Wide Angle

My Wide Angle- experiences from Warsaw and Stockholm

2009-11-10T20:33:00.003+01:00

My Wide Angle blog functioned first of all as a place for my thoughts and perspectives during my time at Farfar Academy and the internship at the digital agency Hypermedia in Warsaw. I like to share my thoughts about other cultures and places I go.

Ever since I got back home to Stockholm in May I put my focus elsewhere than blogging and that is why I decided to stop the engagement here. Not necessary to say I guess... I just like to put an end to things.

On the other hand, except from Twitter and Facebook - which is the places I go the most these days, I do need other places to "release" what´s on my mind. More than 140 charactars as well. Probably it will just be another blog - but in Swedish this time.

So... thanks for reading.

Problem with Blogger at the moment

2009-09-23T22:27:00.002+02:00

According to @blogger there is a problem with the gadget showing Twitter updates at the moment. That is why my own twitter updates on my blog is completely wrong delivering tweets from @undefined. Until the problem is solved please visit @lalexandersson.

Outstanding in the field

2009-09-07T16:40:00.007+02:00

- a culinary adventure

When I crawl the web for inspiring things I tend to get stuck in the food sector and the nice experience around dining. Amazing dinner concepts, a table with a view and stunning surroundings can be breathtaking but in the end it´s all about the ingredients. The importance of fresh ingredients (the cook should not use the gravy or lettuce leaf arrangements to hide things on the plate...). Sometimes a good combination of flavours almost make you cry :-)

This is why I like the idea of "Outstanding in the Field". You will have dinner under the sky, on a farm, garden, mountain or at ranches together with- and to celebrate the local farmers and food artisans, the cultivators of the food. You will experience the origins of the food you have on your plate. Back to basic and enjoy nature!

The chef and artist Jim Denevan is the founder and began staging Outstanding in the Field dinners at organic farms around his hometown of Santa Cruz, California back in 1999.

The locations of the arrangements have so far been in U.S, Alaska and Italy.

Now this is what I call a long table....

Sometimes the event is arranged in doors. Beautifully done!

News, news and some more news. But in which format?

2009-06-08T22:22:00.008+02:00

This is another blogpost about hyperlocal journalism

"The future exist - in Prague"
According to the article in Medievärlden (Swedish) the news desk of the future is in Prague. I found several comments about this project called "Nase Adresa" ("our address") created by PPF Media in Czech Republic. It´s a great example in my opinion. Journalists, editors and people from the street meet each other in coffe shops to create local news. Related article Futurroom

Seven local newspapers and seven "news coffee houses". I think this is logical. Local news comes from local people and what´s better, in a dialoge with journalists over a latte.

"Nase Adresa" planned to pull in stories from communities across the country and mix them with some international news. The final version is then fed back to the local websites.

The world is full of local neighbourhoods
The only difference today comparing to old days is that one person´s local neighbourhood is very close to your own, thanks to dialogus and citizen journalism. That is why I like Twitter. It´s impossible not to mention Twitter, in every blogpost, but it´s inevitable when you talk about media 2009.

Being hyperlocal in Stockholm, or?
The local newsdesk "Mitt i Stockholm", responsible for distributing 31 local newspapers every week to the city of Stockholm, has a lot to learn when it comes to the dialogue with the inhabitants online. The website "Mitt i" is absent in dialogue and content. For contact with the news desk you have to pick up the phone or use their mail form allowing 200 charactars, which is no match for a frequent Twitter user, but why not use Twitter instead.

There are so many possibilites for partnership and cooperation between the local businesses and the newspapers. This could be a valuable place online for the people whose everyday life is in the 31 areas.

The value of local contribution
The people power consist of individuals whose personal engagements and experiences generate eye witness reports and back up to other stories in real time. It´s important to keep a cultural diversity in the news.

It seems like people have increased their knowledge in global questions from being in the middle of the crowd powered media. This generates a higher level of disucssions and intrerest in contribute with news and comments. The threshold is low. That is why I think local peoples engagement in media and press should be taken seriously becuase everyone is more informed today and have the same source of information as journalists but different experiences. It´s beneficial for local media.

"Twitter isn´t journalism"
Did someone claim the opposite? The constant stream of news, comments, opinions, recommendations is the result when people use Twitter and many times bring people together. Sometimes I think the bad attitude to Twitter is about the format itself- the 140 charactars that may be the reason for not taking the content seriously or maybe it´s just by a principle. Bloggers are taken seriously, not everyone, but bloggers as powerful influencers is many people´s opinion. Twitter may be in micro blogging format but is not less powerful.
Related link "How Journalists are using Twitter in Australia" from 140charctar conference
-----

I would like to highlight a few good examples in crowdsourcing and citizen journalism in my opinion

EveryBlock - a news feed for you block (US) Everything about your city and your neighbourhood, a mix of news from journalists and citizens. EveryBlock´s attitude to contribution from the citizens: " If it’s in your neighborhood and it happened recently, it’s news on EveryBlock."

Find Los Angeles crime section to Washington D.C´s road construction projects or christmas trees. Choose the distance by block or by zip code.

On the screen shot below you can search restaurant inspections and the "violations points" for each reported restaurant in New York City.
This illustrate the violation point is evidence of MICE. Disguisting, but thanks for telling me! I wonder if they charge you extra for the mice or if you get a discount.

Ushahidi - Crowdsourcing crisis information platform (“testimony” in Swahili)
This is a project that allow anyone to submit crisis information through text messaging by using a mobile phone, e-mail, blogging to track and map crises in real time. A non profit cooperation between countries in Africa, the Netherlands and US.

On the blog iRevolution I found an article about m-banking and how to meet up with customers complaints. The blogger thought about a mashup with the Ushaidie platform.
Related link: Article about the project from CScout

Witness- a call for change
Witness is a place for you to take action on human rights. Witness uses videos to show violations from all over the world and you have the possibility to engage and support each case.

AfriGadget - The Grassroots Reporting Project
This is a website containing stories of innovation from people in Africa with a will and creativity to change life to the better. Bloggers and readers contribute their pictures, videos and stories from around the continent. "One of our goals at AfriGadget is to find more stories of African ingenuity. The Grassroots Reporting Project is our plan to find, equip and train more AfriGadget reporters in the field throughout Africa."

Crowdsourcing and sustainability

2009-06-08T12:31:00.009+02:00

A sustainable society on Fiji, recycled teddybears and crowdsourced design

The Virutal tourism project called Tribewanted takes place on the island of Fiji and have a lot of support in social media. Started 2006 on the Vorovoro Island and was planned to run for three years only but in September 2008 Tribewanted and its members were asked to stay. Members can now book time on Vorovoro until 2012. This summer 2009 the team is going to UK to meet interested people and talk about the initiative. The Tribewanted can be read about in the Lonely Planet guide for Fiji.

Why is this interesting? The adventure of a people experiment. Get the answer if it´s possible to create a sustainable society from scratch. The mix of people cooperating and combining social networking both online and from a real life headquarter on Fiji.
Team Fiji is back, commenting on Twitter
Team Fiji on Youtube

Crowdsourced fashion label Exuve and design

To create a new brand and solutions make people and companies famous
There are many brands and thousands of design solutions existing today from crowdsourcing so the subject is old but the fact that the format, the power of the people, is working is fascinating I think.

In the example Exevu "the designer and the consumer are one and the same". There are plenty of nice examples within fashion that works like this.

When companies use crowdsourcing it can be done in many different ways. This is not only about a small company that can´t afford desginer or the company-design relationship directly like mentioned many times.

It´s cost effective and both parts, the company/the brand and the designer get attention and focus thanks to devoted and engagement, it´s well known. I think crowdsourcing is a good idea for a consulting company as well. This is not about ignoring the companies own staff in any way but the constallation, agency - client - crowd offering an open contest in a specifik matter to get the best solution and branding for free is interesting. The designers would talk about the brand during and after the contest if its possible depending on mission to make people "vote" for his/hers idea. The client would get attention for the brand. For free. The agency would get ideas. The "prize" could be discussed.

DDB Stockholm joined forces with Mypitch.com a while ago, to offer great ideas to clients. I think this was a good move.

Recycled teddybears

Sweet.

My interests according to Google

2009-06-08T09:59:00.005+02:00

This is Google´s monitored search of my activity online as of today, used for target ads and more. Just curious to see if I liked something I did not know about.

Of course this list changes during the time depending on my click-through and you have the possibility to add interest.

It says that "Google does not associate sensitive interest categories with your ads preferences". But I wonder where exactly the limit goes, what kind of categories will not be added.

Google´s Ads preferences

The super secret anti-restaurant for selected people only

2009-06-08T00:12:00.005+02:00

Charlie´s Burger, the name is everything but exclusive, but I got curious in their offer. The mysterious underground restaurant, that change location every now and then, demands information about you to be able to make the descision if you fit in as a guest or not.

I´m waiting for the questionnaire but after reading the letter you get from the restaurant on the blog Foodhogger, I changed my mind.

Sure, I got really curious, but the feeling of follow-the-white-rabbit to the mysterious sect on a secret location and being forced to answer questions like "What would your last meal on earth be?" felt like an overkill.

If you are the lucky one they will "email the chef’s name, the location and menu a week before the event – this is your chance to opt-out – your space goes to a stand-by, you do not choose who takes your place. IMPORTANT! NO-SHOWS will NOT be tolerated....".

They promise food outside the mainstream expereince and it´s not Fear Factory but if you can´t eat certain things this is not the place to be.

I guess, if I was the choosen one I would fear next time I turned the key in my car and I would look over my shoulder twice regretting I never ate all the stuff on my plate. Or maybe I would wake up the next morning, luckily unaware of everything, but only if I choosed the blue pill hidden under the exclusive delicious desert...

Armani wants me!

2009-05-27T00:27:00.005+02:00

Yesterday I heard my fiancé saying "yes, you can talk to her, one moment...." and handed over his mobile phone to me. For a second I thought it was a friend of ours, so I was surprised when a woman from the boutiqe Armani presented herself.

My name was in their database and she was talking about the new collection and welcomed me to their boutiqe and of course, I could have a discount if I mentioned her name.

The question is, is a "personal" phone call increasing my loyalty to the brand and make me go to the store?

Print love and in store luxury
I like Armani as a brand and their faboulous catalogues and leaflets, I just love them and save them! Deliver an exclusive feeling and I want everything I lay my eyes on. The atmosphere in the stores and in the advertising is all about luxury and slightly "unreachable".

Online shopping and how to
There have been many discussions about how well brick and mortar websites are doing and how they should promote their brand and products online without loosing the exclusive-not-for-all people feeling. Many retailers got criticism about their content on the websites, not highlighting the products, only image.

Well, time have changed and it´s obvious that even Armani need to sell more of their products and attract more people to their stores but unfortenately the answer to the question above is no. I was surprised over the call and was wondering how many people they contact each day and how many of those people that actually visit the store. The exclusive feeling disappeared of two reasons, the offer was just a reminder to visit their store and not an exclusive offer (after opening hours) and secondly, I found out that they had called my fiancé several times during the past 6 months which made him feel "hunted".

Armani Jeans online campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi
It´s a goodlooking site but not easy to navigate and takes about 3-4 minutes to download but the clothes and accessories are nicely displayed on the models. It takes some time to explore and the idea is rather a nice experience than to shop.

Related articles
Saatchi & Saatchi + Immersive to create 3D video for Armani Jeans"
Adsoftheworld: Take control of your style

"Konstfack Anna Odell" gives 134 000 hits on Google

2009-05-23T11:17:00.012+02:00

A simulated psychosis - a piece of work in the category of Fine Art

I visited the degree exhibition of Konstfack yesterday. I wished to see the project that gives you 134 000 hits on Google... I will come back to this.

The projects I liked the most was four different ideas.

Smart package...
Can a diabetes aid become a lifestyle product?
If you suffer from diabetes you need to carry your treatments and gadget around. I liked the idea of a (not ugly) smart designed packaging that obviously holds everything you need. Without the first aid box- feeling.

Bring the debate on...
"Abort ´n Go is a project within the crossing boundaries of Critical Design and Industrial Design." True... At a glance, the gadget (aid) looked like an abortion method easily done by yourself at home but the project makes you think and imagine a complex situation and rights. The gadget feels like a metaphore, a woman having the power in her hand to make a decision.

Experience design....
"Join The Urban Mirror".... The result..

Unfortenately I had no time to put myself in a cool position...

"The Nature Manifesto"
The Growing Chair... clever idea! After a while you can remove the plastic formation that cover the plant.

Robot Garden - Can Machines Have Experiences?

I like the question and the thought.

At last I was visiting the "Project Unknown, Woman 2009-349701" by Anna Odell. The project was not easy to find at the exhibition hall, far away with no signs. Two security guides were watching outside. The place was crowded and the room had no air left.

The simulated psychosis and attempted suiced on the bridge of Liljeholmen in Stockholm give you 133 000 hits on Google. Articles and debates whether this is art or not, the purpose, right or wrong, if she reached her goal.

In my opinon the interesting part is her method of doing this and the way she picture her experiences of the health care in Sweden. The most interesting was the research, the reactions and discussions over the phone with hospitals, doctor´s and nursing staff. The acting on the bridge (the second movie out of three) show reality, the attitude from people passing by and the way the police took care of her. The confession for the psychiatrist, about the examiniation project for the school, made the psychiatrist completely mad and she left the room.

I was expecting more of this last confession to completely understand the project. I miss reactions from other people involved and Annas thought during the process in the hospital. I think the project was worth visiting even though the temperature in the room was too hot...

The guest book of disagreements....

From Warsaw to Stockholm

2009-05-19T16:58:00.002+02:00

My 7 months in Poland was a great experience. Now I´m back in Stockholm and my studies are over but I will continue to use this blog for my digital thoughts and reflections. My website, by the way, is an eternal project..... it´s much easier to be engaged and criticize other people´s websites of course than creating your own so right now it´s nothing but a CV, but I´ll be back in this matter.

This is where you find me at the moment

Experiences from Warsaw on Flickr
Thoughts on Twitter
Information about me on LinkedIn
My Friendfeed

People online in Poland

2009-04-03T00:16:00.005+02:00

The 15 most popular sites on the list have remained since December but in general all sites have experienced losses. In general Google and the portal Onet.pl loose visitors in favour of the popular Nasza-Klasa ”Our Class”, is the most popular social website similar to Facebook where you can find old friends from school. The most used instant messenger tool on the polish market is Gadu-Gadu with 2 900 000 user. Comparing to MSN Messenger where you find on the 17th place.

Communities like MySpace and Facebook is listed on 13th and 17th place on a ranking list where both internet portals and social networking sites were listed. Golden Line (16) with 700 000 users is most used for professional network compared to the international network LinkedIn (not on the list).

Polish actors is more popular than international in general. During last year MySpace tried to raise popularity on the Polish market but didn´t succeed (Ranking list by month, december -08).

Search

Google is number one, then without ranking comes Onet, Wirtualna Polska - Virtual Poland which is one of the largests portals for news/information, Gazeta, owned by the news publisher Agora (Gazeta Wyborcza is a daily newspaper), Whitelines.net guides you to the popular search engines for most countries and offers links to promote your website URL.

Drag & Drop to Viewzi

2009-04-01T07:26:00.010+02:00

Firefox "Drag & Drop zones" is absolutely necessary for me at the moment. This function really helps me to ”google” something fast. I have the function installed on Firefox in my MacBook but not on my PC and I´m starting to miss that. This is a way to gather your favourite search engines at the same place.

You install the plug-in and the design it the way you like. It looks like a transparent grid and is displayed over the site you where viewing, just drag the text up in the corner and the grid is appearing, and drop the text on any of the zones/search engine.
Article about Drag & Drop zones
Firefox plug-in

”Transform your site from blah to bling” with Viewzi

Viewzi is one of my favourite search engine at the moment, which I included to Drag & Drop. I like Viewzi because you can easily change your result into different moods. Web screen shot, simple text, photos, Google timeline and power grid to mention a few. Power grid include the function to flip between text and screenshots.

The google timeline (below) display your result in a timeline, you scan the relevance fast depending on the date.

The combination of the mood Fashion and Tag cloud (below) is fun. You create your own tagcloud by clicking anywhere in the background and start type your subject within Fashion

Competitions

2009-03-30T06:58:00.006+02:00

Lately at work
Last week I was engaged to prepare for a conference and was busy in making research. My work together with the P&G team has been about handing over and end my work for the production phase. This week I will perhaps start a new project for a Polish TV station. I will find out more today.

Competitions
The advertising business in Sweden is getting ready for The Golden Egg Award, Guldägget the 2 of April. From the 30 of March one week of seminars and mingel begin.

Among others nominated in the interactive category you find:
Telia Sonera (Swedish telephone- and network operator) "Our Song" by Daddy AB Read about the campaign
Absolut Vodka "In an Absolute World" by Great Works
Nokia "Get out and play" by Farfar

I liked the Facebook application "Our Song", where you basically share one song from the Telia e-store with a friend from your list on Facebook and then the application generates a slideshow of the photos in which you and your friend are tagged. The song is played in the background while your photos is zoomed in and out. Depending on which friend you choose it can be quite entertaining or embarrising...

Coming up on the Polish market

There are many award competitions coming up or already took place on the Polish market:

The Impactor Awards (February)
This competitions honor those whose impact on the media and advertising industry has been particularly significant. The laureates are appointed by the market experts from the Polish Advertising and Media Academy

The Polish Advertising KTR (April)
It is the largest advertising competition in Poland, held since 2004. The categories this year is: Advertising Print, Outdoor, TV Advertising, Cyber, Active Advertising (including PR), Design, Workshop TV, Illustration, Photo.

Each year the competition involve about 120 Polish agencies in advertising. An integrated part of the main competition is Young Creatives, whose prize is a trip for young teams to Cannes Young Lions. This year's jury session take place between April 11th and 18th, with the participation of 180 jurors conducted by Milka Pogliani from McCann Erickson Worldwide.

The Golden Arrow is Poland's longest running competition honoring direct marketing. Started in 1995 and draws more than 150 entries each year. The jury awarded 10 Golden Arrow statuettes and 26 distinctions 2008. VFP Communications publishing house is organizing the award. VPF is publishing the weekly "Media & Marketing Poland".

