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My TEDxZwolle talk: Get to Know Our Ant Hill With Open Data

Yesterday I presented at TEDxZwolle. For a general audience I presented the case for Open Data, and called upon them to get involved. Because of the potential, but mostly because it is necessary to understand and deal with the complexity of our societies and lives.

Otherwise we are just ants, with no clue of how the ant hill works, even though we help create it with our actions. In our networked society we need to understand the ant hill.

Don’t be an ant, understand our ant hill. Get involved. Use Open Data. Understand your world.



Early May I will be speaking at TEDxTallinn 2013.

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The State of Open Data in Europe – Achievements and Challenges

On 22 February we as the ePSIplatform team organized a big conference in Warsaw on Open Government Data. With 300 people registered from 30 countries, and 40 speakers, it was almost as big as last year’s conference we organized in Rotterdam.

As this was our last big event under the ePSIplatform contract, which ended 1 March, we decided to use the Opening Keynote to provide an overview of what was achieved in the past few years in Open Data, and especially what is still to be done, and the challenges and pitfalls connected to that. I will provide a full transcript later, but below you find the slides and the video (first 20 minutes) of the presentation.

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On Openness and its Limits

Openness is a consequence of adopting a network metaphor for our societies. It is limited by what facilitates healthy functioning groups and individuals. That’s the balance to strike.

Cognitive Edge Business Network Europe
Vibrant connected network, aka society

Open Everything
There seems to be a conference on Open [Your Fav Topic Here] just about every day somewhere. Open Data, Open Access, Open Economy, Open Design, Open Source, Open Manufacturing, Open Innovation, Open Government, Open Science, Open Knowledge, Open Courseware, Open Corporates, Open Hardware, Open Energy: Open Anything and Open Everything.

For those not easily adapting to change, this is good news: Open is clearly a hype, so it can be ignored without peril, and it can be fought by denouncing it as empty hype.
For those embracing Open, this is also good news as it seems openness is a worthy goal in itself, a panacea, on the brink of going mainstream. Monster killers and monster embracers alike are missing something I think.

To me something more profound is happening on the middle ground between those two extremes.

New infrastructure begets new metaphors
Internet and mobile communications are a pervasive new infrastructure. They connect people, not geographic endpoints (as all other infrastructures do), and do so instantaneous and globally. New infrastructures push their principles as dominant metaphors on other areas. Railroads pushed ‘railroad time‘ upon our daily lives and rhythms. Internet is pushing the network metaphor upon us.

That network metaphor impacts our organizations, work, and our social life. The network metaphor is making itself felt offline just as much as online. It increases complexity through its myriad of newly created pathways and feedback loops, and thus increases the need for resilience of any given node.

Networks necessitate Open
The network metaphor necessitates openness: in a network you must share, you must be visible and responsive, otherwise you don’t exist and you will not be engaged with. Dark nodes in a network, those that don’t share or even announce their presence, are treated as damage in a network. Traffic, i.e. interaction with other nodes, gets routed around them. Dark nodes are simply ignored. To be part of the network a node must share, must allow others to connect and see what it’s doing. If you don’t open up to the world, you don’t exist to others. If you don’t open up, you will not be resilient, you will not be able to deal with increased complexity.

Open is not a hype, it is a prerequisite for, as well as a consequence of, a networked society, induced by our new infrastructure.

Open is not limitless however. It is bounded in order to deal with complexity and by our own humanity.

P1000721.JPG
Being closed for good reasons.

Openness has limits in complexity
Dealing with complexity is balancing being very open to the world, with maintaining strict boundaries. Lines in the sand, that you don’t allow to be violated without consequences. Bumping into those boundaries will not feel very open at all to those doing the bumping. I am very welcoming to visitors in our home, but you will be made to leave when you don’t respect it is indeed my home. While the network necessitates openness, the resulting complexity of global connectedness necessitates boundaries at the same time. Without setting boundaries a node is fully transparent, which makes it just as invisible to the network as a dark node. It is the difference between Project X and the open invitation to my birthday unconference.

