Yesterday about 200 people were invited to a closed beta of  the social micro payment system Flattr. The founders, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi (@brokep) and Linus Olsson (@bonq) want to “help people share money, not only content”. True, Peter is generally recognized as one of the co-founders of the Pirate Bay. While I am indeed for sharing, I am against massive sharing that is illegal. But I am massivly for paying for stuff I find useful. To me it looks like Flattr is a really interesting way to go.

Without further ado I used my invite code and signed up (with an account for my business). I am especially looking forward to business and tax related solutions. PayPal offer “donate” which is often good, but not hard enough if you play in the money driven value exchange system. (Swedish: compare Donera eller betala och kanske skatta).

You can find a Flattr badge here in the right column of RichardGatarski.com that you might try. As an experiment I have also embedded another badge with this post. Just to see the difference in tracking. As soon as possible I will try badges for some other forms of my content (image, video, and pdf). Guess most of you can’t pay, but you may dig my story (Flattr takes a small fee, so indirectly you dig/pay for their story too). For more info, and to request an invitation, guess what – go to Flattr.com.

How teacherns learn Internet is a gigantic challenge, with no single solution. It is clear that all Swedish students and teachers must be equipped with computers (and other relevant resources). Furthermore, many more people must realize that the whole school system needs to be redesigned.

Those bold thoughts were reached by a group of around 15 people who discuessed “how teachers learn about Internet” this afternoon. We were a part of  around 100 persons in an Open-Space-Meeting called Hej skolan, dags att Internetta! (eng. Yo school, time to do some Interneting, hashtagg #indpres), arranged by.SE:s Internetdagarna.

My notes from the group discussion are in Swedish, please feel free to peruse them in that language.

Whenever I get an assignment to do a presentation, or gig as I prefer to call it, I take myself the liberty to include something around kids. Mostly because kids are the future – by definition. But also because they are experienced users of Internet, cool devices, knowledge making, brand management, creativity, and social media in general. It does not matter what the subject of the meeting is – “kids” should have a place. At least a few minutes of my time on stage, so to speak.

This Thursday was no exception when I did a Key Note about Passion för F-Secure at their SPECIES 2010 event. And again, the same thing happens. People, that’s right – one is human even though the title is Manager, CTO, CEO, Account Executive or whatever – really appreciate that I bring in the kids.

The BIG point here is that You (who have been with me at one of those gigs) thank me for bringing in the kids. Which I hope I do in a sense far beyond recognizing that they are digital natives. The most common comment I get afterwards, when someone approach me is something like:

“Thank you for a very inspiring presentation, and for bringing in the kids!”

True, not all add that about kids. Some ask if I really use Powerpoint, others might want to know the name of the X-thing I demoed, and some share issues with their employer or a business idea. But most people talk about (their) kids. Normally after some business matters, that feels like an excuse to open up for the really IMPORTANT thing.

If our post-gig encounter is a little more than brief, (grand)parents share their thoughts about their own (grand)kids. How they use computers, phones, Internet, games, you name it. Folks inform me about their strategies, worries, wonderful success stories – around (their) kids There is generally more concern, than scare. More curiosity, than ignorance. And a lot of  “I wanna get more involved with my kids in this”. My advice is simple: go ahead!

Is it not strange that normally when parents meet privately we talk about our kids, but in business meetings the casual subjects tend to be eating, golf, skiing, cars, shopping, etc? When really everyone have a deep interest in (our) kids. Which I believe is extremely crucial. So important that we must sacrisfy ourselves for them, like our good parents did.

I am working for that kids will have a greater place in our lifes – including at business meetings. And hope you will join me in that ambition.

On a side note, my own kids have been at some of my gigs. They know that I talk about them, share their names, pictures, and experiences. I alwas ask them first if it’s OK to tell a new story that involves them. Actually, they also explicitly give me stories; “tell them this dad”. They also demand that I clearly mention the fact that my kids do eat cauliflower. Which I sometimes forget. Shame on me.

Thank you, for the (interest in our) kids!

Some people don’t like what I say and how I think. Of course that feels bad. An hour ago @Ronnestam tweeted:

“On stage in 1 minute in front of 230 managers in a 30000 staffed company. See you on the other side…”

That made me think of the song Untitled 1 by Keane, lyrics easily found on YouTube with the help of Google. Perhaps an artist’s way of manage the world and our emotions  might explain what I am feeling. I’ll see you on the other side (post School, not life ;).

I wrote this post in Swedish, and have not translated it to English. Basically I introduce the idea to replace Matemathics as a core subject in the Swedish School curricula with “Computational Thinking”. Please feel free to see if you can make any sense of Google’s translation. And let me know if you find it valuable to have me write an English version.