A one page interview with me has been published this week in the December 19 2007 edition of the German weekly Die Zeit. The interview was conducted, in German, by Thomas Gross, in the Amsterdam INC office, some weeks ago. You can read the text as it appeared in Die Zeit here on my blog and here on the site of Die Zeit. The interview, for the most part, deals with blogging and the rise of uncontrolled content that goes beyond the ‘news’ paradigm.
The Web 2.0 debate in Germany has intensified over the past few months. The ‘rise of the amateurs’ is pissing off traditional newspapers. The hegemonic position of ‘old media’ journalists is particularly strong in this country. Whereas Internet usage is intense, the news media only now start to feel the heat. The radio and television systems are particularly old-fashioned in their understanding of ‘cross media’ solutions. The panic to put material online and deal with users and their unpredictable opinions is widespread.
Read it, if know German. It seems the duty of the European Intellectual (what a role…) to emphasize the dark sides of religious messages. German reporters can’t get enough of it. A great question: will Web 2.0 set us free?
A few passages have been translated into by Sumiko, blogging from Sudan:
http://morino.twoday.net/stories/4561774/
For those who read German, here are some blog responses: