Herbert Windt (1894-1965)

Herbert Windt wurde am 15.9.1894 in Senftenberg in der Niederlausitz als Sohn eines Kaufmanns geboren. Seine Familie war sehr musikalisch veranlagt und brachte ihn schon früh zum Klavierspiel und zum Notenstudium. Als junger Mann verließ er die Schule und ging 1910 an das Sternsche Konservatorium, wo er bis zu seiner freiwilligen Meldung zur Teilnahme am Ersten Weltkrieg im Sommer 1914 studierte. 1917 wurde er als Feldwebel bei Verdun so schwer verwundet, dass er zu 75% als kriegsbeschädigt galt und eine Karriere als Dirigent oder Pianist nicht mehr in Frage kam. Windt studierte daher ab 1921 unter dem renommierten Opernkomponisten Franz Schreker an der Hochschule für Musik in Berlin weiter und widmete sich zusehends eigenen Kompositionen, von denen die Oper Andromache (1932) die bedeutendste ist (obgleich sie nur vier Aufführungen erlebte)

Berufsorientierung im Unterricht : Verbund von Schule und Berufsberatung in der vorberuflichen Bildung

"In der Auseinandersetzung über Lernziele und Lerninhalte der vorberuflichen Bildung entwickelte sich die Berufsorientierung zu einer spezifischen Fragestellung der Arbeitslehre in den Lehrplänen der Bundesländer. Seit 1969 bestehen Vereinbarungen der Kultusminister, in Modellschulen und Schulversuchen neue Formen der Zusammenarbeit von Schule und Berufsberatung zu erproben. Die Bundesanstalt für Arbeit ließ die hierin liegenden Möglichkeiten in einem 1972 in Auftrag gegebenen Gutachten untersuchen. Seit Erscheinen dieses Gutachtens wurde Berufsorientierung im Unterricht als bildungspolitische und fachdidaktische Aufgabe verstärkt wahrgenommen. Von der Bundesanstalt für Arbeit angeregte Erprobungsprojekte in Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Rheinland-Pfalz und Schleswig-Holstein sind inzwischen weitgehend abgeschlossen; die dabei gewonnenen Erkenntnisse wurden in einem zweiten Gutachten verarbeitet. Zunächst werden die gegen das erste Gutachten vorgebrachten kritischen Einwendungen dargelegt und aus der Sicht der Gutachter diskutiert. Sodann folgt eine terminologische Klärung und Aufgabenbestimmung der 'Berufsorientierung im Unterricht der Sekundarstufe I'. Mit Hilfe einer Reihe von Kriterien, die die wesentlichen Aspekte aus den Erprobungsprojekten und aus der Fachliteratur aufnehmen, werden die Bedingungen eines praktikabel erscheinenden kooperativen Berufswahlunterrichts zur Diskussion gestellt. Es geht dabei vor allem um die pädagogischen Leitvorstellungen in der Didaktik der Berufsorientierung (normativer Anspruch), ferner um curriculare Fragen und schließlich um Formen der Zusammenarbeit mit der Berufsberatung." (Autorenreferat)Berufsorientierung, Schule, Berufsberatung

An Exploratory Study about Microblogging Acceptance at Work

Microblogging is the new Web 2.0 hype in the media. Techies, politicians, family members and many more use Twitter to keep in touch with their interest groups, their voters or their friends and relatives. We wanted to know whether Twitter can also keep us aware about our team colleagues, how this improves teamwork and finally why Twitter is accepted and used in teams. Based on an action research study about Twitter usage in a team of seven researchers and the findings of prior literature, we attempt to extend the unified theory of technology acceptance (Venkatesh 2003) and adapt it to the specific context of microblogging in teams. Extending the performance expectancy construct, we propose two groups of factors inherent to social software that should be integrated into the UTAUT: the task characteristics of other users and the individual motivations for using social software

J. Eric Dibbern on Forbidden Families: Family Unification and Child Registration in East Jerusalem by Yael Stein. HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, 2004. 41pp.

