noochi

I tweeted it and I put it on Facebook and I need it here too. Inbflat.net

In Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls, and developed with contributions from users. The videos can be played simultaneously — the soundtracks will work together, and the mix can be adjusted with the individual volume sliders.

A gorgeous bonus to this wonderful discovery, was getting acquainted with Science for Girls. Wonderful music, nicely laid out. Thank you. Also to @lauramaki for the link! Enjoy!

tags:community, education, empowerment, music

We, citizens of the world, can inhabit and thus apply social technologies with world-improving impact as a result.

Guideline #1 use social technology mainly for subject matters.
Guideline #2 research sources and be explicit about how little you know.

My drive for posting this is that I too have realized the enormous power and potential of social networks and Twitter in particular, yet the amount of crap that is published and stored ALL-the-friggin’ time deeply concerns me. But what is waste and what is not? We have great search features and simple ways of navigating to avoid crap, so what do I care? First, I still spend too much time sorting. Second, its a waste of brain capacity. Accumulated, globally, the nonsense is a disastrous waste.

Guideline #1: Use social technology mainly for subject matters

All kinds of concerns are mainstream in social media circles. Who can we trust? How can we measure Return on Influence, or return on involvement? How can we ensure a culture of critical consumers? How can we make sure we are not manipulated or passing on hear-say iformation? In case you doubt whether this is a relevant concern, meet the YES men. Brilliant eye-opener for understanding how much crap seemingly serious people with an alleged professionalism will take in or overhear. So how can we ensure that people listen carefully to each other, and take proper action to ensure they do the right things and know what and why they believe. The only answer is to take matters into our own hands, and contribute in the right places.

Community-building and the great reach of the web have been studied and dissected for decades, although the enormous potential for effective civil discourse and transparency are only relatively slowly being explicitly recognized. But theory and practice are very different. We are still in the process of applying social media into our lives, forcefully led by the free social platforms.

It takes commitment to understand a subject. There is a lot about everything. At our fingertips. I can understand why many feel that keeping up is not worth the efforts. It is time-consuming, demanding of attention, and its very hard to form an independent opinion. Those who do, are often against. Against Facebook… until they are forced in there through peer pressure or to follow causes and activities that are not announced elsewhere. Against Twitter… out of the sympathetic notion that they don’t fucking care what Chuck Norris eats for breakfast or how Janet Jackson communicates during mourning. These people feel sorry for people like me. Very often, I prefer the company of strangers with a similar interest in a subject that concerns or moves me over that of familiar faces with no expertise or matter of interest. The Facebook-deniers will claim that I must be very lonely, ‘not have a life’, live on the www. Become alienated from the ‘real world’ where people (ideally) give physical hugs, smell the roses and grow biodynamic vegetables.

To not add too much to this lengthy blog post: don’t feel sorry for me! I very much appreciate that feeling and sensing the world, and that the most local of engagements, are keys to life quality and happiness.

However, the world is not in balance yet. And we all have an individual obligation to make improvements. To make something better. For someone. Originality is not crucial unless you are an artist or a better blogger. What we all come across in social media themselves is that repetition is key for the reach. Viral effects. Marketers of course know this. So I feel fine about re-tweeting, re-blipping and speaking my mind, although others make similar points. That is where the strength is. And trying to influence your friends is a good thing. I can choose when I want to be kept informed. Decide for myself if I need to support or protest or raise a red flag somewhere. And having direct access to the lives of experts within any field is an absolute blessing.

An example of Democracy at work. Locally.
In Denmark, the population on Facebook reflects that of society. If you have an appealing message, it will get through. That’s why there were 25000 of us on a joint evening stroll through the streets of Copenhagen the other night. We demonstrated against the Danish government’s decision to brutally deny Iraqi victims of war asylum in Denmark. Social networks (FB) and sms were the media used to inform and gather people. This demonstrates the new Power. Well-facilitated Civil Action.

At the same time, this exact strength, the reach, the fact that everyone is there, is the weakness of mainstream networks… No disrespect to former class mates and whatnots… but frankly, we don’t all have so much in common. All a matter of settings, of course… but what’s the point if you don’t want to share? What’s the point in connecting if you don’t care? It’s a matter of definition of course, what art is. Every status line is a social graffiti. It intrudes your attention. But you have to care. Promote quality only.

