Not too long ago, I had a discussion about the theft of millions of creative thoughts, writings, art, materials etc from AI-companies. “Wouldn’t it be possible…”, I said, “…to install a small piece of code into any place of a website (e.g.: the “robots.txt” file) to stop or block AI-web-crawlers from harvesting the “cultural content” from the page?”

What at that time seemed to be a cool project for one of my tech-acquaintances, became now reality much faster than anticipated. Well, at least in a way — but different. Better actually. RSL is new, but its goal is not to stop the crawlers, but rather to clearly let them know, that they are trespassing on someone else’s property — and thus have to ask permission to pluck some flowers from the garden.

NOTICE: all crawlers and bots are strictly prohibited from using this # content for AI training without complying with the terms of the RSL # Collective AI royalty license. Any use of this content for AI training # without a license is a violation of our intellectual property rights.

“Don´t sneak in here and steal my art!” — this is a clear message. Legally, this is a strong signal, that this content is under copyright — and therefore an agreement of any kind shall be necessary. Cloudflare acted on this already in July 2025 (“stop the scraping”) and argued for a “permission-based approach”.

This is not a flimsy matter. This is about money.

“Royalties” are an essential part of every creators income mix — and copyright has been a highly contested subject since the dawn of “technical reproduction possibilities”. In the digital age, new forms of copyright protections and collective rights organizations had to be established — just to give a little compensation to the original creator of whatever is used, utilized and too often abused.

Of course, many of these tiny pieces of compensation are much too small. Spotify is paying fractions of cents / pennies to the average musician — but even this has been a long fight originating in the music download controversies in the early 2000´s. And now, 25 years after Napster “… nearly killed the music industry.”, AI could eradicate a lot of the current creator “industry” — when this in reality undefinable business field will not quickly adapt to the massive changes.

”…June 1999 … Napster, the brainchild of Shawn Fanning, linked computers and allowed users to access each other’s mp3 audio files. Fanning met an ambitious teen, Sean Parker, on the webchat channel w00w00, and together they triggered a series of events that brought the record business to its knees by making music discovery instant — but payment optional…”

Today, we are in a similar disruptor situation with the LLMs, which have been (and partly still are) “trained” by billions of webpages without consent of the owners. More and more complaints and law suits are happening, so that the appearance of a non-profit digital rights organization could not be more timely.

RSL stands for “Really Simple Licensing” and promises to be:

a) a standard; just a simple piece of code, alerting any crawler, that they need to ask for permission to use the (creative) content of the site — and
b) a basis for a non-profit organization (the “RSL collective”) to collect royalties from AI-usage.

”…According to RSL co-founder Eckart Walther, who also co-created the RSS standard, the goal was to create a training-data licensing system that could scale across the internet. “We need to have machine-readable licensing agreements for the internet … That’s really what RSL solves…” (TechCrunch)

Eckart Walther explained the concept in detail during the recent MEDIUM-Day in a 30-min session (which will hopefully become available on Medium’s YouTube channel). This was very insightful and the concept is quite a no-brainer for most creators, the vast majority of us much too weak as individuals to enforce any digital rights.

I remember 15 years ago, when the German music rights association GEMA had a long conflict (2009–2016) with YouTube and many videos were geoblocked in Germany, because YouTube did not offer enough compensation for the musicians which appeared in any home-made soundtrack. The situation can loosely be compared to today’s music usage in TikTok video creations… how much money does any musician actually really get from the plays on that platform?

3 years after the sudden & shocking appearance of ChatGPT in November 2022 (and after much handwringing and complaints in the creative & culture field), there are finally signs of possible solutions, which may force some reactions from the cold tech-AI-LLM-behemoths — at least. Yet, there seems to be also options of possible cooperations, creating maybe some understanding.

”The role of technology is to be our assistant, not our replacement.”
( Tony Stubblebine during Medium Day 2025)

RSL was just introduced 2 weeks ago (the wikipedia page (edited by Funcrunch) was created 2025–09–10), but it gains already some momentum, as it can be used indeed really simple.

Of course, tech companies and platforms may just evade the responsibility by opening the floodgates to ever more AI-slop. (interestingly, that wikipedia page was just created a year ago on 2024–09–28 by Wikipedia editor Jenny8lee)

However, original thought & authenticity can never be replaced … hopefully!

(I may explore this thought a bite (!) more soon)

For now, I have decided to use RSL on my own websites.

“..So we’re happy, finally, to support a formal, standardized way to for all content owners to tell AI companies the rights and restrictions on your content…”

👉🏽 read more details about how MEDIUM has tested solutions in the last years in the RSL introductory post

How RSL Works

Key capabilities of RSL include:

• A common, extensible vocabulary that lets online publishers define licensing and compensation terms, including free, attribution, pay-per-crawl, and pay-per-inference compensation.
• An open protocol to automate content licensing and create internet-scale licensing ecosystems between content owners and AI companies.
• Creating standardized, public catalogs of licensable content and datasets through RSS and Schema.org metadata.
• An open protocol for encrypting digital assets to securely license nonpublic, proprietary content, including paywalled articles, books, videos, and training datasets.
• Support for collective licensing through the nonprofit RSL Collective rights organization or any other RSL-compatible licensing server.

via RSL orginal press release: https://rslstandard.org/press/rsl-standard

#tech, #licensing, #copyright, #AI, #web

I.

The first step into the plane creates already a change in my state of mind. A friendly ”Konichiwa!” from a Japanese stewardess brings up a variety of emotions. Familiar feelings, which I did experience in my past travels to the land of the rising sun.

Japan, a country with a truly unique culture. A mix of respected traditions and modern inventions. A proud country with a violent past. Fascinating to so many and always claiming a top position on the bucket lists of a multitude of travellers. Seemingly a place, everybody wants to go to nowadays.

But I have not been one of them. For me, my relationship with ”Nippon” was a slow affair: a shy first encounter, followed by a number of repeated visits, which felt like a long row of dates before a first hushed kiss on the cheek.
The first time I came to Japan was mostly for private family reasons, with only a few days as a tourist. And this was, how it continued. I even visited during Covid times, when literally nobody else was allowed to enter the country and I started to feel like a Dutch merchant during the period of “Sakoku” (1603–1867), when no foreigners were allowed to step foot on the islands with a few singular exceptions.

