User centric prototyping (experimenting) is a major methodological component of the Slovenia’s initiative in which the participants are looking for what do people really need and how to make it. In the initiative there are the representatives of the municipalities, ministries, government agencies, National Assembly, companies, healthcare providers, ICT providers, tourist organizations, chambers of commerce and craft, development agencies, organizers of major international events, accounting services, institutes, institutions of higher education. The initiative has been created in a spirit of the Innovation for Life Quality - Slovenia Living Lab (http://SloveniaLivingLab.org) announced in June 2007.

The initiative is based on an expectation that experimenting (prototyping) in innovative ways of cross-border eCollaboration will accelerate new eSolutions & eServices to be of a higher level of acceptance, and developed and implemented sooner. They will contribute to the competitiveness of the participating organizations, of the countries, and of the region as a whole, as well as to a better life of their citizens. It is assumed that by using the state-of-the-art Information and Communication Technology - ICT (eTechnologies) the cross--border macro eRegions can become ready for innovative and holistic inter-regions eCollaboration. For example, potential eCollaboration between the Danube eRegion of fourteen, the Baltic eRegion of nine, and the Constance Lake Region of four countries.

An example of the cross-border eCollaboration is the Alpe Adria Danube universities INitiative – ALADIN created on October 22, 2002 (http://eALADIN.eu). Over the years, the ALADIN group was growing and engaging in many aspects of eBusiness teaching and research, as well as joint EU projects. For several years, ALADIN has been initiating numerous workshops, conference’s panels and meetings recognizing a need and readiness for an accelerated cross-border eCollaboration in Central Europe. In April 2010, the group has published a Position Paper of the Alpe Adria Danube universities INitiative – ALADIN , (http://eLivingLab.org/CrossBordereRegion/EUDanubeRegionStrategy/ALADINPositionPaper) proposing open innovation approach in the Living Labs environment with a special attention to the SMEs. The signatories of the document were the representatives of the following universities: Bucharest, Romania; BW Munich, Germany; Corvinus, Hungary; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Graz, Austria; Košice, Slovakia; Maribor, Slovenia; Novi Sad, Serbia; Primorska, Slovenia; Rijeka, Croatia; Ruse, Bulgaria; Sofia, Bulgaria; Trento, Italy; Trieste, Italy.

The problems in the cross-border processes are rather new to all of us, they are very complex, involving many organizations and requiring a lot of time to be redesigned in order to exploit a current ICT efficiently and successfully. The solutions of those problems are very important to the organizations in the neighboring countries. We may not wait and expect that the problems will go away, or assume that they might be solved by someone else. We have to open up, collaborate and act now.

Numerous innovative eSolutions & eServices based on future Internet and cloud computing will be needed to support eleven Priority Areas of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. The coordinators of several priority areas are involved in a program of DeRC 2014. There are some good reasons for that. One, ICT is needed to efficiently support activities and management of any priority area. Two, ICT may help in sharing public data needed in cross-areas requirements. Three, ICT may support higher level of interoperability of all priority areas contributing to an achievement of the common goals of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.

Opportunities for a cross-border eCollaboration of numerous stakeholders engaging in open innovation will be discussed in the conference. Panel presentations are expected to be short and action oriented. They will propose "what will be our prototype/pilot developed in next 12 months". Ideas on possible and needed joint research and development projects in the region are welcome. The participants will be encouraged to engage in prototypes development in order to be able to respond in-time to the related national and/or EU calls for project proposals. It is expected that an accelerated experimenting approach will be suggested in the documents of the upcoming EU program Horizon 2020.

Components of a program are the following panels, presentations and meetings
(as per May 9, 2014):

Monday, September 22, 14:00 – 18:00, Plenary sessions
Macro Regional Crossroads in Central and South Eastern Europe
The Ambassadors Sharing Interest in a Cross-border eCollaboration in the Danube eRegion
eSolutions & eServices Supporting Priority Areas of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region

Tuesday, September 23, 9:00 – 17:00, Section sessions
Chambers of Commerce and Development Agencies eCollaborating in the Danube eRegion
Mayors of the eMunicipalities without borders working together
University Deans Supporting the Cross-border eCollaboration
Cross-border eHealthcare
Cross-border eInvoicing
Prototype presentations
Business-to-Business meetings (coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce of Ljubljana and the Austrian Embassy in Ljubljana)

Contact person - Conference Chair
Dr. Jože Gričar, Professor Emeritus, University of Maribor
Gricar@FOV.Uni-Mb.si      http://eCenter.FOV.Uni-Mb.si/Gricar
& Program Coordinator, Inter-Municipality Initiative: Cross-border eCollaboration in the Danube eRegion, http://eLivingLab.org/CrossBordereRegion/InterMunicipality

Find all relevant information on the website