PANEL A             PANEL B             WORKSHOPS

Pieter de Wit, OLON (NL)  
Pieter de Wit studied Mass communication at the University Nijmegen, Netherlands. He has been employed by OLON since 1982 and is its executive director since 1984. The Olon is the "Organisatie van Lokale Omroepen in Nederland" or "Dutch Federation of Local Public Broadcasters (radio, television as well as teletext providers)". Its aim is the promotion of local broadcasting and cable casting in general and to support and stimulate the cooperation between (independent, non-commercial) local broadcasting organizations in particular. Olon was established in 1981 and can be regarded as a kind of "trade-union" for non-commercial, public local radio and television organizations. Most of the licensed local, non-commercial broadcasters in the Netherlands are members of the OLON. In 1988, the Olon was officially recognized by the government in the new media legislation as the official representative body for local broadcasting organisations in the Netherlands. That in turn led to the Olon being partly financed on a more structural basis out of the national media budget. Apart from this subsidy, half of Olon's budget comes from membership fees, membership services and services to other parties with links to local stations (projects).
www.olon.nl

Peter Reindl, RTR (A)  
Peter Reindl is head of the department Frequency Management for Broadcasting of the RTR, the Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and Telecommunications in Austria. After studying radio communications and measurement techniques at the Technical University of Graz, he joined in 1994 the Frequency Office in the Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology. In the Frequency Office he was responsible for the introduction of Private Radio, regarding the technical possibilities of frequency utilisation. In 2001 when the RTR was founded according a new Private Broadcasting Act he left the Ministry and joined the RTR. There he built up the Frequency Management Department in the RTR which is dealing with frequency licensing and frequency planning for broadcasting services. Besides other activities he is member in several international working groups and he is concerned with the frequency and technology aspects of the introduction of Digital Broadcasting in Austria with the main focus on DVB-T.
http://www.rtr.at

Christoph Lindenmaier  
After having been Radio Officer / delegate Intl. Com. Red Cross ICRC, Cyprus/Middle East and co-founder of radio project 'Radio LoRa' in Zurich/Switzerland in the 1970s, Christoph Lindenmaier graduated as a MD with a Thesis on brain physiology, visually evoked potentials in 1980. From 1980 he worked on the technical concept and implementation of infrastructures for Radio Zinzine, a non-commercial, independent regional radio station in Forcalquier, France (Provence). From 1982 Lindenmaier was a developer of scientific and media-oriented apparatus (lab equipment, broadcast transmitters …) and free-lance consultant; consultant for technical, juridical, organizational and human-rights oriented aspects of non-commercial broadcasting. From 1986 to 1994 he was co-founder and head of Technical Commission of the European Federation of Community Radios (FERL) and did various surveys to assess the availability of FM-channels in politically difficult surroundings. From 1989 he helped to establish the bi-lingual (Slovene-German) radio station 'Radio Agora' in Carinthia, Austria. 1991 to 1993 Lindenmaier was lecturer at media science institutes in Vienna, Salzburg and Klagenfurt on non-commercial broadcasting. He worked on the technical concept and implementation of a computer based network for independent journalists in former Yugoslavia (AIM) from 1992-2001. In 1993 he edited the FERL-statement on behalf of the Council of Europe on implications of DAB Eureka-147 technology for Community Radios. From 1993-98 he produced and executed the research project APS to improve semi-empirical algorithms to predict broadcast coverage (FM and DAB Band II) in difficult, mountainous regions. From 1999 Lindenmaier developed software packages (contact management 'PLM' and radio program automation 'OAT') optimized for non-commercial applications and was member of Expert Study Groups UKW92 and UKW2001, Swiss Federal Office for Communications BAKOM on technical aspects of optimizing FM-coverage in Switzerland.

Christa Sommerer, University of Art Linz (A)  
Christa Sommerer, with her partner Laurent Mignonneau, is an internationally renowned media artist working in the field of interactive computer installation. She is a Professor at the University of Art and Design in Linz Austria where she and Mignonneau head the Department for Interface Culture at the Institute for Media. Sommerer originally studied biology (botany) at the University of Vienna and modern sculpture and art education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (masters degree). Since 1992 Sommerer and Mignonneau are working together in the area of interactive computer installations. Mignonneau and Sommerer's artworks have been called "epoch making" (Toshiharu Itoh, NTT-ICC museum) for developing natural and intuitive interfaces and for often applying scientific principles such as artificial life, complexity and generative systems to their innovative interface designs. Sommerer and Mignonneau have won mayor international media awards and have published numerous research papers on Artificial Life, interactivity and interface design and they lectured extensively at universities, international conferences, and symposia. Sommerer has organized workshops and invited sessions at various international conferences, has organized several student exhibitions , serves on many conference committees and is also an active jury member at various international competitions.
http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/~christa-laurent

