Technologietransfer nach China – einfach mal nachgefragt

Als kleiner Beitrag zu der aktuellen Diskussion hier eine Abbildung aus meiner Diplomarbeit aus dem Jahr 2002: Gefragt wurde in einer anonymen schriftlichen Umfrage unter Managern deutsch-chinesischer Joint-Ventures nach den Zielen, welche der chinesische Partner mit dem JV verfolgt. Zu sehen sind die Antworten der Vertreter der chinesischen und deutschen Seite (1):

China Know-How-Transfer



Ich zitiere mich mal selber: “[…] auf der deutschen Seite [besteht] eine erhebliche Fehleinschätzung der Bedeutung des Know-how-Transfers für die chinesische Seite”.

Ob sich das inzwischen geändert hat?


1) Die Frage nach den Zielen der chinesischen Seite wurde in 98 Fragebögen von 68 Vertretern der deutschen Seite und 30 Vertretern der chinesischen Seite mit 146 einzelnen Aussagen beantwortet. Die Gruppierung führte zu einer Kategorie mit lediglich 3 Aussagen, welche nicht weiter berücksichtigt wurde. Die vier verbleibenden Kategorien erfassen 92,47% der Aussagen.

Once it’s out there…

Let’s say you want to read what Scott Adams wrote yesterday on the Dilbert Blog before he decided to delete it (it’s not like you have a choice, anyhow). There’s a simple solution which doesn’t involve time travel or searching the internet for “deleted dilbertblog post”: Sign up with a popular web-based feed reader (aggregator) like Bloglines.com or Google Reader and voilà:

Deleted post

This raises a lot of terribly interesting questions like “are the aggregators stealing from Scott by caching a post he later deleted” and “are they morally obligated to do so in order to feed his starving readers”, but I’m already torn between enjoying the fantastic weather outside or playing with my new Wii so I’ll leave these issues to you.

Useful (free) Christmas Presents

Don’t unwrap them before the 24th (or 25th, depending on local traditions)!

Game: Flow – leave all Christmas stress behind and enjoy the really simple life

Website: WhatTheFont – identify a font by uploading an image

Software: PDFCreator – easily creates PDFs from any Windows program (license: GNU GPL)

Software: PC Inspector smart recovery – Freeware (sponsored by Convar) for recovering your photos from memory cards

Hardware: If you’re already a Fonero, Fon lets you give away a free La Fonera router for Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Location based services – another Google breakthrough?

Do you use your mobile phone to surf the internet? I don’t, at least when I can avoid it. Compared to using a PC with a fast DSL connection, an UMTS-enabled mobile phone is a poor replacement: more expensive, slower and harder to use. The only advantage is… well, that you’re mobile, of course?

There’s more, though, at least there could be: location based services, which are mobile services based on (or at least enhanced by) the knowledge of your current geographical position. Obvious example: take Google Maps on a mobile phone, add the position of the user and you’ve got something like a hand held GPS device with map functions.

Not very revolutionary, I agree. However, having read this article in The Observer (also mentioned on heise.de and golem.de), I’m sure there’ll be more. Imagine a social network system which doesn’t just know your preferences and friends, but also which friends or potentially interesting persons are near to you, right in this very moment! For example, you could have a powerful combination of the Lovegetty and an internet dating site.

Now let’s make no mistake here: the mobile telcos know about this idea and many other great ones for location based services. They just haven’t implemented them (at least not on a large scale) for a number of reasons (privacy concerns, the need to develop powerful software, maybe also simple lack of money after the UMTS disaster in Germany).

Google’s got money, highly capable programmers, creative developers and the courage to implement new ideas. I’m expecting something more than just a phone which has Google set as the home page in its browser.

Don’t have billions to give to charity?

wawwd logo 80x80Don’t despair, we can’t all be Warren Buffets. Instead, think about it this way: There are about 6,6 Billion people living on this planet. If everybody just gave you 10 US$, you’d have 66 Billion US$ and could make Buffet look rather poor.

OK, so you tried that, sent 10 US$ to 5 people on that list you received by email and nobody ever sent you any money? Too bad, but that’s not really my point. Instead, I was trying to illustrate that small actions by many people can have an enormous impact, too (I know, Gandhi probably said it more eloquently). Which leads us to We Are What We Do, “a new movement inspiring people to use their everyday actions to change the world”.

Sure, something like only filling your kettle with the water you need won’t get you in the news, but it’s a start. wawwd logo s