Concept Development

What's in the box?

2009-04-01T14:02:00.000+02:00

What's in the box?
http://www.whatsinthebox.nl/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU_reTt7Hj4

Do you know what's in your knickers?

2009-04-01T13:28:00.001+02:00

Working 8 Hours Overtime

2009-03-27T12:55:00.003+01:00

Today is the day. On 17:30 the doors of Hangar 36 will open for those who participate in 8UO *which stands for ' 8 uur overwerken'-translated working 8 hours overtime... *.

The alderman of culture and finance will open the event, followed by the foundations presenting their 'case'. The goal is to work 8 hours overtime (charity); Solving a problem where the foundation in question, is dealing with... Presentations afterwards are given in the night around 1/2 pm...

8UO is given now for the Third time in The Hague, and works alongside the Delft Centre for Entrepreneurship (TU Delft, university), and is a project of the ' Nieuwe Garde ' -New Guard (http://www.nieuwegarde.nl).

The assignments are diverse into thinking of a commercial to whole promotional campaigns... participating foundations are amongst others; the red cross, the richard krajieck foundation, KNCV tuberculosis foundation, andPrinses Beatrix foundation.

For more information go to:

http://www.achtuuroverwerken.nl/

tags: #8UO #achtuuroverwerken #nieuwegarde #NG achteruuroverwerken acht uur overwerken 8uo 8UO nieuwe garde binck36 hangar36 binckhorstlaan

Did You Know...

2009-03-01T12:54:00.000+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8

Eneco Internship

2009-02-02T11:22:00.004+01:00

Today I have officialy started my Internship at Eneco. I will be doing research, work out marketing plans, and writing my thesis on creating more support for wind energy...

Last year I won 2nd prize in battle of concepts, with a concept called Windy Windmill. Till now I have been several times active in communication with Eneco, which resulted in an internship!

Friday Morning Evaluation

2009-02-01T11:06:00.000+01:00

Within the minor Concept Development I had to specify my learning goals using the Smarties procedure, which comes from the SMART abbreviation often used within concept development. The three letters added stands for inspiring, effort and ‘solution’.

The personal learning goals I wanted to work on were:
- Time for Creativity
- Deal with Handicap
- Listening & Understanding

See also this page

Evaluation:

Making choices is probably one of the most hardest things in life. In the following text I will try to explain the following choices I had to make, and evaluate the concept development lessons in general ( I will try to give some good feedback) as well as reflecting on my personal learning goals which we made at the beginning.

At first I would like to start off with that I enjoyed the Friday morning specification Concept Development a lot, inspiring, exploring and growing all the time. The lessons given put me in order, reflected my beliefs, made me think twice, made me think different, put out my weaknesses, and I think most important; putting out my strong points; finding out, confronting and confirming what I’m good at, and what I would like to do.

Doing that, and reflecting those with my personal learning goals I have to admit I have on one hand severely lacked following my goals, on the other hand I made major improvements.

Firstly, I have to say that making more time for creativity comes, I guess, in phases. I know until where I can go, and now I think I can be creative in all kinds of ways, or at least putting my creativity in multiple things. Though this changed already while doing my internship in a foreign country, which obviously changed my perspective on things a lot. But I think this perspective has been broadened, even more important; made more of use now. For instance within brainstorm sessions I noticed I can think extremely ‘out of the box’ but also function as a great mediator, and afterwards reflecting neutrally. Setting up documents, giving structure, convincing and making other people enthusiastic, taking leadership, taking initiatives, empathic values, and looking for opportunities, are competencies that I believe has been improved a lot.

I know now that my strong points within this work field came from concept development, participating and guiding the beginning starting until the part where it comes in the hands of product realization. Open minded and idealistic, but also rational and realistic. Reflecting this personal goal negatively I can’t see I made ‘extra’ time. I think I can only make it more efficient, and using it in an other way. Which brings me to combining this with dealing with a handicap that I can see now is nothing more than my body telling me to spent my time differently.

Listening and Understanding is something I really worked on a lot, and to be completely honest I sometimes still lack in concentrating on people, though towards colleagues and clients I continuously try to evaluate and asses the team working, improving working with other people all the time.

NNSafe (2)

2009-01-29T10:47:00.002+01:00

Third place we ended, in the online battle, but today we achieved the 'best presentation' - prize on presenting our concept at Nationale Nederlanden HQ in Rotterdam!

We had developed a concept called NNsafe for an insurance company called Nationale Nederlanden. Customer insights of current and future customers is essential to deliver high quality service. Our concept focuses on risk prediction of future customers, based on the behaviour of current customers. With this concept we ranked third on the Battle of Concepts website. See also my previous post about NNSafe !

VOIZ Politics Discussion Platform

2009-01-20T10:38:00.005+01:00

Wouldn't it be cool if you could see the plans and steps of your local city district - government? Wouldn't it be cool if you could interact with those plans, create some bonding, interaction with civilians, participating in and with your environment.
Last friday we have presented our end concept VOIZ. We had to came up with a trend (we chose 'crowdsourcing' and 'citizen involvement in politics'), an idea (a way to attract youngsters to politics), and a concept (an online platform where current discussions, polls and games give youngsters influence in politics).

This you had to work out, with full design, a guerilla campaign and a business model (as shown in the presentation). We were second place out of four teams in class!

Download the presentation:

http://stud.cmd.hro.nl/0773253/jaar4/minor/voiz_presentatie.ppt

Pomegranate Phone

2009-01-17T15:03:00.007+01:00

Looking for new developments like Instant Voice translation we stumbled upon the Pomegranate Phone. At first we were shocked; wow what a wonderfull design, and 'more things that you could ever think of ever fitting into the palm of your hand'. Everything build in; phone, camera, full internet browsing 'and that's just the beginning' as the trailer tells you...

But then...

... well just look for yourself...

http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

And for more information, and a nice review about the Nova Scotia Viral go to:

http://issmatblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/nova-scotia-pomegranate-phone-great-viral-but-is-it-effective/

NN Safe

2009-01-16T14:45:00.001+01:00

Third place, on Battle of Concepts (www.battleofconcepts.nl), with a concept for Nationale Nederlanden (www.nn.nl/), one of the biggest insurance companies in Holland. Their problem? The immense overload of data. How can they use this data for risk management?

