A little less conversation

Just today I had a nice little conversation about my subject. Thought it might be interesting for others as well.

She: Hey! How are you?
Me: Oh well... still alive, I think. That’s the most important, isn’t it?
She: And what are you doing?
Me: You know, I’m doing my bachelor thesis right now.
She: Really? So you‘re nearly done studying!
Me: Na! I’m still in the research phase. Nothing solid yet.
She: Ow! But it’s half term now. What’s it about, then?
Me: Oh, I’m doing a policy analyses on German technological issues, on the example of the mail system - well actually “written conversation” is more accurate.
She: Ow! That sounds so awful boring. I could never write about something like that. Why are you doing that?!
Me: You know, I was never interested in such things as health policy, social policy, party analyses... I just stick to my subjects and that’s technology.
She: But Is there anything to write about, at all? Isn’t there anything more easily for you to write about??
Me: Oh, but it’s a very important subject! We once even had a ministry for that! So I figured there must be something to write about. You know, we have the freedom of speech and opinion - okay the freedom of press is probably a subject on its own - but there still is the privacy protection. Our constitution says that the state wouldn’t count, read or violate the mail he delivered. Nowadays the post is a private cooperation; still the privacy of correspondence is still intact. Article 10 of our constitution guarantees that ...
She: You can recite the articles of the constitution?! I barely know the first one...
Me: Oh, I researched it of course! It was first introduced in the Hesse constitution in the middle of the 19th century and then, when another constitution had to be written, reappeared regularly until it became one of the eternal rights in our national constitution, the basic laws to the Federal Republic of Germany - at least that’s what the books say - It states there, that our correspondence isn‘t to be touched. That it has to be delivered directly, without being delayed, registered or read and so on.
She: Right... So?
Me: It guarantees that the bill for your car, that you signed to make the buy legal and have to send back originally to get the car, keeps being a private matter. That none registers what kind of car you own, how expensive it was, therefore how wealthy you must be and not who you are corresponding with. That‘s private and there is no reason why anyone needs to know that.
She: Fine. ... So, since you know so much about that, can you explain me, what it is with this new electronic mail-system (ePostbrief) by the national post office (Deutsche Post AG) is all about? It’s a bit confusing to me right now.
Me: Oh, that‘s exactly what I‘m aiming for! Should I...?
She: Yes, of course!
Me: But, that’ll take a bit longer...
She: I’m fine.
Me: Okay. ... For beginners let’s start with the regular e-mail.
She: Is it like that?
Me: Not just like that... You might know, that if I use a mail account called “littlegirl19” for example, it’s possible to tell whether the mails are send by me or someone else. But that also means that I could easily use your name and create a new mail account.
She: Right...
Me: There would be no one asking me, if I’m really who I’m pretending to be. In that way I could send e-mails in your name, fooling around, without anyone recognising that it‘s not you writing spam.
She: Wow!
Me: So there is no saying, if the persons holding a conversation with each other are real or not. That’s unsecure and suspicious.
She: Yeah.
Me: And on top of that, e-mails are never originals. You can’t sign them, they are easily hacked, read, spied on and so on. To avoid that, you need encryption software, signing tools and ... you know, do you have any of those?
She: No, that’s way beyond me.
Me: See? And you are not the only one! We are all using e-mail. It‘s easy, cheap, fast, everyone has an account... but also unsecure and not legally valid. If you‘d try buying a car, you can’t sign the form unless you have the necessary tools and experience to use them. Then you can’t be sure if the guy on the other side is the real person and the other way around he doesn’t know if you’re real. The government knows that and it knows that it’s not reasonable to leave it to the people to find a proper solution.
She: Yeah. Would be great to have it all as easy as e-mail. It’s so simple!
Me: Yep. So the government called GMX, Web.de, Telekom and the national post office together at one table and discussed what to do. There were many proposals, like to automatically encrypt the communication and identification with your ID, however when everything was done and the concept of “de-Mail” was done, the national post office hopped off and build its own gateway. You know, why letting them build something, you could build on your own as well?
She: And that’s this ePostbrief? They stole it?!
Me: Yes. Though, it’s a bit different: In addition to the original you can also send mail from online to offline.
She: Yeah. I heard about that. But isn’t that a good thing? You save time and money, when the letter is send via internet to the local post office, then gets printed and delivered the last mile, while a normal letter has to be delivered throughout the country.
Me: Sure. At least that’s what they promised. So far I couldn’t try it and there’s probably a catch to it. However, it’s not legally valid or at least in some grey zone. So no car buys here either.
She: Hmm...
Me: At the CeBit this year I was explained to how the de-Mail thing was supposed to work. It at least sounded better. First, you can open an account with most of the German mail provider. Are you with Web.de or GMX? Maybe Telekom?
