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.
Donnerstag, 15. April 2010
Donnerstag, 8. April 2010
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.
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.
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