Why aren’t there more techpolitic attempts in Scandinavia? Why isn’t there a Sunlight Foundation in Denmark, a MySociety in Sweden, a FarmSubsidy in Norway? (This blog post was also posted at Personal Democracy Forum’s European blog) That’s something I’ve been wondering about, since the Scandinavian countries have among the highest internet usage in the world … Continue reading »
Filed under Innovation …
Ten steps to Wiki Government
I’ve been accumulating a blogging backlog throughout this summer – having tons of ideas for blog posts, but little time to write. Well, some of the ideas and insights I wanted to share with you, is a brilliant list written by Beth Simone Noveck. I heard her at the Personal Democracy Forum conference in New … Continue reading »
New site for Europatweets
I wrote recently about how you can follow tweets from politicians in the American Congress, British politicians at Westminister, Swedish politicians at Riksdagen and Danish politicians at Folketinget. Now, you can also follow tweets from MEPs, Members of the European Parliament, created by Belgian Xavier, whom I recently met, and two others. The German politician … Continue reading »
Lessons learned from the Twestival
Another blog in my little mini-series, Social media for social change. The first blog post was about the Twitter storm that hit a small Norwegian school, Moltemyr skole, after some Norwegian Twitter users became aware of some anti-Darwin articles written by one of the school’s science teachers. Social media for social change (or if you … Continue reading »
Tim Berners-Lee and the WWW 20 years later – some images
“Vague, but exciting”. Those were the words Mike Sendhall, Tim Berners-Lee’s boss, used when he commented on Berner-Lee’s proposal for the World Wide Web back in 1989. Well, the celebration of the 20 years old web on Friday at CERN, Geneva/Switzerland was clearly not vague, exciting is a very appropriate word to describe the anniversary. … Continue reading »
The problems with “free” public data in Norway
To make a mashup of public data in Norway sounds like a good idea, but in reality, it is much more complicated. I’ve been involved in an environmental internet project with Edda Media (a fairly large media company in Norway), as well as Sunnmørsposten (a regional newspaper on the west-coast of Norway), and the restricted … Continue reading »
Twestival – social media for social change
Twestival in more than 175 cities all over the world – it is incredible! And all the parties will take place on the same day, this Thursday, Februar 12. I’m part ot the organizing group of the fabulous Brussels Twestival that will be located at Le Botanique. Hurry up and get your tickets! Tweet, meet, … Continue reading »
What they have figured out at the digital Downing Street
Number 10.gov.uk, the British Prime Minister’s website, is apparently doing something right, but what? The reason why I’ve started to look closer at the Number 10 is that this particular website has been mentioned by a few Norwegians involved in politics I’ve talked to lately as an example of a political site that is modern … Continue reading »
Lessons learned from mySociety
I have an article (in Norwegian) about mySociety, eDemocracy, digital tools and how Norwegian politicians are considering using these tools in Magasinet, Dagbladet today. Let me know if you have any opinions on these matters. Talking about mySociety - a Romanian web site about how members of the European Parliament vote (similar to mySociety’s TheyWorkForYou) … Continue reading »
Three social media developments: Bild, European Citizens’ Consultations and Norwegian Facebook debate
Bildt, Germany’s largest newspaper, is partnering up with Lidl to sell cheap digital cameras to citizen journalists; EU has released a new citizen “portal”; Norwegian debate: can journalists be “fan” of politicians on Facebook? Bild wants to expand by using citizen journalists. According to Herald Tribune, potential Bild-citizen journalists can buy a digital camera at … Continue reading »
Europeana’s embarrasing crash
Europeana, Europe’s new digital library, crashed within 24 hours after the release on Nov. 20th. 10 million hits an hour drove the servers to the ground, according to the European Commission. Mona Lisa’s popularity is to blame. According to the website, “Europeana will re-open as soon as possible”, probably in the middle of December, according … Continue reading »
What digital citizens should expect from president Obama
As you probably have understood, I’m quite fascinated by Barack Obama and the new kind of politician he seems to be. I do support several of his policies (green jobs and innovations, better health care/social security in America, get America out of Iran, focus on Afghanistan, multilateral approach, etc), but I also think he’s been … Continue reading »
One week before election 2.0 – new tools
No, I not talking about the upcoming elections in the Czech republic, the Maldives, Lithuania or in Zambia, which are also taking place really soon. I’m talking about “that one”, the American one. I’ve been following the Techpresident for a while, a great read for everyone interested in everything related to politics and technology, and … Continue reading »
The Atheist Bus and the web campaign behind it
A blogger friend of mine, Jon Worth, has been part in kicking off this fantastic campaign in the UK, the Atheist Bus. What started as a wild idea in a Guardian column written by Ariane Sherine (who also has a blog), became realistic after a photoshop mockup and lots of entusiastic pledges in the pledgebank, … Continue reading »
Super duper calculations – the grids are coming
I wrote an article (in Norwegian) about CERN’s Grid (a super network of computers) for Forskning.no earlier this week. This Grid, which is probably the world largest, was built in order to handle and compute the incredible amounts of data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). A short explanation – on the Internet, you can … Continue reading »
Heading for the Girl Geek Dinner
Tomorrow, I’m going to a very exiting event in Ghent, Brussels Girl Geek Dinner. As you can imagine, this is for geeky girls (or maybe girly geeks, since some men are also coming). The blog was created by this geeky woman, Clo Willaert (who has a really cool blog), and the dinner idea was apparently … Continue reading »
New Norwegian blog portal
A Norwegian version of the Swedish blog portal Knuff is out, in beta version – Bloggurat. I’m curious to see if this site will spark the high interest for blogs that Knuff has managed. I did find at least one very interesting piece when I visited Bloggurat, Hjorten‘s beautiful story about meeting people (and the … Continue reading »
My highlights from the Global Investigative Journalism Conference at Lillehammer
I’m back in Brussels after some hectic days at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Lillehammer, Norway. A superb conference with people from more than 80 different nations. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the whole conference, but European Journalism Centre has very thorough notes, a recommended read! It was amazing to hear the … Continue reading »
Funky rap about LHC – the world’s biggest science experiment
September 10th, CERN is switching on the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland for real (they’ve been testing for a long time), but what is actually going on in the 27 km long tunnel underneath Switzerland and France and why is it so extraordinary? What will happen when atoms smash together in the tunnel, how can … Continue reading »
Three media experiments in Wired, Bergens Tidende and BBC
Here are three very interesting media stories/experiments I came across today. The topics differ a lot; traffic, plastic and Charlie Kaufman, but they have a few things in common: telling stories with new tools and open minds: The technology magazine Wired takes us behind the scenes of the making of an upcoming profile on the … Continue reading »