No, Japan was not really on my list of “places to travel”, or at least it was much further down — behind other places, like Senegal, Costa Rica, Laos or Bhutan. Yet, life throws us always into situations, we never really expected — and thus developed my slowly growing appreciation of this unique culture.

When we Westerners (of my generation) are aware of history, visiting “foreign lands” comes with some luggage of old-style explorer-emotions and historical references. So early on (already in the 80´s) during my worldwide travels, I developed an attitude of “respectful curiousness”, in which we are not only aware of being in a different place, but also have a humble attitude towards the “life of the locals”. We do not assume; we do not feel superior; we respect the other; we are aware of our common humanity and we are ready to “celebrate our diversity”. I still think, this is the best way to travel to any place — especially, when when we do not really know much about the culture or the people, we encounter.

I friendly answered ”Konichiwaaaa!” and walked down the aisle behind an older Japanese woman, who was sitting in the row before me. Her repeated bowing as a sign of gratitude, combined with a quiet ”arigato gozaimasu!” after I helped her putting a bag into the overhead bin, was just another tiny reminder of every day life in Japan.

Everybody always bows.

This is a sign of traditional respect, we know — but it comes also as a kind of rhythm, moving through the day. When you leave the bus (in front!), you politely bow to the driver; the employees at the gas station bow a few times, when one pulls in with the car (yes, like in old times, there are a few workers, waiting to friendly serve you!); the sales person at the store, bows calmly and professionally, after handing you your bag when leaving the store — and receiving all these bows, we automatically begin ourselves to respond — either with a smiling nod or a hint of a an upper torso bending — subsequently also entering the Japanese body rhythm movements…

When I sat down in my seat, I immediately felt more relaxed. I suddenly realized the meaning of “Japan” — if only through a tiny glimpse into the vast treasures of a culture and its heritage. I realized, that after some visits, I had begun to understand some of its intricacies and strange peculiarities. It felt like meeting an old acquaintance, a friendly and warm sensation. “Yes”, I thought“…this country has grown on me.”

The plane was maybe filled with 50% Japanese and listening to the language bits and pieces during the commotion of flight preparations were a somewhat familiar backdrop which further calmed me down. I took three deep breaths and I felt safe, cherishing the moment to start yet again another journey into the land in the east.

And so begins my Japan-Journal, because this time, I have decided to talk about these journeys, to tell some stories, as there are indeed many stories to tell. Yet writing this here is also a bit about my own discovery — including writing in my 2nd language. I am very aware, that not all my words may flow smoothly — but please think of this as part of the journey, because when traveling to Japan, only a minority of Japanese do indeed speak English well.

.

.

.

all photos are mine and © villamondial / World Culture Group

.

.

.

All of us. We need to take a walk. We need to breathe and lick our wounds. We have invested so much and this disappointment is on a scale way too much for any individual. So we grieve — alone — but together.

That’s it. I’m done. I am out of here. Good Bye, politics — especially all of USA-related topics. I quit. I have tried and given my best to be involved and to care, even though I left this country already 18 years ago. I always cared. For my friends, for all the good people living there, but also mostly for the world. Still much of the world is guided and massively influenced by whoever is president, but to elect this … whatever he is … a second time — this is too much. After all, what happened. After all, what he did, what he said… and even after all he said, he will do — in the near future — to all of us.

I am sorry, I have warned already massively in 2016 and I was worried, where the country would be heading in 2020 — but now, I will say good bye to politics for a while. I will now turn off the news and focus on my profession, my main topics, my creative work… my own sanity.

I know, the country and the world will need a lot of good people fighting the good fight. Especially now. Defend the minorities, keeping human rights, being kind — but I need a break. This is too much for me — and honestly I don’t care, HOW this could happen. I don´t want to see any analysis anymore. It should never have been close in the first place. It should have been reduced to maximum 35% of unteachable mass followers — but to be 50–50 was already wrong. And now…

All of us. We need to take a walk. We need to breathe and lick our wounds. We need some time out. We need to focus on what is important, our inner strength and light. We need to take it easy, pamper ourselves, and do simple things. Little things, which give us joy — personal joy. We have invested so much and this disappointment is on a scale way too much for any individual. So we grieve — alone — but together.

And in that grief we stay connected. The fascistic playbook will do everything to discourage us further and we will see where this leads, but it is ok to take a rest now. Let go and disassociate for a while. It is necessary.

In the long run, darkness will always fail.

We will not give in, but stay kind, tolerant, helpful and human.

We will stay on the friendly path.

We will try…

.

.

photo by Héctor López on Unsplash

.

.

Happy International Women’s Day!

Here’s to you, my daughters, my sister, my mother, my (female) friends, my Ex, my aunts, cousins, nieces, colleagues, partners, … you all deserve my acknowledgement and support — but not only on this day. You deserve solidarity and respect — especially from me as a privileged white man.

And so do all the other women around the world — from all the other men (and all of the people in between & outside of the binary world…). So do also all the countless women in need, who are treated by men in terrible ways — ways, we would never want our daughters or mothers or friends to be treated — ever.

Hey, men — this respect starts with questioning oneself — with observing our own behaviours; our words and actions, in how we treat women respectfully and “properly” — every day. Ask yourself: “Did I fail to keep my temper?” ; “Did I stop myself from taking advantage of (maybe) being stronger?”; “Did I fall into the trap of #mansplaining?”; “Do I support my beloved ones & protect them with enough kindness?”

There are moments, we are on the edge and we may be tempted to scream at our child or be harsh to the person we love — however we can do better — every day.

The IWD / international women´s day is more than just stories or celebrations. It is a day to think about the challenges inside families, relationships or societies. It is a day to particularly honour and acknowledge the rights of girls and women — an integral part of the #HumanRights.

Human Rights include equality and this is also one of the 17 SDG´s, the “Global Goals for Sustainable Development”. We have a choice to support these goals as well as to chose from thousands of different initiatives and organizations, which are working diligently since many decades on these topics — locally and globally.

#GlobalGoals video (2016) for #GirlsDay (which is Oct. 11 !)

