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 ;)
