"Music for one apartment and six drummers" on YouTube by tishcro I just got this little piece of art that Jytte from the KaosPilots sent me. Reminds me a bit of the Blue Man Group that I saw about five years ago at Luxor in Vegas and somehow also the legendary Honda Accord Commercial. Makes me remember why I love film, music, design and when all of it comes together in... communicating.

Yesterday I read an article in Politiken which stated that 50 % of your identity is available to the rest of us online. Abelone Glahn states in the article that if you don't exist online then you nearly don't exist at all. We have previously discussed the importance of corporate blogging. But the article in Politiken states the importance of having a personal blog or to participate in some sort of social media like kommunikationsforum or Linkedin. Some people are terrified by the thought that they can't control the personal information which are available about them online. But Abelone Glahn points out to use this strategically. Though blogs and other social media you have the perfect means to control and mould your virtual/online identity. She calls it: Your virtual handshake" - and she just wrote a book about the subject with the surprising title "Your virtual handshake" (Dit virtuelle håndtryk). If you have a profile on LinkedIn or Kommunikationsforum you have the perfect means to show future employers what a great networker you are. Then some might ask: Isn't there a chance that a profile online can affect me in a negative way in a future job-situation. Oh yes! If you point out in your application that you are a fab networker and your profile shows otherwise. It's important that the online you is authentic. But does all this mean that I shouldn't present my self as a person with extraordinary networking skills? The virtual me doesn't have that many contacts! This raises an interesting question: Is my online identity more "real" to a future employer than my offline identity?

Björk – one of my favorite artists and Possibly Maybe the greatest nation branding and marketing spin Iceland will ever experience, paving the way for so many artistic goodies from the small nation far North in the Atlantic. On May 7th Björk's much-awaited album Volta will hit the shops and fill the air, like the single release of Earth Intruders from the album is already doing, also being 'Ugens Uundgåelige' on P3 (this weeks favorite air play of the radio channel P3, The Danish Broadcasting System). The Volta album includes contributions from guest artists like producer Timbaland and Anthony Hegarty from Anthony & The Johnsons - can't wait to hear more of it! What about you?

'Let’s open up : share!' is the pay-off from the album’s song Innocence about the thrill of fearing the new. Now Björk lives the message of sharing and renewing! Instead of working with superstar director Chris Cunningham once again, she now turns to the public, inviting everyone interested to make her new video for Innocence.

Similar to what Nokia, Tuborg and Cocio among others are doing, when asking consumers to provide creative work in making their next ad, Björk, supported by Madwebcarpenters who provide users with creative production tools, goes bonding and relation-building with her audience and consumers in a brand-involving, platform-sharing and consumer-driven way, by opening up her video production for ideas and creativity of her audience. Nice touch! It’s of course Björks approval that will decide how the video of Innocence will be in the end. But still, can’t wait to see if folks come up with something good and what the result will be! 

Get to now Innocence and more about the video competition here.

By the way, would like to introduce my self; I’m Marta Karolina Olsen, a brand new blogger at STAGIS, where I recently was hired as Project Manager, which is fab! So this is my first opening up and sharing of a post in the blogosphere – sensing a thrill of the new :-), leaving me not so innocent anymore…

Have a nice one this absolutely sunny weekend!

Today Nanna and Marta launched the Specialekontor-website. It's the first public annoncement of an ambitious socially responsible project we've been working on during mid-2006. This year we are aiming to make it become a reality!

About a year ago our sociologist Katja had finished her dissertation from Copenhagen University and during the last four months she rented space in a small commune of students that had the same problem as Katja: They couldn't concentrate at home and needed a space they could go to every day to work on their master-thesis. With few exceptions, most university students working on their final thesis has the same challenges. They are supposed to make a grand finale but can't make it happen within the space and time that they are given. And the spaces at their respective campus facilities are too few and not administered in a way that makes it possible to gain access (we've done extensive research last year and only 7-10% of the need for these type of spaces are covered by universities, public libraries etc.).

So Katja and I discussed the issue and thought to ourselves "why not make the worlds best space for research and help the students get to collaborate, share ideas, work more focused and feel that they are part of a working student-community rather than sitting home alone?".

At the same time lots of companies we know (and even more that we don't know) are trying to think of ways to make their worth in other terms than money. Helping others, for instance. Taking responsibility for the society in which we live. Taking care of the world around them. And some of these companies are even giving this issue more thought than just sending money to Africa (not that I think that's a bad idea - I just think they should fit it into their business model instead of writing a check).

So, we've wound up inventing this great project. It's a pilot project that's going to exist for three years and host 200 students per semester (the danish government has decided that regular master-thesis (kandidat-afhandlinger) has to be written within six months), giving a total of 1.200 students the best possible environment for their research and writing process. What's more is, the project will aim at testing and developing the best possible model for hosting this type of activity giving the universities a unique possibility of redesigning their future projects to suit this need and not having to guess what works and what doesn't. And what's really great is we're going to facilitate that the students, leading designers and architects will collaborate on the making of the best possible environment for research together with practitioners from leading innovative, knowledge-based companies. The same companies that will help make the project possible and who will gain an easier access to new research from the universities through their meetings with students in this new project.

Sofar a couple of supporters and sponsors have decided to drive the project further. Among others FUHU, DEA, Dansk Erhverv, Novozymes and of course the students from a bunch of organizations like DSF.

Second life. What can I say? I am seduced and frightened at the same time because of this 3D virtual world. The numbers on the list to the left speak for themselves - the community has many members, who spend and earn a lot of money in Second Life. Even though this is a very virtual world, the the cash flow and the attention it gets is very real.
To be honest I don't know a lot about this world. But I've recently learned some interesting details about Second Life. For example, that Second Life has its's own currency (Linden$), and that you actually pay commission fee, when you make currency transactions. And that's just one detail... you can do everything in this world. It's a new platform for doing business - to present and test new products and ideas before introducng them to the real world. And it's a place to let people (or their avatars) from around the world participate in virtual meetings.
I went to a seminar at Deloitte friday morning, where Dennis Knowles and Stephan Martinussen from Saxo Bank among others spoke about Second Life and their experiences and thoughts about it. In general, their focus was tax issues arising with the growth of Second Life. It seems that there are many questions still to be answered about which products and services in Second Life that are taxable. And when they are taxable. And in which countries - is it where the supplier is or where the consumer is?
I think the interesting thing is the mere fact, that we start to discuss tax-issues and business opportunities in Second Life. This agenda is a sign that Second Life is here to stay. And what goes on in the real world is gonna continue in Second Life. I think. The question is, how the future looks? Because rules and regulations are apparently not easily transferable into this parallel world. For one, because everybody is anonymous in this world. On the other hand, maybe it's not all that different, than when the internet became a reality?

Check out the discussions on Second Lifes blog.

It's "tv turnoff week". Started today. So... turn it off. It's not going to make you happy anyhow even though you might think so (especially if you're living in Denmark - you're supposed to be among the happiest people in the world, says new european research).

Watch it here.

A friend of STAGIS, Jonas Kjær, gave in his master thesis at Roskilde University about a month ago. He has been studying how blogs can help to develop or keep relations between companies and customers or other stakeholers. During the fall Jonas interviewed me and Birgitte as well as two of our clients about stagisblog.com. There are lots of interesting thoughts and discussions in Jonas thesis that may inspire if you're considering how an open blog could effect your organizations' relations.

You can download it here: speciale.pdf.

Recently one of my trusted colleagues through seven years had her last day at work in STAGIS. Her name is Camilla. She’s been doing a great job working with our financial matters together with myself and various team members. And for quite some time Camilla has been the person with the longest history as a member of STAGIS.

As a token of appreciation I wrote a letter to Camilla thanking her for her effort through all this time and as I wrote it I started thinking about the fact that Camilla never really got hired. She never made an agreement and didn’t get her contract. Because all this time she was hired by Deloitte who does our accounting and has been since we outsourced most of our economy and financial matters about seven years ago. And she’s not the only one. Several other members of the family are delivering important parts of knowhow to drive our business or our clients’ businesses without being in our office full time.

I used to have the notion that fulltime employees who are hired on a steady basis with a monthly salary, pension and a health-plan was somehow more accountable, carrying more knowledge and experience about a business and field of work. But it’s not necessarily so. Tine, Maria, Mikkel and Henning (just to mention a few) have all been connected to us for years and are actually just as knowing and just as loyal members of the team as the bunch of us who punch in and out every day. Thomas for instance has been working with us for 10 years now coding websites and blogs etc.

The point I’m trying to get to is that I’m really amazed how we’ve succeeded to solve lots of projects with team members that are connected as a loose network. About 60 percent of an average production (such as a design-project, an exhibition project, a film production, the making of a change-campaign etc.) is solved by this kind of team members. People who aren’t really part of the team in a conventional form but who are just as commited and loyal as any conventional colleague. The era of the free agents, the loosely coupled networks is here. And the great thing is that it’s not loose at all. Most of the people that we initially considered ”outsiders” are actually trusted family members who seem to stick around for a long period of time and develop our knowledge and knowhow. Even though they don’t have the formal contract.

So, one of the things i really connect with summer is concerts on Plænen in Tivoli, Copenhagen. And tonights my first one this year! (It's Moi Caprice playing, and they're awesome ! You should come check it out if you've got the time :) )
Anyway, it struck me that, one of the things that's great about Tivoli is that it's classic, without becoming old-people-ish. An example: This year, there are concerts on Plænen that I want to see, and other concerts that my mother want to see equally as much. And both of us can go there without feeling either too young, or too old to be there. This may seem obvious, but it's actually a balance hardly achieved by anyone else! No matter who played there, my mom would never go to Vega. Period. But Tivoli, well, if something has been awesome for 200 years, it's just still awesome!

moi Caprice

In my previous post I asked the question: Is it really that simple that brands win when they help others to win? This morning I came across John Dodds blog and he actually answers my question in some way. He says the following about why marketing (or communication) works: It matters simply because being remarkable isn't enough, people have to realise you are remarkable.

In my opinion this also answers my question from yesterday. Brand wise it isn't enough just helping others to win (being remarkable isn't enough). You also have to communicate that that's what you're brand are doing. So maybe brands win when they help others to win AND succeeds in communicating this as well. Do you agree?