By the way, since 2019 the “International Women´s Day / IWD” — the 8th of March — is an “official public holiday” in #Berlin. The Senate of Berlin chose to use this day as a new holiday, after balancing the amount of free days to others German states. (Bavaria used to have 3 more work-free days than Berlin). There were all kinds of discussions and many arguments for it & against it, but I think, it was a very good decision. As long, as the majority of the worlds population has still to fight for equal rights and is suppressed in various traditions, cultures and/ or countries — as long the elevation from a simple “international day” to a “public holiday” makes a lot of sense.

Of course, it is not only on this day, that we should reflect and be aware. If you only think of your mother on mother’s day, you do NOT respect and honour your mother in the right way. Similarly, If you only think about “the plight of women” on March 8th, it may be merely lip service or even worse, a marketing strategy.

Furthermore, if we would only mention “mothers” on women´s day, we would really fail to understand what this is all about.

So, all of you men out there — try to be more supportive, understanding, kind and respectful. Make some more effort — today — and every day!

further info:

official IWD page: https://www.internationalwomensday.com

link to #Goal5 of the #GlobalGoals #SDGs — https://www.globalgoals.org/5-gender-equality

another great video from 2016: #WhatIreallyreallywant -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZQ2RUFd54o

for a selection of the “best videos from the last years” for #IWD see here:
https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Activity/12287/Greatest-ever-International-Womens-Day-videos

#HeForShe, #BalanceForBetter, #InspireInclusion, #FreedomForGirls

PS: The woman on the picture above is my mother in the 1970´s — a strong and proud woman, who despite everything she had to endure never lost her good spirit and laughter until today as a 90-years-old great-grandmother. Her signature outfit (as a good catholic woman) in the 70´s & 80´s was the headscarf, because, as she said, “…this was the easiest to wear with so many children and parents and relatives to always care for… and I never had time to take care of my own hair…”.

Actually, it does matter: the choice of your “home instance”. Supposedly, you can “chose ANY server” to start with #Mastodon and enter the #fediverse — and (they say) you don´t have to worry about it. Well, it turns out, this is not completely true…

But before I dig a little deeper into the “why?” you may want to change your mastodon-server (this is how you arrived here in the first place — no?), I describe the “how?”.

…….

This post is for people a little familiar with that elephant already — but if your totally new, still wonder what this is all about or you just “don´t get Mastodon” — watch 👉🏼 this excellent 180 seconds video introduction: … “it´s like e-mail” …

…….

How to change your mastodon instance / server :

Let me tell you first, HOW to change the server — because this is indeed quite easy. You just have to follow a few simple steps.

These steps are very well described by the friendly (& recommended) site fedi.tips here 👉🏼

Basically it goes like this in 7 steps (TL;DR) :

* create an account at a new server

* click a few well specified buttons inside the new & old account

* perform some export / import routine

Here are the steps in more detail:

Here’s how to do it:

1. Create a new account on the server you want to move to, but DO NOT delete the old account.

2. Log into your NEW account on the new server’s website, go to Edit Profile > Moving From A Different Account, click on Create an account alias and follow the instructions.

3. After you’ve finished the previous step, wait five minutes. The previous step can take a while for the server to actually carry out, and it’s important that it happens before you continue.

4. When you’ve finished waiting, log into your OLD account on the old server’s website, go to Edit Profile > Move To A Different Account, click on Configure it here and follow the instructions. This will start transferring your followers to the new account. The accounts won’t transfer all in one go, they will come across in waves depending on how busy their own servers are. Some of your followers will automatically follow your new account straight away, while others may take hours (or in extreme cases even days!). Don’t worry though, you can carry on with the next steps while this is happening in the background.

5. On your OLD account, go to Preferences > Import And Export > Data Export and download all the CSV files one file at a time by clicking on the CSV icons. However, DO NOT press the archive request button! Archive request has got nothing to do with transfers. (You of course may want to separately request an archive just so you have a personal copy of an account’s contents. This is especially relevant if your old server is closing down.)

6. On your NEW account, go to Preferences > Import And Export > Import and upload the CSV files one at a time (the files which you just downloaded in the previous step). Remember to select the correct file type from the drop-down menu for each CSV file before you upload it.

7. Even after the transfer, DO NOT delete your old account. It’s best to leave it where it is, because it will redirect people to your new account and leave your old posts intact.

source: https://fedi.tips/transferring-your-mastodon-account-to-another-server

In between step 1 & 2, you could actually edit your own profile, e.g.: add a picture & a description. I had falsely thought for a moment, that the “transfer” would also move my profile, but this is not happening. Basically the move is only a transfer of your contact list more or less = your followers & following. And it also installs a kind of redirect from your old account to the new one.

That´s it.

So, your profile, your description and your links you will have to be edited again anyhow — and you either can do this first or later.

Attention: Your (old) posts will not be transferred ! They remain however on the old account (as long as you do not delete it).

While it was overall an easy & quick process, I still have some issues with the transfer of my #bookmarks.

But the most annoying factor for me was , that my “join date” changed. The public display of the date, when I started tooting is a piece of vanity (experience), I happily admit to enjoy. (on my twitter account it was “June 2009”)

So the new instance displays your new “join date” …voilá.

the obstacles of onboarding

“How & where shall I register?”

This is the first question of #Newbies. And the … search for “the right server” … … can actually take quite some time. At least, this is how it was for me in November 2022. The frequent recommendation, that it does not matter is only valid from a technical point of view — but not for the user experience. We (new) users want it easy & convenient. In today´s world, we are used to Apps, where registration takes only a minute and we can start using the software within 2 moments.

How are we then supposed to have the patience to deal with the slower onboarding process of Mastodon?

Yes, I understand: Mastodon is a software like email — and an instance is like an email provider. Consequently, the choice of the address & local environment is indeed not as important. Nevertheless, there are some obstacles in the relatively new Mastodon world, which are worth considering.

Obstacles, which show, that choosing the right server actually DOES matter — at least a little.

Maybe you have heard the advice to a new user “You should look for a place where you will be comfortable and that you will be proud to be a part of.” Well, this is not very easy, when you have no idea, who is who. How do you pick and chose any dish, if you do not know the local cuisine at all? Or even worse, you can not even read the menu (yet), as it is in a foreign language?

