And I think it’s one of the most inspirational things you can know about people, it makes sense to me to actually perspective it into what they are doing now.

Anyway my first job out of college was for apple computers back in 1999. I literally went from my classroom to Cork, Ireland to help build up their european support center which is still located in the same spot today.

This was before Apple Computers where cool! this was when Steve Jobs went back to working at Apple computers ( he did that while I was there)

I even promised myself after troubleshooting mac’s in english, danish, swedish, norwegian, french and finnish (!) that I would never get a mac because I deeply thought that the OS sucked ( and it wasn’t compatible with windows)..
I am deeply in love with my 2,5 year old macbook pro still ( and that comes from a girl who used to wear a pc laptop out in a year or so.

Both me and Apple has come a long way since then.

And I am deeply convinced that my life would have looked differently if I wouldn’t have worked at apple as my first job out of college.

When I got back to Denmark I was literally sucked into a new computer startup and I haven’t really worked for anything else than something evolving the internet. It’s partly Apple’s fault I’m sure.

so what about you - did you first job out of college shape you as much as mine did ?

I have been watching her when she has been playing around on my computer and it’s really amazing to see how her patterns have changed.

Still - what would you think is her favorite things to do on the computer ? - it’s not playing games on the internet. it’s not taking silly pictures with photobooth. It’s the word processor.

Really- she loves anything that can make her learn. When she’s completely cracking up - it is mostly due to her berzerking on the keyboard -and then having mom and dad pronouncing what she has written. Awesome.

here’s a little treat of hers for you :

see it more clearly on my flickr account

she also likes to watch youtube. I know. We talk about social media all the time, but she’s 4 and her favorite thing is the word processor. it makes me wonder. maybe the “blank page” is the more creative app after all.

Yeah. I think so too.

Also one of the newest and simplest things I have found lately is justwatchthesky.com - enjoy - as close to a blank page as it gets..

Anyways I have been researching a bit during the last couple of days, due to my work with Koblo.com -and the key that I found was in good’old Chris Andersons book “the long tail” where he basically argues the winning situation the niche’s has over mainstream - and he even uses music communities as an example ! -

So the argument is battled between the mainstream hitlist vs. recommendation algorithms in a community.

Somehow as the mainstream disappears, the hitlists becomes irrelevant. Or to put it more clearly - I don’t care about a pop chart hitlists if I am into rock’n'roll. Or maybe I do, but I will always get more relevant data if I get a rock’n'roll hitlist..

So RELEVANCY algorithms are key for music communities - as relevancy algorithms are key on amazon.com for books.

so in general hitlists are becoming obsolete - unless they are relevant and “up close” to the users.

it’s kindoff the same idea that is spreading like a wildfire through the advertisement industry - to make ads seem like “relevant information” to the users so they wont notise that it’s an ad…

smart thinking =)

oh - this is crossposted on the koblo blog

What site do you visit first thing in the morning (after your blog)?

Actually I don’t visit my blog first - I think it’s gmail and then possibly some social networking site and 2 - 3 categories in my feedreader. Also I tend to visit greengirlsglobal.com for whom I have been blogging for a good while now. Then my clients sites to start my working hours for the day.

Name a service that you recently discovered and like?

Hm. that would be podcastmachine, actics and IRL- but a little disclaimer is that a couple of friends are working on them (I am working on IRL myself - and I think it’s a brilliant idea). They do have a huge thing in common though: Vision to change the world, awesome. I don’t know if it’s a service but I am really into the 365days group on flickr these days. It my little creative project…

A blog whose design has impressed you?

My very favorite blogdesign (still) is la petite claudine - I simply love her header - and her blog…

A widget that would really help out but which doesn’t exist yet?

I think all kind of practical proximity widgets has a long way to go still. They really have to be convenient for the users though - otherwise I don’t like widgets…

The last 2.0 book that you’ve read?

I am currently reading presentation zen ( the book), and I finished Clay Shirky’s “here comes everybody” back in April - oh and I am terribly happy for my “how to be a rock star freelancer” book.

An online service that you think will become indispensable?

I really hope that actics will come indispensable, or dothegreenthing - basically services that makes you change the world.

A service that should exist because it’s sorely needed?

I don’t know if it’s a service - but a decision making mechanism that can change the world without have 50 politicians agree upon something before there’s action. I think the world really needs that now. Decisions and actions - no more talking. But services that encourage actions are sorely needed. Services that makes people change their everyday patterns for more sustainability are sorely needed.

i think ethical proximity is gonna be huge in the future.

A blogger or net-entrepreneur whose work you admire?