She: No.
Me: Never mind. If you were, you probably would have noticed the new button to create a de-Mail account. However, using a de-Mail account works a bit different to e-Mail. You can’t use mail clients to access your de-mails for starts. That’s because clients like Thunderbird or Outlook can easily be hacked and when that happens all mails and related information like timetables etc. can easily be spied on. Instead you have to log in via your browser, like you probably do with your normal mail account.
She: Yes.
Me: From there on everything looks the same but actually is encrypted. The connection, the server, the mail, the transfer... I can’t tell you what, but at the other end there must also be someone with a de-Mail account to receive your mails. And if you need to communicate extremely secure - because you’re sending important files for example - de-Mail promises you can identify with a one minute valid PIN you would receive on your mobile. And if you use that, the other one needs to do that as well every time he wants to read those mails.
She: That sounds complicated again. I like the normal e-mail better.
Me: That depends, I think. However, both new mail systems’ weak point is the browser, which can be hacked as well as the clients and it’s not yet running smoothly. So we have to wait and see, what’ll happen about that.
She: Hm. I think normal letters have something special to them. Why even bother about such things?
Me: You know when in the 16th century, the first regular post service was established; people recognized that communication became faster. Trading became therefore more profitable and administrating a state via orders and laws more easy and effective. For those advantages the communication-network called “post” gained more and more importance.
She: But who is nowadays using mail delivery anyway?
Me: Lawyers?
She: Ha-ha. No, honestly. No one’s using the post anymore. Take unemployed poor (Hartz IV-Empfänger) for example...
Me: Oh, they especially!
She: ...?
Me: They have to send their job applications all by post, especially because of the credentials.
She: Stop kidding.
Me: I’m not doing statistics here, but for most jobs (especially in the low-income and craftsmen sector) it’s still common to send hardcopies, rather than e-mails.
She: But it’s possible to apply via e-mail. Why not sending applications online?
Me: Yes of course. And it’s done, not only by mail but all sorts of ways. However, you can’t send originals. At best it’s a scanned copy. However, neither the ink nor a seal or anything, that could prove its authenticity, could be real then.
She: Sure. But we’ve already been there.
Me: Try to look at it from this perspective: decades ago you had to send letters for every kind of conversation. Nowadays this isn’t necessary anymore, because there are other ways to do it. To ask something like: “Do we really meet at 12 at the library?” we would nowadays send an e-mail or just a simple text. In the old times you had to write a formal letter, pay the postman and hope the letter arrives in time. New technologies are far more efficient!
She: Yes.
Me: However, originally they weren’t meant to do business. Just conversation - small talk - like that. And that’s what you recognize to be the difference between writing a letter and a mail.
She: Yeah. A letter is far more formal. It has some kind of dignity to it.
Me: Sure. And when you look at an a-mail, that’s been passed from one to another, replied and forwarded dozens of times, it becomes a hard to comprehend chain letter. Not to mention all the software caused comments, like commercials and technical details about the mail properties.
She: A real letter has at least a professional looking layout.
Me: Yes, and you can have things like a special imprinting or water sign, not to mention the effect of a perfumed love letter. You see, it’s not a better way to send messages or an alternative; it’s another way to send massages, with certain advantages over some way as well as certain disadvantaged compared to others. Take Facebook for example...
She: I hate Facebook...
Me: Never mind, it’s just an example. - ... real social networks are of course different to the networks you build on the internet. In reality your community consists of real friends, who’ll catch you if you fall. Your online so called „social network“ - even though it maybe consists of hundreds of so called „friends“ - won’t even notice your problems.
She: Right. Those are no friends.
Me: But the mistake is, that we take “friends” as friends. For Facebook friends are all kinds of connections, because it is indifferent about different kinds of relationships. Your brothers and sisters have probably a different relationship to you, than me, your professor, your future husband may have or your children could have, not to mention your real friends. However, Facebook allows you to stay in contact. It also is the perfect way of sharing information, pictures, movies and more. You can not only tell people what you like most, but also what is good, so that your contacts have a look as well. However, in spite of everything it can it can’t replace a face-to-face chat, a hug or a kiss. But that’s not what it’s meant for. And it’s the same with post, e-Mail and ePostbrief respectively de-Mail. One is meant for conversations the other is ideal for business. However, if there is a better way to do it, we have to make up our mind about that.
She: I still, can’t stand Facebook. And I still think this new mail stuff is too complicated.
Me: Never mind. By the way: Facebook will release another kind of messaging, just like e-Mail. They promised it’ll be easy...
She: Uff.
Me: Yeah. We’ll see about that.