For #newcomers, it would be only honest to say: “Hey, #masto is a free & diverse experience — and here is a list of proven and reliable general servers for an easy start — OR you will need to take some time and carefully look for your instance first via these search / helpers sites.” (see below for some links).

the problems with blocking instances on Mastodon

In any case, once we have chosen our new home, we would like the server to perform reliable and smooth. We are not interested in discussions in between the moderators of different instances; we don’t want to get involved into reasoning behind blocking. This is one actual problem in the fediverse yet similarly the nature of a decentralized system: that every server can block each other.

Now, this does make a lot of sense (to keep hate, fascism, nazis, racist etc. out of the “global town square”) , but it also require a certain amount of maturity and professionalism from the #moderators & #admins. In my short time on Mastodon, I have heard & experienced already at least 2 verified blockages, which do not really make sense from afar.

I am not talking about blocking accounts (which is necessary and an individual decision), but I am talking about the blockage of seemingly moderated, harmless instances by other seemingly “normal” instances. Why did mastodon.art block journa.host? On their website, I only find “instance full of journalists” as a reason .. but why is this a reason to block another server?

Their added acronym “YMMV” — stands for: “your mileage may vary” — meaning: your opinion may be different — but it does not really help — does it?

So I decided, that I did not want to make any of the servers involved my new mastodon-home-server.

…….

Why do MEDIUM and Flipboard block https://c.im (my old instance)? I was not able to find out, but only heard some rumours, there may have been one (?) user using racist comments. Of course we don´t tolerate racism anywhere — but can we not just block this user?

well, many questions remain — but for me the blockage of my instance (c.im) did have specific consequences. I was not able to FOLLOW for example Mike McCugh, CEO of Flipboard and also not the new CEO of MEDIUM Tony Stubblebine. Additionally — as I understand it — my #toots were not shown anymore to many users at a variety of other servers.

So, I decided to move to an instance, which seems to be less controversial and more general… (and yes, I am fully aware of the implications of this decision, but this is another discussion)

the future looks bright

The good thing about this fast growing community is, that problems, concerns and issues are usually quite quickly resolved by some ingenious developer.

The many complaints from #twittermigrants about not being able to re-post a #toot was for example enough reason for Thomas Ricouard to embed the option “quote toot” in the highly recommended IceCubes App — a Mastodon client / APP for the Apple-Universe. (read the interesting developers story here

And other things are getting much better, too, including a growing population. Journalists and Organisations like Wikipedia Wikipedia , Broadcasters like the German ZDF and even some celebrities started to embrace this “strange new world”.

Well, I am convinced and I too recommend this new world to anyone, who seriously wants a true alternative to the mass-social-media — and is willing to invest just a little bit more time and effort to “get it”.

LINKS

Still, it would be nice to know earlier in any #migration process about all the resources, which are freely available. Here are some, I remember at the moment:

 — a step-by-step guide of how to join by the official #JoinMastodon

 — look at this video first: https://tilvids.com/w/f747058d-3991-4046-a1c9-29c184daa0ff

…….

 — fediverse Wiki: https://joinfediverse.wiki/Main_Page/Fancy

 — fediverse Quick Start guide: https://joinfediverse.wiki/Welcome_to_the_Fediverse_Quickstart_guide

 — an overview of blocked instances (servers): https://joinfediverse.wiki/FediBlock

…….

here is a quick personal list of some interesting and (I assume) reliable servers:

my new server: https://mastodon.world — run by Ruud from the Netherlands

https://universeodon.com/about — large server with a few VIPs

https://mastodon.social/about — the biggest & original server, run by the German non-profit Mastodon gGmbH

https://mastodon.online/about — the 2nd server from the original founder Eugen Rochko

https://mas.to/about — general & fast

https://climatejustice.social/about — general, but focused more on, well #ClimateJustice

https://fosstodon.org/about — general, but more for tech & open source enthusiasts

https://mastodon.green/about — green climate neutral server, run by Johan Empa from Sweden

https://troet.cafe/about — the largest German (speaking) server

…….

Here are some smaller reliable ones, run by engaged individuals:

https://indieweb.social/about — run by tech writer Tim Chambers

https://toad.social/about , run by investigative US-Journalist Dave Troy

https://spore.social/about — founded by climate activist Eric Holthaus

…….
also interesting:

https://h-net.social/about — run by h-net (not only) for humanities & social sciences scholars

the new https://wikis.world/about — run by & for “Wikipedia enthusiasts”


Who would YOU add? I particularly look for diverse voices and any server / community related to #culture, #CulturalHeritage or #WorldCulture. Please let me know and I will be happy to boost any recommendations.

a possible universal “code of conduct” ?

Last, but not least, I wonder, why there is not a universal “code of conduct” for old & new servers to sign, so that any user would know immediately, if this is a “general” server in the farther fediverse — or a more specialized group with its own rules.

I think, many (new) users would be happy to support such a “code of conduct” (leaning onto the general rules of a civil society). All servers — not only big ones — who are moderated by admins, who understand the powers of discussions, differences and adhere to a tolerant society (which course include the tolerance paradox)… I think, we urgently need one. People need to be able to quickly chose something really reliable & trustworthy.

If you have any ideas or comments about this or other topics in this post, please let me know.

Good Luck with any #migration — see you out there…

my (current) Mastodon handle: @wigbert@mastodon.world

#MastodonMigration, #servermigration, #Twitanic, #RIPtwitter, #twittermigration

from twitter to mastodon? … well, how does this feel like?

“This is the beginning of the end for twitter!” say many and leave — either completely or with a packed bag, while simultaneously opening accounts on Mastodon, counter.social or even starting alternative ideas.

And yes, this is what it feels like — the declining end. A narcissistic egomaniac with arrogant attitude buys a social network and thinks, he can change it “on the fly” without a plan or strategy, because — well, because he can just throw money around and doesn’t care.

But this article is not about him (“whose name will not be spoken”) and not about the much more likely assumptions and background stories, you can find for example here (how @Jack is part of the problem) .

