noochi

22nd of september is declared earth day for the internet by one web day (since 2006). this year’s topic is “online participation in democracy”. to honor this initiative, here’s my modest say on the topic:

reach. kiva.org, micro-lending site, loans that change lives. kiva has experienced such a spike in traffic that very often, there are no entrepreneurs left to lend to. they’re all funded and transaction stats are out in the open. the organization simply can’t keep up with people’s willingness to give in this way. what a potential!!! huge!!! if organized in the right way, this concept could change the balance of this world into a better one!

money doesn’t do it. a cool friend of mine works as a new media fund raiser for red cross… she makes use of e.g. youtube& facebook to get the message across. almost a must in b2c. and so the channels for utilizing viral qualities from peer to peer are heavily explored exploited for commercial interests which clutter the space and makes it extremely difficult to get through the noise… if the message is strong enough, if your home video is truly funny (no link on purpose), if the interface makes it easy to act while people are there, you can involve them. with no other resources than your internet connection and your right to communicate. corporations spend sick amounts trying and failing.

perspective. i laughed loud and from the gut… quite a few times before i had enough. watch the richter scales‘ interpretation of the new bubble below (i too have a web millionaire inside who hasn’t come out yet!). they even predict that we all blog about them… the wannabees and the failed entrepreneurs. but also just people for whom it adds life quality to get a new outlook on things from the comfort of their own sofas, and who share taste and humor. peers and experts in all fields. they’re here.

voice. this blog has an average of 10 daily visits… and it holds very few comments. however, the people who did comment, mainly commented because i wrote my opinion about them. and they responded. that makes me proud… that is also practicing democracy. it gives me a strong feeling of safety as a human being. that i can speak my mind… even if it is in a way that clutters the space… and there is a chance that the right people hear it.

coordination. before i get too ceremonious, i also think stumbleupon demonstrates a kind of e-democracy, even if its a little bit passive for participation… and even if it has, and may increasingly have, a strong commercial aspect (according to this interesting article that i stumbledupon on… humpf… tophostingcenter.com) … our voices as consumers of products as well as information count. and mass culture is perhaps not as dangerous on the internet as elsewhere, because we have become so brilliant at searching and sorting through to the information we want. tophostingcenter.com posted an interesting pov and is immediately remunerated.

more e-democracy heroes at one web day for your web education. these folks probably know better…tags:blogging, democracy, kiva, participation

i’ve explored claircasts, podcasts (all in danish) made by jette harthimmer, clairvoyant and award-winning podcaster. she explained to me, in a very charming and transferable way, the meaning of life. it is about listening to your intuition and to give something back. very true. and i listened (for 2 full hours!) to jette harthimmer interviewing martin thorborg, godfather of danish entrepreneurs, speaking about life and business in a very inspiring way. what i brought with me from the martin thorborg podcast:

free is worth so much more than 0,001 cent, so give real value away. no bull shit.

add on and charge after you gave it away.

live your dreams – if for nothing else, to avoid waste of your life regretting that you didn’t.

say no to ad offers and phone sales men. stick to pr. its efficient and its free.

keep your focus in one place.

FACE YOUR SHIT. don’t fool yourself. stop making excuses. life doesn’t start when you go on vacation, it’s right here.

re-evaluate the norms and revise them.

don’t settle for less. mediocrity sucks. and it sucks big time!

a great idea is worth nothing in the hands of incompetent people.

give your best ideas away. get it out and get over it. enjoy that others prove it… or prove it wrong.

don’t worry. you’ll get another idea. and it will not be a problem.

clever guy. more instructions for life. keep it simple. you are the captain of your own soul. the captain of your own soul is you.tags:belief, entrepreneurs, feelgood, freeconomics, listening, podcasts

for a number of years, i have sponsored a little family in kap verde through bornefonden. i pay a monthly fixed amount and a number of money gifts. in return, i get an annual report on how the family is doing, and thank you letters for each extra gift. the thank you letters include a complete list of what was bought, typically a sack of rice, a gallon of oil, a pair of shorts and a pack of crackers and similar extremely modest purchases… no wiis and whatnot there. this concept has a very good educational/ moral aspect to it, as in addition to helping someone in need, it puts my own purchases in heavy contrast. however… this is mainly done for me, which makes me wonder if the resources couldn’t have been spent better. isn’t there a way to achieve transparency and a sense of a personal relation, without wasting resources on the feel-good-factor? of course there is. thanks to good people and the wonderful web:

kiva.org is the answer… its a person-to-person micro-lending website that allows you to support a lot of different types of entrepreneurs in the developing world. Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. i have just made my first donation (help me to upgrade this 26 year old father of 2 who works with mobile phones in tajikistan now!). all are worthy causes! and i hear from others - and can see on the website - that you may very well get your money back… it is a loan, and in principle not a donation. not much to think about is there..? only who/ how many and how much. don’t be cheap… it does not become you.

this is what the world needs.

tags:community, feelgood, generousity, kiva, micro lending, sustainability

thanks to inreallife.dk, i feel inspired on several levels! i attended a really good lecture/ workshop on community building today, where a very competent and charming expert on communities, portuguese pedro custodio (developer at sapo, the biggest portal/community in portugal) shared his insights. the key take-aways (to me), were

better understanding/ awareness of why facebook and linkedin for example work so well/ have become so popular (consistent use of calls-to-action, “neighbours”/awareness effect… such as “you may know…”, timelines and aliveness indicators etc.)

