As you’ve probably heard, the Pirate Party got elected into the Berlin state parliament late last year. They got 8.9% of the votes, which gave them 15 seats. Last month in local elections in another state, Saarland, they got 7.4% of the votes, but more importantly, they got 25% of the first-time voters and about… Read More »
1. Why is Hosni Mubarak clinging to power? Maybe because the life of an exiled dictator isn’t what it used to be – FP 2. Ms Merkel: Eurozone nations would have to agree on retirement age, tax and spending rules – Guardian 3. German companies great and small are making the most of globalisation. Their… Read More »
1. Google’s Africa play 2. Microsoft opposes a filing by Apple that seeks to trademark the phrase App Store 3. When the whole family is staring at screens, maybe it is time to try tech detox? 4. The informal economy: a story of ethnography untold
1. Missionaries save languages 2. Nigerians, self-congratulatory much? 3. At least 40 East African (CEOs) take public HIV tests 4. The most beautiful images in Google street view 5. Google street view presents: A Hole-Filled Version of Germany 6. Africa: Hitchhiker’s Quick Guide to the Mothership 7. ‘For the record, big butts do not, in fact,… Read More »
Remember the Google and China issue? I recently came across part of the text of a keynote address delivered by Tricia Wang, ethnographer and PhD candidate in sociology at UC San Diego, at the New Direction in the Humanities Conference, UCLA. Her take on the China and Google saga is encapsulated in this excerpt: And… Read More »
A lot, argues journalist Patchen Barss, who has just published a book titled The Erotic Engine: How Pornography has Powered Mass Communication, from Gutenberg to Google. From the publishers’ website: From cave painting to photography to the internet, pornography has always been at the cutting edge in adopting and exploiting new developments in mass communication.… Read More »
danah boyd writes in the closing paragraph of a beautifully brilliant rant: Zuckerberg and gang may think that they know what’s best for society, for individuals, but I violently disagree. I think that they know what’s best for the privileged class. And I’m terrified of the consequences that these moves are having for those who… Read More »
NYTimes, Germany Looks at Ways to Protect Online Journalism: As Angela Merkel begins her second term as chancellor of Germany, her government is promoting a novel way to help embattled newspaper and magazine publishers manage the transition to a digital future. The new governing coalition, led by Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats and including the Free… Read More »
From the Atlantic Wire: On Monday, the Wall Street Journal’s Jessica E. Vascellaro threw bloggers into a tizzy by proclaiming the dethronement of e-mail as the electronic “king of communications.” Social media, instant messaging and Google Wave deserve crowns now, she said, because they are more suited to the modern expectations of real-time interactivity. While some… Read More »