;)

The Human Right of fatherhood

I've just seen the news and had one of these moments...

It's been in the news all day, but always as a footnote, because Russian fires and oil at the American coast are more important. However, the report I saw made an extra about that subject and I'm a bit disappointed about the commentators.

Finally, the highest German court announced that - according to the Basic Law, the Human Rights and earlier decisions from Brussels - unmarried fathers have the right of their fatherhood. So far being an unmarried father in Germany meant to need the allowance of the mother to make decisions, rise or (in extreme cases) even see their own children. The court says now, that this is not right. It's basically discriminating fathers and violating the children's rights to be raised properly (by its mother and father) as well as the fathers to do his duties as a father. Therefore new legislative projects were announced and a new degree of righteousness declared. And while everyone - all political parties, as well as those who where involved in the process - stated how pleased they were, came from the president of the Verein alleinerziehender Mütter und Väter (Allience of single mothers and fathers), Mrs Edith Schwab, a comment that frustrates me. This person was basically saying, that not all men are willing or (self-)responsible enough for being a father and that the best for the child has to be kept in mind.
I can agree on the last bit. However, can anyone explain to me the connection between being female and being naturally a good mother? Or let me explain it the other way: Following the logic of the old understanding, parents have to be recognized as responsible persons before being given the right to take care of their child. So just marriage and an official allowance can give you this right. Pregnancy however, seems to be a shortcut to that.

The right for fathers to rise their children - she moved on - could lead to unnecessary arguing. Wonderful! As if married people were always in complete agreement. On the contrary: When a court has to decide between two disagreeing parties and for the benefit for the child, what can go wrong? What are these people afraid of?

Actually there are more than enough fathers out there, who have to process against the single mothers of their children and loose against all odds, because courts tend to decide for the benefit of the mother. This doesn't need to be wrong in all cases, but it leaves a bad taste.

Even though this new development gives way to changes, they won't come over night. Instead there will be another discussion about rights and duties parents have.

(to) speak: English – German

I had one of those days. Something crossed my mind and I gave Wikipedia a visit.

You can say about this page what you want: It – in itself – is a good example for a lot of phenomena the digital age brings us, but is forbidden to be used as a source. However, it brought inspiration into some of my researches and – from time to time – you find an entry like THIS!

Wunderbar! I found a whole "List of German expressions in English" my teacher never taught me. Kindergarten, Blitzkrieg and Zeitgeist are unavoidable while learning this language. Reading the list however, showed me some words I didn’t thought to see ever again. For example Lumpenproletariat, which - i guess - is probably Marxist.

To all German readers: It’s probably just kitsch to you, but you should have a look. If you find more such words or have a very special Germanism, write me!

To all English readers: I learn every day a bit more of your language. There are a lot of people here who have problems excepting that things are English. I don’t blame them, when I recognize a lot of "Denglisch" (a fake English used in Germany) these days, like "Service Point" (information desk), "Handy" (mobile phone) and "Oldtimer" (historic car). But a well placed Anglicism is never a problem, especially if there are such nice Germanisms out there.

What does the Keck do, these days?

What am I doing these days? Here in Germany the summer semester just started and therefore I’m studying. – What else?

I’m reaching the point where I have to decide what I should write in my bachelors on. There are a lot of things in my subject to cover of course. I study politics, so I could write about political parties, elections, countries, policies and polities of Germany, Europe and/or North-America, to name just the most common themes. I could also write about my other subject, the social sciences, where I could research social structures, security systems, equality & labor issues or the theoretical basis of the subject itself. However, that’s all dry, boring or already done a thousand times prior.

In the last couple of months I’ve become quite a fan of Mario Sixtus work, especially his video blog the “Elektischer Reporter” (electric reporter). He’s doing, what I’ve missed in all my studies: He talks about social change that is related to technical developments. You know, usually you have technicians who can’t imagine that anyone couldn’t use their stuff, especially when they had attached detailed instructions OR you have humanists (so called Geisteswissenschaftler or Sozialwissenschaftler) who think of little demonic imps in their personal calculators, which always try hard to dumb us all down. Do I have to comment on that?

