Die ersten Bananen aus dem Garten geerntet. Die Fledermäuse (Fliegende Hunde) sind schon vorher rein und haben kräftig zugelangt. Kleine Frösche in den Stauden singen. Sehr lecker und süß.

Lilia Efimova researches and provides clear mindmaps of blog networks as social ecosystems

From P2P, networking ,peer filtering, distributed discourses and community building, all is very interesting. Her updated blog blog provides more goodies on bloggology.

With the new search function of Yahoo you can find materials on the web that has a Creative Commons license or has full copyright. This benefits collaborative communities who would like to modify, share and further develop resources. If bloggers for example, wanted to use images, texts and audio etc, they would have to ask the author for permission with copyright materials. But with CC you can find resources that you can use, 'but some rights are reserved' by the authors.

See the future of blogging, its worries from hype to mainstream. View blog widows and more. The slide show is a must !

'Want privacy? Don't blog'

via blogging incredible blogs

This form of ‘transport’ is not only consuming the atmosphere life depends on, but also leads to damage in the (human) genetic heritage and cancer. Read more in German  or in English  about fetal DNA damage or general health effects on human beings.

Or is this a factor like the 'death toll' that just has to be accepted? Is this a consenting 'sacrifice toll' that has to be paid to get from a to b?  But what options are there in a country with nearly zero public transport, lack of (shaded) urban walking tracks? A population huddled along roads and highways.

Work out your own ecological footprint on this Earth with The Global Footprint Network

An Australian player gives their perspective on sustainability, food systems and our footprint here.

'Vom Realismus der Bilder' schreibt G. Gramelsberger Bilder als Träger vom Objekt (‚Abbild’) und Zeichenträger. Das Verschwinden dieser Ambivalenz für den/die Beschauer/In. Hin zur Visualisierung ‚als Basis theoretischer Postulate über reale Objektbereiche’und zum interaktiven Interface.

Hier eine Rede (mp3) von Jean Ziegler über die neue Weltherrschaft. Stichwörter: Transnationale Konzerne (TNC), Oligarchien, Welthandel, Finanzkapital, Kapitalströme, Spekulation, Verteilung, Neoliberalismus als Naturgeschehen, Ethik, Sozialabbau, Hunger, Armut und Gegenvorschläge.

Heise online in English provides information about the computer sphere in Europe. It offers a daily and weekly update, as well as archives. At the time open source software migration schemes in the public sphere are a hot topic.

Landing a crew on Mars by 2015 and setting up a greenhouse can be explored with high interactivity using ultra realism silmulation. Nexterra Inc. has the declared mission to educate the public about a Mars ‘within reach’. One can trace the evolving design of a Mars habitat (for human beings and their needs). All the technological props needed are there, but the site is a bit short on actual information about Mars itself, except for a fact sheet.

Will that next terra come in time when we will have consumed this one?

Beautiful clear images of the Earth can be viewed via NASA. The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth hosts images from different countries. Highlights can be found here or via a clickmap of the Earth.

It also provides easy searching, advanced site searches and educational materials. Urban spreads, pollution, burning off and algae blooms show very clearly.

For those who would like to watch the Earth as a three dimensional model with constantly updated information on their own system, the EarthBrowser software offers weather forecasts in 17,000 places, live hurricane tracking, updated cloud animations, iceberg tracking, hundreds of webcams around the globe and much more. A free demo can be had, but the real thing costs $.

End all boring conversations about the weather by bringing in space weather news. Images and information about the Earth-Sun environment. Alignments, flares, solar winds, geomagnetic storms and more. Broaden your horizon.

After BlogTalk Conferences in Europe and North America BlogWalk is now a new feature. Trailblazers and practicioners of blogging engage in f2f meetings in various European or North American cities. The stated aim is not an amphitheatrical conference (expert to many), but should resemble more of an ‘intellectual salon’ of inspiration while also walking through fun places in Vienna, Chicago, London or Umea etc.

Sebastian Fiedler had the brain-child first, but many others keep the ‘blog walking.’

But in the ‘inaugural BlogTalk Downunder conference 2005’  ‘simple folk’ have the opportunity to be in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia listening to mainly experts from overseas.

Bloggers down under get walking...

Hundreds of U.S. soldiers beam first hand accounts from Iraq to their dear ones back home, to each other and all of us. The palette ranges from patriotic accounts, communicating about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) to ‘Fuck the war’ blogs. The  U.S. army is monitoring this unpredictable medium that could have the potential to interfere with costly P.R. and more. The reports and images from 'just another soldier' are telling and visualising the situation. The struggle against censorship is apparent. Another log-account can be seen on 'blackfive net'.
More elaboration on the topic exists in German

Relevant reading for the gas-guzzling community in Australia and the world over.

For visual translation kits for war zones see also: 'Visual Language Survival Guides' for Iraq or Afghanistan for example.

'The e-learning Centre is home to a large collection of selected and reviewed links to e-learning resources focusing on e-learning in the Workplace, for professional development and in Further and Higher Education.’ The site offers many resources, articles and  introduces new educational blogs.

