eSangathan Newsletter N°3

March 2007
Last minute • Europe urged to adapt workforce to ageing ! Migration will not provide a long-term solution to Eu-
rope’s ageing crisis. Instead, policymakers must focus on getting people to have more babies while
working “longer and better”, business leaders declared at the European Business Summit.
• The Rise of Knowledge Regions. This study, by Sybille Reichert of the European University Associa-
tion, examines the role of universities in the emergence of «knowledge regions» and their rela-
tionship with the business sector. Öresund is one of those regions !
• Improve the adaptability of workers and enterprises and the flexibility of labour markets.

Editorial The Öresund Region 2. Regional History

The eSangathan project has entered a more
operational phase with the launch of the Öre-
sund pilot and the preparation of the Indian
pilot at Mahindra&Mahindra.
Several meetings were held in different pla-
ces of the Öresund region and about 30 can-
didates have already joined the team. As ex-
pected, all the team members are 50+ and
are interested in this experience for profes-
sional reasons. The pilot is an opportunity to
master new ICT tools, a new way of organising
work, aiming to develop new activities and to
reposition professional projects with focus on
social innovations in the Öresund Region.
About ICT, one of the two main “pillars” of
the eSangathan project being the collabo-
rative working environments (CWE), the
Swedish/Danish team who leads the pilot
has chosen the web-based tool Basecamp;
a simple collaborative tool which is easy to
start with to familiarize the members of the
pilot with such an innovative approach. The
project manager, Martina S. BACH, is leading
the working sessions using the methodologi-
cal methods and tools recommended by the
Center for Applied ICT from the Copenhagen
Business School (CBS). The pilot members are
at the stage of the self-organising tool “Team
Syntegrity” where they have to choose collec-
tively the themes on which they will further
work to build their projects.
The local press is highly interested by this
1. Denmark and Sweden as a
Region
The Öresund Region is one of the most dy-
namic Regions in Europe, and one that is
developing rapidly. This area generates a
quarter of the combined GDP of Sweden
and Denmark. The two sides of the Region
are connected by the Öresund Bridge – the
fixed link between Copenhagen and Malmö
– and by ferries sailing the route between
Helsingborg and Helsingör. The Öresund Re-
gion is easily accessible from all parts of the
globe. Copenhagen airport is the largest in-
ternational airport in Northern Europe and
operates direct flights to more than 120
destinations. Within the Öresund Region it-
self, journey times are short thanks to the
extensive investments made in good infras-
tructure.
The Öresund Region is home to the largest
concentration of highly educated people
in Northern Europe. It is liberally sprinkled
with world-class innovative environments
and boasts a well-developed working rela-
tionship between industry, higher education
establishments and the authorities. 150,000
students and 14,000 researchers populate
the 12 universities and colleges here. The
Öresund Region features a unique blend
of proximity to both big city environments
– with their ethnic and cultural variety – and
relaxing countryside with beaches, forests,
mountains and open landscapes.
The long history of Øresund Region can in
many ways be regarded as an intriguing love
and hate relationship. In the 1400s Den-
mark, Norway and Sweden were all part of
the Kalmar Union under the Danish Queen
Margrethe I. However, in 1523 Sweden bro-
ke away causing the final dissolution of the
union. The centuries that followed were
marked by ongoing wars between Denmark
and Sweden for control of Scandinavia. This
led to Denmark losing the eastern part of its
kingdom – including Skåne – to Sweden. In
1658 a border was drawn through the sound
and Skåne was transformed from a central
part of Denmark to a province in Sweden.
In the course of the following centuries
Skåne became an integrated part of Swe-
den and the diplomatic tension between
Denmark and Sweden lessened. During the
1800s the popular new movement promoting
a wider Scandinavian nation, “Scandinavia-
nism”, grew in strength and at the end of
the century a proposal for a permanent link
over the Öresund was drawn up. However
it was not until the 1980s that the idea was
given any real political sympathy. Finally in
1991 the Danish and Swedish governments
signed an agreement for a permanent link
across the Öresund.
© eSangathan Consortium All rights reserved