This post is about how it FEELS, that one of my favourite toys is taken away by the rich kid and while most of us cry and feels betrayed, he just doesn’t care. Worse, he may just play with it for a short while, before tossing it away like the spoiled rich brad he is…

Well, it feels like shit. I have used twitter since 13 years on and off, but for most of the time as a “news reader”. Following organisations, journalists, experts and interesting individuals in my Culture & Media bubble. I listened to conversations, heard about events, read about papers, was informed about announcements … and all this within my own choice of niches and with the opportunity to join a discussion, to comment, to share and share with comment (!), especially, when I was liking something.

For me, twitter was a good place — and no, I was not blind and know exactly about all the bad sides, how people got attacked, how racism & antisemitism has always been much too rampant; how activists or people from the LGBTQ community got singled out and placed in the middle of “shitstorms”; how investigative journalists and researchers about the right and neo-fascist movements needed to close their accounts for a while or even change them. Yes, and unfortunately this is now going completely overboard, as the new boss fired the “moderation team”.

Nevertheless, twitter has had its good sides. The quality of direct exchange between people and organizations was often special. The SUS (stumbling upon (interesting) stuff) ratio quite high. You take the app and walk into a town square, where so much is happening, yet you can go into your little corner, have a chat with a few people, turn around and listen for a few moments to the loud tooting politician, before focusing on a news article from a favourite journalist.

Twitter is unrivalled in the directness and speed. As such, it has been quite instrumental in keeping the world informed about so much of the events in the last decade. Not surprisingly, most of the people, who want to share “words” on a daily basis — like journalists and politicians — love twitter for its easy & direct approach to sharing news. And as a user, listener, audience member, I can tune in or not, I can mute or block — and chose carefully, WHO I want to listen to…

Migration ?

So, how can we migrate from this tool? How can we change our too often addictive habits of scrolling through the feed, with its multitude of interesting stuff? Personally, I chose various periods of #digitaldetox, including for example 8 weeks in the summer — and it felt good. But this does not mean, that I would not miss this toy, this tool for fast information.

Even worse, how can I take this group of people and organizations, I am FOLLOWING in my own organized way. Over 10 years of news reader curation would be wasted. I would have to start from scratch, because facebook or LinkedIn for example are much too slow.

Clearly, there is no cure (yet). There is no well-grown alternative. Competition never manifested, because the functioning idea behind twitter would rather fit a non-profit organisation, dedicated to the free (but moderated) exchange of information. Twitter should have turned itself around from a capitalistic business model long time ago and there have been numerous voices suggesting this. The town square and the importance for decent free speech in functioning democracies was and is too important to leave it to a business model, which can not work, because there in no profit in it. It is a community function — not run by any government, but a self-governing, non-profit, morally intact NGO for the benefit of all…

But the last remains of this dream are shattered. The medina with its dozens of squares, hundreds of alleys and thousands of hidden corners will be bulldozed over by a non-caring tycoon, who wants to build a new shiny office-building on top of the rubble.

Yes, it has been a rough ride sometimes. Twitter never really appreciated the incredible amount of sometimes even sophisticated conversations happening in between scientists, journalists, politicians, NGO´s and citizens. This (still) happens in the belly of the beast, often far away from the loud surface, where the trends and outcries are happening. One just had to dig deeper and find ones own corners.

Mastodon ? Fediverse ?

Will there be a new twitter? Will there be a chance for a new global town square network? We will see. For now, we all should prepare for the total closure of our beloved toy maybe even within the next few weeks (worst case scenario), the slow but steady decline & demise … or — I´m a notorious optimist — the small chance of an eventual drop & take-over by some more idealistic leadership.

In any case, many people from the CCI (Creative & Cultural Industries) have already moved to the decentralised Mastodon-network in the Fediverse. (Here is a thread by Jon Worth, how to…) .This new “network” may sounds foreign & strange (as it did to me just a few weeks ago), but at least, it is a chance to save a few behaviours and even more important, save some connections from twitter.

The first steps are the most difficult and I must admit, I have not “tooted” much in the new network yet, but at least I keep the options open. I may soon write in more detail about the new networks, how to migrate and/ or recommend a few servers, which we found after some research and which may be good for the #culture & #CulturalHeritage field for various reasons. Please send me a line, if you KNOW of any specialised server/ instance, which is focusing on art, culture, cultural Heritage, music, dance, etc. — or on Journalists & independent media.

And who knows, what else may be growing in the near future. The micro.blog network for example also connects to the fediverse, as will Project Mushroom…

Good Luck with the beginnings, see you out there.

my Mastodon handle (for now): @wigbert@c.im

updated: #Twitanic & #RIPtwitter

#CultureEuro — a hashtag game — its beginnings & some “rules”

The joy of exchanging tips, facts and information with other like-minded individuals in real-time during one event … this is at the heart of #socialmedia. Add to this the seemingly endless treasure chests of cultural history, heritage and creativity in Europe, mix it with the excitement of discoveries, garnished with a common understanding of diversity in unity — and you may become the essence of #CultureEuro.

With the upcoming #Euro2020 football European championship (moved to 2021 because of Corona), it is time to revive the idea of the #CultureWorldCup from 2018, which started as an idea to escape boring football matches: Discover and learn more about the Culture (!) of the participating nations in that match, at the same time — while we were watching.

the beginnings

The idea was born by a sudden inspiration from a twitter colleague in the German twittersphere Harald Link — @haraldlink as #KulturWM (see the story in German here), but quickly gained traction and people began exchanging cultural tips from the countries, which were playing, even when the games were not boring anymore.

What is your favourite team during the #Euro2020? Do you have also countries, you frequently travel to; places you are in love with; music, you would like to share; literature, you can not do without…?

In 2018, for some countries, famous monuments immediately came to mind, such as the Pyramids or the Sagrada Familia, but we thought they were all too obvious choices and in any case well-known cultural #WorldHeritage — at least for the common culture-savvy readership. So, the hashtags #KulturWM & #CultureWorldCup grew into something more: a challenge to discover something rather unknown — like Carmen Lyra, a writer from Costa Rica, or the art museum in Osaka, Japan. Hidden discoveries were what made #CultureWorldCup as a social media game special. It is a game of discovery and personal preference.

