Making sense of our connected world
Data Protection as a Locational and Competitive Advantage – Even More After Snowden
From a constitutional perspective data protection is firstly personality protection and as such closely related to human dignity as guaranteed by Art. 1 para. 1 of the German Grundgesetz. But…
Black box infrastructure: Do we need transparent interconnection arrangements?
The internet is seething below the surface. Network operators, internet service providers (ISPs), content delivery networks and network-oriented content providers are caught in a struggle for the best position to…
Marx, Engels, and 3D Printers
So, you require a spare part, a toy dinosaur for your daughter, or is it the new frame for your glasses? Why don’t you just print it? At your home….
Why TV producers struggle with the Internet
More than 600 companies produce television programmes in Germany. The industry generated EUR 1.82 billion in 2011 (see Produzentenstudie 2012: 39). However, television production companies – unlike broadcasters themselves –…
Yochai Benkler – Freedom, Power, Practical Anarchism. And an Interview.
Yochai Benkler was the speaker of the WZB Berlin Colloquium “Rethinking Law in a Global Context: Private Ordering and Public Authority” on 11 June 2013. Professor Benkler discussed his recent paper…
Data sharing: Why it’s useful, why still nobody does it and where it could lead to
According to a study from Tenopir et al. (2011) among 1300 US scientist, 67 per cent of all respondents considered the missing access to research data as a major drawback…
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.