NNSafe is an application developed for NN to calculate risks amongst their target group in actual, recent but also for future insurances. How does it work?

Mainly, the application researches the current database of clients, and connects to the major popular social networks like Hyves and Schoolbank. The application corresponds their own clients with users on those platforms, by simply matching names, resulting in the public details, which consists out of ‘places they visit’ and ‘groups they belong to’. This information can be very much useful for this kind of risk management; because you can count the amount of groups, places, hobbies, sports and interests by seeing in how much they are representing in a certain field of behaviour. For instance, you can see that a client with a high risk behaviour is likely to be somebody who comes from a certain place in town, or has a special taste of cigarettes, likes to play dangerous sports, or belongs to groups of rebellious soccer supporters...

Dutch on Ice

2009-01-12T19:03:00.000+01:00

How cheesy can it be? It’s a few days below zero and everybody suddenly wants to skate. And so do I, how Dutch. And even if I did not have skates, and even if I did not skate for years I managed not to fall down at all.

It’s Saturday morning, early as I biked through the streets of The Hague, on the way to a friend of mine where we would gather up.

It’s minus five I guess, but I’m prepared (with Mongolian trousers included). And my skates of course, found and got them within a few hours on the online market place, picked them up for a dime in Delft on the way home from Rotterdam yesterday. It’s hard to find skates now, and on the news they are even mentioning traffic jams all over the place because of the sudden immense interest to ice skate.

“It might be your last.”

And how lovely, a few hours later we were on the ice, somewhere on the fields outside of the big city, where the Dutch landscape truly comes alive. We passed the old farmer mills and children selling coffee and hot chocolate on the docks, hundreds to thousands people were on the ice.

On the way we stopped in a village, ice skating through its channel. We heard folk music and saw a lot of people gathering up in the centre, where everybody was on the wooden flounders entering the local bar.

The smell of hot stew (yes, the famous pea soup) combined with thick hot dogs was nearly unbearable, as I sat eating saying: “I hope they’re not going to play Frans Bauer…” But they that the moment I said it, a tune of him, one of the most famous and traditional Dutch folk music artist, started.

I guess you just have to love it. I did.

People Making Stuff

2008-12-28T17:01:00.011+01:00

On Saturday 20 december the ‘people making stuff’ festival took place in The Hague, at the former docks of the Norfolk, which is now an event area. An inspiring night with a lot of enjoyment, the theme of this year was likely to be called ‘new music’.

The festival was opened by a robot from the future who hended out a manifest to a representative of the city-district for 'The Hague as the capital of culture in 2018' :

Before getting in, the first encounter was already quite something, entering the former Norfolk area the way to the docks where the festival took place was directed with a red carpet. This was due to a project of Sara Vrugt named ‘A Red Line’ and where as today she gave a minor preview.

Entering the docks my eyes gazed at the small carton boxes which were placed all around the place. The carton boxes were supposed to sit on I guess, but of the mass and placement a lot of people thought it was art. And it was, I suppose.

After talking to the familiar, and taking some of the appetites we took a seat somewhere upfront. The sides of the dock was filled with music podia, which made me think of Jools Holland. When the first band ended, another one started on the other side.

I enjoyed the sound of the ‘Onur Ataman Ensemble’ and ‘Teletekst is Dood’ (-teletext is dead) very much but the second ‘band’ playing after the kick-off opera was for me the real ‘ear-opener’ of the evening: “The Klang Ensemble”. I had never heard of them before, though they have performed a lot across Holland according to their website. The ensemble was formed in 2003 and consists out of saxophones, trombone, electric guitar, keyboards and percussion.

If you are a fan of Sigur Ros and The Album Leaf you might like this Ensemble. As it is not easily placed in a category more it is more likely to be seen as ‘modern classical music’. Though I found it somewhat relaxing, getting into trance when closing your eyes, entering a whole new world. ( I felt like floating, in a castle made of glass, sunbeams going through, slowly rising into the blue sky. And that without using drugs. )

The First Pressure Cooker in The Hague with FMO

2008-12-21T15:50:00.001+01:00

On the first of december the first Pressure Cooker took place in The Hague. One of a kind, the first edition launched in the headquarters of FMO; the Dutch Financial Bank for Development.

FMO is a bank which invests in sustainable entrepreneurship in developing countries. A nice and interesting first timer, to kick off the PC Project in The Hague aswell. And with succes. Now after nearly a month, some volunteers got invited to work out their ideas which were presented on the 1st of October.

In short, the case of FMO was build on their organisatorial approach which will have a major difference in strategy in the upcoming years. As they handle their approach by countries at the moment, the future will be clustered to an approach in three major branches; housing, finance and energy. This results into that a lot of the FMO employees will be working in new teams, so the question of FMO was; "How do we communicate to our employees that we will be working in this new strategy ?"

I invited storyteller Steven van Lummel for some good inspiration on the event, and with succes as I have been told that he was invited afterwards to speak on the FMO conference on the 18th aswell. The photography of the day was done by a serious photo artist named Kim Vermaat and the whole evening was step by step written down watchfully by Froukje Cleton.

The results of the group in total were outstanding with solutions like a market on location, a climbing wall and interactive video art installations. And these are only a few of the possibilities which turned up on the event itself. For a full review, read the full document of the first pressure cooker in the hague which I send this saturday to all the volunteers.

National Think Tank

2008-12-18T00:55:00.000+01:00

Last wednesday I had the chance to join the presentation of the National Think Tank. The Think Tank has been raised in 2005 as a non profit organisation with the goal to improve the environment between government, companies and knowledge institutions.

As a first thing to mention, I was excited to be in the ING house for the first time, the ING house is a very famous and extraordinary building which is impressive to see if you pass it on the highway. I was invited to be here because of doing some small contributions in their research where I helped along with other youth ambassadors of the hague.

The theme of this year was "to be healthy for each other"; advices to stimulate youngsters to choose for a healthier lifestyle. Projects were amongst others a T-Party and Run2Gether.

A T-Party is, as the word says, a tea party for the parents. A workshop about educating children for approximately eight parents guided by a social worker. A nice idea, which is of course taking place already in some other ways. But organising this more strictly (maybe within school aswell) should help in breaking taboos within educating children amongst different cultures.

