Hvis du løber Københavns Marathon på søndag 21. maj, har du mulighed for at købe min bog Verdensfortællerne med 20% rabat – såfremt du løber hurtigere end mig.
Hvis du giver mig baghjul, hopper du over på Science Fiction Cirklens bogbestillingsside og indtaster navn, mail og adresse.
I bestillingsfeltet skriver du Verdensfortællerne og dit startnummer. Så tjekker vi, at du vitterligt har været hurtigere end mig.
Du må også gerne skrive hånende ting som “Dan Mygind er for sløv” eller lignende, hvis du absolut føler en trang til at hovere. Jeg kan tage det – tror jeg nok.
Jeg er ikke sportsidiot!
Hvis du ikke løber marathon, har du mulighed for at købe Verdensfortællerne med 20% rabat, hvis du møder op hos Arnold Busck, Købmagergade 49, København fredag 19. maj mellem 14 – 17. Der vil jeg signere bøger, tage selfies med glade bogkøbere og endda uddele engelske vingummier og lakridser!
Kom frisk og glad forbi!
P.S. Desværre kan jeg ikke udskænke vin eller alkohol i Arnold Busck grundet bevillingsregler, men hvis du køber 5 eksemplarer eller flere af Verdensfortællerne, så smider jeg en kop kaffe fra Arnold Buscks egen RESSO kaffebar med i købet uden beregning 🙂
Ja, jeg ved; jeg er meget generøs.
Lørdag 6. maj holdt jeg bogreception for Verdensfortællerne i Valby Kulturhus. Salget gik så strygende, at forlagsredaktøren måtte hente flere eksemplarer fra boglageret.
Tak til alle jer der mødte op og gjorde dagen til en succes.
Verdensfortællerne drager ud i verden
Jeg vågnede op den næste morgen til nedenstående syn.
Verdensfortællerne er på vej ud i verden!
Første oplag svinder hurtigt ind, så hvis du vil have et første oplags-eksemplar, skal du hurtigst muligt hoppe over på Science Fiction Cirklens hjemmeside og bestille bogen.
“Mød forfatteren”-arrangement i Arnold Busck
Hvis du gerne vil have et signeret eksemplar, kan du møde op i Arnold Buscks hovedbutik på Købmagergade 49 i Købenahvn fredag 19. maj mellem kl. 14 og 17.
Der vil jeg sidde/stå og besvare spørgsmål samt signere bogen. Måske vil jeg endda løbe lidt (mere om det i en senere blog).
Hvis du inden da vil høre lidt mere om, hvad Verdensfortællerne handler om, kan du læse mere her.
Du kan også aflytte(!) Radio24syvs Aflyttet-udsendelse, hvor jeg interviewes om bogen.
Interviewet kan du høre her.
Det blev et godt interview, ikke mindst takket være intervieweren Anders Kjærulff.
Anders spurgte, hvem Verdensfortællerne er og jeg svarede, at det er journalister, forfattere og i princippet alle, der fortæller historier til hinanden.
Jeg fik ikke den vigtige tilføjelse med, at der er folk, der anvender fortællinger meget bevidst til at forme vores virkelighedsopfattelse. Det sker med propaganda, fake news, marketing, psy-ops og andre klasiske propaganda-discipliner.
Baserer sig på virkelige begivenheder Den slags har jeg skrevet om i en række journalistiske artikler til Prosabladet.
Fredag 5. maj udkom Prosabladet med et tema om, hvordan propaganda-discipliner og psykologisk profilering anvendes på sociale medier som Facebook.
Det er rendyrket journalistik, hvor jeg blandt andet opsporer manden, der indsamlede Facebook-data fra 50 millioner amerikanere og solgte data til Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica anvender personprofilering og hjalp blandt andet Trump med at blive amerikansk præsident
Det er den slags virkelige hændelser, som har været med til at inspirere min bog. Ligesom de mystiske dødsfald blandt krypteringseksperter, journalister og it-folk, vi nævner i Radio24syv-interviewet. Bogen tager udgangspunkt i virkelige begivenheder og får så et ordentligt skud fantasi, så Verdensfortællerne bliver en spændende og højaktuel roman, der udspiller sig i den nære fremtid.
