribution and cultural material?
  • How can user needs and cultures around deployment (new models), distribution of cultural material (identified in work package 1 and 2)?
  • How can knowledge about online distribution, use- and usability cultures, multiply and embed within the education system?

Goals
The aim of the work package, is to gain knowledge about audience participation, new cultures and increase online users and distribution models for online content, this to stimulate and conduct research in universities of applied research like the Hogeschool van Amsterdam.

Activities and deliverables

  • To create new developments in distribution and business models for online audiovisual materials in collaboration with the participants;
  • To examine, test and report these innovative models in collaboration with educators and researchers;
  • To build on the findings from work package 1 and 2 which are incorporated into education (in collaboration with the MediaLAB) on open content and online users and the digital culture public sphere, building on existing programs from the MediaLAB like ‘OpenCourseWare’ and Urban Screens
  • To develop a reader about online video, and new distribution and business models;
  • To organize a conference within the coming two years about online cultural material;
  • To publish the results of the study in the Cultural Vortex reader, the final publication of the RAAK-program created by this group is.

Program Coordinator and participants
Coordinator: HvA Insitute of Network Cultures
Participants: MediaLAB, Media Art, Video Vortex Research Network, Urban Screens Association, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, VPRO, Virtueel Platform and Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid.
The program line-transcending activities encompass knowledge exchange, program management, communication, monitoring and evaluation.