Was ist eine Gesellschaft? Welcher Konsens hält sie zusammen und die bestehende Ordnung aufrecht? Wie wird dieser Konsens organisiert? Welches ist die Bedeutung der Tradition, der Intellektuellen, der Ideen in diesem Feld? Wie wird eine Weltauffassung, eine bestimmte Vorstellung von Gesellschaft dominant? Es sind dies die Fragen, die Gramsci aufwarf, und bei deren Klärung er uns ein ganz beträchtliches Stück weiterbrachte. Es sind dies, wie leicht einzusehen ist, die brennendsten Fragen für uns, heute.

The internet is a great tool to alert politicians to all the dangers of this treaty, just as the internet was a tool to mobilize people against the SOPA and PIPA bills in the US. For any lobby to be effective, however, it must be fact based. Misinformed criticism helps those supporting ACTA.

The dangers and threats of the ACTA treaty are shared by free-speech advocates and access to medicine groups alike. ACTA is seeking to deal with a number of widely differing issues, and hence does not do a good job at any of them. Additionally, there are serious concerns about the collateral damage that ACTA would cause.

"Ja, natürlich ist das Video überspitzt, ändert aber nichts an der Tatsache, dass es sehenswert ist, um eine kleine Einsicht in das schwierige Thema ACTA zu bekommen."

Alarmismus DOES NOT help ;(

I love coming to the comments to see people sparking ideas, and knowledge off of each other. I knew a very tiny bit about the topics here, sometimes its complete news to me,(I sometimes do take some of this with a grain of salt) and to come to the comment section and to see people connect the dots is just a really amazing thing to see, I really enjoy this “underground” news broadcast where 40 percent of the news is from the comments people write in. Links to other sites on the topic at hand etc. Now imagine if they censored this site and the internet as a whole… where would we meet up to talk about this kind of news? Maybe its time to start talking about a plan b?

Big ticket projects in areas such as IT, Health and Defence have a high failure rate, which is made worse by the tendency to select a large supplier and require them to spend all the money up front in one big hit. Instead, it makes more sense to adopt an investment mindset and provide seed funding to various potential suppliers (ideally community groups and small companies as well as generic corporations that specialise in outsourcing contracts), and then provide more substantial first and second round funding to those projects that show potential, until a clear winner emerges. This way, funding can be leveraged to stimulate innovation as well as deliver a service, and an iterative multi-round approach is more likely to pick winners than just handing over the whole thing in one go.

The Gervais Principle is this:

Sociopaths, in their own best interests, knowingly promote over-performing losers into middle-management, groom under-performing losers into sociopaths, and leave the average bare-minimum-effort losers to fend for themselves.

The Gervais principle differs from the Peter Principle, which it superficially resembles. The Peter Principle states that all people are promoted to the level of their incompetence. It is based on the assumption that future promotions are based on past performance. The Peter Principle is wrong for the simple reason that executives aren’t that stupid, and because there isn’t that much room in an upward-narrowing pyramid. They know what it takes for a promotion candidate to perform at the “to” level. So if they are promoting people beyond their competence anyway, under conditions of opportunity scarcity, there must be a good reason.

explaining how cooperation can become transformative:
"Transformative cooperation is a process. It involves both dialogue and action. ...
The root is always hope....
Someone takes unilateral action....
Others join in – the potential for cooperation exists....
Participants may not coordinate their actions smoothly at first....
Responses to the actions of others might include….
The worst possible outcome is that the coordination breaks down… and turns into a fight. Boundaries between different groups emerge. ...
Another possible outcome is that cooperation occurs, but is not transformative....
If cooperation is reinforced the potential for transformation emerges....
Participants will come to think of one another as connected to one another, as members of a group or community, and individuals will continue to be attracted to become participants in the community.

The cooperation becomes self-sustaining, and goes on and on. A community has been b

Nochmal im Klartext: Das Internet ist und war nie ein rechtsfreier Raum und die einzigen, die jemals das Gegenteil behauptet haben, wussten entweder nicht, wovon sie reden oder taten es, um eine überzogene Drohkulisse aufzubauen.

Was im Grunde vielleicht mit dem “rechtsfreien Raum” ungelenk gemeint sein könnte: Im Internet gilt natürlich zum Beispiel noch das Urheberrecht aus der Zeit vor dem Netz. Deshalb kann die Musikindustrie Filesharer verklagen (in einem rechtsfreien Raum könnte sie das nicht!), aber: es hat keine Auswirkungen. Die Rahmenbedingungen und Dynamiken haben sich durch das Netz verändert. So stark, das selbst Massenklagen gegen die eigenen Kunden, diese nicht zu den präferierten Transaktionsformen zurücktreibt. Und das passt natürlich denen, deren Geschäftsmodelle davon betroffen sind, überhaupt nicht. Dass das Urheberrecht an die soziale Realität vielleicht angepasst werden müsste, wird in der Debatte erst gar nicht angesprochen.

This oft-referenced article is from the early '90s, and originally appeared in Maximum Rock 'n' Roll magazine. While some of the information and figures listed here are dated, it is still a useful and informative article. And no, we don't know how to reach Steve Albini.

Paradoxerweise reflektiert die gegenwärtige Verwirrung innerhalb der Zunft ihren wahren Mehrwert vielleicht besser als ihr bisheriger irreführender Konsens. Wirtschaftswissenschaften können die Möglichkeiten, die Entscheidungsträger haben, bestenfalls abklären; die Entscheidung selbst können sie ihnen nicht abnehmen.

Man…it’s good to see you again.

Das Zukunftsinstitut hat eine neue Studie erarbeitet: “Zukunft Deutschland 2020 - Wie sich unsere Top-Standorte zukunftsfit machen“ .... Das Wort “Risiken” kommt in der Studie nicht vor. Und das Wort “Risiko” nur im Kontext “das Risiko Zukunft wagen” und als “Risikobereitschaft”. Dafür ist sehr viel mehr die Rede von Chancen, Chancenregion, Chancengleichheit, Marktchancen, Gewinnchancen, Zukunftschancen und Lebenschancen.

Die Studie untersucht, welche Fakturen für eine Standortentwicklung heute und in Zukunft bedeutend sind. Dabei wird klar, dass die rein wirtschaftlichen Gesichtspunkte an Bedeutung verlieren und neue Faktoren an Bedeutung gewinnen:

Minister for Innovation Ian Pearson believes that design is central to innovation and that innovation is key to improving public services. ‘Building design into the services of local authorities and Government departments is going to be important for th

The Obama campaign is using software from business intranet provider Central Desktop to manage “precinct captains”