Georg Hohmann, Head of Deutsches Museum Digital, Deutsches Museum, München

Gertraud Koch, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, University of Hamburg

Mareike Schumacher, eFoto project, University of Hamburg

In the context of digitization many questions emerge around economic issues. Digitization of cultural materials is a cost-intensive matter, reuse of cultural materials by creative industries seems to promise some returns of invest, and the symbolic capital of sharing cultural materials turns out to be an important asset. Moreover, in economies creating added value increasingly through knowledge and cultural production, as currently given, the question is apparent how the cultural sector may benefit from these gains.

However, so far we can hardly find information about economic issues of digitizing and sharing cultural materials. How can digitisation and sharing of cultural heritage materials be funded? What peculiarities do diverse funding sources provide?  What kinds of costs need to be considered in the workflow of sharing cultural materials? What kinds of outcomes are expected from sharing cultural materials? Can there be an economic gain? What can be gained from sharing cultural materials under the creative commons licenses? Are there business models for sharing cultural materials?

The workshop will collect and sort out the knowledge about the economies of sharing digitized cultural materials and what questions need to be inquired for facilitating  approaches of sharing as caring.