digital divide
How I tried (and failed at) legally buying music in Germany
Please note: What’s about to follow is a rant. It’s also advice to music labels. Short-short version, dear content traders: Make your stuff more easily available.
This is a story of a sucky customer experience. As customers and experts alike will tell you, users like to rock, not to suck.
Buying music online is supposedly easy. Or […]
Creative Commons for German Public TV Could Save Costs, Archives
German public TV and the Some Rights Reserved content licenses by Creative Commons don’t seem to be a natural mix.
Then again, maybe they do.
As NDR, one of Germany’s regional public TV stations, proved by putting some shows under Creative Commons, open licenses and public TV may be a pretty good match indeed. (This goes […]
Re:publica 08 #2
Today is day 3 of re:publica 08, the last day of this year’s installment of this conference. Re:publica is the biggest and most important blogger & social media conference in Germany, organized largely by the Newthinking Team (i.e. the net activists whose most prominent member is probably Markus Beckedahl, author of Netzpolitik.org. Thanks Markus, and […]
Valley Trip Summary: Half-time.
I’m about half-way into my trip to the Bay Area, i.e. Silicon Valley, so I figured it’s time for a first summary. First of all, I’ve been neglecting this blog, and to some degree even Twitter. This isn’t just because I’ve been spending my time doing and seeing a lot of stuff and a bunch […]
Presentation: print is dead, at least to the young
The print vs online discussion is as old as the internet, and I can’t even recall how often I’ve heard that print is dead. However, it’s not quite as common to also deliver the necessary data to back up this statement. One person who really has the science pat down and can back up his […]
Well Done: Lonely Planet To Sell Guidebooks By The Chapter
Lonely Planet has always been very good at thinking from their customers’ point of view. You can see that clearly by the structure of their guidebooks, which are always built around your needs as a traveler.
Still, the most recent announcement surprised me, in the most positive way: Lonely Planet now sells their guidebooks by […]
Why Small Organizations See The Internet As A Chance, Big Ones See It As A Challenge
There is a thing about the internet, a notion that has been around since the early days: That the internet offers a chance to anyone to do something big, to start their own projects, companies, or even movements.
While this is true, what’s easily forgotten is that anyone refers mostly to individuals, or small organizations: […]
re:publica 08: Program online, ticket sales are on
As Markus pointed out, the (drafted) program for re:publica 08 is online and tickets are for sale as of now. This year the conference is subtitled “critical mass”, referring to the exponential growth of successful web services.
If you’re not familiar with re:publica, it’s a Web 2.0 conference in Berlin. Last year the conference was a […]
How do you get your daily info shot?
Recently, I was asked how I go about getting my daily information. And since I’m quite an info junkie, that got me thinking. So I sat down and jotted down where I go to get my daily info shots. What’s in your info diet?
Here’s what I scan:
A few basics:
Spiegel (German) and New York Times for […]
Infinite Touch Points
David Armano shares some great insights into the way we interact with people, brands and companies in the digital age:
(Image courtesy of David Armano, Logic + Emotion)
David’s conclusion: We move towards a world where the voume of “social touch points” becomes basically infinite, fragmentation becomes the norm.
Later on, I’ll be posting some more thoughts on […]
Human vs Machine: What’s Better In Search?
The next few months should be interesting to watch: Monday, Wikia Search goes online. So there we have another powerful player in the next wave of search engine wars.
For the last few years, Google with its (mostly) machine-based search algorithms has been the dominant player in the search market, producing more or less the […]
Die Bedeutung von Weblogs für die Arbeit von Politikjournalisten: Meine Magisterarbeit ist online
Gerade habe ich die Nachricht erhalten, dass meine Magisterarbeit bewertet wurde. Das heißt auch, dass ich sie jetzt online veröffentlichen darf. Für die Arbeit habe ich Politikjournalisten interviewt, die bei deutschen Tageszeitungen (Print und Online) sowie bei Nachrichtenagenturen arbeiten. Thema: Welche Bedeutung haben Weblogs für ihre Arbeit und wie nutzen sie Weblogs? (Sie nutzen Weblogs […]
Must Read: Social Media 100
Social media allstar Chris Brogan has started a great series of posts on Social Media recently. By now, enough material has come together to dive right in. Every single post has one or more insights more than worth the time. Clearly, a must read for folks in the social media space.
You won’t be surprised I’m […]
Digital Natives vs Digital Immigrants: Too Simple A Metaphor?
The term Digital Natives has been around for a little while. It’s being used to describe those of us who move naturally in the digital world, as opposed to those who have a hard time finding their way into this new world. (Please note that all of this, and particularly the term Digital Immigrant, isn’t […]
The OLPC Laptop’s Interface Translated For Adults
A neat preview of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) user interface Aquatic Sugar, as well as an explanation of how it works:
(More about the One Laptop Per Child project? Click here for my posts on the topic.)
(Thanks for the hint, H.!)
My name is Peter Bihr. I live in Berlin, Germany. As a freelancer, I consult on web strategies, communities, blogging and social media. In this weblog, I jot down random thoughts, ideas and news. Hopefully, you'll find some are interesting for you, too. 