Leo Saftic, matrix e.V. (A)  
Activities [1986-2005] Project Management, Marketing, Executive, Editorial and Content Management, Programming, Technical Direction, Audio Engineering, DJ, Project Design, Surveys... Interpreting: Ex-Yugoslavian Languages - German "Anordnungen" matrix e.V. [TV-Project CoDy] / Project Group Androsch-Dörner-Saftic [Festival der Regionen, Projects Fleisch and Hymnos] / Internet Portal LinzTermine [City of Linz, Press and Information Services/AEC] / Theater Phönix / Bruckmühle Pregarten [Cultural and regional Development non-profit company, Cultural Association Bruckmühle, Summer Academy Kultur-Zeit-Wert] / European Month of Culture Linz [Project Laager] / Office for cultural pedagogics [Lehrlingsfestival Linz 99] / Klavierhaus Weinberger / Aufruf zur Phantasie [Project Alles Techno] / Cultural Association Schwertberg / Nomadisc Schwertberg / Be Happy Kompanie... Networks CENTRAL EUROPEAN CULTURAL COOPERATION EWIV [Germany, Czech Republic, Austria 2000 - 2001, Project Austrian Czech Cultural Cooperation] / EUROPEAN INFORMAL CULTURAL COMMUNICATION [Croatia, Slovenia, Austria 1992 - 2005, Projects among others Ivan und Herta Transglobal, Ex´trors, Channel X, Avstria?!, Bands among others Laibach, Borghesia, 2.2.2.7, Let 3, Demolition Group...] Postgraduate in Cultural & Media Management.

TV Pilot Project CoDy [Collective Dynamics]
Technological developments are increasingly offering participatory media systems. Not one-way broadcasting but bi-directional and communicative systems do activate participation. Structures which in the future will be indispensible in democratic societies. As a result CoDy is developing interactive applications for the processing and the design of the program as well as public access to enable multimedia-based contributions for everybody. Digital TV, located between the www, dominated by individuality, on the one hand and current TV usage (passive anonymity) on the other, are meeting in collective processes and dynamics. We see us!

Veronika Leiner, Radio FRO (A)  
Studied german and spanish literature and linguistics in Salzburg, Seville and Dublin. Postgraduate in Cultural and Media Management. Working with Community Radio since 1999, concepts and production of various free media and cultural projects (Festival der Regionen 2003, 2005, Ars Electronica Festival 2004), since 2004 CEO of Radio FRO, the free non-commercial radio station in Linz, Austria.

Maria Berger, MEP SP (A)  
Maria Berger since 1996 is Member of European Parliament (Socialist Group in the European Parliament). Besides being Head of Delegation she is PES Coordinator of the Committee on Legal Affairs, Substitute to the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. Furthermore she is member of the delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia and the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and substitute for the Delegation for relations with Canada. After her studies of Law and Economics at the University Innsbruck, where in the early 1980s she worked as an assistant, she joined the Austrian Ministry for Science and Research in 1984 and was Head of the European Policy Division at the Federal Chancellery from 1988-1992. 1992 to 1994 she spent in Geneva and Brussels as Director of EFTA, followed by her Vice-precidency at the University Krems, A in 1995/96.

Paula le Dieu, Creative Commons International (GB)  
Paula Le Dieu is the Director of Creative Commons International. With more than 70 countries currently in the process of establishing local language and jurisdictional versions of Creative Commons licences and Science Commons projects, Paula's role is to ensure that the global creative and innovative domain grows and thrives (http://creativecommons.org). Prior to joining Creative Commons, Paula worked for the BBC in the role of Project Director for the Creative Archive. This is a public service initiative to provide the fuel for digital creativity by opening up access to, (and allowing for re-use of) Britain's cultural heritage starting with the BBC's radio and television archive.
http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk

Ursula Sedlaczek, AustroMechana (A)  
Education in Law, corporate management, Media and Public Relations. Worked as a lawyer, mainly on environmental and economic issues in a ministry, a lobbying organisation and a private company. Since 2005 is designated director of austro mechana, an austrian collecting society which attends to the interests of composers, librettists and songwriters and publishers of musical works.