Jeg håber vi ses i Arnold Busck, Købmagergade 41 på fredag 19. maj kl. 14 – 17.
Min roman Verdensfortællerne præsenteres på den årlige Dancon science fiction festival, der afholdes 6 – 7. maj kl. 10.30 – 17.30 i Valby Kulturhus.
Der er gratis adgang, så kom glad forbi!
Jeg vil være til stede om lørdagen, hvor der vil være en uformel reception for bogen.
En højaktuel fremtidsroman
Romanen tager fat på nogle højaktuelle emner i en medrivende og spændende historie om whistleblowers, fake news, mediemanipulation, internet-censur, overvågning og hemmelige tjenester. Der er tale om en højaktuel fremtidsroman, da handlingen udspiller sig i den nære fremtid
Vandt forlagskontrakt i romankonkurrence Romanen vandt en forlagskontrakt i Science Fiction Cirklens store romankonkurrence i 2016, hvor forlagsredaktøren betegnede romanen som en techno-thriller.
Her er en kort beskrivelse af handlingen, der forhåbentlig ikke røber for meget.
Hukommelsestab, Verdensfortællere og mord
Christian vågner en morgen og har tilsyneladende mistet sin hukommelse. Da han finder manuskriptet til Verdensfortællerne, genvinder han langsomt hukommelsen og begynder at stykke sin fortid sammen.
En mystisk forlagsredaktør samt en teknologiskeptisk og kulturelt indflydelsesrig aktivistbevægelse er blot nogle af aktørerne i et sælsomt hændelsesforløb, hvor manuskriptet for Verdensfortællerne spiller en central rolle.
Manuskriptet er inspireret af virkelige hændelser, hvor journalister, krypteringseksperter og sikkerhedsfolk på mistænkelig vis er omkommet, tilsyneladende som følge af ulykker og selvmord. Men er det hele sandheden? Og hvem er de ukendte kræfter som er meget interesserede i at få fingre i manuskriptet?
Da en whistleblower med aktivisternes hjælp afslører en hidtil ukendt teknologi, bliver Christian hvirvlet ind i begivenheder, hvor de ukendte kræfter ikke viger tilbage for mord for at få fat på teknologien og Verdensfortællernes hemmeligheder.
På en hæsblæsende rejse gennem flere lande, drømme, religioner og tilsyneladende alternative virkeligheder må Christian konfrontere sin egen dystre fortid, inden han – og læseren – bringes nærmere en forklaring samt en forståelse for, hvordan menneskers bevidsthed kan manipuleres.
Håber du er blevet nysgerrig.
Forhåbentlig ses vi 6. maj i Valby Kulturhus til en snak om bøger, Verdensfortællere og bevidsthedsmanipulation.
I have been so lucky – and apparently good enough – to win a publishing contract for my novel Verdensfortællerne (World Narrators). I entered a writing competition by The Danish publisher Science Fiction Cirklen and was told recently that they want to publish my book late Spring/early Summer next year.
The commissioning editor describes it as a techno-thriller which is probably a good description of a story based on real world events and then turned into a (hopefully very) thrilling and entertaining story taking place in the near future.
One of the themes of the book is how our world view is constructed by the stories and narratives we are fed from the press, films, magazines, social media and not at least books.
Fiction Meets Reality
As we can see from yesterday’s interesting research from Bureau of Investigative Journalism in cooperation with The Sunday Times and the Daily Beast there’s an awful lot of money being spent on controlling the official narrative of wars.
In Verdensfortællerne I write about how PR companies cooperates with governments to persuade a reluctant population to embrace unnecessary wars and how media manipulation is used to smear activists and dissidents.
My book is a science fiction story with an alternative narrative to the official one.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s work in cooperation with The Sunday Times and the Daily Beast is pure reporting of the facts.
Fiction meets Reality.
Cars with internet access are part of the drive(!) towards self-driving cars
I have just finished a series of articles about (internet-)connected cars and autonomous (selfdriving) cars which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Danish IT-magazine Prosabladet.
