The report “At the Heart of the City: Mayors on the Urban Future” (featured below) encompasses the captivating discussion that occurred during the Mayors Roundtable at the World Urban Forum 6 held in September 2012 in Naples, Italy.

Attended by 400 Mayors and Local Authority Associations, topics such as the financial architecture in countries, job creation strategies, women and youth empowerment and the need for an improved partnership between Ministers and Mayors were passionately debated.

In the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, the Community Partnership is exploring new ways of improving the opportunities for employment and learning in key green sectors – tourism, rural skills and local food production. The Community Partnership is a wholly grass-root organisation run by the communities and tackling issues raised by the communities. We are seeking a project manager to take this initiative forward.

We are sharing two reports on civil society today.  Rajesh Tandon and a consortium of civil society organisations produced the first one, "Civil Society at a Crossroads"

The second report was carried out by the consultancy firm KMG for the World Social Forum with the idea of providing the global economic leaders a look in on civil society trends.

2013 will be a big year for international and local development of directions for learning city. These events include the launch of the UNESCO Global Learning City Network in Beijing in November or December 2013, and the 11th PASCAL International Observatory conference Cities Learning Together in Hong Kong on 18-20 November, focussed on the following theme:

Local Communities in the Sustainable and Healthy Learning City

This has been notified to me:

NMC Horizon Report 2013 Higher Education Edition - Due to be released in Feb 2013 this major report from NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). There is now a preview of the trends in use of technology which they forecast for higher education. It is clearly written describing each technology, its applications for education and giving case studies of existing innovative use and references for further reading.

Regards,

Honor