zur deutschen version

31 August 2012
11.30 am – 6 pm, Wissensturm Linz

At the beginning of day one three keynote speakers are will shed light on the problem of digital archiving from the perspectives of media studies, economics and the law. Their intervention will be followed by a panel discussion where political approaches for open non commercial media archives will be discussed and questions will be posed, how a public contract for the digital archiving of the cultural heritage could be defined. Moderation: Ina Zwerger (ORF).

11:30 – 12:30     Get Together / Brunch
12:30 – 12:45     Welcome
12:45 – 13:30     Keynote Manfred Faßler
13:30 – 14:15     Keynote Ruth Towse
14:15 – 14:30     Break
14:30 – 15:15     Keynote NN
15:15 – 15:45     Break / Buffet
15:45 – 17:30     Panel-Diskussion
17:30 – 18:00     Final remarks and reflections / Preview Day 2

1  September 2012
10.00 am – 5.30 pm, Wissensturm Linz

The second day of Archivia serves the networking of the various archive-, media-, net politics- and culture projects. Austrian and international archival projects and broadcasters present their current “Best practice models”. Based on the outcomes of Day 1 possible solutions for the legal, economic and (administrative-)technical challenges and barriers to digitization and the on-line utilization of broadcasts shall be developed. Another issue will be locating the digital archives in the current discourses on information and knowledge society.

10.00 – 10.30    Welcome / Program
10.30 – 11.00     Reflections Discussions Day 1
11.00 – 12.30     Best practice presentations – TBA
12.30 – 13.30     Lunch
13.30 – 15.30     Workshop 2 – TBA / Workshop 3 – TBA
15.30 – 16.30     Presentations – followed by a break
16.30 – 17.30     Discussions / Conclusio

zur deutschen version

A conference convened by the Austrian Association of Independent Radio Stations (VFRÖ) and Radio FRO in the context of ARS Electronica Festival 2012 (The Big Picture) on 31 August and 1 September 2012 in Linz Wissensturm.

Since digitization, much has changed in the structure of information and communication. One of the strongly affected areas are archives. What is being discussed is not only the technical implementation and durability of digital archives, but also their social function. Whereas for a long time, archives were accessible only to a limited public and consequently irrelevant for the chain generating royalties and revenues, digitization and, above all, the internet offer the potential for opening up archives to the public worldwide.

Whether these archives, made available worldwide, impair the chain generating royalties and revenues or not depends upon the content made accessible; a film archive available worldwide can impair the generation of royalties and revenues, just as it can do in musical or literature (e-books). Other archives, such as radio station archives, can be made available to the public without disturbing generation of royalties and revenues from the materials used (the inputs). If, for example, music is played in the background of a conversation, or even simply played on the radio in the program-breaks, presumably no one would listen to the radio program in the online archive instead of buying the CD or MP3 file.

Especially in the area of public radio and independent, non-commercial radio stations, a question arises concerning the sense of copyright barriers to access. In both cases in Europe, public financial means are deployed to produce the programs because they are regarded as being socially relevant. Because of copyright limitations relating to making content available on the internet, however, providing open public access to program archives is highly restricted and, in many cases, practically impossible. Even though public moneys are deployed and the use of relevant program-content for linear transmission (terrestrial transmission and live-stream) is appropriately remunerated, apparently, permanent availability is still not possible. The private interests of the copyright owners (even though the potential for generating royalties is not curtailed) are placed above the public interest in information which is manifest also in the statutory public assignment and the public financing of non-commercial, independent radio stations.

At ARCHIVIA, problems with archiving content or making it publicly available are to be illuminated and potential solutions discussed in workshops. Three keynote speakers are planned to throw light on the problem from the perspectives of media studies, economics and the law. The contribution from media studies will show the social function of archives, the significance of public accessibility and changes thereto in the past two decades. The contribution of economics will concentrate on possible inefficiencies and problems of welfare economics triggered by copyright. And the contribution of jurisprudence will elucidate the current situation and discuss the prospects for possible solutions, such as the introduction of statutory licences.

The ARCHIVIA 12 conference will bring together opinions and positions of operators, both in Austria and internationally, of archiving and internet projects, statutory public and independent, non-commercial radio stations along with players in diverse fields of art, media and academic disciplines as well as politics. The conference’s aim is to bundle together shared interests, to gain an orientation in current academic and political discourse, and to form alliances across the broad spectrum of digital archives. ARCHIVIA 12 is intended to form the starting-point for networked political efforts in the sense of creating such political boundary-conditions that appropriately take into account contemporary utilization and the generation of royalties and revenues from the digital cultural heritage.