As usual after a long period of research, interviews and writing I have too much material and feel an urge to offload a bit. So here goes…
What struck me most about connected cars is the inherent vulnerabilities in a car’s Controller Area Network (CAN).
(Don’t worry, I had no idea either what CAN was before I started my research, so hang on.)
CAN is a network that connects all the different Electronic Control Units (ECU) that control most aspects of a modern car; engine, transmission, brakes, locks, lights, aircon, airbag and so on.
The ECU’s are connected via the CAN so that they can communicate with each other. That is quite handy if you for instance would like to shut off the fuel pump after an accident in order to avoid a fire.
If the airbags are deployed, the airbag-ECU will tell the engine-ECU:
“”Hey, we had an accident, please shut off the fuel pump.”
This is a Good Idea™.
The CAN is designed in such a way so that the engine-ECU doesn’t know who is asking for the fuel pump to be shut offand the engine-ECU isn’t bothered about asking. For efficiency reasons this is still a good idea; when you don’t have to ask who is making the request you can shut off the fuel pump much quicker.
This is not such a good idea when we are now in the year 2016 and we have connected different things to the CAN; things that can be accessed from the internet.
Suddenly it is a Bad Idea™ just to obey whoever is asking us to shut off the fuel pump or de-activate the brakes or give more throttle or …
To get an idea about what the consequences are, watch this video:
The hackers used a vulnerability in the Jeep’s Uconnect system to get access to CAN and this vulnerability has been patched since then. So don’t worry if you have a Jeep Cherokee or another car with the Uconnect system. The Uconnect vulnerability has been removed and you should be safe.
What has not been removed is the inherent vulnerabilities in the underlying CAN.
For my Prosabladet-articles I spoke, amongst others, to one of the most experienced security researchers/hackers when it comes to embedded systems and car security, Karl Koscher.
He and his colleague, Ian Foster, describes how CAN works in details and the inherent vulnerabilities in their excellent paper “Exploring Controller Area Networks” from December last year.
The CAN was originally designed in the 1980’s so we can’t really blame the CAN-designers for a bad design. Internet-connected cars was not something you would think about in the 1980’s or at the beginning of the 1990’s when CAN was revised and released in a version 2.
The thing is, at the moment we are connecting a lot of internet-connected devices directly/indirectly to the CAN via On-Board Diagnostics (OBD)-dongles, head unit systems as Uconnect and mobile apps. Some by car manufacturers, some by third parties such as insurance companies. Karl Koscher suggested that all the entry points should be hardened and made more secure in adition to a mandated security-by-design approach for all development in the car industry.
But does CAN really fit into a security-by-design approach?
Alistair Cockburn identifies the essential agile activities in this “Heart of Agile”-model. The model complements the Agile Manifesto’s values
Alistair Cockburn was one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto which changed the system development process in IT.
Last month it was 15 years ago that 17 IT-professionals had passionate discussions about how to make better software in The Lodge at the Snowbird ski resort in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah.
The essence of the discussions was condensed in these elegant sentences:
“We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more”
As it happens so often with a good idea, the original clarity can get muddied over the years.
Alistair told me recently in an interview that he visited a company that had a 90 pages introduction to the agile concept. So the agile concept had somehow turned into a rigid, comprehensive documentation orientated exercise. In the most recent edition of Prosabladet (page 28 – 30), Alistair explains how we can rediscover the essence of agile and get to the heart of agile.
Politicians love dissidents and whistleblowers who are promoting democracy, transparency and the fight against corruption.
As long as the dissidents live in foreign countries.
Problems here? – What’s your ulterior motives for saying that?
When dissidents and whistleblowers turn a critical eye on our own democracies’ failings, politicians tend to question the dissidents’ motives, focus on the dissidents’ personal antics and while ignoring the message, trying to shoot the messengers.
The message from whistleblowers and dissidents is not that surprising: Our society has faults and shortcomings.
Every society have.
That’s a message the press in their traditional role as the fourth estate should be happy to support in order to ensure and improve a democratic society.
Unfortunately, this is seldom the case if the criticism goes to the heart of our society and reveals some truly dark sides.
