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Gamification - en metod för bättre konvertering

2012-01-26T19:31:00.000+01:00

Igår pratade jag om Gamification på Web Service Award. Det jag alltid är rädd för när jag pratar om ämnet är att publiken ska uppfatta det som att allt ska bli spel. Jag försöker lyfta fram att jag använder gamification som en metod för att skapa onlineprodukter för att det ska bli

- lättare att greppa och förstå erbjudandet
- enkelt att engagera sig med ett klick för att komma in i ett flöde som
- för användaren vidare i erbjudandet tills
- målet är nått
- och dessutom gärna ha en anledning till att komma tillbaka fler gånger och
- att få fler att vilja använda tjänsten/sajten

Målet kan lika gärna vara att lära sig något som att köpa något eller ha fått en viss bestämd information.

Vi pratar om Motivation, Möjligheter och Triggers - samma ord som psykologer och lärare pratar om i Maslows behovspyramid och som säljare och marknadsförare använder sig av i trattar (funnels). Det handlar om hur vår hjärna fungerar. Vi känner alla igen grundtanken.

I gamification vill vi också gärna lyckas leda in användaren i ett härligt flow - en perfekt balans mellan trygghet och spänning, mellan kunskap och utmaning. Den balansen skapas ofta med hjälp av progression varför gamification lätt blandas ihop med badges och poängräkning. Men flow hittar vi likväl i verkliga livet - när vi slänger upp en drake i luften och dess svängar gör att vi automatiskt svarar med att parera för att hålla den uppe, eller när vi lär oss ett instrument.

Vi ser att de inbjudande tangenterna är till för att tryckas ner och vid trycket får vi direkt respons när tonen ljuder. Vi har en truddilutt i huvudet som vi försöker ta ut ton för ton, ett tydligt mål. Vi fortsätter gärna att öva fler gånger för att bli bättre och till slut kunna spela Fur Elise framför en eminent publik.

Den där publiken är helt avgörande för att det ska vara värt att fortsätta. Få spelar piano, sätter på sig en snygg jacka eller gör ett köp helt och hållet ensam, utan att någonsin vilja höras eller synas för andra. Det är mångfaldigt roligare om vi får respons från vänner eller andra. Facebook, bloggar och mer utgör den publiken långt innan vi är professionella pianister idag. Det är också ofta responsen som utmanar oss att fortsätta - bli bättre, uppdatera, förändra.

Om vi lyckas skapa ett flow och kombinerar det med att erbjuda en bra publik och en skara människor att jämföras med, kan rätt trigger vid rätt tillfälle bli mycket effektfull. Om jag påminns om att jag köpa mig glad precis när jag är i som störst behov av det kan försäljningen fördubblas på en natt. Påminns jag om vad jag kan köpa när jag inte har några pengar fungerar det sämre.

Det här är ganska komplexa system. Det kan krävas programmerare, speldesigners, affärsutvecklare, analytiker, usability designer, konceptutvecklare, specialister och ytterligare copy, form, projektledare, kommunikatör, marknadsförare och kanske kundtjänst för att det ska bli riktigt bra. Det funkar inte att vara en Don Draper som ensam talar om för alla vad som ska göras. Det blir också ruskigt kostsamt och dåliga kompromissade resultat med för många stakeholders. De här projekten måste bygga på tydliga ramverk och en stor portion förtroende för att bli framgångsrika.

Allas bidrag är lika avgörande för att projektet ska lyfta.

Gamification framtidenswebbare

View more presentations from Malin Ströman

Hur du är dig själv på nätet

2012-01-17T20:11:00.000+01:00

Jag pratade personligt varumärke med CAP studenterna idag. Själva uttrycket är på dekis håller jag med om, men det fungerar fortfarande för att summera vad det var vi pratade om – den personliga identiteten i sociala media. Sociala media är också ett uttryck på dekis...

Studenterna ska snart ut på LiA och vill förstås presentera sig för spännande arbetsgivare. De flesta ogillar att vara för personliga (inte privata utan personliga) och vill framstå som professionella. Men det är svårt att fånga någons intresse och att sticka ut om man inte får se vem personen som skriver är. Jag får ingenting att referera till eller engagera mig i. Jag uppmanar alltså studenter att våga bli ’han med humorn’ eller ’hon som spelade onlinespel på nätterna’ för att de ska bli ihågkomna i CV-högen.

Samtliga i gruppen fick efter att jag hade visat en mängd exempel och pratat lite SEO och annat, definiera vilka nyckelord de helst skulle vilja att de presenterades med på nätet – de ord som helst ska komma upp när någon googlar på ens namn, och fundera över vem de vill nå, varför och hur. Här är några punkter ur vår gemensamma diskussion utifrån det.

1. Lägg upp ett uppdaterat Linkedin-konto. Definiera de företag du är mest intresserad av att jobba på, leta reda på rätt profil från det företaget på Linkedin och skicka ett meddelande där med en kort beskrivning av vad du letar efter.

2. Gör projekt kring något du har som stort intresse privat. Gillar du videoproduktion och vurmar för att motverka mobbning – gör en kort video på anti-mobbningstema. Bilden av dig blir någon som genomför projekt, som har jobbat med videoproduktion och som ömmar för barn- och ungdomars hälsa. Chansen är större att du hamnar på rätt tjänst.

3. Gör ett bloggprojekt –Fredrik Wass gör ett just nu - #blogg100 – en post om dagen 100 dagar i streck. Du får ett projekt genomfört, övning i att blogga, erfarenhet av att sprida bloggposter, förhoppningsvis ett gäng som följer dig och som minns dig efter det, men det är naturligt att avsluta och kanske börja om med ett gäng erfarenheter i bagaget.

4. Gör projekt med flera andra – sälj in en projektidé till andra studenter eller skicka ut förfrågan om partners som vill hjälpa dig på Twitter. Där finns fullt med folk som inte är fullbelagda och som av samma orsak som du kan vilja göra ett projekt som sprider sig. Ju fler ni är desto större nätverk också.

5. Projekten är bra att ha i CV’n som rekryteraren läser, men din sociala aktivitet på nätet, vare sig du sprider ett projekt, bloggar eller interagerar med andra, kommer främst att få andra med samma intressesfär att hitta dig - de som jobbar i produktion på företagen. När de behöver rekrytera kommer de att komma på att du finns och förhoppningsvis rekommendera dig.

6. Ingen är perfekt och perfekt är rätt tråkigt. Det är helt ok, och kanske tom mer engagerande, att skriva om misstag man gör och erfarenheter man får av det. Någon annan kommer känna igen sig eller kanske komma med råd och tips och du framstår som lärande och ödmjuk.

7. Om du är nyfiken på Twitter, men tycker att det känns onaturligt att skicka ut tweets ut i en anonym rymd kan du börja med att följa folk som twittrar på nyckelord du är intresserad av. Det kommer falla sig naturligt att retweeta när det är något spännande och kanske kommentera eller svara.

8. Om du tänker till kan du med en blogg eller feed visualisera även nyckelord som analytisk, realist, öppensinnad, rolig, nördig, ambitiös, snabb att fatta beslut, kuriosakunnig, positiv.

Feed/bloggförslag
realist/orealist – endast kommentarer på vad som är realistiskt och inte
riskfritt – analys av risken i projektet, i vardagen, i historiska händelser, i något som går att läsa om i tidningen idag
öppen för allt – visualisera dina otippade nördsidor t ex smink på dagen vs onlinespel på natten, leveldesigner med matintresse
dagens humor – en comic strip om dagen
xnörden – allt om ett specifikt fokuserat ämne t ex spel med en orch som huvudkaraktär, filmer med hårdrocksmusik i,
med sikte på toppen – beskriv alla små och stora projekt du gör för att nå dit du vill – ’Idag har jag ringt till x och pratat med x, hoppas att de har en plats för mig’.
beslutsam – ’så här många beslut fattade jag idag vid dessa tillfällen’ (vilken glassort jag tog, lunchvalet, omvägen till skolan osv’
allt man inte behöver veta – en kuriosa om dagen
ja visst – för en låtsasdialog varje dag med hur din dag hade sett ut om du hade en negativ motpart som tyckte raka motsatsen hela tiden.

9. Gör det lätt för dig. Vill du föreläsa - lägg upp presentationer på slideshare, fotograferar du till vardags - starta en blogg på Tumbler - publicera det du ändå gör.

Själv gör jag (både enligt Google och mig själv) saker roliga med hjälp av Gamification, är konceptutvecklare på svt, har tidigare varit produktchef på Stardoll, sitter i ledningsgruppen på Futuregames och föreläser ibland.

Why only adult men are Kabuki dancers

2012-01-14T06:17:00.001+01:00

There is sometimes unexpected history that explains structures...

From The art of japanese print'Initially Kabuki troupes consisted of men dressed as women and women dressed as men. But many of the women dancers supplemented their earnings by selling their sexual favours. The authorities cracked down. To prevent Kabuki being merely a front for prostitution, the women's parts were taken over by young boys. This, however, produced similar problems and eventually mature men ended up taking all the parts.'

Lego - with or without creativity

2012-01-13T21:35:00.000+01:00

Lego has as always not a clue when it comes to girls. First of all it always sounds as they expect no girls at all to love Lego as it is today, that only 50% of our kids like Lego at all. I'd say most parents to girls know the opposite. But it is hard to find 'not so male gendered sets' in the stores - wich is kind of good because then we see that the girls actually accept spiders, dragons, pirates, planes and cars if we try to give it to them. But we would of course also like the City to contain a school, a hospital and a trendy café too to reflect a more diverse world.

When I was a kid in the 70's I had these Lego Animaland figures to inspire me creating buildings and stories for, and I think the animal head trick is quite allright if that's what it takes to make a few more girls to enter the magic world of Lego.

Instead Lego pisses me off - again!!! by presenting Lego for Girls. They change the lable but not the idea of that girls will appreciate modified bodys and already completed modules - nothing to build??? It's the building that is fun, if I want to play with doll I will not go for stiff lego dolls with lots of things that Polly Pocket does much better.

It's very trendy right now to say that the Lego commersially labled products as Harry Potter and Creator are objectionable, favouring the 70s free creative style. I don't support those arguments as there are different ways of playing with your Lego - to read instructions and construct according to a model or build something out of pure creativity. When finishing your pre set model you can start play creatively with your finished plane and have both games in one. I have seen many models made a few times to finally get mixed with hundred of other blocks to again raise to a piece of own creative composition. Many people on the other hand like to sort the blocks and keep them in order. If that makes them satisfied I believe that's good. There are many ways of playing with Lego which is probably why it's so long lasting successfull.

But to assume that girls don't want to build, but only use the from start complete hairdryer looks degrading to me. Jezebel summarizes it well.

James Keeling presents one of 1239327 images of Lego on flickr.

I guess everyone is dreaming of having the time to make a project as the spooky houses of Mike Doyle's

But smaller projects can be just as creative, eye catching and impressive. (From UpperGround)

Update: I got a tweet from Sr. Digital Strategy Manager for LEGO that it's not true that there is nothing to build, but I persist - this offers very little to build. . Find the entire range here.

Goldfish Salvation

2012-01-13T18:50:00.000+01:00

"Goldfish Salvation" Riusuke Fukahori from ICN gallery on Vimeo.

Mormor var nog ingen riktig tant ändå

2012-01-12T08:50:00.000+01:00

Äntligen har någon skrivit boken jag har längtat efter! Den jag så gärna hade velat skriva själv. Nu är det Fatima Bremmer som har gjort det istället och den heter De sista tanterna, från husmor till modeikon. Hon går så fint igenom den äkta tantens genuina attribut ett efter ett med hjälp av vackra personporträtt av en snart utdöd generation kvinnor. Attrituben är kläderna, köket, jävlaranammat, håret, familjen, fritiden och tingen. Hon vänder bilden av tanten som martyr, gnällig, rynkig och bitter till ärlig, stabil och trygg.

Men även om jag känner oerhört varmt för den stiliga tant som beskrivs tycker jag ändå att den bittra och gnälliga tanten kunde ha fått ett litet litet utrymme också. Tanten som inte kunde skapa egen styrka i samhällets struktur utan istället dukade under för den.

På mormors begravning blev jag nästan illa berörd av prästens ansträngning att måla upp den döda kvinna hon aldrig hade träffat som något storartat. Den mormor jag kände ville minst av allt framstå som storartad. Hon ville inte synas alls. Prästen hade i ett samtal med min mamma, mormors enda barn, fått några snuttar ur ett nittiotvå år långt liv. Jag kan tro att min 70-åriga mamma inte kunde komma på några fantastiska milstolpar utan kort och torrt fumlade efter något som prästen kunde nämna i sin slutplädering. Mormor var ingen tankesfull storyteller, än mindre min mamma.

När prästen högdraget försökte återberätta de korta snuttarna med en kärleksfull ton blev det hela nästan hånfullt. Mamma tyckte det var pinsamt, hon har få kärleksfulla minnen, om några, och det var tur att morfars hörsel var så illa att han inte hörde orden, menade hon.

Mormor bara var. Hon existerade helt opretentiöst, livrädd för att synas eller ta från någon, bara fanns utan någon som helst tanke och reflektion, i en värld som var uppbyggd endast av henne själv ständigt utsatt av omvärldens blickar. Kvävande blickar. Dömande blickar. Till intet görande blickar. Mormor var centrum i sitt universum och ändå livrädd för att vara det.

Idag är vi istället en liten del i ett komplext samhälle där många olika individer ska samsas på en liten yta. I det tar vi för oss och försöker styra vår egen lilla yta utifrån vårt och andras bästa. Vi vill ha en mening med livet, hinna åstadkomma saker, hitta kärleken och helst lyckas stå utanför alla tänkbara sorger. Vi vill och vill och vill. Jag tror mormor slutade vilja någonting på 40-talet.

Det är så mycket som är så spännande med mormors generation. Den som Fatima Bremmer definierar som tanterna. De sista individerna som inte hade någon tonårsrevolution, utan som blev vuxna samma dag som de konfirmerade sig. De som föddes under första världskrigets tunga år, som sprang barfota merparten av året och som hann gå på café med väninnor, innan andra världskriget bröt ut. Då var mormor tjugo år. Hon födde sitt första och enda barn utomäktenskapligt. Vilken skam - det nämnde hon aldrig för någon, men min mamma minns det och berättade tidigt om det. Det har satt spår även i hennes liv. (jösses om hon ser mig skriva detta offentligt nu!!!)

Innan graviditeten vet jag att mormor hade hunnit med minst en cykelsemester med sin två år yngre framtida man. Jag har otroligt svårt att se min mormor cykla från Motala till Rättvik och tillbaka, men hon var också ung och stark en gång. Därefter måste morfar ha varit borta för det mesta. Han tog värvning som telegrafist i flottan och letade ubåtar i Östersjön under andra världskriget och längre än så. Familjen var inhyst i ett par av de små små stugorna utmed huvudvägen genom Ljugarn. Morfar tog körkort med hjälp av öns enda bil. Han fick starta, backa och köra framåt en tio meter. Det körkortet körde han med tills han var över nittio. hoppas mamma har behållit hans gamla telegraf, den är ett roligt och fint minne från honom.

