Joachim K. Rennstich, Ph.D., has over 20 years of experience as a communication expert and scholar. After starting his first PR and advertisement firm just out of high school, he later taught at the Political Science departments of Temple University and Fordham University with degrees from the University of Göttingen (Germany/dipl.soc.) and Indiana University (Bloomington, IN - M.A., Ph.D.).
His work broadly focuses on issues surrounding the world system development, both in its historical evolution as well as its current and future development.
He is the author of The Making of a Digital World : The Evolution of Technological Change and How It Shaped Our World (2008, New York: Palgrave). An avid user of a range of technologies himself, Rennstich is also involved in the development of innovative uses of technologies in academic research, the creation of research networks, and on information literacy, and served on he board of Fordham’s Center for International Policy Studies and as co-founder and -director of The Center for the Study of Long-term Change in World History (LTC).
Dr. Joachim Rennstich is available for strategic advice for short- and longer-term projects, as well as keynote presentations. He can be reached at joachim [at] rennstich.com.
Joachim Rennstich is director of studies responsible for politics and physical/health education the Christlich-Pädagogisches Institut (Institute for Christian Pedagogy) at the CJD Arnold-Dannenmann-Akademie, an internal think-tank part of the German-based CJD. He is an expert in the areas of global economy, digital technology, innovation and long-term globalization processes and has published widely on these topics. Rennstich combines nearly 20 years of experience as a communication expert and scholar. After starting his first PR and advertisement firm just out of high school, he was a Professor at the Political Science departments of Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and Fordham University in New York, NY, with a Diplom from the University of Goettingen and a M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Indiana University at Bloomington. Joachim served on the board of the Center for International Policy Studies at Fordham University and as co-founder and -director of The Center for the Study of Long-term Change in World History (LTC).
My favorite PDF editor for the iPad (see my review) is currently on sale (until Nov 30, 2010). Get it while it lasts.
[Updated to reflect app updates] It took a while, but finally we actually have a variety of PDF editing solutions for Apple’s iPad available. Reading or viewing PDFs has been an early feature for both, the iPhone and the iPad for a while now. Editing PDFs - highlighting, underlining, drawing notes (say a red circle around a graph or data in a table), strike-through text, etc. - however, has been a different story. This has always been a big problem for academics and others (like me) who have decided to place their entire research realm into the digital sphere (from reading to the final draft) who wanted a solution for working with material when apart from a computer.
The first solution for the iPhone, Aji Annotate, has remained the sole player in that field for a long time. And it works fairly well. Well, as well as one can expect this to work well on an iPhone. The screen is simply too small to do some serious editing apart from the proof-of-concept-I’m-living-on-the-digital-scholar-edge-sort-of-feeling. Then came the iPad. And still, Aji was the only provider with a solution (called iAnnotate). One big improvement others introduced was the ability to directly import PDFs through Dropbox and of course through iTunes and over WiFi server options and not having to first pace the PDF through some little program on the Mac called Aji Reader that would allow you to format the PDFs so they could be edited better on the iPhone and also would serve as a WiFi server to get PDFs onto the iPhone and out of it back onto your Mac/Win PC). It might have been the only kid in town, but the iPad solution is pretty solid, works well, and does what it promises to do.
Not sure what happened, but all of a sudden there’s been a flurry of activity on the scene. Some specialty apps (such as the excellent Papers from the makers of a Mac solution for exploring and managing your digital research) have provided PDF editing across digital platforms (on a computer and on mobile devices) but for a software independent work-flow that didn’t force you to use any kind of specialty solution such as Papers user can now choose from a variety of different solutions. I never found the user interface of iAnnotate appealing or especially intuitive (even with the latest update in version 1.3). It is amazingly feature-rich, but that’s not really that helpful when the UI doesn’t work for you. So the new entrants into the field are a welcome addition. Here’s a round-up of some of the iPad apps I checked out so far:
Es wurde auch Zeit - meine FT lese ich schon seit langem auf meinem iPhone und die App hat vorgemacht, was möglich ist. Nun gibt es also auch die FAZ App. http://www.faz.net/dynamic/iphone/
Die FAZ setzt weniger auf vollen Zugang zu ihrem Inhalt in mobil-freundlichem Gewand und für eine Version 1.0 ist ihr das auch gelungen. Mir sind die anderen Rezessionen nicht bekannt (noch zu neu und erscheinen hier nicht) aber warum es nur so wenige Sterne gibt, ist mir nicht ganz begreiflich. Bei andern Zeitungsapps war das ähnlich - Leute lassen ihren Frust raus das guter Journalismus - kann es wirklich sein!?! - nicht für umsonst zu haben ist.
