Kasper Eistrup & Mads Tunebjerg bedre kendt som Kashmir deltager aktivt i debatten omkring fremtiden for efterskoler. De mener begge at deres egen tid på Kastanievej Efterskole, hvor de startede deres band, har været en betydelig faktor i forhold til deres succes. På Kastanievej Efterskole lægger de ifølge forstander Dorthe Frimann stor vægt på at fremme de unges kreative talenter. Vi lægger stor vægt på den kreative udfoldelse, fordi det er igennem den, eleverne lærer sig selv at kende og får øjnene op for menneskets forskelligheder. Vores mål er at give eleverne de bedst mulige forudsætninger for at træffe de valg, som skal til for at skabe en selvstændig og meningsfuld tilværelse. Her på Stagis har flere af os gennem vores samarbejde med Kastanievej (Stagis har designet www.kastanie.dk) besøgt skolen og når man træder ind i den gamle historiske villa på Frederiksberg fornemmer man hurtigt at det er et sted hvor de unge tager del i mange kreative fag. Der er ofte gang i maling af kunst, skuespil etc. Kashmir fortæller i øjeblikket om deres erfaringer og oplevelser med efterskolen i bogen På vej på efterskole.

På det seneste har der været en (endnu) større debat om børn og unge teenageres brug af bl.a. børne-forumet Arto, hvor børn kan finde "Venner, fællesskab og underholdning", som det hedder på siden. Debatten går på, hvordan en del unge teenagere gennem sitet er kommet i kontakt med voksne mænd, som på den ene eller anden måde har misbrugt de unge.
Især Rudy Frederiksen og psykolog Kuno Sørensen (PDF) fra Red Barnet har gjort sig bemærket med rådgivning om sikker chat.

Et af argumenterne fra Arto er, at de ikke kan stille meget op, fordi der er så relativt mange brugere på chatten, at det er umuligt helt at styre hvad der foregår (og i øvrigt at gennemskue samtlige voksne, som forsøger at få kontakt til børn gennem sitet). Men hvad så når man som skole går i gang med at åbne for den digitale dialog i form af chat, fora, blogs osv? Hvem har så ansvaret for hvad børn og unge oplever og bliver udsat for?

For det første har forældre et ansvar, men når unge fx er på nettet i skolen - eller efterskolen/højskolen, hvor de bor - må det være en pædagogisk opgave for skolen at tale med børn om brugen af forskellige websites. Især på en chat er det svært helt at gennemskue hvad der foregår fordi kommunikationen foregår synkront (dvs. dem der chatter er til stede samtidig og udvekslingen kan på de fleste chats ikke ses af andre, når den er overstået).

På en blog (som den du læser nu) er kommunikationen derimod asynkron. Det vil sige at jeg skriver på et tidspunkt og du læser på et andet. Det gør kommunikationen gennemskuelig. Og det er netop et af formålene med en blog. Den rummer samtaler, som andre kan se og blande sig i. Endelig kan man administrere en blog (ligesom et forum) og slette indlæg, som går "over stregen" og derfor er uønskede.

Imagine you wanted to know more about your customers/users in order to develop a better service or to create better communication. Then imagine you went through a proces that would not only let you know a lot more about your customers through first-hand experience but would even wind up creating your next designs in the shape of the new campaign, new imagery, new stories about your company and build lots of lasting relations to customers who are eager to continue co-creating your relationship as well as the next service.

If you can imagine all of this then you are already well ahead of most of your fellow web-surfers and business leaders. As markets, media and conversations are speeding up, so is the need of fast innovation. And the driving force of the future is the customers as they are the source of speed-to-market quality innovation.

I have no doubt that this is about to be reality for most thriving businesses. And this is one of the ideas I work with when I talk about communicating with authenticity and listening more in order to evolve; You have to know what your customers/users are thinking about, what they are in need of and how they can imagine you creating the services and relationships they need in the future.

Recently a client asked if this wasn't making things too complicated. No, I answered. I see it as a way of getting twice as much out of the process and gaining speed while you're at it. So next time you want to know more about your customers in order to communicate to them or develop new products or services, try involving them. Both in your analysis process and the actual creation of the new - whatever new that may be. Not only will you be co-creating. You will be defining and refining your organizational identity in a way that will attract people. Becuase we all love to be heard!

