A memo sent to correspondents, friends and acquaintances of the Budapest Observatory (BO) in August 2005

Sending out this memo was prolonged to coincide with the start of registration to Inclusive Europe? Horizon 2020

Deferred gratification
And yet you must wait a couple more days. On-line registration begins later this week.

There are about ten weeks left in order to establish the actual mission of the next European forum which brings together ministers and operators of culture under the same roof for a couple of days between 17-19 November. Continue the Berlin-Paris process, certainly. Those who are aware of the very essence and direction of that process, please come forward.

It is easier to tell in which way we hope to distract the conference from the Berlin-Paris route. More room will be left for discussion, exchange of ideas, interactions from the floor. The debates will be required to achieve a balanced pursuit of noble principles and practical problem solving. Come and help to succeed.

Cultural road map
Those who commented on the table about behavioural inequality of an east-central European nation (you remember, cultural underclass consumes 200 times less than the culturally rich millions), will be rewarded with another figure from the same research. 

The graph is a device to point at the basic patterns, laden with the obvious simplifications needed for such an exercise. It is based on a nation-wide survey applying sophisticated apparatus and processed from various angles. But before you enter the maze of statistical analysis (and are lost), spend a couple of moments to observe the sketch and draw your own conclusions.

Again, the figure calls for being matched to comparable schemes from other countries. Let us hope that European co-operation will produce opportunities. Then, one will have to find out, among others, what is the equivalent of the cultural activity pattern that in Hungary is portrayed by frequent visits to community centres of culture.

East-West cobweb
This memo is short but richly illustrated. The spider web picture made by BO to show the geographic distribution of trans-national co-operation in the frames of Culture 2000 raised particular interest. See the new edition of the East-West links, complemented with the scores of 2004. With the dynamic growth of eastern led projects in 2004 the number of instances when a western organisation was involved in such projects increased from 116 cases in the previous 4 years to altogether 180.

Compared to the previous such graph on 4 years, the actual cobweb reflects a few important changes. Slovenia and Czechia scored particularly strong in 2004 by winning projects and choosing a great many western partners, while the Baltic republics stayed behind. The lines that indicate the amount of partners selected from Spain have multiplied; also those standing for Austrian organisations have grown thick. The fattest line represents the ten German partners involved in Polish-led projects between 2000-2004.

The south, and particularly the north are visibly more airy than the dense middle, a feature that got reinforced in 2004. Looking forward to the 2005 results.

Cultural activity patterns in the Hungarian society