Openness has limits in human group dynamics
In many interactions being shielded from others is needed to get somewhere. If something makes you feel vulnerable (some learning situations, negotiations, idea generation etc come to mind), you can’t deal with it in a very public setting, but need a space in which there’s more privacy. It is a deliberate short reprieve from the social pressures that would otherwise inhibit you in a negative way. Results of that seclusion, or the fact that you are entering such a more closed off space for a while, could very well be open.

Healthy communities of practice can be characterized by the way they deal with rhythms, spaces, evolution, value, excitement vs. feeling secure, internal and external perspectives, and multiple levels of engagement (from lurking to leading and back).

Openness can foster a wider variety of levels of engagement (as that is an aspect of networks), bring diversity of perspectives (idem), bring excitement, better allow evolution by exposure, and create more value for all involved.

Openness however needs to be limited when there’s a need for more opaque and smaller spaces, and to make group members feel secure enough to engage. It needs to be limited where it diminishes value for all involved e.g. when it dissolves a groups cohesion and identity or that of its members.

Openness is the default, to be limited by our human needs
Openness needs to be the default: we live in a networked world and open sharing is what makes networks function. Openness is limited by our humanity, for the health of individuals, groups and communities. That limitation ideally is temporary and clearly demarcated.

Pedro's Play Session
Open and bounded simultaneously: my 2010 birthday unconference

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Looking Back on 2012

In the past 2 years (2010, 2011), triggered by my friend Ernst Phaff, I’ve posted a list of things that gave me a sense of accomplishment that year. The list of things that made me go ‘Tadaa!’. It is often all to easy to loose track of all the different things I’ve done, and just bear in mind the unfinished, the yet to achieve, the not-quite-up-to-standard, that make up the lists of things-to-do that rule my every day work. So at the end of the year I look back at my calendar and note the things that I think were pretty damn great in the last year. In no particular order, and roughly chronologic 2012′s (mostly profession related) ‘Tadaa!’ moments are:

 

  • Landed a project competing against three well established big consultancy firms, winning on expertise;
  • A beautiful summer evening with awesome friends and great food on lake Zug;
  • Provided training at the World Bankin the US;
    Icy Canada from above: enormous power lines US Flags
    Enormous power lines in Labrador, Canada, from plane. US flags at Washington Memorial
  • Organizing a hack day in my hometown on the occasion of the beta release of our city’s open data portal;
  • With the ePSIplatform team organized a large (300+ people) international conference on open government data in Rotterdam;
  • Doing a fun and energy giving project on open data in the city of Leeuwarden, covering aspects from community building to designing information processes, and to positioning open data as a real policy instrument;
  • Seeing a dinner in late 2011 morph into a starting business ‘The Green Land’ in open data consultancy, with several good projects delivered in 2012;
    The Green Land Strategie sessie
    Future backwards session with Paul, Frank and Marc, my The Green Land partners
  • Create new Open Data workshop formats with my colleague Frank which never fail te generate lots of energy with the participants;
  • Spending a week in Moldova working on open government and open government data;
  • Working a week from Helsinki;
    On Kauppatori Laboratory
    Berries on Helsinki market, Design District
  • Spending time with dear friends, old and new, living close and far away, in good and bad times;
    Visiting K20 / Düsseldorf Coworking Boat PAN
    With Pedro & Patricia, with Henriette and Thomas
  • Tried outsourcing some work to speed execution of ideas up, working with my friend Peter (both remote and in our living room when he visited from Canada). Will need to do more of that in 2013;
  • Taking good care of my well being by immediately switching hotels when the one I was in was way too noisy;
  • Organizing a great BBQ for my 42nd birthday with friends, family, clients, raising money for charity in the process. I enjoyed the party tremendously!
  • Got rid of half (500+) of our books, keeping those that changed me, I haven’t read, or are there for future reference;
  • Visiting the Olympic Games in London for a week (thanks Elmine for making that happen!);
    Excel Italy-Russia
    At the Olympic fencing tournament
  • Being on the jury for Apps for Germany;
  • Started getting the machines (lasercutter, CNC milling machine) for our home FabLab, to be continued in 2013;
  • Giving a keynote presentation at the great State of the Net conference that Paolo(co-) organizes in Trieste, finally making it to this conference after trying several times;
    Trieste Trieste
    At State of the Net 2012, sunset in Trieste
  • Working in Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Ireland, next to as already mentioned in USA, Finland, Denmark, and Moldova;
  • Giving a keynote (in German) at Zukunft Basisbildung on the impact of networked society in educational settings, visiting that topic again after a few years (bringing back memories from the Rotterdam project and the Online Educa 2008 keynote);
  • Trying and more often succeeding in enjoying the places I visited, and not just fly in / fly out with merely seeing hotel room and conference venue or client office in between. Sushi with Heinz, Guinness and European championship football with Keith, both in Graz, a great late night dinner on the Piazza Unita d’Italia in Trieste, a wine tasting in Moldova, great crab cakes in Washington, espresso in the sun in Nantes, and an amazing dinner with Elmine and very dear friends in Switzerland. A car ride through Slovenia, a small neighborhood pub in Prague, and Leberkäse in Linz. Strolling through Zurich and a surprising exhibition at Kunsthaus, artisanal shops in Copenhagen, interior design and a ferry to a fortress island in Helsinki;
  • Relocating for a month to Copenhagen with Elmine, a month living in a foreign city together (posting on week 1, 2, 3, 4);
    Chairs Apples
    Colorful chairs in CPH, Halloween with Elmine in Tivoli
  • Starting the Copenhagen Data Drinks;
  • Deciding to lay down my role as chairman in the Dutch FabLab Foundation, acknowledging that is a decision I needed to make because it is good for myself and to prevent a situation where I can’t live up to promised commitment.