Volker Grassmuck, Humboldt University Berlin (D)  
Volker Grassmuck media researcher at the Helmholtz Center for Cultural Technology of Humboldt University Berlin. His main area of interest is the digital revolution, intellectual property and free knowledge. Previous areas of research include artificial intelligence, garbage, the history of media and identity discourses in Japan, and the knowledge order of digital media. He is also the project lead of iRights.info and of the conference series "Wizards of OS", a freelance writer and an activist. As co-initiator of privatkopie.net he is campaigning to promote user rights and freedoms in the ongoing copyright reforms. His publications include "Freie Software zwischen Privat- und Gemeineigentum," Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Bonn 2002

Eberhard R. Hilf, Aktionsbündnis Urheberrecht für Bildung und Wissenschaft (D)  
Eberhard R. Hilf is CEO of the ISN (Institute for Science Networking), a research institute for the information management of scientific information. ISN has expertise in open access publishing services, metadata, semantic metadata, and retrieval of scientific information including eLearning. Projects include the document retrieval system DoRe of the GSI Darmstadt, the MPG eDoc System. Hilf is a member of the executive board of DINI German Initiative for NetworkInformation, of the European Physical Society EPS Action Committee for Publication and Scientific Communication, and of many other committees such as of the CCSD (Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) des CNRS, France. He cofounded the IuK Initiative for Information and Communication of the German Learned Societies (chairman 1998/99), and the Aktionsbuendnis Urheberrecht fuer Bildung und Wissenschaft, which comprises all major national science organisations on behalf of the topic of copyright reform. As a scientist he was full professor for theoretical physics and retired in 2000.
http://physnet.uni-oldenburg.de/~hilf
http://www.urheberrechtsbuendnis.de

Alexander Baratsits, Radio FRO (A)  
Involved in Community Radio since 1991. 1995 together with Johanna Dorer publication of "Radiokultur von Morgen". 1995-2001 Chairperson of the Association of Free Radios Austria. 1997-2002 CEO of Radio FRO, Linz. Concepts, production and publication of various projects in the fields of free media, media art and intercultural art (Festival der Regionen 1999, 2001), Ars Electronica Festival (1995, 1998 - 2002)
( http://www.fro.at/projekte, http://www.servus.at/v-stream21), FM@dia Forum 04 in Prague
( http://fmedia.ecn.cz). Studied law as well as culture and media management.

Ingo Leindecker  
Ingo Leindecker has worked for Radio FRO as an active radio artist and content-producer since 1998. He is in charge of developing cross-media publishing technologies for radio / internet and he has launched and expanded the Cultural Broadcasting Archive, a digital audio-exchange data base of all the Austrian free radio stations.
http://www.fro.at
http://cba.fro.at

Matt Locke  
Matt Locke is Head of Creative Research & Development, part of the New Media & Technology Division of the BBC. Creative R&D works with New Media production teams across the BBC on mid-long term innovation development, helping analyse trends and develop product and service ideas for 3-5 years out. He is a regular participant on working groups and advisory boards for other public sector projects and organisations and chairs the External Advisory Panel for the Creative Archive License Group. Before joining the BBC, Matt ran a centre for research in digital culture based in Yorkshire, developing many innovative projects including the Guardian's SMS poetry competition and STATIC - an SMS theatre piece launched at the 2000 Edinburgh Festival. Before that, he worked as a curator and writer, specialising in the social adoption of technology and the cultural impact of digital technology, and still continues to write regularly about these themes for journals, websites and his own site at
www.test.org.uk

Juliane Alton (A)  
Studied Dramatics, Communication Studies and Journalism in Vienna. Freelancer at ORF. 1992 Award at the Film- and Videofestival of "Frauenfilminitiative im Filmcasino", Vienna. Postgraduate in Cultural Management. 1993 scholarship (Stockholm); cooperation with "Werkstätten- und Kulturhaus WUK", Vienna. Publications on cultural topics. 1994-1998 worked at the collecting society "Dachverband Filmschaffende (VDFS)", responsible for organisational development, support for artists, cooperation with foreign collecting societies. 1995 publication of "Handbuch für Filmschaffende". 1997 PhD, thesis on social insurance for artists. 1999 to 2003 CEO of "Interessengemeinschaft Freie Theaterarbeit", Vienna (network and lobby for independent and autonomous theater). Since 2002 official expert on copyright. In 2003 moved to Vorarlberg (western Austria). 2003 to 2005 responsible for education in art and theater at Vorarlberger Landestheater. Since 2004 CEO of IG Kultur Vorarlberg (network and lobby for independent and autonomous cultural work) and boardmember of IG Kultur Österreich.