Guideline #2 research sources and be explicit about how little you know.
So, who am I to talk? Reasons to validate sources are numerous. I have a Master in Arts and read a curriculum for the years 1994-2000 and forgot it again. But I’ve witnessed how academic methods from all faculties apply quite beautifully to corporate practices, at least in the IT, publishing and travel industries, which are corners I’ve been to myself. I know that the best practice for decision-making is to:

Obviously, decision-making requires access to information. That’s old news. But our relatively new and exorbitant access to information calls for more decisions and actions. From us all. From you, as a citizen and as work force. We are entitled to an opinion based on the facts at hand, but we need evidence and testimony (I think this is what Chris Brogan’s new book ‘Trust Agents‘ is about). Its more important than ever to have reliable sources.

An example of why you need your own opinion
Reporters, previously known as oracles, are realizing that they know very little about what they report. Just as millions of us, who publish, and whose words are crawled and indexed quickly. This can be a bad thing, but I don’t think it is. I think Kiva, Wikipedia, citizen-journalism and open source ultimately rock. As long as we govern each other, we are more than fine! But we should always keep in mind whose words we are reading, and form our own opinion. This is just my report from Blip.fm, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. These are, in that order, my main sources for understanding the power of social networks.

So, who am I to talk? It’s easy to be the expert on social media, as it stares you in the face. I feel happy and confident that Kevin Kelly and Chris Brogan say it better. I think it is interesting to speak about it, because there are so many more rights and wrongs to discover, and because we are so not there yet. We are still at the beginning of an era! And I am very, very grateful to take part in the further development.

tags:democracy, new socialism, trust

i’ve been meta-tweeting recently. many have for a long, long time. henriette weber, web connaisseur extraordinaire, i do believe, was the one who introduced me to microblogging in her jaiku days. i vividly remember she said to use it to know it. and i wanted to. that really is years ago! 2006, i think. it took me this long to embrace it to the level where i pass on her piece of advice with confidence. and i’m not even fully convinced. 90% there. 85. in making my mind up that its a good thing that our inevitable use of social technologies will make the world truly one.

today, for example, the top 5 trending topics on twitter are: #havetoadmit (i’m sure there are some good secrets out there, but i couldn’t find any of interest before deciding it was a time waste to look), #chrisisadouche (useless, waste of time), Chuck Norris, Michael Jackson, Pirates. i have no use for any of this. i can’t imagine who does. google hot trends also don’t impress me at all.

cold coffee break
‘progress’ can have a high price. ab fab’s daughter told me that costa rican farmers don’t get to decide for themselves what crops to seed. they drink imported coffee, even though they produce plenty to supply themselves and others. this sucks. big time. everyone should try to supply their local area. our self-preservation instinct should not be surpressed by national or global regulations. even when it’s produced cheaper elsewhere. and so for practical reasons we still need to divide the planet into nations. divide the land that can or can not be used for a variety of things.

yet cultural characteristics dissolve. we become more like each other. we grow a mutual understanding that spites national borders. it doesn’t matter where you’re from. online, we are equal! and i think that is bloody great! it’s a miracle. like the steam power, electricity. the plane, the phone, laser, what have you. now, an amazingly smooth transport of data. so smooth that it empowers our relations all over the world. as a consequence, our interesting differences and national idiosyncrasies become less interesting. they kind of have to step aside, so we can get to business. we focus on what we have in common. and i so hope, that we will use our relatively new power tools to speed up fairness in every sense of its meaning. fair trade, good governance. good policies. sustainability. quality art and thought. not to all waste our precious time on this planet looking through chuck norris facts, wrongfully thinking the trend must have a useful point.