Some of the things that gave me great pleasure this past year are connected to metrics that are not all that healthy, which is the challenge I think for 2013. I spent 112 days abroad (in 16 countries) this year, or about 1 in 3. That is too much to feel balanced, and causes the trips to blur into each other, and time spent on a plane is no fun. I worked over 2200 hours, which although 200 hours less than 2011, makes for 275 working days. (My calendar says there are only 261 weekdays and thus workdays in the year, even if I never take time off). I have worked to exhaustion on too many points this past year. Rationally I know I get more done if I work less but I find it very hard to let go every now and then, so that again is something to get better at in 2013.

All in all it has been a good year. Onwards!

P1020534
Occupy your imagination! (in Dublin)

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On Data Quality

In a conversation in Prague last weekend, I formulated some thoughts on data quality I am blogging here so I can find them back again later.

Often in the context of opening up government data the data quality gets mentioned as a barrier.  Data quality, or rather absence thereof, is put forward as a reason to not publish the data, or as a reason why re-use is not happening. (To the former Andrew Stott always replies that keeping the data inside government for the past decades has not improved it, so why think not publishing now would change anything?)

To me data quality is not an intrinsic aspect of the data. It is an external aspect. Data quality only becomes visible, gets noticed, in the context of usage. The job for which the data is being used determines whether the data is of the right quality to do so.

Also data quality is not the same as data granularity.

Only through making data available for re-use, and attempting to re-use that data in various settings, do notions of quality and questions on quality get formulated and discussed, and eventually dealt with (such as when Open Street Map corrected the location of 18.000 out of 360.000 busstops in the UK). This then may or may not reflect back on the public task for which the data was originally collected, and hence on the original data collection process.

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Key-note at the Big Clean in Prague

Yesterday I was in Prague for the Big Clean conference, a day with the express purpose of cleaning up government data so it can be better used, e.g. for data driven journalism. This way the ‘life cycle’ of data is extended beyond its original use for a public task.

The Big Clean: not a commercial for soap, but a conference on open government data

I had been asked to provide the opening key-note presentation. As my knowledge of scraping data, refining it and turning it into journalistic products is limited, and a large number of people with precisely those skills was present to give hands-on workshops as well as present their projects, I decided to position my presentation in a bit wider context.