Among the categories you find: Search Engine Marketing, e-marketing, viral marketing, mobile marketing, telemarketing, website, campaign, dm, non-profit, b2b, Golden Arrow Design.

During 2008 and the category Website, the agency Tequila (Winterfresh and client Wrigley Poland) and the agency 180heartbeats (Knorr and client Unilever Poland SA) won awards.

Kreatura Advertising Awards (March) is a running competition for creativity in advertising and promote new talents. The competition annually judges more than 300 advertising works and publishes a book and CD featuring winners.

The "Webstar festival" is promoting the best websites and online advertising and ranked by sms voting by users.

Hypermedia won awards for Impactor (2002-2005), Kreatura, Golden Awards and was considered "best interactive agency in 2008" according to the magazine Media & Marketing Poland.

The websites is in Polish but the links is to the shortlist and resultlist:
impactor.pl (shortlist for 2009)
www.goldenarrow.pl (the resultlist of 2008)
www.konkurs.kreatura.pl (shortlist for 2009)
www.webstarfestival.pl (the resultlist of 2008)

Belvedere One-X

2009-03-29T19:15:00.005+02:00

Belvedere is a world known brand of vodka made in Poland and is following traditions dating back 600 years ago. It is handcrafted in small batches to ensure superior quality. Belvedere IX (One-X) is the new super-premium vodka and comes in a glam-punk style, black and pink graffiti bottle and will initially be available only in selected nightclubs. Graffiti artist is André Saraiva. The One-X website is made by the agency Berlin Cameron United.

Earlier campaign: Belvedere’s “Luxury Reborn” with photographer Terry Richardson (the virtual palace of downtown, bohemian and artistic luxury)

Get your voice on the air

2009-03-21T16:38:00.006+01:00

Host your own talkshow - the BlogTalkRadio

I´m not a frequent radio-listener of a specific channel to get news, but downloading podcast in your interest is a great format.

The BlogTalkRadio (launched 2006) is open to anyone and can be a complement to your blog, you can invite other bloggers or guests. A way of promoting yourself and your subject. Today you find thousands of talk shows, branded, featured channels, celebrities, politicians (president Obama, of course) the Pentagon, bloggers (no downloads or extra equipment needed).

The service is for free and allows any user with a phone and a computer to host a live, interactive radio show. The profit comes from licensing and sponsorship fees (branded channels), payment for banner, pre-roll audio and streamed live events.

BlogTalkRadio on Twitter
Blogtalkradio.com

Related article
"BlogTalkRadio lets anyone including the Pentagon start talk shows"

Simply the Best Stuff!

2009-03-18T23:10:00.004+01:00

The question "What do you think is the Best Stuff in the world?"
is found on this site. As simple as that...

Media Cloud

2009-03-14T19:50:00.007+01:00

- a tool to track how news get covered (project from Berkman Centre)
CNN is one of my news source, both tv and online. On tv they often mention iReport, the reports from users all over the world. I was talking about citizen reports in one of my earlier blogs and last month CNN had 900 reports uploaded to their site.

To keep track on news can be an ambitious project. Rss or similar feed system give you an overview of your selected sources, but personally I have too many sources in my rss that seem to cover each others topics and stories. Some of the sources may not be necessary but it will take time to compare.

That is why I think the idea of Media Cloud is an interesting service to help you compare media sources. This will make it easier for you to choose the most interesting source that cover your needs.

Media Cloud is a system (set of data and tools) that compare news from blogs and newspapers (english) from around the world. The system keep track on the content in every story (pull the story text out of the HTML) and automatically builds an archive of news stories and blog posts. The result is visualized based on 1) The top 10 most mentioned terms for each media source 2) the most mentioned terms for each media source that occur most frequently in stories along with your specified search term like "Obama" 3) A world map of each media source indicating the coverage of those countries. It´s possible today to compare up to three different media sources.

The world map

This is an open-source project and in an early stage. At this point 1500 media sources is available today. The search abilitiy - and the selection of sources covering the world feels limited today. I was looking for newspaper covering Japan and China for example but there were just a few choices.

The search results
I compared BBC, New York Times and te Guardian Blog, wrote the term "Madoff". For New York Times the terms "security" and "wallstreet" is most common, while BBC and the Guardian blog the terms "united states" and "united kingdom" appears in the top 3 terms.

Sometimes the search result can be a little confusing. I was comparing New York Times, Reuters, MSNBC and "social media". The outcome was very different and in this case I didn´t understand how- and what the given terms was based on.

This is the beginning, but I think the idea is very useful both for professional- and "private" researchers.

