Dresden - A World Microcosmos in a Nutshell

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)?

Science & Technology in Performing Arts - OLEDine

During the 7. Silicon Saxony Days on June 27th, 2012 Prof. Jörg Rainer Noennig and his team of the Center for Knowledge Architecture of the TU Dresden provided the Science Speed Dating.

At the end a thrilling project that may lead to further projects facilitated by HTxA scouts Ralf Lippold & Angela Incampo was presented with Dr. Michael Scholles, Fraunhofer IPMS.

See for yourself, at FlickR.

For more pictures of the day-long event see Silicon Saxony FlickR set 

© OLEDine copyright by HTxA

PS.: How something could look like see here (however not suitable for ballet dance)

Mitteldeutschland 2023 - (Colorful) Fruits of Small Changes Today

The above is the title of the pitch at the Leipzig Elevator Pitch Night back in 2008. The speaker was covered with sweat, and the audience (200 people from business, education, politics, and English speakers all along) frowned their heads - BUT ONE.

Klaus Wurpts, back then head of Wirtschaftsinitiative Mitteldeutschland, asked the speaker for a personal conversation. "What has been your intention? What is the idea behind what you told in the elevator?"

The answer of the guy, "I have seen the impossible become possible, the new BMW Plant in Leipzig was erected in the shortest time, half the workforce, at least of the same quality as the other plants, and even faster ramping up - it was all done by the people of the region of Mitteldeutschland! So my vision is: providing the infrastructure so individuals can strive to their inner strengths, there will be an abundance of jobs, economic well-being, and joy of life."

Four and a half years later this guy still remembers the night in Leipzig where only a hint about an English workshop in one of the newsletters of the Wirtschaftsinitiative Mitteldeutschland caught his eye, he went, and he entered the competition, not knowing what would wait for him.

He only was deadly sure that if the others in the room could do it, he could do so as well, no matter what would come out. The least would be that his voice would be heard by more than one, and his dream would not be lost.

Colors of Choice

... get ready to  learn more about the upcoming Startup Accelerator! 

Accelerating, Based on a Seed, and a Network (Idea)

In 2008 Peter Senge's latest book "The Necessary Revolution" came out. It touched base, shortly before the economic meltdown due to the financial crisis, and the U.S. housing bubble, and the question "How individuals and organizations are working togehter to create a Sustainable World?" (actually this is the sub title of the book) arouse.

http://bit.ly/O4cL3R

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only think that ever has", said Margaret Mead. To which we would add, "Depending on their ability to build larger networks." ("The Necessary Revolution", page 225) - a quote that is ever so true today (despite immensely increased possibility of connectivity, knowledge flows across disciplinary boundaries).

2012 - Peter Diamandis (co-founder of ISU, Singularity University (with subtitling also in German, French, Greek, Japanese, Hungarian, ...), Planetary Resources, and initiator/ founder of X Prize Foundation) and Steven Kotler have written also a book with the title "abundance - THE FUTURE IS BETTER THAN YOU THINK".

In the note of the authors it reads on page x, "Moreover, the greatest tool we have for tackling our grand challenges is the human mind. The information and communications revolution now underway is rapidly spreading across the planet."

Should we have arrived at a turning point of time, where joint citizen action drives forward innovation, economic wealth, and creation of a sustainable future?

In Dresden this could be observed between the 11th of June till 20th of June 2012 with some single, not obviously connected, events that had a common demeanor - one, or more reappearing citizens who connected the events towards a broader picture, or in other words being part of the larger knowledge flow across boundaries.

2012-06-11 Kick-off World Forum of Universities of Resources on Sustainability - #WFURS on Twitter
2012-06-12 in the morning a personal visit to the local job center (unemployment agency), as I am currently on paid-job search
2012-06-12 attendance of press conference on #WFURS at Sächsische Landespressekonferenz, short chat with rector of TU Bergakademie Freiberg Prof. Bernd Meyer
2012-06-14 attendance of 5th Dresden Future Forum together with Florian Vogelmaier, Angela Incampo, Sören Rogoll, Robert Schinner (DzWk e.V.),
2012-06-15 TU Dresden gains officially the status of an Excellence University
2012-06-16 (- 17th) Bunte Republik Neustadt also with Angela Incampo at Uschis Limobude (short video by Thomas Richter is yet to come) with a short visit after 4th MobileCamp Dresden
2012-06-16 (- 17th) attendance of 4th MobileCamp Dresden (sessions on #abundance [myself] ]and #quantifiedself [Florian Schumacher]) - #mcdd12
2012-06-18 arrival of Finnish teamentrepreneur Hanne Eskelinen from Team Academy in Dresden, 2nd visit to Dresden after 2008 visit to Hellerau with Iiro Koleimanen
2012-06-19 attending Dialogplattform at HTW Dresden as conference blogger, and being boundary spanner to connect Campua, Marco Dziallas, Career Service HTW Dresden,  - #DialogForum
2012-06-20 joint meeting with Hanne Eskelinen, Angela Incampo and members of the Mentoringnetwork of HTW Dresden

Now the question arises, "Why were these activities been brought together, and shared on various platforms?"