a brief corporate status
in the corporate world, we use advanced it-systems to align our efforts (to make the $$ circulate) across borders already. certainly makes reporting a lot less of a hassle. actually… if you do well, there is no need to report at all. the real benefits of transparency have become very clear to me. transparency frees resources. allows you to focus. frees resources to define what you want to do, instead of what you’re already doing. top management (be it yourself or some gray-haired guys whom you trust to know what they’re doing, so much so that you’ve decided to work for them) adds it all up, and decides what to do with the profits (or whatever it adds up to these days). i have enough experience to observe that this is a best practice. when you have all available facts gathered up, or when you judge that you have sufficient, you are armed to make the right decisions. in the right time, i should add. there’s no big mystery to it.

as the facts roll in (be it corporate reports or feeds from peers around the world), you are still obliged to wonder if things can be done even better. this is what makes you invest in development. on making more good ideas a reality, and of meeting demands of a picky market place. and we can. the world is now technologically armed with this ability. the world has gotten so much smaller. we’re using the same systems. we pour data into the same pool. we learn from each other, and educate each other. and take upon us to share. thoughts, ideas, notions. preferably fact-checked insights. we must govern ourselves well. make the right decisions. gather the facts. take good advice, and offer it. and not least, you must take appropriate action. in the areas where your powers matter the most. very much available online. use it.

take in the good, don’t get caught up in the useless
systems can come up with suggestions, you can get ideas on your own. with full access to the world, it’s more important than ever, to pick the good vibes. the good ideas. the sustainable thoughts. of course it will clutter. of course we have a need to share also the ‘useless’ details about our lives… such as what we’re eating, buying, appreciating, fascinated with, and that’s okay. that’s how we get a feel for whom our peers really are. helps us feel normal. human. all right.

i believe it’s human nature to want progress. it certainly is my nature. and technology, the free social platforms in particular, give mankind an enormous potential and humbling power to make the world better. be constructive with what you share. pick the good stuff. try to have a majority of positivity in what you share. be critical, always. but focus on the good. as we pile our interests together, i believe we do want a greener and more sustainable planet. raise your voice for what you believe in. and don’t forget to (trans)act.

tags:act, community, democracy, globalization, twitter

Wikipedia, Flickr, and Twitter aren’t just revolutions in online social media. They’re the vanguard of a cultural movement. Forget about state ownership and five-year plans. A global collectivist society is coming—and this time you’re going to like it.

that’s wired’s kevin kelly in The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online. for so long i have wanted to write a proper blog post about this new socialism i am so very happy to be a part of. but i have to face, that when i’m at my most uptight ambitious, my energy is not spent on this blog. this blog is for recreation. creativity. curiosities. well-being. and expression. of which at least the latter has been used up. and so for a while instead of blogging, i spend my evenings listening to all kinds of music in the one world. blipping is also expression, but a very undemanding one. it expresses your taste in music. and the bits of your personality or pov that you care to share. this is the web. where japan greets you good morning at night. and where colleagues across the atlantic take over when you leave work. few hours to talk and chat and webex and share, but we’re interacting and that is the norm. the web empowers us all. as prosumers. creating, sharing, interacting. with individuals and companies. with the ones who get it. we all have to get it, and will eventually.

but for now, ladies & gentlemen who come across this post in search of insights on the new socialism, although in the light end of it, blip.fm stays on the front page. enjoy.

tags:blip, community, music, new socialism

just to let copenhagen blippers in particular know that i am in a fruitful dialog with gigia at blip.fm. this is in regards to the first blip’nbeer copenhagen. i thought it would be april 2nd, but now, i think not. will update as soon as i know. it will take place at mono bar, and if you have a laptop with a webcam (i know you do. my zepto doesn’t), please bring it. all others are more than welcome at mono too. if no one else, i’ll do the blipping. if you disagree that i have a flair for music, then blip in.

tags:blip, community, music, party

The Machine from mudlevel on Vimeo.

enjoy this gorgeous work of art from mudlevel at vimeo.com. i found it at rumkammerat / space comrade.

tags:art, generousity, genius, inspiration, sustainability

tags:blip, community, music

blips twits tittles… it must be that instant feedback on every single thing you do that makes the social services so darn appealing! addictive. it is a kick to be acknowledged by someone out in the great wide world who liked what you digged, who propped what you blipped, who rated what you stumbled, who liked your twit. for one weird reason or another. and you want to check out what they blipped, digged, twittered, stumbledupon too… because maybe you also like what they like, and all of a sudden you are listening to the eels or master blaster jammin while reading about some danish artist with a cool name and considering how to make a paper plane (as you can also find peer support to do the green thing, to make this world a better one). appreciating things that have been made with seemingly great passion and contagious devotion.

