circle.ch :: Civil Society

circle.ch weblog by Urs Gehrig Search


2013-09-21T10:12:02 Academic, Android, Apache, Apple, Art, Best Of, Biotech, Civil Society, Content Management, Cooking, Copyright, Creative Commons, Crosspost, Culture, Database, Deutsch, DRM, Economy, Education, Event, Gadget, General, Geodata, Government, Health, Howto, Humor, Innovation, Intellectual Property, Java, Language, LaTeX, Law, Linux, Media, Moblog, Mozilla, Music, Office, Open Content, Open Source, P2P, PHP, Podcast, Politics, Privacy, Projects, Random Thought, Rant, Science, Search, Social Network, Software, Sport, Talks, Technology, Technology Transfer, Travelling, Weblog, Wiki, Wireless and Mobile, XML
23. August 2005 Bilder aus dem Mattequartier Civil Society (wiki) \| Deutsch (wiki) - urs @ 19:52:10 Bilder vom Hochwasser in der Matte [1,2,3]. [1] http://www.astrosmarie.ch/matte2.htm [2] http://www.espace.ch/_apps_fotogallery/event_show.asp?gID=2718 [3] http://jeremias.maerki.org/album/HochwasserAugust2005/ Related post(s): zlyfe - Blogs, Bilder, Community et.al. (5.85) MeteoSchweiz gegen SRG (5.49) Gazosa (4.81) Coffee decaffeination (4.66) Open Office Dokument des Hanbuchs zu PHP und MySQL (4.27) Related tags(s): culture, office, php, art, social_network Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us 06. February 2005 Better or worse to become Musicstar Civil Society (wiki) \| Media (wiki) - urs @ 22:23:07 Zur Zeit steht noch Lotti, Claudia, Salome, Jessie, Julien und Daniel die Möglichkeit offen, Musicstar 2005 zu werden. Ich würde mal behaupten, dass des Titel des Musicstars als Garant für eine erfolgreiche Karriere nicht nicht zwingen hoch zu werten ist; im Gegenteil. Einmal Musicstar, immer Musicstar. Julien scheint den Titel am ehrgeizigsten zu verfolgen. Dann sei es ihm gegönnt. Die Stimmen der anderen fünf Teilnehmer und Teilnehmerinnen sind so eigen, dass wir auch bei jenen auf Produktionen gespannt sein dürfen, die aus eigenem Antrieb, auch nach der Ära Musicstar, auf uns zukommen werden. Aber es ist ja noch nicht ausgestanden ;) Related post(s): Best of Musicstar (4.52) Hiestand vor, noch ein Song! (4.19) Musicstar - Verpiss dich! (3.35) Related tags(s): deutsch, best_of, media, culture Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us 27. November 2004 Das Un-Wort des Jahres 2004 Civil Society (wiki) \| Deutsch (wiki) - urs @ 11:38:14 [via bernergazette, 1] Noch bis 10. Dezember können Vorschläge für das Wort oder Unwort des Jahres 2004 eingereicht werden [2]. [1] http://www.bernergazette.ch/archives/000665.html [2] http://www.chwort.ch Related post(s): Fasnachtsrückblick 2004 (8.33) Programm Gurtenfestival 2005 (7.12) Google Book Library - Auswirkungen in Deutschland (5.96) Entscheid 4C.336/2004 vom 04.02.2005 (5.78) KMUadmin - Dienstleistungsportal des Bundes (5.40) Related tags(s): open_source, government, music, science, media Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us 19. September 2004 Family tree Civil Society (wiki) - urs @ 17:59:14 Today I came across a fashion collection of my cousin Renate. She finished her studies as a fashion deisgner earlier this year: Renate Zimmerli got the inspiration for her diploma when she was an intern at the New Yorker design group »As Four« and at an Indian rag factory where she used to work as a »vintage-picker« . The encounter with the hot spot of the fashion industry and the pile of rags shaped the vision of the young designer who was born in Swiss Emmental. Her collection »rags + wipers« is based on the ideal of traditional eastern cultures, consisting of basics that can be added and combined individually. She is using fabrics from different origins, creating an atmosphere of mystery and confusion. »rags + wipers« is designed for women who have a positive understanding of fashion, who like to play and have fun with it. Have a look at her diploma work [1]. [1] http://www.fhbb.ch/04/03/diplom04/html/diplom.php?stud=o&menu=3 Related post(s): TREX - Tree Regular Expressions for XML (5.17) How to walk back N directories (4.04) Nested menu with Flash on sourceforge.net (3.56) FOAF walk on semaview (3.48) Judy - C library dynamic array implementation (3.28) Related tags(s): social_network, weblog, software, database Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us