Titled “Cleaning up data as well as the relationship with our government” I outlined the following ideas:

  • Scraping, coding, refining data are much needed skills, but doing that we must not forget to include the data-holders in our work. They are part of the picture.
  • Government institutions are in transition and those with the skills need to help make that happen
  • By building collaborative e-government services: services that increase in value when more people use them
  • By showing that open data is of huge value to the functioning of government itself, as a policy instrument
  • While it may be hard to change institutions, it is much easier to connect to change agents inside them: that is the starting point
  • In two places this may be most effective: locally where there is a wide variety of data and likely a lower level of skills inside government bodies, and around large data sets, that take a higher level of understanding and analysis to be used in new valuable ways
  • By building this ecosystem we can turn government into a platform: open to all comers, including newly emerging stakeholders, transparent about our own agendas, two-way interaction (also by adding citizen generated data), and creating conditions in which the ecosystem can evolve and grow
  • From the top down there is a strong wind blowing in the same direction: the European Open Data Strategy and the legal frameworks already in place are supportive of these developments
  • Making yourself visible, sharing your stories, will foster stronger networks and will help to create more impact
  • Be an Optimistic Radical, optimistic in your work with civil servants, and radical in applying your skills to where it counts

 

It was a good day, and great to connect to the open data community in the Czech Republic in person. After the conference a large group went for drinks and food, at a nearby Czech pub, which provided more great conversations and fun.

Thank you to the organizing team of the National Technical Library for a fun conference.

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CPH Week 4

The past and last full week in Copenhagen was a busy one, filled with appointments and presentations.

I started Tuesday, after discussing a workshop with a Dutch client for next month, with preparing a presentation for the Danish Ministry of Housing, Urban and Rural Affairs (MBBL), that I gave later that afternoon. The Danish government has announced a major open data release, with wanting to stimulate growth and innovation as a key part of the rationale behind it. Now, all the general research makes that growth highly likely, but how do you actually on an operational level make sure the right conditions are there for it to happen? And what is the role of public sector bodies on that highly operational level? This was a timely request by the MBBL for me to talk about, as it is helping me to further frame open data as a change management issue. That is exactly what is currently needed to help me set up The Green Land, my / our open data consulting start-up.

In between I finally got around to some reading, absorbing John Robb’s ‘Brave New War‘, ‘The Innovator’s DNA‘ (Christensen) and Lane Becker’s ‘Get Lucky‘ (triggered by our dinner with him earlier this month) in parallel. As usual in my mind they are all very much connected, and if you look closely at my MBBL presentation above you will see traces of it in the slides.

Early Wednesday morning I met up with Pedro Parraguez Ruiz, at the welcoming Paludan. He’s a PhD looking at open innovation networks and ecosystems, trying to see if social network analysis and other aspects can be fruitfully applied to it. Pedro described most existing open innovation set-ups as being too transactional in their focus, creating closed groups that treat the network as just another asset. Saying that ‘the long tail of university held patents’ is just wasted (as in, not exploited, but also not open to build upon), he wondered what would happen if you put open design thinking at the core of the scientific and university process. Made me think of some of the discussion triggered by Elsevier’s Michael Habib on scientific reputation building in Düsseldorf in 2009, and some of the good presentations at last week’s FabLab Toulouse conference. Later that day in Fredriksberg I had another stimulating conversation with another PhD, Thorhildur Jetzek Hansdottir. She is looking into (economic) modeling of open data impacts. Again here there was a tension between ‘classic’ structures and networked structures in creating value. It helped me formulate a bit more clearly where I think the transition from social transactions to monetized transactions takes place, and that rather than treating ‘social activity’ and ‘economic activity’ as separate domains, economic activity is a subset of social activity where monetization becomes sort-of a proxy for social distance or trust differences in a network. At the end of the day I was interviewed for the Dutch magazine Vice Versa on the potential and role of open data for international development aid, as part of their ‘Smart Aid Debate’. A very thought provoking day, all in all.

New Subway Construction
Subway construction in Frederiksberg

Dansk IT, the Danish association for IT professionals, had invited me to give a presentation on open data potential on Thursday. I spent most of the day preparing the talk, rearranging some of the arguments I used on Tuesday for the MBBL session for this private sector audience’s context. Basically the presentations for MBBL and Dansk IT are two sides of the same story, as public sector and private sector need each other to really create open data impact. Cathrine Lippert of the Digitaliseringsstyrelsen first explained the Danish open data steps, and then I tried to put that in a broader context of public sector information re-use in Europe.

