Das demokratische Potenzial des Internets

Weblogs und komplexe Diskurs-Plattformen repräsentieren ganz unterschiedliche Ausprägungen elektronischer Demokratie. Im Unterschied zu den monolithischen, top-down moderierten Diskurs-Plattformen knüpfen typische Web 2.0 Anwendungen wie Weblogs an die many-to-many-Kommunikationsstruktur des Internets an. Das demokratische Potenzial der Web 2.0 Anwendungen gründet in den Prinzipien der Selbstorganisation aus den frühen Tagen des Internets. Durch Gestaltungsprinzipien wie Offenheit, Einfachheit, bottom up, Nutzerpartizipation, Konsensorientierung und nicht-hierarchischer Organisation werden Web 2.0 Anwendungen zu Manifestationen der Urideen und Konzepte des Cyberspace. Durch die Fokussierung auf die Interaktion zwischen Software und Nutzern kann die Debatte um die Digitale Spaltung der Gesellschaft eine neue Wendung bekommen: Unter der Annahme, dass Software die Form politischer Auseinandersetzung regelt, liegt das demokratische Potenzial des Webs nicht nur in den Fähigkeiten oder Unfähigkeiten der Nutzer, sondern auch im Design technischer Architekturen.Weblogs and complex designed discourse-platforms represent different types of E-Democracy. In contrast to the monolitic, top-down moderated discourse-platforms typical web 2.0 applications like weblogs are connected to the many-to-many communication structure of the internet. The democratic potencial of web 2.0 applications is based on the principles of self-organisation deriving from the early days of the internet. Web 2.0 applications become manifestations of the origin ideas and concepts of the cyberspace by design principles such as openess, simplicity, bottom up, user participation, consensus and non hierarchical organisation. Focusing on the interaction between software and users the dispute about the digital divide of society might take a different turn: Assuming that software rules the form of political debates, the web’s democratic potencials and risks are not only bound to abilities or inabilities of users but also to the design of technical architecture

DINI-Zertifikat 2013 - Request for Comments

Das wissenschaftliche Publikationswesen ist ein wesentlicher Stützpfeiler des wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisfortschritts und der Wissenschaft insgesamt. Zu seinen Kennzeichen gehören (a) die Organisation einer effektiven Kommunikation zwischen Wissenschaftler/-innen (i.e. zwischen Autor/-innen und allen potentiellen Rezipient/-innen, d.h. die Sicherstellung einer adäquaten Verbreitung), (b) ein hohes Maß an Vertrauenswürdigkeit, das den Nutzer/-innen des Publikationswesens (i.e. den Wissenschaftler/-innen) vermittelt wird (z.B. in Bezug auf das Prioritätsrecht, die Wahrung des Urheberrechts sowie die Authentizität und die inhaltliche Qualität wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten), (c) Nachhaltigkeit und Nachprüfbarkeit (dauerhafte Zitierbarkeit und langfristige Verfügbarkeit, Nachvollziehbarkeit von einzelnen Schritten auf dem Weg zur Veröffentlichung). Mit dem vorliegenden Kriterienkatalog, der dem DINI-Zertifikat zugrunde liegt, werden diese allgemeinen Erwartungen an das wissenschaftliche Publizieren in konkrete Mindestanforderungen übersetzt, die an Open-Access-Repositorien und -Publikationsdienste zu stellen sind. Sie bilden als Plattformen für die Veröffentlichung und Bereitstellung wissenschaftlicher Publikationen in elektronischer Form wichtige Knotenpunkte für den wissenschaftlichen Kommunikationsprozess und tragen als Open-Access-Dienste zur Verbreitung und Demokratisierung von Wissen bei

Preliminary specification and design documentation for software components to achieve catallaxy in computational systems

This Report is about the preliminary specifications and design documentation for software components to achieve Catallaxy in computational systems. -- Die Arbeit beschreibt die Spezifikation und das Design von Softwarekomponenten, um das Konzept der Katallaxie in Grid Systemen umzusetzen. Eine Einführung ordnet das Konzept der Katallaxie in bestehende Grid Taxonomien ein und stellt grundlegende Komponenten vor. Anschließend werden diese Komponenten auf ihre Anwendbarkeit in bestehenden Application Layer Netzwerken untersucht.Grid Computing

Taxonomic status of the Liberian Greenbul Phyllastrephus leucolepis and the conservation importance of the Cavalla Forest, Liberia