The interview with Ethan Zuckerman about Media Cloud (Nieman Journalism Lab)
The Berkman Centre
Media Cloud
About Media Cloud on Read Write Web

The real challenge for MIT - beat the Post-Its

2009-03-14T09:55:00.009+01:00

I´m addicted to those yellow, pink, blue, green notes. My desk is full of them but I haven´t yet beat one of my former colleagues whose computer screen looked like the fabulous back of a peacock.

Forbes.com had an article published in January "Why Computers Can´t Kill Post-Its". Pretty fun, "Office workers are like electricity: When they want to get something done, they follow the path of least resistance" which is why "the Post-it note continues to flourish on every surface of the contemporary office, despite all those expensive computers ready and willing to help". According to a researcher on MIT.

All (the other) things you can do with these small quadratic pieces...
The Spectacular Sticky-Note Experiment

Draw it! Viral game with Post-it

It´s not (only) about your great skills in drawing you have to be a master in guessing. 3M launched a viral game Draw It, where you can challenge other players to guess what you are drawing on your Post-it note. Like Pictionary. The players have to come up with the answer in 30 seconds. Article in thedrum.co.uk

I can tell you for sure, it´s hard to write a Leopard on the screen with only your touchpad. My online competitors took wild guess on Camel, Horse, Cow (My year in Art school was no good for this game),...But, I beat them in the end!

The P&G team

2009-03-08T11:58:00.011+01:00

Since last week I joined the P&G team so all of my projects are currently for this client. I´m responsible for strategy/concept/ideas and function as a consultant from the strategy department. Since client service is the owner of the projects I will have regular contact with the client. I work together with the account manager so he is responsible for all the contacts but I´m part of the meetings as well.

Challenges - the responsibility for a project manager
I learned a lot during a time in February. My role was not project manager for 100% but still I got the feeling of how it works. I worked with the development for two projects (P&G) and made sure deliveries were on time. The working flow inhouse, resources, dialoge with the client, bring the ideas and feedback from the client to the information architectures and graphic designer, to discuss and finally approve the design.

It take some time to get used to the traffic system and the fast changings with resources, especially when the deadline is close and to know my own limits. To be the link between the client and the rest of the team, veritcal as well between the members in the team is a great challenge!

* Skaters in the sun, teamwork :)

Strategists The plan for the strategy department is to work more with "new business". More engagement in pitching and bring in new clients and cases. The latest pitch went very well and Hypermedia won this client! Since the beginning of this year there have been several projects going on with brands like softdrink, retailing stores, banking and cases for P&G etc.

Earlier work The campaign I mentioned in my blog from january, the early discussions for a contest was approved by the client and the project is under production at the moment.

During this time I´ve been here I have had many mentor talk about the projects, what is working and is good thinking now and what can be improved in my work. Most of the time we discuss the solutions I came up with, if the strategy and the concept works, if the if the big idea is "selling" and understanable and according to the brief. This daily- or weekly meetings, updates and sometimes brarinstorming is helping me a lot in my work.

Regrets... yes, I really regret I didn´t bring my camera on Friday. The work arranged a special Cuba night at work and there had been a great opportunity for a nice photoshooting, but... I just tell you instead ;) it was a very good time. At occasions like this, you always discover things and talents people have that you had no idea of. Always intriguing.

* (The photo, outside "Slote Tarasy" last weekend) People observation is fun, especially skaters. People are always helpful and caring if something goes wrong even if you don´t know the person, but , of course , you have one thing in commmon, wearing the "things" on your feet that make you easily fall... if you fall in the mall, it´s too unpredictable for people around you...

On the Go!

2009-02-13T07:34:00.004+01:00

Last Saturday was a day of walking and exploring the city again. Blue sky and happy people, so very nice! 150 street views I would love to share.... I´ve been busy day and nights this week but I´ll be right back with you!

Every citizen IS a reporter

2009-02-09T00:06:00.006+01:00

A threat or a source?
The modern form of "citizen journalism" goes way back but was a hot topic until the middle of the 21st century. Even though it´s a fact that everyone, armed with a mobile phone or a digital camera and happens to be in a "newsworthy" situation, has got huge power, this is still not fully approved by all journalists.

TV4:s (Sweden) initiative of using regular people for local reportages with mobile phones is not about replacing journalism (started in January). This is a smart way of using common people´s local knowledge. The quality and the objectiveness of stories and material is depending on the level of engagement from the people and a way of cooperating with the media.

”BBC hits all-time record high with 42,000 user submissions during heavy snow” This article is about the user generated content during the heavy snowfall in the UK last week. "It is not about citizen media content overwhelming the journalism" said Peter Horrocks, head of the BBC newsroom, explaining that user generated content is very much seen as a source, rather than a replacement for journalists gathering their own material.