Som nyinflyttad hemmafru med nyfödd bebis i stuga med vedspis, brunn, dass och stearinljus kan livet inte ha varit så kul, fast det var det väl inte för någon under kriget och somrarna var fina som de är på Gotland. Det finns många foton på mina pepparkaksbruna morföräldrar uppflugna på raukar. Morfar hade många spännande, dråpliga, intressanta anekdoter från fartyget och ubåtsjakterna att berätta. Någon gång letade han fram gamla sparade ransoneringskuponger ur gömmorna och när Internet kom på nittiotalet var han rätt nyfiken till att börja med. Mamma har sagt att mormor jobbade extra som sömmerska och det var kanske redan där på Gotland.

Efter kriget övergick telegrafisternas tjänster till FRA och familjen flyttade till Stockholm, eller snarare till 50-talets nybyggen i Rågsved - alla tre i en etta. Mormor har aldrig sagt ett ljud om Rågsved. Där kanske mamma fick bli tonåring på egen hand tänker jag. Mormors mor i Motala finns alltid med i mammas berättelser som ett härligt sommartillhåll, men min bild är att mormor och morfar genom alla tider gärna klädde upp sig och gick på fest och att mormor inte var varken kärleksfull eller munter resten av tiden. En sådan festkväll finns obarmhärtigt inpräntat i familjen sedan morfar i ilska över sin femåriga dotters dåliga uppförande slängde igen en dörr för att klippa av hennes långfinger. Av är det. Och det var lite tragiskt för det blev i deras ögon ytterligare ett förfulande attribut. Min mamma har alltid fått veta att hon har haft oturen att ärva det sämsta av båda sina föräldrar - mormors gräsliga örsnibbar, fasters bleka skinn och därpå ett avhugget finger.

Någonstans där i Rågsved kanske mormor la ner sitt livs ambitioner. Hon trodde inte på Gud, hon tyckte inte om att sy, baka eller laga mat, hon tyckte inte om barn och hon hade ingen jävlaranamma - allt det var tidens måttstockar för en hemmafru. Ett perfekt hem, en stor familj att göra allt för, och om man hade något större kall - eller jävlaranamma - var välgörenhetsinsamlingar den väg som fanns att ta. Det är inget fel på det, men det är en snäv väg. Mormor flydde folk så gott hon kunde de sista fyrtio åren av sitt liv. Vid femtio blev hon gammal på riktigt upplevde hon. Gammal och ful. För ful för att visa sig bland folk. Ingen utom barn och barnbarn tilläts komma innanför hennes dörr i vissheten om att det inte dög - att det inte var nog städat.

Precis som en av tanterna i Fatimas bok beskriver berättade mormor en gång om att hon nu fick egna pengar. Pensionen innebar att hon för första gången fick en egen liten summa att ta ut. Alla pengar hon hade hållit i dittills hade gått till mat och kläder. Inte en enda gång hade hon kunnat välja själv vad familjen skulle kunna behöva utöver detta. Det var med skräckblandad förtjusning som hon varje gång jag kom på besök undrade 'inte kan du väl ha köpt den där jackan på myrornas?'. Att handla andras gamla kläder var fruktansvärt fattigt men det blev ju ändå billigt, så syntes det inte kanske det ändå var en god ide...

Det är detta som alltid har varit ett mysterium. Både mormor och morfar såg världen omkring förändras med familjebilar, varmvatten i kranen, dusch och toalett i lägenhet, tvättmaskiner, symaskiner, mobiltelefoner, mikrovågsugnar och färgtv och ändå ändrades deras världsbild inte alls. De levde hela livet som om det vore 1947. Åt samma grönsakssoppa, köpte ingenting utöver ransonen, lärde inte känna nya vänner och behöll samma ordning i familjen trots att barn och barnbarn tjänade sina egna pengar. Varför tog inte mormor ett jobb? Fick hon inte? Nedvärderade det morfar? Såg det inte fint ut utåt? Vågade hon inte? Orkade hon inte? Eller visste hon inte hur hon skulle utbilda sig? Eller ville hon inte utbilda sig och återigen nedvärdera morfar?

Men så kommer jag på hur mycket mormor trots allt bröt sig fri från det äkta tantidealet och blir lite stolt ändå. Hon la inte sitt hår, hon bar byxor och tröja istället för förkläden och korsetter, hon gick aldrig på kafferep där det ändå bara satt en massa gaggiga tanter och hon la inte all sin tid på barn och barnbarn. Hon kände hårt tryck på att hon borde göra allt detta, men valde att inte göra det. Det finns så många trevliga historier om vad morfar har gjort men inte en enda om mormor. Undrar vem hon hade varit i en annan tid?

Ps. Hennes enda tantattribut var hennes samlade tingestar. Kanske tingestarna är mer mänskliga minnen och tidens souvenirer än ett tantattribut.

Önskade förutsättningar för flow

2012-01-02T06:20:00.001+01:00

Om du var en av dem som äger ett företag som knäckte den sociala koden för framgång på Facebook har du antagligen haft ett strålande år. Då har du förmodligen jobbat mer än någonsin i en kamp mot tiden och för att rekrytera så många dyrbara utvecklare det någonsin går. År 2011 var året när det gällde att hinna före eller ta sig förbi några enstaka konkurrenter. Det var ännu så få som hade fattat att möjligheterna att bli störst i världen hägrade.

Var du inte en av dessa vittnar min feed om att du kanske haft ett mindre bra år.

2011 var begränsningarnas år. Alla andra, de som inte har förstått den sociala strukturens förutsättningar än, kämpade med tärande omorganisationer som inte löser framtiden, utan bara än mer cementerar den förlegade tiden. Vi som har och alltid har haft internet som vår främsta arbetsplats blev frustrerade av att behöva foga oss i fumliga modeller anpassade för en annan tid, en annan värld. I februari kikade jag in på en orolig redaktion i Bonnierhuset för att i mars påbörja ett vikariat på en lika orolig avdelning på SVT. Mediehusens år kantades av avhopp och det var lätt att fylla en plötsligt tom plats med en rekryt från en konkurrent. Vägen går dock bakåt med för många nya ansikten och en vanlig dag på jobbet innehöll både ilska och gråt. Jag hoppas att 2012 blir början på en ny tid av förtroende och frihetsgrader - den enda chansen för organisationer med den äldre generationen ledare att hänga med.

2011 var drabbningarnas år. På världslig nivå och privat. Cancer, dödsfall, sviter av halkolyckor och missfall var vardagsmat detta år. Jag önskar alla drabbade återhämtning under 2012.

2011 var tidsförlustens år när vi kom på att tre barn i familjen inte är helt kompatibelt med två heltids karriärsjobb. Två barn funkade fint, men med de krav skolan ställer på oss föräldrar, med stängda planeringsdagar, deltagande på obligatorisk simning och skridskoknytning, bullbak till klasskassor osv osv toppat med dagisförkylningar och ytterligare utvecklingssamtal och tomtemössor, blev ohanterligt. Jag hoppas att molnet blir standard överallt så att jag kan jobba mer från hemmet under 2012.

2011 var ett år helt utan flow. Med större frihetsgrader, organisationer som utgår från förtroende och som har släppt rädslan, återhämtade kollegor, ett starkt teamwork, och en mobil arbetsplats hoppas jag att 2012 erbjuder många skratt och ett trevligt, roligt härligt flow.

Spelifiera livet

2011-12-23T10:36:00.001+01:00

Jag gillar Gittas tanke om att tänka på livet som man tänker i ett spel.

An engaging picture

2011-12-11T18:04:00.001+01:00

This is obviously a very engaging picture from my Facebook feed. 523 people like it, it's been shared 487 times and commented 209 times! Most comments says 'Photoshop' while others says 'Seems more fun to skate now' or just 'Wow'. What do you say?

Släpp sargen - våga vingla och mingla

2011-12-11T10:44:00.001+01:00

Johan Ronnestam lämnade ett meddelande på Facebook 'Du, kan inte du köra en pecha kuscha, vi behöver könsutjämna lite?'. Jag hade en timme tidigare sett infon om nätverkskvällen och tänkt att det kändes som ett givet besök för att få lite inspiration i decembermörkret. Men sådana här sammanhang blir lätt lite ointressanta när det är ett ganska homogent gäng killar i ålder ca 30-50 som presenterar sina funderingar och erfarenheter och min ståndpunkt är att tjejer måste sluta tacka nej till att delta, för står det ingen tjej där kommer ingen annan våga eller vilja ställa sig där heller. Jag tänker att jag kan ge ett annat perspektiv, några andra exempel och förhoppningsvis bidra till att normalisera bilden av tjejer som talare, men också visa att man kan våga prata utan att vara hur cool och bra som helst på scen. En del är det och det är alltid imponerande, medan andra har något att säga utan att vara lika briljanta talare.

20 slides på 20 sekunder vardera är kravet på en pecha kucha, på automatspeed- ganska läskigt. Innan jag tackade ja tänkte jag först efter så att jag hade en story, något att berätta men det där med det ovana tempot hann jag bara inte öva på, utan det fick bli en första gångens testomgång på plats. Klart det är lite nervöst innan, men man måste ju utmana sig själv. Det är otroligt kul att testa något som känns ovant och oprövat. Man lär sig ju något.

Det var jag och elva killar som en efter en stakade oss fram med varierad framgång för en kanske 50 man stor publik varav 5 kvinnor. Efteråt fick jag frågan från flera om varför så få tjejer vill delta. Jag kan ju inte svara för alla, men jag vet att när det kallas till kvinnliga nätverkskvällar med kvinnliga talare är det fullsatt och på geekgirl meetup kör ca 50 tjejer halvtimmespresentationer under två heldagar varje halvår. Tjejer pratar gärna med och för andra tjejer men tror inte att killar ska vara intresserade av det de har att säga. Och att lyssna på bara killar en kväll - nej då stannar de hellre hemma, det förknippas inte med inspiration.

Det är alltså viktigt att det finns tjejer som tackar ja. Om någon frågar mig måste jag tro att det jag har att säga är av intresse för andra. Jag har spännande erfarenheter från att delta i en snabbväxande organisation, från en miljoncommunity och från interaktiva användarbeteenden som få andra i Sverige har. Varken jag eller andra har någon fördel av att jag sitter och trycker på den själv.

Och just i torsdags rådde den mest opretentiösa, gemytliga och tillåtande stämning man kan tänka sig. Man får bara skratta åt sig själv när tidsintervallen går åt pipsvängen, åt Fredrik Marcus briljanta svada, åt Per Axboms magiska berättarteknik (hitta hans preso på länken), åt Roman Pixells till att börja med obesvarade försök att få en lunchdejt och åt Richard Gatarski som precis som alltid låg lite före. Men det kan man bara göra om man vet att det man har att säga är av värde.

Här är mina slides från 'Släpp sargen - våga vingla och mingla'

Vingla och Mingla

View more presentations from Malin Ströman

Karins hängbröst veckans bästa läsning

2011-12-06T20:44:00.001+01:00

På sex rader har Karin, Karins Konstgrepp, berättat om sin kroppsnoja som hänger i sedan Veckorevyns råd från tonårstiden. Över 100 kvinnor, däribland Veckorevyns chefredaktör, har svarat på hennes avslutande fråga 'Vad har Veckorevyn lärt dig?'. Där redovisas en massa ohyggligt knäppa måttstockar och råd som man som tonårstjej i sin osäkerhet och ovisshet funderade tillräckligt mycket över för att man ska minnas det för livet. Ja förutom chefredaktören då som hävdar att tidningen idag har ett helt annat tilltal.

Det här blev veckans bästa läsning - ett kort minne påfyllt med 100 till av samma sort som beskriver ett äkta och odiskutabelt samhällsproblem och en ouppskattad men väl rotad struktur.

Cowards stay behind when the future is created

2011-11-28T11:21:00.001+01:00

Recruiting, promoting, dismissing by safety.... or cowardice. It's not a new order but it's a model that might not work very well in times of change. Media companies act in an era where we have absolutely no idea of where we are going, what we should or should not do. Everyone have versions of the future, but it seems as safety is most often prioritized to innovation and disruptive actions. This is highly frustrating for those who are a step ahead. Normally that is the early adopters, but now it seems as those ahead are the big crowd. The mobile, social mass is ready for the future while the traditional media businesses stand still wondering where the money is and choose to do if not nothing, but very little.

But there is obviously money to catch - in Facebook integrations, in applications and in the new mobile reality. For those who understand it.

Leaders keep surrounding themselves by dweebs - nice people with long history in the business (print, games, broadcast). The dweebs will never take or make a conflict but will not eather push to reach progression. They will not challenge teams or strategies and new, to begin with unexpected contenders, have free space to make fast moves and conquer the constantly contracting global market. Contracting in the aspect that there are no distanses anymore and expanding as you are always able and thereby should or must aim for the population of the entire Internet. This means that small unexpected parts all of a sudden become huge and powerfull.

This chicken leader is missing out on the most imporant of the web - the end mobile social user. These bewildered media companies protect their beloved content desperately. They know their traditional users by heart - those who watch, or play or read - but they don't know the new style user. Spotify and king.com presented a first version of their products already 6 years ago, in a time when the social graph and Facebook not yet had any proven value. Fall 2009 american visit metrics dropped in many communitys. The Lehmann-Brother fall the econimists claimed. We will recover. But it wasn't logical. Online gaming and entertainment is a growing industry in economically restrained times. User surveys insinuated in the same time that Facebook grew and that it gained timespent and visits from others. The american figures kept falling followed by more parts of the online world to the favor of Facebook. It's all very easy. People with time to spend spend it on Facebook. It's where they are and you should really want to be where your customers are.

Spotify and king.com amongst others dared to rethink, add, change their great working core products. They integrated with Facebook less than a year ago and are today on the top lists of reach, timespent and stickyness. They got the future and have passed everyone who doesn't believe in it. All those who believe that they are doing mobile first just by making their content accessable in the phone, or they who think that mobile is and should be a parallell feature to the content, not integrated with it.

The traditional content has worked fine so far and the customers doesn't ask for anything else. But things doesn't have to be broken to need a change. It is time to let go of safety... or cowardice, and let people who know the mobile online end user be disruptive.

Picking up details in the samian culture

2011-11-10T19:33:00.000+01:00

I'm on the most inspiring project ever. Few are lucky to get the mission to develop interactive production targeting the minority samian community in the very north of Scandinavia. It's an opportunity to get to know a part of Sweden we seldom see. There are wonderful and amazing details to discover and right now I'm looking for a tune to match the production. In the research I do new personal findings on YouTube - in a language that feels very global.

Dream presents for my familly

2011-11-05T20:09:00.000+01:00

Time for Christmas dreams.

For my nearest and dearest sister who loves history, romance, intrigues and beautyful interior designsClassics from Penguin Books

For my youngest sister who's into fashion and who is just learning everything about lifeVanity Fair Vintage postcards also from Penguin Books.

