Chairing the Closing Keynote at IIPC 2026

I had the privilege of chairing the closing keynote of the 2026 IIPC Web Archiving Conference in Brussels, hosted at the grand KBR (Royal Library of Belgium).

The panel I convened brought a fresh angle to a community traditionally rooted in cultural heritage: using web archiving for open source investigations and accountability. It’s a perspective that doesn’t often share a stage with the librarians, curators, and archivists who form the backbone of IIPC — and that’s exactly what made the conversation valuable.

From the program:

“Our contribution advances the conference theme by broadening the definition of “web heritage” to include the ephemeral, dynamic, and often contentious digital content that serves as evidence of historical events. While discussions at previous conferences have at times centered on the technical and logistical challenges of large-scale crawls and collection development, our panel shifts the focus to the high-stakes application of web archives in legal and journalistic contexts. We will build upon prior work in areas like high-fidelity capture and consider the unique ethical and security challenges that arise when archiving evidence of state-sponsored violence or disinformation campaigns. By bridging the gap between the cultural heritage and accountability-focused communities, we aim to create a more holistic understanding of the web’s role as a primary source for future generations.”

Huge thanks to Emily Tripp, Marvin Milatz, and Friedhelm Weinberg for their candour, expertise, and willingness to share both their methods and their struggles with the audience.

I’m also grateful to the organising committee — Friedel Geeraert, Olga Holownia, and Nicholas Taylor — for recognising the value of bringing these communities together. It’s rarer than it should be.