Category Archives: Politics, Economics & Society

Zukunftsvisionen für Berlin nach dem BVerfG-Urteil

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Dringg!
“Polizeipräsidium, hallo! … Ach, das Kanzleramt, wie nett.. Wer kommt? .. Ratspräsident..? Ja, tut uns sehr leid, sie wissen ja, wir müssen sparen.. Könnte der seine Polizisten vielleicht selber mitbringen?”

Dringg!
“FU Servicehotline, hallo! .. Ja, natürlich können Sie nach den Studiengebühren fragen, wo sind Sie denn geboren? Ja, ich brauche dann auch die Geburtsurkunde.. einen Augenblick, Hessen sagten Sie? .. Das sind dann 3567€ pro Semester.. Was, viel Geld?! Ja, seien Sie doch froh, dass sie aus Frankfurt kommen, für Bayern wäre es noch teurer!!.. Aber das sind ja keine Gebühren, wenn sie hier nach dem Studium eine Firma machen und mindestens zwei Leute zehn Jahre beschäftigen, bekommen Sie doch alles wieder zurück!”

Dringg!
“Guten Tag, sie sprechen mit dem automatischen Anrufbeantworter der Berlin Marketing GmbH. Wenn Sie einen maroden Plattenbau zu Lofts umbauen wollen, drücken Sie bitte die 5. Wenn Sie Informationen zum Art Forum, der Popkomm oder IFA wollen, die sind jetzt in Danzig, Ljubiljana und Prag. Planen Sie einen Ausflug nach Berlin? Dann schauen Sie doch in einem unserer zwei Museen vorbei! Wir bedauern, dass kein Personal für ein persönliches Gespräch vorhanden ist. Wenn Sie dennoch in Berlin investieren wollen, dann suchen Sie doch einfach im Internet.”

30% of Italian members of parliament take drugs?

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“In a classic sting operation some 50 politicians were fooled into thinking they were being interviewed about aspects of next year’s draft budget, currently before parliament. Instead, a make-up artist with a satirical TV show swabbed their eyebrows to get a sample of their perspiration, which was then tested for traces of cannabis and cocaine. Twelve allegedly tested positive for cannabis and four for cocaine, all apparently taken in the 36 hours before being approached.”
Taken from The Guardian
Despite the methodological errors these are impressive yet not very surprsing findings. Hey, here in Germany we got aware of that phenomenon six years ago already!
Watch a clip of a drunk George W. Bush after the click. Continue reading →

Enemy of the state and Digital Rights Management

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While writing this, I am watching “Enemy of the state”. Who has not watched it, should. Of course, it’s an action thriller but with many good metaphors for what it means to be totally observed. And it has all these nice gadgets that geeks love so much.

Talking about control through media: Is Digital Rights Management (DRM) defective by design? This is an important issue, everybody should be aware of how much power we give to closed systems and how much free information is good for innovation. Here is more information about Digital Rights Management. While they call it Digital Restiction Management (DRM) is think we should use the term that is most discussed right now: Digital Rights Management.

[via Netzpolitik]

Buy used vinyl records on national holiday

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It’s a strange national holiday we have. In 1990, politicians could chose the date, and why on earth did they pick the 3rd of october? The French and Americans have plain summer on their national celebrations, dance in the streets and have open air festivals. Here, instead, leaves start falling, the sky is grey and everything is really calm and serious. What a pity. If you’re in Berlin and like electronic music, check this record fair, Suzi Wong plays some records and the rest of the people is bargaining or chilling. I drop by there later. And enjoy a mix of the man with the coolest DJ name: Erik Panzer.

Geeky videointerviews

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Videopodcasts done by prominent bloggers and charismatic heads from the internetscene have been popping up recently (like the one I referred to yesterday) and here’s a little top 4 of what I think is worth watching.

Robert Scoble started a videoblog with interviewing Jonathan Schwartz, Sun’s CEO

www.gruenderszene.de is a german videocast by one of the Spreadshirt founders Lukasz Gadowski focussing on German entrepreneurs like Continue reading →

Yochai Benkler interview

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The other day, Peter and I interview Yochai Benkler about commons based peer production. He is a very smart and witty man and absolutely able to communicate his visionary ideas. We talked about the wealth of networks, collaboration on a global, individual scale and knowledge- and production sharing. We had twenty minutes, a little camera and could ask four questions. A very interesting morning, watch the whole interview at The Waving Cat. He also wrote a book and published it for free. For me, the most interesting question was how a theory of production can be generalized to producing other goods than media and his answer (click to continue) is fascinating. Continue reading →

Discussing the future of music in Berlin

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Future of music discussion berlinOne of the most savy bloggers, not only about music and the positive powers of the net, Johnny Haeusler (Spreeblick) meets Peter Zombik, director of IFPI Germany, one of the hardest fighters against music piracy. This is going to be an interesting discussion.

“Am Dienstag in Berlin: Das Internet und die Zukunft der Musik” – the future of music, a panel discussion at Grüner Salon der Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. September 19th, 20h, free, later some music.