Can or should there be something like a European way into the digital society, between the “data capitalism” of the IT monopolists and the “data totalitarianism” of the authoritarian regimes? And if so, would such a European “data humanism” also be competitive? Couldn’t applications of digital technology oriented towards human needs and established social conventions, which respect the autonomy of users over their data, be just this competitive advantage?
A good argument can be made that the success of many digital products and services will soon no longer depend on whether the processor is still a little faster, or the screen is even more colorful, but rather on the confidence of the users in the services and on the credibility of the providers.
To the extent that digital data will actually be the “new oil”, the raw material of the future, the “refinement” of this raw material will soon play a greater role than the raw material itself. This also opens up opportunities to take – besides profitability – also social appropriateness in dealing with our data seriously.
The cooperation of art and technology is a much-requested bearer of hope and a large number of EU projects and cooperation initiatives have set themselves the goal of strengthening the role of art, creativity and education in the development of the ideas, concepts and scopes of action necessary in the search for sensible data policies.