A review of: Forbidden Families: Family Unification and Child Registration in East Jerusalem by Yael Stein. HaMoked: Center for the Defense of the Individual, 2004. 41pp

DESIGN AND IMPACT OF AWARENESS FUNCTIONS - A STUDY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA IN VIRTUAL TEAMS

The usage of social media in leisure time settings has become a prominent research topic. However, less research has been done on the design of social media in collaboration settings. In this study, we investigate how social media can support asynchronous collaboration in virtual teams and specifically how they can increase activity awareness. On the basis of an open source social networking platform, we present two prototype designs: a standard platform with basic support for information processing, communication and process ? as suggested by Zigurs and Buckland (1998) ? and an advanced platform with additional support for activity awareness via special feed functions. We argue that the standard platform already conveys activity awareness to a certain extent, however, that this awareness can be increased even more by the feeds in the advanced platform. Both prototypes are tested in a field experiment and evaluated with respect to their impact on perceived activity awareness, coordination and satisfaction. We show that the advanced design increases coordination and satisfaction through increased perceived activity awareness

The Role of Reuse in the Successive Implementation of Conversational Agents

More and more companies rely on the implementation of conversational agents (CAs) to automate certain of their processes. While CAs' initial development often mirrors an innovative process, their successive implementation can be made more efficient by drawing on other CAs' prior developments. We rely on data from a case study where a series of chatbots (which represent one type of CAs) was implemented. Routine theoretical concepts help us better understand how CAs may dynamically evolve and how their implementation can be accelerated. We found that a) the reuse of emerging or intentionally constructed means may allow accelerating the implementation of multiple successive CAs, b) means can be reused to extend or transfer functionality (through mutation or inheritance); and c) changes in the conversational context determine if means can be reused directly or not (through reproduction or recreation)

Tight versus Loose Organizational Coupling within Inter-Firm Networks in the Enterprise Software Industry – The Perspective of Complementors

Facilitated by new standards and middleware technologies, enterprise application software is increasingly characterized by a high degree of modularity. On an organizational level, this is reflected by the goal of dominant system vendors (hubs) to form loosely-coupled hub-and-spoke networks with smaller niche players (spokes) that complement their solutions. This paper aims at explaining differences regarding the extent to which spokes strive for loosely-coupled partnerships as opposed to closely-tied relationships with a particular hub. The type of coupling is indicated by the level of hub-specific investments and the application of informal governance mechanisms. Following existing theory, the synergistic specificity between the partners’ technological, commercial, and social capital is suggested to determine the aspired type of coupling. Moreover, it is argued that a tighter coupling leads to an increased threat of opportunism. However, instead of loosening the partnership, spokes tie themselves even closer to the hub

Mastering Software Robot Development Projects: Understanding the Association between System Attributes & Design Practices

Software robots tend to increasingly take over organizational processes. However, little is known about principles of developing as opposed to using robotic systems, such as RPA robots and chatbots. Therefore, based on a comparative case study, this paper elaborates how different types of robots, due to distinguishing system attributes, relate to different design practices that arise from varying challenges of transforming existing routines into robots

The Influence of product-specific determinants on software firms’ international entry mode choices

In an environment of globalization of software and IT services, providing software solutions in international markets has become a strategic necessity for many software firms. When setting up international business operations, software firms need to make a fundamental choice on the distribution arrangements for software and related services in foreign markets. Particularly, such arrangements may either involve contracting with local partners to distribute products and services or extending the firm abroad by establishing wholly-owned subsidiaries or deploying employees. This study focuses on analyzing such boundary choices of software product firms in international markets. Taking a knowledge-based perspective, a research model is developed that outlines the influence of software product and service characteristics on software firms’ international entry mode choices. The research model is tested using PLS based on survey data from internationally operating software firms. The study findings support the knowledge-based reasoning that unique knowledge inherent in a software product that may be required during the sales process can be more easily transferred within firm boundaries. Particularly, the results point out the need for software firms to enter foreign markets through company-owned channels (i.e., wholly-owned subsidiaries or employee deployment) if the business processes and the functionality reflected in software product are highly specific. Likewise, company-owned channels are chosen if a high share of complementary services (e.g., implementation, consulting, training, maintenance, and support) is provided along with the introduction of a software product in a foreign market. In contrast, if significant country-specific adaptations of software products need to be performed, in particular language localization, the required knowledge is most effectively integrated through cooperation with local sales partners