Run2Gether is supposed to bring quality time within your family by moving together. Employers and employees with their children should be offered a full program with monthly 'running'-activities.

Interesting, but I seriously had my doubts in combining these kinds of running social activities with your parents imagining of how I would feel like doing that in the age of 13/14...

For more information about the think tank, and other projects, go to http://www.nationale-denktank.nl/

ICT&Media-profession day

2008-12-13T21:28:00.011+01:00

On 12 December the College-University of Rotterdam organized the so called ‘day of ICT and media -profession’ conference. The event was held on two locations; the Academieplein with the morning program and the afternoon at the Pieter de Hoochweg; where the communication and multimedia institute is located; the main location of my education. Last week the school invited me to come and help at the day itself, and since there were no lessons I thought I might join in.

The afternoon contained mostly guest lectures though at the main hall held some informational company stands, amongst others IBM, Logica, T-Mobile, Mangrove, Riscure and Delta Energy.

The day itself wasn’t badly organized but the amount of students was unbelievable. And don’t get me wrong, I did not meant that in a positive way. As the food and beverage counted on three hundred people, not even a third showed up; resulting in slightly offended company holders (presenting in front of an empty classroom isn’t that attractive I guess).

So, why is that? Why didn’t the students show up? Was it such a bad timing ? Were it extraordinary boring companies? Maybe the terrible subjects? Or would it be the worst of all; the free beer?

I guess not.

The timing would be right, Friday afternoon, near the weekend so that would be fine. The companies weren’t that bad at all and they had quite interesting topics like ‘how to hack the public transport’-cards and mobile innovation. And free food (even salmon) and french wine, god please, it couldn’t get better.

What is it then?

To be honest. I don’t have a clue, but I do know this:

• The day was promoted through email, which nobody reads.
o You could say that’s the fault of the students, I agree slightly. Students get spammed by mail a lot, and as they don’t throw away their mail their mailbox claims to be ‘inaccessible’.

• The day was promoted on the school screens, which nobody sees.
o Again, you could say that’s the fault of the students, I agree as well, slightly. Because 99% of the time the screen shows useless information, which all looks the same. So why look at it? Besides, you have to look 4 meters up to read it. So why bother.

• The day was promoted on A3 posters, which you do see, sometimes.
o But again, I would not be really attracted. The poster contained ‘the same old’ easy layout and some information about an ‘ICT-Day’ which I guess it had to do something with stuttering guys with glasses talking like beavis and butthead. It did not contain companies or information, or well, maybe it did, but I didn’t see it.

And the location? I don’t know. For me it is familiar. But, for most of the ICT students it isn’t. Because they are in another building I thought, and I heard that the morning lectures which were on that location were a lot busier.

Too bad, because the opportunity to talk with somebody like the chairman of t-mobile isn’t very daily.

Designing 8 December

2008-12-06T15:53:00.015+01:00

The NRC Next started a design competition to create the front page of Monday 8 December 2008 so I decided to participate.

Yesterday's newpaper contained an article about printing on demand, user generated commerce and web-to-print where the 'personalization'-trend is explained with several examples. In the following article the newspaper announced a design battle to design your own front page for the coming newspaper on monday. Here is my contribution:

The front page I designed contains over 400 presents with a title saying "find the suspicious present". The design is follow up to a sad newsarticle of yesterday, about a school which had been evacuated because of a bomb-threat. Because of the traditional "Sinterklaas"-fest which was being hold on the school, all the presents at that time were suddenly 'suspicious' objects.

This resulted into that a team of explosive-device professionals had to research all of the presents, one by one (!). Nothing was found, and the threat turned out to be a hoax later on.

The children were to be asume devastated by the cancellation of the celebration day where they have been looking forward to for the past weeks. The school announced that the celebration of Saint Nicholas will shift to monday.

********** EDIT **********

I did not won the front page, but was 2nd placed:

"The front page of Sander Westerduin (the presents) was very popular amongst the editors of the editorial office who make up the front page 'cover'-stories. This front page could defenitely be used in stories like the warnings of anti-terrorcordinator Tjibbe Joustra."

Take also a look on

the article on their website with

their comments (in dutch)

The Innovation Platform

2008-12-04T18:00:00.005+01:00

The “Innovation Platform” is a conference established by the dutch govenment to raise ideas for the cabinet to raise and improve the competition level of the Netherlands globally. The event took place yesterday in the Vanelle Fabriek in Rotterdam, opened by our prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

Due to a participation in the orange contest I was notified that the nominees will be announced on this conference, this for me the main reason to go there. After taking a look at their website I had serious doubts about this event, aswell because I read nothing about free entry for students which was quoted on other spaces though. But after a telephonecall I found out anyway.

And damn, as I proclaimed a free entry pass I guessed the food and beverage would be several euro’s it slightly surprised me that everything on the day itself was free. Yes, everything.

But to return to our main objective, trying to hand out my “21” book to the president (*damn* security…) I pointed several places on the map with lectures I surely wanted to join. Starting with the coffee. And another one. And what the heck, take the whole box instead.

With coffee in the left hand and a brownie in the other I walked trough the main hall, passing Enviu’s sustainable dance floor rapidly entering a conversation with the ‘taskforce innovation utrecht’, an institute that stimulates entrepreneurs helping them to (re)new their products, services or (internal) processes.

Next to it the ‘dutch centre for social innovation (NCSI)’ had a stand, where they let visitors test their way of working, and if they are productive and innovative with handling and using the ICT possibilities within their company. The testing was done by using an online 3d game, which on me raised certain questions confronting the speech holder. Because as I thought, and found out by asking who their target group was (which were mainly older people). I wondered if this approach would be the right one then… and surprisingly the girl agreed…

But nevertheless, the idea is nice, and the ‘centre’ is still in development, so intended sessions, workshops and advice are surely there to become realized.

Further on the day I followed interesting lectures and participated in several discussions, where amongst others one about internships and studying abroad. Besides following the lecture Luis Suarez about a world without email (read a report here in dutch) I followed several lectures within the seminar ‘innovation across borders’. Within the seminar I would like to point out the workshop ‘ICT boosts social economic development’ by TNO, where the task of audience was likely to give feedback and pointing out the opportunities.