"Vanity Fair's famous philosophy of mixing up classes, races and sexes - as long as they were innovative, gorgeous or talented - was reflected in the dazzling and elegant magazine covers from such hugely influential designers as Paolo Garretto, William Cotton and Eduardo Garcia Benito. These covers are now a memorial to a world of glamour and excitement, gone - but not forgotten."

For my father-in-law - a beautyful luxury bell for his bicycle from danish Sögrenis.

For both my mom and mother-in-law I will get the three best records of the last two years -

Oskar Linnros, Vilja bli

Daniel Adams Ray, Svart, vitt och allt däremellan


A bookworm filled with books for my 10 years old

A Hollister scarf for my 8 years old

My boyfriend needs these Manhattan storages - one green, one pink and one metallic to start with to store his magazines in.

Dad would get an iPad, with a blue cover. He doesn't know it, but he will love it.

Ok, the dreams just grew bigger and bigger and in the end I will probably just as last year - donate all the money to clean the Baltic Sea instead. We all want to be able to swim a hot summer day rather than all this anyway.

Tatsy looking cookies

2011-10-29T21:00:00.001+02:00

This is what I'm learning to crochet for - I'd just love - just as Fru Albertsson - to be able to make this kind of present for any child's fifth birthday. I know you could buy them, but I'd love to be able to spend an afternoon to make them myself. They look delicious, playable and real.

Food fashion is art

2011-10-29T20:51:00.000+02:00

Protest, provocative or just hungry? It's fun and creative art anyway - crochetted by Joy Kampia.

An interactive video on sign language

2011-10-28T20:24:00.000+02:00

I got the mission to make a game for sign language but realized that if there is something that deaf people have loads of on the Internet it is games. The language must be visualized through video as both hands and face are required. So I modified the mission to interactive video production and looked for inspiration. First I found MegaVega who have produced lots of videos with tunes that children like translated by sing language dance moves. I'd love to see them as background dancers in some music children's show.

I liked them, but needed to show them to some deaf eight year olds to know if they would appreciate it. They sure did, but they also showed me what more they like on YouTube. Vanessa Hudges! But they can't here? No, but many music videos are build by short often romantic stories whith no long incomprehensive dialogues. They are very visual, emotional and tell their own short story.

I've further been looking at the Magnum Pleasurehunt game, and a handfull of interactive stories where the classic man from La Linea is my favourite - short sessesions and very simple choices and stories.

I will also further explore the possibilities with web cam games and timing games as Guitarr Hero to see if I can offer a set of signs to use for different purposes - to put a song together in the right order on the right time or to collect items through knowing specific signs. There is not much done so the field is open, but it is also difficult as I don't know the language and the Swedish target group/sign language source is very small. To be continued...

Traditional selbul for the iPhone

2011-10-28T19:37:00.001+02:00

Again the most interesting is the crossland between new and traditions, where the handcraft makes it's way, takes place. It will not let the future be without a heritage. Beautfyl iPhone cover by Maria Arendal on her blog Pyssel och Knåp.

Cool by person, not by style

2011-10-15T14:30:00.000+02:00

So I'm trying to figure out who I want to be right now by looking at the fashion brand ads for this fall. I have set that I'm not a challenging retro futuristic Prada girl - I have too much on my mind to cope with provocated discussions. I'm too old and sophisticated to be a young bookworm in Dior. I don't want to be bored in Ralph Lauren and there is no room right now for a creative Gucci life.

Sonia Rykiel presents a colorful woman at a café, she's not really having fun. She's a grown up, not excited, but yet interested in people around her. She could probably be me. I don't really like her dress but looking on the rest of the collection I see myself in many places. It's soft and female yet not sexy or provocative. This could be me those very rare days when I have an hour with no children meeting up with a friend and enjoy everything I never have the time to enjoy otherwise.

Then there is a very androgynous girl staring at me from the darkness. She wears a Paul Smith coat, a white shirt and a cardigan. This is me. These clothes works for me every day and reflects who I feel I need to be - no matter wether I like it or not. I need to be tough and strong and talk the same language as men around me to get my voice heard, I need to act as a man. The rest of this collection suits me perfectly - it's not really as masculine as the ad, but rather practical, neutral and genderless.

I find a woman in between the social Sonia Rykiel and the demanding Paul Smith types. It's the Joseph jersey and whool cozy woman covering up for the freezing cold winter. Soft, androgyne, practical and not challenging or daring.

I try to get an image of a celebrity of any kind that would reflect this style and Sigourney Weaver pops up - a woman that never have needed to dress in any style to become cool, a woman who is cool just by herself, in anything.

Sonia Rykiel

Paul Smith

Joseph

Man syr, berättar och lyssnar på en syjunta

2011-10-09T10:02:00.004+02:00

Syjunta är en grupp, av framförallt kvinnor, som träffas för att ägna sig åt sömnad och handarbete.

Alltså man syr, virkar, stickar eller broderar – och umgås. Syjuntor låter lite gammaldags, men verkar vara något som många saknar när de försvinner, eftersom de återuppstår med jämna mellanrum. Eller de finns nog alltid, men blir mer populära i vissa perioder.

Igår hämtade jag enorma mängder inspiration från Beata Wickboms bord fyllt av färggranna garnnystan, stickor, pärlor och påbörjade och ibland avslutade hantverk. Det är otroligt trevligt att skapa något, och dubbelt upp om man skapar något som går att använda, som gör att man slipper handla, något unikt, något som inspirerar andra att själva pröva på. Syjuntan är också ett bra sätt att få lära sig hur man gör – stolpar, luftmaskor, moucher och mönster. Jag är ett steg närmare egna amigurumis.

Än mer inspirerade sällskapet. Det går inte att prata så mycket när man koncentrerar sig på att räkna maskor. Det blir mer att var och en berättar sin historia ett tag. Man får lära känna varandra på ett mindre ytligt sätt än på ett ståmingel, alla lyssnar på och fokuserar på en i taget.

Igår var det - alla lika imponerande - Lesley som aldrig ger upp, Görel vars första film kommer upp på biograferna om en månad, Sofia facilitatorn, Paula mästervirkaren och den som matchar uppgift med rätt person, Katrina som får saker gjorda, Eva uttrasslaren och Jeanette som man lyssnar till när hon talar. Och så Beata – nätverkaren, moderatorn och den ultimata värdinnan. 7 nya kvinnliga förebilder!

Det vore så klart kul med några virkande män som kunde berätta sina historier också.

(Köp snigeln på Made by Sohpie om du inte kan göra den själv)

Everyone's reflections from 3 days in Dubai

2011-09-20T17:00:00.003+02:00

Here are the summarizing reflections from most of the She-entrepreneurs after three days in Dubai.

Samantha - Started off one to one, now I’m one to thirty.

Caroline - I have personal connections to everyone and understand the context where everyone comes from.

Camilla - A relaxing experience where we know eachother.

Raya - I extended my network. Action point is to start using the social media tools as much as I can.

Hoda – I have become optimistic, I had lost all my hopes.

Abeer - Friendship.

Malin – Constant learning and friendship. Next step is to go to Damaskus.

Eliza – new interest for the middle east, and next step will be to learn more.

Sofia – will take care of this network.

Antonia – greatful for your stories.

Karin – we are a good family – you challenge your familly, you cry together, you fight and laugh. I’ve decided to do something else in life when I come home.

Pernilla – want to use what I can do and am good at to help you do what you are good at - revolutions.

Noha – I will miss you all. The network is very important so I think you will all be a big puzzle that will help you all.

Norhan – I think this network is really working for change. I have been asking questions and got help. I have learned something about each one of our mentors here. Now I have energy and I will lead my own project and runt my own baby.

Ida – glad we are so united. I have heard such great stories and is happy to bring them home.

Sara – sisterhood. The beauty of contrast.

Solidad – beauty of trust, honesty and acceptance.

Context and feminism differs

2011-09-19T19:36:00.011+02:00

Fortunately the surreal Dubai experience was balanced with real life of the same weight. There were eleven very real women telling us their very real stories. It was just as inspiring to discover how we were just alike, our meeting-points, as to be bewildered by the differences. As women, or even just ambitious social entrepreneurs, there are no discrepancies. The contexts are widely separated.

The Iranians rest in my mind with their listlessness. I felt they didn't have much hope for any changes and I'm not sure that they knew what changes they wanted. They seem to often rely upon medical and scientific proofs and it was clear that our countries don't present the same facts. In Sweden we believe homosexuality proven not to be a contaminating disease and women are not yet proved to be better fitted in sense of orientation than men.

Our Egyptian queen-like participants confirmed a sense of that not much has changed after the revolution, but when digging a little deeper it turned out that she was now allowed to talk about what ever she wanted to talk about in public and people are performing and letting their messages out loudly on the streets. The remaining frustration is not to disrespect though. It requires lots of energy, dreams and high goals to succeed with the performance of this people - they have still far to go to reach the goals they were breaking the ice for.

The Palestinian girls could have been my Stockholm neighbours and yet they and their parents have been living in contingency for all of their lives. Revolutionized news can never touch them as they have never had a stable state. These entrepreneurs have huge will to make change and even though they found it hard to register a company targeting a good cause, they had found their own ways to deal with it - slow but concrete. Both them and the Jordanian girl had run into system problems with their projects when trying to create job opportunities for unprivileged women. Women who are not allowed to work in a house where there is a man present or carry the garbages outside the house are not easy to engage and when succeeding their salary goes directly to her husband anyway. But clearly the failures only create new ideas to move forward.

The Syrian was a chapter of her own - a woman in the middle of a revolution. Every piece of her and her story felt invaluable, and I am just happy that there are people like her. It's those who make changes come true. She had it in her finger tips. I feel certain that we will read about her and her friends in the history books in the future - that I've met a historic person.

We also met three outstanding Dubai located women volunteering for the Acumen Fund. They had all changed their banker careers in New York for the same in Dubai. I have never ever dreamt of beeing an investor but they made me envy their skills in making big money and investing them in huge long term beneficence projects around the world. I'd like to put them on tour inspiring all hungry economy students to become rich and beneficent.

I guess the only subject we never touched during these three days was feminism. Some of the projects in the group aim to spread women's rights to those who don't know them, and I'm sure we all had the same base in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but feminism is much more complex than that. While someone believes that wearing hijab is the only right way to live life even though she by that is forbidden to enter night clubs or even take a job, someone else believes that the color of pink by itself will turn girls to limited helpless souls. These are sensitive matters - true to one and false to another.

We had a engilded tea at the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi after having been rejected to enter the night club due to wearing hijab. By respect for the religion they said - unsexy and conciously excludingly I suspect.

Soledad Pinero Misa och Malin Speace

Dubai starting it's own new culture

2011-09-18T22:47:00.010+02:00

Dubai is hot as a sauna. And humid. When being in Sweden it’s completely impossible to imagine what it feels like to always be surrounded with such heat and the first day you’re just amazed by it. This state of amazement strikes me again and again the following three days. Most of the impressions from Dubai are impossible to imagine before you experience them.

Dress code attitude
Already at the airport I get amazed by the tricky attitude of 10 customs officers in kanduras in their saunter in front of the passport check. Kandura is the classic arab style white ankle-length white shirt that at least half of the men you see in Dubai wear. These guys are holding a show of power in front of us. Only when they want to they will staff a counter to speed the service of the squiggeling queues of dead tired travelers. It is 6 in the morning and we’ve been stuck on a plane at Qatar airport for hours.

The mixed dress code of the airport is remaining also when going in to Dubai. Many women wear an abaya, a black over-garment covering most parts of the body. Just as many are covering their head with an hijab. Again as many cover only their hair with a shawl, but I would say that the biggest part are western styled – not provocative, but proper and stylish. The total overview reminds me of New York.

The land before Mad Max
In the taxi my company asks the driver if he is originally from Dubai and yes, he answers… Later I am thinking that we must have met the only native driver in all of Dubai. Who can be from here? There seems to be no original town, no history, nothing before these skyscrapers. I learn that there have been people living there since early 1800 and it was formally established in 1833. The modern Dubai was created after the UK left the area in 1971. I am almost right though – this taxi driver is a rarity. 84% of the population of metropolitan Dubai was foreign-born, about half of them from India. I still guess that most of the city has risen from the desert as a strange construction of concrete, shiny facades and futuristic lush designs. Entering the Sheik Zayed road makes me pretend I’m in the world before it turned to the apocalyptic set of the Mad Max movie.

A country of free, well educated, wealthy men and women
The next morning I learn at the School of Government that there are 22% women in the Dubai Government, 59% women in the work force and 70% women at the university. These are interesting figures considering that the population is 1,7 million, of which 24% are women.

Later I am taking a photo of one of many walls decorated with the current ruler, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, also the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE. I find it amazing that his family has been the constitutional monarchy since 1833, but an Egyptian friend working in Abu Dhabi informs me that the people love him. This Sheikh sees to that everyone in this country is wealthy. The people building and falling down the skyscrapes are all guest workers – free to go home if they want to.

A fictive reality
I had a coke at the top of my hotel, enjoying the view of Burj Khalifa- structure in the world (321 meters), but only that height 40 floors up is enough to make me dizzy. I was wandering about in the redoubtable Mall for an hour, thought I would never get out and get some fresh air again, passing an ice rink, an enormous water fall and a gigantic aquarium. I felt dizzy all the time from constantly changing temperature from outside 40 degrees to inside 18. At night time the city is fully illuminated, shimmering, sparkling, glimmering. It’s beautiful but you just keep wondering how much energy is used to make this fictive city become real. I also start to hunger for the real people, the real Dubai, the real air. But there is nothing else. The air in Dubai is air condition, the habitans are bankers making money and the culture is futuristic buildings and concrete floors. This is a new culture, in it's very beginning.

In Dubai with Swedish Institute

2011-09-18T13:53:00.004+02:00

The Swedish Institute (SI) is a public agency that promotes interest and confidence in Sweden around the world. SI seeks to establish cooperation and lasting relations with other countries through strategic communication and exchange in the fields of culture, education, science and business.

I'd say that lasting relations were built last week in Dubai when fifteen swedish social entrereneurs rejoined their protegees from different arabic countries. I got an irretrievable gift in the form of an invitation to join this group to coach them further in the power of social media. Thank you Javeria Rizvi Kabani for that. I feel like I owe you one.

She Entrepreneurs is a program for dialogue, mutual understanding and knowledge sharing between young women social entrepreneurs from the Middle East, North Africa and Sweden. The program, She Entrepreneurs, includes participants from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, West Bank/Gaza and Iran. Its aim is to inspire, provide tools to work for sustainable change, and to develop a network of women social entrepreneurs in the region. She Entrepreneurs is a pilot program that was introduced in Stockholm in February this year.

I will make three following posts from this journey. The first will be about Dubai - the most screwy place on earth. The second will be about the meeting with these amazing women - so alike but in such different contexts, and finally I must probably put down some thoughts on some new discoveries about the power of social media.

