Open Password – Tuesday April 26, 2022
#1059
Hans-Jürgen Manecke – Information infrastructure – New federal states – Willi Bredemeier – East German information science – SED – Vladimir Ilyich Lenin – Technological backwardness – Online technologies – Password – International colloquium on information and documentation – Cold War – Reunification enthusiasm – Infobase – Industry association – Takeovers – Information specialists – Information centers – Funding and regional policy for the new federal states – Outsourced workbenches – Centralization – Resentment – Displacement of East German managers in the public sector
Postbank Digital Study 2022 – Smartphone – Usage – Banking App – Thomas Brosch – Desktop PC – Digital Natives – Digitization of Social Contacts – Smart TV
FH Potsdam – Young information scientists – BRAGI – Student theses in the professional fields of archives, libraries, information and data management – Angela Schreyer – Hannelore Rüger – GBI Genios – Schäffer-Pöschel – eBooks
Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Manecke January 17, 1935 – April 6, 2022 – Say what is: How the information infrastructure in the new federal states collapsed – By Willi Bredemeier
Postbank Digital Study 2022
Smartphone: Internet tool for Germans – Digital Natives: 86 hours per week on the Internet – The digitization of social contacts
III.
FH PotsdamThe young information scientists introduce themselves
IV.
GBI geniuses
Schäffer-Pöschel becomes a partner for eBooks
Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Manecke
January 17, 1935 – April 6, 2022
Say what is: Like the information infrastructure
sank in the new federal states
By Willi Bredemeier
The information scientist Hans-Jürgen Manecke (formerly TU Ilmenau) died in April in Tauche (Brandenburg) at the age of 87. It is not possible for me to give a final assessment of Manecke. But I would like to describe how I met him, how we worked together and what we learned together.
Before 1989, the West German and East German information industries developed largely insulated from one another at the behest of the then SED government. As it later became clear, scientists in the East with integrity, such as Hans-Jürgen Manecke, upheld professionalism in information science research and teaching, even if they had to decorate their publications with one or another Lenin quote for alibi reasons. Teaching and training in the East certainly kept pace with teaching and training at West German universities. On the other hand, the technological gap in the GDR and the entire Eastern Bloc grew larger every year in the 1980s. This was particularly true for the new online technologies.
The newsletter Password was founded at the beginning of 1986 and I was the editor from the first issue onwards. Nevertheless, in 1989 I knew nothing about my East German colleagues. But I took the first chance to get to know her and applied for a visa to attend the annual International Colloquium on Information and Documentation in Oberhof (which this time took place in Erfurt). When the visa simply wouldn’t come, I drove off with two other information professionals and was more or less waved through at the border by the People’s Police – the Eastern Bloc was in a state of dissolution and the GDR as a political system was in decline. We had barely crossed the border when the typical GDR smell of lignite hit our noses. We were worried about how we would be received in Erfurt. After all, we were in the age of anti-capitalist indoctrination and the foothills of the Cold War. But when we entered the meeting room, we were warmly welcomed by our East German colleagues, even though the entire information science elite from other Eastern Bloc countries seemed to be present. We spent the following conference evenings celebrating together.
The colloquium ended with Manecke inviting me to Ilmenau for Easter. Shortly before they lost control of the country, the SED closed the last private accommodation in Ilmenau. But Manecke put my family and me up in a workers’ dormitory.
In doing so, we were anticipating a phase that spread throughout the country as a result of the West-East German rapprochement and which can be described as “reunification enthusiasm”. I traveled to the GDR several times in the following months and soon had the impression that I had fully gotten to know the multipliers in the information scene there. When the annual meeting of the West German information industry, the Infobase (plus other specialist conferences), was approaching in May 1991, the enthusiasm and joy in each other between West and East continued to prevail. So I was asked several times to name East German information professionals who they would like to support with travel and overnight stays in Frankfurt.
But for the first time I also noticed indications that the prevailing euphoria was threatening to overturn. Blue-eyed as I was back then, I had imagined the “reunification” of the West German and East German information industries in such a way that there would be a mutual exchange of experiences in a mutual learning process. Password would have supported such a process with all its might. However, the representatives of the industry association rejected all talks with East German associations, even those that had just been founded and therefore had to be politically unaffected, and simply invited all East German information specialists to individually join the West German association. This should continue to operate “business as usual” in the following years. That’s when the term “takeover” came to mind for the first time.
