Dear Readers,
The pleasant though demanding task of Editor-in-Chief of our long-standing magazine Austrian Information comes with the job of any Director for Press and Information at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The roots of women’s suffrage movement in general can be found in the 18th century: Olympe de Gouges, widely regarded as being the first champion of female suffrage, published her declaration of rights of the woman and the female citizen (Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne) after the French Revolution in 1791.
The 1970s in Austria: Times of Change
The 1970s in Austria were characterized by reform and change both within the Austrian society as well as the Austrian political system. A shift in traditional economic structures led to a greater prosperity and to the formation of a new middle class that exhibited a flexible and unpredictable voting behavior. A new civil society started to emerge.
On 21 June 1914, just a few days before the deadly shots fired in Sarajevo set the final stage for World War I, Bertha von Suttner died in Vienna at the age of 71. Having become a well-known figure in the international peace movement after publishing the novel “Lay Down Your Arms,” she was spared not only from living through the horrors and killings of World War I which at its end left around ten million soldiers dead and many more injured, but also from discovering that her long and persistent fight for peace had been, at least as it seemed at that time, futile and pointless.
The Austrian bridge to the IT center of the world
"Go Silicon Valley" is an international trade initiative by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy (http:// www.en.bmwfw.gv.at) and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (http://www. wko.at). It offers selected Austrian SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) an opportunity to access the epicenter of IT innovation in Silicon Valley and its abundant sources of partnerships and risk capital.
"Surely, nothing can be more plain or even more trite common sense than the proposition that innovation [...] is at the center of practically all the phenomena, difficulties, and problems of economic life in capitalist society." So wrote the economist Joseph Schumpeter, who is often called the "father of entrepreneurship" or the "father of creative destruction," about innovation as outlined in his book "Business Cycles: Theoretical, Historical, and Statistical Analysis of the Capitalist Process" which was first published in 1939. Innovation held a key role in Schumpeter's thinking which, again in his own words, "is the outstanding fact in the economic history of capitalist society."
Every year during the month of May, the space in front of the city hall in Vienna is transformed into a festive outdoor music venue, providing the Viennese as well as countless tourists the opportunity to listen to some of the world's most famous classical music pieces and to watch theater plays and opera performances. The Wiener Festwochen (the Vienna Festival) were founded in 1951 to newly invent post-war Vienna as a cultural metropolis.
Interview with Boyd Cohen Climate Strategist
The world population is growing, andmore and more people are moving into the city. In 2050, two thirds of the citizens of the world will live in conurbations. The adaptation of these cities for the future is one of the greatest challenges today. During the 2013 Vienna Tourism Conference, wien.at spoke with climate strategist Boyd Cohen, inventor of the Smart City index, which ranked Vienna as the smartest city worldwide. Cohen talks about abandoned suburbs, full underground trains and why being smart is also clever.
"Hidden champions" as a term was first conceptualized and published in a German journal for business administration in 1990 by Hermann Simon, a German business professor and management consultant. The concept refers to highly sucessful companies, often market leaders in their respective fields and not known to a wider public. According to Simon, three criteria must be met in order to be considered a hidden champion; (1) the company either has to be positioned in the top three of the global market or take the top spot on its continent in terms of market share, (2) the company's revenue must not exceed $4 billion, and (3) the company must have a low level of public awareness.
Albeit small in size, Austria, in the heart of Europe, is a country full of diversity and charm. Though it might not first be associated with cutting-edge innovation and technology but rather with classical music and chocolate cake, the Alpine republic has a lot to show for. In 2013, the Australian innovation agency "2thinknow" ranked Vienna as the most innovative city in Europe; on an international level the Austrian capital ranks third behind Boston and New York City.
Today more than half the world's population and two-thirds of Europeans are living in cities or urban areas; the figure for Austria is 64%. The global trend in urbanization is upwards; the process will continue in the future, and the city will become the dominant environment in social and economic terms throughout the world. Europe's cities generate the bulk of our affluence although, at the same time, they face huge economic, ecological, and social challenges.
