by Anke Laumann

To ride a bicycle is a good way to move around. It is easy, you do not need much power for it and it is fast. But it’s becoming more complicated when it is a tandem. Especially when it is a Language-Tandem. But Siri and Petra are able to cycle it together. With a lot of fun they manage the complex grammar in German – and in Finnish.

Assumed, you are an exchange student. Abroad. Thousands of  kilometres away from home. You would like to share your impressions with your family and friends. But it is the year 1860, maybe. The telephone has not been invented, no computer, even no internet. You would have to write letters. You often have to wait for a long time until they reach their destination.  Almost unbelievable from the nowadays point-of-view. We live in the often so called ‘information society’. We chat via instant-messanger, write E-Mails, share pictures, create blogs and homepages. The internet makes it possible. Under the expression ‘web 2.0’ more and more services are available. A new development is the virtual ‘social networks’. It means that you contact many different people over the web – and always for different purposes like job, sports or anything else. Among these networks one community is a fast growing one.   The Facebook (www.facebook.com), a community for students in the English-speaking countries. Established in 2004, it quickly grew. In December 2005 7.5 Million students were registered. The principle behind it is easy. You can create your own account: With a picture, and a lot of information. It begins with what you study and continues with your political opinion, the curses you take and the music you like. All the statements are – of course voluntary. But that alone makes it not to a network. The special feature is the possibility to add friends to a buddy list and also to arrange groups – many thousands are established already. From one member up to many hundreds or thousands of members. A huge potential and also a chance to meet new, interesting people – even though the networks were prior created to foster ‘real’ or non-virtual friendships.  The network is so successful, that the idea is already copied in other countries, like in
Germany. There the “Studiverzeichnis” looks as nearly the same as the English role model. And it is also successful. But it also has to deal  with some critics. They made twit the owners just to copy the facebook.com-appearance and –that is even worse – that they always illustrate it as their own ideas. Since a few weeks, reproaches like these are discussed in different blogs. Nevertheless. Never mind  - also the critics are overwhelmed by the success – like the owners too.  The ‘Studiverzeichnis’-group around founder Ehssan Dariani extends their activities. They are not only present in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland. They built up  -only during a few months – more social networks like their ‘Studiverzeichnis’ also in Spain, France and Poland. Perhaps it could be possible that they would be able to bring them together to a great European-wide social network for students all across the continent. That would be a great move, and would make the Euopean integration sensible in a new dimension.