[Applause]
are you for or against more surveillance
in order to protect our society from
terror or another question are you for
or against unconditional debt relief for
weaker EU member states like Greece
the first time I realized how difficult
it is to answer these seemingly simple
questions was right before the german
general election in 2009 i was unsure
which party to vote for and asked there
for an online recommendation tool which
is based on party programs this tool
asks you simply yes and no questions and
you simply answer this questions
depending on your political opinion as a
result you then receive a recommendation
which party you agree with the most in
the ranking of most agreeable to least
agreeable party back then one of these
questions I was asked was are you for or
against an intervention of the German
Federal Army in Afghanistan what seemed
to be an easy question so I was I am
against war in general so I thought
obviously to be against it turned out to
be much more difficult to answer what
exactly does this mean what is going on
in this country what if they are not
intervening despite reading a lot I was
back then subscribe of to newspapers are
a lot in different magazines and of
course on websites of daily news outlets
I felt myself uninformed and insecure to
form my own opinion
for years I have been discussing this
feeling of being uninformed with a lot
of different people and I always get the
same feedback almost everyone is missing
background information in order to have
a deeper understanding of the current
topics of our time so we are living in
the age of information that means we all
have access to an unimaginable amount of
great content news stories articles from
all over the world 24/7 an ocean of
information so how is it possible that
so many people are feeling uninformed
despite having immediate access to a
worldwide web of information I’m not a
journalist trying to answer this
question but I am a curious and
interested member of our society eager
to understand the context the the
current topics of our time being an
editorial designer
I was wondering since I lack of
information hardly can be the reason may
be a new format concentrating on
conveying complex topics could hard to
gain a deeper understanding so I began
to investigate what it is that makes
this topic so hard to understand and why
they are obviously so difficult to
convey therefore my first question was
which bits of information do I need in
order to get a deeper understanding of
the current topics of our time as a
result I saw a kind of a structure a
pattern through all these topics these
topics are complex because there are
multi-dimensional they are built from
diverse aspects events and all these
aspects are interconnected and related
to use to each other so even when it is
a political topic let’s take for example
the Arab Spring then there is not just
the political point of view
Society culture economics history
science are equally important areas of
the topic to be aware of in order to get
a deeper understanding everyday a flood
of information is available when I dive
into this ocean looking for an article
to find information about one specific
topic I mostly get information on just
about one specific aspect the
information you get is just like the tip
of an iceberg I soon realized that for
gaining a deeper understanding it is
crucial to look at the larger pattern to
see all dimensions of this topic in
order to get a deeper understanding but
this multi-dimensional cross linked
structure makes it difficult to convey
these topics this led me to my second
question how can I convey these complex
topics in the most comprehensive and
comprehensible way and most importantly
to do so and engage in readers and their
interests to answer these questions I
teamed up with Manhattan Derek to work
interdisciplinary on the new format
concentrating on conveying complex
topics together we had a very simple
idea it was the following
let’s visualize the information web the
links between the aspects and put this
visualization and an interactive
multimedia platform and where users have
the opportunity to literally delve
deeper into the topic that they have the
opportunity to find all the different
aspects and to find by chance aspects
that never thought of before or in other
words a knowledge map for current topics
of our time
the first idea in mind we developed the
interactive background magazine tech
context in that context we are focusing
on pending topics like the war in Syria
or a future and identity of Europe or
populism and others each topic becomes
one edition and each edition is one big
knowledge map so how does this work if
you choose one topic and our web page
you will enter the map the first thing
you will see is an overview of all
relevant sections of the topic like
politics culture economics and so on but
this is just a starting point when you
then begin to zoom you will literally
delve deeper into the topic the deeper
you zoom the more detailed the network
will appear the links between the
aspects are indicating how the aspects
are related to each other and this
visualization is just one part of the
mapping in it you will find a lot of
different content nearly comparable to a
textbook by clicking on one of the
information nuts a pop-up will open and
in it a short text will explain this
very aspect of the topic and additional
to this short text you will find lots of
different additional contents like long
background articles timelines link tips
infographics and most importantly
interviews with a lot of different
experts from different fields with
different expertise explaining one
specific part of this topic all the
different contents will be placed on the
map in the area which it is related to
what their context offers is readers is
a playful way to investigate one complex
topic they have the opportunity to find
their own entry point whether this
culture or politics and they can decide
by themselves how deep they will dive
but the important thing is even when
they are just reading one a specific
aspect or an article they will see this
information always in the overall
context of the topic we started
publishing a year ago what we’ve learned
so far that our readers are interacting
on the very high level they love to play
with the maps they love to find all the
different aspects and find all the
different information with their context
we just started our own approach for
dealing with complexity and to find a
new format that engages readers and the
interests but I think there are many
more possible ways to reinvent the way
of how to convey complex topics whether
by using storytelling design or
technology overall I think it’s very
important to put the readers needs as
well as the requirements of the content
into the center so we are living in a
complex world dealing with complex
topics events stories every single day
these topics are complex because they
are interconnected and yet depending on
several aspects this is why they are not
so easy to understand and also why there
are no simple answers to the questions
related to these topics like the
questions I started with but even when
they are complex everyone wants to
understand and to be able to form their
own opinion and at least before an
election or poll it is crucial to know
the context to see the big picture of
the current topics of our time in order
to make decisions based on a
well-founded opinion
simplifying the topics cannot be the
answer
since these topics are not simple and
there are no simple solutions for them
but embracing the complexity and finding
new formats to do so can be a solution
in the end that is all about context
so let’s rock complexity with context
thank you
[Applause]
are you for or against more surveillance
