Bilateral Cooperation

Through a range of means the overall objective of the two-year preliminary phase, the creation of a stable and effective internal communication and working structure, will be achieved on the German side as well as on the bilateral Iranian-German level. The arrangement of the bilateral cooperation structure encompasses:

• The establishment of five Twin Teams
• The installation of a coordination unit of the Project, the so called Project Centre
• The accomplishment of bilateral Iranian-German workshops
• The implementation and maintenance of the Project Communication System
• The realisation of the three Pilot Projects
  
  

Project Centre

In October 2005, the Project Centre was established at TU Berlin as a central service and communication device of the Project for both the German and the Iranian side. The Project Centre has been located close to the units involved from TU Berlin as well as to some non-TU Berlin Project partners directly neighbouring the West Asia North Africa Cooperation Unit (WANACU) of TU Berlin's Faculty VI.

The Project Centre performs the function of facilitating the internal coordination and organisation of the Project. It contributes to the research work and supports the internal project management as to ensure the progress of the research and development on the working level, especially within the Pilot Projects. In order to achieve the creation of a stable and effective internal communication structure it moreover implemented a wide range of communication and management tools. These means include:

• Facilitating the bilateral Iranian-German workshops
• Facilitating the monthly Jour Fixe of the German Project consortium as the central exchange and decision making platform on the German side
• Reporting to the Project coordinators and to the Teams' Coordinators
• Setting-up and maintaining the Project library at the Project Centre and the virtual Project library combining media units of all the partners »Library
• Documenting the Project's progress in a series of proceedings »view
• Dispatching a weekly digital Newsletter to the Project partners pooling the written information flow from the Project Centre to the single Project partners »view
• Maintaining the Project's website http://www.youngcities.org/

The Project Centre is formed by the following staff members:

• The Assistant Project Manager - coordinating and supporting the overall Project and particularly Team 5: Eng Florian Stellmacher
• The Urban Design and Architecture Assistant - coordinating and supporting Team 1 and Team 2: Eng Sebastian Seelig
• Two assistants for investigation, publication and organisation: Ms Galene Haun, Mr Oliver Hisecke
  
  

For the internal communication within the Young Cities Project an internet based communication system Proman has been installed. All members of the consortium are registered and a data structure has been established. The current interface allows the reading and viewing of all relevant documents within the Project, without the need of downloading the documents or ownership of the native software. The documents can be both downloaded and uploaded. The document system informs all users when a document was published and also when it has been viewed. Future versions of the interface will allow direct communication between the users (E-Mail, Chat, Voice over Internet and video conference).