The level of engagement and cooperation
Photos, microblogging, professional blogging or articles are different ways of contribute. In the above example from BBC News, peoples submissions were ”integrated into” journalists coverage.

One example of the power of citizen journalism is OhMyNews (South Korea, 2000). The founder Oh Yeon-ho says "our concept is every citizen can be a reporter." Around 200 stories are published every day with the help from around 30 000 registred citizen journalists. Editors who are working for OhMyNews are checking the relevans in the stories before publishing. Estimated number of visitors an average day is 2 million people.

Until recently every person got paid for their articles for OhMyNews, but now their reward system is changed. I don´t think this will change the good will of contribution. To share your photos, comments or stories from every corner of the world is a natural behaviour of people today (an unstoppable). The money is not always the most important thing but the importance of engagement and interest.

Related article about Citizen Journalism
”A new era for journalism”
(Former Globe editor and is the author of "Couch Potatoes Sprout: The Rise of Online Community Journalism")

Tweet. Meet. Give - the 12th of February

2009-02-06T15:04:00.011+01:00

Fundraising mashup - Twestivals 2009
Twitter or not Twitter? I read the post on RafRaf girls. One reason may be to contribute to the good cause of Charitywater.org. As a Twitter user you are welcome to join in and raise money together. Charitywater.org is about helping people, less fortuned, to bring fresh water in their lives. The first Twestival was held in London 2008 (the first 350 ticket were sold out in one hour that time). This time, the 12th of February, 175 cities around the world will host Twestivals. There are many ways to contribute if you are unable to join the festival event in your city. On twestival.fm, artists and musicians are donating their music for streaming between from feb 5th to 19th and you have the opportunity to leave a voluntary donation.

I think this is a good example of using a platform like Twitter for other reason than "just" micro blogging.

Super Bowl!

2009-02-04T00:14:00.008+01:00

....I must confess I´m not quite following the games, but the talk and the hype around the commercials is interesting.

In the toplists you find ads from Pepsi like the "Refresh Anthem" (TBWA/Chiat/Day), "Clydesdale Ancestry" one of Budweiser´s many ads, the "Free Doritos" which was made by amateurs for a contest (The Herbert brothers) so no ad agency for this one and this is also the most watched online according to USA Today AdMeter. Bud Light with "Conan O'Brien" (DDB, Chicago) for the Swedish market only..... is also in the top.

Anyway, this is my own favourites among the 50 ads:

1. Coca-Cola ”Heist”
Beautiful and sweet, I love the feeling of fairytales, not uniqe but it works for me.
(Wieden & Kennedy)

2. CareerBuilder.com "Tips"
I love the”falling down moments” and the ”koala punsh”, this is defenitely to cross the line of anger... (Wieden & Kennedy)

3. Budweiser ”Clydesdale Stick”
I simply like ads where animals is a part of the fun and behave like humans. I mean, the look in the eyes of the horse… great (DDB, Chicago).

Ok, I sort of like Bridgestone´s Taters (The Potatoe head family) as well. Stop being a backseat driver or else…. your lips will fall of! (Richards Group, Dallas)

The Great Escape

2009-02-03T22:24:00.005+01:00

...with Herbal Essences

Hypermedia has been working with a campaign to brand Herbal Essences (Procter & Gamble) and the work started 6 months ago. One part of the campaign The Great Escape has been released in western Europe. This week the viral movies is launched starring four charactars ("Sven", on the left side, is supposed to be the Swedish guy..) - "Play the ultimate hoax on your best friend" where you can choose the man of your friends life. Applications for Facebook is created for the campaign as well. During the autumn I mentioned I was attending a viral shooting for Herbal Essences and this was it.

Hypermedia was responsible for production, development and the creation of the virals.

Speaking of a Great Escape
.... today I had a special delivery from Sweden!

I sure like the "view" of my room mates, but sorry, nothing beats this one. Thank you Darling!

Critical Mass

2009-01-31T02:16:00.004+01:00

Warsaw is not a friendly place to ride your bike. Except from every last friday of the month when hundreds of cyclists ride slowly through the city. The event is called Critical Mass (since 2004, started in San Fransciso 1992) it´s a manifestation for the fact that Warsaw is not a place for cycling and a protest against the heavy traffic, so the traffic has to be patient during this time....
I happened to "run" into the mass twice on my way home from work today. The tramdriver had to stop and look out for the cyclists who were escorted by the police. Unfortenately, the weather is rainy and snowy so I guess it wasn´t "a good day for it". On a summer evening I can imagine the power of the event.