Today is the day where we sent out the first directmail that informs about our report on continuation schools. In spite of truble with the transport and some lost packages, we recieved the result of last weeks layouting and long hours, and it´s looking great. So for me, the rest of the day is gonna be all about wrapping and packing and sending it all out.
To day is also the day where the interview with Nikolaj is in Berlingske nyhedsmagasin´s Jack. None of us is very satisfied with the pictures that follows the interview, but I guess you can´t win them all.. The interview is good, and hopefully, a lot of people will read it.
today is also the last day of a good week, and we can all enjoy the weekend with a good feeling.
today is a good day.

As promised I have search for some interesting examples of Danish corporate blogs. There is not that many to choose from yet, but to name a few: Årstiderne(online shop - organic vegetables), Arken(art museum) and Patent - og Varemærkestyrelsen. Internationally Denmark is not in the forefront with business blogs but we still have a lot of god blogs to visit like E-mediate to learn more about whats happening in the world of corporate blogging.

On a more international level there are many corporations that are using blogs to communicate with their customers in many different ways. A few examples are: Nikes 20 day blog Art of Speed or McDonalds Corporate Responsibility Blog.

Because I´m writing my thesis on the subject im reading a lot of interesting books on the subject of blogging, some with a very marketing oriented view and others with a more philosophical approach to why and how blogging is the cave paintings of today. I will come back with some more insight from the books soon. For now check out a few of the links and think about the many different ways companies use blogging as a medium for communication.

Ikea, the Swedish furniture chain has been voted the world’s top retailer in a new global poll. The survey was carried out by Business Week magazine and the Boston Consulting Group and ranked Ikea as world number one for innovation in the retail industry, ahead of global giants such as Wal-Mart and Tesco.
I just went to IKEA this weekend (that’s the way it is when you are in a steady relationship) to get a shelf for shoes. And like so many times before it surprised me how big and overwhelming the choices of furniture and designs actually are. There was especially a kind of cross between a chair and a hammock which really amused me not to mention the 300 different types of plastic equipment you can use for whatever wherever. And it’s brilliant. You can find everything in IKEA and you will find yourself so busy checking out strange, stupid, cool and terrible things (yes, there is plenty) that you hardly notice the well known BILKA-disease crawling in under your skin. Hurray for the blue and yellow back, which contains so many wonderful things. Hurray for Sweden and Ingvar Kamprad!
I came home with a complete new life in plastic and a hammock-chair almost impossible to hang anywhere, but I will manage. I just need a little time and maybe help from my friends or future husband.
My shoes, by the way, are still on the floor in the hall.

The other day I was looking for a specific jeans brand on the google website, but in stead of the official brand website, I enterede a lot of chatrooms, personal weblogs and so on. And that was when I realised a couple of things. First of all I didn't allways understand the language that was used in these different forums and weblogs. It's quite funny to get an insight in the teenage language usage, like 'Det var bare ace at være i Tivoli' - oh, I sound like my parents right now! But anyway, it made me think about communicating with young people, which is very much on my mind right now with the report being published and all. Not that I have to adopt the language (that wouldn't be very authentic, right?) but at least I think I need to understand this language to really understand the young people today. What they think, how they communicate with each other and so on.

That day I discovered a brand new world to me: duscussion forums, where young girls exchange opinions and experiences about almost everything. In this specific case it was all about fashion and trends. In stead of asking their friends about tips and tricks, they use these large networks to explore the world of fashion, for example. I think there are many good reaons to tjeck out these sites. You get to know what is going on in teenagers lives (in case you forgot). You get a pretty good indication of what is hot and what is not seen from a teenage perspective. And you get to see how they communicate and use each other in new netbased networks. You can even intervene in the debate, if you wish. No matter what, I think you should go on this trip to a different world - starting with the links above. It's quite fun!

Beslutningen om at tage på efterskole bliver ikke taget fra den ene dag til den anden. Der ligger mange overvejelser bag, og i den proces er det især efterskolernes hjemmesider der står for skud. Det er her både elever og forældre søger hen for at få et indtryk af de enkelte skoler.

