Gerald Ganglbauer
Encyclopedia
Gerald Ganglbauer is an Austrian Australian publisher diagnosed with Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

 at the age of 48 years. Since then he has been an ambassador for Parkinson's support groups.

Life

Born Horst Gerald Ganglbauer, he studied Communication
Communication studies
Communication Studies is an academic field that deals with processes of communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols over distances in space and time. Hence, communication studies encompasses a wide range of topics and contexts ranging from face-to-face conversation to speeches to mass...

 at University of Graz
University of Graz
The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....

 (1986), and more recently Web Development
Web development
Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet or an intranet . This can include web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development...

 at the SIT (2006). In 1984 he started the independent press
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...

 Gangan with his then wife Petra Ganglbauer. After their divorce he lived for several years in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. Since 1989 he has lived in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 under dual citizenship, and is listed as one of Styria's Top Expatriates.

1982/83 he was a founder and editor-in-chief of the magazine perspektive, 1987/88 editor in chief of the literary journal gangan viertel, ZeitSCHRIFT über Literatur, and in 1990/91 he launched Gangaroo
Gangaroo
Gangaroo is the Australian imprint of Austrian publisher Gangan Verlag.- History :In 1989 Gerald Ganglbauer, a young Austrian publisher, arrived in Australia and started collecting Australian short stories, experimental prose, and poetry...

 in Sydney. In 1992 he co-edited with Andreas Puff-Trojan Textwechsel, and in 1996 launched the international online magazine Gangway
Gangway (magazine)
Gangway is an international online literary magazine, bridging Austria and Australia. Its founder and editor in chief is Gerald Ganglbauer, the first issue was launched in June 1996 in Sydney.- Profile :...

. In 2001 he introduced Gangart Awards, an intercultural competition for the arts on the net, which were awarded till 2005 by an international jury, and only ended due to his illness. Gangan published books in print for ten years, and then online.

In the last decade he was involved in resident action groups and was elected chairman of the Ultimo Precinct Committee in Sydney. He is founder of the forum for Austrians Abroad
Austrians Abroad
Austrians Abroad is the common term used for Austrian citizens, migrants and expatriates alike, who reside outside the Republic of Austria.The interests of these approximately 500,000 Austrians living abroad are represented by the World Federation of Austrians Abroad , a NGO with headquarters in...

 (2004) and since 2007 has been on the board of directors of the World Federation of Austrians Abroad (AÖWB). He was also convenor of Free Beach Action NSW, a lobby group for naturism
Naturism
Naturism or nudism is a cultural and political movement practising, advocating and defending social nudity in private and in public. It may also refer to a lifestyle based on personal, family and/or social nudism....

 in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

.

Illness

In 2006 he was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson's disease, which forced him into retirement in 2007, before the age of 50. With this dramatic change in his life, he became active in Parkinson's support groups in Austria (Parkinson Selbsthilfe Steiermark) and New South Wales (Parkinson's NSW Inc.) and, despite his illness was re-elected AÖWB director in 2010. Together with Viennese neurologist Dr Wilibald Gerschlager he started the Austrian Parkinson's forum Parkinsonberatung and ran it from June 2007 to January 2011, and, after that, a Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 page and a Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 microblog for the umbrella organisation Parkinson Selbsthilfe Österreich. He also runs both organisations from Sydney as well as in Graz offline and online Parkinson's support groups. On Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...

 he introduced Parkins(on)line IM groups
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...

in August 2010. He is also a contributing author to Dr Gerschlager's book on Parkinson's disease.

English language publications

  • Evading the jaws of giants, Independent publishing in Austria. Editions Review, Sydney and Melbourne 1990.
  • Multicultural Publishing: How hard is it to do in Australia? Carnivale Literary Festival, Sydney 2001.
  • Publishing My Way. National Young Writers Festival, Newcastle 2002.
  • Cyberspace (Die Verbundenheit der Differenz: Kommunikation ohne Grenzen). TUAC, Vienna 2003.
  • Virtual Communities (Virtuelle Gemeinschaften). IRICS, Vienna 2005.
  • World ID – no place is home anymore "V" Identities, Bregenz 2011.

German language publications

  • Stop-Over (Ich bin eine Reise). Die Rampe XVIII.2, Linz 1992.
  • Halbe Österreicher. ROTWEISSROT, Vienna 1996.
  • Der ganz langsame Abstieg. In: Willibald Gerschlager: Parkinson. Ursachen, Diagnose, Verlauf und Therapieoptionen. Maudrich, Vienna 2009.
  • Ich bin immer noch eine Reise. Sterz, Graz 2011.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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