The IGU new EC elected in Tunis on 13.14 August met for the first time on the following day (15 August); several members were absent, so we could only welcome the proposal of the General Secretary Woo-ik Yu to host in Seoul the second one. In fact this will be the first with a previous Agenda to be discussed. After some e-mail exchanges, the final decision has been the next 11-13 November, in Seoul. As is probably known, I have been one of the elected Vice Presidents, and this will surely produce some changes in the Home of Geography organisation.
In this issue, the first argument to be discussed relates to the opportunity for a single person to be in the same time IGU Vice President and Director of the Home. Going back to the history of the Home, from 2000 through 2005 Anne Buttimer has been President of both entities, but in 2004 Adalberto Vallega, once elected in Glasgow as IGU President, didn't want to have any position in the Home.
By my part, I can say that being double President has been no hindrance at all for Anne Buttimer, who has always been very active in providing me with suggestions and help (as she did all the same with the former Home' Director).
Surely many people will maintain reasonable doubt about the opportunity of holding both positions, if only for the mere fact that my opinion can influence somehow the next EC's decision about the Home. Given all this, it is very likely that this communication is going to be my last one as Director of the Home. So, please, forgive me because this time I cannot say too much about my future projects: I will surely accept whatever task the new EC will assign to me, but I don't know at all of what kind they will be.
Therefore, in a few weeks I will probably leave the work which absorbed the major part, if not all of my strengths during the past 5 years. My research activity has been limited to the participation in a big project of my University Department (in Cappadocia Turkey), but is a long time project, whose results will not be printed before 2010; moreover I did some surveys', in Satellite imagines more than in the field, along political borders, and this allowed me to present two papers in two Conferences in India: not very much, I should admit.
I have no regret at all about the strong slowdown in my researches, as from 2004 to 2006 I have been very close to Adalberto Vallega. as his best friend more than collaborator during the last two years of his life. This has been necessary in order to accomplish with his ideas, as he wanted the Home to improve its tasks: to mention but a couple of issues, the Home was entrusted with producing a much better website and starting the diffusion of a quarterly e-newsletter to be diffused not only to the IGU Corresponding Members, but to any person (whether geographer or not) willing to be informed. He deemed this necessary, as it was very difficult for IGU to diffuse yearly the official paper Bulletin. Moreover, he wanted the Home as a centre organising and inviting people about new projects.
He launched two programs, known as Cultures and Civilisations for Human Development (CCHD) and Mediterranean Renaissance Project (MRP). While the CCHD was a worldwide endeavour, the MRP could be seen as the field of practical research for the Mediterranean Regional Network (and the hope was that other Regional Networks also would have organised similar researches plans on their own regions). He appointed a Steering Committee for CCHD and MRP: for the first we held a Meeting and a Workshop in the Home of Geography in October and December 2005, while the MRP held its first Meeting in Cairo in April 2006.
Before the end of the year, after his untimely demise, I try to push forward these projects, with the help of the members of the Steering Committees: a good work has been done under the leadership of Benno Werlen (CCHD) and Mahmoud Ashour (MRP), and eventually the state of the art was exposed in the Tunis Congress. In October, Prof. Maria Paradiso, Secretary of the MRP, following a decision of the Steering Committee, submitted a request to join the Euro Mediterranean University (EMUNI) located in Slovenia. EMUNI is a promising project for scientific and educational cooperation in the Mediterranean, one of the big projects of the new EU policy for the Mediterranean, initiated by the French Premier Sarkozy, potentially driving MRP into a 'club' linked to the EU research and educational programs. EMUNI replied positively and MRP joined and signed EMUNI Charter as a co-founder member.
Beside the activity for the last Vallega's projects, I followed in updating the Home website, regularly producing the e-newsletter and organizing in the Home some other meetings and workshop. It's worth noticing that some of these were requested by non geographic scientific entities.
During the past months, the Società Geografica Italiana and the IGU National Committee of Italy discussed about the future of the Home, and a document was presented to the General Assembly in Tunis Congress. I widely contributed to the text, of course, and I conclude including a shortened version of the document in this message of mine: a sort of legacy for the future Celimontana Committee. You will not find a report about the CCHD, as this project is now in the hands of Prof. Benno Werlen, Chair of the IGU Commission on The Cultural Approach in Geography.

