Online Educa Berlin 2007 - Intro

Online Educa Berlin 2007, one of the largest - if not the largest - gatherings in Europe on educational technology, is a place where you can meet about 2000 colleagues from more than 100 countries in formal and informal settings. Last year, I participated together with a large representation from AVNet. The Flemish EdTech community was represented in the form of two edubloggers, who were given reporter status and had thus access to the press room and facilities.
Also this year, a large AVNet/EuroPACE contingent is present, but I have also run into two Flemish and a number of Dutch edubloggers, so there will be no shortage of blog posts about the conference.
I will be actively involved in three things here in Berlin:

• on Thursday, I chair a joint session of a number of major European IST research projects (TENCompetence, Prolix and Aposdle, amongst others) on the openness of the infrastructures that are arising to support lifelong learning
• on Friday, I will do a presentation in one of the parallel streams on the current status of the OUNL elo2b project (see previous posts on this topic). Problem here is that I don't really know what I am allowed to divulge, as this is considered as a strategically critical project. I'll have to find a middle ground between general and not-too-specific.
• During the conference exhibition, we will also take turns in 'manning' the TENCompetence boot, so I will probably be somewhere in that general area on Friday.

But the informal part is often the best part. Just had a very enjoyable dinner with Fred Truyen from K.U.Leuven, and will be having lunch with Marc Dupuis from Leiden University on Thursday. I hope to meet many of my former AVNet and Elise colleagues, and have a philosophical drink with Tom Wambeke.
Should you come looking for me: try the EuroPACE booth, as it worked pretty well as a pivotal point last year! (Bottom part of the pic). I'll try to blog in the evenings, but I'll most probably be using Twitter to keep track of sessions and interesting ideas.