noochi

I want to recommend a book named Rettidig Omsorg - roughly translates Punctual Care - which is only available in Danish. That is its only flaw. The author is Jens Moberg, the highest ranking Dane in the history of Microsoft. Currently, he is the CEO of Better Place, in the creation of electrical cars and matching infrastructure. Something that requires good analytics. And he’s a real top-notch decision maker who manages to keep in real contact with the most humanistic and thus sustainable values for filtering the world. If you have the slightest interest in management and human behavior, I recommend this book. Its full of sweet graphics and wise quotes to remember too. My favorite is this:

If you want to be somebody, be yourself!

tags:belief, books, management

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

my brother’s masterpiece, a graphic novel entitled kom hjem (come home), is being graciously recognized and appreciated by the full danish press. before the reception at mono bar tomorrow. my heart and soul boost from thanks and childish pride that this artist and truly great person, thomas thorhauge, is my brother!

tags:art, family, graphic novels

joan marques at articlealley.com is the source of this 5 years old text, free for republishing. it reflects on what i wish to convey. although the title seems misleading as it explicitly doesn’t offer any guidance on how to learn and unlearn the right things, its an unpretentious and useful reflection on one of many facts of life.

The Art of Learning and Unlearning.
Any act at any time is a result of personality, circumstances, learning, and unlearning.

One’s personality is created while growing up. The circumstantial factors will have to be dealt with when they surface. But learning and unlearning are lengthy and ongoing processes. And very confusing and personal ones too! For, as many different teachers as one will encounter in life, as many different teachings will one come across as well.

There will be valuable teachings about the advantages of being thoughtful and conservative. And there will be valuable teachings about the advantages of being fast and radical.

There will be valuable teachings about the advantages of organization. And there will be valuable teachings about the advantages of chaos.

There will be valuable teachings about the advantages of being assertive. And there will be valuable teachings about the advantages of being introverted.

There will be lessons that preach the quality of diversity. And there will be lessons that preach the quality of homogeneity.

There is sense in selectively learning all these things, as much as there is sense in selectively unlearning all these things.

How, then, should one know which lessons are acceptable and which are not? How should one know which lessons should be preserved and which ones should be discarded? No direct answer is possible to that, as it all, again, depends on one’s circumstances and perceptions. Different situations may require entirely opposite approaches for succeeding, while different perceptions may lead different people to make different selections of approaches for similar circumstances.

The art of learning is to know how to be selective. The criteria for selectivity are nurtured by one’s personality. One’s personality, finally, is determined by one’s character, culture, gender and experiences.

No one will therefore be able to provide another with guidelines for the levels or criteria of selecting what parts to learn and what parts to unlearn. It all lies in the center of one’s own being, along with one’s value system, which will tell one “this is what I will remember; this is what I will forget; this is what I will apply; and this is what I will discard.”

Whether, then, one decides to immerse into business, engineering, writing, healing, law-enforcing, or serving in any other way: one will instinctively unpack the perceived proper set of learned minus unlearned behaviors, combined with the perceived proper set of natural behaviors, and one will apply this blend to one’s best capacities.

This, may serve as the proof that any act at any time is a result of personality, circumstances, learning, and unlearning.

It has been this way so far; it will be this way forever.

tags:act, learning, unlearning

my talented brother who gave me this drawing for my b-day is just elected chairman of the danish comics council (interview from dr2 on youtube). denmark needs the comics council to position comics as an art form that contributes to understanding various aspects of life. contributes to lifting the spirits of consumers, in the same way as other art forms have the potential to.

i strongly agree that comics has these powers. as an example, my brother gave me mixed double by johan f. krarup. a sweet and most suited gift, in particular for anyone who contemplates playing tennis running a personal ad.

thank you for doing and sharing.

tags:comics, family, generousity, graphic novels

following the phenomenal success of the love glove, i am proud to present another born to thrill innovation from the hands of my skilled and gifted mum. she’s made a bike saddle cover, and we call it the bee-bum-booster. it is really the ones after you on the bike trail, that gets the most pleasure out of this invention. you yourself of course, can enjoy placing your bottom on fine cotton, and of seeing your bike light up and greet you, wherever its parked. order your bee-bum-booster saddle cover now. one size fits all. and its only 45$. special requirements often accepted.

tags:bee bum booster, family, feelgood, knitwear, webshop

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