Exploring Digital Spheres
32 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 months ago -Join us on a journey into the realms of our digital society: In the new season of Exploring Digital Spheres our SET-project research team travels to five different countries on three continents in order to explore the intersection of sustainability and digitalisation and talk to local experts about their endeavours.
In the first season of the podcast you got to know HIIG researchers and their diverse research backgrounds. We asked them how our digital society works and what its future might look like. Every other episode, the researchers entered into a dialogue with other digital mavericks!
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Episodes
S02 E05: Exploring Mexico’s sustainable entrepreneurs fight for climate change
May 17, 2023 08:11 - 39 minutes - 31.5 MBIn the last episode of Season 2 we visit Mexico City to explore the potentials and challenges of sustainable digital entrepreneurship to mitigate climate change.
S02 E04: Exploring Indonesia's digital solution for rainforest protection
May 04, 2023 09:00 - 38 minutes - 31.3 MBHow can digital skills and technologies be trained and implemented in remote regions where the rainforest is of particular importance for local development?
S02 E03: Exploring Kenya's gig work opportunities
April 27, 2023 09:00 - 34 minutes - 28 MBDigital platforms are fundamentally changing the world of work. While the platform economy opens immense opportunities for flexible, gainful and convenient entrepreneurship, the precarious livelihoods of workers and service providers often remain unaddressed.
S02 E02: Exploring Kosovo's sustainable spatial developments
April 24, 2023 08:48 - 38 minutes - 31.2 MBIn this episode we shine a light on the transformation of a former military camp into the Innovation and Training Park (ITP) Prizren in Kosovo, an aspiring hub for innovation, economic development and digital transformation in the city and wider region. We discuss the connection between spatial development, innovation and digitalisation at the ITP with local experts.
S02 E01: Exploring Benin's rising digital economy
April 04, 2023 08:40 - 32 minutes - 26.4 MBAt the SENIA, Benin’s first AI conference, our team had the opportunity to talk to local experts about the possibilities of digitalisation for the improvement of the agricultural sector and its working conditions. Christian Grauvogel, Marie Blüml and Georg von Richthofen travelled to Benin in July 2022 to discuss the opportunities and risks of applying Artificial Intelligence in sustainable entrepreneurship in Benin and Francophone West and Central Africa. They had the opportunity to intervi...
"CoRisk Index"
June 02, 2020 15:19 - 18 minutes - 15.1 MBIn a collaborative project researchers from Oxford and Berlin developed an index as the first economic indicator of industry-specific risk assessments related to Covid-19, based on financial disclosures of US companies. The index can provide valuable real-time information about economic risks associated with the pandemic, and it has already been featured in Oxford University News, the Washington Post, and the Wirtschaftswoche. In today's special episode we welcome the data scientists Dr. Fab...
Digital Momentum
March 09, 2020 14:34 - 22 minutes - 18 MBHow do you build Digital Momentum? How do you stay visible? As the music industry is changing, big music labels are reinventing their branding strategy. This podcast explores the resulting consequences in terms of power-relations and digital flows. Lorenz Grünewald-Schukalla is a project manager in the project team Third Engagement Report, where he deals with questions of civic engagement in the digital world. Besides that he is researching the digital mediatization of music business and mu...
AI technology for healthcare
February 06, 2020 12:18 - 25 minutes - 20.5 MBHIIG researcher Jessica Schmeiss is talking to Julia Hoxha about the collection and monitoring of medical data. Julia Hoxha is a former postdoctoral research scientist in Medical Informatics at Columbia University and co-founder and CEO of Zana, an AI-based health assistant. It is available via app, wearables and a platform, that can directly answer questions about health via voice input and enables continuous monitoring of medical factors for both patient and doctors. The episode is part of ...
Human rights online
December 10, 2019 09:47 - 23 minutes - 18.6 MBWolfgang Schulz studied law and mathematics and is now an expert on media law and algorithmic decision taking. He is the director of the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) and the Hans-Bredow-Institute in Hamburg and also advises the European Council on intermediaries – such as social media platforms, search engines and micro blogging services – and human rights. In this episode, he explains the difficulties of regulating intermediaries that increasingly can be seen as hybrids...
Automised paper work
November 26, 2019 13:31 - 21 minutes - 17.4 MBHIIG researcher Jessica Schmeiss interviews Uli Erxleben (Hypatos) on how exactly the startup uses deep learning automation technology for document processing and how this frees up some of our time. The episode is part of the "Demystifying AI in Entrepreneurship" project at HIIG.
