RegioWikiCamp 2009/Greetings

=Greetings=

Gunther Krichbaum, Chairman of the German Bundestag’s Committee on the Affairs of the European Union
Dear participants of RegioWikiCamp 2009

The Fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago has given us the opportunity to stop thinking in two opposing worlds and start thinking about the world as a whole. Based on this, next stages of globalization - supported mainly by new technologies - have given us all the opportunity to take part in a virtual border-free-world that is growing closer and closer together. All of us can share a good idea with everyone online; we can communicate and do business from every corner of the world. In this case, civil society plays a key-role. Given the opportunities by the changes of the past years, it is to be welcomed that especially more participants from Eastern-Europe engage in initiatives like RegioWiki. As the international context has turned particularly favourable for them, we look forward to their essential contribution to the Regional Wiki Conference at Furtwangen University and the upcoming interregional dialogue.

As Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs of the Bundestag I witness all day how the challenges of our times become too big to be solved at national level. Be it economics and international finance, climate change, energy security, migration and demographics, the solutions are to be thought though in an international context where Europe is only strong when speaking with one voice!

RegioWiki and your coming together in September 2009 in Furtwangen provide people and decision-makers with valuable input to understand the world we live in and shape it for the better!

Be all welcomed in Baden-Württemberg, a good place from where to send innovative ideas to the world!

Richard Krieg, Mayor of Furtwangen
Welcome to Furtwangen

The Furtwangen University can proudly look back on more than 150 years of innovation culture. In the past this university was always open-minded for new emerging technologies and developments. This culture remains untill today. The City of Furtwangen is proud of this University and especially of the Faculty of Digital Media where the future of the web is currently developed and also a topic of research.

The ongoing globalization calls local and regional marker, culture and knowledge into our minds. The world in which we live - not the virtual cyberspace - becomes more and more important for everyday life. RegioWikis are an ideal tool for preserving the local in the age of the internet. The pure cyberspace of numbers and facts is thereby transformed into a more human world of connected people. A world in which people can find each other. A world in which everyone can contribute to shape a commonly shared space.

We all live in a democracy. This means that the individual has the opportunity and the obligation to engage with others. I am pleased when I see how social dynamics of networks emerge out of the framework of the existing RegioWiki-projects. The output we can expect from the first transnational Camp on RegioWikis in Furtwangen is valuable both for the local communites and the whole society.

Each town is a product of the relations between it’s citizens. For this reason I took the local patronage for this coming event. The city of Furtwangen is greeting all participants and wishes good luck for the future networking attempts and research projects about RegioWikis.

Prof. Dr. Rolf Schofer, Rector of Furtwangen University
Welcome to Furtwangen University

No-one knows more than everyone. A new culture of sharing and collaboration is changing the production and quality of knowledge. This is also, and above all, the case for regional wiki projects. The first Regional Wiki Conference at Furtwangen University is therefore dedicated to a new Europe-wide movement: wikis with a locational reference. More than 140 such regional wiki projects exist throughout Europe. They each developed largely independently of one another. The event at the HFU, from 25 to 27 September 2009, brings together theoreticians, practicians, researchers and networkers. One of the central challenges appears to me to be the question regarding new possibilities of intercultural and interregional dialogue. I am confident that the collaborative tapping of knowledge will spread even quicker in future. The project thus deserves particular attention and, above all, many participants who bring with them knowledge of their towns and regions and thus contribute towards an identity.

The event’s success depends on more than the infrastructure provided by the university, it requires the commitment of doers. I am sure it will be an interesting event. You are very welcome to participate in the co-operative regional multiplication of knowledge.