re:publica is à priori a German blogger conference. Over the years it has however morphed into an international gathering of more than 5000 people from more than 50 countries with a common interest in the following themes: Digital business and innovation, social media, research & education in the Internet, campaigning, culture, media and ultimately, the “res publica”.
So re:publica 2013 was a good place to talk about the ‘Open African Innovation Research & Training Network’ and the upcoming ‘Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest’ and interwoven ‘Open A.I.R conference on open innovation and intellectual property’ in Cape Town from 9 to 13 December.
I had the pleasure to give a short introduction to Open A.I.R. as part of a session on “GIZ: Global Knowledge Sharing and Collaboration”. (Open) innovation and collaboration was indeed a hot topic at GIZ’s innovation lounge, which hosted more than 25 managers from innovation hubs from Africa, Latin America and Asia in cooperation with Afrilabs and re:publica.
So let’s hope that these different innovation communities will find more and more common online and offline spaces to check out common interests. One such space could certainly be the upcoming ‘Open A.I.R conference on open innovation and intellectual property’ in Cape Town from 9 to 13 December.
If you want to get in touch with the managers and participants of the Innovation Lounge, please also check this report and listing from ice Cairo – or contact Mr Christian Gmelin of GIZ (via his profile on the Alumniportal Germany – (register or login at the Alumniportal first).
If you want to get in touch with the Open African Innovation Research and Training Network, or learn more about the Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest’ in Cape Town in December, please check the team on the Open A.I.R. website at
http:/
Also feel free to join the discussions of the community of African and international experts on matters at the intersection of intellectual property (IP), innovation and open development in Africa. Join here.
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More reporting on re:publica will follow soon, my next topic will be an interview with Irene ‘Ira’ Agrivina of HONFablab Indonesia on “Do it yourself! How an Indonesian community is open-sourcing the production of low-cost below-knee- prostheses”.
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Note: This text was first published on the blog of Balthas Seibold at the Alumniportal Germany (www.alumniportal-deutschland.org/en/). Check the blog ( register or login first). All blog entries represent the personal views and ideas of Balthas Seibold.