The answer perhaps is right in the words by Kevin Kelly, author of "What Technology Wants", in "Abundance" on page 237:

"For most of history , unique mix of talents, skills, insights, and experiences of each person had no outlet. If you dad was a baker, you were a baker. As technology expands the possibility space, it expands the chance that someone can find an outlet for their personal traits ... When we enlarge the variety and reach of technology, we increase options, not just for ourselves and not for others living, but for all generations to come."

.... should we be right in a knowledge singularity with an abundance of opportunities for individuals, citizens, entrepreneurs, researchers, managers, and students?

7th Silicon Saxony Day - Accelerating Towards The Future?

At the fomer site of Qimonda in Dresden on the edge of the Dresdner Heide the 7th Silicon Saxony Day is currently taking place. The topic is the current state, and future outlook of the regional high-tech cluster Silicon Saxony, and the microelectronics economy in general in the region, and beyond.

The press talk at 11am GMT+2 stood under the topic "Will Clusters be the Technology Companies of the Future?" with representatives of four national cutting edge technology clusters at the podium. 

Rorbert Weichert, CEO of PR Piloten GmbH opened the press talk and led directly over to the panel directly.

Prof. Thomas Mikolajick, Cool Silicon Cluster  - Energy Efficiency Innovations from Silicon Saxony who gave a broad overview of the cluster's work since 2009. The named beneficials of it being the brand name, the larger network organisation, and most recently the initiative of Silicon Europe that is expected to accelerate from this autumn on.

Walter Birkhan - Airbusinesscluster Metropolregion Hamburg talked about the relevance of the cluster in an ever increasing air traffic (5% p.a. worldwide) and the challenges of having two Global Players (Airbus, Lufthansa) on board. He also mentioned that it took six years to build up the trust amongst its stakeholders, and the necessary networks. Efficient Airport 2030 (only in German) being one of the major projects currently under way.

Stephan Witt - BioEconomy Cluster a pretty new cluster focusing on the use of non-food biomass.

Dr. Peter Frey - SolarValley pointing out the future opportunities despite the present challenges in the global solar market as the cost of solar PV cells are decreasing exponentially (via "Abundance - The Future is Better Than You Think").  Currently the solar branche is in a situation where production exceeds demand by 100% which gives power to even more accelerating decrease of prices, and the rise of new producers in Asia. 

As Mr. Witt outlined it should be so that solar power should take the energy lead, and biomass re-use should more and more find its way in replacing fossil fuels in the chemical industry.

Finishing off it became clear to all in the room that the challenges of the decreasing funding schemes (especially for Eastern Germany) will drive new forms of cooperations, even though as Prof. Mikolajick pointed out it is the hope that funding will still flow, or at least reorganized in the future. The positive effects of the clusters will more become self-accelerating positive economic impact due to the closeness of its involved partners as Mr. Witt said. Which will be more than obvious for all that the region needs to become the breeding place of future global players.

Will this be the Abundance that is laid out in Peter Diamandis book? Or will iHub in Nairobi, Kenya, be one other role model of future citizen-based hotspots based on information technology, trust, and collaboration, as described in KPMG's High Growth Markets (from page 32 on)?

Copyright: own

Update 2012-07-13 Article in Sächsische Zeitung, 2009-05-23 which points to the back then and current need, connectors being able to span across between academic research to SME in the region as Hartmut Fiedler, Managing Director of VSW back in 2009, now Secretary of State for Economics, Work, and Traffic of Free State of Saxony, is pointing out.

Update: 2012-07-18 Cluster können Technologiekonzerne nicht ersetzen (Heiko Weckbrodt, DNN)

Gaining Momentum Towards the Knowledge Singularity

It must have been February this year when IEEE Technology Time Machine (a three-day conference on technologies beyond the year 2020) reached my awareness. Information technology being the main topic, I already envisioned an accelerated buzz on the local media, and beyond - Dresden being one of the major hotspots in emerging technologies within the European Community. The activity on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ being pretty low, yet not unexpected, as the worldwide engineering community around IEEE has members, engineers, who are certainly not that active on social networks.

http://bit.ly/OrbitingFrogDotComBlackHole

So, by good chance I got the opportunity to cover the event live. I did so mainly on Twitter using the hashtag #IEEETTM, and I certainly was not the only one (see Slideshare presentation). During and after the conference there was little to no local activity. "Could it be the English language that held back contributors?" - was my question immediately coming to mind.

Mid-June, there appeared the next conferences in the high-tech context happening in Dresden. And another surprising phone call got me invited as official blogger in residence for the Kick-off of the World Forum of Universities of Resources on Sustainability at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg (the world's oldest mining university). Best time to check on the above research question, this time 90% of the participants from none-German-speaking countries. The hashtag #WFURS going to the East coast of the U.S. 

Again not much activity during (astonishing, as the free WiFi-connection was given to all participants) the event, and even less afterwards - despite the fact that the 63rd Research Forum followed directly after the World Forum.

The observed phenomenon accelerated the urge to dig deeper whether we have already a kind of  Information Singularity, where overburdening (seemingly) conferences and social media activities are kicking people's awareness of what is going on in the region completely off. Traditional media, with a strong urge of control and journalistic professionalism slowing down the flow of knowledge, that totally new, and unpredicted behavior of the actors in the system happen. A "Black Hole" of information, and knowledge overflow?

A more than interesting research question to follow up - stay tuned.

2012-07-05 Update: Social Media is the Glue of Innovation via game changer Charles van der Haegen