in order to protect our society from
terror or another question are you for
or against unconditional debt relief for
weaker EU member states like Greece
the first time I realized how difficult
it is to answer these seemingly simple
questions was right before the german
general election in 2009 i was unsure
which party to vote for and asked there
for an online recommendation tool which
is based on party programs this tool
asks you simply yes and no questions and
you simply answer this questions
depending on your political opinion as a
result you then receive a recommendation
which party you agree with the most in
the ranking of most agreeable to least
agreeable party back then one of these
questions I was asked was are you for or
against an intervention of the German
Federal Army in Afghanistan what seemed
to be an easy question so I was I am
against war in general so I thought
obviously to be against it turned out to
be much more difficult to answer what
exactly does this mean what is going on
in this country what if they are not
intervening despite reading a lot I was
back then subscribe of to newspapers are
a lot in different magazines and of
course on websites of daily news outlets
I felt myself uninformed and insecure to
form my own opinion
for years I have been discussing this
feeling of being uninformed with a lot
of different people and I always get the
same feedback almost everyone is missing
background information in order to have
a deeper understanding of the current
topics of our time so we are living in
the age of information that means we all
have access to an unimaginable amount of
great content news stories articles from
all over the world 24/7 an ocean of
information so how is it possible that
so many people are feeling uninformed
despite having immediate access to a
worldwide web of information I’m not a
journalist trying to answer this
question but I am a curious and
interested member of our society eager
to understand the context the the
current topics of our time being an
editorial designer
I was wondering since I lack of
information hardly can be the reason may
be a new format concentrating on
conveying complex topics could hard to
gain a deeper understanding so I began
to investigate what it is that makes
this topic so hard to understand and why
they are obviously so difficult to
convey therefore my first question was
which bits of information do I need in
order to get a deeper understanding of
the current topics of our time as a
result I saw a kind of a structure a
pattern through all these topics these
topics are complex because there are
multi-dimensional they are built from
diverse aspects events and all these
aspects are interconnected and related
to use to each other so even when it is
a political topic let’s take for example
the Arab Spring then there is not just
the political point of view
Society culture economics history
science are equally important areas of
the topic to be aware of in order to get
a deeper understanding everyday a flood
of information is available when I dive
into this ocean looking for an article
to find information about one specific
topic I mostly get information on just
about one specific aspect the
information you get is just like the tip
of an iceberg I soon realized that for
gaining a deeper understanding it is
crucial to look at the larger pattern to
see all dimensions of this topic in
order to get a deeper understanding but
this multi-dimensional cross linked
structure makes it difficult to convey
these topics this led me to my second
question how can I convey these complex
topics in the most comprehensive and
comprehensible way and most importantly
to do so and engage in readers and their
interests to answer these questions I
teamed up with Manhattan Derek to work
interdisciplinary on the new format
concentrating on conveying complex
topics together we had a very simple
idea it was the following
let’s visualize the information web the
links between the aspects and put this
visualization and an interactive
multimedia platform and where users have
the opportunity to literally delve
deeper into the topic that they have the
opportunity to find all the different
aspects and to find by chance aspects
that never thought of before or in other
words a knowledge map for current topics
of our time
the first idea in mind we developed the
interactive background magazine tech
context in that context we are focusing
on pending topics like the war in Syria
or a future and identity of Europe or
populism and others each topic becomes
one edition and each edition is one big
knowledge map so how does this work if
you choose one topic and our web page
you will enter the map the first thing
you will see is an overview of all
relevant sections of the topic like
politics culture economics and so on but
this is just a starting point when you
then begin to zoom you will literally
delve deeper into the topic the deeper
you zoom the more detailed the network
will appear the links between the
aspects are indicating how the aspects
are related to each other and this
visualization is just one part of the
mapping in it you will find a lot of
different content nearly comparable to a
textbook by clicking on one of the
information nuts a pop-up will open and
in it a short text will explain this
very aspect of the topic and additional
to this short text you will find lots of
different additional contents like long
background articles timelines link tips
infographics and most importantly
interviews with a lot of different
experts from different fields with
different expertise explaining one
specific part of this topic all the
different contents will be placed on the
map in the area which it is related to
what their context offers is readers is
a playful way to investigate one complex
topic they have the opportunity to find
their own entry point whether this
culture or politics and they can decide
by themselves how deep they will dive
but the important thing is even when
they are just reading one a specific
aspect or an article they will see this
information always in the overall
context of the topic we started
publishing a year ago what we’ve learned
so far that our readers are interacting
on the very high level they love to play
with the maps they love to find all the
different aspects and find all the
different information with their context
we just started our own approach for
dealing with complexity and to find a
new format that engages readers and the
interests but I think there are many
more possible ways to reinvent the way
of how to convey complex topics whether
by using storytelling design or
technology overall I think it’s very
important to put the readers needs as
well as the requirements of the content
into the center so we are living in a
complex world dealing with complex
topics events stories every single day
these topics are complex because they
are interconnected and yet depending on
several aspects this is why they are not
so easy to understand and also why there
are no simple answers to the questions
related to these topics like the
questions I started with but even when
they are complex everyone wants to
understand and to be able to form their
own opinion and at least before an
election or poll it is crucial to know
the context to see the big picture of
the current topics of our time in order
to make decisions based on a
well-founded opinion
simplifying the topics cannot be the
answer
since these topics are not simple and
there are no simple solutions for them
but embracing the complexity and finding
new formats to do so can be a solution
in the end that is all about context
so let’s rock complexity with context
thank you
[Applause]
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