THE HOME OF GEOGRAPHY - PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES (July 2008)
In recent years the role of Home of Geography, in spite of the difficult financial conditions and lack of a definition for an explicit strategy at the core of I.G.U., did improve. Work proceeded on such projects as coordinating Archives, assisting various scientific events promoted by numerous international organizations (ICSU, IYPE, ERODOTE, etc), welcoming visitors, publishing books and - above all - distributing information concerning I.G.U. activities, accompanying the current Secretariat.
In order to redefine an outline wherein the relationship between I.G.U. and Home of Geography are clarified once and for all, we are submitting a possible strategic plan centred upon four different lines of action wishing to upgrade not only Home of Geography, but I.G.U. activities on the whole.In recent years the role of Home of Geography, in spite of the difficult financial conditions and lack of a definition for an explicit strategy at the core of I.G.U., did improve. Work proceeded on such projects as coordinating Archives, assisting various scientific events promoted by numerous international organizations (ICSU, IYPE, ERODOTE, etc), welcoming visitors, publishing books and - above all - distributing information concerning I.G.U. activities, accompanying the current Secretariat.

Planning Outline 1 - I.G.U. Storage, research resource
Home of Geography as a Documentation Centre
Ever since its beginning, there has always been among Home of Geography's primary functions, that of gathering scientific documentation, dispersed for decades between various Secretariats and Commissions. We are dealing with material of great interest for I.G.U.'s history as well as for research in many other fields covered by the work of the Commissions.
The material is available for scholars coming to the Home (hosted by the Società Geografica Italiana, in Roma, Villa Celimontana), but our goal is to make it easily available at any distance, in digitalized form, upon request.
In the mean time, a principle of exclusive digital conservation is now being set up. As far as Commissions and Task Forces are concerned, I.G.U. should plan on the obligation, at the head of their respective Chairs, to make sure that all scientific material produced be submitted to Home of Geography, which, in turn, will post it on line (which would not be in conflict with the existence of a website specific to the single Commissions). It would be necessary that I.G.U. sensitizes the single Commissions even more to convey scientific results obtained in their entirety, when still in progress.
History of Geographic Thought Multimedial Archives
Home of Geography also has in its possession, essentially thanks to Anne Buttimer's inestimable work, a series of taped and filmed interviews of several of the 20th century's most illustrious geographers.
Starting with the careful consideration that the history of geographic thought must be, by definition, solidly bound to the thought of geographers, Home of Geography would put a "live" Archive of data that is already available (as well as that which will be gradually collected) into operation. It being understood that the objective of making all data available directly on line at the Home of Geography internet site, by way of streaming technology, should suitable economic resources be lacking, all material would be digitalised and put at the public's disposal through free downloading from already existing systems such as You Tube or Google Video. This would make all information very practicable by way of the Home of Geography internet site and links equipped with in-depth analysis. Within the framework of a broader collaboration with Google, it would be possible to presuppose a section of one of these two portals dedicated exclusively to geography and geographers (a space that would act as a sort of virtual museum).