We thank Jochen Martens for his long-lasting patience in dealing with the specimen of leucolepis, and Brian Hillcoat for comments and advice. It is hardly possible to thank by name all those who have supported WG over the past 30 years and more since 1981 in the fields of forest ecology and ornithology in eastern Liberia. In particular, we express gratitude to Alex Peal and Theo Freeman, both Heads of Wildlife and National Parks, for their many years of cooperation, and the Silviculture Officers Wynn Bryant, Momo Kromah and Steve Miapeh. The knowledge of the tree experts Joe Keper and Daniel Dorbor helped us to gain insights into the ecological complexities of the relationship between man, birds and trees. William Toe worked for three years as bird trapper and assistant in bird banding. WG’s attachment to the University of Liberia and to the students who so often accompanied him was made possible by Ben Karmorh from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and University of Liberia. NABU, the German Conservation Society, has supported the Liberian projects for almost 30 years now. We also thank Nigel Collar, Françoise Dowsett-Lemaire and Hannah Rowland for comments and advice. We thank the African Bird Club and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for helping to fund the 2013 expedition to the Cavalla Forest, in particular Alice Ward-Francis, Robert Sheldon, Alan Williams and Keith Betton. We also are extremely grateful to Michael Garbo and staff of the Society for the Conservation of Nature in Liberia for all manner of help with the expedition, to Harrison Karnwea and colleagues at the Forest Development Authority of Liberia for permissions and other support, as well as to Emmanuel Loqueh, Trokon Grimes, Flomo Molubah and Amos ‘Dweh’ Dorbor for being such excellent companions in the field. YL performed the genetic work as part of her M.Sc. (Genetics) at the University of Aberdeen, whose support is acknowledged.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Existence and Effectiveness of Price Support Activities in Germany: A Note

The overallotment or greenshoe option has become very popular in the German IPO market since its introduction in 1995 and is nowadays an important tool to stabilize IPOs or to issue additional shares in the case of excess demand. Besides providing evidence for the prevalence of price support activities by the underwriter we show that the greenshoe option which seems to be used to support overpriced offerings in the secondary market is not very effective in propping up aftermarket prices. Additionally, the market seems to decide quite early which firms are ?losers? and which are ?winners? in terms of stock market performance. --Initial Public Offerings (IPO),Price Support,Overallotment Option

On the role of general purpose technologies within the Marshall-Jacobs controversy: The case of nanotechnologies

This paper investigates the role of nanotechnologies as a general purpose technology for regional development. Due to pervasiveness, nanotechnologies may be utilized in diverse applications thereby providing the basis for both localization and urbanization externalities. We carry out patent and publication analyses for the city state of Hamburg during the period 1990-2010. We find evidence that nanotechnologies are advanced in the context of regional knowledge bases and follow up prevailing specialization patterns. As nanotechnologies develop both industry specific and city specific externalities become effective leading to specialization deepening and specialization widening which both are functions of the increasing nano-knowledge base. --general purpose technology,nanotechnology,specialization,diversification,Marshall-Jacobs controversy,patent and publication analysis

Regional convergence in the European Union (1985-1999). A spatial dynamic panel analysis

We estimate the speed of income convergence for a sample of 196 European NUTS 2 regions over the period 1985-1999. So far there is no direct estimator available for dynamic panels with strong spatial dependencies. We propose a two-step procedure, which involves first spatial filtering of the variables to remove the spatial correlation, and application of standard GMM estimators for dynamic panels in a second step. Our results show that ignorance of the spatial correlation leads to potentially misleading results. Applying a system GMM estimator on the filtered variables, we obtain a speed of convergence of seven per cent.

Legal Issues of Personalized eCommerce Applications

Most e-commerce applications require the collection and storing of information about customers. As a consequence, the performed transactions involve legal issues. For two years, the authors have been involved in a project, which studies the potentials of personalization of e-commerce systems from the particular angle of SMEs. The paper picks up a couple of scenarios that many e-commerce vendors face when implementing personalization on their Web sites. The specific focus of the discussion is the legal use of costumer profiles for e-commerce applications. Since most legal issues are difficult to understand for non-lawyers the paper makes use of a case study, which shows explicitly what ecommerce vendors need to keep in mind when implementing personalization on their Web sites

Did Concentration on Core Competencies Drive Merger and Acquisition Activities in the 1990s? Empirical Evidence for Germany

In the context of increasing globalization of markets, merger and acquisition activities in the 1990s are said to be driven by reorganization processes with respect to concentration on firms? core competencies in order to increase or maintain market power in international markets. This paper empirically investigates a sample of German domestic mergers in the 1990s to detect the impact of technology and market relatedness on the choice of the merging partner. Results from a conditional logit model show that firms prefer a merging partner within the same industry and with a related technological profile. These findings approve the hypothesis that mergers in the 1990s were undertaken to concentrate on core competencies. --M&A,Technological Firm Performance,Market Relatedness