Read about the Swedish Institute and the She-entrepreneur program and check out theTwitterfeed on #sheent11

It doesn't have to be broken to need a change

2011-08-28T21:38:00.008+02:00

Luke Williams talked about how to be and not to be disruptive. I use to avoid people who have written a book because they tend to market it with a catchy and quotable summerization presented with an attitude and a big sapient smile. Maybe I didn't think that the concept of distruptiveness was possible to summerize well, but I guess Luke proved me wrong.

In a business world of nonstop change, there's only one way to win the game: transform it entirely. This requires a revolution in thinking—a steady stream of disruptive strategies and unexpected solutions. In Disrupt, Luke Williams shows exactly how to generate those strategies and deliver those solutions.

He kept his promise. I feel I can use some of his catchy quotable summerization as a checklist more or less.

- Don’t build what people want, build what they don’t know they want. (Ford said it and Steve Jobs is a master of it.)

- It’s hard to be disruptive because we want people to like us, we don’t want to separate from the flock.

- Disruptive is the opposite of control and stagnation.

- We tend to like and favor ideas we already know - those that fit in to what we know from before.

- Being intentional unreasonable prohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifvoke new ideas.

- Identify clichés and make a contradictory to find something that nobody else does, something surprising and disruptive.

- It doesn’t have to be broken to need a change.

(Socks are sold in pairs of two - no at LittleMissMatched who sell socks in three for mixing and for the one you always loose.)

FourSquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai prolonged the list with
- The more unexpected the higher outcome.
- The more predictive the easier for competitors to copy.

When building Stardoll we have been stuck in and practiced each and everyone of these problems. I just wich that I had had these tweetable oneliners to lean on by then. It never worked very well just saying 'Girls will like it'. On the other hand, it will always be hard to convince everyone, or even anyone, that you are not crazy but the rest of the world is.

Read about crazy genius Steve Mann and Dave Asprey.

What is the most disruptive - full time conntected or fully disconnected?

2011-08-27T09:10:00.005+02:00

Keynote speaker Amber Case (@casorganic) turned out to be the most charming personality ever. She is that sort of person replying every question with a smile and a ‘thank you’ before answering. Telling her story she laughs over and over again, enjoying the world and the people in it.

Amber showed us the story of Steve Mann, an amazing half maniac creative genius from the 80s still active today. We laugh at him because he was so out of the box but he was really ahead of everything – so far in front of us we couldn’t realize it, crazy enough to try out things before they were possible. This made me think of who is that Steve Mann character of today. Who is considered full feathered crazy but will be recognized as genius in 20 years?

Maybe we soon after met that person in Dave Asprey. Dave himself challenged Amber already at her speech asking her if she was only passively talking or if she was actually doing any cyborg practicing herself, which she replied that she did. She, just as Dave himself, measure everything she does. Statistics about you and your body seems to be interesting to the scientists and you can’t avoide the sense of elitism as often with cyborgs. There is always a fine line between health and support and superhumanpowers.

I interpreted Dave’s story about going from a super clever 150 kg computer addicted guy in his 20s to an (almost) normal functional family man with the help of happiness data as a story of healing – a remedy. He has found a way to control his mind and not let it do unhealthy choices, but on the contrary, only do what makes him feel good. You get a little scared by this man and yet I’m wondering if he’s not the Steve Mann of our times. Will we in 20 years look at him and see that he was right even though his practice will seem disruptive even in the future?

Susan Maushart discovered just as Dave that the fulltime connected life can have bad impact on the health of a family, and so she disconnected the entire family for a year – including 3 teenage kids. I wanted to ask her what she believed that the kids will say about it when they are 40... My mom experimented with our lives...or My mom did a real good move back then... To be completely disconnected today means that you put your kids outside both communication with school and moreover with their friends. Again this might have been the only remedy for this family, but I feel that I will not try it at home.

Disruptive Africa is part of the same community as us

2011-08-26T23:06:00.005+02:00

I talked to South African Barry Coetzee the night before the Conference and realized that he’s that kind of experienced person who knows everything - in a good way - even though he had just spotted his first IKEA the same day.

It turned out that Barry, CEO at iVeri Payment Technologies, is sitting on the future of Africa. He brought lots of slides with statistics and visualization, but I only needed to listen to him to understand what he was saying. Old technology will be modified by an enormous market to new versions we don’t know of today.

Africa is an enormous market that up till just recently have had almost no online connection, a state that has changed quickly but with yet far further changes to face. Africans are getting connected today, but with vast rural areas and no permanent lines it’s a mobile world where for example Nokia is a strong actor. SMS is the way to communicate. If you want to do a search on the Internet you sms your question to a company who do the search for you and sms the answer back to you. You can subscribe to a service that send you and sms with the currency of the day to see if it is a good day to sell your crop at the market or to know if your checkbook has arrived at the bank office.

Very important in these new opportunities are the payment systems. The comfort it brings people to not have to travel for hours to a city to withdraw money in a bank, but to use the phone to get the required money is evident. Big actors as MasterCard have to be creative and offer methods to pay without having an account.

Barry trusts the overwhelmingly young population to find creativity and productiveness in the Africa specific challenges. It’s an entire population who only knows a reality with no infrastructure but with simple mobiles and out of new formats will grow.

The audience put a question that added an angle to this talk – what are they doing online for fun? They SMS each other and... they go on Facebook. Because Facebook those clever bastards are heading for the world, to become the Internet, and offers free usage for african inhabitors. They actually pay them to be on Facebook. The Africans will in the end be a part of the same community as the rest of us.

Läs detaljerad återgivning av Barrys presentation på Bisonblogg

Good stories and statistics of being disruptive at the Conference

2011-08-26T22:39:00.009+02:00

Since the era of Twitter started there are two conference formats growing stronger. One is when the speaker has to make long pauses for everyone to get the time to tweet the last point said. The speaker then has to accept that everyone keep their heads turned down, hardly ever looking up or giving any response. The more he/she gets later on when checking the mentions on Twitter, and that is truly just as satisfying if not even more as you get flattered in front of thousands of more people than those in the room. The best way to get that kind of response is to fill the talk up with slides full of statistics and one-liners.

The other format is pure storytelling - when you after a short time realize that there is nothing to tweet, it’s just an amazing story and someone who is sharing life with you. You get a scrap from someone else’s mind, memory and life and you don’t know what to do with it. It’s just a great story. That was what keynote speaker Bill Drummond did at the Conference. He gave us a piece of his mind and by that he made us want to be a part of his choir, singing only two tones – all together, higher, lower, shorter and longer. I can’t retell it, it’s his story, but it was great fun to be his choir 17 for a few minutes.

Molly Ränge summerize the Conference in Malmö here. She feels that the line of argument through the Conference was Storytelling, while I interpreted the continous theme as disruptive. It was all about where and when to expect new thinking to appear and where it has appeared in history. Some presented through statistics and check lists, other by amazing stories.

All presentations from the Conference

Lovely notes from the Conference by GoodOld

The success of the GameBoy

2011-08-25T00:25:00.004+02:00

I held a very short session in a composition of three today, filling in Björn Jeffery's talk on the Toca Boca research on bluckbusters. Here is an even shorter version of my preso:

There are lots of lessons to learn from blockbusters and I’ve been looking into the success of the Nintendo GameBoy.

I started by asking all my game savvy friends about it and they all answered short and direct in one word – Tetris.

Tetris was included in the GameBoy per default from the release in 1989. Nintendo run a long struggle for the rights with both the Russians and other parts, so the game was strategically important for them. But why were Tetris and Gameboy the perfect match when everyone else were doing cooler stuff? Tetris was and is considered a game for girls.

Other gaming consoles of different brands were all cool looking black as something to steer a spaceship with. The Atari Lynx was released right after the GameBoy with mediocre success. They all offered the latest technology at the time, the coolest games and design - the kind of features that appeal to any hard core gamer. The target group was by that limited to primarily boys 16-30 years old, at most 10% of the population.

The Nintendo style was completely different. I’ve urged for everyone of their devices and I own them all. It's clear that they recognized a potential market much bigger than those 10%.

They made a toy that most people could possess and play. It could be carried in a pocket. It was cheap, easy to start and end and had long lasting batteries.
A tech device has wires and ports, a toy has batteries.

Long life time batteries are also important to let people bring it along to school, handle it to others and to get hooked to play for hours.

A toy has easy interaction for the inexperienced. No pre-skills demanded. It’s easy to get started. But to get that quick start you also need a fun short session game that is easy to get into.

The low price was prioritized to let everyone be able to own it. Cheaper weak processors didn't offer complex graphics and action games and Tetris was required to create the perfect match.

This Nintendo reciepy is most relevant today – keep casual games as casual as they can get for casual people.

Don't mess with a girl in Prada

2011-08-15T21:29:00.005+02:00

Prada covers more of the rebellious 20s and 60s styles of girls who don't care to look the way they are supposed to. Instead of pleasing someone they are doing the opposite. The styles are not very new, but very much Mary Quant and some in her early times not at all classic Coco Chanel. Today these clothes don't have the same anti- or futuristic effect though. They are not at all daring but they still seem stubborn and implacable. I wouldn't mess around with a girl like this neither as man or a woman. I would always be a little scared of her.

Quant

Paco Rabanne

Courreges

A bookworm from the country in Dior

2011-08-14T19:16:00.006+02:00

The Lady Dior campaign presents any woman who don't want to stick out too much. Women who want to dress safe for work and a day light life. Also the ready-to-wear collection targets every girl, but with focus on girls and not women. It's a young everyday version of the Gucci 70s stardust. These are clothes for everyone which also fade down the feeling of must-have.

There are also outfits matching the Ralph Lauren Shanghai 20s styles though much more relaxed and free. The Dior women this fall are a little pale and tired, hiding from the sun and outdoor life, but yet clever, cute, ambitious and focused. They carry books in their bags. They completely turn their heads on the classic Dior perfect wife. They are rather the mistress.

The Dior Collection goes even younger. We see the pretty girl too shy to join the company. She stands in the corner or beside the bar, not even eager to approach any company, just feeling awkward, but still holding her head high. It's a good girl just before she's swallowed by the big city.

In the rtw there is also a spooky theme with nightgown looking dresses and warming knit hug-me-tights. It makes the collection more fun to watch but it's a look hard to wear - when do you want it? Not at the party, not at the office - it's a Halloween only.

The 20s Shanghai girl with a life

A Halloween Ghost

Dior Collection, the good girl right before she's being swallowed by the big city

Druged or young and creative by Gucci

2011-08-13T09:28:00.010+02:00

The Gucci ads give pretty much the same mood expression as the Ralph Lauren fall style - bored bought women. Looking at the entire collection it's kind of sad they choose that approach as the styles in fact are colorful and vivid. It's full of life, but the ads remove all spirit from the wearer. It presents the drug dealer VIP room behind the dance floor or the late night when all the excited Donna Summer fans have left. They probably want to connect it to the mid 90s blasé top models in the same place and mood.

The catwalk reminded me more of the 70s Cher and Lindsay Wagner, by that time natural beauties with elegant and still young and creative looks. That type I'd love to be.

Ralph Lauren for you who long for something else

2011-08-11T17:24:00.010+02:00

The Ralph Lauren fall Collection made me think 'Flirting with the asian market'. A good way to sell expensive stuff is to adjust the style to rich russians and asians. Then I got a little interested in this 20s Shanghai inspiration and had to get the history for it. There is a mysterious smokey ganster feeling of these westerninspired and yet asian styles. What did the americans do there? I learn on Wikipedia that

"The British establish a concession by forced treaty with the Qing Dynasty after China loses the first Opium War. Concessions were governed by the occupying country and were untouchable by Chinese law. The British, along with the Americans and French, were allowed to live in certain territorial zones without being under the Chinese laws. As a result of all the foreigners, Shanghai became greatly influenced by Western culture."

"During this period, Shanghai was known as "The Paris of the East, the New York of the West". Shanghai was made a special city in 1927, and a municipality in May 1930. The city's industrial and financial power increased, because the merchants were in control of the city, while the rest of China was divided among warlords."

And with them followed their bored wives I guess. Or not, but a bored mistress. I connect the look with someone cold as ice and completely indifferent. Someone who is bought for money and who just long to something else. I guess the times were cool for adventurous men and not as cool for their families.

Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express 1931.

SciFi Women vs Primetime

2011-08-11T16:54:00.003+02:00

Fun visualized by Alligatorsunglasses.com

I guess that's why I must love SciFi women.

The Future and History in the Balenciaga fall collection

2011-08-10T22:27:00.004+02:00

I didn't think that the Balenciaga fall collection looked that interesting on the catwalk images but when you see it in this context it looks fantastic. I love how the brands use their campaigns to make us understand and want to be a part of their dreams and aims.

I connected the geometrics and bright colors with the 60s and the trousers felt teenage trashy, but with the background of the medieval I'm almost getting a strange steam punk association. And being presented to the inspiration image below (taken from the Balenciaga site) I find that they manage to put both the Dark Age, the 60s and the 40s together to the Future.

Det som är viktigt för någon är viktigt för alla

2011-08-10T17:04:00.009+02:00

Internet är fullt av subjektiva åsikter. Med tillräckligt många olika subjektiva åsikter har jag en chans att skapa mig en uppfattning själv. Med en journalists bearbetning har jag en chans att skapa mig en uppfattning utifrån den journalistens bearbetning. Mina flöden från sociala medier inlagda i en mer överskådlig vy med t ex Flipboard ger mig mängder av olika åsikter på ett hanterligt sätt.

Men du kommer bara att läsa om, lyssna och se på sådant som intresserar dig hävdas det ofta. Och då får du fortfarande inte en rättvis bild av världen. Journalister och redaktörer hjälper oss att lyfta fram det jag inte visste att jag behöver veta.

Då tänker jag på #förjohannasskull. Nu var det ett känt namn - Federley - som hjälpte till att få fart på spridningen av den personliga kampanj som gav mig insyn i cystisk fibros, men det var social validering genom andra människors engagemang som gjorde att jag blev nyfiken på något som inte alls rör mig personligen. Det går att få en mängd människor att läsa om ett ämne och till och med åka till Vansbro och simma trots vattenskräck, om man tycker att något är väldigt viktigt - om det är viktigt - för någon.

I efterhand fick kunskapen om sjukdomen ytterligare spridning när journalister och redaktörer publicerade den genomförda kampanjen. Själv hade jag aldrig läst de inläggen om jag inte hade sett engagemanget på Twitter först. Medier har för vana att lyfta fram allt möjligt ointressant t ex i nyhetstorka.

Vattenrädda Johanna simmade
Johannas blogg

Coachning Personligt Varumärke och SMO FutureGames

2011-08-09T21:10:00.004+02:00

Här är minnesanteckningar till studenterna på FutureGames efter dagens snack om portfolios och nätnärvaro.

- Definiera vad du vill att en rekryterare/uppdragsgivare ska uppfatta om dig när de söker på google och när de kommer till din sida.