Planning Outline 2 - GEO-GATEWAY
Home of Geography should be a "service organisation" for geographers all over the world. Offering the community of geographers innovative services that can contribute to the creation of a geographic network instrumental to the progress of this discipline is one of Home of Geography's outstanding duties.
GEO-GATEWAY is a project that aims to put the research of geographers from all over the world "into a network" as well as "on the net", aiding the diffusion of results and scientific cooperation, by way of easy-to-consult, well known scientific publications. It would be set up as a virtual merging point of information relative to scientific geographic production: a reliable and specialised place - since it would be safeguarded by Home of Geography and I.G.U.
The way it works is rather simple, similar to that which has proven to be remarkably efficient in popular information sharing examples available on the internet (YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Wikipedia etc). GEO-GATEWAY gathers abstracts of articles and book indexes, granting anybody an opportunity to carry out full text research by keywords, geographic terms of reference and other pertinent information from available material. The information to insert and share on line would be proposed by the interested individuals themselves. GEO-GATEWAY would therefore meet the direct interest that every researcher (as well as publishing houses, specialised magazines, university departments, etc) has for the maximum diffusion of his or her work, meeting the interests of every scholar to be kept informed and up to date on the publications of his or her sphere. Access to the material collected and shared is free and gratis.
Every document submitted to GEO-GATEWAY to be shared will be presented by the proponent in its original language as well as in English and/or French. If compared to what has already been made available by various publishers, GEO-GATEWAY holds the advantage of representing a unique and centralised "place" for geographic research. It is a matter of being a valuable feature for big publishing houses (such as Blackwell, Elsevier, Kluwer, Sage , Taylor & Francis, etc) that often, because of their extremely vast and multi-disciplinary production, find it impossible to reach geographers directly through their websites.
Without going excessively into operational detail, it is useful, in any case, to briefly list some of the functioning elements:

• information can be inserted exclusively by authenticated and verified users;
  
• additional information (such as the historic period pertinent to the study and geographic area) can also be inserted, specifying author, title, precise bibliographic references);
  
• GEO-GATEWAY would allow Home of Geography to have a very wide and updated international directory available to them (updates are in the best interest of the users themselves);

Therefore, the GEO-GATEWAY system is a service of the highest degree, offered to the community of geographers and created by Home of Geography. Furthermore, it is a self-sustaining system and, potentially, capable of raising additional economic resources needed for functions Home of Geography carries out. In particular, these following points could be considered:

• payment of a small amount (a few Euro) for each single piece of loaded material;
  a kind of "subscription" allowing each author unlimited loading of abstracts or indexes of his or her own scientific production, within a given period of time (a feasible sum could be under one hundred Euros); a subscription of an obviously different nature could be undersigned by research centres, departments and publishers;

Finally, GEO-GATEWAY could host, for a fee, publicity banners commissioned by the specialised publishing houses or by coordinators of geographic conventions of international prominence.

Planning Outline 3 - Mediterranean Renaissance
Our location in Rome explains why one of goal is to develop and enhance geographic vision on the Mediterranean; in a framework that already sees numerous active specialised centres, it is important to pay close attention to the legitimacy of the proposal, avoiding generic programmes and putting forward a proposal that is based upon the singularities of geographic discipline (place, territory, scale are the arguments which really matter).
In order to do this, the project must put forth limited objectives that are ambitious at the same time, involving people and institutes based on their actual scientific value.
This proposal could be articulated on two, closely connected levels:
a) Specialised Seminars
4-5 seminars to be organised every six months, to be held at Home of Geography, planning the participation of 5-6 speakers chosen among illustrious experts on the theme and attended to by a member of the scientific committee.
It would be opportune to include the publication of a series of instant-books into these seminars.
The following is a possible proposal of topics (and already involved scholars):

• Representing and developing Mediterranean space (R. Cattedra, P. Giaccaria, C. Minca)
  
• Tourism and production of Mediterranean space (C. Minca)
  
• Flow of people, flow of communication: the Mediterranean of the nets (G. Bellezza, Ali Toumi)
  
• Contemporary urban dynamics in Mediterranean space (R. Cattedra)
  
• The society of Information in the Mediterranean Basin (A Kellerman, M. Paradiso)
  
• Impact of Climate Change (A. Douguedroit).

B) Research Programme
A restricted number of research programmes, closely related to seminar activities, should be established, in which researchers from both shores of the basin would participate. We envision three plausible basic themes:
1. A cosmopolitan city
The topic could be approached by interacting economic themes with cultural and social ones, an overview of the present and one of the past, breaking it down in the following manner:

• The cosmopolitan Mediterranean city as the cradle and the victim of modernity
• Migratory flow and cosmopolitism in contemporary Mediterranean cities
• International investments, economic globalisation and new forms of cosmopolitism

