Hundertfünfzig Worte
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The danger of theories
The term theory tends to evoke for most people the concept of a set of interconnected ideas that are coherent, rigorous, and clear, and from which one may derive explanations of empirical reality. The term theory however also denotes th...
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The sudden collapse of empires
[...] empires do not in fact appear, rise, reign, decline, and fall according to some recurrent and predictable life cycle. It is historians who retrospectively portray the process of imperial dissolution as slow-acting, with multiple o...
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Demystification vs. disenchantment
I attended the DLD conference in Munich in January, a great get-together of internet, design and marketing types (and lots of other people), glamourously organized by Burda, a German media company. On the train back, I wrote a blog pos...
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Netflix presentation on corporate culture
http://www.slideshare.net/jpelliott/netflix-a-culture-of-high-performance The presentation isn't new, but I've been talking about it yesterday with Fabian and just wanted to make sure I'll find it again in the future, so I...
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Eine Ehrenrettung der historischen Selbstzweifel
Der Lichthof der Universität Zürich - Foto von notfrancois (Flickr) In dreieinhalb Wochen endet mein Studium in Geschichte an der Universität Zürich; und heute ist meine letzte Kolumne für das Historiker-Magazin "Etü" erschien...
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Ein SMS von Orange
Mein Mobilfunkanbieter Orange hat mir soeben dieses SMS geschickt. Ja, Orange - ich bin tatsächlich 27 Jahre alt. Seit dem vergangenen September. Fällt euch das erst jetzt auf? (Ich bin ziemlich sicher, dass ihr mir damals ein Gratulat...
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My online presentation editor misses me
I received the e-mail below from online presentation editor Prezi the other day, and it made me smile. I think that sending out this kind of personal-sounding, funny and maybe slightly quirky messages can be hugely beneficial for service...
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Notes from the past
Today, while cleaning up my room, I re-discovered a collection of old notebooks of mine. I have been carrying small black notebooks around for the past few years, and used them for pretty much anything. I kept at least some of them and ...
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After the trip
For a few days after a trip there's always the battle between the road and the work, and you just have to hope that the beauty of what you are making is worth trading away the beauty of moving, because that's pretty beautiful, ...
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Leaning forward in time
Researchers at the University of Aberdeen found that when people were asked to engage in a bit of mental time travel, and to recall past events or imagine future ones, participants’ bodies subliminally acted out the metaphors embedded...
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Multiple selves
Image by notsogoodphotography on Flickr As we enter the new century, we can see yet another change. Kids do not have multiple memberships so much as multiple selves. They are many people bundled into one. And now we can't tell v...
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The three challenges for Europe
The Abduction of Europa, by Tizian (1562) I attended a talk by british historian Timothy Garton Ash today on “Europe in a non-European world”. Garton Ash spoke at the University of Zurich, in the same place where,...
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Some quotes from DLD10
Image by dotdean on Flickr I attended the DLD Conference in Munich earlier this week. It was my first time, and I'll certainly be back - from all the conferences I've seen so far, DLD is one of the best (my favourite remains LI...
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Das beste Studium der Welt - Redux
«History», Mosaik von Frederick Dielman. Bild von Wikimedia Commons. Vor etwa einem Jahr habe ich eine Kolumne für das Historiker-Magazin der Universität Zürich, den Elfenbeintürmer, verfasst, in der ich versucht habe darzulegen, war...
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Political flash mobs
A Michael Jackson flash mob in Iasi, Romania, by epox on Flickr A few months ago, I participated in an event about “Politics 2.0″ here in Switzerland. One of the input speakers was the head of the youth section of one ...
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Product vs. business
I’ve been re-reading Steven B. Johnson’s excellent essay on the future of news from last March (thanks to Eric Kuhn for pointing me to it again). It makes many great points, but one stood out particular...
