"Global Village Network: Global and Local Resources for the Smart Community of the 21st Century"
(version of 22.7.99, subject to constant changes)
Proposal Acronym: GVN-GAL
Related to Call: "QUALITY OF LIFE AND MANAGEMENT OF LIVING RESOURCES" of March 06, 1999. (1999/C 64/14)
Key Action: KEY ACTION 5: SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY, AND INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL AREAS INCLUDING MOUNTAIN AREAS.
Type of Action: R&D Project
Thematic area: 5.5. Conceptualising integrated development of rural and other relevant areas , new tools and models for the integrated and sustainable development of rural and other relevant areas.....
5.5.2.1.1. Conceptualising integrated development of rural and other
relevant areas,
implies understanding the potential of new information and communications
technologies for the development of rural economies; the impacts of infrastructure
and public services; the role of rural amenities, cultural and natural
heritage; the emergence of entrepreneurship in rural areas; the rates of
new enterprise formation and survival, especially micro -enterprises; restructuring
in the global economy and its impact on rural areas; market reorganisation
and its impact on production and marketing in disadvantaged rural regions.
Options and strategies for integrated resource utilisation in different
rural regions will be developed, as well as methods to obtain participation
of population and local actors in rural development processes, and strategies
and tools for the transfer of experience, innovation and knowledge are
needed."
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Context of Action:
This proposal is the first in a series of four synergetic proposals submitted to the 5th framework programme under the Name "Global Village Network" and seeks to integrate theoretical and practical work done in the context of various R&D projects in the field of telematics and ecology. Prominent members of our consortium will include the DEMENET network, the European Association for Telematic Applications and many others.
Objective:
The principal objective of the project is to create a set of tools to enable rural communities to choose the appropriate "global resources" to improve their local quality of life and infrastructure. "Global Resources" in our perspective equals to information and services delivered through telecommunication networks.
The key question of our project is: how can these "Global resources" decrease dependence, empower local resource use and enhance sustainable development. This is a research issue that still requires a lot of transdisciplinary interaction. Communication experts and ecologists must start to speek a similar language and develop a common frame of reference.
This is achieved mainly by a series of workshops that facilitate an open exchange between ecological planners/builders and information society experts about the array of synergies between physical and virtual elements in the making of living spaces.
Ways will be sought where the successful implementation of telematics is secured by the functional integration as an information component of a living system.
The workshops will contribute to the development of viable prototypes and learning centres for integrated rural development, while benefiting at the same time from being embedded into a real-life case of such integrated development.
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Specification of Context:
The scope of the project is connecting existing research done in the fields of ecological and holistic landscape and settlement planning, architecture, agriculture ..... with telematic research and applications in the field of education, work, administration, culture and health.
The site of the Workshop - which provides a common object of studies, reference, relation, test of validity and applicability, will facilitate this connection. The site is a rural community that is also able to host a "living university" in the future and to constantly improve its knowledge base. There must be a broad consensus towards applying this knowledge in its immediate domain.
The methodology is similar to permaculture workshops. Careful examination of existing elements and their actual and potential relationships takes time, and the duration of the workshop should allow intense comprehension of interrelations. At least three days given to structure of existing Eco/Technosphere, three days to the study of "implantable" telematic application areas, five days to scenario development, identification of opportunities and requirements.
Participating experts will be briefed with existing documentation - on the site and on its environmental aspects as well as on regional telematic activities and capacities - long before the beginning of the workshop. They will give their suggestions and recommendations on the background of such information and documentation as well as on the base of first-hand experience. The collected presentations of experts will then constitute a new background: for common research, scenario - development, analysis of interrelations and new suggestions.
Nevertheless, the goal of the workshops goes far beyond developing an in-depth view and practical results just on one or two particular villages per country. Rather than that, it sets a new standard of quality in finding out the appropriate ways of implementing telematics in a sustainable way in many types of rural communities. The presence of partner communities and the comparison of identical and diverse elements in rural communities are an important element for the whole project. General conclusions should and must be drawn; success stories and post mortem analyses will be broadly used during the process. Existing documentation on televillages, telecommunities, telecottages etc. will be made available to the participants.
