By Support | 17 February, 2021
Here are a couple of frequently asked questions.
If you have a question just drop us a line.
1. General
General Silicon Vales topics
What is Silicon Vales?
Silicon Vales (short Silva) is a concept of a greater economic area in Germany more comparable to that of Silicon Valley. An area of high-tech, innovation, a hub for a startup ecosystem, with an emphasis on ecology and culture.
Where is Silicon Vales?
Silicon Vales is an area south of Berlin. Its area stretches from Magdeburg in the west, Potsdam and Berlin in the north, Leipzig, Dresden in the south and Frankfurt (Oder) in the east.
What are the Silva Cities?
Silva Cities is a reference to the cities within Silicon Vales such as Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Potsdam but also Brandenburg, Dessau, Cottbus.
What is the SilvaRing?
The term ‘SilvaRing’ is the name for the large ring of cities around the central vales (countryside, biospheres, lakes, etc.)
2. Language
Questions concerning languages
Why are some documents available in English first?
Several reasons:
- Some of the people helping to build Silva i.e. writing documents, concepts, communicating, are people who have moved to the area and they are not so strong in speaking or writing German.
- We are also sharing with other European countries and one of the EU core languages is English.
Why are a lot of the terms and names usee in English and not German?
Similar reasons as stated in the questions about documents.
3. Names
Questions concerning the name
We are German. Why an english name?
It is a brand name, designed to be easily remembered inside and outside Germany. The reference to “Silicon” is linked to “High-Tech” and “Innovation”. The reference to “Vales” is to ensure that the brand can be associated with other international “Silicon” brands such as Silicon Valley, Silicon Slopes, Silicon Fens, etc.
What does Vales mean?
Vales is the poetic short form for Valley. As this area has a long cultural heritage it is only fitting that we use the ‘poetic’ form. :-)
Does ‘Silva’ have a reference to silver?
Directly no, but in the past centuries Silver was mined in the south and the Silicon Vales region has a lot of ‘value’ to offer.
Also one of the best keyboard / church organ builders ‘Gottfried Silbermann’ was born in the region.
Due to it sounding similar to silver, we use the “silver' aspect playfully in our concepts.
What is “Silva”?
Silva is the short form for SIL-ilicon VA-les. Also called a ‘portmanteau’ - A word which blends the sounds and combines the meaning of two other words. A form of nickname.
It is short and easy to speak.
Do we need a nickname?
Short names can be spoken more easily, can be remembered more easily and help to make things successful.
What is a person called who lives in the Silva area?
Favoured is ‘Silvaner’
Another term would be ‘Silvanite’.
Both have other meanings - Silvaner is also a wine grape type and Silvanite is a silver gold telluride minerale.
Silvaner is to be favoured as it can be used in English as well as German.
Another short form is ‘Silvie’ - but this has a female character.
Perhaps there is another form. Time will tell which name will become more popular.
4. The area
Questions about the area
The area is very big - Is it not too large?
Over the last 50 years Silicon Valley has spread out over 100 miles to engulf neighbouring cities such as San Fransisco, and is still growing.
Silicon Vales is a conceptional Ring-of-Growth which allows cities, companies, people, to integrate into. It is long term concept that allows organic growth over the next decades.
Silicon Vales is large from a Germany point of view but for a foreigner it is not.
Berlin is big enough - why not Silicon Berlin?
The civic administratino of Berlin is focused on the Berlin geographical area. Silva’s focus is on the larger area down to the south. We believe that this overlapping focus will benefit the whole region, including Berlin.
We already have Silicon Saxony - We don’t need a new name. What’s the advantage for us?
Silva has no intention of replacing Silicon Saxony: It is a supplement. Silva is an area that partly overlaps Silicon Saxony and has a different focus.
Silicon Saxony and the people behind it have done a great job over the last decades in attracting investment and Silva, as a new born baby, can benefit a lot from it.
Silicon Vales has however a slightly different focus - networking, culture and of placing the magnitude of the area in the heads of investors, of talent, of tourists, and this in the end will also be to the benefit of Saxony.
Out town is not exactly in the ring on the map: Can we be a part of it?
The visual representation is a ‘concept’, a rough idea, and does not define who actually is part of it.
Yes you can. History will show what area the Ring will actually cover.
5. What’s in it for us
Questions about why we need it
We have had enough of Berlin. Is this a Berlin driven thing?
The initiative has been sparked by people from society who do not have any political relationships with Berlin and who have a heart for the smaller cities such as Altenburg.
Who is ‘Silicon Vales’ for?
Silicon Vales is for everybody in the region:
- As a marketing name abroad to attract investors, talent and thus employment,
- As a platform to facilitate working together within the region,
- As a long term enterprise to develop and carry out social orientated projects to improve the area.
The vision is the bigger area, working together, across all fields, is beneficial for all.
6. Payment
Payment topics
How can I pay?
You can pay via the following methods:
On the pay page you can pay directly:
- By selecting a fixed one time donation or subscription and you will be taken to enter your card details.
- By selecting the PayPal button. You can select the currency and the value you want to pay.
- You can pay via SWIFT (International) or using IBAN/BIC (Europe). Bank details are on the pay page.
Do you store my creditcard security values?
No - We do not store any security values as we do not do the creditcard processing ourselves. All payment processing is done by our payment processors.
Who are your payment processors?
We use Stripe and PayPal. Both are global transaction processing companies in over 100 countries.