Within the workshop four presentations took place, where after the audience was commited to comment, vote and possibly engage. The four presentations consisted out of; Leveraging Microscopy, Rural development (LinkNet), next-door internet (NICE) and collaborative creation for succesfull ict solutions (IICD).

Leveraging Microscopy trough cell phones is a nice technique which saves days waiting for the patient and doctor for the results of bloodtests. By simply making a picture through the microscope with your phone, and sending the image through MMS to the doctor is sufficient to recognize if the patient has malaria or hiv.

Linknet on the other hand is a project in Zambia which inspires local talent in rural Africa to reach their collective and individual potential in ICT, two areas are now covered with wireless and multiplication in all rural areas of Zambia is going beyond imagination plans.

NICE does it slightly different setting up wireless and solar powered multi services where there is aswell an offer in education and work employment. IICD on the other hand enables people in Africa and latin America to implement ICT to help improve their work and quality of life.

You can imagine there were more green cards in the air on the voting times. These sessions were for me one of the most fun presentations I joined this day. And some I had seen desperately needed presentation guidelines... which refers me to Don McMillan's 'how not to do' powerpoint:

To make a long story short. The innovation platform is a seriously interesting conference and I would surely be there on the sequel. And not only because of the snacks. Though I had some questions and remarks, for instance the ‘meeting spots’ which were not working at all to my understanding;

The Social Interaction & Innovation on the event itself could be much better; as there were a lot of ‘formal’ discussions were you could not intervene, which where the speaker is there only to ‘send’ though the whole attention was going to ‘learn’ from ‘each other’?

This ‘formal’ atmosphere resonated trough the conference, which could be easily broken by small things, look at PICNIC for example, by doing and undertaking action on the conference at self, and by doing that meeting new and interesting people.

Besides the atmosphere the surrounding could slightly be better organized, by more centralizing and positioning the event. The location is great, but walking 6 stairs every 15 minutes is a bit overdone.

Then, last but not least; the attention to their website has been slightly overseen I guess. I think this is one of the worst websites I have seen in ages, especially for a ‘professional’ conference of this size. That's a thing that defenitely needs innovation…

The Resistance

2008-11-25T22:26:00.014+01:00

An introduction of the OrangeContest took place on the Picnic festival of 2008. In the following lessons within Concept Development on the College University of Rotterdam I tried to gather up students with an interest to participate in this orangecontest .

And with succes, with some students we managed to set up a project for the contest; mail goal: 'putting holland on the map'. Now after several weeks of time pressure the following plan 'The Resistance' has been finalized, and is in the run for the election of the ultimate Dutch experience.

On the 21th of Novembre we held a presentation about our plan according to the participation of the Orange Contest. We started out with the following taste of orange:

In short; our concept basically stands for the retake of Manhattan. Nearly 400 years a go, the Dutch ship 'De Halve Maen' crossed the rivers around manhattan and set foot on a piece of land which will finally rise to one of the world most popular cities. 'The Resistance' brings us back to the urge of the Dutch to take back what is supposed to be theirs; New Amsterdam.

The project is divided in three chapters; preparing, transitioning and invading with a covering television program following the route.

The preparation is a long term project including the capturing the 17th century battleship 'the 7th provinces', and rekruting craftsmen (cause you need an army ofcourse). Dutch people can sign up for the program (winning a free ride) by presenting themselves with their most original thing they will bring to conquer New York once again, ending in a serious competition for the crew.

The transition is a two monthly show (which can be stretched) taking place on the 17th century ship where the crew selected in previous rounds of the preperation will battle for leading the invasion, battles on the boat will take place in extraordinary and never seen reality tv.

The invasion will take place, entering Batterypark, where the winner of previous rounds will run as Prince Carnaval in the orange parade turning Broadway and Nassaustreet orange once again!

Read our final document here

Let it snow...

2008-11-24T18:02:00.004+01:00

It had been a while since I had seen snow, and yesterday it was finally there, made me think of the time I spent in Mongolia, The whole day it snowed covering trees, roads and buildings with a white layer and as seen on the picture, the peace palace also got some.

I thought I'd share.

This picture was taken from Anna, a 'creative' space near the peace palace. The building shelters creative companies, artists, galeries, and even a small movie theatre. And that's why I thought to check it out; ending up into seeing the manga classic Akira once again.

For those who are interested, take a look at Artikraak.org for more information about Anna.

The College-University Fair, do you stare or do you dare

2008-11-21T16:15:00.008+01:00

On Monday 3 November the college-university of Rotterdam organised a fair where students from second and third year could get information about their possible ‘minor’ (the so called ‘specification’ within your study). I had the chance to promote and inform other people as a representative of the ‘minor’ I am following currently, formally known as ‘concept development’.

The fair took place at one of the main buildings of the school department offering information and services and first encounters with these ‘minors’. As soon as I entered I had the feeling of chaos, and it was, quite.

Though there was a map, the interaction with the environment lacked severely, not mentioning the programming and understanding timetables and ‘whereabouts’ on the location itself. We even had to share our small stand which made it even harder.

In the afternoon we organised two lectures for interested students, and two times we were able to fill the room, nevertheless not always with the most interested students seeking for their obligations within the minor.

The presentation ‘thinking outside of the box’ answered questions of students as in why students should choose for this minor, what you can do by following this minor, what is expected from you and of course, what do you expect from it.

A lot better than previous slides I have seen, I must say. The presentation has improved a lot, and fairly stands out amongst the others. Strong and clearly students could see now what it is about, with me and my fellow student giving live examples and interact with the audience. And by taking that last thing, that is exactly what should be, by my understanding, more encouraged.

Interacting with the potential students can be improved. This could be simply realized by picking examples and making it more fun which is exactly what will keep it attached, remembered and told about.

Simple solutions to make the concept development presentations more interesting is to start with a ‘check in’, a kaospilot technique, naming what were you thinking in a maximum of one sentence, breaking the ice already.

The content of the presentations could be also somewhat more active, like naming trends, you name a trend! What did you noticed lately? Or why do you have an iPhone ? Why do you wear GStar, why do you stand still on the escalator? You could play more to the awareness of the students present, like 'did you notice the red arrows on the sealing?' or 'did you notice that the text under my name tag is upside down?'.

Let them name their ideas, their quest for life, let them think out loud and feel free to join the fun and serious sides of concept development.

