Strobl at St. Wolfgang’s Lake is one of the nices places one can be in summer. The lake is just as beautiful as ever and Summerschool and Summer Discourse are - again - bringing a unique mixture of inspiration, reflection and setting off.

NSFW (Nikolaus’ Song For the Week)

This week’s song is from Katie Melua.

The official YiuTube version is sound-only,

but there’s also a version with paintings that looks nice.

Retrospect

Verona-Vienna

We made it back by train from Verona to Vienna. The Italian regional train even had a dedicated waggon for bicycles.

However, if you want to go from Verona to Vienna with a bike, you can’t just buy a ticket online - do not even think of it. At Verona train station then, a very friendly elderly Italian gentleman explained to me at the ticket office that he could sell a ticket to Brennero, but the ticket from Brennero to Innsbruck can only be sold at another ticket office (which is, I believe, run by ÖBB). The ÖBB-train has very limited storing capacity for bicycles so that all the 40 properly sorted bikes taken to Brennero are thrown into the Austrian train by their owner - which produces the expected chaos. But, finally, we got to Innsbrtuck - and then, with Westbahn that is very convenient, also in bicycle transport, to Vienna.

Video Surveillance

Two (somehow) video-surveillance-related topics are discussed at the moment and I had the privilege to join the debates. First, whether employers are supposed to monitor what their employees do in their home office. ORF has an overview on the matter

that also brought me into “Landesstudio Salzburg’s premises for a live interview on Thursday:

It’s perhaps not the fanciest place on earth.

Second, Vienna’s mayor, Michael Ludwig, wants more videcameras in Vienna to fight against crime.

There’s lot of media coverage on this, starting with ORF

I was more sceptical on the matter.

The story was echoed almost everywhere, including Die Presse, Kurier, Heute, etc.

My (temporary) “office” in Strobl made it into news via the topic :-)

Summer Discourse and Summerschool

The moment I am writing this, I am, again, superbusy in Strobl listening to many, many presentations on solidarity and law. You should check out our YouTube channel as I am recording almost eveything and will make it available in the next days.

You may expect keynotes (Barbara Prainsack, in this case)

and super-interesting panels.

#arsboni

I am - again - surrounded by many, many Covid-cases among students, colleagues, friends. Even more people have some kind of mysterious summer-flu - without proper testing. This was a very good moment to talk about the difficulties to get access to Covid-related waste water data in Austria.

The conversation went beyond my expectations. Heribert Insam drew a piture full of absurd legal interpretations, federalism and authoritarian burocracy he was confronted with due to his attempts to get access to these data.

Prospect

AI Act

Th AI-act came into force on August 1st, according to its art. 113. My first presentation under the AI act will be an open lecture, together with Sylvia Kritzinger, on “AI and the Endangered Freedom of Democratic Participation” at the summer discourse, given on August 2. We will talk about AI driven voting recommendations. I will mainly speak about Elon Musk and his open support for Trump.

#arsboni

ME/CFS is a very serious and brutal disease often associated with a Covid19-infection. I will speak with Dr. Sabine Hernisson whose daughter Mila is terribly affected by ME/CFS, fully bed-bound and confined to a dark room. We will speak about the medical and legal situation of these patients and their caring relatives in Austria.

LLM

We are celebrating 25 years of the LLM in Information Law and Media Law. The application window is open until August 31 and we have scholarships available. Please, spread the news and/or apply if this is of interest. I am deeply convinced that this is the best place to learn about digitalisation and the law.

Here’s a perspective from one of our (former) students.

Daisy

was very pleased to see Felix and me again. We miss her a lot, here in Strobl, but we know that she’s fine.

Have a wonderful week!

Kind regards

Nikolaus (Forgó)