Welcome to the Internet & Society Co:llaboratory

The Co:llaboratory is an open think tank, bringing together actors from associations, academia, data- and consumer protection, internet companies and policymakers to work jointly on solutions to societal questions around the internet. It was initiated by Google Germany. A steering committee coordinates the project, which in its execution and administration is supported by outside consultants.

Our main activity are thematic initiatives on specific topic areas that span a duration of several weeks. The participating experts from different sectors meet regularly for internal and public workshops. The circle of experts that participate in an initiative work autonomously and produce a final report with scenarios and recommendations that is presented to stakeholders. Past initiatives have been on innovation, open government and copyright reform. Our current initiative is about privacy and the public sphere.

In addition to our initiatives, we are currently in a process of putting together long-term working groups (Ohus, which is Maori) that are open to public officials as well, and a discussion paper series (the next issue will be in English). There are Ohus for Global Internet Governance, Open Government, Media Literacy and Copyright, with others such as Work 2.0/Innovation in the planning stages.

A full version of our English website is in preparation, with more information about the Co:Lab, its activities and the people behind it. Please feel free to directly approach us with questions by sending an email to our Community Manager, Sebastian Haselbeck at [email protected]