The ugly truth
Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are two dissidents who have exposed some of the inner workings of our democracies that look truly ugly when exposed to the light of transparency.
Mass surveillance of innocent citizens, high level bribery, war crimes, kidnapping to torture and other serious issues that the powers that be would prefer is not known and not discussed by the general public.
My God, there’s a risk an enlightened public who know what is actually happening behind closed doors would demand changes.
Therefore, ministers have to lie about these things and the media should be kept in check by all means, so they don’t report them. Refering to the “security of the state” is always a way to persuade media organisations to not report on the inconvenient truths.
Failing that, you must resort to smear the messenger. This has two purposes:
1. Divert attention from the real issue(s)
2. Undermine trust in the messenger and subsequently in the evidence. If somebody are still paying attention to the real issue, the messenger’s arguments and evidence can more easily be dismissed. “They don’t know what they are talking about!” or “He’s a lying rapist, don’t believe him!”
A Lying Foreign Secretary (I can prove it; it’s not a smear:-)
Friday 5th of February we experienced how the latest inconvenient truth was damage controlled in the United Kingdom by lying politicians and a complacent media.
It all happened when the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, had been arbitrarily detained by United Kingdom and Sweden since 7. December 2010.
“I reject the decision of this working group. It is a group made up of lay people and not lawyers and their conclusion is flawed in law“, was the reply from UK’s foreign secretary Philip Hammond.
This is a lie.
Just check the CV’s of the working group’s members.
For good measure, Mr. Hammond added that the Working Group’s conclusion “was ridiculous”.
He did not substantiate that claim.
The British media could have used the 10 seconds it takes to find out that Mr. Hammond was lying about the Working Group.
They didn’t.
The British media could have challenged Mr. Hammond’s asserton that the conclusion “was flawed in law” and “ridiculous”.
They didn’t.
Instead they regurgitated the lie and followed up with other attempts to shoot the messenger. So the public was left with the impression that the UN Working Group “don’t know what they are talking about”.
If you can’t win with facts… The very day the Working Group published their report, the UK media started what appeared as an orchestrated smear campaign. A truly bizarre example of the ad hominem attacks was an article in The Times Friday 5th February. A bit more than half the article is devoted to undermine the authority of the Working Group’s members. Despite Mr. Hammond’s claim, there is nothing about the members’ legal expertise that can be questioned, so the journalist tries to find some other personal shortcomings. You can almost sense how the journalist is grasping for straws:
One panel member, professor Roland Adjovi, “get mad when you don’t know things” and “he cared more about whether I was learning than grades” according to student reviews of the professor’s teaching. Maybe the journalist was subconsciously aware that the good professor Adjovi would be mad at the journalist for that poorly attempt at writing a hit piece.
Another panel member “glamourises cannabis” and “campaigns for an end to the prohibition of drugs in Latin America.”
What this has to do with José Guevara’s expertise in international law and arbitrary detention is not clear. Maybe the reader is supposed to envision the panel member sitting with a big joint while pondering the Assange case?
To imprint that visual image in the reader, the journalist resorts to write about how José Guevara’s has retweetet a tweet by a celebrity who apparently endorses cannabis. Again, how a retweet of a celebrity’s view on cannabis can say anything about José Guevara’s legal expertise is not clear at all.
And so it goes on.
UK in company with Iran and North Korea
At the very end of the piece is a quote from the Norwegian Mads Andenæs, the former chair of the group, and a well reputed Professor in Law with an impressive legal background. He states that Sweden and UK “have to comply with the ruling, that’s what international law requires.”
“Neither Sweden nor Britain would want to be seen as the sort of nations that have ignored these rulings, such as North Korea, Venezuela and Iran.”
Now it’s getting interesting, but then the article ends with a remark, that the Foreign Office and Metropolitan Police will still detain and extradite Mr. Assange if he leaves the Embassy.