Digital civil disobedience
November 12, 2019 15:54 - 23 minutes - 19.2 MBWhat do Edward Snowden, Aaron Swartz and Phil Zimmermann have in common? This episode is all about whistleblowers, activists and other people deliberately breaking the law for a specific ideological conviction. What are the parallels of todays' digital civil disobedience to for example the civil rights movement in the US, Ghandi, Rosa Parks or the anti-nuclear energy protests in Germany. Well, and what's new? Theresa Züger, researcher at HIIG, talks with Wouter about her research insights ...
Autonomous weapons
October 29, 2019 09:00 - 41 minutes - 33.5 MBSuppose they gave war and nobody has to come. The idea of autonomous weapons is tempting for some and troubling for most, because it raises many ethical issues. Yet, what exactly do we mean when saying 'autonomous weapon systems' (AWS) – does it mean we're really taking the human out of the loop? Thomas C. Bächle and Frank Sauer met at HIIG to talk about the question of how to regulate these systems, how China or the UK deal with this, what the future of weapons looks like, what the CCW doe...
Organised stupidity
October 14, 2019 13:00 - 20 minutes - 16.3 MBAre universities the best option we have? In this episode, Benedikt Fecher and Wouter talk about this question to discuss what research actually is and how we create knowledge in our society today. Science is not only about research and education, but more and more about trying to bridge the gap between scientific results and society. Also they speak about increasing science's actual impact on society and HIIG's recent project "twentyforty", an essay competition on the future of digital soc...
Welches Problem löst eigentlich Digitalisierung?
October 02, 2019 10:13 - 37 minutes - 30.5 MBIn dieser Folge geht es um die großen Fragen unserer Zeit: die Komplexität in der modernen Gesellschaft, wie Facebook Facebook geworden ist und ob es überhaupt vorstellbare Alternativen zur Digitalisierung gibt. Die digitale Technologie ist jung, aber das grundlegende Problem, dass sie zu lösen versucht, ist alt. Das ist die These, die Armin Nassehi in seinem Buch „Muster“ formuliert. HIIG-Direktorin Jeanette Hofmann diskutiert mit Nassehi, worin dieses Problem genau besteht und ob wir Digit...
Governing the internet
September 17, 2019 08:15 - 19 minutes - 16.1 MBHIIG researcher Christian Katzenbach speaks about the responsibility of platforms and the content that they host, regulative mechanisms as well as the widely discussed EU directive on copyright better known for its proposed upload filter and Article 13. Also in the conversation with Wouter Bernhard, they discuss Zuckerberg's hearing in the US as well as the role of AI for content moderation.
Holding internet companies accountable
September 03, 2019 11:36 - 24 minutes - 19.7 MBBy ranking the world’s most powerful internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) works to promote freedom of expression and privacy on the internet. Nathalie Maréchal, Senior Research Analyst at Ranking Digital Rights, talked with Frédéric Dubois about the wrong doings of internet and telecommunications companies such as Facebook, Apple or Deutsche Telekom. Learn about how RDR is rethinking how to hold companies accountable for human rights harms associat...
For the good of the internet
July 02, 2019 08:51 - 22 minutes - 18.4 MBThe internet is currently built of more than 60.000 autonomous systems. Without connectivity among those, the internet simply doesn't exist. Associated HIIG researcher Uta Meier-Hahn looks in her research at the question, how network operators, such as Netflix, Youtube and Deutsche Telekom jointly provide internet connectivity. Since they constantly have to negotiate whether to cooperate or compete with each other, a very particular form of connectivity economics exists. In this episode, Wo...
(K)I verstehen?
June 04, 2019 13:35 - 33 minutes - 27.2 MBEin automatischer Staubsauger überfährt eine Katze. Ist der Hersteller oder der Besitzer Schuld? Luhmann-Schüler und Systemtheoretiker Dirk Baecker meint: Vielleicht einfach die Katze? Mit Thomas C. Bächle spricht Dirk Baecker über „Künstliche Intelligenz“ und wie wir die derzeitigen Entwicklungen aus systemtheoretischer Sicht verstehen können. Schlussendlich geht es um die Frage, was Intelligenz überhaupt ist und was die systemtheoretische Forschung leisten kann.
GDPR revisited
May 21, 2019 09:00 - 22 minutes - 17.9 MBThis week its the General Data Protection Regulation's (GDPR) first anniversary. Wouter speaks with HIIG-researcher and data protection expert Max von Grafenstein on the difficulties of data protection and his research on the innovation potential of the GDPR.
Advertising: Just statistics?
May 07, 2019 08:04 - 18 minutes - 14.6 MBOnline advertisement companies have been using statistical models for long. HIIG researcher Jessica Schmeiss interviews Marcel Pirlich (Adspert) on how exactly the startup uses AI technologies in online marketing and how this results in a successful business model. The episode is part of the "Demystifying AI in Entrepreneurship" project at HIIG.
