Kosovo, Kosova



[Professor Jonathan Briggs of Kingston University and The Other Media, right, and Richard Barbrook of the Hypermedia Research Centre, Westminster University, left]

Jonathan Briggs gave a refreshing and invigorating talk at the NMK Christmas Lecture a few days ago. From his Hyper Island project in Sweden - funded by the Swedish government - Jonathan has learned much and has moved the agenda forward to a far more demanding context: Kosovo or Kosova, whichever you prefer.

While Hyper Island aimed to provide a multi-disciplinary environment with an underlying agenda of creating powerful networks between participants - the more far flung, ultimately, the better, according to weak/strong ties theory - IPKosovo, a project based at the central library in Pristina and also backed by the Swedish government, is contributing to the effort to make up for an entire generation of people having missed out on higher education.

The way forward here is seen as being to provide people with project management skills, building confidence, leadership and networking and encouraging an entrepreneurial approach in what is a highly challenging environment. How do you provide e-commerce when nobody has a street address in Pristina (location is based on informal directions), when there are no credit cards, when there is no fulfilment infrastructure? How to trade IP-based material such as music in a country without copyright? Jonathan's first batch of students has had to be inventive.

Jonathan says they have attempted to tap into the 'copy-and-paste' modus operandi so common in southern Europe, and to take advantage of the networking opportunies generated by new media, his 'trojan horse' to get people involved.

He's clear that it's not important if his students go abroad to develop their skills and expertise once they've been through the IPKO Institute: as has already happened in south-east Asia, the long-term tendency is for people to return home and feed their skills into the local economy.

Which is why Jonathan's currently looking for 14-week placements for his first set of graduates, outside of Kosova and probably somewhere in northern Europe. If you can help, contact him at: jonathan at reengage.org.