- Var personlig, inte privat. En privat blogg eller feed hör inte ihop med den professionella, men en personlig ger något för att lära känna dig bättre. Det kan t ex handla om dagliga framsteg i projektet du jobbar på, egna tankar kring speldesign och spel, vad din son tycker om dina alster, någon annan konstform du håller på med eller om du har något annat sidointresse som du brinner för.

- Våga stick ut med det som definierar dig. Ni har alla jysst material, ingen kommer minnas ditt namn, vad ska de minnas dig för? (Det var Jesper Jäders http://soneat.se/# som jag försökte leta reda på som med ett omfattande grafiskt intryck stack ut i mängden, Ivan Boström har påbörjat en kul extra fördjupning i 'game design' och jag känner mig fortfarande nyfiken på Joachims Spotify-lista)

- Låt andra kommentera dina bloggposter eller ditt arbete - du får feedback, ger en bild av dig själv som villig att få feedback och får förbättrat resultat i google sök. Du får också andra att engagera sig aktivt i ditt arbete.

- Lägg upp en profil med ditt CV på LinkedIn. Sök reda på gamla arbetsgivare och vänner och skicka förfrågan så att du finns med i kluster av folk så att den som surfar runt kan hitta till dig. Det går att själv ändra den angivna adressen till ditt konto till en med ditt namn för bättre sökoptimering.

- Som artist kan du visa din företagsmässiga sida med att lägga upp sina verk till försäljning på t ex zazzle.se, deviantart.com eller 'ansöka' till att sälja hos nordicarthouse.com. Har man tur säljer de och köparna blir gratis reklampelare och hängivna fans.

- Twitter är ett bra ställe att starta dialog med personer du har något gemensamt med, som har intresse av dig och/eller som du har intresse av. Det är lätt att visa framfötterna för potentiella arbetsgivare. Döp kontot till det namn du använder för bättre sök och lättare att hitta dig.

- Feedburner skickar automatiskt ut dina bloggposter eller annan feed på t ex Facebook, Twitter och Google+.

- Om du embeddar (med en WordPress plugin) dina senaste Twitterkommentarer kan det fungera istället för blogg, som en personlig, aktuell och aktiv display.

- lätt upp tungt material på youtube, vimeo, scribd eller slideshare. Det blir lätt att dela och embedda för andra och dig själv och du skapar ytterligare en sökträff.

- leta reda på plugins till wordpress för att tex
- lägga till metataggar. Det ska vara ditt namn plus några nyckelord som du skulle vilja att någon som söker hittar dig med.
- lägga till följa och dela med sig knappar

Här tycker jag att de lägger in sånt plåtter som några av er är rädda för på ett ganska snyggt sätt. http://feber.se/iphone/art/218915/mega_mall_story_ser_ut_att_bli/

- Även bildgallerier går att bygga upp som poster och feeds för att lätt kunna uppdateras och få metataggar för bättre sökresultat.

- Den konstanta 'About Me' tabben tycker jag är den samtliga behöver tänka lite nytt kring. En lista med länkar till tidigare arbetsgivare, utbildningar, inspiration, vänner, bloggar ni läser osv ger inte bara sökförbättringar utan är tydligare och mer spännande än en ganska opersonlig 'Jag har gått på x och tyckte det var spännande.' Lägg sedan till vad jag ska minnas er för.

We get what we want with Facebook ads

2011-07-26T22:40:00.008+02:00

Someone called me from the radio the other day, wanted to ask me some questions about Facebook ads. I recommended her to talk to someone who's working with ad sales, as they proudly will inform her of how detailed and excellent they can work today to reach their target groups. My guess was that the journalist calling was of an opposite opinion. I had just been warned by someone in a discussion group to not fill in any profile informations on Facebook as the entire world will start to look exactly like you.

Ad sales teams consider their work to be a service both to the users and to the company. Free, or almost free, online features require loads of traffic and ads is an obvious source. The higher click rate you get the better optimized ad of course. You obviously don't want to pay for unclicked views. Loads of different versions of ads are tested and over time adjusted to what the audience is responding to - we get what we want. The sad effect of this is (if they senders do it right) that all I will see finally is blond middle aged women, or maybe even worse - very young blonds with fit bodies and no kids, but I will for sure not identify myself with any other skin colors or social classes than my own. Feels somewhat as a step back to the 50s only that everyone will have different normalities.

Letting Facebook normalize your world is not allways appreciated. On the other hand badly targeted ads are frequently mocked with the ironic comment 'Who do Facebook think I am?'.

Musing on Gamification... Motivation... Usability... Fun

2011-07-26T13:22:00.007+02:00

John Cook refers to PopCap co-founder Jason Kapalka in GeekWire July 21

Creating a term like gamification does more harm to the business because it actually dilutes down what a game means. And, in his view, a game has one simple goal: to be fun.

On July 24 Peter Friedman suggests 'Maintainable motivation' as a new term for gamification.

The ‘science’ of maintainable motivation extends far beyond games and gamification, because it includes all aspects of persistent engagement, even when the initial intention was ‘single-action’. For instance, a sales message might be a ‘one-off’ opportunity to buy something (for instance, selling your car: ‘perfect condition, one careful owner’) but it might just as easily be sold from a dealership which will want you to only ever buy cars from them for the rest of your life.

My reflections are that
- the term Gamification feels as it is forgeting or denying that much of the knowledge of motivation powers is not deriving from games only but from sciences as pedagogy and psychology. Gamification is all about usability and goals. Previous on this >>

- the goal of gamification is to make something - anything - fun or at least without thresholds for the targetgroup, pretty much the same as a game, pretty much the same as pedagogy.

- the social games don't always have a fun core game (sow and harvest) but the game mechanics make it fun to interact, compare, invite, return, progress and even to pay pushing social or individual triggers.

- there are fun core games that get boring as game mechanics for introduction, virtual economic systems, progress and so on are bad.

- it is sometimes difficult to introduce non gaming or non social media users to the term of gamification, and easier to talk about motivations. But words such as Quests, Missions, Progress and Rewards are not foreign at all.

OMG, I chose a boyfriend in Top Girl

2011-07-21T19:27:00.007+02:00

I've tried CrowdStars iPad app Top Girl - same graphics and shopping as in their previous facebook app It Girl, but now with focus on a boyfriend. What a sad story, and yet reckoned to be a huge success. You create your avatar from a few botoxed western Hollywood actress looking features, dress for success to find a boyfriend who will bring you all luck in the form of gifts. In my heart I hope that it is not primarily the game itself, but rather the now classic and well implemented game mechanics that make the girls get started, bring in all their friends and return.

Send your friends gifts on Facebook and maybe they will send you some back - check
Shops not available at this level, work your way up or pay to get there now - check
Return in x hours to attend your relation - check
Share every one of your steps for all your Facebook friends to see - check

But then I guess the message below is one that few girls can resist... (from Facebook Top Girl app)

Stardoll goes younger with JCPenney

2011-07-21T09:58:00.003+02:00

JCPenney's Stardoll 'fashion' line is now released in US stores and virtually in StarPlaza. Stardoll has users in a wide age span (older than most people would think probably) and it's hard to target them all - and even though it says 8-16 on the wall it seems they are focusing more on the lower ages from now on. If the ads would promote teenage girls in the same outfits maybe someone 16 would want it - a Hello Kitty kind of cult style, at least I didn't want the same style as my little sister when I was twelve even.

Mina nya FatBoys

2011-07-15T09:04:00.004+02:00

Utsikten över Landsort är dubbelt så härlig i våra nya FatBoys. Man känner sig som en katt som kryper längst in i hörnet av en enorm fåtölj och kurar in sig till en boll och bara myser. Undrar om materialet är återvinningsbart... även om det lär dröja.

I'm your heavy user - use me please!

2011-07-14T23:03:00.006+02:00

It’s more fun watching TV together with someone than on your own. At least if you’re paying attention to what’s on it and not just zap around or passively eating anything there is just to make the time pass. Or rather… if you don’t have company you end up zapping. With company you look at something or you turn the tv off. You like to comment what you experience, what’s fun, silly, strange, bewildering, right, wrong, good or bad. Maybe your company just agrees with an indifferent ‘hmm’, and that’s fine enough, but better is when you get an engaged agreement or disagreement so that you not only get response but actually share the moment and experience.
It’s also a wonderful feeling when I’m alone at home, laid back in my sofa watching Grey’s Anatomy or So you think you can dance. When family is at home, they normally compete for my attention as no one else enjoy my two favorite shows, whereas alone at home those hours are luxury time. It’s not fun anyway to try to share my feelings from these shows with my three-years-old. It’s fun to share them with just as engaged watchers though. And I do – on Twitter.

It’s not only me. I often get reminded of what is on TV - at the moment, soon or yesterday - as people tend to discuss it widely on Twitter. Everyone except from the tv-channels themselves. What’s the strategy? Are they confident that people will tweet and feed facebook with their content or don’t they feel confidence in their content, that people will want it?

I’d want the tv-schedules feed to get reminded or informed. I’d like to get a notification when my favorite show starts. I’d like to see facebook-friends who also fancy the show, and who is watching it with me right now. I’d like to get links to extra info or clip in my feeds with the latest gossip on thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhe actors or participants, the designer of the dresses in the show or even better be able to bid for those dresses. All of my online TV-activity would be great if it would be visualized to my friends by an active choice so that the conversation and the community grow. I’d like to be able to invite unredeemed friends to watch a sample of the best rated episode and all of this I’d like to be gathered in a themed page with all links, discussions, tweets, youtube clips, friends, non friends and more. If the push media with its content will not use the open, free, active and well visited channels to serve and engage their voyeurs, external parts as for example sidereel probably will maybe find the right formula and else someone else will maybe be more engaging. Someone who sees me and my tweeting friends and who figure out how to use us in a mutually appreciated manner.

Update: Today (july 15) I found the post The next five social trends and their impact on marketing by Edward Boches that kind of support my feelings.

Remember when we talked about social media and mainstream media as two different things? Not anymore. Today, social media is the mainstream media.

Cacharel just made me feel old

2011-07-13T18:31:00.003+02:00

This is pretty much exactly what I'd like to wear all this summer. This Cacharel collection was one of those you feel directly when you see them that this my look for the summer. I felt a little modern there for a while. It has all the practical styles - the skintones (that didn't work out at all as cheap copies as the nyance requires very high quality textiles to not become seedy), the updated 60's dresses, the florals, the bright colors, the psychadelic prints and the classic and simple cuts that last forever.

Even so Cacharel is closing the cooperation with designer Céderic Charlier after only four seasons and welcomes chinese Ling Lie and Dawei Sun. If it was to return to their traditional brand of romance I would not think too much about it, but I doubt that's the reason and guess they on the contrary are expecting a modernization of the brand. This makes me feel old.

Males are default, females are.... women

2011-07-11T20:18:00.005+02:00

Author Max Barry writes so well about Dogs and Smurfs - how children's litterature is supporting the structure where men are default and women are... only women, and how this directs their interests for the future.

Undefined characters are in general considered to be male. Barry is talking about smurfs and animals.

It’s the reason she will grow into a woman who can happily read a novel about men, or watch a movie in which men do all the most interesting things, without feeling like she can’t relate. She will process these stories as being primarily not about males but about human beings. Except it’s not happening the other way.

I think about how I really didn't enjoy either comic books or fighting games until I got me some female leading roles. As a child I loved Bamse, Goliat and TinTin but I soon lost interest as they and all following cartoon peers were male main characters with a female side kick at the most. There appeared som female heroines - first there was Batman... then there was a Batgirl. (Nothing wrong with CatWoman but she is not the main character). First there was the Hulk... then there was the She-Hulk. The same with games.

At the age to appreciate Fantastic Four and X-men where a few amazing chics are presented I had already left the comic strips behind and I found them first when they appeared at the movies and I could find my way back.

I have been told that this is a good thing for girls. “That makes girls more special,” said this person, who I wanted to punch in the face. That’s the problem. Being female should not be special. It should be normal.

...Barry writes

Now I look forward to the upcoming Womanthology, an anthology comic showcasing the works of women in comics, created by over 140 women of all experience levels. It's sad that it's needed, but it's still only in collections like this that extaordinary women has a chance to be the standard.

Ingen nyhet att kvinnor spelar, men rosa spel är ännu ocreddiga

2011-07-11T15:59:00.004+02:00

Expressen skriver om 'nyheten' att andelen spelande kvinnor är lika stor som andelen män - men det vet vi väl ändå nu. Stardoll och King.com har i alla fall övertygat mig för länge sen om att jag trodde rätt.

Mattias Snygg tror inte alls på principen med rosa spel.
- Det finnsspelutvecklare som med-vetet riktar sig till kvinnor och unga tjejer som målgrupp och mängder med undersökningar om vad tjejer vill ha att använda sig av, men jag tror att det enda sättet att göra riktigt bra spel på är att göra dem så som man själv vill ha dem. Likheterna är större än skillnaderna när det kommer till vad för storts spelmekanik som tilltalar män och kvinnor.

Det är däremot som alltid trist att se att 'rosa' spel alltid anses vara skit och meningslöst att utveckla alls. Hade jag trott på det hade antagligen Stardoll sett helt annorlunda ut idag.

Både vad gäller de rosa spelen och alla andra spel blir det väldigt viktigt, precis som Mattias Snygg säger - att man ska göra spel som man själv skulle vilja spela - att tjejer fattar att de ska utbilda sig till speldesigners och delta i utvecklingen av spel: Speldesigner verkar fortfarande uppfattas som en helt manligt yrke om man tittar på ansökningarna på högskoleutbildningarna - say what? För mig är det där nyheterna borde fokusera nu.

Ljuvliga Lotta Engberg

2011-07-04T21:54:00.003+02:00

Underhållande, charmig, glad, spontan, snygg, rolig och underbar är Lotta. Och bra på att sätta ihop gäster och låtar till en massa glada människor som vill sjunga med. Hon kör Djungelboken på svenska och stjärnonas pappor på scen och alla är med.

Leg decoration

2011-07-04T19:04:00.001+02:00

For me who has not yet dared to make a tattoo, on Calzessa.

Quitting when the times are right

2011-07-03T08:48:00.007+02:00

Several quitters at the same time always show disproportions and illness of an organisation, no matter what the individual reasons are. They have always made a choice and it was always a hard decition - a decition that always could have been different if their job situation was enjoyable or developing.

People don't like changes to the unknown. Most people prefer to stay were they are rather than going to something new. In Sweden it's by law almost impossible to dismiss employees and it happens that companies complain about the fact that people stay too long, as they don't seem productive, innovative or contributive anymore.

What an ignorant approach to your employees - to those who have lend you their time of life for you to achieve your goals! Their indifference will only appear if you have failed to give them a personal purpose of their job and efforts.

Noone will put all their love into a task if the only goal is for example for investors to raise the value of the company to reach an exit. Everyone need a higher goal for everyone to believe in, and work towards - 'A free space for all girls to try out their identities', 'Connect people through gaming', 'Offer independent media to everyone'.