The rest of the press, including The Guardian who previously had been working together with Julian Assange in publishing stories based on leaked documents, followed up with ad hominem attacks and not much substance. An extreme example is Marina Hyde’s article. Here are statements like “…my sense is that the finest legal minds are not drawn to UN panels as a career path” and “Given the UN panel is made up entirely of academics, seemingly devoid of judicial experience, nor any in either public international law or asylum/refugee law, its institutional competence verges on the intriguing.” Marina is famous for her sarcastic wit and she can Hyde (Sorry, couldn’t resist) behind that, but contrast her statements with these from the Working Group members’ CV’s: “has extensive practical experience in the area of human rights and international criminal law.”, “On the human rights campaign front, he has been actively engaged in the advocacy activities, over the last 20 years”, “She has gained extensive experience in leading and working in field-based missions”, ” has an extensive practical experience in international criminal justice and is an expert in jurisprudence of the international criminal tribunals and courts”. Even a sarcastic opinion piece should have the basic facts right. It would have been brave – and real journalism – if Mrs. Hyde had exposed Mr. Hammond’s lies.
Working Group under pressure from US and UK
It would also had been more interesting if the media had followed up on the allegation that the Working Group was put under extreme pressure by the US and the UK government (yes, that is from The Guardian’s live blog, but that extraordinarily claim was never followed up) to reach a conclusion favouring the 2 countries. Noone to my knowledge did that.
I have and I will return to that in a future post..
“But, he’s a rapist!” The thing is, these lies and misinformation that a complacent media is peddling is feeding the public with misconceptions. Many intelligent people who follows current news have the impression that Julian Asange is a rapist.
He is not.
He is not even charged with rape.
He is wanted for questioning about a case that involves a burst condom and two of his lovers, who felt betrayed(double-timed) by Julian Assange.
Not exactly the hardcore rapist that the media wants to portray him as; more a lousy lover…
The case was not surprisingly dismissed by the Swedish prosecutor, but when another prosecutor, Marianne Ny, stepped in, the ongoing farce started.
Please question me Julian Assange had been questioned once about the case. When Marianne Ny restarted the case 1. Septembeer 2010, Julian Assange and his lawyers repeatedly asked to be interviewed again. This was refused many times by Marianne Ny.
See “Agreed Statement of Facts and Issues” below.
After repeatingly asking to be interviewed, Julian Assange asks in writing the 14. September 2010 if he can leave Sweden. He is informed the next day that he is free to leave Sweden.
On the 27. September Marianne Ny decides Julian Assange should be arrested. At this time Julian Assange is in England. Julian Assange suggests he can come to Sweden Sunday 10. October or any day in the week commencing 11. October. This is rejected by Marianne Ny.
During October and November, Julian Assange and his lawyers suggests many different ways to do carry out the questioning; phone, videolink, in London. All proposals declined by Marianne Ny.
On the 26. November Marianne Ny issues an European Arrest Warrant for Julian Assange.
What the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is saying is, that the Swedish prosecutor has been procrastrinating the investigation for more than five years. She has repeatedly refused to interview Julian Assange, both in Sweden, in England and over phone or videolink.There is no proportionality in the investigation method and treatment administered by the UK and Swedish and the potential crime. Read the Working Group’s analysis and conclusion of the case. The reason why Julian Assange refuses to leave the Ecuadorean embassy is that he fears he will be extradited to the US via Sweden.
A lying Danish Justice Minister and a forced landing of a Presidential plane This is not a far-fetched paranoid fantasy. The very same day the Working Group’s conclusion was published, the Danish Justice Minister, Søren Pind, had to admit he had been lying to the Danish Parliament.
The lie?
Denying that a Gulfstream plane, previously used to kidnap people, was waiting in Copenhagen Airport from 25. June 2013 at the time another messenger of inconvenient truths, Edward Snowden, was hunted all over the world. Edward Snowden leaked documents documenting the world wide mass surveillance and hacking by the NSA and GCHQ. The Danish Justice Minister had previously denied that Denmark was cooperating in the man hunt.
We also know that the Bolivian President’s plane in July 2013 was forced to land in Vienna because the European airspace was closed for the presidential plane as the Americans believed Snowden was onboard. Despite the anticipated huge diplomatic fallout, the Europeans and Americans deemed it worth to do it.
When I have used the term shoot the messenger I haven’t meant it literally. But there are plenty of people with power, who have suggested that Assange should be killed as the video below documents. By the way; Assange has not broken any American law.