At work
On Monday I have to deliver a strategy for the competition I´ve been working on. We had a meeting today and talked about the product and how the competition could work to send out the right message/feeling for the brand. I have to change my idea and try harder to find the synergy between the product, the brand promise and the engagement online.

Less digital

2009-01-29T01:35:00.007+01:00

... but still communicative.
Magazines and newspapers (and gossip...) is part of the culture and a good way to practice the language I believe.

The first notice I saw when I opened the magazine was about the Swedish Jennie Widegren - fitness instructor and a streetdance member of Bounce. Jennie was a profile for the Reebok campaign "Your Move" during 2008. Hypermedia was responsible for creating Your Move on the Polish market and advertising and media planning on a global basis.

At work
Three days passed by and my personal planning is under construction. The brief I mentioned last time was about re-designing a website including strategy for a large chain store. After the client meeting things looked quite different. This case is about design and production so I have no active part in this case anymore. Since yesterday I´ve been working on a campaign for Procter & Gamble and I have an idea for a competition.

Nice to meet everyone at the agency again!

2009-01-26T23:03:00.002+01:00

I arrived to Warsaw on Saturday evening. It felt really strange leaving Arlanda in Stockholm with only three people on board. I was the only person waiting for luggage at the airport.

My first day at work is over, including the nice dinner I had with my dear colleague Beata. I´m happy to be back and my computer and desk was ready, waiting for me. I worked here during the the autumn for 4 months and now I´m looking forward to new projects and new clients! This week we are going to make a 3 months plan for my development and stay in the agency.

Tomorrow there is a client meeting and we will get more information regarding the brief I´m going to be engaged in. We need more information to know the width of the project.

The future of geotagging

2009-01-26T00:10:00.004+01:00

I love collecting memories like photograph my journeys and activities, but lately I´ve given serious thoughts of what to do with all my pictures. Every time someone comment or show appreciation of my photos I feel happy of course. But beside of uploading them to Flickr I would like to use the photos in a better way somehow. There are so many pictures taken from all over the world from the same place and it would be great to do something together. That´s why I like the idea of the project and company Photosynth.

Photosynth is creating a live search map based on photos from people all over the world, the same spot but different angles. The use of photos from the same spot it´s possible to reconstruct a scene and an experience of a 360 degrees view. It´s a great way of contributing to a nice 3D experience. After creating a so called ”synth” (a way to compile your photos) you have to geotagg and upload them to the website (Microsoft and Silverlight programme only). One example is the photosynths from the Obama Inauguration Events when thousands of people took pictures at the same time.

Source photo: http://blogs.msdn.com/photosynth

I haven´t yet tried myself, but as far as I know, this idea, the Photosynth, could be even more interesting in combination with cameras including geotagging and a function on Flickr (or similar photo sites) that automatically merge photos together based on the tagging and published on the map. Right now it seems like a lot of work to do before your ”3D panorama” is ready and published. Of course this function should be optional, but in my opinion this brings a lot of value to your own photo experience, a way of sharing.

Walk and find your way

2009-01-24T11:42:00.005+01:00

Tonight I will arrive to the airport in Warsaw. Airports is a place knowned for being difficult to navigate around. Especially if you are in a hurry, then it´s impossible to find anything.

Luckily enough one of my colleagues will pick me up and take me to my appartment. To drive in this traffic, I´ve been talking about this many times during my first stay in Warsaw. I could never drive in this heavy traffic. To drive in cities and find your way can be a challenge wherever you are. GPS is a good thing, but I´m wondering how "helped" I would be in the middle of a chaos.

I like to walk. That´s why I have an interest in the combination gps, maps and mobilephones. I simply want to know where I am and where I´m going. I´m not a technique freak and expert in this area (I´v had a Samsung mobile for 6 months but so far I´ve only used it for making calls in Poland with a cash card... the map function had been great though). But, wouldn´t it be really nice with an application in your phone that made it possible to "walk" down a street and zoom in the stores and do the window shopping. Before you get there, so you know if it´s worth while. Like Google´s Street View and the virtual walks of course, but for walking not driving AND mobile friendly. I could save you some time.

Mission Weeks - a Stopover in Stockholm

2009-01-24T11:22:00.004+01:00

The last two weeks we´ve been at Berghs SoC with Isobar and Farfar. We learned, we fought, we said goodbye for the second time and this weekend we are leaving for new destinations.

Coaching the future Farfar Academy students

Changing perspective!

2009-01-21T16:07:00.008+01:00

I left Warsaw just before Christmas and currently I´m back in Stockholm for a two week education at Farfar Academy. On Saturday I´m going back to Warsaw again!