It should most often be profitable to turn those employees you have, with all their history of the company, their experiences and skills, to an enthusiastic contributor instead of looking for someone new with all the costs included. The employee on the other hand, has just as often more to win on changing jobs as few companies will succeed on this challenge.

(image from MarleneofSweden)

SR ger underhållning i t-banan

2011-07-02T21:26:00.002+02:00

Heja SR! Gärna på alla väntplatser tack, och ännu hellre med bra rörlig bild att underhålla mig med i väntan då förstås.

Games should have a guided path

2011-06-29T20:43:00.005+02:00

I had an hour to spend today at the jury's public discussion of the Stockholm based game education programs of FutureGames. We listend to jury members from DICE (Battlefield), Teotl (The Ball), Lionhead (Fable) och Frictional Games (Amnesia)who were about to elect a winner of the final exam projects. I have not yet had the chance to play the games but the discussions aroused a few thoughts.

The first game discussed was a rhythmical batting game compared to Patapon, but the jury members could not get through it and felt there should be more instructions to it. I spontanously thought about the target group of such a game and finally the designer of the game asked the jury if they had ever played this kind of game before, and no, they had not. A game jury should probably be put together out of different gaming types to be fair I guess. No matter how great each and everyone is in their field, the mix in the jury is crucial.

The second game discussed showed this even more. Someone got disappointed by being alone in a forest while someone appreciated the well rendered pine trees as an experience all alone and yet someone else wanted to find more objects and actions to explore.

Several of the games presented lead to the discussion about whether a game should have a guided path or not. The conclusion was that you always need rewardings for your actions, some hidden and subtle progression and that every action needs to get clear response to make the game meaningful. I thought about Sims where you need to make people fall in love to get children and you need to get children to be able to make them go to school and so on. It's both rewarding and making a path of progression. (as is life)

Well finally I thought about how also fantastic but yet junior game developers tend to concentrate on the core game and forget the same thing as for example e-commerce and communities. They fail to quickly introduce the game functionalities to the user and add more by time. They don't make clear why the user should want to come back soon, or want to go on to the very end of the game. No matter how great a game idea is it is more fun if people will want to play it... a lot.

Looking forward to work with the students on this this fall.

Foursquare turns NY to a giant game of Risk

2011-06-29T10:56:00.003+02:00

The board game Risk, in which players maneuver plastic armies on a http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmap in order to achieve “world domination,” has firmly occupied one corner ohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giff nerdom for about fifty years. Foursquare stationed itself in another more tech-oriented corner of that same kingdom about two years ago. Now, at last, the two categories of nerdom meet.

“World of Fourcraft” uses Foursquare and Google Maps APIs to turn New York City into a giant game of Risk.

Read the post on Mashable

Pop art-nouveau

2011-06-27T22:23:00.004+02:00

Wonderful pop art-nouveau by Angie Wang. Be amazed by the emotions, fantasy and surrealism of her entire gallery on devianart.

Barnen eller resten av livet

2011-06-22T21:38:00.006+02:00

Mitt (manliga om det är intressant) fikasällskap från HR-branchen kom idag direkt från ett frukostseminarium om oviljan att anställa äldre. Seminariet refererade till en artikelserie i SvD som jag inte kände till. Den handlar om oss som jag skrev om häromdagen.

”Allt sammantaget pekar på att alla ska vara 30 år, ha 20 års arbetserfarenhet, ha barn som aldrig är sjuka och dagis som är öppna 2 timmar om dygnet och aldrig har temadagar.” Den kommentaren kommer från Michael Strauss, grundare av rekryterings- och bemanningsföretaget Go Veteran med bara "vuxna" människor i databanken- och med fyra barn hemma.

Och den handlar om den åldersnedvärderande framtid som stressar oss. Det känns som att vi väljer mellan att skrika på barnen och missa deras uppväxt när vi sliter som djur, och att inte kunna jobba med något utmanande och utvecklande för resten av livet.

Allmänhetens public service-utredning

2011-06-19T13:40:00.002+02:00

Välbehövlig Allmänhetens public service-utredning skriver

I dag startar allmänhetens public service-utredning, en helt öppen och interaktiv utredning som bygger på ditt och många andra http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmänniskors deltagande. I utredningen kan du bland annat hjälpa till att undersöka möjliga alternativ till dagens TV-avgift, diskutera och problematisera programbolagens utbud och eventuella begränsningar av detta, se över bolagens oberoende och hur det kan garanteras i framtiden, samt få en chans att forma framtidens TV och radio. Public service är radio och TV i allmänhetens tjänst. Och allmänheten, det är vi tillsammans.

Delta

Kulturen är ditt varumärke med modiga medarbetare

2011-06-15T21:30:00.004+02:00

Jag är glad över att min pessimism i Bad stories are making you even less successfull så snart blir motbevisad med ett så härligt praktexempel på hur kulturen faktiskt är ditt varumärke - att de öppna möjligheterna verkligen ger medarbetaren ordet och nog måste väl Expressenmedarbetaren som är trött anses rejält modig :-).

(Artikeln som har genererat över 100 sidor kommentarer under dagen är Expressens ledarskribent i karantän på dagensmedia)

Vad är nästa steg för mammor omkring 40

2011-06-13T22:54:00.009+02:00

Överallt träffar jag frustrerade kvinnor som funderar på hur de ska få ihop livet. Det är vi som är omkring 40, har barn som ännu är ganska små, vill hinna träna, vill vara toppensnälla mammor, vill att barnen ska få allt stöd i det de vill göra, vill att alla barnens vänners föräldrar ska tycka att vi verkar trevliga, vill att alla på jobbet ska tycka att vi är både trevliga och jättesmarta, vill åka till landet på helgerna, vill dricka drinkar på byråmingel på veckokvällarna, vill att rosorna ska blomma och inte att rådjuren ska äta upp dem, vill vill vill vill vill ta nästa steg.

Vi har varit mammalediga i flera omgångar, jobbat deltid däremellan, kanske tom tagit ett par steg tillbaka i karriären för att hinna med hämtningar och lämningar och diagnoser och tandläkartider och fotbollsmatcher och tomteluvor och matsäckar och flätor och extrakläder och storhandel och föräldramingel och föräldraråd och jordgubbstårtor till avslutningar och maxade födelsedagskalas och presentinförskaffningar och avmaskning och avlusning och att sova.

Vi tycker att vi är grymma på att ta ansvar, leda personal, tänka strategiskt och detaljerat. Vi är proffs på att delegera, engagera, dadda, ge ramar, sätta agendor. Vi är effektiva och tydliga (och så har vi en sjukt obehaglig tendens att gråta över precis allt som man kanske bara får stå ut med).

Men precis när vi är så grymma på det vi gör, är det ingen som bryr sig. För vi har inte titeln eller kontakterna eller kanske ens språket. Vi missade titel- och mingelträsket mitt i allt vabbande och slabbande. Eller så tänker vi annorlunda än de som har suttit på sin plats ett tag. Vi pratar om starka värden, nya oprövade produkter och tjänster för målgrupper som ingen har tagit till vara på, vi vill inte göra som det redan är gjort.

Så de som inte ger upp och fogar sig i att inte få göra något utvecklande resten av livet blir kanske konsulter. Några få orkar öppna egna - små - företag, och ett stort gäng skolar om sig - till barnmorskor, karriärscoacher eller läkare. Det är vägarna till nya utmaningar - nästa steg.

Time and genetics top fake and surgery

2011-06-12T09:34:00.007+02:00

Seems as a desirable look right now is a strong body, clean and clear skin on a mind of a 40 year old woman - without any interferences - preferably even unvarnished. A response to botoxed bizarr looking faces?

It's a heavy pressure on any midlife woman to look fresh as a twenty year old, and for some time expensive injections and surgery have been ways to cheat. Spontanously it feels better if the untouched healthy lifestyle look is the new sign of megaluxury. And yet many people can save some money, but few can buy the time it takes to run a healthy life and even less can change their genetics. Hmm... let's hope this is the first step backwards and that by time we'll be back to age being a sign of pondus and knowledge. Natural signs, not faked that would be..

Covers from spring 2011

Sticking out is more fun than standard

2011-06-11T22:28:00.007+02:00

I've been having the thought before and today I read about manrepeller.com in Swedish Elle. It's about the most fashion savvy girls who look crazy to many of us, but who are most confident that they are the very early adopters of the new styles and that in time for the next season everyone will know just how savvy they are.

These girls don't dress up for men. Men think they dress ugly, strange and weird. In general girls should preferably dress sexy, pretty, girly, ordinary - comprehensively. They should dress up for men and not for some else reason.

The fashion savvy girls don't care for that, they care for codes of knowledge that only other fashion people know of. In many cases it's an act of self confidence, fun, expertize and anti-standard. There are of course those who become slaves to this community too, but not original and sticking out is more fun than not standard and easier to get out of than the habit of always pleasing men.

Prada 2011

Company culture close to a Cult

2011-06-06T21:58:00.003+02:00

Next when reading Tony Hsieh’s book I’m wondering about how it is to have a family at home and friends from before when working at Zappos. It’s great to love to go to work, to feel that you have friends there who care for you and who support you, but as a parent of three kids I wonder how you cope with the other cultures that you must be a part of – the small communities of every school and daycare that your children belong to? It feels quite important to actively take part in your children’s school when parents arrange mingles and activities. If you don’t your kid is soon an alien to school, friends and to you. So how do you fulfill your parental role while being a part of a culture as Zappos, asking you to check in your full time, ethics and soul into the company?

Or maybe it’s a culture created by and for dinkies or at least childless employees and there should be other companies in the society building culture by, with and for parents… and everyone else who is not willing to check in his soul to a company.

It is much more fun to go to work when believing in and embrasing the goals and when being a part of the company, but at the same time it’s easy for this kind of culture to become a cult – a religion - creating new goals and ethics over time that everyone follows out of pure social validation. In my mind it is sound and maybe even human to be precautious to that kind of traps. At the same time as I adore the described Zappos culture and philosophy, it is always scary when groups become strong and powerful. Powerful cultures got power over the group and over others.

More thoughts from Tony Hsieh’s book Delivering Happiness

Soulsearch and Risktaking deliver happiness

2011-06-06T20:30:00.005+02:00

There are some parts from Delivering Happiness that I'd like to keep close to heart and that I hope that I will be in position to apply on my own employees sometime. It's Tony Hsieh about him starting to put the company’s core values on paper:

I thought about all the employees I wanted to clone because they represented the Zappos culture well, and tried to figure out what values they personified. I also thought about all the employees and ex-employees who were not culture fits, and tried to figure out where there was a values disconnect. (s155)

I find this a wonderful way to review oneself, the one you want to be and the one you are.

And about one of the company’s final core values Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded:

We want everyone to not be afraid to take risks and to not be afraid to make mistakes, because if people aren’t making mistakes then that means they’re not taking enough risks. (s168)

I love taking risks, and I love people taking risks. How boring everything would be with only safers.

Bad stories are making you even less successful

2011-06-05T22:51:00.005+02:00

Reading Zappo CEO Tony Hsieh’s ’Delivering Happiness’ most of his philosophy sounds sound and impressive, but there are also some things that fret my mind.

Your culture is your brand

It’s what we often believe and say in this time of transparency, and I guess we who don’t run a huge organization also embrace it while those who do run an organization often seem scared and unprepared. It’s what would give power to the people. The idea is that any employee or customer can spread a negative experience to thousands of others and the effect would be disastrous.

But we are not there. Customers can repeatedly report a bad experience of a service and yet, if the pressure from friends, media or oneself is big enough, they keep coming. For how long I don’t know, but the companies who don’t put the user experience before the money are many – and they stay alive. In my mind they would probably have been far more successful if they set the values the other way around, but yet, they can be mighty as it is.

Even more evident is that it is still very hard for employees and ex employees to spread the word of a negative company culture. It just doesn’t look good to slander your employer. As an employee you look disloyal, disturbing and obstinate. As an ex employee you appear phased out, bitter and gossiping. In both situations you are probably looking for a new position and would much rather be associated with adjectives such as change forward, courageous and innovative – so you better just say something like I cannot fulfill my personal goals within this organization.

It still feels as people just don’t like to think of big successful companies as bad organizers – how could they be successful if they are not doing it right all the way? Nobody want to hear of the bad stories.

Kärlek ettor och nollor

2011-06-04T21:32:00.004+02:00

Jag var på kärlek ettor och nollor i veckan, inbjuden som del i en jury i en speltävling på högskolan i Karlshamn. Vi träffades sex deltagare från olika delar av arbetslivet för att enas om några vinnare som skulle belönas med ett stipendium för att få chansen att producera färdigt sina spel under sommaren.

Det var snabbt tydligt att det var tur att vi inte behövde utse en vinnare allena utan kunde ge fyra olika projekt den gyllene chansen. Vi hade under månaden som gick tittat igenom tolv olika projektidéer, några med prototyper, andra utan, och värderat dem utifrån innovation, game play, grafik och möjlighet att slutföra spelet på 10 veckor. Kvar hade vi nu de sex spel som vi gemensamt hade gett högst värdering, och skulle välja bort två av dessa. Tur var det, för jag tror det hade varit omöjligt att komma överens om en vinnare med flera 25-30-åringar i teamet. Jag är både glad och ledsen över att jag inte snart ska fylla trettio. Ibland är det bra att inte se några alternativ, utan tro benhårt på det man tvärsäkert vet är sanning, men ibland är det oerhört frustrerande och energikrävande. För det mesta är jag lyckligt vetande om att det är underbart att lära sig nya saker varje dag.

Ja, vi kom i alla fall fram till att två kommersiellt tydligt gångbara klassiker och två innovativa mer osäkra kort alla kommer att spendera sommaren med att förverkliga sina spel. Jag känner mig rätt säker på att vi får se både Bloody Trapland, Morphball, Sjörök och The Shine of a Star på Steam till hösten.

Vi visste förstås inte ett dyft om varken projekten eller deras grundare, men kanske var The Shine of a Star allra roligast att se vinna då det var två förstaårsstudenter. Hade jag varit dem hade jag blivit grymt peppad och lagt ännu mer fokus på att bli en sjukt bra speldesigner under nästa år på skolan.

Recycled Birds' Nests for birthday present

2011-05-27T20:59:00.006+02:00

My daughter bought these in birthday presents to her friends turning 10 tomorrow. Birds' nests made out of recycled garbage in India. I think she liked the idea of little birds moving in there. I liked the green great choice. (Indiska 149 kr)

How to Perforate Stones

2011-05-25T14:04:00.004+02:00

How do you perforate stone? I want to Do It Myself and not ship it across the Atlantics!http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Find more of Jenny Hooples wonderful nature pebble jewelerys at Etsy.

Tom and Jerry no longer for kids

2011-05-24T22:32:00.003+02:00

There is a debate in Sweden going on about gendered kids' magazines, and seriously - the girly pink magazines on one side together with moms' health range, and boyish blue magazines on the other side next to the motorings??? It is thereby obviously so that Tom and Jerry is no longer for kids but for boys and moreover Bames is clearly a girls' magazine???