So there are numerous reasons why Julian Assange should be cautious.
The media manipulation paid off
Given the media blitz where facts were scarce, but lies, misinformation and smear were dominant, it is not a surprise that a poll Wednesday 10 February showed that the majority of Brits supported Mr. Hammonds false assessment of the UN Working Group and it’s conclusion. The British people’s negative impression of Mr. Assange had also increased. Some years ago a similar media manipulation in the US managed to convince the american population that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). That media campaign was so efficient that even in 2006, 3 years after the invasion had led to zero evidence of WMD, half of the american population believed that Iraq actually had WMD’s. When you only see the headlines and hear the soundbites, you are easily manipulated. Especially when the media is not doing their job and just repeats the misinformation instead of challenging people with power and a hidden agenda.
We know now that the WMD used as an excuse for the Iraq War was a lie.
The consequences of Mr. Hammond’s lie is not as severe as the Iraq War lies, but nevertheles, it shapes the public opinion of an important matter.
The lies and misinformation in this case will also be exposed for what they are. It will just take some time, but the truth is already getting out that the Working Group’s conclusion is sober and based on law.
Rite of Spring af Stravinsky. Hver enkelt musikers instrument er forbundet til laserlys. Hybrid af musik og kunst-installation af James Alliban i samarbejde med North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra
I sidste uge besøgte en række danske journalister London for at høre, hvordan medieorganisationer som The Guardian og Time Out; kulturinstitutioner som V&A Museum og The Royal Opera House samt musikere og uafhængige kunstnere anvender forskellige digitale teknologier og platforme til at nå ud til og engagere deres pulikum.
Besøget var et led i kursuset “Digital Medieudvikling og kultur i verdensklasse”, som jeg havde arrangeret sammen med Lars Kabel fra Danmarks Medie- og Journalisthøjskole.
Journalisten som kurator
Joanna Zylinska, professor i medier og kommunikation fra Goldsmiths, University of London, startede med at sætte rammerne for kurset mandag eftermiddag og fortalte blandt andet om journalistens rolle som kurator.
Som eksempel på et projekt hvor eksisterende indhold – i dette tilfælde billeder – bliver sat sammen i en ny engagerende fortælling, fortalte Joanna om Photomediations – et publiceringsprojekt baseret på offentligt tilgængeligt billedmateriale :
Photomediations har hentet sine mange billeder fra Europeana og andre open source repositories.Europeana er et digitalt skatkammer af europæiske kultur-historie. I sin præsentation nævnte Joanna også, at journalisten skal iklæde sig rollen som “director of attention”, hvilket var lettere ironisk, da ingen af de tilstedeværende kursister havde hørt om Europeana. Måske mangler Europeana journalister til at henlede opmærksomheden på de mange kulturskatte? (For de teknisk interesserede; data fra Europeana kan tilgås via et REST-api og et mere eksperimentielt api baseret på SPARQL. se mere her)
Journalisten som event-mager En anden af Joanna Zylinska’s pointer er, at journalister skal være med til at skabe events med relevans for journalistens målgruppe. Rollen som kurator og event-mager blev bekræftet ved vores besøg til The Guardian og Time Out. Begge mediehuse anvender digitale platforme som Twitter, Instagram, Flickr og Facebook til at inddrage læserne i den journalistiske proces. Det kan ske digitalt som ved The Guardians Witness-projekt eller Time Out’s Love London-event. Love London gav 60.000 unikke bidrag og gav Time Out input om London-områder, som deres redaktion på 30+ personer ikke har tid til at dække. Det hele kulminerede med en fysisk event, som var med til at brande Time Out som mediet, der også interesserer sig for de hyperlokale London-områder.
