279

Stars and Bar Code Galaxies

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

He who is without shame, all the world is his. At the end of May US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, in one of those speeches worth casting in bronze, stated gravely at a press conference that, “US control of space is under threat from rogue states and terrorist groups which could attack our satellites […]

278

Quo vadis, Europe?

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Put your head together with another thousand and what belongs to the others belongs to you In the eighties the debate over how to build a united Europe, one of the grandest attempts at political design that the last few decades have seen, was dominated by expressions such as “economic harmony” and “structural adjustments”. Phrases […]

277

Why I am a globaliser

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Those who arrive are never late Genoa has added one more bead, martyr included, to the rosary of demonstrations organised by the inaccurately named anti-globalisation movement. Once again, the fury of events has clouded the basic issues. But we must not lose sight of these basic issues, for if we do we will find ourselves […]

276

Internet Universities

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

When the shepherds argue you’ll find out where the cheese is Despite all the media coverage about university summer schools, one recent event received very little media attention and seemed to come and go almost unannounced. This was the “Universidad de Verano Campus-Ti, Ciencia y Tecnología” (The University Summer School -IT – Information Technology), held […]

275

The Old Economy Isn’t Working

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

If you think only about where you’re going you’ll forget where it is you have been. If, as neo-liberal thinkers maintain, the market knows how to respond correctly to the signals it gets, assigning resources where needed, satisfying demands and regulating prices so that intervention is made unnecessary, then things are looking great for the […]

274

The Virtual Room

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Doing and undoing is the way to learn While, on the one hand, public perception regarding the Net is still focussed on the crisis within Internet companies, on the other, there is growing concern about how to apply this technology to areas which have not as yet paid it sufficient attention or discovered how best […]

273

The Network Nobody Asked For (*)

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Don’t boast about your gains; don’t remember your losses The air is still redolent with the aftermath of protests against the suspended World Bank meeting which was to be held in Barcelona and we have once again been enveloped in the rhetoric of the so-called anti-globalisation movement. As I have said before, some of the […]

271

Creatures from the Past

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

There is no rain if the wind doesn’t look for it In the 80s, the most frequent use of the word global –not globalisation– was in relation to the natural world and the changes scientists began to detect in the environment due to human intervention. These changes were referred to as “global” because they affected […]

270

Einstein’s Globalisation

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Every wineskin smells of the wine it holds The suspension of the World Bank’s Annual Conference on Economic Development which was to be held in Barcelona from the 25 to 27 June 2001, is the latest episode in a series of confrontations experienced in various world capitals wherever the World Bank tries to show it […]

269

The Semantic Web

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

A Deck of Aces Human languages, naturally enough, are intended for human consumption. The digital language of zeros and ones, the “unique language” as we have previously dubbed it in this space, is meant to be understood by machines. Between the two there lies a vast region brimming with enormous possibilities: the language that will […]

268

Foreign Culture with a Local Flavour (*)

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

We put our tongues where the tooth hurts the most The Babel that is the Net, although it is not quite ten years old yet in its public dimension, has already generated a flood of philosophising, in books, essays, conferences and, occasionally, even official policy statements, dealing with the fate of languages –and cultures — […]

267

Three Languages

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Better to prepare for the future than argue about the past Relationships between the languages we use on the Internet and the cultures they represent are becoming more and more complex. Many societies, including our own, feel that their future as cultural entities and the preservation of the most characteristic features of their identity, depend, […]

266

They Just Don’t Get It

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Nobody’s says they’re doing fine without adding “for the moment” Last week I had the pleasure of attending one of those events that seem to go against all current trends but which, nevertheless, illustrate the rich diversity of the world we live in –something our opulent industrialised world perspective makes it all too hard for […]

265

Back with a Vengeance

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Even if I’d like to, I can’t sleep and keep an eye on the threshing floor at the same time The hangover caused by the so-called “New Economy Crisis” is manifesting itself in all sorts of strange ways. At a series of conferences and forums over the last three months, many of them crawling with […]

264

The Talent Laboratory

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Those that walk with honey get some stuck on them This week I had the privilege of participating in a unique, extraordinary and strange event: The 5th International Education Congress (5º Congreso Internacional de Educación) held in Córdoba, Argentina, from 18 to 22 April. What made it unique was the impressive list of speakers, 18 […]

263

The more you get networked, the better

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Take your mules to the market, it’s much harder to sell them if they’re hidden away The debate on knowledge management that goes hand in hand with the growth and density of the Information Society (or Knowledge Society – but that’s another bone of contention) is still largely bound to premises from the Industrial Society. […]

262

Learning in Moderation

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Taking things to heart gets things done On the Internet, as one would expect with an open architecture network of this kind, we can all “see each other”. Moreover, we see one another as numbers, 0’s and 1’s (hence the joke about the two mutts sitting in front of the computer saying, “The advantage of […]

261

Woody’s Friend

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Even cats want shoes One of the most spectacular changes brought about by the networked society is the de-localisation of information and knowledge for decision-making, learning, organising work, developing projects or just simply enjoying one’s leisure time. Before, this information was guarded within the walls of organisations themselves (jealously protected from prying eyes), under the […]

