Talks
Hanaholmen Heritage
Mikael's talk explored how cultural heritage, both physical and digital, is increasingly threatened by war, hybrid attacks, and political manipulation. The
Hanaholmen Heritage Program and
conference brought together Nordic and Baltic experts to strengthen cooperation on cultural heritage preparedness through training, networking, and policy development. The program emphasized recognizing cultural heritage as critical infrastructure for democratic resilience, expanding digitization and shared storage of heritage materials, improving crisis preparedness and evacuation planning, and developing joint Nordic–Baltic guidelines and exercises. The discussion highlighted that protecting heritage is not only about preserving the past, but also about defending collective memory, identity, social cohesion, and democratic values in times of crisis.
Talks
Closing the gap in equitable access to heritage
Brigitte's talk focused on the
Open Heritage Statement, a global initiative coordinated by Creative Commons to defend equitable access to public domain cultural heritage online. It argued that museums and institutions often impose unnecessary copyright, paywalls, or legal restrictions on digitized public domain works, limiting access to shared cultural memory. The statement calls for international policy action, especially through UNESCO, to guarantee open access to heritage, support reuse and education, and strengthen cultural equity, scientific research, and democratic participation.
The statement is available in English, Finnish and other languages.
Talks
The Culture Goal – From Necessity to Reality
Matti's talk introduced the
Culture 2030 Goal campaign, an international initiative coordinated in Finland as
Kulttuuritavoite 2030 by
Kulta ry and the
Finnish Folk Music Institute. The initiative advocates for culture as a standalone Sustainable Development Goal in the post-2030 UN agenda. The talk argued that without a dedicated culture goal, efforts on climate, poverty, and other SDGs fall short, since they require shifts in cultural behavior to succeed. It called for cultural actors and policymakers, particularly in Finland and the Nordic–Baltic region, to engage with the campaign's draft goal and help build the evidence base ahead of next year's decisions on the new sustainability framework.
Discussions
Heritage at Risk
Jan Ainali in discussion with Mikael Hiltunen
Recording
Session covered Nordic-Baltic cooperation on cultural heritage preservation and digitization, framing heritage as critical infrastructure for resilience and digital sovereignty. Speakers discussed documenting at-risk sites (war damage, fires, intentional military threats), 3D modeling for restoration, civil society/Wikipedia's role, and concerns over digitization-driven funding cuts.
Discussions
Culture as a Public Good
Sanna Marttila in discussion with Brigitte Vézina and Matti Hakamäki
Recording
Panel on cultural heritage as a public good debated open access enabling cross-sector collaboration (climate research via digitized archives), heritage institutions shifting from gatekeepers to "gate openers," community-driven value-making over expert authority, economic activity as culture too, and balancing openness with safeguards against extractive misuse, notably by AI, while building sustainability into cultural identity itself.
Discussions
Resilience
Connor Benedict in discussion with Daniel Antal, Deepesha Burse, and Tove Ørsted
Recording
Panel with Wikimedia/GLAM practitioners explored "heritage at risk," focusing on community-led digitization (e.g., Aalto's measurement drawings, Udmurt/Livonian/Seto materials). Discussion covered who decides what's preserved, decolonizing archives, structured/linked open data via Wikibase for meaningful access, building low-resource sustainable infrastructure for under-resourced communities, and risks of AI flattening nuanced, minority cultural context.
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Think & Do Project
May the Source Be With You
Discussion Initial ideas for demands on AI transparency in order to keep institutions and people willing to keep sharing openly. By making it transparent for the ones sharing how and by whom their content is being reused, they can keep telling their stories and show how they are valuable. At the same time, a clear provenance chain and links to source material will increase credibility for the reuser.
Attributions
Tove Ørsted, Hanna Sipos, Brigitte Vézina, Daria Cybulska, Peter Leth, Jan Ainali, Enn Kalev Tarto, Raul Veede
Think & Do Project
Open Latitudes
Project page 
Slides Recording
Network 1-year Network for open knowledge & experience exchange with trans-disciplinary focus on solar-human relations.
Case Example at Oulu Löyly / Problem area: How to include open knowledge & heritage as part of contemporary/hybrid arts production?
Attributions
Andrew Gryf Paterson, Paula Štrama, Anna Priedola, Ieva Sīpola, Irina Ivanova, Merja Puustinen, Andy Best, Ewen Chardronnet, Kerolaina Bula, Ivo Kruusamägi
Think & Do Project
ORLA - Open Resource & Learning Assistant
Project page Slides Recording 
Codebase
Prototype An Open Access Self-Assessment Tool that provides you with an evaluation of where you stand on your journey of making your cultural collections available with open access, plus indicating what might be suitable first/next steps for you to take. It is connected to the Open Resource & Learning Assistant - ORLA - that can point you to useful resources, tools, experts, services that might help you take these first/next steps.
Attributions
Kerstin Arnold, Connor Benedict, Deepesha Burse, Dee Harris, Johan Kylander, Federico Leva, Vertti Luostarinen, Julia Matveeva, Steen Thomassen
Think & Do Project
Oral-to-Written
Slides Recording
Layered approach How to solve the issue of producing reliable and linguistically high-quality content in low-resources languages like Saami?