initiative and has already published a few

articles. The few coming months are very
important for the pilot members because the
project raises a lot of hope for the professio-
nal future of most of them.
More information will be available in the futu-
re on the Swedish version of the eSangathan
blog that will be open during the summer.
The main eSangathan blog that acts as pro-
ject website will have direct links with all the
national blogs.
Source: www.oresundregion.org
The Øresund portal is the official Web site of the Øresund
Region. It is a collaborative venture involving a number of
Øresund players, with Øresund Network – the Øresund Region
information and marketing organisation – taking the role of
editor and holding responsibility for the portal content. The
players behind the portal: Copenhagen Capacity, HH-samar-
bejdet, København-Malmø samarbejdet, Position Skåne,
Region Skåne, VisitOresund.info, Wonderful Copenhagen,
Øresunddirekt, Øresund Network, Øresundsbro Konsortsiet,
Photographer: Daniel Östwall - Source:
Øresund Science Region, Øresundsoverblik (under construc-
tion), Öresundskomiteen, Øresundsuniversitetet. www.oresundregion.org

Nicole TURBÉ-SUETENS
Project Coordinator

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 eSangathan Newsletter N°3
March 2007
2.1. A brand new region 4. Business Sectors in Öresund
When the bridge opened in 2000, it did much more than just reduce Medicine/biotechnics, IT & telecom, environmental research, lo-
the journey time between eastern Denmark and southern Sweden. gistics and food are the most outstanding sectors in the Øresund
It provided the infrastructure for a new development where the Region. In these areas the Øresund Region is at the forefront in
region’s inhabitants could live and work on both sides of Öresund. Europe, for example medicine and biotechnics are in third place af-
In 1999 there were 2800 daily commuters across the Øresund strait. ter London and Paris. The IT industry alone employs over 100,000,
In 2005, this figure rose to 9400 and it continues to rise rapidly. which makes the Øresund Region the largest IT cluster in Scandi-
Today the Öresund Region has become a unique metropolitan area navia.
encompassing two countries in one region. The power struggles of
the past have been replaced by regional cooperation and increasing Bringing together the best of Sweden and Denmark in research and
integration across national borders. industry fuels innovation, ensuring that the Øresund Region more
than holds its own competing in the global market. The interaction
Source: Facts Worth Knowing about the Oresund 2006, Oresunds-
between universities, industry and government – known as the Tri-
bron och Oresundsregionen – Bakgrund, verklighet och möjlighe-
ple Helix – has put the Öresund Region well on the way to becoming
ter. The Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. 2003.
one of Europe’s most attractive knowledge-based areas. 32% of
the companies in Skåne have some form of operations in Denmark
3. General facts while 17% of the Danish companies are active in Skåne. The number
Area of Danish companies in Skåne increased from about 100 in 1998 to
Area on the Danish side 9,832 about 350 in 2002.
Area on the Swedish side 11,027
Total area in km² 20,859 High-tech sectors in the Øresund Region
Population ICT sector
Population on the Danish side 2,437,491 Pharmaceutical industry
Population on the Swedish side 1,160,919 Scientific instruments (medical and optical instruments)
Total population 3,598,410
Workforce Employees in the high-tech industry in the Øresund Re-
Workforce on the Danish side 1,335,100 gion
Workforce on the Swedish side 563,500 High-tech manufacturing 38,076
Total workforce 1,898,600 High-tech service 85,585
Universities and students Total 123,661
12 universities
150,000 students
Employees in the high-tech manufacturing sector in
14,000 researchers
6,500 PhD students regions in Europe
4,000 foreign students île de France, France 75,000
7 science parks Lombardy, Italy 67,000
800 projects with other universities in the world Stuttgart, Germany 63,000
Oberbayern, Germany 54,000
Production of scientific articles Rhone-Alpes, France 48,000
London 73,403
Darmstadt, Germany 40,000
Paris 55,005
The Øresund Region 38,000
Amsterdam-Haag-Rotterdam-Utrecht 44,094
Karlsruhe, Germany 36,000
Moscow 41,001
Düsseldorf, Germany 34,000
The Øresund Region 29,002
Berlin 28,991
Employees in R&D Employees in the high-tech service sector in regions
The Øresund Region 49,178 in Europe
Berlin 37,736 île de France, France 393,000
© eSangathan Consortium All rights reserved

Stockholm 32,396 Outer London, UK 153,000

Helsinki 29,818 Communidad de Madrid, Spain 153,000
Hamburg 16,523 Lombardy, Italy 144,000
Lazio, Italy 116,000
Per cent of GNP invested in R&D (research & deve-
Oberbayern, Germany 109,000
lopment) Rhone-Alpes, France 93,000
Sweden 4.27 Darmstadt, Germany 90,000
Finland 3.46 The Öresund Region 85,000
Denmark 2.53 Düsseldorf, Germany 81,000
Germany 2.51 Zuid-Holland, Netherlands 80,000
France 2.26
Source: www.oresundregion.org. All statistics are from 2006 were
Source: www.oresundregion.org. All statistics are from 2006 were nothing else is mentioned.
nothing else is mentioned.

