Interested experts gather for a "virtual exploration trip through underground infrastructures" - UNITRACC receives official award as "Selected Landmark"

The Lord Mayor was pleased about the inventiveness and innovations that are recognised and honoured by the initiative "Germany - Land of Ideas". "Know-how and imagination of the people who are living and working here are the most important resource of our country", said Dr Scholz. She continued that in this way also the City of Bochum was strengthened as an innovative location in the field of science and business. They city was effectively confirmed especially in its future aim of forming the so-called Metropolis Ruhr in Germany together with the numerous other cities of the Ruhr-area.

In his laudation Mr Reinhard Krella particularly stressed UNITRACC's innovation and sustainability: "UNITRACC integrates training and further education with innovative force for the underground infrastructure. In this way visions bundled with know-how become a success for the people's future." Dipl.-Ing. Robert Stein, CEO of Knowledge Factory GmbH, is happy about the award: "We are very proud to be a "Selected Landmark" in the "Land of Ideas". UNITRACC is able to put the importance of underground infrastructures in the centre of attention since they form the life lines for the supply and discharge in our cities. In this way they not only decide about the sustainability of our metropolises. The aim of UNITRACC is to create a national as well as international network within the building industry; this network is intended to provide the basis for people to learn from each other and to share technical knowledge and know-how." Dipl.-Ing. Martina Buschmann, head of the UNITRACC editorial office, agrees: "The UNITRACC-team is extremely happy about this national and interbranch award. The prize means a lot to us, because already last year the initiative raised attention not only in Germany but also internationally."

UNITRACC convinced the jury of "Germany - Land of Ideas" by its extensive offer that consist of the areas Information (information and research), e-learning (learning and teaching) and Working (web-tools and services). The platform meets all the demands made on a modern e-learning solution and was able to fill a gap in the expanding market for e-learning and knowledge management in the building industry by bundling and linking top-class key personnel from the fields of engineering, computing, media and communication.

In this way the award as "Selected Landmark 2007" continues the line of prizes won by the UNITRACC–team. Already in 2004 the platform won the European e-learning award "eureleA", followed by the international industry award "No-Dig Award" in 2005.

Anybody who did not get the chance to gain an impression of UNITRACC at the virtual "Open Day" on 8 November now gets a second chance. Simply request an access code on the UNITRACC start page at www.unitracc.com and test all areas on UNITRACC for free for one week.

"Germany - Land of Ideas" is the joint marketing initiative of the Federal German Government and Germany's economy represented by the Federation of German Industries. Deutsche Bank is the exclusive partner of the nationwide initiative and enables this unique project. The aim is to convey an image of Germany nationally and abroad as an innovative and cosmopolitan country. The patron of the initiative is Federal President Horst Köhler.

The web-based information, learning and working platform UNITRACC took part in the competition "365 Landmarks in the Land of Ideas" among 1,500 other landmarks and was selected by a top-class jury with Prof. Dr. Martin Roth, managing director of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (national art collections in Dresden), and Prof. Dr. Michael Hüther, director of the Institute of German Economy Cologne.

Any private or public institution and project, cultural and social organisation, scientific research institute as well as company, educational institution or university had the chance to apply to become a "Landmark". Decisive criteria for the selection were the future orientation and up-to-dateness, originality and sustainability of the possible "Landmark". Furthermore, the idea had to be of social relevance and had to show the potential to act as an example.


Further information:
Knowledge Factory GmbH
Tanja Herzberg
Konrad-Zuse-Str. 6
44801 Bochum
Tel.: +49 (0)234 5167 123
Fax: +49 (0)234 5167 109
E-Mail: Tanja.Herzberg@stein.de
Web: www.knowledge-factory.de or www.land-of-ideas.org