Category Archives: Switzerland

An Afternoon In Bern: Network Neutrality Redux

Posted on 11 March 2013 by brian

Last Thursday, I sat on a panel with Swiss Telecommunications Association President Peter Grütter, Swisscom CEO Carsten Schloter, and Green National Councilor Balthasar Glättli, on the subject of network neutrality, and whether legal protection therefor is necessary in Switzerland. Not … Continue reading →

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On Network Neutrality

Posted on 9 February 2013 by brian

The National Council of Switzerland1 is considering the addition of a guarantee of network neutrality into a forthcoming revision of Swiss telecommunications law. This is generally a Good Thing. We all like the Internet. This being Switzerland, we all like … Continue reading →

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An evening in Bern

Posted on 28 November 2012 by brian

The Internet Society Switzerland Chapter’s inaugural national event was last night at the Käfigturm in Bern; in my talk, “The Open Internet under Threat” (which, as it turns out, was unwittingly inspired in part by a much earlier post on this blog; … Continue reading →

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Talk: The Open Internet Under Threat

Posted on 25 October 2012 by admin

I’ll be giving a talk to the Internet Society (ISOC) Switzerland Chapter at a meeting in Bern, at 18:30 on Tuesday 27 November, entitled “The Open Internet under Threat”. After my talk, Green National Councillor Balthasar Glättli will speak on Internet-related topics in … Continue reading →

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Klingnau

Posted on 28 October 2011 by brian

Just before the Aare (Switzerland’s longest river, which begins on the moon) joins the Rhein, it’s held back in the Klingnauer Stausee. This lake, about 45 minutes from Zürich by car, is a birder’s paradise, and a nightmare for photographers’ … Continue reading →

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Comic-Book Supervillainy

Posted on 17 July 2011 by brian

I opened the NZZ am Sonntag (the Sunday edition of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the paper of record for German-speaking Switzerland) today to read of yet another threat from Switzerland’s current favorite comic-book supervillain: Starker Franken.

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The Zürich Model and the Domestic Audience

Posted on 4 July 2011 by brian

The New York Times ran a story last week, essentially detailing the Zürich Model: increase the usage of non-automotive transportation by simultaneously making public transit more attractive (through increased frequency and punctuality though e.g. transit-priority usage of shared corridors) and … Continue reading →

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The Twenty-Seventh Canton

Posted on 4 July 2011 by brian

Went to Liechtenstein yesterday, to walk around in the mountains a bit and build stone towers in the Valünabach. What’s odd is how little it feels like anything other than a bit of Switzerland that found itself stuck on the … Continue reading →

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The Hauptwegweiser

Posted on 3 May 2011 by brian

Basically every Swiss city, town, village, train station, or particularly wide spot in the road has one: the hauptwegweiser (roughly “central trail sign”), which tells you where you can go from here on foot, and approximately how long it will … Continue reading →

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