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 eSangathan Newsletter N°3
March 2007
5. Integration 5.2. Graph on labour market commuting in Öre-
Integration in the Öresund Region experienced a boom last year, sund
with the latest integration index showing an increase of 21 per 7-8.000 people cross the Sound on a regular basis for travel to and
cent, writes Øresundsbro in its newsletter. This is the sixth time from work, student commuting or business travel. Through an ex-
that the annual integration level has been measured. Compared to trapolation of commuting statistics across the Sound it is estimated
the year 2000, when the fixed link across the Øresund was opened, that 5.500 people living in the Swedish part of the region have their
commercial integration across the region has virtually quadrupled. main income from the Danish part, in 2004. It is estimated that
The integration index is measured as the total volume of car traffic about 400 people living in the Danish part of the region have their
crossing the Øresund Bridge between the hours of 7.00 a.m. and main income from the Swedish part.
-9.00 a.m. on weekdays in September. The traffic serves as an in-
dication of the development of activities in the region, which has
now picked up speed after two years of moderate development in
2003 and 2004. The growth rate is primarily driven by the growing
numbers of people who commute to work from Skåne to Copen-
hagen.

«It is very positive to see that the establishment of the Øresund

Bridge is helping to remedy the structural problems, mainly within
the housing and labour markets, in the Øresund Region. Copenha-
geners can find better and less expensive housing in Skåne. And
people from Skåne can find better paid employment in Copenhagen
during a time of high unemployment in Malmö,» says Karsten Län-
gerich, strategist with the Öresund Bridge Consortium.

Source: Copenhagen Capacity: www.copcap.com

5.1. Travelling the Region

Private travels over Øresund 1999 19.5 million Source: Öresundsdatabanken
Private travels over Øresund 2004 28.5 million
The total number of private journeys over the sound has increased 6.3. Graph on migration flow in Öresund
by 46% since 1999. Vehicle traffic has increased by 200%.
In 2003 about 2.600 people moved from the Danish side of the
Sound to Skåne. At the same time about 1.000 people moved in the
Reasons for travelling over the Øresund Bridge other direction. The amount of Danes that have moved to Skåne is
30% work
thereby five times as large as in 1998, while the migration in the
23% recreation
other direction has increased by 45%.
20% commuting
13% holidays
14% short breaks

Commuting
Daily commuting over Øresund 1999 2,800 persons
Daily commuting over Øresund 2005 9,200 persons

Moves
© eSangathan Consortium All rights reserved

Danes who moved to Skåne

1998 800
1999 779
2000 1,384
2001 1,849
2002 2,542
2003 3,011
2004 3,200
Source: http://osb.oeresundsbron.dk/trafficstat/yeardetails.
php?lang=1
Source: Öresundsdatabanken