Det betyder også at efterskolernes hjemmeside udgør den vigtigste kontakt med omverdenen. Spørgsmålet er om hjemmesidernes potentiale bliver udnyttet fuldt ud?

Den traditionelle hjemmeside indeholder en præsentation af efterskolen og dens undervisningstilbud. Hvis de kommende elever eller nysgeerige forældre vil vide mere, kan de ringe, skrive eller besøge skolen. Hvad mange glemmer er at hjemmesiden indeholder muligheden for at komme i dialog med de besøgende.

En måde at få skabt rammer for dialog på skolens hjemmeside er ved at oprette en weblog. Webloggen er en selvstændig hjemmeside, hvor elever og skolens ansatte kan skrive indlæg om skolelivets små og store oplevelser. Her er det så også muligt for interesserede udefra at få et godt indblik i skolelivet, samtidig med at de selv har mulighed for at stille spørgsmål eller komme med kommentarer.

Webloggen er efterskolernes mulighed for at holde fingeren på pulsen. Hvad tænker de kommende efterskoleelever? Og hvad tænker deres forældre? Hvordan bliver skolen opfattet af andre udefra? Og så er det samtidig chancen for at give hjemmesidens besøgende en oplevelse af hvad det vil sige at være på efterskole. Hvordan ser der ud? Hvad laver eleverne i løbet af dagen? Hvad bliver der serveret til aftensmad? Hvad synes eleverne om at være på efterskole, og har de hjemve?

Organizations, politicians and individuals communicate in ways that they each understand which works to perfection when it comes to maintaining self-understanding and identity. But problems arise when their need is to create a community which is what communication is all about (commune = being together); Common participation (in danish there is that fantastic word "sam-tale").

In the daily danish newspaper Information reporter Toke Lykkeberg Nielsen writes about sociologist Jean-Louis Missika, who among other things describe how french politicians communicate through the channels and media that they themselves understand and know. But in doing so they do not reach the students and younger generations whom they are really in need of reaching. The youth don't read the same newspapers and they don't see the same conventional tv-programs but participate in their own (virtual) conversations which the politicians in return don't know of.

Excerpt from article in Information: "...Vi har en regering, der annoncerer på fjernsynet, at man vil reformere arbejdskontrakten til gunst for de unge. Men de unge hører det ikke. De ser ikke tv. De læser ikke de store aviser. De forbruger internet. De hører musik i radioen og informerer sig gennem gratisaviserne," forklarer Missika.

De voksne og politikerne befinder sig i en verden. De unge og de studerende i en anden. Det, der forbinder de to universer er studenterforeninger og unge politikerne, der er fjendtligt stemte over for regeringen. Budskabet når ikke blot de unge for sent. Det når også frem i en anden form, hvor reformen tager sig ud som et overgreb på ungdommen:

"Der er ingen koordinering mellem de to verdener. De voksne fortsætter med at kommunikere gennem deres medie. Premierministeren går på tv for at forsvare reformen. De unge åbner 10.000 blogge om CPE'en," siger Missika og henviser til en artikel, han netop er faldet over. ..."

The question is, do you want to learn how you can communicate across borders of age, culture and understanding or will you call the newspaper you read yourself and book another full page?

Yesterday I posted a picture from IT Universitetet in Copenhagen on my moblog on hq23. Mach replied and explained how it all went down. The students can no longer continue the digital conversation in the public space at IT-U which is sad. It was such a great idea: On some of the screens the students could write numbers that would be converted into graphic shapes. On other screens they could write messages (imagine getting that "Hi, you wanna go on a date?" in a public space or "Congrats with your A+, Nikolaj"). It was public conversations (as some may remeber is what communication as well as markets are all about). The other perspective on this story would be what culture the Maeda-installation was trying to sustain or build and what enlived norms and culture the decision of not letting students participate demonstrates; clearly two different views and goals. My question is, which of these two ways of managing will create more interesting dialogue and effects?

This piece of art went from an authentic user-driven conversation to being a superficial installation. But well, I can still enjoy the thought and recall my early enthusiasm for the work of John Maeda.

Check out this little piece of video to get a feeling of the installation.