Is there really a need for political essays from somebody in computer science? Doesn't the media industry fulfill its role of a fourth power? There is a number of reasons why computer science becomes more and more political: IT penetrates society at an alarming rate. Never before governments and companies had more means to observe and control human behavior. There are tons of critical technologies which have a huge impact on our life: DRM, spy programs, data collection, the use of cryptography to control the lifecycle of products etc.

This is why computer science people need to take a stand and try to communicate their fears. Sometimes these get expressed in private mail instead of getting published. I will collect essays, hints and recommendations of a political nature here. Some of the articles will be in german as some things get expressed best in ones mother tongue.