A work group dedicated to these themes could include: Royal Halloway University (Bialasiewicz / Minca); Università di Torino (Giaccaria); Università di Palermo (Guarrasi); Università de Neuchatel (Soderstrom); New York University (Fleming); Université de Montpellier (Chair) ; Université de Paris Dauphine (Yousfi) ; C.N.R.S.(Denis)
(members from the southern side of the Basin still need to be selected)
2. Travel Theory and Practice in the Mediterranean
For tourism, the Mediterranean Basin represents not only the "region" with the most consistent flow as well as the most typological and impact diversifications, but also a sort of laboratory space in which new and unusual forms of cultural "contact" and identity are incessantly negotiated. In fact, ideas, things, people, theories and practices voyage across the Mediterranean's real and metaphoric space along with the tourist.
What we are proposing to realise with this project is the formation of an observatory dedicated to a "critical" analysis of tourism in the Mediterranean that would be capable of drawing on (and possibly creating a dialogue with) these two traditions of research. Home of Geography would appear to be the natural choice, in this sense, to carry out a project of this kind.
The project is initially divided into three key moments which should create the conditions to subsequently elaborate a research programme with a wide international scope that would be capable of presenting itself as an excellent arena for thoughtful consideration of the Mediterranean:
1. the creation of an international 1-day workshop (held at Home of Geography) with the title: "Critical Tourism Studies and the Mediterranean Lesson", coordinated by professor Claudio Minca of the University of London, aiming to a debate between scholars of international fame from the Anglo-Saxon world and experts on the employed in other academic contexts;
2. the workshop would serve the purpose of mapping out the progress of the critical tourism studies and selecting contact points as well as a possible creative and analytical fusion of these with the so-called Mediterranean studies. Results of this observation would be transcribed in a 'special issue' hosted by an international geographic magazine and /or in a collective volume in English, to be published with an English publishing house;
3. the third phase is the one that must allow for an assessment of the results attained thanks to the workshop and publications, and decide the opportunity and conditions to launch an extensive project on "The Culture of Travel and Modernity in the Mediterranean".
3. Mediterranean Knowledge
The goal is to rethink the competitiveness of the skills and know how embedded along the two coasts of the Basin in a context of increasing globalisation of value and merchandise chains, rethinking the relationship between handicraft, industry and territory.
The central hub resides in the singularities - actual and potential - that the relationships between the global scale and Mediterranean scale possess, in reference to rooting, competitiveness, reproduction and internationalisation of Euro-Mediterranean productive traditions. The question here is a double one:
1. What role could a re-defining of processes, practices and politics within the Euro-Mediterranean scale have to sustain the competitiveness of these productive traditions threatened by production and consumption globalisation?
2. What roles could local productive systems in the North and South of the basin have to aid the re-launch of the Euromediterranean Partnership?
Work on this project would take shape with the creation of a workshop held at Home of Geography in this case as well. The workshop would be coordinated by Professor P. Giaccaria of the Università di Torino.

Planning Outline 4 - Organisation
The director of Home of Geography should be joined by young researchers appointed by the "Celimontana Committee" (3-5) who would collaborate on all Home activities. They would offer their services free of charge, for the sole purpose of the opportunity to collaborate in an "atmosphere" that is very open to international perspective. These researchers would be given an honorary title within the structure of the Home (for example Research Officer, Scientific Officer, Senior Scientific Officer), which would be beneficial to their résumés.
Specific assignments could be given to these co-workers, under the responsibility of the director. For example:

• systematic fund-raising activity through a constant look-out for opportunities on an international level, the presentation for funding of research projects of a geographic nature and land analysis to individuals (foundations, interest groups, etc) or institutes (European Union, Specialised agencies of the United Nations etc);
  
• the development and maintenance of contacts with geographers of specific geographic areas (continental or sub-continental), with the intention of aiding the broadening of the geographic network to the regions of the world that are currently less involved as well, along with the promotion of events of various levels (from local ones that could be given more prominence, to international ones to be held in occasion of I.G.U. conventions);
  
• support to managers of research programmes initiated by Home of Geography (such as those pertaining to Mediterranean Renaissance illustrated in Outline 3)

The creation of an integrated work group is very important in order to enhance the operative capacity of Home of Geography as well as to guarantee a certain degree of "resilience" of the organisation.