Call for cooperation with Aquila99: 1st wikiTV Festival G99 proposals for a sustainable World, L'Aquila, 8 - 10 July 2010

[Michel Bauwens]

Via "Giuseppe Silvi" <[e-mail]>,

More details at http://www.laquila99.tv/wiki/index.php?title=1st_wikiTV_Festival_G9...

1st wikiTV Festival G99 proposals for a sustainable World, L'Aquila, 8 - 10 July 2010

draft updated on Monday, 24 / 05 / 2010

Aim and Scope

Close to the turn of the first decade of the third millennium, human settlements are facing critical challenges that lead to major transformations. Social networking applications has lead to the creation of new user communities
and the cohesion of already existing ones, all these communities have been
developing an active behavior expressed through a multitude of innovations in
cultural cooperation in any field of human activities.

The "1st wikiTV Festival G99 - Group of 99 - proposals for a sustainable World" (L'Aquila 8 - 10 July 2010) has the aim to support L’Aquila’s Bid to Become European Capital of Culture 2019 and the scope to facilitate the
proliferation of best practices and ideas osmosis able to enhance a
participatory design and a shared reconstruction of L'Aquila, unfortunately it
took a disastrous earthquake to let the world know about L’Aquila.

The wikiTV Festival will be only ON-LINE with the wish to collect open digital contributions and to have "p2p" connections (peer to peer, piazza to piazza, plaza to plaza, etc…) between the 8th and the 10th of July, in
coincidence of the date of the past G8 2009.

The choice of L’Aquila as Capital of Culture will not only highlight what L’Aquila was, but it will show what it can once again become by 2019 and beyond, through good policies (top down) that take into account of the needs and
solutions / proposals elaborated world wide by people (bottom up) .

The 2019 date gives a reasonable goal for the restoration of its’ rich architectural heritage, giving the population a solid forecast regarding the timetable for the city’s rebirth. The resources already earmarked for the
reconstruction will be transformed from simple “rebuilding resources”, in an
effective investment for the city’s development thanks to the promotional impact
that being a Big Event can bring.

It will no longer be “Europe’s biggest building site” but rather a skill intensive and permanent workshop rich in ideas and values. As often happens with big events, being the European Capital of Culture an important “driver” for
change, capable of reorienting the territory’s vocation along new areas of
specialisation (culture, tourism, etc.), with positive effects for its economy.

Many national and international institutions and governments (Germany, Spain, France, USA) have made comittments to the reconstruction effort and this makes L’Aquila a prototype for international cultural co-operation and is supporting
the city’s European dimension. The choice will also reinforce L’Aquila’s
candidacy as an UNESCO World heritage site.

It will revitalise L’Aquila’s role as a university city, and a centre of excellence as proposed by the O.C.S.E., a capital of knowledge, once again able to attract students from all over Italy, Europe, the Mediterranean and beyond.

In summary, the reconstruction of L’Aquila will become a model for how to plan the future of a city through the careful reading of its past, identifying an urban equilibrium between human and cultural space that links history and
modernity, that respects the territory and its dangers. It is an opportunity to
transform a disaster for a community into an opportunity to change for the
better. It is a challenge to become an example for Europe and the world.
Reconstruction will have more than a goal, but a reachable dream. And the city
will become a showcase of what European, if not worldwide, cultural co-operation
can achieve.

99 is the number representative of the city of L'Aquila, whose layout corresponds to that of Jerusalem if rotated 180 degrees. From the Bible we know that Jerusalem has the representative number of 66, rotated 180 degrees from 99.
According to legend, the town of L'Aquila gathered the population from 99 local
villages into the one city. Each group of villagers in-turn created their own
church, resulting in a city of 99 churches, squares and a Fountain of 99 spouts,
known as Fountain of the Rivera.