Peter Hettich

Part V Design Guide

This Design Guide summarizes the multidisciplinary insights gained in the course of the project turning them into a set of suggestions, a guidance for design for the handling of information with a special emphasis on the role of memory in the age of digital technologies. The guide starts by stating its addressees (Sect. 1), aims and scope (Sect. 2), and develops an operational framework (Sect. 5) based on the main observations from our research (Sect. 3) and their consequences (Sect. 4).

5 Mobile Internet

The digitization of all kinds of content and the emergence of the Internet Protocol as a universal standard for any telecommunication have changed the way we interact with each other. This fundamental change has progressed in a very short time. Digitization makes it possible to code data and information in a standardized way and to structure the data in small packages. The Internet Protocol makes it possible to transport these packages on nearly all communication infrastructures to any place on the globe, regardless of the platform from which they originate or to which they flow. Similar to today’s standardized shipping containers capable of transporting any manner of good by ships, railways, as well as trucks, the Internet Protocol frees content of dependency on any specific network or device. In principle, it is now irrelevant whether such a communications device is fixed or mobile. However, the convenience of accessing the Internet via mobile devices has led to a far stronger attachment to smartphones than to any other electronic device that has been introduced to date.

Part II Normative Concepts of Information Management

The digital revolution is transforming society, the economy and government in many ways and profoundly alters the way in which we handle data and information. Nowadays, information is collected, stored and processed faster than ever before through the use of electronic tools. The storage capacity for digital information is continually increasing, whereas the costs for storage media are simultaneously shrinking. The following chapter examines how the legal system attempts to regulate information management in the face of the exponentially growing amount of digital data and seeks to illuminate the assumptions that underlie such regulatory efforts. In this way, we reveal the interplay between law and “remembering and forgetting” and the extent to which the law in one national jurisdiction regulates these processes.

3 Remembering and Forgetting in Social Media

Social media is a recent development in our society that now influences our lives on a daily basis. However, when it comes to defining the term “social media”, there is no official, universally applicable definition. Some authors employ a broad definition incorporating a social media platform, which allows users to upload and share content as well as to comment on these. Murthy, for example, states that “[s]ocial media has been broadly defined to refer to ‘the many relatively inexpensive and widely accessible electronic tools that enable anyone to publish and access information, collaborate on a common effort, or build relationships’”. Others do not make any reference to a proper definition, but rather simply cite a number of examples, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and different kinds of blogs, in order to illustrate what social media essentially is. To some extent, rating platforms are also included in this field.

2 Search Engines

Search engines provide us with the specific piece of information we are looking for on the Internet, be it any type of trivia, the weather forecast, the population of Guinea-Bissau or the verification of someone’s background.

4 Web Archives

Everyday life is difficult to imagine without the World Wide Web: Politics, news, work, social interaction and many other aspects of society are happening or being reflected on the Internet. No other media guarantees a comparable dissemination of information that reaches people virtually anywhere in the world and in as little time as the Internet. While providing information is the initialization of knowledge transfer, preserving it must also be ensured in order to make use of that information into the future. Since most web content is exclusively available in electronic form, it is at risk of being lost forever. The lack of long-term availability of web content has been identified as one of the Internet’s most decisive weaknesses. To avoid a so called digital black hole there is a need to implement web archives. In 2003, the UNESCO recognized the danger of losing a part of the world’s cultural heritage and issued its Charter on the Preservation of Digital Heritage. This paper addresses the end of the information life-cycle and examines the need, benefit, methods, and possible developments of web archiving.

Switzerland ∙ Developments in October 2016 – September 2017

PPP-projects have remained a rarity in Switzerland. The administrative center Neumatt (Burgdorf) remains the only PPP-project which truly meets international standards. Inorder to implement the revised GPA, Swiss laws on public procurement have been revised at federal and cantonal level for a considerable time.1 On 15 February 2017, the Federal Council finally adopted its dispatch on the Federal Act concerning the total revision to the procurement law.2 To the surprise of observers, the Federal Council proposed to preclude access to documents concerning public procurements. The EDÖB (Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner) has already protested against this restriction to public access to official records.3 With regard to new court decisions, a recent ruling by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court regarding an abnormally low price in a tender of the University of Zurich also grabbed much attention in the media.