SDEPS Newsletter #3

The time to create digital public spaces is now!

The second PublicSpaces conference will happen in just a few hours, on 17-18 May, in Amsterdam, and it is set to provide a great forum to work on digital ecosystems based on public values. The program of the conference features a number of sessions with European experts, activists, policymakers and politicians to work on a digital ecosystem based on public values.

SDEPS members will also contribute to the programme in Amsterdam: on 17 May at 13:00 CET, Sophie Bloemen (Commons Network) will host the session “Public-civic collaboration for public interest-based digital spaces”, exploring the opportunities of collaboration across public and civic initiatives, which will be joined by Michael Zita, Deborah Grayson, Boris van Hoytema, Sarah de Heusch. On the same day, and starting at 17:00, Paul Keller (Open Future) will host the panel “The state of play of European legislation” to have a look at the progress of the European legislative files included in the EU Digital Strategy which play a key role for Digital public spaces with Kim van Sparrentak, Lotje Beek, Claudine Vliegen and Tamar Sharon. The PublicSpaces Conference #2 is going to be held in a hybrid format, and you can register here for free.

Building a European Cultural Backbone

The Cultural Broadcasting Archive (CBA) is organizing a series of events running on 23-28 May in Linz, Austria, to explore and expand technology for community-based exchange and publication.

With collaborative hacking projects, CBA wants to push forward a common base for a European Cultural Backbone for community media and their surrounding media spheres. The unconference-style event will feature sessions, workshops and co-creation labs.

Would you sell your personal data for a cup of coffee?

An edition of the Ethical Dilemma Cafè took place in Manchester on 26 and 27 April. Ran by BBC and Mozilla, the Cafè gave its participants the opportunity to reflect on the value of their personal data, and better understand the power of their data and algorithms - and how those shape our world today.

A number of activities took place throughout the 2-day Cafè, including workshops, talks and exhibitions. Ian Forrester (BBC) wrote a wrap-up of the Cafè in his cubicgarden blog, while the team of  Digital Skills Education made a video out of the experience.