African digital entrepreneurship
April 16, 2019 12:07 - 20 minutes - 16.3 MB"Silicon Savannah", "Africa is rising" – much attention is directed at Africa as a continent of economic opportunity and growth. In this episode, HIIG researcher Nicolas Friederici stresses that relative to the hype and hope, things are not that easy and we shouldn't limit our focus on how to copy silicon valley models. The research presented in this episode is part of the ERC-funded Geonet project by the Oxford Internet Institute (check the show notes for more information on the project).
Smart Citizens
March 26, 2019 07:00 - 25 minutes - 20.4 MB"People think it’s inherent of the internet that you lose your privacy, but it’s not, it’s based on the business model of those companies.” – Marleen Stikker speaks about how the fairphone was invented, what fablabs are for and how we eventually should get involved ourselves to decide what to do with disruptive technology. This is an episode for smart citizens!
Demystifying AI
March 05, 2019 08:00 - 21 minutes - 17.5 MBWhen did you hear of the last German Facebook, Uber or Amazon? Today’s episode is on the question why Germany tends to find it difficult to make the translation between researching AI and creating a successful AI startup. We’ll be speaking with Jessica Schmeiss, doctoral researcher at the Humboldt Institute. Her research focusses on digital entrepreneurship and in trying to make AI less of a ‘black box’.
Ich, einfach außerordentlich
February 19, 2019 15:26 - 36 minutes - 29.5 MBWie kann dein Selfie noch origineller sein? Der Versuch, immer und überall authentisch und unverwechselbar zu sein, ist keine Modeerscheinung. Das meint zumindest der Soziologe Andreas Reckwitz. Mit HIIG-Forscher Thomas Christian Bächle diskutiert er, wie neben der Standardisierung der modernen Gesellschaft die Einzigartigkeit von Subjekten und Kollektiven im gegenwärtigen Fokus steht.
Smart bureaucracy?
February 05, 2019 09:05 - 18 minutes - 15 MBChristian Djeffal talks about how artificial intelligence can help public administrations cut costs and resources, and re-allocate them to be of better service to its citizens.
Bad content, good content
January 22, 2019 13:45 - 22 minutes - 18.2 MBJulia Krüger is deeply convinced that we need to create alternative moderation schemes to uphold liberal values. Together with HIIG-researcher Amélie Heldt, she discusses the different methods of moderation, the role of AI yet to come, and what she personally hopes for.
Squeaky-clean internet
January 08, 2019 11:46 - 17 minutes - 14.2 MBWouter met Martin Riedl in the middle of Berlin to discuss how platforms keep the internet "clean" from undesirable content – but what is undesirable? And what does it mean for moderators when they click through thousand of graphic images?
Are we colonised by data?
December 18, 2018 08:00 - 26 minutes - 21.6 MBNick Couldry has recently coined the term 'data colonialism' in order to highlight continuities from colonialism’s historic appropriation of resources to today's datafication of everyday life. He visited us in Berlin for his lecture "Colonised by data". HIIG researcher Thomas Christian Bächle met with Couldry – who once was his professor at Goldsmiths College in London eleven years ago – for a talk on the digital society. In this episode, we learn about Couldry's very own media rituals – cele...
Rithm of algo
December 04, 2018 05:00 - 20 minutes - 16.7 MBIn this episode, Wouter dives deeper into the universe of algorithms in order to clean up the mess of buzz words we are confronted with on a daily basis. Did you also wonder why certain videos pop up in your timeline that seem most unlikely you ever wanted to see them? How do computers recognise objects and animals on photos? In an insightful conversation with Wouter, HIIG director Björn Scheuermann tells us about his research as a computer scientist and in how far he trusts algorithm based m...
Fake news and elections
November 20, 2018 07:00 - 22 minutes - 18 MBAmélie Heldt speaks with Clara Iglesias Keller about the regulation of fake news in times of election campaigns. Both have been analysing recent examples such as new preliminary injunction procedures or data protection rules. Clara explains how publicly accessible phone numbers on Facebook have allegedly been used during the 2018 presidential elections in Brazil to spread fake news and political propaganda through WhatsApp. Furthermore, the two speak about the dissemination of false informati...
Filtered away
November 06, 2018 07:00 - 7 minutes - 6.25 MBA conversation with Rike Maier on the use and mis-use of remixes on the internet. How does one regulate the immeasurable amount of material uploaded every minute and do filters do a good job of keeping copyright infringements at bay?
Trailer: Exploring digital spheres
November 02, 2018 12:27 - 1 minute - 895 KBWe find ourselves surrounded by buzzwords like Big Data, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence and it becomes ever more difficult to understand the world that we are currently building. This is Exploring Digital Spheres, a brand new podcast produced by the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. My name is Wouter Bernhardt and I’m very excited to announce this podcast all about our digital society.