Durchsuchtes Wahlverhalten Government (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) \| Deutsch (wiki) - urs @ 00:17:05 [Idee via SaltwaterPizza Blog, 1] Als pseudowissenschaftliche Methode zur Beobachtung des Wahlverhaltens ist wohl die Methode zu bezeichnen, mit Hilfe einer Internetsuchmaschine die geläufigsten Begriffe von pro und contra anhand der gefundenen Treffer auszuwerten: - "für die Mutterschaftsversicherung" (769) - "pro Mutterschaftsversicherung" (15) - "gegen Mutterschaftsversicherung" (101) - "Nein Mutterschaftsversicherung" (3) Aufgrund dieser vier Suchbegriffe würde die Mutterschaftsversicherung zum gegewärtigen Zeitpunkt mit einem Verhältnis von 784 zu 104 bzw. 79.27% Ja zu 20.73% Nein angenommen. Die vorliegenden Suchbegriffe sollten in der Folge wohl noch ausgedehnt und auf anderen Suchmaschinen ausgeführt werden, um ein etwas repräsentativeres Resultat zu erzielen. [1] http://www.scott-niven.com/saltwaterpizza/2004/09/unofficial_goog.html Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us 18. September 2004 Blogs controlling the mass media? Weblog (wiki) \| Economy (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) - urs @ 00:36:29 Take it as checks and balances of the mass media, what currently happens to CBS. Bloggers around the world have strong arguments that the National Guard documents presented by the CBS are likely to be fake [among others 1,2]. [1] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1211285/posts [2] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1210662/posts Related post(s): Corporate Blogs at Sun (6.10) Blogging at the University of St.Gallen (5.50) BlogShares - a killer app (4.43) Blog Comment Spam (4.43) Multiuser Worpress evolved (4.36) Related tags(s): weblog, law, rant, language, social_network Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us 20. July 2004 Intl. Tropical Timber Council in Interlaken Government (wiki) \| Politics (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) - urs @ 00:21:33 [via mosi, 1] The ITTC-session [2] will take place in Interlaken, Switzerland, from the 20th to the 23rd July 2004. More than 200 participants from over 50 countries are expected to attend, among them several ministers. The ITTC-session [3] will be followed by the negotiation meeting for the follow-up to the International Tropical Timber Agreement, 1994, at UNCTAD in Geneva, from the 25th to the 31st July 2004. [1] http://blog.li/mosi/2004/07/17/501.html [2] http://www.itto.or.jp [3] http://www.admin.ch/cp/d/40fba6ff_1@fwsrvg.html Update: [4] Photos from the 36th Session of ITTO, http://www.iisd.ca/forestry/itto/ittc36/ Related post(s): UN - Security Council recommends Swiss Membership (6.89) Security and freedom of the individuum (6.78) Popsong (5.06) News Industry Text Format (4.08) Microsoft dives into RFID (2.97) Related tags(s): law, deutsch, music, technology Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us 08. July 2004 TU Activities on Countering Spam Technology (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) - urs @ 16:39:43 The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), is organizing an ITU WSIS Thematic Meeting on Countering Spam [1]from 7 to 9 July 2004, in Geneva, Switzerland. Discussion will be structured around five main themes: - Scope of the problem - Technical solutions - Consumer education and awareness - Legislation and enforcement - International cooperation The audiocast of the meeting is available here. Background materials, contributions and presentations will be posted here. [1] http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/spam/ Related post(s): Spam filter for Outlook 2000 and 2002 (6.96) Spam in a new suit (6.81) Visual history of spam email (6.71) Blog Comment Spam (6.08) barratry - the offense of persistently instigating lawsuits (5.78) Related tags(s): software, law, weblog, intellectual_property, technology Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us 31. May 2004 How to tie a tie Culture (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) - urs @ 11:45:55 Today I was looking for a tie-a-tie fresh-up [1,2,3]. If you find other resources, please let me know. An animated howto