A guide to e-learning and RSS can be purchased in the form of a pdf or viewed .

This resourceful guide leads from basic how to-s to detailed information on blogging for employers and in tertiary education.

Lifeworld here highlights the ambivalence of  the common sense world of everyday life, on the one hand, and the collaboratively constructed relationship to the world, the other and the self  based on mindfulness.

The instrumental world of ‘getting things done’, that near automatic fast functioning, the soothing comfort with the known, surfing the tradition at ease, at home in one’s language, culture, land and identity are questioned. Exotic excursions into otherness are part of this package. The digital lifeworld  accelerates these pre-existing forms of relating to the self, to others or to the world usually.

Snapping out of it, could rock the boat too much. To make the assumptions of thoughts, actions and relationships explicit and answerable appears as a hindrance to the smooth cruising through the day, week and life. The conscious and collaborative construction as individual or a web of social interactivity takes reflection, time and persistence.

Even when time is available the interactivity is usually confined to a dialogue of the type that new information has to pass from one property owner to the other. It has to be useful to my functioning in the world. Where is the gain? Another approach could be, that neither the sending of data, nor the receiving is important, but the aim is communication itself. The one wants the get the information/truth quickly, the other sees the event of the dialog as the aim. The moment of being in which the interlocutors are constructing themselves and their world.

With ‘Spacetime travel’ you can ‘drive through the city at nearly speed of light’, or ‘step into a black hole’. What ever one fancies, it is presented via multi-media in German and most of it in English as well.

The site is run by scientists of the University of Tübingen and has the aim to explain and visualise A. Einstein’s theory.

Das Open Source Jahrbuch 2005 wurde von Prof. Dr. jur. Bernd Lutternbeck, TU Berlin, Gesellschaft und Informatik herausgegeben. Das Projekt wurde von den Studentinnen/ Studenten und  Mitarbeitern realisiert. Es gibt die Buchform, aber auch ein kostenloses download. (Spenden erwünscht!)

ISBN 3-86541-059. 528 Seiten, Preis 19,90 EUR. Herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. iur. Lutterbeck, Robert A. Gehring und Matthias Bärwolff in Kooperation mit Lehmanns Media

Signandsight.com is the English version of the German online culture magazine Perlentaucher. It provides an overview of cultural and intellectual life in Germany. Especially the book review gives an insight into the current print media.

Das Center for History and New Media, bereitet hauptsächlich die amerikanische Geschichte mit digitalen Medien auf. Ausser Forschung , News und Archieve bieten sie auch viele Ressourcen an. Das resource center hat viele interessante Aufsätze und im tool center gibt es eine Menge freie Werkzeuge um an der online 'Geschichte' mitzuschreiben.

Why are you writing in English and German on the one site?

My first target language is German, but I now live in an English-speaking country (Australia). English also develops as the language to communicate in in the virtual space.

On virtual identity

This is not an 'anonymous' blog, it is called 'strong current'. Computer mediated communication presents the opportunity to interact without prejudice of gender, age, race and location. The social cues can be constructed from the content and form. Tide tracking can be achieved via technical indicators, if they do reflect a 'reputation' or 'profile' of the 'author'. I do understand that there is an emergence to call bloggers by their name and display their pictorial presence.

What sphere of the Earth do you belong to?

Most of my life I lived outside of Europe, but on and off I spend a few years there. Other places where I have spend some time were India and Egypt. Now I live in Sydney, Australia, but my home is the noosphere. The category of @ home is not one of time/space.

Are the Photos/Images in this blog your own?

Yes, if not specified they were taken by me and if you do intend to use them for non-commercial purposes, the Creative Commons regulation applies.

If they are utilised for commercial aims I'd like to be contacted.

Klar, eine flächendeckende digitale Flut der Farben loszulassen kann in dieser bunten Welt leicht zum Ertrinken führen. Die Kritik an ‚stummen’ (Text-losen) Fotoblogs ist oft berechtigt, aber es gibt auch eine Menge ‚stumme’ Texte, die eine Visualisierung vertragen könnten. Mit endlosem scrollen wie im Mittelalter bekommt man/frau oft nicht ‚das richtige Bild’.

Selten wird die Produktion und Konsumption von mit Code-bedeckten Flächen (Bildern) problematisiert. Fotos/Images z. b. reduzieren die vierdimensionale, kodifizierte Welt auf eine zweidimensionale Erscheinung. Wie das CNS diese Flächen blitzschnell scanned ist noch im unklaren.

 Über den linearen, alphabetischen Code/Text ist hingegen schon ein bisschen mehr Arbeit geleistet worden. Hier läuft das scannen/ scrollen auch ab um sich ein Bild zu machen, um Sinn aus dem Code zu produzieren.

Wie wäre es mit Hybriden-blogs, die ihre ein- und zweidimensionalen Darstellungsformen (oder sogar rich media) problematisieren?