CONFERENCE

The City of Lyon is pleased to host meetings of the EUROCITIES Culture and Knowledge Society Forums from 5 to 8th March 2008.

The highlight of the meeting will be a joint session with the members the EUROCITIES Culture and Knowledge Society Forum on Thursday 6th March. The theme of this joint meeting will be “New cultural practices and access to the knowledge generated by the numeric/digital supports – how the knowledge society changes the cultural practices and access to culture”.

The development of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) has an important impact in different ways on the cultural aspects of our societies. The World Wide Web and its impact on access to culture and potential to increase artistic participation and diversity is just one example of these developments. There are many more. The uptake of technology also makes tools for cultural production and participation more widely available which has an impact on the development of traditional forms of art and creates opportunities for new cultural processes and artistic media. Many of these developments will require an adequate response from cities in order to benefit from new opportunities for local production and consumption of arts and culture. But the impact of ICT’s on the cultural landscape does go beyond the limits of the ‘cultural industry’.

By increasing the opportunities for people to express their cultural interest and participate in cultural expressions, ICTs have become an important tool for people in the reflection upon, and contribution to their communities. They thereby support the social inclusion of different groups in society and make issues such as the digital divide very prominent.

For several years now Lyon has been investing in the development of both the cultural and digital fields, following the emergence of new media industries such as serious video games or electronic music.

The joint Forum meeting will be an opportunity to share insights and compare approaches and strategies from cities to link culture and new technologies and to respond to changes and challenges coming from the digital revolution. We do hope that this joint session will lead to fruitful cross sector cooperation between the Culture Forum and the Knowledge Society Forums but possibly as well to the cooperation between the departments involved within your city.