Die Abo-Rate nach den 30 Frei-Tagen scheint mir mehr als angemessen verglichen mit den Kosten für das gedruckte Produkt allemal. Großer Pluspunkt sind die Media/Foto-Strecken. Sehr schön gelöst, für die iPhone Plattform.
Die Inhalte sind begrenzt auf max. 10 Artikel pro Sektion. Da gibt es noch Spielraum für Verbesserungen, die sich aber für die App-Programmierer erst im täglichen Nutzen konkretisieren. Wollen Nutzer einen langen Rattenschwanz von ungelesenen Nachrichten von 3 Tagen oder doch lieber die neuesten 10? Das liegt an der Nutzerpräferenz. Vielleicht sollte man da mehr Optionen haben.
Insgesamt fühlt sich die App mehr als ein “FAZ Browser” an als eine eigene FAZ App, so wie das beispielsweise bei der FT oder NYT App. ist. Aber dem Lesegenuss oder Lesbarkeit tut das nicht wirklich einen Abbruch.
Ich gebe hier nur 5 Sterne um die anderen ein wenig aufzuheben - aber ne 4 ist es auf jeden Fall für einen gelungenen Start in ein neues, schwieriges Medium.
Great product. Even greater way to experience hands-on what digital capitalism (or capitalism 2.0) is all about.
Oh, the joys of digital scholarship: http://gephi.org/ If u r hopping on the network-analysis bandwagon (wait, that’s on again?) u need it.
U productivity lovers out there, keep an eye on this: http://bit.ly/aVu88E I love their BreakZ software, this one’s off to a promising start
For the 1st time in nearly a decade I didn’t rely on my Mac but the podium desktop, a browser, and the cloud to teach. Prezi is fantastic.
Moving away from Keynote/PPT in class was harder than I thought. Mind maps didn’t work for my kids. Prezi sure does: http://bit.ly/ccm5M2
Made the switch to Zotero for good. Even fits well into my LaTeX and 2-computer workflow now. What an amazing tool that is.
Just got Rucksack for Mac OS X completely free. Nothing paid! Really awesome! But hurry, only until March 23rd at http://www.macbuzzer.com
Pure gold for the company that services these new “information guidance steps”. It’ll always break… http://tiny12.tv/HI0GW
This might work for some fields better than others. Completely changes the meaning of authorship though. http://nyti.ms/c9sLwB #textbook
Today - IPE section members, our section meets today 12:30 at Marlborough B - great opportunity to meet up with others in the field #isa2010
As proud as I am of us ISA folks jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, it’s still funny compared to the action at SXSW or other events #isa2010
IPE section members! Our meeting is F 12:30 at Marlborough B - great opportunity to meet up with others in the field #isa2010
Doing research on world historical systems? Interested in agent-based models? Come to the WHS Meeting on S 11:30 at Kabacoff #isa2010
Goodness, the ISA folks r so easy to spot on the flight to New Orleans from JFK :-) #isa2010
My publisher was askg for a podcast about my research to help sell the multimedia features of the web-version: http://bit.ly/ckqCc9
Nothing screams analog generation more than little plastic antenna on a clam-shell phone, attacked slowly w an index finger. Plenty here.
Repair service finds iPad’s camera slot http://bit.ly/cTtFco - well, well. That’s not really a surprise, tho.