One of the first supporters of the "Contract for the Web" by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee is headquartered on Guinea Street number three in Exeter, England. It is the violin business Devon Strings Workshop, ten percent off all strings, closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Rescue of the Internet is imminent.
Joking aside.
Of course, I wish Sir Tim maximum success. The Social Contract for the Web, which he initiated a year ago and presented this week at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Berlin, is a respectable attempt to counter the sometimes devastating reality with a hopeful, positive vision.
REUTERS
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web (archive image)
For example, governments should not deprive their citizens of access to their private communications, companies should refrain from unnecessary data collections, and ordinary users may want to teach their offspring a civil society debate. Nothing of what is there is wrong.
But from my Monday mood, the non-binding contract is just another site with another manifesto signed by English violin makers, Michigan wedding decorators and Welsh radio stations.
How predictably ineffective he will remain, it is already apparent that Facebook, Google and Twitter support the contract. If the world were to take seriously what is in the treaty, these three stores could shut down. But the phrasing is so general that even those companies that always criticize Berners-Lee most harshly can easily sign.
The FAQ on the associated website describes what the initiative's success would be like: "Some global players will never support the treaty," it says, but the goal would have been reached "if those governments and companies are real outsiders."
"Non-Mention" is what you call it on the internet. So if you talk about someone without calling him by name. But everyone should be aware that here, inter alia, China and Russia meant. But they have long been outsiders when it comes to their dealings with the net. But it bothers them as much as a fallen bag of bits.
My biggest hope is that someday I can write a newsletter, in which I take back everything that stands here, because I was wrong.
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Strange digital world: subway-breaking
Berlin is when you update all your news channels on your smartphone in front of the stairs to the subway. It's like digital air stopping: Once you're down, there's silence.
Of course, that depends on the route and the mobile service provider. For me as a telecom and Vodafone customers anyway, it has in the past nine years already had something fundamental law: There is no "U" in "Internet".
But even the Basic Law can be changed with the necessary majority. And that has now found in relation to the subway. For a few days not only offer Telefónica, but also the Telekom and Vodafone LTE in Berlin underground. More precisely: first in sections of the U2, U5, U7 and U8. The three providers work together for this.
And because the whole thing is so (U-) groundbreaking for Berlin conditions, I even got an invitation "to a test drive on the line U8". As if I have never been in any other, normal city and could not imagine what it would be like to be online in a subway.
App of the Week: "Chargemap"
tested by Matthias Kremp
Electric cars have been a big topic again in the past few days. Or rather: an electric car. The new cyber-print from Tesla, which looks more like stealth bombers than for cars because of its rough edges. In such vehicles, fully or partially electrically operated, the industry sees its future. But this is accompanied by the problem that while it is easy to find conventional gas stations, but who wants to recharge the battery of his e-mobile, must know where there is the appropriate outlet.
That's exactly what the App Chargemap should do. Actually, it serves to direct users of a paid chargemap pass to charging stations where they can pay with that passport. But also all other power stations are listed, no matter which provider. You can also filter for plug types and charging power, so you do not drive to a charging station that does not fit the plug of the car. A nice extra: For longer trips, you can calculate a route along suitable charging stations.
Free, from Chargemap: iOS, Android
Foreign links: Three tips from other media
- "How Hollywood disturbs the peace of the dead" (Five minutes of reading)
A computer-generated version of the 1954 deceased James Dean is to play a major role in a new film. "Golem.de" analyzes why this - even if it is technically possible - is a bad idea.
- "Ghost ships, crop circles, and soft gold: A GPS mystery in Shanghai" (English, seven minutes of reading)
At the port of Shanghai, someone manipulates GPS signals in a previously unknown and inexplicable way. Is China testing a new electronic weapon or are they sand-thieves trying to blur their tracks? The report from Technology Review is as intriguing as it is disturbing.
- "Space-grade CPUs: How do you send more computing power into space?" (English, 15 minutes reading)
What differentiates computer processors for space use from those in the iPhone? They are much, much slower. But cosmic radiation requires special safety precautions, which explains "Ars Technica" very well.
I wish you a pleasant week
Patrick Beuth