nowEurope

I confess that TEDx Danubia completely slipped in under my radar. Having said that, I was looking forward to attending TEDx Budapest - which was previously announced, but yet to be scheduled. Confusing? Yes. The events appear to be competitors, but I don’t know the background.

TEDx is a spin-off of the popular TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) event series, organized around the mantra ‘ideas worth spreading.’ Speakers are strictly limited to 18 minutes. TED videos featuring prominent figures including Bill Gates, Al Gore and Gordon Brown are widely linked and commented, helping to spread the TED meme. The TEDx format offers independent event / community organizers a license to hold one event at a time, following the event format guidelines.

Upcoming TEDx events in Central / Eastern Europe include Vienna, Sarajevo, Sofia, Zagreb, Tartu (Estonia), Warsaw, Bucharest and Cluj (Romania). Vlastimil, does this give you any ideas?

TEDx Danubia takes place this coming Wednesday just down the street from my apartment in downtown Budapest. I’ve made a last minute application, so hopefully I can still get a spot. Attendance is limited to 200, and judging by its Facebook page, the event will be well attended. Wish me luck, and if I make it in I’ll post my impressions in a follow up post.

I have been following the nowEurope blog for a while now after my colleagues at VITE directed my attention towards it and want to take the opportunity to thank Steve for welcoming me to the community. It is very interesting to see how opinions are shaped and also can change in just a few months of time. In March this year, a discussion about Twitter took place in this blog. Back then, my colleagues from VITE both had the oppinion that Twitter is an interesting phenomenon but they didn’t believe in its full potential yet.

Now it is November and VITE has it’s own Twitter and Facebook accounts that are being constantly updated and utilised to be in regular contact with the IT community in Vienna and beyond it’s national borders. Being hesitant about the usefulness of Twitter at first, we at VITE have received very positive feedback for offering this additional source of information to our members and to everyone who is interested in the Viennese IT community.

Continue reading ‘Twitter revisited’

Last week I received a call for project proposals, called “Open Source for Vienna”. The technology funding agency of the city of Vienna has launched a call for proposals that support the switch of the local government to open source software (OSS).  They claim the city has been using OSS since 1989 for the public administration. They see OSS as an enabler for efficient and lean government.

The call hopes to attract visionary ideas to better communicate between the Vienna city government and its citizens as well as to solve future administrative challenges in a modern and economic way.

You can find additional information about this call at http://www.zit.co.at/foerderungen/aktuelle-calls/open-source-fuer-wien.html (Only in German).

How are your local and national governments thinking? Is this a general trend for public administrations? Is the city of Vienna in this respect a front-runner or follower?

Nowadays, there are awards in almost any kind of area. Ranking from very well known awards in the area of pop culture such as the Oscars or the World Music Awards to awards for young academics in various fields. Last week I was made aware of an award in the area of technology that is taking place in Vienna. In an effort to stimulate and advocate the innovative potential of the Viennese technology sector, the ZIT (Centre for Innovation and Technology), Vienna’s technology agency, organises the Content Award 09. Until October 30^th, participants can submit contributions in various fields such as computer games, short movies or videos with animated content. There is also a category for innovative concepts with the aim of bringing the city of Vienna closer to its citizens with the usage of broadband technology. The contest has an “Under 18” and a “Fempower” category in order to specifically get young people and women to participate.

Looking at that contest raised the question within me, whether or not such awards would make sense for the Centrope region as well?

Continue reading ‘Innovation awards for Centrope?’

A couple of weeks ago I met Charles Ward in London, who works at the IT network Intellect. Intellect offers similar services to Vienna IT Enterprises (VITE). However, Intellect is a privately run enterprise thus the member fees are a lot higher.

One of the most striking differences between the Austrian and the British market is their access to the Eastern European market. It is a well known fact that Eastern European business partners play an important role for the Austrian and especially Viennese IT sector. Furthermore, various international companies coordinate their CEE activities via Vienna. This is why Vienna is known as the third largest IT location in Europe, after London and Munich.

But the Eastern European IT market is not that important to enterprises in the UK, aside from some big players. Charles Ward could not explain why and found it rather astonishing. My advice would be to locate British enterprises in Vienna to benefit from their experience and strategies, especially from those of the CENTROPE region, and then expand to Eastern European countries. Charles Ward strongly supported my suggestion. If this is really going to be implemented cannot be foreseen. However it could be a new starting point for further and stronger cooperation between Austria and the United Kingdom.

I would like to inform you about a very interesting subsidy called “Koop pro Wien” granted by the Vienna Business Agency to support enterprises participating in a cooperation project.

A precondition to receive this subsidy (max. €50,000, max. 50% of costs) is the membership of the lead partner at one of the following clusters: Automative Cluster Vienna Region (ACVR), Vienna IT Enterprises (VITE) or Kunststoff (Plastics) Cluster (KC). Furthermore at least three enterprises need to participate in a project not lasting longer than two years. In Austria this subsidy has been very successful. The subsidy’s influence on international research is not enormously high as the financial framework is rather low. However, the advantages are unbureaucratic and simple procedures.

For further details: http://www.wwff.gv.at/wwff.aspx_param_target_is_358271.v.aspx

What do you think about subsidies of this kind? Do you know any other examples of other or your countries? Are you of the opinion that such subsidies support the cooperation and research development? I would be very pleased if you shared your opinions with me!

I would like to take a new brochure entitled „Vienna. The Digital City” as a starting point to discuss the meaning of Vienna as maybe “THE” IT location in the Centrope region with you. Not only this brochure but also other statistics and studies show the innovation process of Vienna as an IT location and its increasing significance for the Centrope region.

But what is the perspective of the neighbouring countries?

Of course the facts show the progress Vienna has already achieved: Vienna is apart from London and Munich the third most important IT location in Europe, along with Helsinki.

Continue reading ‘Vienna. The Digital City.’

Please note that on the 28th of January not only the IT’n’T fair (27th to 29th) but also the very interesting event “Visual Computing Trends 2009” takes place in Vienna.

Those who come to Vienna could take the chance and visit both events!

Would be nice to see you there, Participation is free.

Continue reading ‘Event: “Visual Computing Trends 2009″’

I’m pleased to inform you all that the ITnT (Trade Fair for Information Technology and Telecommunication focused on Central Europe) will take place from the 27th to the 29th of January 2009 in Vienna at the “Messe Wien”!

This year my organization, Vienna IT Enterprises (VITE), will be represented together with the ZIT (Center for Innovation and Technology) that is in charge of company research and innovation in Vienna. Continue reading ‘Meet us at the ITnT Trade Fair’

Is there a field where the exchange between science and economy really works well? At events or in presentations people often praise the excellent cooperation between companies, universities and research institutions. Often technology parks are built with together with institutes of higher education or universities as this makes a good impression and seems to be promising, but in fact this is rarely the case.

I think that on closer inspection the exchange between science and economy turns out to be rather poor. Of course, there are some exceptions with respect to big enterprises. But in most cases, the only cooperation is hiring already educated students. So it would be reasonable to “force” SMEs to really cooperate. The only question is how to do so and how an increase in innovation can be achieved.

Continue reading ‘Does a successful exchange between science and economy exist?’