From idea to event - the vision behind the rwc09
When I first met with Friedel Völker, we developed the idea of a transnational conference on RegioWikis walking through the wonderful Black Forest. Suddenly it began to rain. While waiting at a small wodden hut for clear skies we had the chance to discuss the conditions and objectives of such a meeting. That was the initial spark for the rwc09.
Why Friedel & me? We were both interessted on RegioWikis, however for different reasons. Friedel, on the one hand, as one of the pionieers of the RegioWiki-movement could talk for hours about "doing RegioWikis". He is one of the founders of the "Stadtwiki Pforzheim-Enz" and has a lot of expierience about setting up RegioWikis - experience he is sharing with others. I, on the other hand, was interessted in RegioWikis as a research issue since my time at the 'Institute for Regional Science' at the University of Karlsruhe where I did some research on regional identification in the time of globalizsation.
Since 2008 I am professor for the Sociology of Digital Media at the Furtwangen University. From the beginning I was looking for a topic that combines both my interests in new media and regional sciences. Before this background, it was great luck to meet Friedel who had begun to network with a lot of RegioWiki-projects in Europe. His vision: to bring together all the people behind these projects. My vision: to get in contact with all this people to learn more about the RegioWikis.
Furtunately, I could offer the organizational framework for such an event. Friedel added his expertise and network: The idee of an RegioWikiCamp was born! We decided to choose the framework of a barcamp because the idee of a "user generated conference" perfectly fits into the philosophy of RegioWikis. The sucess of the FuCamp09 (which I organized with my students in May 09) encouraged us for this decision.
The most important idea is to connect people from all over Europe. People sharing one great common interest. We think, that RegioWiki-projects are a sign of active citizenship. They demonstrate that the world has not yet become a single "village". The world is full of diversity, local history and local knowledge - aspects which are highlighted by RegioWikis.
Therefore we want ot welcome all the pioneers and active citizens in the area of RegioWikis but also experts in semantic web, open content and related topics.
We are looking forward for sharing some interessting days, full of discussion, with our guests at the rwc09!
Stefan Selke & Friedel Völker
