Pioneers of a new age
Germany’s Digital Minds – 9 of the 39 men and women who were honoured by the German Informatics Society.
They play a prominent role at universities and corporate headquarters, they work in creative agencies and politics – and what’s more, they are shaping a rapidly changing world. Germany’s Digital Minds are active in a wide variety of fields. The German Informatics Society has honoured 39 of them, describing them as people “who with their inspiring projects, ideas and visions represent Germany’s digital excellence”. And they do so in such widely different places as the metropolis Berlin and the town of Wennigsen (population: 14,000) in Lower Saxony.
Wennigsen’s mayor is Christoph Meineke, who is regarded as “Germany’s first net politician”. He won election with the help of what were then the new social media. Today, he uses digital technology to promote direct citizen participation. Local residents have been able to help shape the redevelopment of their old neighbourhood online, and a project called Klimaversprechen (Climate Pledge) used the Internet to capture municipal carbon reduction data. The example of Wennigsen has long since come to serve as a model, demonstrating that digital change in Germany is not an elitist project but one that spans many areas of life. All the same, without pioneering thinkers who are able to analyse and influence global interrelationships, digital society lacks viable visions.
One of these pioneering thinkers is Anja Feldmann, who teaches computer science at the Technische Universität Berlin. Her research work has, among other things, helped to develop methods for sending web page updates, which have found their way into all Internet browsers and servers. The professor is also a practitioner who has been instrumental in achieving the current speed of the World Wide Web. That creates new media opportunities that benefit movers and shakers like Christoph Krachten. Krachten is the head of Mediakraft Networks, the biggest online TV broadcaster in the German-speaking world, with some 16 million viewers. In a recent interview, Krachten said, “We have a democratisation of the media. Everyone has the chance to produce content and find their own audience.” That sounds like setting off for new shores – and like a future that is being constantly reconceived and reinvented. Germany’s Digital Minds are working on it. ▪
„Deutschlands digitale Köpfe“: www.gi.de/digitale-koepfe.html
The pioneering thinker
“Shouldn’t many web pages also be seen as a public space? This space needs clear boundaries in terms of privacy, but it also offers new opportunities.” This statement by Mercedes Bunz reflects the cultural scientist and journalist’s zeal to exploit the possibilities of digital change – and her informed vigilance against blind optimism.
For Bunz, access to knowledge is a crucial factor for the future – and an issue she is also addressing as director of the Hybrid Publishing Lab at Lüneburg’s Leuphana University. She has experienced the effects of digitisation first-hand, for example while working as media editor for the Guardian in London.
The interpreter
Not many 20-year-olds can call themselves a “management consultant”. Philipp Riederle is one of them. Seven years ago, he launched a technology podcast that continues to enjoy success. The high-school student now gives weekly lectures to managers and organisations that want to understand a world which is still new to them.
The young man’s astounding authority has been aptly described by Berliner Morgenpost: “He could be someone sociologists will be citing 150 years from now when they try to explain what was really happening back then.”
The media manager
When Katharina Borchert talks about her digital addiction, you’re immediately inclined to believe her. The good news is that the legal expert is using her dependence on social media to help shape the process of digital change in journalism. She was already writing about Internet-related issues back in the mid-1990s – her Lyssas Lounge was a well-known German-language blog.
Today, Borchert is managing director of the leading news website Spiegel Online – or, to quote the World Economic Forum, a “young global leader”.
The educator
Everyone can learn from this woman, even robots. At Germany’s prestigious RWTH Aachen University, Sabina Jeschke is working to ensure smooth cooperation between humans and machines. The professor of information management in mechanical engineering is engaged in research on robotic systems that interact flexibly with their environment. Years ago, there were 1,600 students attending a single “traditional” course given by the outstanding teacher, who also emphasises the opportunities offered by massive open online courses.
The serial entrepreneur
He’s the sort of person you’d rather expect to find in Silicon Valley: Oliver Samwer is a tireless business developer, always on the lookout for new digital trends. From their base in Berlin, he and his brothers Marc and Alexander are pursuing ambitious plans: “In 40 years’ time, our Wikipedia entry should point out that no one else worldwide has so systematically built so many Internet companies as we have.” Samwer provokes and polarises, but the fact is, he was the one who launched digital entrepreneurship in Germany and he has long been a leading player in international markets.
Samwer’s startup incubator Rocket Internet has in its portfolio 70 Internet companies that are active in more than 100 countries – from fashion retailer to taxi cab agency. Oliver Samwer looks respectfully at America’s founder culture – and sees Germany’s merits as a business location: “We have lots of hungry young people.”
The product developer
The customer as partner – not just in the classical sales transaction but also in the early creative phase of product development. What should the thermal insulation of a high-tech anorak look like? What features do Japanese consumers expect in a high-pressure cleaner? Which nail polish colours do women currently prefer? Just three questions that Catharina van Delden’s company innosabi investigates with the help of innovative crowdsourcing. Using special-purpose software, innosabi collects information on consumer wishes and assists companies throughout the process of developing a market-ready product.
“The importance of innovation is now receiving greater attention again and is on the radar of senior management,” says the IT entrepreneur. That’s something she’s strongly committed to – also in her work as a member of the Presiding Committee of the digital sector business association BITKOM.