In this spirit, #CultureEuro enters as a friendly game of #CulturalExchange. This is not a competition, but a joint discovery.

some suggested rules

#CultureEuro is of course an open-to-all & non-controlled hashtag — however there are some suggested rules:

- share culture about a country, which is currently playing

- and maybe in the time period before this match — but preferably after all other games are finished

- use the usual hashtag identifier with country codes — e.g.: #TURITA for the opening game Turkey-Italy (a list of the FIFA country codes is here)

- #hashtags: #CultureEuro, #Euro2020, #CultureEuro2020 (German: #KulturEM)

- share culture, which is not all too obvious (e.g.: “Eiffel Tower” for France), but rather hidden gems

- no selfies or self-promotion

- it is all about culture

- respect & tolerance (no politics)

- have fun & enjoy

The last time, a never-ending flow of culture tips made for very exciting reading to follow along or re-read (even if some tips became occasionally repetitive). Also, the game comes with an added bonus: We Cultural Creatives — mostly reluctant to identify with simplistic nationalistic ideas — cleverly used the #CultureEuro hashtag to complement our own soccer enthusiasm. Each football-match gives us the opportunity to do both: step outside the confines of match-watching and engage meaningfully in additional intellectual, creative and audiovisual ways.

We exchange ideas about the “cultural products” — our common cultural heritage. The schedule of the competition artificially limits the choice, but it also provides a framework that keeps our discovery trips just manageable. Already 32 countries offer such a variety of culture that reading the ideas and tips on the Social Wall is hardly manageable.

An overview of the countries and the matches you can find in the official match calendar by UEFA here.

what to share

While the variety of discoveries is progressively limited to a reduced number of countries, it is impressive, how much is to be discovered within them. Take #CulturalHeritage places like the Botanical Garden of the National Palace in Queluz, Sintra in #Portugal (#POR) which received an European Heritage Award in 2018 by EuropaNostra (a great resource).

Maybe you want to share some unique knowledge: ever heard about the late Phil Tanner (1862–1950), a folk singer and storyteller from #Wales (#WAL) — which I recently discovered in this large treasure chest: the digital archives from Europeana.

For more inspiration just think about some of your own favourite music, films, museums, theatres, opera houses, books, painters, sculptors, dance performances, historical buildings, musicians, cultural heritage places, writers …

There is so much discover, once you start digging. Check out the European Film Gateway, where you can find a 9-min documentary from 1949 about the Danish (#DEN) sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844) …

well, in any case …

Enjoy the games AND the #CultureEuro.

Cheerio!

Wigbert Boell



~~~~~~~

Here are two screen shots from 2018

A project of hope, change and economic transformation

“This is what the New European Bauhaus is all about. It is about hope. It is about inspiration. It is about new perspectives. And it’s about concrete actions against climate change.” (Ursula von der Leyen)

The #NewEuropeanBauhaus is off to a good start. After the introduction in September 2020 by the European Commission, enthusiasm and ideas were already flourishing. With the recent conference (April 22 & 23, 2021) the initiative presented itself as a possible driving factor for necessary change from deep inside Europe.

In her welcoming remarks, the Commission president von der Leyen quoted one of the founding fathers of the EU, Robert Schumann: “… solid and deep cultural relations between European countries? That´s how we form the European spirit and all the rest will follow.” Her opening remarks for the online meetings underlined the importance and value of culture. Her speech were met with open ears, as many of the the 8600 participants from 85 countries came from the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) / sector.

But, what is it?

But what actually is the “New European Bauhaus” (NEB)? I mean, really? What is it beyond all the words and explanations, you can find here and here (pdf) ?

There is a tendency in large inter-governmental organisations to develop great ideas, tag them with euphemistic & cool words and then — afterwards, let these ideas get lost in the committees, meetings, sub-projects and in general the mundane everyday life. Yet, this here is different. Now is different. The very real crisis of the Covid19 Virus accelerates the understanding of the necessity to act on the even larger crisis of climate change.

From various (online) conferences and events, I have attended in the last 12 months — including for example the 12th “KulturInvest” Congress or the Europeana conference in November 2020 (which were both centered around the digital & sustainable transformation of the cultural industry) — I can distill a definitive sense of urgency and of a “clear & present danger”. Governments, international organisations as well as the private sector in many industries begin to really understand, that fundamental change is absolutely necessary and in the benefit for all of humankind.

With the introduction of the New European Bauhaus idea, the EU Commission launched an initiative as a free-thinking part of the “European Green Deal” — which, in the real “BAUHAUS spirit” can become a movement — yet this depends not only on the European government bodies, but much more on the public, the citizens and especially the creative & cultural sector. We “Cultural Creatives” have the role to encourage all stakeholders to participate in discussions and exchanges, to develop ideas and projects, to change details in view of a larger transformation — all in the spirit of a “sustainable future”.

“Sustainability is the new beauty” (Zdeněk Hřib, mayor of Prague)

the original Bauhaus changed our “living space”

As much as the original BAUHAUS movement in the 20´s of the last century have been a revolutionary movement, pushed forward by some thinkers, who radically changed, how design, architecture, materials and “living space” was considered (for more on this, see for example: “Bauhaus everywhere”) — as much the NEB aims to open up the minds — to radically rethink our cities, urban living, building materials, mobility and so forth. The NEB is an invitation to artists, engineers, technicians and crafts people.

“The Bauhaus strives to bring together all creative effort into one whole, to reunify all the disciplines of practical art — sculpture, painting, handicrafts, and crafts — as inseparable components of a new architecture.” (Walter Gropius)

Learning from history and the success of the original movement roughly 100 years ago, the NEB can take three “ingredients” or success indicators:

 — a transformative time during & after a crisis with large challenges

 — new materials & radical rethinking old ways of design, planning, architecture, etc

 — interdisciplinarity & working together across all sections

The #NewEuropeanBauhaus aims to “create a better tomorrow” through a fresh & new & open exchange between culture, technology and design about living spaces under the all-encompassing directive #sustainability.