260

There’s No Net Like Your Own Net

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

What can one expect from hands that don’t give? “Where can I find reliable, quality information that interests me?” “What search engine do you use?” “How can I find out who knows what, and get them to transmit it to me?” These three questions are possibly the most frequently asked by internauts, as they surf […]

259

Cultural Changes

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Fame is inflated reality Things are changing. New information technology, the Internet, the digital economy. What a tidal wave! It’s obvious that we have to change too. I have to change. So, I buy the latest gadget. I plug it in and, after a hiccup or two, it works. I get myself an e-mail address, […]

258

The Networks of Life

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

What you don’t know, you shouldn’t say According to the media, the Stock Market and the big banks, the New Economy is going down the drain fast, but it is, nonetheless, a fascinating spectacle. Dot.coms are tumbling down like autumn leaves, some of them the very symbols of the euphoria we have experienced over the […]

257

The Confederacy of Conspirators

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Pardon one offence and you encourage many Subcommander Marcos of the Zapatista Front of National Liberation (EZLN), who is leading the Peace March of indigenous peoples on Mexico City, is the living incarnation of globalisation. With a discreet microphone over his balaclava, a mobile phone on one side of his cartridge belt and a transmitter […]

257

Internet and Evolution

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Many people together means something’s on the move So here we are then. We’ve got the human genome, we’re learning to juggle those genes, we’re putting more and more machines both inside and outside our bodies, we have a culture with a considerable capacity for changing our environment, from the cells within us to our […]

255

The Genome Networks

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

There is none so blind as them that would not see Ever since the end of the 80s, people have been predicting that the XXI century will be the Biotechnological Age (see Jeremy Rifkin, amongst others) and the Information Age too (as Manuel Castells explains in his monumental trilogy and we on this electronic magazine […]

254

Angels with Digital Wings

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

The servant is forced while the server is pleased As though there wasn’t enough going on already, the Internet has gone ahead and given birth again. Literally. The resulting cocktail from an exponential growth in the power of computation, the Net’s growing capacity for transmission, and greater accuracy in artificial intelligence and micro-electromechanical systems are […]

253

Global Meat

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Whether it fits or not I’ll make you get into it Let’s go back to the Mad Cow question after our brief look at it last week (see editorial “Poor Cows”). Now that the respective globalisation conferences in Davos and Porto Alegre have drawn to a close, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to consider […]

252

Poor Cows

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Men err, donkeys bray The crises unleashed by Mad Cow Disease and the depleted uranium used by NATO in Kosovo have a number of elements in common, almost all related to key aspects of the Information Society. First and foremost, apart from the way that European governments –and the US in part– have dealt with […]

251

Compulsory Digital Literacy

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

We live not on what we ingest but what we digest As Marshall McLuhan says, the moveable type press invented by Gutenberg changed the surroundings of our world completely and unexpectedly: it created the public. Or, to be more specific, it created an illiterate public. The invention of the printing press drew a dividing line […]

250

Five Little Wolves (*)

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Every drop of rain has a place to fall en.red.ando’s “+5 on the Internet” party turned out to be not just a celebration of the first five years of the magazine’s existence, but also a homage to five different ways of viewing the Net which have stood the test of time. The debate reunited a […]

249

The year of living hectically

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

What’s done is done. For what still has to be done, advice Five years have passed since en.red.ando’s first editorial. I could just repeat many of the things I said last year this time as we entered our fifth. However, looking back, 2000 has been, without doubt, the richest and most intense period in the […]

248

The S.24/7/p.a.

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Busiest men find the most leisure time The last few days of 2000 were peppered with the message hijacked from the tumultuous end of 1999, for, according to our particular calendar, we are just entering a new century and starting a new millennium. And, as so often happens on these occasions, although this time it’s […]

247

Santa Claus was an atheist (A Christmas Tale, 2000)

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

The rain never satisfies everybody The first message was received with amazement by many and some disappointment by others. “Please don’t send any more Christmas cards. Your personal data has been included in the http://happychristmas.english.fest. page (*). Visit this page, look for your name, add the list of people you would like to wish a […]

246

The Critical Mass of Experience (*)

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

To remember is to regress, and what one has experienced, live it again If it’s December in Barcelona, it’s time for Cornella and the Internet. For the fifth consecutive year, our friend Alfons made this month a must for a dozen or so of us to publicly reflect on the future of the Internet ….. […]

245

Globalise, that something may remain

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Build the enemy who flees a bridge of silver The debate on the effects of globalisation, which is becoming more and more radical and not always very clear, is attracting a strange bunch of disciples and detractors. Last month in Seattle, at one of the world’s most important annual computer conferences, Bill Gates, president of […]

244

The New Media’s 6 W and 2 H questions

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

He who has a house of straw, fears fire Is journalism in a state of crisis? If we take into account what experts and representatives of the sector are saying at the conferences and congresses that abound at the moment, the answer is a definite yes. From the media being increasingly concentrated in the hands […]