Room filling up Cathrine Lippert presenting
Room filling up at Dansk IT and Cathrine Lippert presenting Danish OGD steps

Friday I met up with Simon of KL7 who has volunteered to organize the next Copenhagen Data Drinks on 28 November. KL7, housed in the great SOHO co-working facility, have a very interesting approach in using data to shape narratives and interaction between stakeholders, and it was an inspiring meeting with Simon and his colleague Mikkel. Good observations on how to link-up this (open) data work, with things like Sensemaking, and the bridge to social media, which inspired some new insights in how I can combine those various aspects of my work and interests. I certainly aim to continue our conversation.

Elmine and I explored the hip Jaegersborggade in Nørrebro, which is in the process of (early) gentrification: hipsters taking over the shops, rising prices for the small apartments, and people with Macs working in the corner café, but drug dealing taking place in the open and signs in the shop windows warning burglars that there is no money or computer worth stealing inside. In 2009 we bought some cool ceramics in Copenhagen, and now found the artisan who made them, Inge Vincents, in this street. So we added a few items to our collection.

SOHO Reception Thinware, Inge Vincents ceramics
SOHO, and Inge Vincents ceramics

Also accepted invitations to speak on open data in Dublin and contribute to the Open Innovation Festival in Leeuwarden (NL) next month.

The weekend brought freezing temperatures but also clear blue skies and lots of sunshine. Saturday we visited our friends Henriëtte and Thomas and their daughter Penny in Helsingør, right on time to see Coworking boat PAN, of which we are shareholders, being lifted from the water for the winter. Hanging out together was fun and relaxing, so we headed back up there on Monday evening again for a dinner together. Sunday we walked for hours, starting in Østerbro in Faelled park, where Elmine and I extensively discussed various questions and ideas, while letting our feet take us where they happened to be heading. Over a nice lunch we wrote some of the fruits of walking and thinking down, before continuing on foot along the city lakes towards Nørreport and the city center, where we hit the Lego store for some early Sinterklaas preparations.

PAN leaves the water
PAN leaves the water

The fourth week in Copenhagen ended this Monday with a day in the office at SocialSquare, where Magnus and I also took the opportunity to talk about Sensemaking, and I handed back the office keys when I left. After work, as mentioned we headed up to Helsingør again for a ‘hyggelig’ dinner with Henriëtte, Thomas and Penny.

Tomorrow is the last full day in Copenhagen after a month that zipped by at high speed, and we’ll be ‘closing down the Copenhagen operation’ as Peter would put it, which includes returning our rented bikes. But not before I meet up with the people behind the Copenhagen bicycle policies at city hall to talk about open data. On Wednesday we’ll drive back home, taking a day to unpack and rest, before I head out to Prague for new open data adventures on Friday. By the end of next week I hope to post some thoughts on how this month-long stay worked out as an experiment.

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CPH Week 3

This week started off on the wrong foot, with high fever and being ill. Which was awful timing as this was also the first week I had a feeling of really being here. Fever was mostly gone by Wednesday, allowing us to take a walk in the sun in the neighbourhood, just in time for the CPH Data Drinks that evening!

The First CPH Data Drinks was an attempt by me to create an informal meet-up place and set a rhythm for open data interested people to come together. It seems to me here in Denmark, while stakeholders are mostly aware of each other they are also organized in little islands. Obviously the interesting stuff happens if those islands get connected a bit more, when people become routinely exposed to what is going on in other areas. So, I was glad that CPH Data Drinks brought together some 30 people! We had a fun evening with lots of conversations, and created a Data Wishlist of data sets participants would like to see published first. The Danish Statistics Office was high on the list. Immediately volunteers stepped forward to organize the next CPH Data Drinks on 28 November, and I will be supporting them with some hands on tips on how to keep things going.