Attributions
Niklas Laxström, Kimberli Mäkäräinen, Tochi Precious, Teemu Ropponen, Valtteri Valkeapolku
Think & Do Project
SPECS for Low-Tech Infra for Communities
Slides Recording
Specs Low-tech: opposite to over-engineering, less-resource-intensive, available, affordable, accessible, understandable, and replicable.
Support small communal organisations in their effort to start and sustain archives practically and in the long term.
Attributions
Sophea Lerner, Agnese Bartolucci, Lu Chen, Federico Leva
Conversation
OK North and Knowledge as a Critical Infrastructure
Facilitated by Renata Ávila, CEO of Open Knowledge Foundation
Project page 
Website
The regional consultation organized through the
OK North network gathered open knowledge advocates in Oulu and online, and explored the
Knowledge as Critical Digital Infrastructure initiative by Open Knowledge Foundation and Wikimedia Foundation. Participants discussed how open knowledge, cultural heritage, and digital commons are essential for democratic resilience, and called for stronger public investment, open access policies, and regional cooperation in response to geopolitical, platform, and AI-related risks. Read Renata's post
Open Knowledge and Critical Infrastructure: a Nordic Conversation in the OKFN blog.
Workshop
Culture Goal 2030 – from need to reality: the opportunities and practical use of SDG 18 on the ground
Matti Hakamäki, Director, Finnish Folk Music Institute
Project page
The workshop introduced the Culture 2030 Goal campaign and explored how the cultural SDG goal launched at Mondiacult 2025 can already be applied in practice within organisations, municipalities, and communities.
Culture is seeking its own sustainable development goal for the post-2030 framework, and in a challenging political context its structural inclusion in sustainability policy is seen as increasingly urgent.
The goal includes 10 sub-targets, indicators, and data sources that provide a concrete framework for cultural actors.
At Oulu Löyly, the participants explored how open cultural heritage fits within the framework. There experiences and insights are also gathered to feed back into the international campaign, strengthening the voice of the cultural sector globally.
Open Knowledge Foundation blog
Open Knowledge and Critical Infrastructure: a Nordic Conversation
Renata Ávila
Project page
June 24, 2026 The Nordic discussion in Oulu framed open knowledge as critical infrastructure, arguing that societies already invest in digital sovereignty and public data systems but often overlook knowledge systems (archives, datasets, cultural memory) as equally essential infrastructure. Participants highlighted risks from fragmentation and underfunding, and called for stronger long-term public support, cross-sector collaboration, and policy recognition of open knowledge as a foundational system for democracy and resilience.
ECHOLOT blog
ECHOLOT at the Oulu Löyly Open culture think & do fest
Project page
June 12, 2026 ECHOLOT contributed to the Oulu Löyly Open Culture Think & Do Festival's Open Culture Fair. The insights helped co-create practical approaches to safeguarding and making cultural heritage data more interoperable, reusable, and sustainably managed.
WikipediaPodden
Interview with Susanna Ånäs
Jan Ainali
Project page Recording
11 June, 2026 A short interview immediately after the closing session where Susanna answers the questions:
- What is this new GLAM acronym?
- What is Oulu Löyly?
- What was the theme of the event?
- Who were the partnering organizations?
- Did things go according to plan?
- Highlight of the outcomes?
- What does Oulu Löyly mean?
- What values does local cultural traditions add to international events?
- Advice to event organizers?
You can upload your photos to Wikimedia Commons category Oulu Löyly photos using an open license.
Participants may also upload to Google Photos album Oulu Löyly.
If you wish to share your photos in any other way, please contact oululoyly@avoinglam.fi.
Susanna Ånäs and Sophea Lerner wrote a piece Towards a community cultural heritage stack in the Michael Culture Association's publication "Inclusive Futures: social sustainability trends in Digital Cultural Heritage” in December 2025.
The survey conducted in 2025 gathered insights focusing on cultural heritage in Finland. It responded to the following questions:
What is the most important goal, problem, or obstacle facing digital cultural heritage over the next two years?
[edit]The survey responses highlighted key challenges for digital cultural heritage in the next two years: shrinking political and financial support, growing platform dependency, and risks from AI-driven privatization and cultural homogenization. Legal and copyright complexity continues to hinder openness and collaboration. Respondents stress infrastructure fragility, technological obsolescence, and weak long-term sustainability. At the same time, AI offers opportunities for access and metadata work but raises concerns about trust, bias, and representation. Overall, the core tension was between expanding visibility and increasing structural vulnerability of cultural heritage.
Are there key policy issues or joint initiatives that could be moved forward during Oulu Löyly?
[edit]This section highlights proposals for moving from discussion to action in digital cultural heritage. A key theme is the need to prioritize unfinished foundational digitization work, as many archives remain undigitized, poorly searchable, and at risk of loss. Respondents also call for balancing high-tech approaches with support for smaller-scale and community-driven initiatives. Other proposals focus on strengthening infrastructure through open-source tools, federated ecosystems, and better integration of platforms like Wikibase. Policy ideas include clearer copyright and AI frameworks, protection against censorship, and improved rights for reuse. Overall, the focus is on resilient, inclusive, and practically grounded infrastructure rather than purely AI-driven solutions.
Slides 
Website 
Recording
Project page 
Codebase