The Informal Network of South-East European Cultural Portals - inSEEcp was founded by representatives of SEEcult.org (Serbia); Culturenet.hr, Kulturpunkt.hr, Culturelink.hr and Knjiga.hr (Croatia); Radio Student, Artservis.org and Evrokultura.org (Slovenia); Culture.in.mk (Macedonia); Bosniaexpress.com (Bosnia). It was founded at the first workshop of regional cultural portals, held on November 27-29 2006 in Belgrade, and organized by Belgrade based SEEcult.org portal for the SEE culture, with the support of the Goethe Institute Belgrade. Among the participants at the workshop “Culture on the Internet / Networking Participants in the Cultural Domain in South-East Europe through Specialized Internet Portals” at the Goethe Institute Belgrade also was N-ost.de portal and, as moderator, representative of Germany's major independent online cultural magazine Perlentaucher.de and its English service Signandsight.com.

Regarding the importance of the presence of culture on internet, common problems of cultural portals in region (cultural policy, IT development, finance…), sort of a gap in this field between our most of our countries and EU, as well as fast development of web technology generally, the participants of the first workshop concluded that inSEEcp network is needed for exchanging information and experiences, improving professional and technical skills, support and promote quality culture production in the region and also to bring new audience to our respective portals, especially because of the fact that, as for now, there isn’t such of regional platform for cultural portals in the former Yugoslavia region and wider, while cooperation in culture on institutional (state) level between the countries in the region is slow and overwhelmed with various administrative issues.

The participants of the workshop agreed to make an informal network and set out a joint founding manifesto regarding common mission and goals, as well as to continue networking through the Internet, organizing follow-up training and networking workshops and building resources for various joint on-line and off-line activities.

Among the goals which were set out at the workshop are: promoting inter-cultural exchange and transnational debate between the countries of former Yugoslavia, promoting European integration from the bottom up by means of civil society networks on the Internet, communicating the significance of culture for system change and democratization in the region, as well as communicating the current gulf between the significance of cultural portals in SEE region and their poor financial backing, and engaging in joint fund raising strategies.

Also was concluded that Internet fulfils a crucial role in culture in region in the midst of transition and European integration process, because it facilitates and promotes transnational debate and cultural exchange among like-minded people in neighboring countries and the EU as a whole. It also contributes to the internationalization of the regional culture and art scene, enabling also the reverse process - promotion of contemporary world trends in region.

The second workshop of cultural portals from the SEE region was held on December 3-4, 2007 in Magacin Culture Centre in Belgrade, organized again by SEEcult.org with the support of the Goethe-Institut Belgrade, and bringing together the most active members of the inSEEcp in order to assess the results of joint activities and plan the agenda for 2008.

Among the participants, beside the representatives of the inSEEcp’s members (Artservis.org and Evrokultura.org, Slovenia, Culturenet.hr and Kulturpunkt.hr, Croatia, and SEEcult.org Serbia), was also Anja Seeliger, founding member of from Perlentaucher.de and SignandSight.com.

Reviewing joint activities between two workshops, participants from region agreed on network’s name inSEEcp, discussed about drafts of possible joint projects and possibilities to apply on several open calls due to need to find basic financial resources for further activities. Also was talking on possibilities for exchange of contents (writing, translating, publishing…at least one text monthly on actual cultural politics or related specific themes), as well as about possibility to establish a network for training new young collaborators (writers, editors… as inSEEcp’s internship program) etc.

(Text written by Vesna Milosavljevic, SEEcult.org)