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From “reunification enthusiasm” to the takeover of the GDR economy.
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In 1993, together with Manecke, I fleshed out the idea of writing “annual reports on the situation of the information economy in the new federal states” – the GDR had now joined the Federal Republic and divided itself into “new federal states” – and this was based on a survey of all East Germans Information centers. In total, we launched three annual reports between 1994 and 1997 with Hans-Jürgen Manecke playing a key role. While Manecke conducted the surveys, I was primarily concerned with the political assessment of the results. The titles of the annual reports indicate that things were not going well with the East German information economy, for example: “Consolidation in the public sector – private institutions still in free fall” and “Wide collapse of information provision and information infrastructure”.
A review of the first annual report had already said:
“Of 1,600 information exchange offices (IVS), only 200 still existed. Of the original 6,000 information specialists, only 630 were still active in their profession. … This reduction of 85% could no longer be explained by the elimination of inefficiencies, but had to be treated as the destruction of information infrastructure and as the destruction of specialist qualifications that would have been urgently needed for the development of the new federal states. This gave… a poor report on the quality of the funding and regional policy for the new federal states” (“East German information economy still in free fall – every third existing IVS on the verge of extinction”, in: Password, September 1995, page 9).
It would have made no sense to create a fourth annual report on the situation of the information economy in the new federal states, as there were practically no information exchange offices left in the East (apart from a few ITS in the public sector).
This destruction of the East German information infrastructure was part of a broader takeover process of the East German economy, in which the West German corporations and other companies closed down the previous competition or let them continue to operate as pure production facilities (“outsourced workbenches”) while they carried out the qualified functions, for example research and development , centralized in the West German headquarters. This centralization contributed to the economic West-East divide between the old and new federal states and gave rise to resentment among the East German population that continues to this day. It still needs to be investigated to what extent the displacement of East German managers in the public sector by West German managers was politically and objectively necessary.
Were Manecke and I successful with our annual reports on the state of the information economy in the new federal states? We are unlikely to have had any influence on economic decisions and in the information industry I was told by the managing director of our industry association in a telephone conversation: “I should tell you from our board that they can no longer hear the word “New Federal States”. But Manecke and I saw a sense of “saying what is” and documenting what happened in the new federal states after reunification.
During and after our collaboration, Manecke proved to be an absolutely integrity-based and reliable scientist and a lovely person. I really appreciated his demure, reserved Northeast German manner. I will continue to miss him.
Postbank digital study 2022
Smartphone: Internet tool from the Germans
Digital natives: 86 hours per week on the internet
The digitization of social contacts
On average, citizens spend 20 hours a week online on their cell phones – they spend a total of 65 hours online in seven days
(Postbank) The share of smartphones in the time spent on the Internet has increased again. On average, Germans surf the internet on their cell phones for 20.2 hours per week. This is a significant increase, compared to 18.8 hours a year ago. The younger, the more excessive mobile Internet use is: those under 40 use their smartphones to access the Internet an average of 31.8 hours per week – almost four percent more than in the previous year (30.6 hours). These are the results of the representative Postbank digital study 2022.
“The smartphone boom has long since reached all generations. And there is no end in sight. Engineers and programmers around the world are working on constantly improving this small multi-tool. Today it is always at hand – for quick emails -Check, for shopping, directions or social media,” says Thomas Brosch, Head of Digital Sales at Postbank. “The cell phone is also increasingly becoming a digital branch for everyday banking transactions. A third of Germans already use a banking app for this purpose in most cases. Bank customers particularly value having access to their financial data at any time.”
92 percent of 18 to 39 year olds use a smartphone to surf, compared to 88 percent a year ago. For those over 40, the figure is 80 percent. What is new and surprising is the increased importance of stationary computers for younger people: 53 percent of people under 40 are currently surfing with a desktop PC, compared to 50 percent a year ago.
