Citizenship, Content & Creativity
humanITy Statement to the Ministerial Conference on eInclusion “ICT for an Inclusive Society”
Date: 12/06/2006
Venue: Riga, Latvia
Article
Although convergence is often envisaged in purely physical terms its necessary precursor is digital convergence; we are rapidly approaching the time when all the major strands of analogue information creativity and production (print publishing, sound recording, film, broadcasting and telecommunications) will be fused into one digital data domain.
Such a development requires a corresponding eInclusion data framework which should consist of three major pillars:
- Citizenship. A Generic Information; right. All citizens should have a right to access all information that is in the public domain on an equitable basis and without discrimination. This right should be equal in status to the rights of the creators and owners of intellectual property rights so that the balance between these rights can be transparently adjudicated. In the interim, any exceptions to copyright granted for the production of accessible format material (braille, modified print, sub titling, signing, audio description &c) should be platform independent. The NGO sector does not have the capacity to campaign for exceptions every time a new platform is developed.
- Content. From Product to Material. If we are to succeed in creating a dynamic information society, Digital Rights Management systems should be developed which do not treat all content in the same way. In a post-modern world the creative process involves multiple layers of reflexiveness, commentary, bricolage and iterative amendment; and in the European Union there is the special problem of linguistic translation. Laws for digital content should not replicate those for the 19th Century novel or 20th Century analogue film. We must encourage a legal environment in which most content is regarded as raw material for further creativity rather than as an immutable end product.
- Creativity. The Opportunity to Contribute. The eInclusion debate has concentrated too heavily on the opportunities to access and process material. Governments and major companies have implicitly assumed that the purpose of digital networks is to provide them with a one-way channel to citizens and consumers. In a dynamic information society to consume is not enough. All citizens must have the opportunity, autonomously and collaboratively, to create and contribute to the information resource. The 'Creative pyramid' crowned by genius is only possible with a middle layer of innovation and craft emerging from a firm foundation of basic skills.