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Monthly archives: October 2010

Listening and learning at Internetdagarna

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Anna-Karin Hatt, Swedish minister of IT
Anna-Karin Hatt, new Swedish minister of IT. Photo: Daniel Erkstam/Flickr.

Earlier this week, Internetdagarna 2010 (the “Internet days”) took place here in Stockholm. I went there to listen and, hopefully, learn.

Sweden has a new minister of IT, our first with this title as a matter of fact. Previously, the infrastructure minister had been in charge of  IT issues. Anna-Karin Hatt is the name of our new minister and she was a keynote speaker on the second of the two days. Judging by the audience response, what she said was received very positively. She seems to have a good understanding and a keen interest in IT issues, which of course was appreciated by the audience.

The Swedish Internet entrepreneur Jonas Birgersson also spoke. Here’s his performance. At the beginning of the clip, he speaks Swedish, but after four minutes, he switched to English. ”Fiber to all” is the topic.

If you’re interested in how Internet will be used in the future, you may find Jeffery Cole’s speech interesting. If you want to know more about network security, don’t miss Danny McPherson. Or listen to Roger Dingeldine speaking about anti-censorship and transparency. And if you think virtual worlds were totally outdated, you may have to reevaluate after listening to Robin Teigland.

Kajsa

October 29, 2010

Smashing my romantic view of trains

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How much better it is to ride a train, listening to the metallic wagging of the cars along a predetermined stretch of landscape than to fly above ground or drive along a highway. Usually better for the environment, too. But despite the nostalgic conjuring, the relaxing atmosphere and the grand views on offer (or internet access that allows one to stare at a screen instead if one is so inclined), I say enough is enough. Let me give my revised train experience.

I was at the opening ceremony of Uppsala International Short Film Festival last night. During the socializing to follow, the company and drinks were so good I decided to stay an extra hour and take the last train home. I checked the train schedule in a hurry and noted a train scheduled to depart for Stockholm just after 11pm. So I had another drink. It ran a bit late, but I made it to the station. Bought a ticket in the machine by the platform. Climbed on board. All’s well that ends well. But no, the train conductor wouldn’t accept my ticket. Turns out I had bought it in the red machine instead of the blue (or was it the other way around? Either way, the bureaucracy involved felt very Swedish). And that the train I thought I was on only ran Fridays, “clearly marked” in the timetable with an F for Fredag.

So I was on a different train, operated by a different company with their own, different machines outside. I gave the conductor a bit of lip as I dug out my credit card again and paid for train journey that were to involve a change of trains and take twice as long as the one I intended to take. Bah! Trainbug! Good thing Uppsala offered such great entertainment in terms of films and events that I still ended up going to bed in a good mood. Next time, I’ll either take better notice of the fine print in the timetable, or I’ll take my Subaru.

Rikard Lagerberg

October 26, 2010

Film Festival x 2

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Today is the first day of Uppsala Short Film Festival. Chris Gardner blogged about it yesterday, but I think it’s well worth to mention it twice. And if you haven’t checked out Chris blog yet, I strongly recomend you to. Chris will cover Uppsala Short Film Festival the whole week, here in the blog but also on Twitter.

Today is also the beginning of  the Second Annual Film Festival on Watch in cooperation with Uppsala Short Film Festival.  There are eight brand new short films just waiting for you, among them Games starring Ola Rapace and My life as a trailer by Andreas Öhman, the director of Simple Simon.

Still picture from My Life as a Trailer by Andreas Öhman.

Still picture from My Life as a Trailer by Andreas Öhman. Photo: Splinter Arts

The Watch Audience Award 2010 came to its end yesterday. Now we just have to count all the votes (thank you for voting by the way!) and the result will be presented on Friday.

Mikaela

October 25, 2010

What is the symbol of Sweden, really?

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This morning I was working on a text about how the image of Sweden can help Swedish companies around the world to strengthen their brand.  As always there is off course the question how to illustrate.  “Perhaps just a few pictures of the main Swedish symbols”, my colleague said. But what is that?

It’s not the first time I ask myself that question. Many other countries have an extremely strong national symbol which immediately communicates the place we are talking about.

For Denmark it would be the little Mermaid statue, Egypt has the Pyramids, India has Taj Mahal, Australia would probably put the kangaroos up front and Norway takes great pride in their fjords.

But what about Sweden? Would it be the flag, the elk, the city hall, red cottages, the accessible nature or fathers on paternity leave…or something completely different? Suggestions anyone?


/Cecilia

Photos: Per-Ola Wiberg/http://www.flickr.com/photos/powi/3651890469/; Per Dahl/Johnér; Ashraful Kadir/http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashraful/4899220046/in

Cecilia Sundstrand

October 22, 2010

Swedish kids exploring the nature

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Every Sunday morning, a group of excited three and four year olds and their parents meet in the woods behind our village school. We bring backpacks with lunch and something to sit on. Why do we do this? Well, we participate in Skogsmulle (Forest Mulle). Friluftsfrämjandet (Swedish Association for Promotion of Outdoor Life) is the organization behind this and they offer activities with slightly different focus depending on how old the kids are.

Friluftsfämjandet has almost 100 000 members in Sweden and even a few members in other countries. The Japanese Friluftsfrämjandet/Skogsmulle has it’s own website. I don’t understand a single word of it but I definitely recognize Skogsmulle himself in the picture.

Back to our group of Skogsmulle kids. Some of them have been going to Skogsmulle since they were so small they hardly could move around in the forest terrain. They have learned what to do if they get lost in the woods, what wild animals eat and what people can eat and the names of several trees, plants and insects. Once they, with some help from parents and teachers, picked lingon and blueberries and then cooked jam over an open fire.

The focus is on playing and singing and on life’s big questions like: Can you eat ants? How does a pinecone smell? How does it feel to roll around in the autumn leaves?

Finally, when we’re all tired and hungry from exploring the wildlife, we sit down on a log to drink the hot chocolate and eat the sandwiches. Life is good!

Kajsa

October 21, 2010