Digital Village History Tour 1998

This picture is from Loviisan Sanomat November 13, 1998. I’m speaking with Annika Malms-Tepponen about Wirby the Global Village a few weeks after the Galaxia Gala event.

Else-Maj Stenvall, the local teacher, and my father Otto Keitel are framed in the picture below.  They both passed away a few years after the 1998 historical Galaxia event.

Irja Kallio and myself returned back from France November 1997  and we were eager to make a contribution to the local development in my home village and in Ita-Uusimaa.

Today, Viirila is a part of the greater Loviisa area, and Ita-Uusimaa as an independent region doesn’t exist anymore.

What started as Wiirila Werkossa Wiikoittain, continues as a second life project 550 kilometers up north, in Sotkamo, as Wuokatti Werkossa Wiikoittain.

Digital Villages as a concept is still figuring in the background. KK-Net still uses it as a service design and community development platform. But we’re looking for an area or region where it could lead to a more permanent existence.

We still curiously look forward to a re-vitalization of some most intriguing digital traditions.

Trends are short-lived. Everything around us is in a continuous motion. Change is such a vital part of everything. It’s fifteen years to those pictures. Life continues, but some of the participants are looking at our thrivings from the heaven.

I’m grateful to everything that happened in my small home village.

Dear friends and fellow villagers, have a great summer, until we meet again ;)

Toys and children plays are predicting our future

Toys are telling about our history. Now kids are playing with video games. Drawings and cartoons are low-cost items that also can be used to sketch coming times.

I work with the future idea of Eco City along with the concept of Digital Villages.

Let’s take a look at very ordinary everyday tasks. Going to a bank teller to pick some pocket money is a routine operation but it hasn’t been around for more than twenty years.

Phone boots were located all around cities but I suppose there aren’t a single one in Finland anymore.

My view about Digital Villages has changed during the past ten years. The first ideas were drafted over twenty years ago but Wirby the Global Village became the first prototype 1998.

We’ve much more experience and better tools and networks for distance work. The idea of networking villages emerged 2001 to 2005 but the realization of all the ideas is more realistic today. It takes years to work out and test a new community concept.

I’ve seen ET on the Road

I’m still experimenting with Paint.Net and became interested with picture manipulation again.

I’ve Photoshop on the other laptop but the Samsung PC-20 is my on the road laptop.

The above pictures have been taken with Nokia E71 mobile phone camera.

Mobile phones do not produce the best quality pictures but with some layer playing it’s possible to create new things.

Augmented digital reality can be produced with simple tools. Meeting ET on the road is possible for the average person today. I know how to improve the picture at the left, but wanted to show this early creation.  I know how take away the shades but it’s nice to see early bird test works.

The European Innovation Dialogue

Innovation is a strategic priority

Innovation has become a strategic priority for regional policy. Strategies formulated in Brussels are as good as they are implemented by the member states, regions and cities. Local and regional authorities and innovation stakeholders dispose of a set of resources and tools which are crucial to successful innovation. Considerable efforts should therefore be made to creating an environment that encourages innovation on the ground.

How to encourage innovation on the ground?

- How should we meet to innovate?

- What kind of platforms should we use?

- How should we build the communities and networks?

Structural funds 2007 - 2013

The next generation of structural funds during the period 2007 to 2013 is designed to allocate an important budget that allows enhancing the innovation strategies at the regional level considerably. Also there is a greater flexibility to combine the various innovation-related funding budgets. In order to make the best out of the funds available, the innovation stakeholders from the public and private sector have an inherent interest in collaborating towards achieving the best possible results.

- Collaboration

- Achieving the best results

The design of the agenda

The design of the event agenda is based on an a priori analysis of the situation regarding the innovation ecosystem in the region in question, innovation actors, their problems and the potential of the system. A close partnership with the major local actors is another crucial element that guarantees not only to set the agenda right but also to have the right people on board.

- The innovation ecosystem

- Innovation actors

- A close partnership with local actors

The added value

The added value of the event however depends on its outcome and the concrete results and recommendations that are elaborated. In order to have the broadest possible participation, the conference is followed-up by a consultation procedure involving the wider innovation community.

The final results serve as input for future innovation strategies, measures and projects which can be used to address national, regional and European policy makers but also the innovation system and its actors themselves.