and of why other communities don’t (e.g. lack of sponsors, support, transparency and ease of use)

and my ideas for how to make a step-wise community for my employer got fuelled (e.g. use personalization/ user profile gimmicks with comments, have a free flowing/ non-themed area, expand ranking options)

on top of a really good lecture, i am impressed with inreallife.dk - founded by the pretty cool chicks henriette weber and laura kiralfy, and with their approach to networking and seemingly to the world. i felt extremely old-school when asking henriette if they were planning on making money with their newest initiative… as if that was key…

i have previously written that money makes the world go ’round… i am not taking that back, but i have put my apartment up for sale… i am so “#¤%&*>¤ privileged that it would be an awful shame to use money as an excuse not to carry out more experiments (with that said, i also really feel like getting some experience with community building, which i have great opportunity for, in my current job). it’s all good! thank you henriette, laura and pedro! have a pleasant reboot.

tags:community, freeconomics, irl

the web’s core is about search. that is why i see great potential in travel tuner, made by brilliant design student maria. it explores a new, intuitive approach to search, using traveling as an example. it allows you to navigate within different parameters (people/ crowd, city life and nature) and to add sound levels and color toning to each. from these, travel tuner submits a search query to a travel tuner group on flickr, that you would not likely have put together yourself. my own intuitive searches may not have produced the most useful results, but that is not the point.

the point is that searching is not what it used to be! there is no right answer, or right result. more often than not, we don’t really know what we are looking for. we want to see and explore the world, the physical one, as well as the virtual one that is right at the end of our fingertips. this is of course also why we have started stumbling and digging and whatnot. and progressive shops like etsy, offers various ways to shop; by color, user ratings etc. - knowing that their customers don’t really need anything… they are merely searching for things they might like, and so the searching becomes the most important “need identifier”… turning browsers into buyers.

by actively involving the user’s semi-conscious preferences and curiosity, travel tuner meets a need. the web offers something on everything you can think of. but your imagination may not be strong enough, or your needs not explicit enough, for you to take yourself to the site or search results that will meet your needs. therefore, travel tuner is not only a good idea, and carried out in a very sweet and cool manner… but i think maria’s contribution to the scene of search has the potential of being a very powerful one. i wish her great success and loads of fun and good fortune!

tags:design, search, talent, trends

slightly geeky post, i know, but… i have installed:

i love social bookmarking - see the in the top of the sidebar? i think it is so sweet that i will completely ignore the fact that it doesn’t work in explorer (used by 42% of noochi’s visitors (firefox is far better anyway! used by 52% of noochi’s visitors). you can now easily become my first fan - heh heh - or for the less advanced; share my brilliant posts with your facebook entourages

spamfree - oh, sweet bliss! saves me the disappointment when thinking a real human made a comment here (and eliminates my nervousness when bulk moderating all comments for spam).

google analytics for wordpress i love google analytics (visitor statistics for web sites)… however, in comparison to the stats i have in my web hotel, my new plugin seems to capture a lot less traffic (it must be filtering spiders - as well as myself - from the blog stats)… and also fewer (and different) search words… who cares. its quite normal.

thank you, thank you - cool code-sharing people: milienzo, webgeek and joost de valk. you make me love the web even more (if that is at all possible!). tags:appreciation, blogging, plugins, sharing, software

if i lived in NY i would join a mindpetals event. mindpetals is a community for thinkers, seekers and innovators, founded by david askaripour, and targeted towards young entrepreneurs who want to make a difference. the founder also wrote a book (!) about the journey towards successful entrepreneurship. i like the site, and i like the tagline:

ideas to change the world
actions to preserve the environment

i wish the best of luck and success for mindpetals. inspiring! if you like mindpetals you may also like helmar.org’s inspired mind - a cool german ‘crm guru’ based in south africa, and who believes in sustainability.

tags:community, idea generation, inspiration, new york

never before have my finger tips felt so good, touching my laptop’s touch pad. try jacksonpollock by miltos manetas (from 2003). its therapeutic and addictive. it rocks!

if you like this, you may also like flashface and scribbler and sketchswap. thank you, stumbleupon! you already know me so well!

tags:daydreams, drawing, painting, web art

2 great sites - found on springwise - for involving your friends in your pet projects. whether it be making a wrong right or saving for something special: chip in.

Springwise writes:

The Point takes the notion of the tipping point—that point at which group action will produce a clear result and inevitable change—and applies it to organizing group efforts. Those who join a campaign pledge to take specific action—to boycott a company, for example, or donate funds toward a cause—but no one actually acts until the campaign reaches its preset tipping point, or number of pledged participants. When that point is reached, however, the action is triggered and participants make their donations, attend the event or boycott the organization.

springwise writes:

SmartyPig offers a safe, secure way for consumers to save towards a specific goal—a wedding, remodeling project or vacation, for example—and it adds a dash of social networking and added incentives to speed up the process.

tags:community, financial services, idea generation

6billionothers is the most heart-warming site i’ve seen in a long time (thank you, ab fab o, for sending!). it beats postsecret by far. yann arthus-bertrand has interviewed people from all over the world (while photographing the earth from above), about their thoughts and feelings towards life, love, death, joy, childhood, fears and hopes. do not click the images unless you have at least an hour to spend with these beautiful people of the world…

with no comparison to the site above, as this is a different genre, the wooster collective that celebrates cool street art, excites me. see for example this inflatable dog (i want to experiment with some plastic in my own hood. it so beautifully illustrates that less is more) or go to wooster collective’s site to see more cool and moving works of art.


hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah!tags:inflatable, love, photos, streetart, web art