At the heart of the re:publica programme are debates and exchanges about the social and political implications of digitalisation. 
We have always been interested in the big questions of digital policy: What framework conditions do we need to enforce our democratic fundamental rights online and create public-interest infrastructures? What does it take to regulate Big Tech, and how do we become digitally sovereign and more independent? And why do I still have no signal here? In short: what kind of digital world do we want to live in and how do we get there?
We also welcome critical perspectives on the social and political dynamics of our time and constructive approaches to how we can address them. Who is actually setting which agendas here and who is being left out? How do we deal with populism and the shift to the right, how do we escape the "crisis management mode"? Where is participation lacking and how do we bring together actors from civil society, politics and academia?

Media, journalism and new public spheres face major challenges: What are exciting approaches to the platform economy between subscription models, the creator economy, community journalism and non-profit models? How are public spheres changing through algorithmic decision-making systems trained to capture our attention?

The internet used to be a shared space full of joy and experimentation. Today it is fragmented, shaped by disinformation and power shifts. Who is still communicating where, how and why? Where do we still find spaces for exchange, shared solutions or simply fun? And which projects keep the internet worth living in and solidary? In a heated climate of opinion, we are interested in solutions against disinformation and for better fact-checking, contextualisation through data journalism, diversity of opinion and perspective in newsrooms and our media landscape, as well as your experiences with constructive approaches.
 

We give a platform to the big stories and the most important investigations. Whether fiction or non-fiction, community-based or linear: we look behind the scenes of investigative documentary series, viral storytelling on TikTok, VR games and podcasts.

We want to explore the synergies of science and technology with you: How do technological developments and innovations affect us? Who drives them and in what ways? We are interested in infrastructures and hardware as well as insights into the logbooks from laboratories, think tanks and universities. How does quantum technology actually work and what does social media do to our brains? Can a chatbot provide us with therapy and do we want that? Who filters AI content – if not AI itself? And which technological developments can help combat the climate crisis?

We look forward to relevant insights into natural science research, new findings from psychology as well as concrete best practice examples or creative methods such as design thinking. We also welcome reflections on ethical questions and successful science communication that makes complex connections understandable. 
Last but not least, we are also interested in the creative potential of making and hacking – tinkering, designing and experimenting with new materials, from devices and wearables to renewable energies. 

Between e-commerce and the sharing economy, big data for decision-making and trust in the human resource: as data-driven decisions become increasingly important, companies, their products and services are also changing. While products and services are available at any time, human resources such as time, attention, creativity and emotions are becoming contested commodities that require new ways of thinking.

What responsibility do companies and society bear to promote more sustainable ways of producing, advertising, consuming and doing business? Which economic models are profitable and at the same time ethically justifiable? How will we work tomorrow? What role can AI meaningfully play and where should we be cautious? How can innovations be successfully combined with fundamental rights? What experiences are being made with corporate digital responsibility? What can prosperity and growth look like in a fair, future-proof digital society?

Across industries, with start-ups as well as established companies, we want to discuss the world of the digital economy with its diverse actors, business models and forms of financing. In doing so, we want to strengthen the dialogue between innovators, companies, civil society and academia in order to jointly develop solutions for a fair and sustainable digital future.

Im Fokus steht das Zusammenspiel von Technologie mit Kunst und Kultur – kreativ, interaktiv, immersiv. Bits und Bytes verändern und erweitern die Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten stetig, und die rasante Entwicklung von KI stellt vieles auf den Kopf.  

Was macht die Digitalisierung mit Menschen, die in den Kunst- und Gestaltungsdisziplinen tätig sind? Ob Musik, Metaverse, Memes oder Museum, TikTok, Touchscreen oder Theater, Discord oder Datenvisualisierung: Wir wollen gemeinsam untersuchen, wie digitale Entwicklungen die Netzkulturen, Ateliers und Studios, Kulturbetriebe und Institutionen verändern. Wie haben sich Netzkulturen seit den frühen, verspielten Tagen des Internets verändert? Von einem Ort der Neugier, des Austauschs und gemeinsamen Experimenten hin zu einem Raum, in dem sich Spaltungen, Lügen und neue Machtstrukturen manifestieren? Und wo lassen sich heute noch die Spuren jener Offenheit und des gemeinsamen Spaßes am und im Netz wiederfinden?

Außerdem spannend: Wie können Kunst und Kultur mit digitalen Mitteln auf besondere Weise zu Gegenwartsdiskursen beitragen? Wie können sie eingesetzt werden, um unseren Blick auf die digitale Welt zu verändern? Und wie sehen diese neuen Wirklichkeiten aus?

From digital learning and hackathons to everyday life at schools and universities: we ask ourselves how technologies are changing the way we learn, teach and share knowledge. How can open educational offerings be designed with digitally supported methods to meaningfully support learning processes and promote critical engagement with content? Where and how do we learn with artificial intelligence - or should we avoid it altogether? Ultimately: how do technologies help us train and further develop ourselves in a time when one is never fully trained? Where is forward-thinking happening and what experiences have you had with it?

We are interested in conveying data and tech literacy and an informed approach to technologies, in order to provide a sustainable structure for passing on knowledge and sparking enthusiasm. We therefore look forward to sessions featuring current research findings, reflections on pedagogical methods and analyses from education professionals, teachers and all (lifelong) learners.