The participants should be partly nominated by national or international organisations active in the field of sustainable local development, like ECOVAST, LEADER (we need declarations of interest). Equally important is the presence of local actors, and last but not least the workshops should contribute to constituting a network of collaboration in the exchange of deepened insight and develop theoretical standards beyond the recognition of good practices.
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The minimum requirements for the partners in the preparation of the proposal
The project is to be carried out in four (maximum five) different countries;
it is designed to start in early spring 2000 and end in early spring 2002.
To assure the success of the project, a responsible national partner (RNP)
should lead the activities in each country.
To enable a successful submission of the project, the following minimum
requirements for the participating countries should be met in the preparation
phase (Mai to September 1999) and laid down in the technical annex to the
proposal.
1.0. Identification and negotiation with a pilot community that has
the necessary infrastructure to host about 80 - 100 workshop participants
and meets the requirements under point 2 by 100%.
1. The declaration of interest of the local governmental body of the
"pilot site" in a formal letter
2. The declaration of interest of 3 - 10 other rural communities or
small cities in the respective country to participate as observers. These
communities should not all be from the same region. They should meet at
least ~80% of the requirements under point 2
3. The declaration of interest of one or more networks active in the
field of rural development, village renewal, regional consulting etc.-
preferably NGO's. This should assure workshop participation and the clear
proof of a target group.
2.0 Verification of the following requirements on the lead site and,
less strict, on other sites:
2.1. Credible generic documents about the political support for sustainable
development within the reach of the community, most preferably a detailed
mission statement of the village/town/district.
2.2. Expression of interest of most relevant local actors to the process
of the workshop.
2.3. Expression of willingness to participate from some local actors.
2.4. Availability of local infrastructure for future educational activities
(living university); either private or public, but preferably with elements
of a private - public partnership.
2.5. The community should at least support or host a public library
infrastructure co-operating with the project.
2.6. There should be a critical mass of telematic sites within the
region, which provide hands- on experience about the five fields mentioned
in the general descriptions.
3.0 Verification of further general requirements:
3.1. A national scientific co-ordinator for the telematic part (could
be the NRP)
3.2. A national scientific co-ordinator for the ecological part (could
be the NRP)
3.3. Participation of a university or educational institution that
can exploit the results of the workshop in ongoing educational activities.
4.0. Availability of scientific documentation on both the regional
developments and the relevant telematic sites.
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The Contents and common fields of attention:
The main hypothesis of the project is that the "Globally Integrated
Village Environment" is a combination of three different forms of space
use in a relatively small area:
- Rural space use gives priority to the productive and reproductive
functions of the natural environment
- Suburban space use gives priority to the recreational functions of
an "invited" natural environment within the domain of the home.
- Urban space use gives priority to social interaction and highly developed
division of labour, including sophistication of services
The technological abilities of society allow for new forms of recombination
of these three elements, creating sustainable structures from periurban
sprawl.
The project is therefore concerned about the integration of ICT in new complexes of social and technological innovations that not only enhance the functions of each of these three elements, but also allow comfortable proximity and synergy between them. The case studies should lead to a deeper understanding of the leverage potentials of this proximity and synergy in terms of the reduction of energy use, waste of time and material, transportation and human stress. It should increase the capacities of rural areas to exploit their enormous resources in terms of open space, free material and energy in a sustainable and aesthetic way, contribute to new opportunities of employment, entrepreneurship and quality life.
Therefore the Workshops will have to address three different types of questions:
1. Identify the endogenous viability, cultural identity, spatial integrity,
interrelation between landscape, natural conditions and human activity,
but also the influence of traditional "global" linkages on the local capacities.
The hypothesis is that global knowledge can dramatically increase the
choice of appropriate technologies and that in fact each and every success
story of harmony and appropriateness is not only the result of keen studies
of local conditions, but also a success story of "importing" appropriate
knowledge.
Ways to increased understanding of "the wealth hidden in plain sight"
include identification of global resources on analysis of local biosphere
and other soft potentials. "Empowering businesses" might deliver tools
and knowledge to support local resource cycles rather than take resources
out of the cycles. The workshop is also seeking active co-operation with
such "prosumer industries".
2. Identify the strengths and attributes that make a particular village "worth living" and break them down into actions and actors. Find out that what is missing to achieve self-supporting feedback cycles.