~~~~~~~

a “yes, we can” outlook

So, the discussions at the conference were lively; the panels were substantial and a common enthusiastic wind of change were blowing through the talks and comments. …. This is the same type of optimistic can-do attitude, I have encountered now numerous times in various conversations with many stake holders in the culture field.

The infectious activism of Alison Tickell, founder & CEO of Julie´s Bicycle is as much part of it as the inspiring optimistic viewpoint — transmitted even through the online channels — from Europa Nostra secretary general Sneška Quaedvlieg–Mihailović or Mariya Gabriel, EU commissioner of Culture, Innovation (& more). And even the well-known “climate change professor” John Schellnhuber, founding director of the Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research chimes in the motivating possible perspectives. These standpoints are in no way closing their eyes towards the urgency and magnitude of the climate crisis. On the contrary, they are taking it very seriously — in order to actively contribute to the necessary changes on all levels.

The process and output of the NEB will be yet to see. It is still very much in its infancies — however, the multitude of ideas and suggestions are already widely recognized and its inspiration felt in many sectors. It is the overall hopeful outlook of a great idea, that motivates into action.

If the process keeps its promising momentum, the New European Bauhaus can become a shining example beyond Europe. “The World is watching…” said Maria Atkinson, Chair of the LaforgeHolcim Foundation for sustainable construction during the conference — underlining how much this idea has already excited the global design community and giving rise to hundreds of ideas in many different directions. “The NEB is a global amplifier and we should not underestimate its reach. Endless growth is a model of yesterday. We know, we ned to move to a regenerative society.” she summarized.

The original BAUHAUS tried to not put too much limits on the free thinking creative minds of their students. („apprentices”, as Walter Gropius preferred to call them). There were radical ideas and concepts. Some of the “Meister-Klassen” received vehement opposition from politicians, traditionalists and established “colleagues” — but over time it became clear, that the creativity flourished and paved the way for a “modern” society.

no limits on creativity

The NEB will not have a given structure (yet) — other than a “high-level-think-tank-panel”, which included for example also Francesca Bria, head of the Italian Innovation Fund and the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, a well-known proponent of the use of sustainable materials (like cardboard, wood or bamboo) in architecture.

Beside the think-tank, the NEB is still very much an open process — and will continue to engage the participation of the public. This means, you can join in at any time through a variety of events, papers, contributions, discussions — in “100´s or 1000´s of living labs all over Europe” (Schellnhuber) — but you can also stay on the sidelines and observe the fascinating process to a “new green living” unfold and participate at a later point in the fundamental changes of our societies.

In any case, stay informed and read more about the New European Bauhaus as it continues, as well as occasionally more about the change in “urban landscapes” by subscribing to our newsletter “The (European) Culture Journal” here or follow me on twitter -> @CultureJournal or directly @Wigbert

~~~~~~~

this post was first published here a few days earlier

Der Flaneurist mag diesen Ort. Ein Spaziergang um die Peninusula herum ermöglicht nicht nur den Kontakt mit Bäumen und Wald, sondern auch mit dem Wasser. Der Flaneurist mag es, das Wasser zu sehen und zu spüren. Die Havel fließt hier vorbei, weiter südlich in den Wannsee hinein und dann weiter nach Potsdam.

Der Flaneurist ist gerne an der frischen Luft. Er genießt es, tief einzuatmen. Hier, an der Havel hat er keine Sorgen, dass sich irgendwelche Aerosol-Tröpfchen-Reste noch in der Luft befinden, so wie er es manchmal denkt, wenn er durch sein Stadtviertel schlendert. Nein, hier ist frische Luft — auch wenn er ab und zu anderen Spaziergängern begegnet. Die Luft ist kalt, aber doch noch sehr angenehm.

Er spaziert über den gefrorenen Weg zu dem “Jaczo-Denkmal” und schaut hinauf. Die dunkle fast 10 Meter hohe Säule zeichnet sich gegen den blauen Himmel ab. Schnee liegt auf einigen Teilen. Er betrachtet versunken das besondere Kreuz auf der Spitze, dreht sich dann um und liest nun wohl schon zum 10.ten male die in der Nähe stehende Informationstafel durch.

“Schön…”, denkt er. “Schön, dass die Berliner Forsten und der “Bürger-für-Schildhorn”-Verein dieses Schild hier aufgestellt haben. Der Flaneurist wundert sich nicht. Er weiß, dass es in Deutschland für alles einen Verein gibt.

Er liest die Informationen auf der Tafel, die erklären, warum das Denkmal dort steht. 1845 wurde es im Auftrag von Friedrich Wilhelm IV. nach seiner eigenen Skizze errichtet. Der preußische König wollte damit an die Gründung der Mark Brandenburg erinnern und an die Christianisierung des Slawenfürsten Jaczo von Köpenick.

Wenn auch nicht historisch belegt, so gibt es eine Volkssage, die in verschiedenen Varianten seit dem Mittelalter erzählt wurde. Die Schildhorn-Saga erzählt über das Ende der Kämpfe zwischen dem Fürsten Jaxa (Jaczo) und dem ersten Markgrafen von Brandenburg “Albrecht dem Bären” (Albrecht I.).

“…Auf seiner Flucht vor Albrecht dem Bären soll Jaxa auf seinem Pferd die Havel durchschwommen haben. Als er zu ertrinken drohte und der Slawengott Triglaw sein Flehen um Rettung nicht erhörte, habe er in seiner Not den bislang verhassten Christengott angerufen. Mit Hilfe des Christengottes habe er das rettende Ufer bei Schildhorn erreicht, sich aus Dankbarkeit zum Christentum bekehrt und seinen Schild und sein Horn an einem Baum zurückgelassen. Daher trage die Halbinsel den Namen Schildhorn. …” (wikipedia)

Der Flaneurist betrachtet die Tafel und schaut hinüber auf das andere Ufer nach Gatow. Er weiß, dass dort auch der “Jaczo-Turm” steht. Er schüttelt sich, ihm ist kalt geworden und seine Füße wollen weiter. Mit energischen Schritten geht er zum kleinen Strand an der Nordspitze der Halbinsel hinunter.

Er wird dort kurze Zeit verweilen und auf das Wasser schauen, bevor die Kälte ihn wieder vertreibt. Der Flaneurist nimmt sich vor, diesmal noch etwas zu recherchieren — über die Sage, den Fürsten, den König, die Havel und die geschichtlichen Zusammenhänge. Er weiß, dass er sich in diesen sicherlich länger verlieren wird…