Preview OrangeContest

2008-11-14T12:30:00.009+01:00

...of a new project we are working on...

... just a preview... soon more :D

Windy Windmill (3)

2008-11-01T18:22:00.000+01:00

Last week we had a meeting with Eneco and it seems Windy Windmill has a follow up...

Windy Windmill isn't just an idea, it is a well thought of plan, a longduring proces, and this week we had a meeting with Eneco about it. If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Windy Windmill is a concept which won 2nd prize with a battle (within BattleOfConcepts) for Eneco, which proclaimed goal to create 'a windmill you can love'.

Windy Windmill is a character builded program where in Windy Windmill and her friends Seta SolarScreen and Wilbert Waterpump are bound to save the world from all evil for instance Olga Oil and Ali Atom.

if you are interested look also at the previous posts;

http://sanderwesterduin.blogspot.com/2008/06/windy-windmill-2.html

http://sanderwesterduin.blogspot.com/2008/06/windy-windmill.html

where there is more to be explained.

But the future is bright, talks and meetings are planned for the upcoming weeks and who'll know what is about to happen...

are You cut out...

2008-10-30T18:05:00.002+01:00

This week I had the chance to follow a lecture about entrepreneurship, with a theme quoted as "Are you cut out to be an entrepreneur?"

The workshop was hosted by Keith Wallace (see Nebib.nl), an entrepreneur and micro-investor who has seen many an adventure succeed and far more fail. And it started in the morning being the first to join. Luckily some other students showed up, cause I was wondering if I was the only one signed up for the workshop.

And it was indeed an interesting workshop, many presentational skills and many discussions. Which was good, I felt alot like the others; the main fun thing; the people I thought signed up were there. And the other fun thing; or call it interesting thing; many had the same problems.

Problems? Yes, sometimes the workshop seemed like doing a therapy session where everybody talked about their problems. Which problems? Well, that everyone present are doing everything at the same time, many hobbies and interests and feel like doing everything.

I enjoyed the workshop and feel alot more secure now, as well as that I am planning a meeting with Keith in the future as he offered to help me.

Dutch Design Week

2008-10-25T17:14:00.005+02:00

From 18 to 26 of October the Dutch Design Week is taking place. If I were you, I suggest you take a visit! Numerous lectures, workshops, shows, seminars and exhibitions are (mostly) free to enter. For an impression take a look at the video I shot yesterday:

With my visit to the Dutch Design Week I would like to point out the following projects which made quite an impression on me and would definitely see them in future environments, as in households and public spaces.

Tender Tub (maren hartveld)
A rubber coated foamrubber bath, easy to transport, easy to use and very comfortable! Not cold and hard like the average bathtub but soft and warm like a sofa.
http://www.detank.com/det/node/2347

Save Our Seeds ( regis lemberthe)
A fascinating experience inviting users to behave more carefully. As well as plants conservation, Regis created tiles, which are easier to break; on streets you see trees which are cutted down because they break out of their public space. The result is breaking them down, but is it the trees fault to grow, and lifting the tiles around it?
http://saveourseeds.wordpress.com/

Kid’s balance (niels smeltink)
This bike can be re-used when the child has grown, as it is double used (one of the major themes on the event). The use of the bike is it simplicity itself, look at the video where the bike is shown.
http://www.nielssmeltink.nl/

Re:act (daan spangenberg)
An interactive installation, alternative to illegal fly posters put up on walls. The installation begins showing images when people move around it (using infrared cameras to detect motion). Pretty cool, imagine what you could do with React in combination with RFID!
http://react.vandaan.net/

http://www.dutchdesignweek.nl/

Fuck The Rain!

2008-10-22T17:06:00.003+02:00

Saw this one in a newspaper, made me think of an idea sketched in my dummy some time ago about umbrella's. It would be awesome those 'personalizable' umbrella's... im still waiting for one with a Stop sign on it... pretty handy for when the bus comes!

Smart FireFighter!

2008-10-09T14:57:00.000+02:00

Wow, I did not see this before! Firefighters (and some police, so I heard) now also changed into a new appearence, on top of their usual trucks I may hope!

TNT Battle

2008-10-08T14:42:00.002+02:00

We (students of College University of Rotterdam, specification Concept Development) are hard working on a new battle, for TNT (within Battle of Concepts). And last previous weeks we had some very nice brainstorm sessions, to give an impression of what we are dealing with:

TNT's battle is quite a something, and we want to make the most out of it. The battle's aim this time is to create a new service within TNT's photo service ("They have a photo service?"- yes they do).

Next week we are finishing the document, hold a presentation and turning in the result. We are working quite on schedule but to work within the boundaries of the assignment is quite hard, as we believe the solution for their problem is already given. Though is their solution truthfully the solution for their problem ? We don't think so.

Nevertheless we should keep within their boundaries, and only hint in the document for the real solution.

Besides, I'm leading my team a little differently now, with support of the team, creating somewhat better results. So what am I doing different now than previous battles? Well, to get the most out of the team, motivating them I created a percentage system which we discussed in the beginning: if you are to late at a meeting, 1% of your share goes down every 15 minutes. If you are not there at all, you lose 5% (aswell as if you come but did not do your homework). This means you have to work harder as a team, but If you perform alright nothing happens and you will only gain percentages...

Werdet aktiv ?

2008-10-05T14:30:00.003+02:00

Standing and waiting for the bus late at night my eye glimpsed on this 'advertisement', which made me think. You can find this post in a bus stop infront of a high school in The Hague (displayed next to the bus timetable).

It is saying 'beat the system, and become active' in somekind of matrix style, which isn't that herassing. But what did is the man portrayed on the right, totally in black as in some kind of secret cult... as well as that the whole thing is written in german... which is... well you get the picture...

The Big Box Mystery

2008-10-02T13:57:00.000+02:00

On my way to school in the morning I walked into something which wasn't there yesterday. Still in my morning trance I gazed at the object (ofcourse helping me to miss the tram) for a few seconds... what is it and what does it do?

As you can see the object is quite big, it is solid metal and closed from all sides. It is quite overwhelming when you get to this in the early morning as you might understand, though I did not at all. It was as aliens suddenly dropped it out of the sky.