P1020116
The handwritten cards used for input to build the Data Wishlist

The next day I of course had to pay for the previous nights exertions so shortly after a bout of fever. Around mid day we left to explore the city, in particular to visit the Matisse exhibit in the Danish state museum for art, SMK. The exhibition focussed on the repetition and variation in Matisse’s work, which gave some great glimpses into his work flow and methods. Afterwards we strolled back to the city center, and found me a winter coat, just in time as the temperatures are scheduled to drop in the coming days.

Brow and nose, just 1 line

Friday morning I revisited the Social Square offices for the first time in a full week. They hadn’t particularly missed me as the illness that hit me also hit everyone (except one) at the office as well. Over lunch I caught up with Richard Lalleman, discussing culture change and changing deeply entrenched work routines to be able to allow his employer to be better at operating in a networked environment. Not easy when the first response in this global business has been one of control, centralization of authority and standardization. Afterwards I met Elmine at the pleasant PH Cafeen for some tea in the sun.

Chairs Flid
Old chairs, and one of the many examples of signage design on Istedgade

The rest of the afternoon, deciding to work half days for now, Elmine and I explored Istedgade, lined with various small fashion shops (allowing Elmine to run up some credit card transactions), ending with some lovely Thai food and coffee. The evening we spent in Tivoli, which was fully decorated for Halloween. Simply enjoying the stroll through the crowds, taking in the surroundings, and enjoying each others presence.

Apples Halloween at Tivoli
Tivoli Halloween style

Sunshine drew us out of the apartment the next day. Cycling along the water front we went to Christianshavn. We’ve been visiting Copenhagen for 10 years on a regular basis, but had never been to this part of town before. Taking some coffee on the go from Sweet Treat we enjoyed the sun at the edge of the canal, alongside what seemed most of the other people living there. Strolling a little while through Christiania, the old provo-initiated ‘free town’ on the old military grounds, we cycled over the old ramparts ending at a restaurant that couldn’t serve food anymore: the sunshine had apparently unexpectedly brought out much more people, so they ran out. As the ferry across the water was full, and couldn’t take us, we cycled back to the bridge to get us to the other side, and ended up for tea and snacks at the edge of Nørrebro. After a nice dinner at Bibendum (awesome chocolate truffels!) it was time to finally cycle home after a sun filled day.

Christiania Christiania

Christiania Christiania
Some snapshots from Christiania

A lot less sunny Sunday was spend talking and doing some conceptual work on a few open data services, as well as MakerHouseholds.eu. Which brings us to today, where I continued the conceptualizing, as well as started preparing a presentation I will be giving tomorrow.

This coming week is already our last in Copenhagen, and a busy one.

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CPH Week 2

Already the second week has zipped by. Before coming to Copenhagen I had created a list of things I could work on in case of having nothing else to do. Haven’t even looked at the list yet. Still this is the point in the month where I am asking “what am I doing here?”. It seems only now I am winding down from all the stuff that needed to be done and ready to take a look at what lies ahead. With several speaking engagements coming up that is already shaping up.

Tuesday I had a conversation with Jonas Ask Homaa, head developer of Rejseplanen.dk the Danish leading public transport website, whom I met at #hack4dk last week. Main question was how providing open data through their API is helpful to themselves, and what current developments I saw that tie into this. Aspects we discussed, also based on the recent workshop in Helsinki I did last month with the ePSIplatform team, was the European push for intelligent transport systems using open data, being able to use the same app for public transport in different places (in stead of having to download apps for each city I visit), and how with small interventions one can stimulate the ecosystem around you, so that the type of apps may emerge that you will not do yourself as they are outside your core mission.

Dinner that day was enjoyed with lots of stimulating conversation in the good company of Olle and Luisa in Malmö, Sweden. Over loads of veggies, some great venison and ample wine, world domination was discussed, as were internet gentlemen, and the new killerapp: drones serving ‘kapsalon‘ whenever the internet gentleman finds himself getting somewhat peckish. Some shopping got done beforehand, where t-shirts turned out to be a good source of stories.

