1. How open is open enough?
A philosophy of cultural commons
for the cultural heritage sector
Eva Van Passel
iMinds-SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
#sharecare15
#righttoremix

2. Times of change
Image CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
by William Cho on Flickr
Users, makers, online experience seekers
Digital access: how to get involved?!
Often great challenges for cultural institutions

3. My background: research
Local digitisation and digital access projects
Research in the Europeana context
A small-scale research project with an artist

4. Europeana Inside
Open licensing of data as potential barrier
'One size fits all' can be scary for many
This does not imply an unwillingness to share

5. An artist’s perspective
Jasper Rigole's IICADOM: the International Institute
for the Conservation, Archiving and Distribution
of other People’s Memories
Lessons for real memory institutions
Stills from Temps Mort
Jasper Rigole, 2010

6. Creative approaches to openness
Attitudes to risk
Interacting with external platforms
Fostering creative reuse
(Van Passel & Rigole, 2014)

7. Arts and heritage: ad hoc challenges
“There has to be a better way.”
Towards a framework for practice and policy
Why a philosophy of commons?

9. “Towards a Cultural Commons Approach as a
Framework for Cultural Policy and Practice
in a Network Society”.
Paper with the Agency for Arts & Heritage,
presented at a conference on Knowledge Commons
(van der Linden, Van Passel & Driesen, 2014)
Working with policy makers

10. The intrinsic value of culture
Users' right to sustainable access
A varied and inclusive offer
Underlying principles

11. Constructed cultural commons?
Resources and community
Goals and objectives
Degrees of openness
Governance
(Madison, Frischmann & Strandburg, 2010)

12. … and in practice?
Beware of the black hole of the 20th
century
Michael P. Edson: “Think big, start small, move fast!”
Open up what you can, as soon as you can
Towards a cultural commons for Europe

13. Thank you!
eva.van.passel@vub.ac.be

14. (References)
Madison, M. J., Frischmann, B. M., Strandburg, K. J. (2010). Constructing Commons in the Cultural
Environment. Cornell Law Review, 95 (4), 657-709.
van der Linden, H., Van Passel, E., & Driesen, L. (2014). Towards a Cultural Commons Approach as a
Framework for Cultural Policy and Practice in a Network Society. Paper presented at the 2nd Thematic
Conference on Knowledge Commons, 5-6 September 2014, New York, USA.
Van Passel, E., & Rigole, J. (2014). Fictional Institutions and Institutional Frictions: Creative Approaches to
Open GLAMs. Digital Creativity, Volume 25, Issue 3, 203-211.
DOI: 10.1080/14626268.2014.904363
Slide “Know your cultural institutions' rights” by Andrea Wallace, a@andeewallace.com
(Photographs by Eva Van Passel, unless otherwise noted)