I guess the object was there waiting for it to be deported, nevertheless it stayed there waiting for over a week which made me kind of curious. Present it has been removed but isn't it a pretty sight ? Lots of people walk by, looking at it but walking straight by it. I'm pretty sure it had to with the construction sight near it, and that it is some kind of shipping container or it is a thing that should be underground (like a huge trashcan) normally.

PICNIC 2008

2008-09-29T22:27:00.005+02:00

Last week the third PicNic took place in the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. Students from Concept Development (a specialization of Communication & Multimedia Design on the College-University of Rotterdam) were invited to join the last day on the PicNic Academy!

For this I would like to pick out several speakers; starting with Michael Tchong a widely known trendwatcher and founder of UberCool.

He pointed out several 'uber'-trends which I would like to annotate;

DWT is the new DUI
(Driving while Texting is the new Driving under Influence)

Unwired
Creating a lifestile which is highly mobile independent

Time Compression
The acceleration of life, an average adult sleeps 2 hours less than hundred years ago
evalution is also accelerating, baby's sleep 90 minutes shorter already!

Energy Drinks
Coffee is becoming the worlds largest food chain

Generation of Ecstacy
a highly experienced environment, you want to be remarkable?

Fountain of Youth
everybody wants to (or tries to) be young again

Besides that the huge environmental 'be green' trend was continuously present at the whole conference, not to mention 'do the green thing' who explained that people WANT to change, but don't know HOW... so they launched easy and enjoyable entertainment for those who want to be green and need that little push in the back. They are launching a nice video campaign as well to make short movies of how to be green, which in I surely will participate with Windy Windmill !

And if you know trends... don't be shy to post them on Trendonomy.Net !

DesignThis! Major

2008-09-25T22:04:00.004+02:00

Develop your own project within Communication & Multimedia Design! For the major of this year called "DesignThis!" you are supposed to develop your own project!

Well; to make things short; I am going to develop a handbook, guideliness for an internship / course of third year students. Not that it is not there, it is not there like i want it to be; simple, easy, understandable... Lots of students get stuck in the huge pile of information, how? What? How much? Where...

Let's make life easier!! Just look for yourself ;)

http://wereldstage.wordpress.com/

Garbage Fun

2008-09-25T14:22:00.000+02:00

How can you make the most fun out of putting a huge amount of trash outside ??

Well, simply with a lot of people you can make a lot of fun by putting your trash outside, but where I get my pleasure is the reaction of the men who are picking the trash up. To make their job a little more fun we made some nice drawings on a poster seen on the picture with a 'Thank You!'-letter on it...

I am Chiquita Banana! And I Have Come To Say...

2008-09-17T13:53:00.008+02:00

Last week assignment was to pick a brand and research it's identity, how does the brand express itself and how does their appearence shows up in their products. Not only in how their products contain their values from the company, but also how does the targetgroup understands those values.

Picking a brand out of a hundred (which is funny to do aswell; research yourself of how many brands do you know out of your head, and why can you?) I've came up with Chiquita. My Brand for 'Bananas' as it is for so many. But why is that? Why do I think of Chiquita when I think of Banana's?

Well at first you have to research the brand values, besides of having your own ideas of course, it is good to see how well their value's are expressed by themselves. Chiquita's values amazes me, especially because they seem to have other values on their corperate and national webspaces; in the Corperate they speak; "Integrity, Respect, Oppertunity and Responsability" though the Dutch website more aims at "Sustainability". You can see their Corperate values on their space aswell by the way.

But how does it feel for me? Well, my values, or more of thoughts is not like the impression what Chiquita tells to me on their informational corperate website. When I personally think of Chiquita, I'm more thinking of...

or to be serious:

Bananas! Exotic! Latin America!

Interesting, my own impression on the brand does not really correspond (except for the banana thing) with Chiquita. Going on to the last part of the assignment, to add a new product to their productgroup I researched Chiquita's products.

At first I was stunned by the fact Chiquita had more than only Bananes! Open Sesame! As well as the fact that they are doing a lot for locals and nature, so their "Sustainable" value comes forward here. Because of course; "when I want to buy Chiquita Bananes, I would want to be sure that they were delivered to me by 'trustable' company, right?".

On their Dutch space you can play (very cool) games, get recipes, find information and see their newest commercials. On their corperate website you can find their whole productline. But as well the 'Chiquita Shop'. And that is exactely the one I would like to pick up.

You would expect from a Chiquita Shop some really cool products which are in line with their Brand Values. But, no way Jose, the Chiquita shop really... is... desperately, a waste of time, tasting brick in an apple pie. Damn!

The same old boring products, a Chiquita T-Shirt, a Chiquita Umbrella, a Chiquita golfbal, a Chiquita Balloon and even more desperate; a Chiquita keyhanger... !

C'mon People! Is that the best you can do according to your own values, and proclaiming 'sustainability and being good for the environment' but selling easily plastic bags, balloons, useless keyhangers and 'non-recycled yellow paper (with a fullcolor chiquita print on it) ? How "responsible" is that ?!

So... coming to our last part of the assignment; giving shape to products according to the Brand. As I did not have 'sustainable' or 'healthy' (well partly) in my own brand interpretation, I worked out some possible Chiquita Products, according to my brand values;

The picture maybe isn't that great but I hope you get what I mean;

- Chiquita Hammock!

- Chiquita Condoms!

- Chiquita (summer) Clothing!

- Chiquita (summer) Slipper!

- Chiquita Helmet it seems, but I mean Chiquita Hats / Carnaval - Party Hats, like wouldn't it be cool if you could order those nice latin american party hats like in this movie:

designing 'design'

2008-09-13T12:47:00.005+02:00

"Wat is design?" The key question of the lesson of the minor Concept Development (on the College University of Rotterdam) on the 5th of September. Discussing not only the term, the personal factor plays also a very important role; what is design 'for you'. Several opinions were shared, with 'design' as in a drawing, a sketch, a plan, a structure and so on. After hearing all the different arguments I took the statement that 'design' is just the English term for the Dutch word 'vormgeving' which consists out of two parts; 'vorm' meaning 'shape' and 'giving' meaning 'giving'. Literally translated: 'giving shape' with a material or substance what so ever.

