Seit einer Woche ist es amtlich: Grundversorgung 2.0, ein weiteres Digitale Medien Projekt am Innovations-Inkubator der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, ist bewilligt. Am 14. März erteilte eine Strukturkommission des Landes Niedersachsen ihren Segen für die Vergabe der Mittel, die im Wesentlichen aus dem Europäischer Fonds für regionale Entwicklung stammen. Das Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprojekt wird untersuchen, wie eine Grundversorgung mit Bewegtbildern im digitalen Zeitalter aussehen kann. Projektleiter sind Claus Pias, Timon Beyes und ich. Näheres dazu in Kürze.
Ebenfalls bewilligt wurde das benachbarte Projekt „Hybrid Publishing“. Beide beginnen im Mai und laufen über drei Jahre. Bereits angelaufen sind die Digitalen Medien Projekte Moving Image Lab, Segmented Media Offerings und das Post-Media Lab.
Montag, 05.03.2012, 11.00 – 17.30 Uhr
Goethe-Institut Moskau, Leninskij Prospekt 95a
Sprache: Deutsch und Russisch mit Synchronübersetzung
Wie passen die Journalisten komplizierte Sachverhalte aus dem Bereich Wissenschaft an die breite Öffentlichkeit an, welche Formate der Texte/Sendungen benutzen sie dafür in den Druckmedien, im Fernsehen und Internet? Was sind die wichtigsten Marketingstrategien der populärwissenschaftlichen Medien und die neuesten Tendenzen ihrer Entwicklung? Wie wird man eigentlich Wissenschaftsjournalist?
Über diese und andere Fragen werden die deutschen Wissenschaftsjournalisten von der Zeitschrift „Spiegel Wissen“, der Deutschen Welle, der Fernsehsendung „Quark & Co“ (WDR) und weitere Spezialisten gemeinsam mit den russischen Experten vom TV-Sender „Nauka 2.0“ („Wissenschaft 2.0“), der Schule des Wissenschaftsjournalismus (die Zeitschrift „Russkij Reporter“) und der Zeitschrift „New Scientist“ am 5. März im Goethe-Institut Moskau diskutieren.
In the past fifteen years, file sharing of digital cultural works between individuals has been at the center of a number of debates on the future of culture itself. To some, sharing constitutes piracy, to be fought against and eradicated. Others see it as unavoidable, and table proposals to compensate for its harmful effects. Meanwhile, little progress has been made towards addressing the real challenges facing culture in a digital world. Sharing starts from a radically different viewpoint, namely that the non-market sharing of digital works is both legitimate and useful. It supports this premise with empirical research, demonstrating that non-market sharing leads to more diversity in the attention given to various works. Taking stock of what we have learnt about the cultural economy in recent years, Sharing sets out the conditions necessary for valuable cultural functions to remain sustainable in this context.
Three days before a protest blackout of major Internet sites including Wikipedia, SOPA’s main sponsor Eric Cantor announced that he will stop to move the bill forward … unless there is consensus.
While Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the EC in charge of the Digital Agenda launched Europe’s “No Disconnect Strategy”, the USA driven by the mighty culture industry was set to go the opposite way. First in 2010 there was COICA, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, which failed and was re-written as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the US Senate in 2011. In October 2011, it was followed by the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives. All of them were intended to make US service providers like domain name registrars, advertising and payment providers stop servicing alleged copyright infringing sites abroad. Search engines, social networking platforms, cloud storage providers, universities and other institutions would also have come under pressure to monitor and filter Internet activities of their users.
After the depths of the plagiarism scandal leading to his ousting as German Minister of Defense, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg moved to exile in the US of A, where he joined the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Now he is back in the European political arena. When on 12 December, Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the EC in charge of the Digital Agenda announced the launch of Europe’s “No Disconnect Strategy”, she also announced that she has invited Guttenberg to advise “on how to provide ongoing support to Internet users, bloggers and cyber-activists living under authoritarian regimes.” As top CSU politician, Guttenberg was favoring Internet blocking and data retention. Now he is supposed to bring “Arab Spring” to Syria, Russia and China. Kroes defended her controversial choice to bring him on as voluntary CSIS advisor: “I’m looking for talent, I’m not looking for saints.” Nevertheless, her important intiative was nearly drowned out by the causa Guttenberg. In explaining why he thinks he is qualified for the job, the fallen minister shared a remarkable piece of insight:
“Last but not least, I have been personally exposed to the power of the Internet just this year. And I recognize and value its ability to hold those in power to account.”
Here is the video from the press conference with Kroes and Guttenberg:
Munich’s LiMux project announced that on 12.12.2011 the 9,000th PC workstation in the city’s administration was migrated to the new LiMux Client, putting the project ahead of its schedule. With a few exceptions all MS Office suits have been uninstalled and replaced with OpenOffice. The migration of the remaining 3,000 workstations will be concluded in 2012. For a background story on the project that was initiated in 2003 see:
O DIGITALIA – Congresso Internacional de Música e Cultura Digital pretende reunir, em Salvador, de 1o a 4 de fevereiro de 2012, diversas iniciativas que relacionam o campo da música às novas tecnologias da informação e da comunicação, notadamente aquelas conformadas pela chamada Cultura Digital. O congresso está articulado sobre três eixos: de pesquisa, de formação e de integração.
O Digitalia é promovido pela comunidade Audiosfera, uma rede social dedicada à relação entre música e cultura digital, tendo como âncora o grupo de pesquisa de mesmo nome, hospedado no Instituto de Humanidades, Artes e Ciências Prof. Milton Santos (IHAC), da Universidade Federal da Bahia.
In the economic South, access to global flows of goods, technology and ideas increasingly occurs through a culture of piracy that sidesteps the global juridical and economic norms set, for instance, by the WTO. To date, academic discourse has addressed such practices of piracy predominantly from three different angles, viewing them either in terms of criminal theft, as expressions of creative freedom, or as acts of anti-capitalist resistance.
Against such overtly ideological readings, this conference promotes a re-orientation that focuses on postcolonial piracy primarily as a strategy of access to global modernity and as a culture that demands to be understood in its own right. Participants will discuss examples from across the globe that show how both everyday and artistic strategies of medial copying and recycling are currently changing legal, economic, social and aesthetic concepts of authorship and originality.
Speakers include Marcus Boon, Adam Haupt, Ramon Lobato, Ravi Sundaram and yours truly.
International Symposium, organised by Prof. Dr. Lars Eckstein and Prof. Dr. Anja Schwarz, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Potsdam. Literaturwerkstatt and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin 2 – 4 December 2011.
On Monday, the EU Council voted to extend the copyright on sound recordings from 50 to 70 years. The move follows a campaign by artists like Cliff Richard as well as lesser-known performers, who said they should continue to earn from their creations. Critics argue that many musicians will see little benefit, with most income going to big stars and record labels.
… Under the 50-year rule, the copyright on songs by The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Who would have expired in the next few years. (weiterlesen…)
Three days before a protest blackout of major Internet sites including 