of a Windosor knot as MMS to be displayed on the mobile phone would have been quite handy ;-) [1] http://www.netport.de/krawatte/ [2] http://www.scoutdb.org/h2tat/ [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necktie Comments (6) Permalink del.icio.us 19. May 2004 The fastest way to fold a T-shirt Culture (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) \| Humor (wiki) - urs @ 12:48:17 ... is probably this one [1]. I will have to try this out. [1] http://fun.from.hell.pl/2004-04-28/tak-sie-sklada-tshirty.mpeg Related post(s): the freak shirt i'd like to own (8.28) oslo 1996 (2.94) veni vidi wiki (2.60) Related tags(s): moblog Comments (4) Permalink del.icio.us 17. March 2004 XFN to indicate personal relationship (lightweight FOAF) Weblog (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) \| Social Network (wiki) - urs @ 15:01:42 Get an impression on XFN [1] first: XFN is a lightweight method of annotating links to indicate a personal relationship with the person responsible for the linked resource, and as such strengthens existing links in a manner that is both machine-readable and human-comprehensible. Technically speaking, XFN is a relationship datatype with suggested values provided for ease of use in a wide variety of situations, including HTML, XHTML, and XML documents. Thanks to its simplicity and its foundation in existing specifications, it is very easily understood, and it is easily adopted by authors. By building upon the links that already exist in the Web, XFN complements existing information in place, as it were. XFN in combination with CSS2 enables a very easy way to viszalize annotations. XFN is much easier to parse and handle and from that point of view, I am sure it will spread faster in conjunction with blogs as FOAF currently is doing. It is no replacement of FOAF but a gateway drug ;-p [1] http://gmpg.org/xfn/ Related post(s): People Aggregator + FOAF = Fun (9.80) FOAF Explorer (8.03) Advogato to FOAF Utility (7.22) Finding friends with XML and RDF (7.12) If the FOAF file has moved (6.87) Related tags(s): weblog, xml, crosspost, moblog, software Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us How to find a new flat in Bern Economy (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) - urs @ 14:18:29 For as long as about three month we were looking for a new flat with at least three rooms. It was quite an exhausting undertaking; we advertized at local stores, in the local newspaper, gave our best while applying for this or that flat and finally got one. So, here I would like to mention some of the online repositories we read on a daily base: - http://www.alle-immobilien.ch - http://subwww.unibe.ch/wohnen/ - http://www.immobern.ch - http://www.homegate.ch - http://www.immoscout24.ch - http://comparis.ch/immobilien/marktplatz/intro.aspx There are other too but don't forget, there are still people who do not at all advertize their flats in the internet. The best resource for us still was the newspaper called "Anzeiger Region Bern" [1]. [1] http://www.stadtanzeiger.ch Related post(s): Flat file database supporting SQL (6.55) Blogger Meeting in Bern (6.14) More Plone for Bern (4.97) Tibits - Titbits in Bern (4.79) Lightweight CMS using flat-files (4.67) Related tags(s): php, culture, government, music, random_thought Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us 07. January 2004 Rössler Geschirr Economy (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) \| Deutsch (wiki) - urs @ 19:28:19 Heute lese ich, dass die Rössler Porzellan AG [1] eines ihrer Werke per Ende Februar schliesst [2]. Ja, das gelbe Geschirr, mit dem kleinen Pferdli auf dem Aufkleber; genau das. Es soll jetzt im Ausland irgendwo hergestellt werden. Irgendwie bedauerlich - einmal mehr. Nun, da werden sich die Brokenhäuser freuen [3]. Vielleicht wird sogar da noch der Markt spielen und die Occasionspreise in die Höhe schnellen lassen. Deshalb gilt es jetzt, soviel wie möglich von dem gelbem, oder grünen noch zu kaufen. Oder alternativ vielleicht mal einen Besuch bei den Grosseltern in Betracht ziehen; natürlich nicht ohne Blumenstrauss und einer guten Flasche Wein unter dem Arm. Gesagtes gilt nicht für mich; meine Grosseltern haben das Rössler längst abgeschafft ;-) [1] http://www.fontina.ch [2] http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/dyn/news/wirtschaft/337790.html [3] http://www.broki.ch/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=r%F6ssler Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us 05. January 2004 What is the public domain? Civil Society (wiki) \| Intellectual Property (wiki) - urs @ 16:57:43 While working on my thesis I came along an article by Bryan Pfaffenberger [1] where he states What is the public domain, and why is it so important to the growth and development of a democratic civil society? Yochai Benkler, a law professor at New York University, defines the public domain in these terms: "Information is "in the public domain" to the extent that no person has a right to exclude anyone else from using the specified information in a particular way. In other words, information is in the public domain if all users are equally privileged to use it" (Benkler 1999). Just one but a strong argument to put creative work under a suitable Open Content License. [1] http://www.linuxjournal.com/print.php?sid=4709 Update: Bryan has also a blog: http://pfaff.tcc.virginia.edu/pfaffenblog Related post(s): PubPat activities - Protecting the Public Domain (6.91) Anonymous domain name registry? (6.72) Is .NET software Free Software? (5.97) fossdays logo - public voting (5.66) Netnotar for starting your company (5.18) Related tags(s): open_source, event, government, intellectual_property, open_content Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us 16. December 2003 Lost and found Civil Society (wiki) - urs @ 11:01:01 While on the move this morning, I suddenly realized that my bunch of keys was missing. If you haven't had that feeling yet; it is really not to wish anyone. So, after having checked every possible place at home, where the keys could have been dropped, a recapitulation of the passed evening followed. The last time one of the keys has been used yesterday was at the garderobe at the University. Then I went off to meet some friends for having a drink. We later on decided to pass by at an Indian restaurant and finally ended up at a bar, having a late night coffee. This morning I had to check up all those places and on questioning for keys the answer was always NO. There was still one location to check up; the University. This is quite a lucky day; the keys where still at the garderobe. What a relief. Related post(s): FOAF walk on semaview (4.98) FOAF to doc via XSLT (4.01) A daily Japanese lesson (3.79) Waiting at the airport (3.74) Advogato to FOAF Utility (3.53) Related tags(s): language, content_management, linux, civil_society, intellectual_property Comments (1) Permalink del.icio.us 12. December 2003 ICT 4 Development at Geneva Civil Society (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) - urs @ 17:28:25 While Geneva is not that far away from my home, I took the chance to visit the first ICT 4 Dev event yesterday. Stefan [1], a colleague of mine did the design and crative stuff for the catalog, maps, brochures etc. and he gave me some additional background on the whole WSIS / ICT4D events. WSIS [2] is the World Summit on the InformationSociety adopt a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action [3], or in other words heading for leveraging ICT for Good Governance and Development Effectiveness. While getting in contact with the people at the ICT4D booths I had also the chance to follow some of the discussions of the WSIS on the big screens. One of them was about the Digital Divide; The Digital Divide is a social issue regarding the different amount of available access to the Internet. A point in the discussion was that the price for hard- and software should be based or referred to the height of income of the individuals. Even though this is already quite a concrete task, it shows the challenge. It was also to hear and read at ICT4D that access to Information- and Communication Technologies should be seen as a Human Right. This is a strong and important statement. So ICT should not only become available for the Government or the Industry but also for the Civil Society [4]. To have access to ICT is a pre-condition of the formation of an opinion. I do not say, global