CoLab Executive Summary
CoLab Executive Summary
Co:llaboratory Executive Summary Version 0.3
The Internet & Society Co:llaboratory is a policy venture platform, that seizes and analyses the developments in the context of the continual digitization of our society from diverse angles with relevant stakeholders. This multi-stakeholder-approach guarantees transparency and independence. Above all, this transdisciplinary expertise allows for the transformation processes to be comprehended in an all-encompassing scope for the first time, the possibilities and risks to be identified and their implementation to be discussed in direct dialogue with representatives from politics and administration. Its main objective is to derivie a social benefit from the digitization and for potentials of the internet to be identified at an early stage, in order to establish ideal circumstances.
For this purpose, the Co:llaboratory brings together experts from civil society, the private sector and academia, who contribute their expertise in Initiatives or Ohus (Maori for communal working group) on the collaboration platform. The Initiatives investigate all facets of a certain subject area over a duration of several months, currently e.g. “Sustainability in the Digital World”. The collaborative work of the expert groups culminate in a final report, containing recommendations or describing scenarios. The Ohus on the other hand, are long term oriented and topic specific, conducting studies, organizing conferences and picking up on early trends in internet policy. Representatives from politics and administration are also involved from the beginning.
The whole range of discourse on internet policies will be elaborated and compiled pragmatically, informally and constructively in open workshops, BarCamps and the Co:llaboratory’s information platform. At the same time, the German Internet community is offered a publicly effective platform, making expert opinions accessible to a wider audience thereby helping the platform grow into a catalyst for innovative and exciting solutions.
Conceived as a Community of Practice,the Co:llaboratory is open to influences from the most diverse angles regarding its form, its processes and its results and is continuously developing as a “perpetual beta”. It is open to new actors and partners.
The Internet & Society Co:llaboratory was initiated by Google Germany in 2010. Since then, Wikimedia Germany, Creative Commons, Fraunhofer FOKUS, the W3C office Germany-Austria, SMBS and CSC are among the Co:llaboratory’s cooperation partners. Since August 2012, the Co:Lab is a registered association (e.V.) headquartered in Berlin.
