the organizers of the net festival re:publica in Berlin have achieved something that Volodymyr Zelenskyj
tried in vain so far: you have lured the Federal Chancellor to you.
Olaf Scholz is scheduled to be a guest in the Arena Berlin on Thursday.
This is definitely a coup for the re:publica organizers.
Not only because Alt-Treptow beats Kyiv with it.
But also because they had previously tried in vain for years to persuade Scholz's predecessor, Angela Merkel, to visit.
“It wasn't our fault.
We have them
invited several times and always got rejections,« Markus Beckedahl told us last year when we looked back with him on the digital politics of the Merkel era.
The chancellor's absence was in a way symptomatic of re:publica: in the inner courtyard of the long-established location, Station Berlin, the German “Elders of the Internet” gathered and talked – but politicians didn't listen.
Or as Beckedahl said to us at the time: “Digitization was primarily shaped in line with the interests and ideas of industry lobbyists, who were always at the table everywhere.
Civil society and public welfare perspectives have only made it to the side tables, if at all.«
Beckedahl now hopes that this year's re:publica could be "the starting point for a better dialogue between civil society and the federal government to shape our digital future together," as he told the "Tagesspiegel".
After all, not only Scholz comes.
Digital Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (both SPD) are also honored.
And Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) and Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) are guests at Tincon, the youth offshoot of re:publica.
In terms of content, it is about, among other things, what role digitization should play in climate change, how hate can be combated online, how technology companies should be regulated and how so-called artificial intelligence is controlled.
So a lot of the subjunctive, even if the topics themselves are anything but new.
But it's certainly not the fault of the festival organizers that there are still huge, ugly excavations on the permanent construction sites of the Internet.
Tocotronic will also perform on Friday evening.
I could easily get rid of a paragraph or two about how much you could either very much like or very actively dislike this band of almost 30 years long before the very first re:publica.
And about whether the re:publica audience and the band connect, what our reviewer wrote about the current album: »Tocotronic seem to have come to terms with their own youth, even if the music still reverberates juvenilely and is noisy.« But what speaks actually against listening to juvenile noisy non-adults when they tell clever things about the Internet?
So I'll just go to Alt-Treptow.
Like a chancellor.
Our current Netzwelt reading tips for SPIEGEL.de
"These are the highlights of the new Apple operating systems" (five minutes of reading)
Matthias Kremp reports from Apple's developer conference WWDC and lists some of the most important functions of the company's upcoming operating systems.
»My child urgently needs help!« (seven minutes of reading)
When his supposed son contacts him with money problems, Frank Patalong quickly suspects that he is dealing with a scammer.
So he engages him in an entertaining and educational WhatsApp chat.
"This new scam is circulating on Vinted" (four minutes of reading)
With a paid buyer protection system, the Vinted marketplace wants to protect users from being ripped off.
Markus Böhm has researched which weak point in this system fraudsters exploit.
External links: Three tips from other media
»Programmed injustice« (video documentation, 30 minutes)
So-called artificial intelligence primarily disadvantages those who are already less privileged than others.
This ZDF documentary shows hair-raising examples and lets those affected and experts have their say.
The 2022 Uber Lost & Found Index (English, three-minute read)
The annual list of items left in the car by Uber riders is here.
Highlights include »my grandmother's teeth«, »ancient walking stick with a sword« (!) and »a turtle«.
»Accused of Cheating by an Algorithm, and a Professor She Had Never Met« (English, six minutes read)
If digital teaching means that students are completely monitored and then software accuses them of cheating in an exam: Kashmir Hill from the »New York Times« about a case that leaves you stunned.
I wish you a successful week,
Patrick Beuth