Release Date:
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
"Social Media" in the Northern Periphery
Representatives from Europe’s northern periphery met in Donegal, Ireland, over 21st and 22nd October to begin the process of creating a vision for the future of their regions.
Regions in the Northern Periphery are much further removed from the centre of Europe, with the attended challenges of transport, social development and economic growth, not to mention environmental and adverse weather conditions.
The meeting occurred under the auspices of the DARRA project. DARRA is an acronym for the 'Digital Age in Rural and Remote Areas'. This is funded by the European Union and the Norwegian Government under its INTERREG 4B Northern Periphery programme.
Charlie Wallin, from Västernorrland County in Sweden, is charged with providing a methodology for other regions in the project to develop their vision. A key tool here would be the use of 'Technology Foresight' methods.
Anthony Okuogume, a researcher from the University of Applied Sciences in Kemi-Tornio in Finland, explained the Social Media phenomenon to the meeting.
May Andersson from Vasternorrland (Sweden) wondered 'if it meant the end of the Arts as we traditionally understand them'.
Caitriona Strain stated that 'the partners in the project could begin to put the precepts of Social Media into action by using the project’s collaboration platform to share documents, news and digital media'.
The aim of the DARRA project is to help eliminate the digital divide between rural and urban areas in the Northern Periphery by boosting the usage of more advances ICT services. It has a budget of some €1.4 million and will continue for another two years until late 2010.
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