In my essay which is downloadable here I try to prove my statement;

http://student.cmd.hro.nl/0766740/minorpd/vormgeven_van_vormgeving.pdf

Looking for the hands of Escher I found this great interpretation made by Shane Willis, a photographer using the fun of photoshop, for some more pictures of him;

http://photo.net/photos/radioactive

5 Countries in 4 Weeks

2008-08-21T16:48:00.007+02:00

And we're back. This year we managed to cross the border of 5 countries in nearly 4 weeks, though we cheated a bit... by putting those mopeds on huge floating machines, called boats, but yes, we had to, they don't float really good by themselves.

As you can see we headed to Kiel, Germany the first week and took a boat to Goteborg, Sweden where we drove around the Svanern lake, passing Orebro, almost made it to Stockholm (but we took a left heading for Karlstad...)

A few days after Karlstad we passed the 'Riksgrans' from Sweden/Norway, heading for Oslo...

In Oslo, we took a boat to Copenhagen (we didn't go there on the way up here, so why not on the way back) where we drove to the west, camped on the Samso Island beach and a day after that we entered:

OMG! That was so much fun... you can read all about it in a journal (I will put it online as soon I finished it) and a few days after we enjoyed ourselves playing with Lego we went to Esbjerg, where we took a boat to Harwich, England. After spending some time in English pubs we went back taking a boat from Harwich to Hoek van Holland !

Curious about previous trips? Check the previous post:
http://sanderwesterduin.blogspot.com/2008/07/mopedtrip-iv.html

Windy Windmill (3)

2008-08-01T17:51:00.000+02:00

On Tuesday the 28th of October the Windy Windmill team had a meeting with the communication & strategy department of Eneco. It seems the story will get a follow up...

To make a long story short, Windy Windmill is a conceptual character for children, along with Zeta Zonnepaneeltje (Seta Solar screen) and Wilbert Waterrad they save the world from evil like Olga Oil and Ali Atom.

See also my previous posts about windy windmill...

The concept was developed in a battle for Eneco (Benelux Power provider) within BattleofConcepts.NL and won 2nd prize, which should be 1st according to Eneco.
This week there are several new meetings coming up with interesting parties where aswell my possible internship would appear. Cool!

MOPEDTRIP IV

2008-07-21T03:25:00.004+02:00

Tomorrow a Suzuki from '79 and a Puch from '58 are heading for the Northernlights... well... that's like the target; at least Copenhagen and from there we'll see !

As you can see on the map, it is the fourth time I'm now going for a mopedtrip, and everytime its way exciting. Meeting so many nice people, gaining and exchanging so many experiences its just unreplaceble. Last week after finishing my last works the preperation for the trip went into an acceleration. Previously, we stayed mostly in France, we went to the nearest the border of Switzerland in 2004, and after that, in 2005, we almost reached the border of Spain (a few kilometers from Bordeax, before we visited St Mont Michel, Cherbourg and a lot of other exciting places). The third time, 2006, was a short one, with Dour Festival as a goal and the first time we took a camera with us ( see also http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=BXpaW1yQyiI ) ! Let's see we can do that again !

A nice picture from Suzy;

And last week in Jeroen's Shed; (Yes it is still the same thing, with 30000+ Kilometers on it... powertape excluded)

I will try to post some updates with some pictures once in a while, but It won't be as often I guess! Till August we're heading, and if you want to meet up, send me an email or post a comment !

Art Starts at ArtStart

2008-07-11T13:02:00.022+02:00

ArtStart, the Portal for Art in The Netherlands. At least that's what it is intended to become. We started almost 5 months ago and last week we gave a presentation towards school, the organization and Thieme ICT, the company who provided the environment where could work on this project.

In february the project-assignment was shown in a presentation of Projects within "Medialab" (which is a part of the CMD education within the College-University of Rotterdam) and those who had an interest could sign up for this project. There was a small waiting list but because I was one of the first to sign up, I had the chance to be on the project. The project with its intention to build the biggest art platform of the Netherlands had started, in a total with 6 students.

Our Job was to research the existing and create the new, and we came up with the following concept; Our platform (with an international attitude) is aimed primarily at art lovers, secundairy are the artists and the galleryholders, which are not stated in the previous ArtStart, and who are now an essential part of what is about to become. Because ArtStart now has to be realized; and it's not open to public at the moment, I can only give some previews of the concept without taking it into detail.

Mainly, the biggest improvent and change within ArtStart is the image browsing, not knowing what you are looking for (blueberry picking technique's). A widescreen browser, a wall of artworks which reacts on the movement of your mouse. Never ending browsing, filtering results to your own interest, and save those interests as specified and personal filters.

With our platform, the most astonishing is that it is going to be totally customizable to your needs; including customizable news letters, agenda events, tips and tricks; the entire content. The pages are all dynamic, you can even drag and drop several items and you can create, collect, save, favorite and share your personal "art bar".

Blurry? Well... can't tell more, you will have to wait for a few months and see for yourself. But you can see the prototype by clicking here . But please notice that with creating this concept, we have done a lot of research including fieldresearch questionnaires reaching over 1000+ respondents and deskresearch examining more than 30 art related websites.

And now after these months of hard work it is very nice to hear our client is more than pleased, as well as our mental coach and even the programmers at Thieme ICT who are anxious to start building... and the project graded just yet with a straight A, as well as the personal assesments of most people working in this team.

Lord of Parkpop

2008-07-02T22:42:00.006+02:00

* klik hier voor de Nederlandse versie *

It's there, the 29th edition! We all know what we are talking about; Parkpop. One day before Parkpop I get the chance to interview Guus Dutrieux, one of the six from the original Parkpop-Board. It would be a busy presentation, but... it turned out to an informal and personal conversation.

Nearly thirty years of existing, and growing each year; Parkpop is a phenomenom amongst the hague youngsters. Besides that, it's one of the world's biggest FREE festivals. But how did it began? Dutrieux tells easily, comfortable, about the first edition of Parkpop. Looking back on the old days the handout agenda for the event didn't even have 10 pages! What a laugh! But, it had around 15000 visitors; quite nice! But how big is the book right now ? Well.. about this size, and he lifts his hands placing his vingers on a book of what looks like more than the neverending 'Lord of The Rings'.

But even as the festival is growing each year, Parkpop has had his losses. "Reckon that we pay all our income from drinks, marketplaces, sponsors and subsidy... and not any entry prices!"

