What doubts and reservations do you have on this idea?
What is the story you keep telling about the problems of this community (Dresden)?
Where do you see Dresden in five years time (all odds positively in tune)?
The region around Dresden on the outer Eastern part of Germany (sort of on the edge) has been a legacy of invention, entrepreneurship, and futuristic minds. What has driven it that far? Back in the days of August the Strong it was the urge to rise to intellectual and representative levels of the other kings and queens around Europe.
Dresden became the 'Florence of the Elbe' (Elbflorenz), not just because of the light, and the hilly mountains resemble the area around Florence in Italy, but due to the arts that are to be found at large here in the area. This reaching from one of the most remarkable opera houses, the Semperoper, to world-known museums, and not as quite as prominent in the general visibility: being a place of cutting edge technology, and science.
A few years back when Infineon (formerly Siemens) decided to catch upon the legacy of microelectronics that played a major part since 1961 in Dresden with Werner Hartmann setting the start. Quickly other institutions followed in now making Dresden, known as Silicon Saxony, Europe's most buzzing science, and research hotspot on fields like nano, bio, mobile computing, in short, all fields that are driven by the effects of 'Moore's Law'.
What makes Silicon Saxony different from Silicon Valley?
Dresden in itself is already a microcosm representing the "world in a nutshell", neatly following the bends of the river Elbe the city spreads along roughly 20 km, and 5 - 10 km in broad. Instead of needing a car, the public transport system with Dresdener Verkehrsbetriebe AG running a 24-7-service (one of the few in the world) being its mobility backbone, or just take the bike.
Arts, science, and technology meet within the city limits constantly and create a state of serendipity as the interview between Kai Simons and William Forsythe in "Mental Leaps" (page 7 ff.) show. But that is just the beginning. The rising discussion about installing free public WiFi around Dresden, via various approaches, is giving new positive impulses to create a worldwide acknowledged hotspot of Abundance bringing citizens' creative power into being.
What doubts and reservations do you have on this idea?
What is the story you keep telling about the problems of this community (Dresden)?
Where do you see Dresden in five years time (all odds positively in tune)?