if you put all your profiles together they might give a pretty good picture of the way you see things. because you’re not on your own. we appreciate together what we share because we share what we appreciate. also to potentially obtain some kind of feedback. or at least giving others a chance to consume or perfect our thoughts. humans thrive on feedback. that’s what makes us grow. develop. that will perhaps even enlighten us one day. perhaps we are not getting enough of feedback offline. in our jobs and from network, friends and family. that’s what makes us use the www as a source to know that we exist and are not alone with what we fancy.

and i am sharing this clever analysis, it so seems. it was probably made a couple of hundred times before. it makes me a poor blogger to not research this, but i’ll leave it up to you, to check out and analyze yourself. you have to use the social services to understand their true dynamics. i think wiki is the safest place to find a list of social networking services although its certainly not complete. make your pick. dive in to the sea of algorithms.

tags:community, crowdwisdom, eco friendly, green thing, inspiration, participation

so, we’re finishing off yet another sweet year in the land of the rich and slightly overweight. a year of war, recession and great need for new hope. another year of international distress. and we finish a year on the web, where rich and poor connect. as one world. of information that is brought to life by friend and foe - to enrich and empower us. one web and one people. peers and experts in all shades and forms. and arts that bring smiles, reflection (and prolong the overheating of my #¤%&@son-of-a-gun-i-paid-too-much-for-this-pile-of-S#¤%-zepto-w-vista)!

style stands illustrated. for 2008 anyhow. the year i said goodbye to the travel industry. quit my job - kept working hard. took on another. moved to christianshavn. with my ab fab o. met his delightful ‘kids’. got some of my long-gone friends back (i still love to go out with you although you have a terror squad sweet children waiting at home). also through facebook (i salute you, liv & dea in particular). other friends less present. i hope its just a phase. my new job brings me back downtown.

except for strong wishes to upgrade this blog, go to jamaica (life is good, man), visit will in minneapolis and perhaps go to italy also, i am not sure what 2009 will bring. that’s the nature of time. but i am standing well on my 2 feet. i look forward to starting my new job. with all good, fun, competent and passionate people. how can it not be great? and i look forward to follow the seasons change from my fifth floor apartment. and to get to know everyone better. family, colleagues and friends (not necessarily in that order). my modest new year resolution is that i will know what i am doing, why and with whom! not to eliminate spontaneity and surprises, but to live with acceptance and joy. with understanding of other people’s behavior and patterns. makes sense?

now that i’ve thought it through… that would work for the entire world… on the condition of course that the world share a few key values of peace, love and respect. let the web rule for democracy and for equality through communication and sharing! may God protect the Web from any evil hackers or foul terrorists! let the coolest developers, hackers, entrepreneurs, communicators and artists work their magic in favor of the good! you do it so well!! let’s get rid of the overweight. let’s even it out! balance, man! balance! throw in your coins. throw in yourself. give back. share!

friend or stranger! i know i have your attention right now! for the first time i ask you directly: please make a comment to share your resolution or 2009 wishes (editor will only roughly spam-check). come on… just do it (any language will do)!

with love and with hopes of a memorable and positive 2009 for you and for mankind,
n

tags:democracy, family, friendship, love, new year

for various reasons i missed barcamp copenhagen which was held yesterday. but from the twits from probably the coolest geeks in my network, my guess is that nabaztag is the new black. and damn’! is this little adoptable rabbit adorable.

this little tai chi mastering rabbit literally speaks for your network, alerts, calendar, mailbox, radio, time manager and for other nabaznauts (who can even send songs and more to each other) based on your personal settings. this might actually drive you very crazy very quickly, but that’s just a matter of settings (i would hope!)! this clever rabbit can also read books or blogs out loud for you. all that monsieur rabbit needs to work like this is a wifi router. check it out (remember sound)! or join the nabaztag community before i do…

tags:community, irl, nabaztag, social audio