[VBbuilders] HINTERLAND - Germany and Poland (-> spatial patterns)

[Franz Nahrada]

Mark Petz <ravenwyn at gmail.com> schreibt:

>Reminds me of
>
>[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_town
>]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_town
>
>these Market Towns held a charter and thence all sorts of other rights
>and responsibilities could en-shew. DO we see a similar concept with a
>VideoBridge Quartermaster role where the smaller video bridge locations
>in a surrounding village could be supported?
>
>So in Greece for example every village hall / church / ouzu café (1 per
>village) could have a Vbridge location and thus this be the hub to
>connect with the newly created district councils?
>
>I wonder what the costings on such a network might be AS WELL AS THE
>SAVINGS for environment and fuel costs for the citizen participation.
>
>Mark.


I think we need to think and work pragmatically here.

1. 

We are far from even the realisation of the first VB location (besides
Kirchbach which comes with its own experiences) and we need to think how
we can start up something which is not only sustainable, but really also
feeding the process.

One model that could work is the one I discussed with governor Wilcinsky
of the Opole Region in Poland, and that is also a special reason why Jakub
participates.

The idea is to intentionally build the competences of one place per
region, could be in a small town, could be even in a theme village, as a
hub for the communication within European projects. (a very plausible
concept of "Global Village" that can be embedded even in a regional
development plan and can get us in the regional policy domaiin). It is
very clear that a Europe of Regions can only exist with dedicated regional
communication centers that allow for communication and co-operation.

The new regional comissioner is Austrian, and he might beinterested in
that.....

So the initial purpose of such a place or "Global Village" is to attract
many networks that need to communicate and interact, give them the best
possible work conditions (Holiwork) and the ability to host and showcase
events at one particular place. A good and authentic local development
stage is very very favorable to such a process.

This might be still far away from the everyday life of the regional
inhabitants, but it could create the ground from which to start by cross -
subsidising basic education....

Call it "rural collaboration center" or something similar. We could dock
into the many movements, hub movement etc. - What about CARREFOUR and
stuff, I am not that knowledgeable. But by having the International
Council of ECOVAST embedded in the middle of our workshop its a unique
opportunity to send a message and include ECOVAST fully in this mission.

2.

In a microskale this might repeat in districts, as you rightfully observe.
There is a trend in politics to enforce collaborative structures between
communities in microregions, villages in physical proximities and so on.
The reason is a simple economic calculation, the calucation that they have
to share dwindling resources and that means for example that not every
community can have a government supported sports pool. 

So there is a vital chance that several neighbouring villages might start
to overcome century old jealousies, and start to act as an alliance of
forces that declares a mild version of zoning. So we might have the
wellness village, the cultural village, the techno-business village and so
on.

Then its very clear that video bridge locations might be part of such a
setting, whilst not yet every "piazza" becomes a "telematica". There might
be again one village out of five or ten that offers this "specialty". Car
or other means of local transportation is still needed - but short
rides..... It could be very similar like a watchmakers or piano repair
service - not enough to be sustained within a village, but a district may
have critical mass. So in the end it is a saving.

And you are right Markus with the "Quartermaster" concept, so we could
imagine setups that can be mobile in districts. Places could be available,
internet connections could be available, and then comes the minibus and
brings cameras, mixers, sound system etc.


All this is what I want to include in the assignment of spatial patterns,
and I hope Jarmila and Thomas Cs. take special notice of that. I Include
our dear geography master Arthur Spiegler whoi will assist the work on
spatial patterns for learning plaves during the workshop. We have a mighty
braintrust here (Phil, Pam, Guiseppe and many others) and we should be
able to come up with something really good. I also organized inspirational
input - Dr. Ingrid Schwarz, a head of an NGO has completed a Grundtvig
Learning Partnership on "Learning Places", she was awarded the titlke of
Austrian Grundtvig ambassador and she is a geographer too by education.

sorry for being silent some time, but we have quite a lot of preparation
work to do here that nobody sees.....

Franz