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A
memo sent to correspondents, friends and acquaintances of the Budapest
Observatory (BO) in November 2006
That
was the month that was.
Rio
contested
The
Fórum
Cultural Mundial
has proved to be a major attracting force for a couple of colleagues, whom BO
would have loved to involve in the Buda Retreat. Besides the many programmes of
the Fórum, these colleagues attended associated events like a world meeting
of cultural networks, an
international meeting of foundations as well as the annual
meeting of the international network of cultural diversity. In our European
winter we will be reading reports from the Brazilian
summer.
BO
first innocently believed the Fórum to be the successor of
Barcelona
04.
Oh, no, that one was a Universal Forum of Cultures, to be succeeded in Mexican
Monterrey
07.
The antecedent of this year's Fórum was São
Paolo 04.
BO
retreated
BO
and its eleven guests from ten countries retreated to the castle district in
Buda, into the house of the Hungarian
Culture Foundation,
to discuss about cultural observatories. Which we did according to the
preliminary outline.
Pondering
about cultural observatories became a habit this year. Before the Buda Retreat
the same happened in Belfast ,
Bilbao
and Bologna.
Our
seminar revealed an even greater variety of aims, formats and functions of
observatories than anticipated, drawing from the experiences of
veteran
Grenoble
and Vienna,
vigorous Culturescope
and deceased Center
for Arts and Culture,
through young Cupore
to blossoming initiatives in Sweden. Common traits and aspirations of cultural
observatories were also highlighted: the conclusions will reflect
convergence
in diversity.
The
retreat was organised in conjuction with the LabforCulture,
whose site will display the said conclusions soon.
The
Commission will communicate
Members
of the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage (EFAH) received substantial
briefing at their annual general meeting in Helsinki
about the strategic prospects of culture in the EU, and specifically about the
role of the "Communication" that the Commission promised to issue on culture in
2007. BO answered the call and our views can be read among the
responses
on display.
As
usual, eastern Europe is underrepresented among the hundred and umpteen
contributors. A cursory browsing of the answers revealed however a number of
western voices that emphasise the need for further opening to the east,
especially through culture.
On
European culture in Patras
Our
response to the above mentioned call was the basis of BO contribution to the
conference
in Patras, organised as part of the programme of this
year's
European Capital of Culture.
The
2762nd on digitisation
As
always in November, culture ministers of the Union held their
council
meeting
in Brussels. This time they supervised the digitisation of culture, which is too
broad a field and too much in motion for ordinary citizens to follow. Although
one usually has the impression of the Union lagging behind the advances of
technology and of private capital, the conclusions of this 2762nd
meeting suggest definitive progress, both in what has happened and what is
planned. Instead of risky megaprojects on the one hand, and dispersed national
trials and errors on the other, determined coordination appears to be the case.
In
the complicated issue of a European Digital Library the council adopted the
vision of „a common multilingual access point to Europe's distributed digital
cultural heritage, hospitable to all types of cultural material (texts,
audiovisual, museum objects, archival records etc.) and targeted at delivering
rapidly a critical mass of resources to the users". From the steps to follow, we
quote two of what the ministers agreed to
do:
- to prepare roadmaps and incentives for cultural institutions to bring existing
and newly digitised material into the European digital library from next year
onwards;
- and to encourage private content holders to make their copyrighted material
searchable and accessible through the common European multilingual access
point.
In
these efforts the work of the Michael
consortium, combining public and private bodies, promises to be of great help.
Less clear is the role of Minerva,
too vague for BO to condense into a few sentences for the busy readers of this
memo.
The
2762nd on the economy of culture in
Europe
The
council meeting greeted the KEA study
on the subject, drew conclusions and set tasks. Among others a policy document
was promised for the spring and „the Presidency concluded that there was wide
consensus between Member States on the importance of harmonised cultural
statistics at European level that would allow a solid assessment of the economic
impact of culture. In this respect there was a need for close cooperation
between Member States on defining a clear methodological basis". BO was pleased
to hear familiar language from such a high body.
BO
had certain reservation at the news of such a huge task commissioned
to an organisation
with an office at arm's length from the EU institutions in Brussels. (See also
Europalia.)
This study, however, withstood BO prejudice, is highly recommended
reading.
It contains much more knowledge than the hazy figure of 2,6% contribution to the
output of the European economy.
On
the west-east slope
A
propos two items quoted from the 2762nd, digits and statistics, here
is what Eurostat disclosed
in November: In the EU25, 52% of households had access to the internet during
the first quarter of 2006 (compared to
48% a year earlier). Next to the old fifteen, seven countries from our region
were included in the comparative table:
None
of the seven went above the average of the EU15 (55,7%, although Slovenia got
quite near); on the other hand, two old members, Greece and Portugal remain
below the average of east and central Europe (38,9%).
Left
to the December memo
Reporting
about Le Mans, the European festival project, and more...
Buda Retreat
From
left: Magdalena, Svante, Katalin, Vladimir, Lidia, Péter, Aimee, Alexandra,
Geoffrey, Iuliana, Ritva, Judit, János; not in the picture: Iván, Jean-Pierre,
Orsolya, Sándor, Veronika and Zsuzsa.
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