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The European Commission's Reflection Group ("Comité des Sages") on digitisation has launched a consultation on how best to foster the online presence of cultural heritage.

As Europe's creative and cultural sectors undergo a revolutionary transition, innovative solutions are needed to keep up with technological advances and reap their full benefits.

The Commission has asked the Reflection Group to look at how best to speed up the digitisation, online accessibility and preservation of cultural works across Europe.

Contributions to this consultation will feed into the recommendations the Group will make before the end of the year (see IP/10/456).

The consultation will run until 30 September 2010.

The consultation is inviting all interested parties - citizens, cultural institutions, public authorities, private companies, NGOs, academic institutions - to give their views on key issues of digitisation. These include potential sources of funding for digitisation and for developing Europeana, Europe's digital library (see MEMO/10/166). Ideas are also being sought on acceptable exploitation models for content digitised with public funding, on the conditions that could govern public-private partnerships for digitisation, on how to bring more copyrighted material online and on how to ensure cross–border access to digitised resources.

Next steps

The Reflection Group will analyse the responses to this consultation and the views raised in other fora, including a follow-up hearing scheduled to take place in Brussels on 28 October 2010.

At the end of 2010 the Group will come forward with a set of recommendations for the digitisation, online accessibility and preservation of Europe's cultural heritage in the digital age, looking in particular at the issue of public-private partnerships for digitisation in Europe.

Background

The Group, established in April 2010, is part of the European Commission's broader strategy to help the cultural sector make the transition towards the digital age. This is to ensure that Europe's rich cultural heritage and diverse cultural content is preserved and made accessible to all on the internet, including finding new effective business models.

The Group consists of Maurice Lévy (CEO of Publicis), Elisabeth Niggemann (Director General of the German National Library) and Jacques De Decker (writer) and reports to Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes and Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou (see IP/10/456).

More information

The consultation is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=comitedessages&lang=en