2022SPEAIT_Immo Fritze

       It’s one click on Spotify or Youtube and one can listen to the newest releases of the worlds greatest artists, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms are used to share art, hundreds of platforms offer pirated versions of the newest movies or series. An uncontrollable flow of information on a private and commercial level, blurring the definitions of laws and copyrights that were defined in a pre-internet era. Laws to protect creators’ rights, but also to allow users to freely share information when no commercial intentions are involved. In 2012 two members of the Swedish Pirate Party wrote a proposition for politically restructuring and clarifying the laws of copyright.      In the Report “The Case for Copyright Reform” the authors highlight that restricting the act of sharing information on a non-commercial basis, would infringe upon basic human rights. I agree that limiting the use of information on a personal level should not be legal. The on...

     Pekka Himanen, a Finnish philosopher, drafted the above mentioned report for the “Committee for the Future” of the Finnish Parliament. The intention was to address the necessity of changes due to the shift from an industrial society to an information society. Based on the technology existing at the time and clear trends, such as the industrial changes in developing regions in Asia, Himanen predicted the influence of innovations on society. Thus, assisting the parliamentary committee to estimate changes needed at an early stage to maintain a welfare state.      The report thoroughly discussed the impacts of an information society on the workplace, predicting increased internationality, the changing work-ethic due to constant availability and the negative effects of a “society of emergency”. Internationality in the workplace has strongly increased since the report was written. With the internet enabling inter-continental communication and the growing a...

       The Gutenberg Project is one of the oldest examples of sharing digital content to a community, without promoting a price tag. It originates from the University of Illinois that started a collection of research papers and other e-texts in 1971, now there are thousand of e-books available as well. The idea of community-based knowledge and software was adopted by many leading to the creation of OpenAccess, a platform to share scientific papers, Linux, a software that any user can develop and contribute to the community or wikis, a website to provide information that anybody can edit.               Ward Cunningham initiated a project in 1995 at his university, to allow members of the community to write and edit information posted on a platform. This led to the creation of wiki’s. Wikis are created for multiple purposes, some write biographies, or used as a company-internal information platform, as ...

       Whilst the first prototype was already complete in 1971, the DiscoVision, frontrunner to the LaserDisc, was introduced to the market in 1978. However, due complications in the pressing process, contracts with media companies were cancelled, MCA DiscoVision was not able solve the issues.      During the same time, Philips developed the LaserVision, publishing it in 1982. Similarly to LP’s the media was pressed onto the disc creating an analog video and sound track, that was to be read by a laser, therefore theoretically not wearing off the ‘information’. In the US and Japan the technology was fairly popular, however due to the steep prices and the size of the discs (12-30cm) it never spread through the greater population. The VHS was reigning at the time, the higher resolution of the discs was attractive to the wealthier movie watchers, however the price difference was too large. However the benefits of the discs were not left unnoticed and man...

     Our generation uses the yellow faces on a daily basis, if its to show laughter, love or happiness, most text messages contain one of the characters, but where are they from, who created them?      Emojis, emoticons, smileys, originally intended for sharing emotions through digital messages. The title “Inventor of the Emoticons” is contested by two people, Kevin Mackenzie in 1979 and Scott Fahlman in 1982. Mackenzie’s email contained a ‘-)’ with the intent of meaning “tongue in cheek”. However, Fahlman’s message in 1982 contained the more classical form of emoticons: eyes, nose, mouth ‘:-)’. Unaware of the new language that was started the spread and growth went unmonitored. In 1993 a book “The Smiley Dictionary” was published documented all the different emoticons up to that date, however with the growth of messaging and cyber platforms the book became outdated within a few weeks. Some of my personal favorites are Ronald Raegan ‘7:-)’ and the Pope ...