Digital presence and tools are the cornerstone of any cultural organisation's development. But how to navigate the digital shift without loosing sight of our values? How can cultural operators choose tools and platforms that are sustainable, inclusive and respectful of our data? How can we make sure that they fit our needs and that we are not serving theirs?
The ENCC and Digital Ethics
The COVID-19 pandemic intensified and speeded up the digital shift. As the ENCC network and coordination office translated a large part of their activities online, we felt the need to evaluate our digital choices and reflect on them.
In 2022, the ENCC coordination office launched a project to renew its communication and digital office tools with a strong focus on ethics, inclusion and transparency. This includes defining an ethical, inclusive and transparent approach to digital for cultural operators, testing alternatives to GAFAM platforms and tools, and reflecting on the digital shift itself, underlining the value of non-digital tools, events and communications. One of the first results is the publication On Digital Ethics for Cultural Organisations, co-written by the ENCC and Pierre Huyguebaert from Spec uloos.
In March 2023, the annual conference of the ENCC put digital practices, ethics and sustainability in the spotlight, with a half a day dedicated to digital researchers, artists and practitioners, and a hands-on workshop on alternative digital practices.
Events of the Working Group
20 September 2023 - Mastodon Workshop
It is always challenging to make the move from "big tech" to free and open source digital tools, but here at the ENCC coordination office we decided to hold a workshop to let us all ease into the world of ethical digital tools.
Find out more about our Mastodon Workshop planned for September 20th here
14 June 2023 - Digital Culture Breakfast
On June 14th at our offices in Brussels, we held a Digital Culture Breakfast to continue our conversation on digital ethics and breathe new life into our working group.
You can read more about it here.
24 April 2023 - CAE Digital Ethics
Our members are very different, but most are pluridisciplinary centres positioned on the intersection of artistic, cultural and social and community work. To align on values of cultural democracy, equality, sustainability and changemaking.
This lunch meeting in collaboration with Culture Action Europe was a great opportunity to discuss the project to move away from predatory, Big-Tech extractive digital tools, and towards infrastructures that align on values with cultural orgs, especially cultural centres, which are positioned on the intersection of cultural and social work.
Who is part of the Working Group?
Our Working Group on Digital Ethics is a transectorial platform open to ENCC members, other cultural operators, partner networks, civil society organisations, and students and educators from the IT sector. It is coordinated by Lapo Bettarini, member of the ENCC Advisory Group. Meetings of the group have been ongoing since August 2021. Participants' organisations include:
Experts and practitioners with experience, needs, challenges or questions to share with the group are welcome to join. To find out how to participate, please contact Cigdem at cigdem.ozdemircelik@encc.eu.
What does the Working Group do?
The group is a community of practice gathering both experts and cultural professionals interested in the topic, to build momentum around it and experiment together.