~~~~~

Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts verschmelzen die unterschiedlichen Versionen der Schildhorn-Legende, als sowohl Schriftsteller, als auch Maler das neu errichtete Denkmal zum Anlass nehmen, ihre eigene künstlerische Verarbeitung zu entwerfen. In den seitdem erzählten Versionen klingen Flucht und göttliche Rettung dramatisch:

“Im nachgesandten Regen der Speere und Pfeile, mitten in der Strömung, ruft der Sinkende: «die Götter meiner Väter haben mich verlassen; Gott der Christen rette mich, so bin ich dein ewiglich!»…” August Kopisch (1799–1853)

Der Christengott wird zum Retter und die Bekehrung des Jaczo zu der zentralen Bedeutung dieses Ortes.

„Seinen Schild aber, den der Finger Gottes berührt, ließ er dem Ort, wo das Wunder sich vollzogen hatte. Der Schild des Heiden war ihm zum Glaubensschild geworden.“

Theodor Fontane (1819–1898)

Der Flaneurist ist zufrieden. Er schließt sein Notizbuch und macht seinen Computer aus. Er hat genug Material gesammelt und wird es jetzt aufschreiben. Er hat noch bei schildhornpark.de ein Zitat gefunden, das die besondere Stimmung beschreibt, die er dort empfindet — das Gefühl, warum er in den letzten Jahren immer wieder dorthin zurückgekehrt ist.

„…die Sage selbst wird fortleben von Mund zu Mund, und jeder, der das S c h i l d h o r n besucht und den stillen Zauber auf sich wirken läßt, den die immer wechselnden Bilder von Wald und Fluß, die weißen Segel über dem Wasser und die „Segler in den Lüften“ hier leise zusammenspinnen, der wird, in aufkeimendem romantischen Bedürfnis, sich das Westufer des Flusses plötzlich mit allerhand Gestalten beleben und den Wendenfürsten selbst, den umleuchteten Schild zu seinen Häupten, auf dem gekräuselten Wasser sehen. Ein Lächeln wird dem Traumbild folgen, aber eine dankbare Erinnerung wird ihm bleiben an das märkische Landschaftsbild, das das S c h i l d h o r n vor ihm entrollte.“

(Theodor Fontane: “Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg”, Teil 1, Anhang: “Das Schildhorn bei Spandau”)

Wenn Ihnen diese kurze Geschichte gefallen hat, können Sie den Newsletter “Der Flaneurist” hier abonnieren.

The 9th of November… It is now 31 years after the #FalloftheWall — and I will never forget, as I was there, when the wall came down.

So much hope & joy were shared on that day in Berlin and around the world. The spontaneous city-wide party went on for days and only slowly the difficult tasks of a new reality settled in. Those were crazy days, as change happened so fast — and I remember very well, that I was often thinking, it was maybe too fast. Many careful voices — especially the ones of the original freedom movement in East Germany — were silenced by the overwhelming heavy momentum of promises of “milk & honey”.

The current celebrations of Democrats happening in many cities in the USA — 5 days after the election day — these celebrations have a similar quality of hope & joy like in Berlin in 1989. It is a moment of liberation from a dark time; a time, when people are relieved from a long time of hardship and one becomes certain in that moment, that change happened — one way or another — and there will be no going back into THIS type of dark times anymore.

The relief around the world has been very loud. No wonder, as the “orange man” has not only been the worst US president ever, but also a terrible nightmare for 100s of Millions around the world; for parents, trying to teach their children, that respect and decency matters; teachers, who tried to educate about tolerance and that being a bully is a bad thing; leaders of international organisations, who work on cooperation and shared responsibility on this one planet …

The list can go on much more — but it is clear, the we all are relieved. That we finally can breath again (!) as we do not have to bear a daily flood of at least 15 terrible twitter messages, containing 20 lies, fake news, degrading comments, narcissistic behavior … well, also this list is too long. It is just good that these 4 years have ended.

(that “the fight for democracy” is far from over — also in Europe — is another story)

Today, we can celebrate.

~~~~~

But today, #weremember, too.

We remember the night of November 9th, 1938. The “Kristallnacht” can not be forgotten, as it was a night of destruction of synagogues, shops and lives — a staged uprising by willing bully mobs, organised from the governing Nazi party against fellow German citizens, whose only crime was their religious affiliation. Neighbours and friends, living since many generations inside the same society, fighting side by side in the first world war until 1918.

Exactly 20 years earlier — on November 9th, 1918 — the first German republic, were proclaimed and it was immediately under attack by polarizing forces from right and left. But it were the ultra-conservatives, the right populists and nationalists, who helped the Nazis take power in 1933, purposely assisting the dismantling of a democratic society leading to 80 Millions deaths 12 years later.

November 9th in Germany is a day, where joy and pain, hope and suffering are very close to each other — a day, when we must understand the importance of remembrance and humility before history (which is why on this day, “Stolpersteine” will be cleaned and polished.)

On this day we however also remember the moments of relief and change and can carry it into positive and optimistic work for tolerant and humane societies — for balancing polarising differences — for supporting the irreplaceable value of true democracies.

Corona is not over, as is not the Climate Crisis. The dividing gaps in societies in the USA, Europe and other countries around the world are still increasing — for a large part fired up by social media — but we have to hold on to the moments of joy to keep the optimism and hope.

I often wondered, why people were not able to remember the unique feelings of pure happiness from this cold evening & night in November 1989, but I understood that this is a quality, one has to actively learn: to hold on to good memories — especially when the surrounding reality is dark and bleak. It is not easy, but it can be very helpful and sometimes it is a question of survival.

Like the character Guido in the movie “Life is beautiful” shows, this can seem to be an impossible act of willpower — but every lawyer born in a ghetto, every former refugee-becoming a doctor, every person, who overcame some deep depression proves, that is is possible.

In the words of Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

On November 9th, I always light a candle, symbolising all of the above: remembrance and hope.