Perhaps this rant is just because of my disappointment in neither landing a gig for this year’s Episerver Days nor getting a good response on my pitch to help them with the event’s social media activites. But I would rather like to see it as an opportunity to learn. Again from others mistake, at least in my view. Compare my video conciderations 18 months ago and reflections on how Media & Message 2008 was video documented.

An hour ago I got an e-mail from Episerver that announced the release of videos and other presentations material from Episerver Day 2009. Sorry folks, I can’t embed anything here. Because the player they use (from Qbrick) does not support embedding. Why is that still so in 2009?

During the event the producers published a live video stream by concentrating on the speakers bodies and forgot their slides. A problem that was pointed out in Twitter by the remote viewer @janjarfalk. In post production (which takes time and money) they either inserted the slides over the video or synced them in a separate window beside the video. The latter is perhaps good for people who still spend their days in front of a web page. Sorry, but none of my mobile phones/players supports that kind of solution.

It looks kind of fun when Beata Wickbom uses her body and language in her Trendspot presentation to explain and overcome the fact that many of her slides did not show up on the screen . ”Fun”, because on the web page the slides are actually there! In other words, the video and the images tells different stories. Too bad, because Beata and the other speakers did a very good job on stage.

I am also curious about what those of you who did not see Micael Herkommer live think. Does his fantastic presentation style come through in the video version of his talk The Pragmatic Web?

In sum, my concerns are:

• No support for embedding and sharing
• No RSS feed for the videos
• A click on the first video does not pause, but takes you to a promo for Qbrick
• Confusing layout and different designs of the player for different videos
• The mindset was live TV talkshow, not web 2.0 video documentation

It is OK to make mistakes. I actually love when people and organizations dare to try new grounds. But Episerver and Qbrick? Two major players in the web field – and this is what they present.

WIP, Work In Progress, might be the explanation. If so, please consider my thoughts when fixing things up. As I previously said: the content at Episerver Days 2009 was good.

p.s. Even though Episerver did not announce/propose an official hashtag we created #epiday09, which for example can be monitored via Twingly micro blog search. d.s.

I’ve been thinking about this for some time now, but never spitted it out. So here it comes:

Micro blogging is nothing more than IM for grown ups.
(and for those who don’t get it – IM stands for Instant Messaging, like a chat)

Before I posted this I did a quick & dirty Google search on ”twitter IM grownup” (and various spelling of the word for people who regard themself as more than kids). Certainly I am not the first to make this comparison. Actually, I hope to be flooded by commenters who claim to be more original than me (I know it’s I). But my point is not the similarities in terms of functions and behavior.

The BIG THING is that Twitter and the growing number of mikro blogging services (including add-ons to social networking platsforms such as facebook and ning) implies that grownups will understand the value of the tools kids use on a 24/7 basis. It just takes two things:

1. As adult digital immigrants we have quickly (well…) begun to appreciate and put value on micro blogging behavior. Sure enough, not everyone will agree. But it seems that most people quickly get the point(s).
2. Then it takes a moment of reflection. We have to think: ”gee, this is what they do”. And suddenly it will become apparent that it is OK to have the mobile on in classrooms, spend hours in front of the chat windows, feel stressed when we can’t connect (online), and so on.

After that comes the realization that our kids might figure out that they no longer can say ”you don’t understand what this is about – dude”. Well, I guess the youngsers don’t know what Twitter is. Just tell them:

Oh, it’s like IM – but for older folks

[Update 2009-03-11] Following Paul Bradshaw’s post today ”Why the kids don’t use Twitter…” in Online Journalism Blog I like to add a supplementary remark. Bradshaw is mainly pointing to Danah Boyd’s notion that Twitter is public space and kids (for various reasons) preferr more closed services. I am not so sure that always is true, even though that kind of behaviour/attitude is evident. I am asking myself if the ”don’t use” perhaps is because Twitter came in late. And it does not offer anything the kids don’t already have. But again, my point is not that kids don’t use Twitter. It is that grownups do, and thus will understand more.

[Update 2009-08-05] Pete Cashmore reflects today in Mashable on teens and twittering, based on recent data from Nielsen. Cashmore ends his post with ”Perhaps the more interesting questions: why are teens Twitter shy? And what does this mean for Twitter’s future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments”. So far 70 comments. One of my favs: ”What shocks me is that there are people over 55 who tweet…” ;)

[Update 2009-04-27] My presentation is now available as a high quality video recording.

[Update after the gig] Hi, this is ”Kalle” :-D Thanks for a great morning and the opportunity to share ideas with you. And special thanks to Sub and the event producer Woltti who dared to invite me with all complicated tech lab/beta stuff. Follow the mikroblog stream Substanssi and here are my slides as pdf (3 Mb), also available at Slideshare. Videos are archived at Bambuser (mobile) and Ustream (netbook and webcam). Remember to check out Onlive.com. Some things I did not have time to demo, that you can try yourself, are: IKEA.se/TV, Jaycut.se (who provide the technology for IKEA TV and  VidBlaster (live videomixing and streaming)

Sub is (according to Wikipedia) ”a popular Finnish TV channel owned by Bonnier”. This day Sub will host Substanssi (english translation by Google), a half day seminar for selected customers (read mainly their advertisers). The opening session is presented by Pekka Karhuvaara, CEO at MTV Media. Following him is me with a 50 minute key note entitled ”Thought provoking illustrations from contemporary life”. The other speakers are Sami Salmenkivi, Gemma Newland, Maaretta Tukiainen, and Virpi Leskinen.

It will be good to visit Finland again – and to be paid to be provocative :-)

[Update after the gig]: A stimulating afternoon indeed. Here are my presentation slides (pdf 5,5 Mb), a link to the live video stream at Bambuser, a post about the book iBrain, the Flickr mobile photo stream regarding KBDK, the blog of Kulturhuset i Stockholms chef och konstnärliga ledare. and Creative commons.

As you might already know I have for a long time been impressed by the way (public) libraries have approached and advanced information technology. Therefore it is an honor, and a pleasure, to have been invited to inspire the management of the Royal Library in Denmark. My assignment this time is to share ideas and examples, in particular concerning mobile solutions.

[Minor update a few hours before the gig]: I forgot to write ”KB Danmark”, in case anyone/thing searches for that phrase. Then I fixed a photostream on Weconverse’s Flickr account with ”kbdk”. Mail your shots to kbdk@weconverse.com and watch them in the Flickr stream tagged with ”kbdk”.

There is something as a free lunch. At least when your flight is delayed and SAS gives you a 50 SEK meal voucher. As I write this my flight is planned to be delayed for about two hours.

Yes, I know it is my fault. Not the delay, but that I became low on Edison juice. I forgot to re-charge my 9-cell battery last night. Spending some extra time at the airport is something I am used to. As well as airport planners/designers who seems to have no clue about how a contermporary traveller (as I) behave. Those of us who are nomadic workers need power outlets. And from numerous of blog posts, tweets, and other social media outlets I know I am not alone.

I spent 10 minutes walking around the F-pier at Arlanda airport looking for something with Volts. Finally I spottet a TV in the Absolut Light bar (a part of Scandinavian Service Partner) next to my gate (F65). There it was, an extension cord with four ports. And one was free! Willing to accept my plug. A small charge for the world, but a big relief for me.

What can we do to realize a vision where all airport waiting chairs comes with powers?

p.s. the beer was more expensive than the food and paid for by yours truly, who slowly begins to be affected by the dangerous molecules embedded in the fluid. d.s.

[Update] When googling right after publishing this page I found Jeff Sandquist’s AirPower wiki. The entry for Stockholm suggests one place, although I think it has been removed.