Niggemeier, Lobo, Passig and a few other important German bloggers and journalists published their smart-ass Internet Manifesto not so long ago. They explain how things should work in the internet, in the marvelous world of journalism, and so on. In ten different languages, that is. A denotative manifesto. Thanks. Meanwhile I discovered an Kumpir place around the corner. A denotative detection too. Kumpir are those stuffed potatoes. A Turkish national dish, fast food, but above all, they’re one thing: potatoes.I claim:1. Kumpir is different.Kumpir isn't just a stuffed potato. It produces different spheres of taste, different terms of stuffing, and concerns different cultures. The stuffing must adapt its expansion to the potato instead of ignoring or challenging it. It is the stuffing’s duty to develop the best possible taste based on the available sauces. This includes new methods of being baked.2. The potato is a pocket-sized media empire.The potato rearranges existing structures by transcending their former boundaries and oligopolies. The preparation and allocation is no longer tied to heavy investments. Fast food’s self-conception is—fortunately—being cured of its -keeping function. All that remains is the perceptible quality that is experienced by eating and is to be distinguished from mere food intake.3. The Potato is our society is a potato.ChickenMcNuggets, pizza, and Thai food have become a part of everyday life for the majority of people in the western world. They are as accessible as apples or sandwiches. If snack places want to continue to exist, they must understand the lives of today’s eaters and embrace their habits of eating. This includes basic forms of ordering: taking orders and cashing up, also known as dialogue.4. The freedom of the potato is inviolable.The open potato peel of Kumpir constitutes the basics of a filling that’s constantly changing and, consequently, varying. It may not be modified for the sake of protecting the special commercial or political interests often hidden behind the pretense of public interest. Regardless of how it is done, keeping the potato closed endangers the free exchange of sauces and corrupts our fundamental right to a self-determined filling.5. The potato is the victory of information.Due to inadequate technology, stores, pubs, restaurants, and other organizations have compiled and classified the world’s food supply. Today every citizen can set up their own personal potatoes while Kumpir cooks tap into the richness of food on a scale never known before. Individuals can now feed themselves better than ever.6. Potatoes change and therefore improve journalism.Through potatoes, journalism can fulfill its social-educational role in a new way. This includes presenting the stuffing as an ever-changing, continual process; the forfeiture of its inalterability is a benefit. Those who want to survive in this new way of eating need a new idealism, new journalistic ideas, and a sense of pleasure in exploiting this new potential.7. Potatoes require networking.Potatoes create connections. We know each other through potatoes. Those who do not eat them exclude themselves from social discourse. This also holds for the websites of traditional pizza services.8. Sauces reward, salads adorn.Forks and scoops facilitate the process of eating: they boost the accessibility of outstanding content on a long-term basis and are thus an integral part of the new, networked public sphere. References through desserts and side dishes—especially including those made without any consent or even remuneration of the cook—make the very culture of potatoes possible in the first place. They are by all means worthy of protection.9. The Potato is the new venue for political discourse.Potatoes thrive on participation and freedom of information. Transferring the political discussion from traditional media to the Kumpir shop and expanding on this discussion by involving the active participation of the public is one of the potato’s new tasks.10. Today’s potato is Kumpir.Article 5 of the German Constitution does not comprise protective rights for professions or technically traditional business models. The potato overrides the technological boundaries between the amateur and professional. This is why the privilege of freedom of baking Kumpir must hold for anyone who can contribute to the filling of potatoes. Qualitatively speaking, no differentiation should be made between paid and unpaid, but rather, between good and poor potatoes.11. More is more – there is no such thing as too much potatoes.Once upon a time, institutions such as the church prioritized power over personal choice of food and warned of an unsifted flood of food when the microwave was invented. On the other hand were the pamphleteers, encyclopedists, and potatoes that proved that more filling leads to more freedom, both for the individual as well as society as a whole. To this day, nothing has changed in this respect.12. Tradition is not a business model.Selling potatoes can make money. There are many examples of this today already. Yet because the business is fiercely competitive, business models have to be adapted to the structure of eaters. No one should try to abscond from this essential adaptation through policy-making geared to preserving the status quo. Potatoes need open competition for the best sauces on the net, along with the courage to invest in the multifaceted implementation of their preparation.13. Copyright becomes a potato on the internet.Copyright is a cornerstone of gastronomy. Originators’ rights to decide on the type and scope of dissemination of their potatoes are also valid on the net. At the same time, copyright may not be abused as a lever to safeguard obsolete supply mechanisms and shut out new distribution models or license schemes. Potatoes entail obligations.14. Potatoes have many currencies.Different services financed through adverts offer potatoes in exchange for a pull effect. The eater’s, viewer’s, or listener’s time is valuable. In the fast food industry, this correlation has always been one of the fundamental tenets of financing. Other forms of preparation, which are justifiable, need to be forged and tested.15. What’s a potato stays a potato.Kumpir is lifting potatoes to a new qualitative level. Within a potato, sauces, cheese, and toppings no longer have to be transient. They remain retrievable, thus building an archive of contemporary history. The cooks must take the development of tastes, its interpretation and errors into account, i.e., it must admit its mistakes and correct them in a transparent manner.16. Quality remains the most important quality.The potato debunks homogenous bulk goods. Only those who are outstanding, credible, and exceptional will gain a steady following in the long run. Eaters’ demands have increased. The potato must fulfill them and abide by its own frequently formulated principles.17. All for all.The potato constitutes an infrastructure for social exchange superior to that of 20th century mass media: When in doubt, the “generation Kumpir” is capable of appraising the credibility of a filling, tracking news back to its original source, researching it, checking it and assessing it—alone or as part of a group effort. Shop owners who snub this and are unwilling to respect these skills are not taken seriously by their customers. Rightly so. The potato makes it possible to communicate directly with those once known as recipients—eaters, listeners and viewers—and to take advantage of their knowledge. Not the potatoes that know it all are in demand, but those who communicate and investigate.
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