The hypothesis here is that tourism can be transformed into long term living schemes where urban knowledge workers can bring their families and create a "second home" which gradually becomes their first. This "suburban" population can serve as a local demand base for local rural production - organic food, energy, wellness etc. This increased demand can only be met if the village increases its diversity, capacity to do many different things in professional ways, and fills some of the inevitable gaps in terms of delivering services with the help of remote supply. Ideally, the remote supply is through information rather than transportation.
o Develop scenarios of enhancing this local identity with global elements.
Discover and enhance complex social interactions, support for creativity,
fields of professional excellence, knowledge bases and problem solving
capacities.
The hypothesis here is that "the mind can return home" if it has the
opportunity to do something. Rural areas are suffering from a constant
"brain drain" which has dramatically increased in speed and impact within
the last decades, due to the nature of one-way communication media. Radio
and television have brought the urban message to the rural masses, and
the effect was even more profound than the one of the forceful enclosure
measures of the early industrial period. Now there is two-way communication
and the opportunity that the media literally expand the virtual metropolis
to the smallest village. The suburban isolation and the arrival of the
internet has turned the single family home into a cocoon, where underneath
the surface of monadic individualism an intensive "socialisation" is transforming
the mental structure of our world for good. It is likely that the enormous
potential of knowledge and communication flowing in this process of transformation
will eventually reinforce a tendency to break this cocoon and manifest
in new forms of local settlement and community, where "village" is no longer
associated with dullness, control and ossification.
The question is how such "global spaces", "pieces of the virtual metropolis"
can contribute to the experience of strengthening a community rather than
alienating and separating the mind from its physical location.
In the preparation of the proposal, a thematic matrix should be prepared on the base of contributions of the partners to fill this general framework with real-life examples and opportunities.
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Provisional Time Schedule
Project duration: 2 years
| March-Mai 2000 | PREPARATION PHASE |
|
| June 2000 | Workshop
St. Georgen / Austria |
|
| September 2000 | Workshop
Slovenia |
|
| November 2000 | Workshop
Samos / Greece |
|
| March 2001 | Workshop
UK or other participating country |
|
| June 2001 | Workshop
Finland or other participating country |
|
| September 2001 | Conference
Austria |
|
| October 2000 - February 2001 | EVALUATION PHASE |
|
| March 2002 | Documentation and implementation |
|
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Roles and Participants
| Technical Project
Co-ordinator Handles relation to Commission Monitors deadlines, financial and legal aspects, does trans-national co-ordination and supervision of national project management |
position vacant |
| Project Preparation and
Evaluation Project design, quality control, evaluation |
Globally Integrated Village Environment Assn.
f.nahrada@magnet.at |
| National Responsible Partner
Austria Organises workshops, national project management except financial aspects |
position vacant |
| Partner Austria (Telematics) | TELAB |
| Partner Austria (Ecology) | University of Agriculture Vienna |
| Partner Austria
Ecological Planning, Local Org |
Bildungshaus St. Georgen
office@bildungshaus.at |
| Partner Austria (Telematics) | Donau Universität Krems
Department for Telecommunication, Information and Media pircher@donau-uni.ac.at |
| Partner Austria (Telematics) |
Donau Universität Krems
|
|
National Responsible Partner
|
INNOVA Velenje
|
| Partner Slovenia
Ecological Planning |
Atelier Ostan Ljubljana
aleksander-s.ostan@guest.arnes.si |
| National Responsible Partner
Greece |
TEI Pireus
gzeib@gdias.teipir.gr |
| Partner
Greece Distance Education, Local Org. |
INEAG Samos
ineag@otenet.gr |
| Partner
Telemedicine, Local Org. |
AHI Samos
ahi@gemini.diavlos.gr ahi@math.aegean.gr |
| National Responsible Partner
Finland |
In negociation |
| National Responsible Partner
UK |
In negociation |
| National Responsible Partner
Germany |
In negociation |
| Associate Partner
Telework |
Telechance
g.berka@telechance.at |
| Expression of interest | Rene Caderius, Brussels
eur-bit@euronet.be |
| Expression of interest | ASIS WG 5
Steve Simmons srs@cornix.co.uk |