Some weeks ago the second phase of the electric reporter has been completed (the reasons are to be read here: Blinkenlichten.com in German). Within the project, Sixtus and his team covered not only the most prominent but also some quite unknown topics. They always kept the balance between extreme positions and presented even complex situations in an easy way to understand (for example at vimeo.com with English Subtitles!). For me this work became some kind of breakthrough in the way technology had been recognized in the society and inspired me make further researches in that field.

Soon I got frustrated: the institute of my university has no chair of teachings in this specific field. That means, there is no one who could teach or examine me. Okay, there is someone doing something about the human drive to build humanlike robots, and another one who is interested in how cities have realized the shift from the industry age to the IT age – but neither is doing what I am interested in.

So I’m sitting here with about four books at the same time – that have nothing to do with my regular studies – trying to find out anything helpful. So far I have an introduction to the media sociology, which isn’t helping me much, another introduction about the sociology of technology, which is very good and two books about the social change caused by information technology written by Frank Schirrmacher on one hand and Holm Friebe together with Sascha Lobo on the other hand. These two books are the worst I’ve read in my time being a student. No empirical evidence, reference to online sources and the so called “feuilleton”. However, these guys represent the extremes in the technological debate Germany has at the moment.

Schirrmacher is the stereotype of an academic conservative. He is hated and criticized by the digital community and wrote his book “Payback” probably just because he needed a reason to be invited to talk shows. There he plays his record of the overused brains, the time people lose in the internet and the addiction to protocols and filters. As far as I’ve read, he is writing in a very pessimistic stile, creating the subliminal message of a bad new world. For example he is writing that we lose essential abilities, rather writing about a change that could also bring new abilities. Reading the titles of his other books about social changes – like “Das Methusalem-Komplott” (The Methuselah-conspiracy) and “Minimum. Vom Vergehen und Neuentstehen unserer Gemeinschaft.” (Minimum. About the perishing and new emerging our society) – I recognize that this German professor should have stuck to literature, instead of writing polemic pamphlets about things he doesn’t know a thing about (Frank Schirrmacher @ wikipedia.org). However, he concludes, that society has to change drastically, to keep up with its new toys. Schools for example shouldn’t teach any specific knowledge anymore, but only ways of observing, thinking and creating. Students should learn to read, communicate properly and to create art, rather than knowing the capitol city.

Lobo often appears in TV, works together with Sixtus (Sixtus VS Lobo) and wears an old fashioned beard in combination with a suit. Apart from that, Lobo is the exact opposite of Schirrmacher. He has become his own personal brand, with his hair styled in a bright red Mohawk (saschalobo.com) and appears often as some sort of blogging guru (which he doesn’t agree on, but seems to enjoy pretty much). As Friebe’s – of whom I don’t know much about, yet – co-author he helped writing “Wir nennen es Arbeit” (We call it work) and represents the good-will factor of the net community. He’s talking of a culture of forums, blogs, (Twitter) and MySpace(MySpace) as well as shared iTunes Playlists and drinking latte while doing your office work at the Starbucks next door. They predict an increase of self-employed work, which would lead to a drastically change in the social systems. These are meant in Germany for a job market with nearly just dependent employments and just a few employers. They would collapse, if too many people become freelancers. However, in the end, Friebe and Lobo conclude that everything will be all right and no one should worry too much.

Coming to think about it, it’s not that obvious. Friebe, Lobo Schirrmacher and Sixtus works are all journalistic. They explain very well and they also give deep insight to the issues, but they are not scientific. For me this is an opportunity to make a real contribution here rather than following the crowd and float with the current. Still the field is very broad. It reaches from social networks (like facebook) to knowledge and media exchange platforms (blogging services and P2P-networks) goes on to search and filter engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo) and doesn’t stop with mobile phone apps. And those were just the most recent software and www issues; there are also a lot of hardware, system and law issues going on, like new laws concerning the copyright, standards for communications or future platforms. I’m pretty sure I will find a subject for my bachelor here, even though I have to find it first. Till I’m done with that and the research, I have a long way to go and I just started my walk. Wish me luck.

Oh yes: And apart from that, I’m blogging here and on Twitter.