Start small - make change

2011-05-24T21:12:00.007+02:00

So today I was invited to speed coach 29 particpants from Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Jordan, Lebanon and Sweden in the Young Leaders Visitors Program at Swedish Institute. It was five very intense hours where about 15 different projects were presented to me in five minutes each, expecting a ten minutes feedback. These are probably the most passionate and engaged social entrepreneurs in the world, and it was this passion more than anything else that rested to my conclusion and reflection of the day.

It striked me that it is common that those who are passionate about their cause tend to see an online application from one perspective. They build an idea on a need - to upload or create something, or to get some information for example - while there are almost always at least two perspectives, two target groups - those who upload and those who are going to enjoy the uploaded content, those who read the information and those who would like to add information. To create a full experience not leaving any of these two users disappointed you have to see the needs from both sides. What will the visitor experience when looking at the uploaded content, and how can she/he take it further? What does the visitor expect to happen when uploading her/his content?

My relation to the Internet is almost presumptuous. All of these online projects presented can be reality. Anyone who has this much passion will be able to offer it as a gift to the user and the user will engage back in return. Clearify to yourself and others what your driving forces and words of values are and stay stick to them in every little decition to mediate them to everyone around you. Most webbsites, applications and communities can not offer this personal passion. If you love your one and only user and care for him/her - she will tell her friends and you will soon be more.

Start small - make change - grow big - make big change.

Master of Recycling

2011-05-24T16:18:00.004+02:00

I'm dreaming of a recycle app that
- points out all and the nearest Recycling stations
- lets me check in when recycling so that everyone sees how good I am
- gives me points for recycling and displays the best recycler every week/day/year
- includes a competition of the most used station to indicate the good behaviour of the entire community I live in, and preferable list all recyclers who check in at this station making our good work progress
- lets me send in photos at poorly maintained stations

I want to become the master of recycling!

What was the secret of Azerbaijan's success?

2011-05-15T10:30:00.005+02:00

As always it was interesting yesteday to see the European votes in the Eurovision Song Contest. The commentators kept saying that the spread results were due to the qualitative starting field, but I would say the opposite.

This year everything sounded the same for the first time every. The fun of ESC use to be the diversity. There always use to be different cultural sounds from all different corners of Europe, but this year Greece was only one contribution left with etnic references. Everything else was very well performed mediocre pop, and I'd say that was what the spread full points indicated. Nothing stood out. Instead everyone friendly put their votes for their neighbours.

This year it was clearly not the best vocals that gained the most votes in the end. Azerbaijans Nikki was probably the weakest singer of all contributions, and there were some really great ones. I have absolutely no idea of why Azerbaijan gained the most sympathy above the rest? Most trustworthy romance?

Gamification a model of Pedagogy

2011-05-08T09:15:00.003+02:00

I found this useful blog on gamification some time ago. It's Michael Wu, Scientist of Analytics who sorts the gamification concept out to us.

I realized long ago that gamification and my knowledge of Pedagogy are very close connected and with Wu's conclusion below this connection is well formed.

So why do game mechanics/dynamics have the magical power to turn boring chores into desirable activities?

1. Game dynamics use positive feedbacks (e.g. points, badges, status, progression, customization, surprises, social factors, etc.) to build up the users’ motivation.
2. They increase the perceived ability of users by making difficult jobs simpler and more manageable; either through training/practice or by lowering the activation threshold of the target behavior.
3. Game dynamics place triggers in the path of motivated users when they feel the greatest excess in their ability. That is, triggers that prompt the user for action are designed to bring about the convergence of motivation, ability, and trigger all at the same moment.

The target of gamification and pedagogy are the same, and as pedagogy only have a target and not one model, gamification is one pedagogical model.

Reciprocity

2011-05-07T00:27:00.004+02:00

Om någon ger oss något vill vi ge något tillbaka. Då är det smart att ge något näst intill orimligt. Mottagaren kommer ge så mycket som möjligt tillbaka. Två killar som helt gratis ger 24 timmars engagerad och engagerande debatt och underhållning, får riktigt många timmars deltagande per person tillbaka. Kan man så tittar man och peppar och deltar.

24 hours

24 hours med Ronnestam och Trendspanaren

2011-05-06T22:57:00.006+02:00

SVT är så fast i sitt TV-uppdrag. Det är lite synd när det finns så många nya förutsättningar för public service. Gratis deltagande antingen på plats eller hemifrån soffan med datorn, twitter och någon bildtjänst i molnet. Det är bara kunskapen som är hårdvaluta.

En sådan här kväll konkurrerar lätt ut TVn en fredagkväll. Jag kommunicerar med både publiken och programledarna, jag kan fråga vad jag vill, jag nämns i bild, jag ser vilka som är på plats i lokalen - fast jag är hemma i min villa i förorten själv med tre små barn.

Johan Ronnestam och Göran Adlén vågar prata om sånt de är bra på och tycker är spännande 24 timmar i sträck livesänt. Det är generöst och det ger ett självklart utrymme för fel (ingen kan vara helt felfri 24 timmar i sträck!). Då vågar vi tittare/deltagare engagera oss - lika generösa och orädda tillbaka.

Tillägg:
Efter sex timmars sömn vaknade jag följande morgon och det första jag tänkte var 'hur har de det nu?'. Sjukt fräscha, fokuserade och engagerade såg de ut med fem timmars diskussion kvar. Det gick ju inte att lämna dem mer än nödvändigt i upploppet. Någon som är så engagerad måste ju fortfarande ha mycket kvar att säga och utröna. Eventet blev en fängslande upplevelse istället för en sänd debatt.

Computer paperwork by Julien Vallée

2011-05-06T22:28:00.003+02:00

Again this kind of paperwork interpreting digital 3D art in real life that I love - by Canadian Julien Vallée

Leather Feather on my mind

2011-05-06T21:42:00.006+02:00

If I'm out of inspiration I use to search on 'steam punk' on Etsy and voila - I miss it no more. This time it's this leather feather by Canadian 'LoveAtFirstBlush' that catches me completely. Must have it, must keep it in my mind.

In march Etsy sold almost 40 million goods (15.4% higher than February and 77% higher than a year ago) and 2 million items. 400 000 new members joined the Etsy community in the month.

Esport the Golf of our times

2011-05-02T09:16:00.005+02:00

Esport is a phenomena gaining space. It's entering the consciousness of those not involved, us normal mortals. Esport is a world of hierarchies, detail knowledge and of long time practicing. In any tech office there is a group of people staying late playing. Everyone is welcome - you can play even as a newbie - but you need lots of spare time and some pre-skills. You also need to dare to play. Esport is the GOLF of our times.

Svtplay sends a series on the subject Esports right now. This content matches the public service commission perfeclty - it's entertaining, mass-educating and yet not covered in media in proportion to it's grandeur.

Everytime I talk about esports I'm wondering when games as Stardoll will be standardized, recognized and organized in the same way. I'm thinking that maybe it's the fact that girls don't cry out their engagement in a community and activities as loud that again puts them in the dark?

Also check out Stockholm Winter Games 2012 if you're curious.
http://stockholmwintergames.se/prova-pa/e-sport-med-inferno-online/

There are ways to avoid stolen accounts

2011-05-01T08:26:00.006+02:00

Girls' communitys have a huge problem with stolen accounts. It appeared when virtual currency became the most attractive thing in the world. If it was theft only it would be sad but fixable, but the feeling of the victim is more as if your house was burnt down to the ground. All that you have built, collected, saved and created is gone for ever. And your parents - those who always know what to do - stand irresolute.

What the thieves do is that they some way sign in to someone elses account. They for example run campaigns where they promise the owner gold if they send their password to a certain address. 10 year old girls believe this is true as they urge for more virtual currency. In someone elses account they sell all the stuff they have either cheaply to their own account or expensively to someone else. Either they can sell the cheap stuff expensively themselves, or they use the stolen account to buy stuff they want to get rid of at the highest value possible. The higher value that it is possible to sell your stuff at, the bigger the possibilities of scams are. This is a complex system of cleaning money, nurtured by the desire for virtual currency.

Some girls forget their accounts signed in open for someone else who use the same computer to enter, some use passwords easy to find in an attempt or two. But then there are thousands of accounts that don't correspont to any of these reasons, that still get highjacked. Kids who only sign in at their home computer, with extremely difficult passwords, kids too young to communicate with anyone else online. The young thieves probably use programs to help them cheat - to find the password.

The problem is vast and yet there are no efficient arrangments made to solve it. The owner don't get the money back and even more sure, she will not get her virtual stuff back ever. If the kids had done anything wrong you could tell them that this is the Internet and you need to learn how to use it, but when it's not their fault it's pure arrogancy towards young kids. This week it happened to my friend's girl and to my own two girls and no matter how much I adore the activity they have on Stardoll, I will recommend them to quit the game. There are other ways to build the game where the urge for currency is not as desperate and there are ways to minimize the possible effect of a scam. To sell stuff anonymously would change it all. To set max value to sell each item for is another. To make an experience of always having lots of money is yet another, but Stadoll has made these decitions to the opposite.

Be the good guys and give them the frickin' money
Girls amaze with the right incitaments

Män är uppenbarligen bättre på musik än vad kvinnor är

2011-04-30T16:38:00.006+02:00

I dagens SvD syns två notiser på samma sida, sidan 5 i Kulturdelen.

2 av 17 artister på Stora scenen i Liseberg i sommar är kvinnor. Organisationen Rättviseförmedlingen nöjer sig inte med Nöjesparkens förklaring "Tja, det är ett sånt år"

längre ner

Historisk sett är det en tung manlig dominans bland Polarpristagarna. Visserligen belönades Björk förra året, men sammanlagt har bara fem kvinnor ansetts värda priset. Och endast en gång har två kvinnor belönats samtidigt.

5 kvinnor på 20 år handlar det om. Möjliga slutsatser:

- Kvinnor är sämre än män på att göra musik.
- Kvinnor är fegare än män och vågar inte göra sin musik.
- Kvinnor har inte samma möjligheter att få sin musik producerad.
- Kvinnliga artister uppskattas inte dra lika mycket publik som manliga.
- Färre kvinnor än män vill jobba med sin musik.
- Färre kvinnor än män kan jobba med sin musik.

Interested people are interesting

2011-04-27T22:38:00.003+02:00

How I love this work that Beyond Retro is doing. It's really the work that they are doing that I love. How much they put into it. They are not only selling garment in a store, they are truly selling the entire lifestyle, including party, people, afternoon champaign, looking for the right garment, including the right bloggers and fashionistas and everything there is to it. People who are interested in something make that something very interesting to others. They engage. To engage is your best chance to sell something today. Engage or die.

#dinmamma

2011-04-19T22:34:00.006+02:00

Jobbet i en enorm organisation har ett långsamt och ändå späckat tempo. Ju närmare slutet på mitt första projekt jag kommer, desto fler små stenar ligger det på stigen, och under varje sten ligger en liten överraskning. Inga otrevliga överraskningar, men dolda. När videoklippet har sänts in i meta ska koden skickas till play-gänget som kodar om den och väl omkodad ska den läggas i en mapp i polopoly som ska beställas av mapptjejen och då kan du också be statistiktjejen om en sträng som ska in i koden. Nu är det snart ute i alla fall. Här är en första sneakpeak. Är hon kanske #dinmamma ändå?

got stuck with Haunted Manor Lord of Mirrors

2011-04-17T20:26:00.006+02:00

I got hooked this weekend by this pretty hidden object story, Haunted Manor: Lord of Mirrors. It made me realize how the game doesn't have to be hard to solve at all.

Haunted Manor is just about the same game as Drawn. It satisfy me almost only through magic and mystic illustrations while the game leads me along all the way and I just do what it tells me to do. I'm supposed to find hidden objects to achieve keys or other required objects to open up new rooms or drawers and to find new hidden objects. I get the aha-feeling again and again but it really doesn't require anything from me... and yet I like it. Or maybe therefor I like it.

I got so hooked I payed 50 kr in the middle of it to be able to continue...

iCarly vs. Shaun the Sheep

2011-04-13T23:41:00.009+02:00

Swedish kids younger than 7 years old are devoted to public service children’s TV-channel. There is not really any competition. The public service is the only provider of programs for children from 6 am to 8 pm in Swedish. Other Swedish channels broadcast programs for children an hour at most in the morning and one in the evening. Then there is Nickelodeon and Disney Channel dubbed to Swedish and broadcasting all day, BUT with commercial breaks and other hidden agendas.

Swedish parents choose public service for their kids, produced especially with Swedish children… and Swedish parents in mind. I do, and everyone I know do too. Overall this means programs that are for example gender neutral and diverse and that we think are suitable for kids. There is obviously a gap in the commercial alternatives and what parents want for their kids that public service fills up.

When the kids turn 7 they get the power to choose themselves, and most often they switch channel to Nickelodeon. They think of public service as fun and exciting, while Nickelodeon is considered to be more cool (though also fun and exciting). I’m not sure this tells me very much. Kids say that any program they watch is fun, no matter what the content is.

I tried at home to ask my Nickelodeon watching 7-year old girl to explain why she prefers Nickelodeon. My personal guess is that it presents cool girls and boys (not grown ups, but not kids) and their social relations. It has some sort of romance and what to come mystery about it. I cannot come to think of any specific word that would represent all this to a 7-year old girl and my test object replies – because it’s more fun. It is also self-chosen and completely free from obligations and expectations. Is it fun only maybe?

Then I try ‘What’s the most fun program on the public service channel?’. ‘Shaun the sheep’ she answers and in that battle iCarly is apparently the winner.

My 9-year old has left TV completely since about a year. It’s all the Sims, moviestarplanet.com and Stardoll to her. And to her friends. They are not interacting online yet, but they play it together either several girls by the same computer or via phone. Yet most of the hours she spends alone decorating her virtual suit or creating a movie.

With the immense and immediate popularity of iPad and iPhone amongst very young children the commercial opportunities within the edutainment business is growing fast. Finally we see high quality both fun and educational productions for kids available at very small costs. How much timespent will these alternatives steal from traditional TV for the younger children? How will the needs for and requirements on public service change with that? And the older kids, will they ever return from the computer?

Vad vill jag ha av public service på webben?

2011-04-11T21:18:00.005+02:00

Jag jobbar sedan någon månad tillbaka inom public service, svti barnwebb närmare bestämt. Det är enormt... enormt. Inte enormt som Stardoll. Stardoll har 100 miljoner medlemmar, finns i 238 länder varav t ex Polen och Brazilien är giganter, har en timespent på 20-40 min och sjukt många pageviews per användare.

Istället pratar jag numera ofta om 'samiska' och 'teckenspråk'. Det finns aldrig några önskemål från varken user sales eller annonsteam. Allt utgår alltid från målgruppens behov och vilka målgrupper som har behov. Som en drömvärld på rosa moln när vi pratar barnproduktion.