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More than 60 hours of internet time
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The so-called digital natives – those people who grew up in the digital world – spend a total of 86 hours on the Internet per week (all devices combined). That’s mathematically more than twelve hours per day. Across all generations, internet usage remains at a high level in the second year of Corona: German citizens surf the internet for an average of 65.2 hours in seven days; last year it was about the same amount of online time at 65.1 hours. However, usage rose sharply from 56.4 to 65.1 hours in the first Corona year; in 2019, the average German surfed just under 50 hours per week.
“During the Corona crisis, many Germans moved their professional and social contacts to the Internet. And even when the offices will be populated again and friends meet in restaurants, a large proportion of communication will continue to take place via digital channels,” expects Thomas Brosch .
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Smart TV is becoming increasingly important
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Germans are increasingly surfing on their cell phones, while at the same time the use of other devices is falling slightly. Today 69 percent use a laptop, in 2020 it was 71 percent. During the same period, desktop PC use fell from 58 to 52 percent and tablet use fell from 47 to 45 percent. Access to the Internet with a so-called smart TV (a television with an Internet connection that also allows streaming films) has increased by six percentage points to 43 percent since 2020. Game consoles, intelligent voice assistants and wearables (i.e. small networked computers that can be worn on the body – such as fitness bracelets or smartwatches) also gain something – albeit at a low level. The use of Alexa, Google Home and Co., for example, rose from twelve to 17 percent within two years.
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Berliners have increased their internet time
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There are sometimes large differences in the time spent online, not only between generations, but also regionally. The largest increase in internet time per week was recorded in Berlin. The capital’s citizens are online for 72.4 hours in seven days, which is 17.5 hours per week more than in the previous year. Because in 2021, Berliners surfed the least of all Germans and only managed 54.9 hours. This year, users in Saxony brought up the rear with 53.3 hours – almost 13 hours less than a year before.
Surfing in Rhineland-Palatinate is just as intensive as in the capital: the residents spend 72.2 hours per week. The top 5 also include Lower Saxony, Saarland and Thuringia – four of which recorded a strong increase compared to the previous year, only in Thuringia did online time decrease slightly. Usage has decreased more significantly in North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony-Anhalt, Hamburg and Baden-Württemberg.
Background information on the Postbank Digital Study 2022. 3,050 Germans were surveyed in January and February of this year for the “Postbank Digital Study 2022 – The Digital Germans”. With this study, Postbank is investigating for the eighth year in a row what developments are emerging in the various areas of life of German citizens with regard to digitalization in general and financial topics in particular. In order to represent a population-representative structure, the sample was weighted according to federal state (proportionalization), age and gender.
FH Potsdam
The young information scientists
introduce themselves
(BRAGI) Dear colleagues,
on behalf of the Brandenburg Working Group (BRAGI), we cordially invite you to our next online event:
Student theses in the professional fields of archives, libraries, information and data management 2022 – online event
Thursday, December May 5th at 4:00 p.m. to around 5:15 p.m.
In March 2022, the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences students in the archives, library management and information and data management courses defended their theses in the department. The topics of their theses were chosen by the students themselves. As part of this BRAGI series of events, particularly interesting and successfully completed bachelor’s and master’s theses are presented to colleagues and interested parties. In a 15-minute sequence, the graduates explain the topic they are working on and their research results.
Brunst, Saskia: Instagram in business archives – implemented using the example of the historical archive of the East German Savings Bank Association
Gerber, Anja: Conception of a research data infrastructure for multimodal digital data and source types using the example of the Wilsnack, St. Nikolai location
Junge, Pheline: Use and applications of archive podcasts
Warkentin, Charlotte: Open Educational Resources practice at universities of applied sciences using the example of Potsdam University of Applied Sciences
Get to know young information scientists at our event!
Host: Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, Department of Information Sciences and Brandenburg Association for Information (BRAGI)
Speakers: Graduates of the Department of Information Sciences at Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, moderated by Prof. Dr. Angela Schreyer
The event will take place on Thursday, May 5th, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. via Zoom. The event is free.
Registration is requested. Please register using the form on the BRAGI homepage at: http://fabdax.fh-potsdam.de/wp_bragi/aktuelle_veranstaltungen/
or by email: rueger@bibliothek.potsdam.de The link to the Zoom meeting will be sent to you sent one day before the event.
We hope you are interested and look forward to your participation.
Kind regards on behalf of the BRAGI board
Prof. Dr. Angela Schreyer and Hannelore Rüger
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