raffael

Well… it started with the conference in Berkeley last month. The next one was “Krieg und Frieden — Digital” in combination with the fiff-annual-general-meetig in Aachen. I was able to meet up with my former flatmate and I had a great time in Aachen. The first day of the conference was packed with talks, the second day had talks and working-groups. During the annual meeting I spoke about Free Culture. Then the reminding people had dinner, I got back to them later after having a cheap pizza ;)

Last week I went to the 36,5th Conference of Computer Science Student Associations and they passed a resolution supporting the Free Culture Movement and the Open University Campaign. Today our StugA and AStA decided to support the resolution as well.

or: Why I was in California last week.

I attended the third Free Culture Conference. This time it was in Berkeley at the West Coast. I was also able to meet up with Markus from Bamberg. He wrote a summary of Lawrence Lessig’s Interview and the Conference at Netzpolitik.org. The first day was packed with keynotes. Most interesting was the Interview with Lawrence, the author of the book “Free Culture” and a talk about access to medicine.

The second day was more working group style. I attended a couple of discussion groups. It is amazing how well the Free Culture Groups operate in the States. They talk about stuff we (in Germany) can’t even think of.

The most important result from the conference is the open university campaign. To have more overlap between the work of different Free Culture groups we chose five points to work on:

An open university is one in which

1. The research the university produces is open access.
2. The course materials are open educational resources.
3. The university embraces free software and open standards.
4. If the university holds patents, it readily licenses them for free software, essential medicines, and the public good.
5. The university network reflects the open nature of the internet.

where “university” includes all parts of the community: students, faculty, administration.

After just spending quite a while pimping the software of this blog I felt like writing a little bit here too… But this is not only to reward myself. A friend of mine was complaining that I stopped updating my digital life here, after returning from the Kiwis.

So here you go: I am a climber!

I climbed in the Fränkische Schweiz for a week. There I got used to the German rock and learned how to place nuts. Then I went climbing at the Königshainer Berge and at the Oberoderwitzer Spitzberg close to Görlitz/Zittau in Saxony. It was some nice granite and basalt to climb on, we missed out on the sandstone. Finally I had a look into the Ith. That is a mountain range in the middle of Germany (Lower Saxony). This week I spend a day climbing in the Okertal, that is in the Harz. Also a mountain range in Lower Saxony. But that is not all, because…

I am a student!

Yes, I am working hard. Starting with my Diplom thesis now. I am trying to fit everything into six month of work. But that is going to be hard… I got a supervisor (actually two) and a topic. It would be nice to write my thesis in English, but since a lot of the literature is in German, I might just write it in the same language… we’ll see.

I hope that I satisfied some people’s heart with this post…

Well, in the end it went all very quickly. The last days in Christchurch… I enjoyed them a lot. My flat mates at Tika palace are a lovely bunsh of people. We had a party and a potluck in my last week. Hood took me to Rapaki for a awesome day of trad climbing. Best weather, nice sunset and an awesome climb in the end.

I am now back with my family and friends in Germany — found a flat and some climbing buddies. At the beginning it was a bit strange… the cars on the “right side” of the road and sooo many people. But there are good things! The breakfast, sooo goood. The good times sitting with friends at the lakes and rivers… the weather is good too, although we have some days with heavy rain.

So back to serious studies? Well… soon :)

It is snowing in Christchurch, and it is cold. Winter is here…

That’s what I would like to know. I mean 20kg… that’s what I carry when I go tramping… I guess I will have to bring my body weight into the discussion, and wear all my cloths during the flight… or something like that.

Well I climbed it *hurray*, well since I had a nice swing not really clean, but good enough.
Yesterday I also climbed a 22 clean (without falling or sitting in the rope). That was an exiting weekend in Paynes Ford. I went up there spontaneous on Thursday night with some Americans and just returned with two Germans, a Czech and a Kiwi.I also updated my tramping log book, pictures will follow.

We did a tramp, up Mt Herbert. Two of my flatmates, three friends and two dogs wanted to climb the 919 meters from sea level. It is the highest point of the Banks Peninsula, near Christchurch. The farmer (and m friend) didn’t like the dogs on his property much, so we had to tie them off somewhere. At the beginning we had great weather. But the higher we got, the more clouds surrounded us. Our lunch break was basically in the clouds. No more sun. It got quite cold — for some people.

But the show must go on, so up we go… the last part of the walk way was not that interesting anymore. We followed the “road” to the summit. The last “10 minutes” where steep. It was nice to reach the top (it would have been even nicer with a clear sky). On the way down we tried to find the shelter, which was a little other direction then the way down… But because it gets dark so early now we had to turn around and “hurry” down the hill. One of my flatmates managed to twist his ankle… so the last 30min took us a bit longer.

Then the drive back to Christchurch… waa those streets are crazy. Hardly any markings of the road boundaries. Crazy.

Today I went to a dentist to check out how things work here in New Zealand. The downside, the “studentsafe” insurance from the University of Canterbury doesn’t cover maintenance… no fillings, makes a $150. But you get to wear fancy glasses and the water to rinse your mouth is blue and tasty. The dentist was very friendly and “gentle” — a much better atmosphere than with my former German dentist. He also seems to know what he is doing. So overall a plus!