information sources are not to manipulate, but I assume it is more difficult to control a civil society with individuals having their own opinion. Reading this, one can have dictatorship or totalitarian systems in mind. But that is not the point; we had elections for the Ministry in Switzerland this week. Just a few hours later thousands of people, specially women gathered in the cities for demonstrations against the results of the elections. I think that ICT is not the one and only solution for a better world. As a civil society finally has full access to ICT, it needs a) to be able to form an individual opinion and b) different structures and organisations to realize those opinions. Why do we e.g. need political parties? Once, a civil society has its ICT access, presumably a process of reorganisation or reformation of the system of (democratic) federalism has to follow up. Am I missing a point? ;-) [1] http://www.reflektor.ch [2] http://www.itu.int/wsis/ [3] http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/doc_multi.asp?lang=en&id=1154\|1155 [4] http://www.undp.org/info21/hr/hr-right.html Related post(s): wsis / ict 4d (15.9) off to geneva (7.38) sunset at lake of geneva (6.74) PHP Development IDE for Win32 (4.61) Emily Turrettini Interview (4.31) Related tags(s): moblog, technology, xml, politics Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us ICT 4 Development at Geneva Civil Society (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) \| Civil Society (wiki) - urs @ 17:28:25 While Geneva is not that far away from my home, I took the chance to visit the first ICT 4 Dev event yesterday. Stefan [1], a colleague of mine did the design and crative stuff for the catalog, maps, brochures etc. and he gave me some additional background on the whole WSIS / ICT4D events. WSIS [2] is the World Summit on the InformationSociety adopt a Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action [3], or in other words heading for leveraging ICT for Good Governance and Development Effectiveness. While getting in contact with the people at the ICT4D booths I had also the chance to follow some of the discussions of the WSIS on the big screens. One of them was about the Digital Divide; The Digital Divide is a social issue regarding the different amount of available access to the Internet. A point in the discussion was that the price for hard- and software should be based or referred to the height of income of the individuals. Even though this is already quite a concrete task, it shows the challenge. It was also to hear and read at ICT4D that access to Information- and Communication Technologies should be seen as a Human Right. This is a strong and important statement. So ICT should not only become available for the Government or the Industry but also for the Civil Society [4]. To have access to ICT is a pre-condition of the formation of an opinion. I do not say, global information sources are not to manipulate, but I assume it is more difficult to control a civil society with individuals having their own opinion. Reading this, one can have dictatorship or totalitarian systems in mind. But that is not the point; we had elections for the Ministry in Switzerland this week. Just a few hours later thousands of people, specially women gathered in the cities for demonstrations against the results of the elections. I think that ICT is not the one and only solution for a better world. As a civil society finally has full access to ICT, it needs a) to be able to form an individual opinion and b) different structures and organisations to realize those opinions. Why do we e.g. need political parties? Once, a civil society has its ICT access, presumably a process of reorganisation or reformation of the system of (democratic) federalism has to follow up. Am I missing a point? ;-) [1] http://www.reflektor.ch [2] http://www.itu.int/wsis/ [3] http://www.itu.int/wsis/documents/doc_multi.asp?lang=en&id=1154\|1155 [4] http://www.undp.org/info21/hr/hr-right.html Related post(s): wsis / ict 4d (15.9) off to geneva (7.38) sunset at lake of geneva (6.74) PHP Development IDE for Win32 (4.61) Emily Turrettini Interview (4.31) Related tags(s): moblog, technology, xml, politics Comments (0) Permalink del.icio.us