Regional Development And Web 2.0- Applications
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2010-08-21
Author(s)
Abstract
The region Walgau is located in the Austrian Federal State of Vorarlberg. The 21 municipalities started a three years development programme to develop common goals and to enhance the inter-communal cooperation. The region is characterized by a dispersed structure of settlement and differences between the more agricultural oriented mountainside and the more industrialized bottom of the valley. For this one of the main goals of process is to establish a regional learning process about different requirements and living conditions.
The increasing meaning of the Web 2.0 (social web) is discussed in different fields of politics and society but less in regional development activities. The Web 2.0 means the interactive part of the Internet in which users generate their own environments and issues by communicating, sharing, collecting and co-working in social network sites (SNS).
At a first glance it seems promising to use such platforms to enhance the group of activists and to promote and discuss the issues of a regional development process. But the experiment also can fail if the target group of such kind of web activities strongly differ from the actors interested in such processes. In this case we have to state that the instrument and the issue fall apart. In the regional development process 'Im Walgau' a regional Wiki started in February 2010 as an experiment of a public discourse on regional development issues.
The paper starts with a general introduction into the issue. Section 1 gives a short theoretical overview on the specific quality of web 2.0- applications concerning concepts, users, target groups, culture, and inherent rationality. Section 2 introduces the methodological design and the concept of communication of the regional development process Walgau and the role of web 2.0 applications. It provides first empirical results of the internet participation. Section 3 formulates some first considerations on the issue.
The increasing meaning of the Web 2.0 (social web) is discussed in different fields of politics and society but less in regional development activities. The Web 2.0 means the interactive part of the Internet in which users generate their own environments and issues by communicating, sharing, collecting and co-working in social network sites (SNS).
At a first glance it seems promising to use such platforms to enhance the group of activists and to promote and discuss the issues of a regional development process. But the experiment also can fail if the target group of such kind of web activities strongly differ from the actors interested in such processes. In this case we have to state that the instrument and the issue fall apart. In the regional development process 'Im Walgau' a regional Wiki started in February 2010 as an experiment of a public discourse on regional development issues.
The paper starts with a general introduction into the issue. Section 1 gives a short theoretical overview on the specific quality of web 2.0- applications concerning concepts, users, target groups, culture, and inherent rationality. Section 2 introduces the methodological design and the concept of communication of the regional development process Walgau and the role of web 2.0 applications. It provides first empirical results of the internet participation. Section 3 formulates some first considerations on the issue.
Language
English
Keywords
Regional development
web 2.0
social web
informal learning
HSG Classification
contribution to practical use / society
Refereed
No
Book title
Sustainable Regional Growth and Development in the Creative Knowledge Economy
Publisher
European Regional Science Association
Publisher place
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Event Title
50th Congress of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA)
Event Location
Jönköping
Event Date
19.-23.08.2010
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
212261
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open.access
Name
ERSA 2010_Walser Radzieowski_Regional Development And Web 20.doc
Size
870 KB
Format
Unknown
Checksum (MD5)
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