The Internet has Come of Age

re:publica 2016 in Berlin: This year, the annual class reunion of the German-speaking internet community drew a record crowd of 8000 visitors. Our main learnings from the countless inputs there:

Snapchat is unbiquitous

One platform ruled undisputedly at re:publica 2016: Snapchat was the focus of sessions like “Snapchat for Grownups”, side events like “Happy Snapping” and also the topic of most conversations. This platform has long undergone commercialization for marketing purposes, and the Snapchat community´s only comment is: Use Snapchat wherever it makes sense, but don´t do it just for the hype.

Virtual Reality

Last year, VR was the new kid in town. Now it has really arrived in force, occupying all three floors of the labore:tory, the exhibition hall and the Media Convention and covering a huge thematic variety reaching from artistic approaches to commercial and educational applications.

Social media and law

Originally treated as an entertaining highlight session, this theme is now the focus of multiple lectures, reflecting the growing importance of legal warning letters, copyrights, plugging, hate crime and freedom of speech for bloggers in German-speaking countries.

For those who could not attend, many highlights are available online. Our special recommendations here: Gunter Dueck on Cargo-Kulte, Sascha Lobo on “The Age of Trotzdem” and Richard Sennett on “The City as an open System“. See all videos of 2016.