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Feedback on the personal e-mail update
Two weeks ago, I sent out a personal e-mail update to roughly 200 contacts of mine. I thought that I’d share some of the feedback and learnings: First, the background. I wrote the update (which was inspired by Ben C...
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The power of simplicity
Over the last years, I have tried many many task management tools, but I have never been really happy with anyone of them. About two years ago, I decided to stick with Remember The Milk, which seemed to have everything a task mana...
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Reversed messages
Awesome palindrome video (via Swissmiss). According to a comment, it might be a rip-off of this video spot. Here’s another great palindrome. Posted via web from Nico Luchsinger
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Making Twitter trends meaningful
Clive Thompson has a good post where he complains about the banality of Twitters trending topics for 2009: The problem here is the problem with all mainstream, middle-of-the-road subjects: They’re not going to be surprising, and inform...
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The personal e-mail update: An experiment
I have just sent out a personal e-mail update about what's going on in my life to a little over 200 contacts of mine. This is an experiment connected to my realization that «staying connected» and creating meaningful relationships wi...
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Dammit, I’m mad!
Dammit I’m mad. Evil is a deed as I live. God, am I reviled? I rise, my bed on a sun, I melt. To be not one man emanating is sad. I piss. Alas, it...
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The Year of the Thesis
Looking back on my 2009, there is one topic dominating: My master thesis. Sure, a lot of other things happened in 2009 too - I co-founded Sandbox, which has developed greatly in the last months; I wrote a blog on new media and technolog...
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My big topics in 2009
I'm just back from a debriefing of the year 2009 with Fabian in the beautiful Swiss mountains. We do this every year - take off one day to look back and assess what was important. One question we ask each other is which topics were...
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No man is an island
No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe: every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of ...
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The quest for relevance continues
“the internet has always been filled with crap. So the challenge has always been how you find the cream. That’s where opportunities lie. That’s what Google saw. The new question is whether Google can keep ahead of the con...
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Das vermeintliche Twitter-Jacking oder: Ich bin vergesslich und ein Idiot
Auf Twitter macht gerade eine lustige Geschichte die Runde, die ihren Ursprung in einem Tweet des “Blick am Abend” hat: Anscheinend hat jemand den Twitter-Account “nzzonline” registriert und verbreitet darüber mu...
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Recherche mit Vampirbiss
Mit meinem Beruf sind Xing & Co. nicht kompatibel. Ein Journalist, der sein Kontaktnetz offen legt (oder auch nur partiell für seine online-Kontakte einsehbar macht), setzt sein wichtigstes Kapital aufs Spiel. Das schrieb Nick Lüthi ...
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Aggregation ist auch Journalismus
“Wie findet man im Internet schnell die besten Inhalte zu einem bestimmten Nischenthema?”, fragte sich kürzlich Marshall Kirkpatrick von Read/WriteWeb. Und zeigte an einem Beispiel auch gerade, wie das geht: Eine Handvoll gut...
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Braucht die NZZ eine Gratiszeitung?
Ich weiss, ich bin etwas spät mit dieser Sache - eigentlich wollte ich ja gar nichts darüber schreiben, aber jetzt tu ich's halt trotzdem. "Finanz und Wirtschaft" zitiert in ihrer aktuellen Ausgabe NZZ-Gruppenleiter Alfred Hümmerich mit ...
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"Das Internet ist schlimmer als die Nazis"
Grosser Aufruhr kürzlich in der (Schweizer) Bloggerszene: Buchautor und "Internet-Profi" Andrew Keen attackierte im Magazin das Web 2.0 und erklärte, es zerstöre sämtliche Kreativität. Nun, es gäbe viel auf diese lächerliche Pauschalisie...
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Auf allen Kanälen und jederzeit
Bruno Giussani verweist auf eine Studie von McKinsey, die untersucht hat, nach welchen Kriterien Konsumenten ihre Nachrichtenquellen auswählen. Das Ergebnis: Wichtig ist, wie einfach zugänglich die Quelle ist, wie umfassend sie ist und o...
