Influential Cooperative Weblog and Ersatz - Slashdot for the broader minded (German) Geek
Industrial Technology & Witchcraft is the brainchild of two interesting companies: highly regarded consulting and PR thinktank textlab and virtual conglomerate e-mediate Ltd. Initially designed to facilitate communication between partners and freelancers of the two companies, this website evolved from a pure instrument of communication between the various stakeholders as a simple messageboard to Germany's most influential weblog. With a strong bias towards all things Apple, this is a daily collection of oddities around the web, links to great literature and the odd good mp3. With textlab boss Manfred J. Heinze as benevolent dictator and editor in chief and a group of 5 regular contributors this is a darn good read, regularly lightened up by the cartoons of one Karl Bihlmeier, creator of the Amiga Cult Comic Hermann der User.
Initially hosted with Blogger, it slowly grew in size and was served using numerous technologies: Radio Userland, Coranto, pMachine and now the ExpressionEngine were all tried at various stages to make publishing and commenting as easy as possible, which certainly gives it an advantage compared to Slashdot and Heise.
The biggest impact by IT&W on the net-community and their greatest PR succes was the recent release of the lost 1984 presentation of the first Macintosh by Steve Jobs. Apparently a copy of this was slumbering in the archives of a IT&W reader who then digitized it from Beta and gave IT&W the rights to distribute it for free via Bittorrent. A must see for every Apple fan, this shows Steve Jobs in a jacket and a bow tie hopping around the Macintosh.
Awesome stuff.
http://www.industrial-technology-and-witchcraft.de