Being able to join the celebration of the big open data announcement at the Digitalstyrelsen of the Danish government as an outsider on Wednesday was an honor. It also allowed me to (re)connect to various public sector bodies here in Denmark, which resulted in a speaking engagement later this month. It was also good to reaffirm the connection that the Netherlands and Denmark have had in the past years when it comes to learning from each other about organizing and opening up core registers, as well as being able to receive and pass on praise for my colleagues Marc and Udo for their assisting role in motivating this new Danish step.

Early morning conference calls were scheduled on Thursday to further plot open data world domination. In this case I discussed with Frank how we could turn our lessons learned from a recent local government open data project into several products and services. It turned into working out an idea on how to build a new important asset for our little open data company, something I will try and work out in more detail before leaving Copenhagen. This was followed by a conference call on the draft program and speakers list for the February 2013 Conference in Poland me and the ePSIplatform team are organizing.

Resting Buddha
In the Louisiana Museum park

Friday was a day dedicated to absorbing culture, high and low. During the day we visited the truly magnificent Louisiana Museum, as we try to do every time we visit Copenhagen. Three main exhibits, on Nordic architecture, one installation by Ed Kienholz, and a massive exhibition on self portraits by a wide range of artist made for a very intensive visit. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day, so we also very much got to enjoy the museum’s park, right on the coast. In the evening we got ourselves ‘culture kits’ to join ‘Kulturnatten‘ or culture night. One night a year many groups, organizations, institutions, musea, public bodies, stores and whatnot open up to the public. Everybody seemed to be out on the (increasingly cold) streets, enjoying themselves. We strolled into the royal city palace, through Copenhagen city hall, the Arsenal museum and National museum. We also got to see some normally closed inner courtyards of some of the oldest parts of the inner city. Part of the culture kit was not just a free public transport pass for the night, but also a free pass for all the major musea in town. We’ll be using that in the coming days for certain.

CPH City Hall
In Copenhagen City Hall

Late breakfast at home on Saturday morning spilled over into coffee at Pate Pate in the meat packing district, which turned into a very pleasant lunch at Von Fressen catching up with Jon Froda. It was very good to see Jon again and catch up. Afterwards some Saturday shopping before crashing at the apartment. Sunday started as a lazy day, but soon turned into a bedridden day for me with a 39 degrees fever, which turns out to be the case for today as well.

That rounds up the second week in Copenhagen. We met great people, saw cool things, but work-wise I am only now coming around to ‘being here’, in stead of working through a back-log of other things.

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60 Euro For 2 T-Shirts And 1 Story

Yesterday we went to Malmö in Sweden to have dinner with Olle and Luisa, which is the stuff for other legends. We went a bit earlier to do some “Swedification” of my wardrobe.

At some point we found ourselves in a tiny store, called TShirt. The guy running the store (“although it means I don’t get to design that often any more”) told us the story behind it while we were browsing the handful of shelves.

Malmö T-Shirt Store

TShirt is a store and a webstore, and has been around since 2006. Artists from around the world create designs, and those are used on the shirts. The shirts that are made are available in the store for just 1 week, and then the next batch of designs comes in. Every week a new series of designs. The cotton shirts are also fair trade.

The remarks made on the process were telling for where added value is to be found in our networked world, where existing structures fail and become a barrier, and how scaling is done network-wise.

1) Originally the shirts were printed at a large company in Turkey. “We were only a small customer for them”, and there regularly were delays. This did not work well at all with the weekly rhythm of replacing the designs. A week delay means an empty shop. So they switched to a smaller Swedish printer “where we are a much more significant customer”.

2) Artists from around the world can contribute designs to make the shirts, providing them with a stage for their work, and building a high trust network.

3) Getting the Fair Trade label took a very long time: “They are simply not set-up to handle companies like us”, as they are used to much bigger outfits that can handle and work well with the bureaucracy involved in getting the Fair Trade certification.

The two shirts I picked, are ‘Beast‘ by Marcus Pettersson (S) and ‘Streetdreams‘ by Rakesh Makwama (UK)

I left with two shirts for 500 SEK (just under 60 Euro), and a story. The shirts are great, the story to me much more significant.
http://www.zylstra.org/blog/page/2/
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