Wer was worüber sagt beziehungsweise besser nicht sagt, ist strengen Definitionskriterien unterworfen - und führt dazu, dass sich die Verhältnisse in ihr Gegenteil verkehren. Die Reglementierungen im Denkrevier waren noch nie so rigid und die Missbräuche so manifest.

Viele Begriffe unterliegen einem verordneten Gebrauch: Friedensgespräche, Terror, Rassismus, Menschenrechte, Toleranz und so weiter. Haben wir vielleicht zu wenig Toleranz? Alles lässt sich mit diesem Begriff durchsetzen, er ist kaum noch zum Aushalten. Ich will überhaupt nicht tolerant sein, sondern wissen, was gemeint ist, sonst würde Toleranz nichts Anderes als «Klappe zu» heissen.

Wenn sich mit den Begriffen alles Beliebige behaupten lässt, breitet sich am Ende ein voreingenommenes, dienstwilliges Denken aus, das sich über die Sache stellt und keinerlei Einwand hinzunehmen braucht.
Ausschnitt aus: Die Aufklärung ist noch nicht überholt von Aurel Schmidt

Interessanter Artikel von Rebecca Blood im Guardian Unlimited:

A weblog is something fundamentally new. Something no one can quite put their finger on, not yet. And those who try to define the phenomenon in terms of current institutions are completely missing the point.

Consider the average weblog. Maintained by an unpaid enthusiast, this site will be updated perhaps a dozen times a day with links to interesting news stories and entries on other weblogs, accompanied by a few lines - or paragraphs - of commentary. A blogger interested in current events may include links to several accounts of one event, noting differences in tone or detail, another may post the occasional recipe or pictures from a recent trip.

A blogger may have a thousand readers, but more likely a few hundred or a couple of dozen, some of whom will offer comments of their own, right on the site. The weblog is at once a scrapbook, news filter, chapbook, newsletter, and community.

This is not passive news consumption. Neither is it broadcasting. The average blogger has time to surf the web, but no resources to report stories. Some bloggers will follow a news story to the end, some may lose interest after a few days. Commentary will range from the fully-formed to the random blurt and can freely mix the public and the personal.

All this represents something new: participatory media. And it matters. Not because of its resemblance to familiar institutions, but because of its differences from them.

Weblogs are just too varied, too idiosyncratic, to fit into an existing box. Industry analysts might call this disruptive technology because weblogs have changed personal publishing so profoundly that the old rules no longer apply. We are at the beginning of a new age of online publishing - and I predict that this generation of online pamphleteers is just the first wave.

Hier weiterlesen beim Guardian Unlimited : Rebecca Blood: The revolution should not be eulogised

Microsoft lanciert nun doch die NEWS-Watch,......

After months of delays, Microsoft said that a line of Internet-linked watches will hit the market in mid-January. The devices, developed by Suunto and Fossil, will be fed news headlines, stock quotes and sport scores wirelessly.

"We worked really hard to make it 'glanceable information,' " said Jeff Bruneau, product manager with Fossil. "You glance at your watch to see the time, now you can see a news item as well."

Fossil's watches will cost $180 to $200, and require a $10 monthly subscription to Microsoft's MSN Direct service. Buyers can visit the MSN site to customize the information they will receive.

One Fossil model is designed to look like Dick Tracy's famous two-way wristwatch. Two-way radio is not included - but the watch will flash faux messages from "the chief" and "Tess" through the day.

*amkopfkratz*,...... Wer braucht sowas ??

[Via The New York Post: Web-Ready Wristwatch Due In Jan]