Ikke klik for enhver pris, men kvalitet og engagement
En event/artikel skal ikke nødvendigvis generere tusindvis af henvendelser. Ligesom der er forskel på tusindvis af klik fra flygtige læsere, der hurtigt forlader et site og nogle få kvalitets-klik fra læsere der bliver hængende i lang tid, så gør det samme sig gældende når det kommer til læser-engagement. En uforpligtende kommentar smidt i en artikels kommentar-felt er mindre værd end et læserbidrag, hvor læseren har taget sig tid til at tage billeder og beskrive sin kærlighed til eksempelvis biblioteker. The Guardian’s community editor for Arts and Culture Marta Bausells fortalte om Love Letters to Libraries-projektet. Det gav 129 bidrag fra biblioteks-elskende Guardianistas, hvilket ikke er meget taget The Guardians globale engelsk-sprogede læserskare i betragtning. Men breve og tilhørende billeder fra de 129 bidragydere havde høj kvalitet og gav mulighed for at profilere The Guardian i det kultur-segment.
Både The Guardian og Time Out er tilstede på en mængde forskellige digitale platforme som Twitter, Instagram, Flickr og Facebook. Det handler om, at journalister skal være tilstede, hvor publikum er.
Gamle kunstformer på digitale platforme
The Royal Opera House er et eksempel på en kulturinstitution, som lægger stor vægt på at komme deres nuværende og ikke mindst kommende publikum i møde på de digitale platforme. Sociale medier udnyttes til at skabe en digital tilstedeværelse for gamle kunstformer som opera og ballet og da The Royal Opera House har sit eget produktionsstudio, giver det mulighed for at lave digitalt indhold af høj kvalitet. Eksempelvis til operaens egen Youtube-kanal
Det er ikke kun små, korte promotion-videoer, men også deciderede feature-længde videoer som nedenstående video, der undersøger, hvordan opera påvirker komikerne Stephen Fry og Alan Davies. TL;DR: Deres hjerter begynder at slå i takt og opera-novicen Alan Davies har den mest voldsomme fysiske reaktion.
Håndholdt begejstring
Fortvivl ikke, hvis du ikke lige har dit eget produktionsstudio eller adgang til celebrities. Du behøver ikke at skabe en poleret video som ovenstående for at få gennemslagskraft på de digitale platforme.
Som du kan se i nedenstående video, brænder Theresa Walsh igennem på sin StitchlessTV Youtube-kanal med sin store passion for syning. “Syningens Jamie Oliver” fortalte om, hvordan hun startede med at lave små 30 minutters videoer om at sy og hendes brændende engagement fik mange kursister til at overveje at gå igang med at sy (igen)!
Hvordan ser backstage ud?
The Royal Opera House anvender også den håndholdte passion til at engagere ballet-interesserede. Ballerinaen Olivia Grace Cowley bruger sin twitter-konto @damegrace til at give et indblik i balletdansernes ofte knap så glamourøse arbejdsliv.
Hun har allerede mere end 4000 Twitter-følgere, der er interesserede i at høre mere om, hvordan livet egentlig er som balletdanser. Det er med til at gøre ballet mere tilgængelig for mange mennesker og er samtidig del af en udvikling, hvor processen er (ligeså?) interessant som det færdige produkt.
Alternativ kunst og miljø i en globaliseret verden
Tirsdag aften tog vi ud til øst-London for at se på street art. Vi havde en fantastisk guide i form af Ben Slow, som selv laver Stret Art.
Ben Slow er også passioneret fortaler for at bevare de gamle, interessante områder af London. Områder som Brick Lane, der ikke er strømlinet som City of London, men som er en vigtig del af London’s historie. Mange af stederne med fantastisk street art vil i de kommende måneder blive revet ned og erstattet af den globale fantasiløse storby-arkitektur. Ben forsøger at holde liv i London’s historie, blandt andet ved at portrættere folk fra lokalområderne. Her er hans portræt af 94-årige Charlie Burns, der levede hele sit liv i Brick Lane.
