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hEXPO - The initiative for an all-Slovene digital platform Besides numerous interdisciplinary authors and creators, among which are also experts for audio/video webcasting, hEXPO festival is bringing together system operators from media centres Ljudmila, Kapelica Gallery, Radio Student (Ljubljana), Kibla (Maribor), Pina (Koper), ESC and Radio Helsinki (Graz). Together with fifteen co-producers of the festival, we are presenting the initiative which can provide those media centres with the fastest and most up-to-date network connections. Video/audio streaming of events - be it two-way or more - would thus become a matter of everyday's practice. In order to archive that, we are calling upon those programmers and experts from Slovenia and Europe who want to test their knowledge, their invention and realisation potentials on the all-Slovene platform.
1. Artistic, media and youth centres in Slovenia are the cultural cores whose activities need media incentive. We are soliciting free permanent access to the most efficient communication connections as well as to the servers - the requirements for establishing live webcasting of events. The mentioned venues provide regular programme and contents for such transmissions; at the same time, the audience would have a chance to watch webcastings from other venues. Hence all those events that usually cannot be exchanged due to financial reasons become accessible via the Internet at least on the level of information. The events include all types of performances, concerts, lectures, workshops, round table discussions and panels. 2. In many ways, the mentioned venues are already now the only learning sites for the public to be acquainted with various forms of digital production for electronic media and networks. In Slovenia, neither the academic environment nor the computer industry and market offer a comprehensive education for the occupations that are in constant growth in the developed world and for which the job market promises the greatest increase. We will therefore stimulate education and self-education programmes in the fields of digital video, preparation and production of audio, video and interactive CDs as well as DVDs. Our initiative includes a plea to the manufacturer's representatives of sofware needed for those learning processes to provide free software for education and testing purposes. 3. In spite of numerous network connections in Slovenia that are at public disposal, we do not know of any public-access archive which would provide the means for the public for more demanding levels of collaboration and exchange. We will therefore create databases for public self-information and self-help and we will assist the establishing of synchronisation processes between cultural, academic, production and artistic spheres in Central Europe. The above described production model will be presented at hEXPO festival. Between August 17-September 14 2000, the festival will connect five cities, three countries and more than ten venues. During the first three weeks, more than hundred authors, experts and assistants will be touring the venues. Apart from the shows, they are going to be in charge of daily workshops and lectures which will be open for free to the students as well as to the public. All venues will be equipped for multi-directional audio-visual streaming. We hereby invite all experts from communication-network field - be it industry or academic oriented, professional, studying or enthusiastic - to join us in the building of the first all-Slovene digital platform. We also invite Telecom, as well as all other providers of various connections and network services to support free access and free connections between cultural centres, and not only during the time of the festival, but on a regular basis, as this is the fundament for the expansion of this vital knowledge and culture. Cultural centres are incessantly active. With their
regular programmes, they are the cores of creativity, research and enthusiasm;
that is why they are the guarantee of the best and the cheapest test environment
for the new technologies. This is an offer that no calculation or plan,
however meticulous and tight, could ignore - if it is concerned with future. |