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 eSangathan Newsletter N°3
6. Öresund pilot group in eSangathan
European demographics tell us that most of the people will have to
work longer before retirement in order to fulfil needs on the labour
market, which also includes the Öresund Region. This is already a
common practice in India, where a large proportion of the retired
knowledge workers continue to work for their former employers as
experts. Europe faces globally a low level of employment of the 50+
knowledge workers and has to improve this situation rapidly accor-
ding to the Lisbon Strategy. Keeping in mind the Indian social model
and using European technological capabilities should enable more
European 50+ knowledge workers to join again the labour market.
eSangathan will be testing this approach in the Öresund region in
Sweden/Denmark through a heterogeneous group of ageing Swedes
and Danes; both retired and working people. Folkuniversitetet in
Sweden, one of the partners of the project, in co-operation with
the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Denmark, another partner
of the project, will run this group of people who will elaborate on
areas of interest within nodes of growth in the region with colla-
borative working environments as working tool. Areas like edutain-
ment/games, social integration and eco-tourism are some of the
nodes of growth pointed out in the Öresund Region.
Source: Press release for eSangathan Project
Kick-off meeting for this group took place in Landskrona, Sweden
the 13th of March this year. Participants were gathered to get fur-
ther in-depth information on eSangathan as a project, introduction
to the collaborative working environment, methods for innovation
and also a chance to get to know each other face-to-face. Project
Manager Martina Bach from Folkuniversitetet introduced the whole
project and Leif Bloch Rasmussen from CBS in Denmark presented
methods to be used in the collaborative working environment.
6.1. Participants
The Öresund pilot consists of minimum 30 ageing workers from
both Denmark and Sweden who are highly motivated to spread and
develop knowledge and experiences gained during their (working)
life. The counterpart lives in the area around Copenhagen in Den-
mark and the south of Sweden. Many of the participants say that
they experience a sense of discrimination due to their age – that
they are not longer wanted on the labour market. Taking part of
this pilot group is for them to show that they still want to contribu-
te with their knowledge. Some of our participants are still working
half time or less, while others are already retired. We have gathe-
red a highly heterogeneous group with various professional skills
since our methods for social innovation and business development
requires a high variety of backgrounds.
Among our participants we have for example Master Mariner, Engi-
neer, MD-secretary, Chief Executive Officer in Municipality, Teacher,
eSangathan Newsletter is published by : eSangathan Consortium
Editorial Coordinator : NicoleTURBÉ-SUETENS (Distance-Expert)
assisted by Marie-France MÉDANA
europe@distance-expert.com
Editorial Board: Martina Sophia BACH, Leif Bloch RASMUSSEN, Chitresh MARKANDA ,
Miguel MEMBRADO, Mandar VARTAK and Marianne ZIEKEMEYER
eSangathan is supported by : European Commission (DG INFSO)
Contract FP6-IST-035064, eSangathan Specific Support Action
For more information: info@esangathan.eu - http://www.esangathan.eu
4/4
March 2007
Marketing Manager and IT Manager. From Denmark, we have a
large group of retired people belonging to the association “seniors
without boundaries”. They hope for the establishment of a Swedish
association, corresponding to their activities through the life of the
Öresund Pilot Group and eSangathan.
6.2. Methods
The methodology and the joint work plan are based on theories on
inquiring systems and self-organizing heterarchies, general road-
maps and specific tools. Using the collaborative working environ-
ment Basecamp as a point of departure tool, the methods to be
used for social innovation in this virtual environment will be :
• Socratic Dialogue – philosophical practice for common values
and understanding in the group (communication)
• Team Syntegrity - a future-oriented approach to the design of
democratic management in the sense of the heterarchical-par-
ticipative type of organisation, for statements of importance,
forming the thematic universe in the group (collaboration)
• KUBUS adjusted to virtual environment for information space
and social learning curve (innovation)
• McKinsey, Schilit or others for creation of business plans (bu-
siness models)
Although, the participants will start by learning Base Camp as a
collaborative working environment so that they feel safe and com-
fortable to communicate with others, store and distribute docu-
ments and overall finding their way through the workspace. Wi-
thout knowing the virtual workspace thoroughly, collaboration and
innovation will not take place within this context.
6.3. Results
Within the pilot, we will initially study the results of virtual acti-
vity within the collaborative working environment. Furthermore,
we will follow up the statements of importance and the thematic
universe as a result from the Team Syntegrity sessions. Finally, all
processes in the group including presumptive project ideas and bu-
siness plans will be mapped and analysed and documented. A great
effort will also be put on gathering qualitative data from partici-
pants on the experiences gained during the project period.
Expected results for the whole projects are finding results from
both pilots in Öresund and India, and the work of the interest
groups in each country. We also expect a permanent dialogue in na-
tional language thanks to the national blogs related to the project.
Two conferences will be organized in order to share experience
between the pilots and finally a white paper will be drawn based
© eSangathan Consortium All rights reserved
upon our findings in eSangathan.
Martina S. BACH from Folkuniversitetet
Useful links :
@ Öresund region :
http://www.oresundsregionen.org/
@ Öresund bridge :
http://www.oresundsbron.com
@ Interreg projects in Öresund :
http://www.interreg-oresund.dk
@ e-Accessibility :
http://www.euractiv.com
@ Employment week :
http://www.employmentweek.com