Tag: new technologies

WYSIWYG – What you see is what you get?

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in contemporary socio-economic situation, projects, works

A short presentation on Big Data and Digitisation at the Max-Planck-Institute fro Social Law and Social Policy

WYSIWYG[1] – Also for Big Data?

WYSIWYG, the supposed revolutionary concept that once opened a new world for computer quarter-literates is not necessarily applicable if we look at the supposed recent revolution: Big Data. More likely we find the emergence of a WYSID – What You See Is Delusion.

 

[from Leibniz’ writing on the Binary Code Calculating Machine]

The presentation aims on contributing from the perspective of political economy to an understanding of some systemic developments that are hidden behind a blurred understanding of Big Data and Digitisation. The following is guiding the development of the argument:

  • Moving from Adventures in Wonderland to seeing the World Through the Looking-Glass – Some Terminological Remarks
  • From Gold Standard to Sparkling Diamonds – The Economy of the Digital and Informational Revolution
  • The Lonely Crowd versus Crowded Loneliness – About Individual, Social, Public and Private Matters
  • L’État c’est moi – l’état, c’est-à-dire nous? – Socio-Eco-Legal Issues around Public and Social Responsibility

On the latter, especially four topics are seen as major challenge:

  1. Concentralisation
  2. Public-Private-Datachips
  3. Changed status of Employees or changed property issues
  4. The Firm and the loss of transaction cost

Some background material can be found here.

Here the link to the recording of the presentation  – speaker presentation: Professor Dr. Ulrich Becker.

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[1]            What you see is what you get

What we See – What we sometimes think – and What we have to learn

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in academic life - living in academia, joys - what we usually take for it, Peter's Log, thoughts on life and its philosophy

A Dedication to my Students, Around the World

The first impression on one of the the websites of my previous position was yesterday that of the

in its own way a very pleasing tune, matching the mood of the nicety of the previous Friday – for me much more than a beautiful autumn day

A day proving  the enjoyable lightness of being …

I scrolled down the site, saw the old photo showing me during the Shanghai Forum and was getting a bit curious, started the decipher …, wearisome …, to find out that all this is about the media centre and the ‘hyper-modern way of the networked world’ – where the global and the village come together …, perhaps not bad at all, if handled with care. Perhaps this is more important: the way to control the handling, not the instruments …

It surely means not least to be there for students – real, not virtual, and respecting …, no, accepting that we as teachers and as students have more in common than there are differences – where differences and arrogance, where delay and ‘servant-attitudes’ prevail, we have lost already our ingenuity.

Airport Chat

da Peter Herrmann's Blog, posted in joys - what we usually take for it, Peter's Log, thoughts on life and its philosophy
The only free seat, while waiting for the boarding to commence, was the one between brother and sister …, as usual I forgot the name. Unusual though that we talk about “the world” and that “there is something wrong, though I don’t know what.” My reference to the Evangelii Gaudium and an attempted “left interpretation” does not really move the communication forward – also it doesn’t help when I draw the direct line between this and the confrontation with the pressure today’s students are under. – Is she too distracted? Or is she convinced that the mobile phone she frequently looks at, provides the answer?

May be the brother from Kenya knows it, admiring the Chinese:

They are clever. Loosing no time, just looking around and implementing …. – that is what they do.

Sure, his reflections on his home country are interesting – and the endless trust of both of them:

You surely need a bishop to perform …

is somewhat perplexing.

— Sitting with the back to us: a father with his son …. – I have to admit that the permanent rattling  of the computer game they are playing, implementing shooting at, racing after, hunting for virtuality makes me a bit irascible …, nothing alluring about it ….