243

The Multimedia Journalist

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Those who take too much, don’t get much done Mark Hinojosa is Associate Managing Editor of the Chicago Tribune. Founded in 1849, it is one of the US’ most prestigious newspapers. Mark is a great believer in “media convergence”, the new job definition of journalists in the electronic age. The idea is that journalists should […]

242

The Languages of Digital Content

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Those who don’t go for a swim, don’t drown in the sea The European Union has a plan for arresting present US domination in the networked world which they hope to have up and running by March 2001. The so-called eContent programme of the Directorate General of the Information Society plans, in the first place, […]

241

Ortega y Gasset’s ideas on technology

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

An “able” generation can attain what centuries without one could not José Ortega y Gasset This week the International Congress “Arte, educación y sociedad en Ortega y Gasset” (1883-195,5) (“Art, Education and Society in Ortega y Gasset” (1883-1955) is being held in Madrid to commemorate the 70th aniversary of the publication of three fundamental works […]

240

The Maturing of Citizen Networks

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Everything is difficult before it becomes easy The First Global Congress of Community Networks(Global CN 2000) brought a colourful and varied multitude of people from all over the planet to Barcelona. The meeting turned out to be one of the most fascinating exercises the Internet has to offer these days, namely showing us that the […]

239

A Year under the Volcano

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Learn young, learn fair When Ramana Rao displayed Yahoo on screen to participants at enredando’s I One Day Conference, it brought home very clearly to us all that the road to information management is a long and winding one – and that the journey has only just begun. Ramana, Inxight’s energetic and cultured vice-president, had […]

238

True to our roots

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Those that want to kiss her, will look for her face en.red.ando’s I One Day Conference, which will be taking a look at Next Generation Information Technology, is being held in Barcelona this Friday 27 October. It is a unique meeting both as far as its subject matter and the circumstances under which it is […]

237

The Ethics of the New Media

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

I took in the mouse in my hole and it became heir Recent protests in Seattle, Washington and Prague against the process of globalisation, in general, and the policies of international financial and commercial organisations in particular, demonstrate how much the Internet has been revitalised as an instrument of social change. Ironically enough, the most […]

236

From Hunan to Stockholm

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

The degree of interest knows no limits Five years ago, when the Web was just starting to make its public appearance, a company began to distribute a free newspaper on the underground in Stockholm. Not long after further editions were launched in Göteborg and Malmö. Today it is the most widely read newspaper in Sweden. […]

235

Daddy, ask me something

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Love conquers all in the face of all odds In the previous editorial (see “The Virtual Super-tutor”) we said that in the field of education “creating an Internet curriculum is a job waiting to be done”. Who the main players for getting such a task underway should be, is another matter still to be decided. […]

234

The Virtual Super-tutor

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

If you want to be wise, buy an old man I have just come back from taking part in Inforensino 2000, the highly interesting IV Jornadas de Informática Aplicada a la Educación (IV Workshop on Computer Science Applied to Education) held in the Spanish city of Lugo. Unfortunately, to a large extent it resembled other […]

233

Designing Communication Online

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Firefighters don’t stand on each others hoses en.red.ando¹s Masters in Digital Communication was launched at respective ceremonies in Madrid and Barcelona last week. It will be imparted in Spanish via the Internet as from November. After a long period of preparation, we have designed a course which we hope brings together all the accumulated experience […]

232

The Landing of “Brainpeace”

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

You don’t know anything until others know you know The world’s three major cell phone manufacturers have agreed to label their devices according to radiation emission levels. So when we use mobile phones from now on we will know how large the electromagnetic field transmitted to our bodies is. Whether the gadget fries our neurons […]

231

The Intelligent Web

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

The devil lurks behind the cross We shouldn’t be surprised if, very shortly, someone – an expert on the environment, for instance – gets a message that goes something like this, “We have detected that there is insufficient information online about decision-making related to crises caused by catastrophes in densely populated areas. You are an […]

230

Designer Habitats

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Don’t believe the person who is coming from the fair, but the one who is going back to it The Net is about to turn into what is, in reality, artificial nature, with all the complexities that one would expect from an environment of that kind. This means a nature composed of electronic habitats which […]

229

The Land of the Rising Net

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

When you ask for something, make sure you ask for a lot This summer’s big news event so far, apart from the tragedy of the nuclear submarine “Kursk”, took place in Maguncia, Germany, where a group of people, skilfully manipulated by the German government, managed to pay a billion and a half more than they […]

225

Ants in the Net

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

People who stand still don’t go anywhere Ants have been with us for 80 million years. Theirs is the story of the colony and colonisation’s unstoppable race for success. Their 10,000 species have populated almost every corner of the earth. Only some icy regions of the planet and an island or two have escaped them. […]

224

Internet’s Three Xs

Luís Ángel Fernández Hermana - @luisangelfh

Words are but wind, but seeing is believing The Internet ranks already as the world’s 18th economic power after Switzerland and before Argentina. The two most thorough studies of the “New Net Economy” so far, the first by the University of Texas —Measuring the Internet Economy— and the second by the OECD —Outlook 2000 on […]