[p2p-research] Cultural Policy Should Support Organized Networks

[Michel Bauwens]

** <http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/?p=10313>
*[image: photo of Michel Bauwens]*

Michel Bauwens
24th August 2010



http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/geert/2010/08/19/new-cultural-policy-support-organized-networks/

This is an abstract from a
presentation<http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/geert/2010/08/19/new-cultural-policy-support-organized-networks/>by
Geert Lovink: New Cultural Policy: Support Organized Networks, to be
given in Dortmund on August 24.

Apart from Geert’s customary snide remark on the open and free culture
movement, his proposal is entirely congruent with the kind of approach we
have followed here, and entirely compatible with the aims of the free
culture movement.

*Geert Lovink:*

*“Much like the shifting relationship between social movements and NGOs
10-15 ago, we see a growing tension between the existing models of ‘cultural
organizations’ that deal with new media culture and arts versus informal
networks. Unlike a decade ago the cultural new media sector can no longer
claim to embody the ‘avant-garde’ position because that has been taken over
by the market. This situation leads to a void: neither truly innovative nor
particularly critical, new media organizations in the non-profit sector are
starting to float. They are not doing proper research either, or at least
not what policy makers and academics consider useful. Should they then all
just be closed now that the introductory phase of new media is coming to a
close? The massive digitization of ‘cultural heritage’ has proven to be
useless for the new media sector and has merely reproduced the existing,
conservative cultural landscape that is dominated by museums, opera and
concert halls.

Instead of aligning ourselves with the ‘creative industries’ agenda, the
proposal here would be transform the current organizational model into
facilitating hubs that empower ‘organized networks’. Over the past years,
together with Ned Rossiter, I have done both theoretical and practical work
to find out how we can develop ‘new institutional forms’. It is not enough
to submerge in the bitter insider-outsider logic over ever diminishing
budgets. It is time to invent our own sources of income. A first step for
this would be to recognize the ideology of free and open, such as advocated
by some in the ‘free culture’ movement as a trap. We also need a new notion
of the public domain and public broadcasting in particular in which new
media will have an equal status, next to film, public radio and television
and (subsidized) print. Barcamps, unconferencing, booksprints, festivals,
bricolabs and our recent Wintercamp event (Amsterdam, March 2009) are all
manifestations of a thriving culture of temp media labs. Instead of asking
how these emerging practices can contribute to ‘policy’ we should reverse
this question: how can cultural policies strengthen networks?” *


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