Digital Experiments to Improve Knowledge Based Economic Development--Strengthening Local Nodes

Technical advances in digital communications facilitate new applications, which are required also by global changes and are based on an intensive use of knowledge. This paper presents such an application and refers to the improving knowledge-based services of German economic agencies that use intensively the Internet and the Web. The presented work is carried out within a German project supported by the Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology BMWT. A key role within the project is a digital experiment involving the development of required economic, social and technical competences for the agencies' staff by using web-based qualification processes and virtual learning communities.