Making sense of our connected world
Consent Under Pressure and the Right to Informational Self-Determination (1)
by Julian Staben What Is the Future Value of Consent in Data Protection Law? Since the German constitutional court’s census decision1 the fundamental right to informational self-determination (informationelles Selbstbestimmungsrecht) is…
Internet Exchange Points Are to Speed Up Internet Development
by Uta Meier-Hahn “There is no more cost efficient way to improve the infrastructure of the Internet in a country than to set up an IXP.” – Michael Kende at…
The last runner – Internet ethics at the Internet Governance Forum 2012 in Baku
by Theresa Züger Luciano Floridi, Unesco Chair for Information and Computer ethics, gives the role of ethics in proceeding media evolution a suiting allegory. It is like a competition of…
1st Berlin Colloquium – New research on Network-Architecture and political communication
by Uta Meier-Hahn Tl;dr: Technology is loaded with a potential of many uses and therefore not neutral. Three research projects demonstrate how the connection between Internet architecture and values can be analyzed. All…
1st Berlin Colloquium – Workshop “Patterns of participation”
by Stefan Stumpp During the first workshop two speakers presented on the subject of “patterns of participation” from different points of view: Sabine Thürmel from the TU München reported on the…
Wikipedia Academy: Registration started!
From 29 June until 1 July 2012 the Wikipedia Academy (#wpac2012) will take place in Berlin, under the theme “Research and Free Knowledge”. For the first time, Wikimedia Deutschland organises…
How COVID-19 impacts digital technologies
The current lockdown is boosting online activity – everything is increasingly shifting to the digital sphere. In this dossier we ask if, how and why the Corona pandemic will affect key subjects of digital technologies. What does this mean for the regulation of content on digital platforms? How is Covid-19 activating the digital society? How does it transform our online culture? How safe are tracing apps? What lessons can be learned regarding cyber security? Busy times for our researchers!
How metaphors shape the digital society
Cloud, Big Data, Piracy, Virus are common terms in the debates about digital technologies. At the same time they are methaphors that originate from other fields than technology. What normative or political baggage do they therefore carry? How does this vocabulary shape the emerging digital society? In the series of articles on the How metaphors shape the digital society different authors analyse the assumptions and meanings of metaphors in the digital era.
