Like I mentioned before, I’ll be liveblogging DLD10 with the Berlinblase crew. (Full disclosure: Paid gig.) So while we’re setting up base in the DLD press center, here’s the links in case you want to follow what’s going on:
Photo by dotdean (some rights reserved)
[permalink]No context, no hidden meaning, just a few slightly geeky graphics that made my day. It’s likely you’ll see them again since I love them and just might try to squeeze them in somewhere, sometime.
Retro Games With Modern Themes by Penney Design
This and many more like it by Stéphan Massa-Bidal (some rights reserved: CC by-nc-nd)
As Seen On The Internet by the one and only Goopymart (some rights reserved: CC by-nc-sa)
Together with the Berlinblase crew I’ll be heading down to Munich next week to cover Burda’s DLD Conference. (Full disclosure: paid gig.) Needless to say, I was thrilled to hear that the DLD team invited us down as the official live bloggers. It’ll be four of us – Florian Krakau (@dotdean), Johannes Kleske (@jkleske), Igor Schwarzmann (@zeigor) and I.
We’ll be blogging all three conference days, 24-26 Jan. You’ll find our coverage here and on the conference website.
[permalink]Reinhard Bütikofer, member of the European Parliament for the German Green Party, publishes a list of all his meetings. Whoever he meets up with, whether they’re lobbyist, interest groups, colleagues or citizens, they show up on this list.
This is way more transparent than politicians in Germany are legally required to be. More importantly though, it’s an important signal. It says: “You’ll always know who I’m talking to, who I’m listening to, who might be trying to influence me.”
I was surprised to learn that there wasn’t a big announcement. The list was mentioned just in passing in Bütikofer’s weekly column. In his post, he says he was inspired by the White House Visitor Record.
I do think, though, that initiatives like this deserve attention. As long as there are no legal requirements to publish lobbyists’ efforts more thoroughly (and regrettably it doesn’t look like this is going to happen anytime soon), more politicians should step up and voluntarily share this kind of information. It’s an important step in the fight against institutional corruption.
Props to Reinhard Bütikofer for being one of the first to go this way.
The next step, and that’s where it would get really awesome, would for all politicians to publish these lists in a standardized format so we could crunch the data thoroughly to see patterns emerging.
Update: Ulrich Kelber, Member of the German Parliament (Bundestag) lists all his income, too. (Thanks, Falk!)
[permalink]
A scene from reboot11. I never really met the concentrated-looking person on this super-comfy sofa, but I have fond memories of the conference. (Which felt rather like a festival anyway.)
Over the last few years I attended a whole lot of conferences. Which was great fun (I mean it!), but one of my resolutions for 2010 is: go only to good conferences. do go to the good conferences. and as a reminder to myself, and also as a wishlist, here’s the events I’d like to attend this year (in kind-of-chronological order):
The list is slightly longer than I hoped it would be. Then again, it’s a good sign there’s many things to be excited about, no?
I’m sure I missed some good ones, so I’m curious – what’s your conference wish list 2010?
[permalink]
I already got my ticket for republica 2010 a little while back, a little after the early bird tickets had gone out of sale. Republica advance ticket sales have been at a record high this year. That’s really good news as all republicas so far were great, and I enjoyed them a lot. For independent (note: not small) conference organizers it’s important to be able to plan, so if you think you’ll go (14-16 April 2010 in Berlin), I recommend you get your ticket soon. It’s extremely fairly priced and you won’t regret it.
The program isn’t set yet, but the call for papers (de) is still on until late January. So again, if you think you might want to talk at rp2010, now’s a good time to send in a proposal.
There are two things that already are set, though: First, Jeff Jarvis, journalism professor, author of Buzzmachine and What Would Google Do and a regular on This Week in Google will be one of the speakers. He’s been on the conference circuit for a while now, so you might have seen him talk someplace or another, but he’s always a great speaker and panelist, so I’m looking forward to this.
Second, Deutsche Welle will hold their Best Of The Blogs (BOBs) will be joining rp2010. I love the BOBs, it’s an award celebrating the best of the international blogosphere and highlighting those blogs whose authors fight for freedom of expression in often repressive regimes. Those bloggers and activists are real heroes in my book, and I feel honored I had the chance to meet some of them on past BOB events. (Disclaimer: I worked for Deutsche Welle twice at the BOBs, once as a live blogger, once moderating a panel.)
If you’re in Berlin in mid-April and want to see the German blogger, web and social media community in action, republica is the place to be. Hope to see you there!
[permalink]