Men det dyker upp en hel del frågetecken som är svåra att förstå när man börjar tänka metrics, mål och uppdrag. I mitt arbete har de med webben att göra. Det är frågetecken som har uppkommit med nya medier i nya tider och som inte har några sanna svar än. Och det dyker konstant upp fler. Här är några från månadens håv.

- Finns det något egenvärde i att dra folk till svt.se om fler i målgruppen kommer ha chans att hitta materialet på YouTube?

- Ska svt.se erbjuda sina program översatta till teckenspråk/andra språk eller ska de erbjuda programvaror för att översätta allt webbsänt material till teckenspråk/andra språk för att utbudet inte ska bli enahanda?

- Barn och vuxna kan hitta lika bra och roliga spel, quizz och lekar gratis på annat håll på nätet. Ingår den mer underhållande webbproduktionen utöver svtplay i public service uppdrag alls? Ja kanske om de som betalar vill ha det innehållet, den förlängningen av tv-koncepten?

- Trots det seriösa försöket att erbjuda mångfaldigt och neutralt utbud, missar man ändå flera målgrupper. Behövs det fler avsändare under samma tak för att lyckas? Skulle vem som vill få publiceringsrätt under public service tak - klasser, skolor, institutioner osv? (jag pratade med Richard Gatarski idag och det här är hans stora fråga - 1000 tack för tankeväckarna!)

Det finns många fler frågor, de dyker säkert upp här med tiden. Min frågvishet hade kunnat skapa frustration - för mig och för kollegorna, men istället står alla nya ansikten jag möter med öppna dörrar. Alla är nyfikna, sugna och ivriga på framtiden.

A reversed Bubble Saga

2011-04-10T21:36:00.004+02:00

I adore king.com's graphics for Bubble Saga. The princess controls the joystick while the prince is waiting to get rescued, all in a romantic world of candy, cookies and chrystals. It's the full dream version.

Candy is king

2011-04-04T21:53:00.003+02:00

I'm thinking maybe if I make a lot of these fantastic cupcakes for the wall, my 7-year old daughter might not force me to put this on it. This is really her cup of tea, but not mine. Or maybe I just buy them from Fröken Eila so that it will be done and not just a nother maybe...

GreenGoose might change habits

2011-04-04T21:11:00.004+02:00

I hope the GreenGoose game platform idea is as good as it sounds. It looks as simple as a merge of a set of different sort of step counters and a progression display.

I guess the easiest way to change habits would probably be to gamify them. Often you really don't want to change mentaly though it make sense in all other aspects. You tend to cheat as long as no one is watching you. Most people hate to see themselves fool themselves though and a game easily makes this more visible. Still you can cheat and this is what the counting sensors will avoid. The thing I like the most is that it seems all flexible - you set up your own tasks and goals.

Anyone with bad habits to change that can test it for me, because I haven't time enough to try it out...

Working mother of three daily angst

2011-03-27T15:36:00.002+02:00

Every day for 10 years I’ve felt limited. Three children and a working round the clock husband make me limited when

- the team at the office sets after work activities as highly prioritized to reach a great spirit and common goals.
- some daily yoga and/or a jog is the only way to get some energy.
- I’m longing for crafting – knitting, crocheting, painting, sewing.
- my messy home and garden gives me the rashes.
- there are meetings all day and I’m home with sick kids 3 weeks out of 4.
- it’s Sunday brunch time and it would be wonderful but not with a 3 year old.
- the dinner preferably should be made out of raw food.
- It would be wonderful to host a party for all old friends.
- It would be wonderful to host a party for all new friends.

But most of all it’s not the kids that limit my dreams of life - it’s working that does. I’d love my kids to grow up with some of the experiences I had as a kid. Most of all I’d love them to spend the ten weeks of summer holidays at the country house, and I’ve failed completely. We work. The kids spend most of their holidays at the daycare in school.

So I’ve tried to limit the level of responsibility at my job position, I’ve stopped my career for some time, until the kids grow older. So far this has only resulted in even less benefits - less weeks of vacations, less flexibility in time, more angst by not being able to participate either at work as much as required, nor with the kids as much as I’d like. I don’t know how to get any step closer to satisfaction.

The games from the basement are still great

2011-03-26T18:37:00.005+01:00

I hate that we've got the basement full of cardboard containers packed with games and consoles, games from the early 80's until today. I'd love my partner to sort them all and arrange them so that the family can play them, learn some history and have fun. Instead they are only bulky.

Today something hit him and he rememberd the old PS2 including at least 200 games, when we arrived at our summerhouse. We started with fantastic Ulala in Space Channel 5. This was one of the first games that supported my ideas on what kind of games many girls like. It's that short that it is not stealing too much undeserved time. The idea to collect more hip friends saving the world is a fun story and a great alternative to visualize progression without points, levels and badges. Graphically it's colorful and it clearly embrases a pink party attitude. I had forgotten completely. I'm happy to be reminded.

Now time for Soul Calibur (my girls are still happy about the mega cool female characters though I think they could be a little more well dressed, and our boy fances Voldo for some reason...'I'm really good' he shouts out...)

CSR låter roligt, utvecklande och effektivt

2011-03-20T19:53:00.004+01:00

SvD skriver idag om att upp emot hälften av alla chefer i kommun och landsting går i pension de kommande 10 åren och hur viktigt det blir för dessa arbetsgivare att jobba med sina varumärken för att locka kompetens.

I samma tidning intervjuas (H&M's CSR chef angående företagets hållbarhetsarbete. Jag tänker att de vänder den mest tänkbara kritik de kan få till sin fördel genom att jobba aktivt med problemen.

Jag har tidigare alltid tänkt att det inte spelar mig någon roll huruvida företagens hållbarhetsarbete främst är en strategi för att främja varumärket eller för att rädda världen - arbetet blir ju gjort och det är det viktigaste, men på sistone har jag ändrat mig. Det räcker inte att bara tala om att man arbetar för hållbarhet. Alla måste arbeta för att alla andra också ska kunna bli bättre. De måste dela med sig av kunskapen om vad de gör och hur de arbetar. Målet måste vara ett mer hållbart arbete för alla för att resultat ska uppnås.

Kommun och landsting är för mig idag lika med tråkigt, icke utvecklande och ineffektivitet. Ska de locka mig ska de skapa varumärken med ett gemensamt mål om hållbarhet på alla fronter vilket för mig låter roligt, utvecklande och effektivt.

Oppressed innocence and performance anxiety

2011-03-20T19:13:00.007+01:00

There is always an aspect of sexuality in fashion. The first ten years of this century it was mostly about sporting as much naked skin as possible. Inspired by Big Brother and R&B divas the fashion was trickled up to give rich people a sense of youth and the same easy affirmation.

Now - as always - it's time for the contrary. As much as I trouble the consequences of imposed vulgarity, these oppressed innocent girls from this year's catwalks make me just as nervous. I don't trust them. They don't look happy. They are all Betty delineated and I expect them to stag me in my back anytime. I say they dress like this because they are supposed to, because they have high expectations on themselves to be good girls.

Hmm... maybe this is the actual purpose of this year's version... borderline housewives... dangerous women just a second from exploding...

Chanel

Chanel

Imitation

MiuMiu

Moschino Cheap and Chic

Valentino

Versace presents the Betty I like
Dare to be in focus
Jag aktar mig för jätteglada nykterister

Versace presents the Betty I like

2011-03-20T09:23:00.004+01:00

Flipping through this month's Vogue issue my eyes stop at this John Lewis ad thinking that they made this set as a copy from a Don and Betty scene of Mad Men. But why? This are the scenes I hate. The times when I really don't want to be Betty. When she is cold and unwanted. The ad must be directed to men is my conclusion - kind of a sad connotation for the family retailer.

Only a few pages later Versace presents the Betty I like - obstinate, challenging and free spirited.

Sweden at it's best

2011-03-19T22:05:00.003+01:00

Bo Robert Ek's Dreams of Journeys - no words needed of this Map Cabinet...

Easy traveling on Micro Samsonite

2011-03-13T10:37:00.001+01:00

Speed and light luggage is always pros when travelling - smart thinking from Samsonite and MicroScooter.

Confidence for a great product

2011-03-13T10:21:00.004+01:00

I don't believe in developing a concept out of pure information, without your heart in it. It might get great but not as good as it could get. On the other hand I don't believe in just letting a team make any game or product they want with hopes that it will become a hit either... unless you have unlimited resources and can afford to loose or win. This has been a little confusing to me for sometime and yesterday a friend sorted it out for me. It's about self-confidence, and I believe he is right.

If the product derrives from statistics you must feel sure of and present that this is what we know you need and will love. If the product is a product of heart and gut feelings you must tell the world that this is the coolest thing on earth, trust us, we know.

It's a little tricky to convince your boss though that you should go for your idea, because your more self confident than anyone else :-S.

Something about skulls

2011-03-11T23:23:00.004+01:00

Don't know what it is, but skulls always fascinate me. It's as someone watches you from another world or a tale from the history. You must wonder who this once was. As a kid I always wanted to be a archeologist. I have 5 small ones in gypsum on my bedroom shelf. I stole them in a halloween party 15 years ago.

The owner of the skulladay blog obviously shares this fascination and rather impose it on everything in the surroundings, and admit it would not at all be the same thing seing a frog or an apple appearing in the leaves.

Preparing skills

2011-03-11T23:06:00.003+01:00

Hmm... I should probably start practicing now if I want to be able to knit all these dolls for my grandkids when I grow old...
Or hire the author of the Flutterby Patch blog.

Climate Conscious Tourist

2011-03-10T22:10:00.006+01:00

I can choose not to care about that we are sitting in a parfume stinking ocean of german senior citizens or I can choose to think that it's just terrible. At first it is most disturbing but by time it turns out to be as good as it gets on the Canaries. This hold of ours is the only place with an empty pool, early dinners and german food - all highly suitable for a Swedish family with kids of all ages. Over at the Ving hotel everyone gets sick by the Swedish kids influensa infected pool water. The only thing I bring with me from this place is a feeling of guilt and expectations. I'm waiting for

1. faster and environment friendly transportations - I've always had the beamer as my favourit dream device and it starts to get urgent now or I will have to stay all dark cold months in Sweden, getting more and more grumpy for every year

2. stronger immune defense... or less infections - the only way is to move out back country I guess, we've got some of that in Sweden, but this will not make me happy... real good food might be an option but this demands long transporations as nothing grows in Sweden most part of the year, so back to 1 then.

3. the layer of ozon to recover - to avoid burned skin and cancer or rather to be able to enjoy the sun at all when going on vacations in the middle of a non sunny winter

4. zoos with no monkeys, tigers or penguins - I'd really not want to be caged if I were them and the kids enjoy the roller coaster far more on the visit - who are we to lock these animals in??

5. less suger and fat to the people - when seeing that much people undressed at the same time it really doesn't look healthy, what are we doing to ourselves?

Or I just stay home in Sweden, take a deep breath of fresh air, close my eyes, embrase the cold months... but all this I can't choose not to care about anyway.

Traditional and adorable paper sculptures

2011-03-10T21:52:00.004+01:00

It's interesting how the asian origin makes just a little more sense and story to the art - how a culture and traditions takes new forms in several aspects in these most adorable paperwork or paper sculpture from Cheong-ah Hwang alias papernoodle (buy them on Etsy)

I want QR-codes for my bills

2011-02-20T21:38:00.003+01:00

While opening 50 envelopes with a sharp pen, transfering hundreds of long numbers from my bills into my online bank account, I'm starting to dream of the day when I get them sent to me by email - all in one - and I grab my phone and just screen the QR-code for them - and it's all done in a second.

Journalister, Valfrihet, Spridbarhet och Delaktighet

2011-02-18T09:17:00.007+01:00

Trodde aldrig att jag skulle skriva ett inlägg om journalistrollen, men sociala media är starka kanaler för folks röster och jag märker ett motstånd hos folk runt omkring mig som är svårt att förstå.

Kanske det finns journalister som har glömt målet med sitt eget arbete... Kanske är de rädda för något de inte kan... för självklart vill väl egentligen alla nyhetsmedier och journalister ta del av och använda de nya vägarna och möjligheterna för demokrati! Journalismen ska ju försäkra demokrati. Den är de monitorerande, de granskande hjulen i samhället, som upprätthåller balansen mellan folk och makt. De kan helt enkelt inte förvägra eller utesluta sociala media.

Valfrihet (på mottagarens villkor)
Kommunikationen på Twitter och Facebook är en konversation där användaren väljer vem hon vill prata med/lyssna på och när.

Pushbudskap flimrar förbi i feeds medan ärlighet (transparens) skapar trovärdighet, engagemang och delaktighet. Företag/Varumärken måste vara tydliga med att de har ett mål att lösa ett VERKLIGT olöst problem. De som är intresserade av att få det problemet löst kommer därmed att vilja lyssna.

Användaren väljer vem hon vill prata med utifrån sitt identitetsbygge, antingen genom att visa sin opposition eller sympati. Hon väljer de informationsleverantörer som kan vara användbara för henne, i hennes mål. Frågorna ett företag ska ställa sig när de vill nå ut i sociala medier är - Vem behöver vår hjälp? Och - Hur vill de lära känna oss?

Spridbarhet
Alla och vem som helst har möjlighet att sprida information i sociala media. Användare sprider information för att stärka och visa sina åsikter, sina ställningstaganden - sin identitet - för vänner, arbetsgivare, arbetstagare, press osv, för att bygga och stärka sitt varumärke och för att få respons. Man vill bli sedd, ha ett gemensamt diskussionsämne, få bekräftelse, existera. Responsen som önskas när man sprider är t ex progression mot status, status, feedback, berömmelse, beundran, vänner eller resultat - förändring. Förändring är respons. Att någon hör är respons. Att bli fler är respons. Respons är spridbarhet.

Delaktighet
Prata inte – gör! I bruset är de som kan skapa delaktighet och engagemang vinnarna. De som har något viktigt att säga och uträtta eller de som kan få till en beteendeförändring, skapa en aktivitet hos användaren. Skapa engagemang genom aktivitet och interaktivitet, genom intryck och genom att skapa värde.

Verktyg som är lämpade för och som kräver valfrihet, spridbarhet och delaktighet känns som givna i arbetet för demokrati. Journalister ska väl inte känna sig hotade av folkets förstärkta röster? De kan som vi andra glädjas åt starkare verktyg för demokrati och fortsätta vara den granskande parten?

Foto från Photo by Darkroom Productions/Flickr.com hämtat viabloggen PetsAdviser som frångick sitt vanliga ämne och lät sin Kairoboende skribent använda bloggen för rapportering från Egypten i januari.

Hasbro do a LEGO

2011-02-15T11:49:00.004+01:00

Hasbro is according to USA Today about to release a new line that is compatible with Lego. Kre-O starts with Transformers characters Optimus Prime and Bumblebee and is not going for the evident opportunity to catch the huge target group that LEGO has forgotten - everyone who is not into big machines and tough power. I'm still dreaming of a site with building instructions created by users where we would probably see hospitals, schools, nurseries, amusement parcs, alice in wonderland accessories and more and more...

More from me on LEGO...