INFOCON newsletter # 9

1. Welcome to the about-once-a-month INFOCON newsletter

Dear colleague,

A few weeks ago, the participants of INFOCON met at the University of Liège to discuss the state of our project. It was clear from the beginning of this meeting that a lot of hard work still separates us from our ambitious goal, namely to deliver studies that reflect state-of-the-art research on transnational communities, but which also reflect the diverse perspectives of civil society representatives. Many participants saw the discussions in Liège as a step in this direction. A direct consequence of the meeting was an overhaul of the INFOCON handbook to make it more relevant for civil society organisations, and many new ideas emerged for the second conference in Nijmegen.

2. Progress on INFOCON book

One of the challenges of the INFOCON book is to translate the research carried out during the project into relevant and useful material for civil society. The concept we elaborated during the meeting in Liège reflects this challenge. The different teams in the consortium will structure their research results around specific “challenges” faced by the transnational communities. Furthermore, we are happy to announce that the difficult task of the editorship of the INFOCON book is in good hands: our colleagues Anna M. Ornert and Elise Féron accepted to co-edit the book. A first draft of the publication is scheduled for mid-2010.

3. Second conference in Nijmegen: 22-23 April 2010

The second INFOCON conference will bring together civil society representatives, researchers and other stakeholders related to transnational communities. The event will be hosted by the Centre for International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN) at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Further information about the conference will be posted on www.infocon-project.org and communicated through this newsletter.

4. Periodic project report ready for download

Every six months the project management is required to deliver progress reports to the European Commission, who finances our project under the Seventh Framework Programme for research and development. The most recent report (covering the period March-October 2009) as well as all other INFOCON output is available for download at www.infocon-project.org/output

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On behalf of the INFOCON management team, and with best wishes from Brussels, Stephan Kampelmann