Dear Friends and fellow Researchers,

After almost six years of exploring the internet, we can now say with a fair amount of confidence that it is no longer “Neuland” for us. Nonetheless, the navigation of digital spheres and the interactions in a virtual world are more than ever the subject of social debates. With respect to the upcoming federal elections in 2017, HIIG is offering a tool for all those interested in learning what differences exist between the digital policy agendas of the major political parties. Speaking of differences: Founded by HIIG researchers, the science policy blog “Elephant In The Lab” focuses on the differences between well-known tenets of good scientific practice and real-life conditions in the present research landscape. Last but not least, we are convinced that the quest for knowledge should ideally be combined with a little bit of fun – so watch out for the upcoming Game Jam event in October!

So much for our introductory remarks. Now enjoy reading!

Jeanette Hofmann | Ingolf Pernice | Thomas Schildhauer | Wolfgang Schulz

RESEARCH AND ACTIVITIES

New Project | Digital Election Compass

Digital policy will be a focal point of the German federal elections in 2017. The Wahlkompass Digitales (digital election compass) offers a tool to navigate political parties’ positions on digital issues. The HIIG research team analysed the digital policies, including work, education, security and health, in the party platforms of six German parties. The tool is operated in cooperation with our media partners Süddeutsche Zeitung and media:net berlinbrandenburg.

| Start navigating election programs!

New Fellows | Exploring Digital Spheres

While internet policy expert Eduardo Magrani (Fundação Getulio Vargas) plans to assess different models for regulating online services and personal data, the research of Sharon Bar-Ziv (University of Haifa) will focus on intellectual property law, technology and entrepreneurship. PhD student Chiara Poletti (Cardiff University) is going to examine the governance of internet and social media, as well as digital rights movements.

| Join our team!

Fellow Programme 2018 | Apply now!

Have you become a little bit curious? HIIG will open its doors to fellow scholars in 2018, too! The international fellowship offers a unique opportunity to innovative thinkers who wish to engage in exchange with fellow researchers and are interested in setting up new initiatives. Our fellows are part of an international team of researchers and participate in the institute’s activities. We particularly encourage early-stage researchers to apply.

| Interested? Send your application until 1 October.

PUBLICATIONS

New Publication | Complexity of Communication Studies

Christian Katzenbach, Head of Research “Evolving Digital Society” and Associate Researcher Christian Pentzold are guest editors of a newly published Special Issue by the Hans Bredow Institute for Media and Communication. The publication is dedicated to the topic “Working with Theory in Communication Studies: Complexity between Complification and Simplification”.

| Read the complete publication here.

New Blog Dossier | Politics Of Metaphors

Cloud, big data, piracy and virus are common terms that are part of the discourse about digital technologies – although they originate in other fields: In a new series on the HIIG blog edited by Christian Katzenbach and Stefan Larsson, we are unraveling these complexities by exploring metaphors. So far, our authors have written about the New Media Revolution, Artificial Intelligence and Sharing. Contributions welcome!

| Learn more about the evolving digital society!

Freshly Launched | Elephant In The Lab

“Elephant in the room” refers to an obvious problem nobody talks about. A new blog journal on science policy founded by HIIG researchers Benedikt Fecher, Christian Kobsda and Martin Schmidt examines such elephants – with a current focus on authorship: Why does it take only one author to write a paper in philosophy and up to 5,154 for one in physics? All blog entries have been given a DOI, and can thus be cited individually!

| Participate in the science safari!

AoIR | Internet Policy Review Special Issue

Not only has Internet Policy Review joined the membership of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association. Our open access journal also teamed up with the Association of Internet Researchers for a special issue in the context of its upcoming conference AoIR 2017 (19 – 21 October). Moreover, the journal is piloting a new feature called Open Abstracts. Help it get going by offering a quick comment!

| More about Open Abstracts on LSE Impact Blog!

Selected Works | Further Publications Worth Reading

Ingolf Pernice writes about The Constitution of the Digital Society and International Law of the Net, while Christian Djeffal reflects upon Public Administration and the Internet of Things. Jonas Kaiser has a look at Climate Skeptics’ Online Comments in the German Networked Public Sphere. Benedikt Fecher and Sascha Friesike published a letter on public open access infrastructures in the renowned Science journal.

| Interested in IoT & Trust? Read our new conference booklet.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Game Jam | 7 – 8 October

How can we protect personal data collected through public Wi-Fi? How to combine fun, data protection and the risks involved when employees handle sensible information? Through serious games! Therefore, we will host a Game Jam where game designers are competing for the best game mechanic to train employees against privacy and security threats.

| Stay updated on this event!

DigSal Doctor Algorithm | 30 August

Once a month, we invite special guests to engage in a dialogue with the audience and the Twitter community and broadcast it on YouTube. On 30 August, Digitaler Salon will address e-health issues as part of a series of events organised in cooperation with Schering Stiftung: Longer and better living through personalised pills and nanorobots? What is the influence of AI on medicine? And what to do with the health related data?

| Save the date!

DigSal World White Web? | 27 September

Twitter users turned Microsoft’s AI chatbot into a racist, African Americans were labeled gorillas on a Google app and Facebook is spreading access to the internet in ways reminiscent of the British Empire building railroads – the internet confronts us with the darkest sides of humanity. We will discuss digital colonialism: What resistance exists against white male supremacy? Can technology challenge discriminating structures?

| Find out more.

Beyond HIIG | Events that Caught our Eye

22 – 24 August | African Peering and Interconnection Forum, Azalaï Hôtel Abidjan, Ivory Coast

1 September | Das ist Netzpolitik!, Kosmos, Berlin

11 – 13 September | Civic Tech Fest, TICC, Taiwan

19 – 21 October | AoIR 2017, University of Tartu, Estonia

Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
Französische Straße 9, 10117 Berlin | info@hiig.de