Det interessante ved street art er, at meget af det bliver overmalet efter blot nogle få uger, men lever videre i en eller anden digital form. Hvis det da ikke er blevet solgt for et par millioner kroner eller mere inden da…
London: Musik Mekka
London er centrum for den globale musikindustri og vi havde fornøjelsen af at have Adam Royal fra Toast Press til at fortælle om, hvordan han anvender digitale platforme til at promovere musik og skabe digitale interesefællesskaber for kunstnere. Adam Royal arbejder med kunstnere som Florence & the Machine, Haim, The Prodigy og andre bands. Kendte bands promoveres oftest via traditionelle medier som landsdækkende radio/tv/print og globale digitale musiksites som iTunes/Spotify (I sidste uge blev Kendrick Lamar’s Pimp a Butterfly ved et rent (marketing?)-tilfælde frigivet tidligere end beregnet og slog alle Spotify-rekorder). Er der derimod tale om ukendte kunstnere, handler det om at få dem omtalt på de mest indflydelserige websites, hvilket ofte ikke er sites med de flest besøgende. Her dukkede temaet kvalitet kontra kvantitet op igen. Det var spændende at høre om, hvordan nye, ukendte artister via små, men indflydelsesrige blogs og websites som Gorilla vs Bear og Pitchfork langsomt kan diffundere gennem musikkens økosystem og blive store stjerner. Så er du interesseret i musik, så hold øje med de sites og gå på opdagelse på Soundcloud, der længe har været musikernes foretrukne sted at uploade deres musik.
Interaktiv kunst Den interaktive designer og kunstner James Alliban slog benene væk under os. Jeg vil ikke bruge mange pixels på at beskrive hans arbejde, men blot lade et par af hans værker tale for ham.
(For de teknisk interesserede; James koder i C++ og anvender open source tool kittet openFramework)
Den vilde, smukke designer
Vi endte onsdagen med at besøge V&A Museum, hvor danske Louise Rytter har været med til at opsætte udstillingen Savage Beauty baseret på designeren Alxander McQueens arbejde. På mange måder var det besøg med til at understrege mange af de pointer, som forskellige oplægsholdere og besøg på kurset havde givet os. Louise Rytter er uddannet mode-journalist fra det prestigefyldte Central St. Martins College of Art and Design og arbejder i dag som research assistant for V&A Museum. Hun har ageret som kurator og event-mager i forbindelse med at stable udstillingen på benene. Takket være en ihærdig indsats fra Karin Gråbæk fik vi fik helt ekstraordinært adgang til udstillingen som ellers er udsolgt mange måneder frem.
Jeg har lige været i DR P1 lørdag morgen og fortælle om den brtitiske furore over globale selskabers undgåelse af at betale selskabsskat i Storbritannien.
Som sædvanlig var der ikke tid til at nå alt jeg havde forberedt, så her er lidt mere.
Jeg fik mest talt med vært Jan Falkentoft om Starbucks, men de fleste globale selskaber benytter sig af diverse – lovlige – skattemetoder til at minimere eller helt fjerne nødvendigheden af at betale selskabsskat.
Her er et par links til skriverier i den britiske presse, der nævner Amazon, Microsoft, Google og Vodafone som skatteundvigere.
Jeg kan specielt godt lide Googles Double Irish og Dutch Sandwich. Det lyder som noget man kan bestille hos Starbucks, men er betegnelser for skattemetoder som anvendes til at minimere eller helt eliminere selskabsskat for de globale selskaber.
Afrundingen på indslaget blev lidt abrupt. Jeg fik ikke sagt, at det er en balancegang for den britiske finansminister George Osborne. Han vil gerne ride med på en folkestemning, der kræver, at globale selskaber betaler mere i skat, så han kan få flere penge i statskassen, men samtidig vil han heller ikke skræmme virksomhederne væk.
Samtidigt presses han af repræsentanter for små og mellemstore britiske virksomheder til at gå hårdere til værks over for de store multinationale selskaber. De britiske virksomheder, der ikke har de globale selskabers mulighed for at rykke rundt på penge mellem forskellige lande-divisioner, ser det som unfair konkurrence, da de skal betale fuld virksomhedsskat, mens de globale selskaber kan undgå det.
Hvordan mon det ser ud i Danmark, når det kommer til globale selskabers skatteforhold?
Jeg blev glad, da mine bøger Bevidsthedsterror, Kend din målgruppe, Christians København og Det transparente samfund udkom i går på Riidr.
Jeg blev stolt, da Riidr valgte at sætte Bevidsthedsterror i fokus netop nu.
Jeg glæder mig til at stifte bekendtskab med Riidrs læsere.