I really admire people on their way up struggling, who succeeds in the end because of hard work. I admire J C Fischer for putting out his book ( he even made a dedication to me in it !!!!) and I truely and utterly admire Laura Kiralfy who is my partner for the inreallife.dk network for her creativity and her ways of action. Otherwise I will say Chris Messina - for his work with both Barcamps and Coworking… rock on guys.

Im passing the survey on to - well Sanjay (who we are interviewing for Geek Army Knife tonight) and to Elmine

Now please help me out and go and vote for it so I can get to write the manifesto…

oh this is crossposted on henrietteweber.com

all that mattered in Punk Rock was that you had something to say, it didn’t really matter if you played your instrument in the best way possible, as long as you had the courage to speak your ways of the world.

There are huge similarities between punk rock and the web. One of them is that because the entry of creativity was lowered massively with the punk rock outburst in the 70s… The entry of creativity is very low right now because of the web. because of the long tail (Chris Anderson also covers this subject in his “the long tail”.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/negrilli/2249288405

Most importantly the web has democratized the tools of creativity, - no wait it has made them completely free!… No matter what content you would like to put out there, what ideas you have, you can spur them of in a minute. So there are HUGE resemblances between Punk Rock and the web. Maybe it has spurred from the same rebellion against the “right thing” - or “normality”..?

one of the things that was a major inspiration to me was Peter Rukavina’s session on “working for free”. It moved me deeply to see how involved Peter was in his local community and how he liked to do stuff for free - for a greater cause of his own (fx. deciding to do the mailinglist of the local coffee shop to attract more customers, so it won’t close down and he could have his favorite coffee everyday).

It makes sense to me because Peter are doing these initiatives to make himself happy. Really this is a wonderful thing actually springing from a selfish wish to maintain the status quo - or changing it for the better of his local community.

This presentation showed me how proactive you could be about your surroundings, and how much action and passion you can put into the things you would like to see prosper.

I will see what I can fix out here in Hvissinge - when things comes up I will let you know.

While I was in the session I had an idea of a “working for free” wiki, working to encourage these things.. I don’t know how it would work in practice though.. it just stroked me as a great idea =)

It’s a network we made so Laura and I could act out our social entrepreneurship within a framework - and open up the danish web scene for more people.

But TODAY we are having our first workshop - starring the one and only Pedro Custodio who was in Copenhagen anyway for the reboot conference.

The workshop is about Community building and it is a more advanced form of workshop…

I have huge secret ambitions with IRL and I think it has a lot of potential to actually create a network of professional web enthusiasts…. It has been a good start even though we possibly hitted it off to ambitiously. So the workshop today is free =) and we’re about 15 people who will be playing with communities togethere with Pedro…, there’s still room for 2 -3 persons more if you’re interested…

I think it’s gonna rock=)

The reason we started talking about this was that one of our friends has made a web application and he is only picking bits and pieces from a community marketing idea that I have helped him out with. This is my eyes, is of course, wrong. In my eyes, it means that the flow of this web app ( or of any online activity) is decreasing.

- it’s like blogging to make you look good, instead of blogging to be transparent, where you show the good, the bad, AND the ugly

The strength of all these wonderful new webtools is not just marketing - they are awesome as a package, and real awesome to give your company a conversational face on the internet - which is not just your webpage, but your profiles everywhere else.

You can’t be present everywhere (and you shouldn’t be).. but the tools that you choose to use, to “market” yourself.. you should use them fully. you should see them as your primary online marketing tool. and you should keep maintaining them and using them (kindoff like old networking strategies on new bottles)..

Flow is the experience that you give the user when he meets you, its what lulls him into the fantastic universe of well “everything you”. It’s where he starts to get you, to understand what you are about, what vision and mission you have, and most importantly: how you bring him value.

…

Oh and btw - I am looking forward to see ya’ll at reboot this thursday and friday, where I have listed a speaking proposal about “return on involvement”… also, tomorrow IRL is having a COMPLETELY FREE community workshop with Pedro Custodio at CBS…( send me a mail to join us =)

It said something like, “sign up for this group and invite all of your friends”.

Basically a lot of group invitations says that, but the way this was said make me tremble. They were using me as a catalysator for growth to become something bigger. Using people as catalysators is a great thing normally! - if:

- you use creativity to do it
- you don’t tell your motives
- you attach your motives to storytelling
- you tell stories about everything BUT yourself

So you basically have to be silent about yourself.
Wrap your motives in stories.
be creative.
Think about what data you think would give a lot of value to your users ( and it’s often not data about yourself)