"That's quite something..."

"Yes, and besides that we pay normal prices for the performances, and everything around it"

Also, Parkpop has a lot of more competitors than before: "There is so much more, that wasn't there before. It's a lot harder now to start a festival." But Dutrieux is convinced that tomorrow they will succeed again, especially with this weather forecast.

And it's not the only thing they do, and that's good aswell "Because..." he continues "...with the profit of other events we can fully cover this kind of Festival". And the production firm has a lot more for the future. In the North of Holland, a big event, in multiple cities...

A nice conversation ended with some backstage tickets the next day;

the 29th edition of Parkpop with a.o. Racoon, Monte Montgomery and Sheryl Crow

Windy Windmill (2)

2008-06-28T11:04:00.005+02:00

Again ? Windy Windmill, yeah it was worth it, today the results are there that windy windmill ended Second in the Battle of Concepts competition! Woohoo!

Don't have a clue what i'm talking about ? See this post first

You can also read our document which is online here !

The Cube

2008-06-22T12:56:00.013+02:00

A classmate gave a presentation of a psychological book, which is something like an insight to your life and how you are living it, it is understanding and refreshing. It's way better than those games where you write down a number, then a color, then a song, etc. and it's supposed to tell you something about yourself. 'The Cube' calls upon your imagination, so it's a lot more effective... results are... sometimes astonishing, and many times in a way true.

Getting Curious ? Okay, let's start, take your time, it's make it easier if you get a pen and paper with you to draw it out. And don't you scroll down!

1. Start by picturing a desert in your mind's eye. A simple scene with a horizon line separating sand from sky. (For this, and all the following questions, there are no specific rules; no right or wrong answers. You are perfectly free to describe the cube that you see in your mind.)

And somewhere in the desert landscape, there is a cube. See it in your mind's eye; describe it to yourself. What is its size? Where is it located? What kind of materials is it made up of?

2. Now somewhere in this landscape, besides the cube that you have imagined, there is also a ladder. That's right, a ladder (don't worry about logic right now, this is just an imagination game, remember). Just as you did with the cube, see the ladder in your mind's eye and describe it to yourself. Imagine all the details.

What is its size (especially in comparison to the cube) ? Where is it located (specifically in relationship with the position of the cube)? What is it made of, etc.? Don't be afraid to see every little detail of each visualized object. The more you imagine, the more rewarding the game will be.

3. Now also in this desert landscape, along with the cube and the ladder, is a horse. Just as you did with the cube and ladder, it's time to picture the horse and describe it. Is it a specific breed? How big is it? What is its coloring and markings (if any)? Anything special about this horse?

Also be sure to imagine how it relates to the cube and the ladder. And since this is a living object, what action might it be doing right now?

4. You've pictured three things so far, just a couple more to go. This time, imagine in your mind's eye, that in this landscape there is also a storm. What kind of storm do you see? Where is it in relation to the other three objects in this scene? How is it affecting them (or not)? Again, the more you allow yourself to see, the better this game will be.

5. Now for the last component. In your desert, there is / are flower(s). How many of them are there? What type and what color? And how do they relate to the other four objects you've imagined?

6. You've successfully created an unique image in your mind's eye that only you could come up with. Every element is individual to you; this is a purely subjective exercise. There are no right or wrong answers. After all, this is your imagination, and only you are capable of describing what occurs inside.

Look one more time at the scene you've created. Make sure that you've left nothing out; that everything is described in as much detail as you are capable of.

What did you see?

Tell me about your cube (if you want to...)
OR

Click here and find out how to interpret it...

Windy Windmill

2008-06-10T22:18:00.011+02:00

"Dear Eneco,

If people think of me, they think of something which isn’t nice. I make noise, and some people even think I’m ugly. That makes me sad, cause… I’m good for the environment… right ?”

That’s the opening sentence of a concept participating in the Eneco competition, on Battle of Concepts. It’s the second time participating and I’m getting a bit nervous, last time with the concept for TNO we won the 5th prize, so I’m curious what it is going to be this time. Well, I’m quite sure we have one of the most protruding documents, with a heavily thought over starting point.

Let me explain a bit first. Eneco is one of the main power suppliers in The Netherlands and they have a problem. Windmills. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Or to be more clearly: “people like windmills, as long as they are at least a hundred kilometers out of their sight”- according to Eneco.

So… that’s approximately the main argument from people Not liking windmills. But what does it has to do with Eneco?! Well, Eneco wants to put more windmills everywhere, being pioneer in supplying sustainable energy. They joined ‘Battle of Concepts’ and put up a contest; to design, invent, create a windmill ‘to love’. Because that’s the problem. Nobody’s loves windmills.

After making tons of sketches and research, we came up with a shitload of ideas. From putting a whole theme park around windmills, decorating them, flourishing effects at night, and so on, we came up with something else. Accidently, by fun, a stupid idea of a windmill cartoon… easily as it came, it vanished… luckily we wrote it down. Because the next days, we stumbled over the stupidity, which could be genius. Easy, manageable, and even ‘loving’… Windy Windmill was born...

From designing all kinds of things around the windmill (or on it) we took a step back, designing a windmill you could love, in your imagination; a child’s imagination. Which in time, grows some conscious and making them unhindered towards windmills. On their time they influence their friends, parents and even grandpa and grandma.

It is a way of thinking we want to change. Explaining you could actually love windmills. Panda’s are sweet right? Well that’s only because you had a soft, small, cute and cuddling panda in your bed when you were a child, and that’s probably why you are as well donating to the WWF.

Exactly, you do not have any association with windmills! So, that’s why we should start at the beginning, with the youngest; designing a whole educational program including a cartoon, comics, games and a total promotional plan.

And that’s what we turned in. In Windy Windmill-style..

Garden Gnomes

2008-06-07T12:04:00.005+02:00

“Hi, I saw your advert in the local newspaper, with you saying you would like thirtytwo garden gnomes, would you still like them?” … “What ?” … “I am speaking to Sander yes ?” … “Yeah you are…but wtf… garden gnomes?” … “Yeah, uhm it says in the advert that people should call late at night, because you work over the day, so, but do you want them or not?” … “What, the garden gnomes?!” … “Yeah, those, you know, with their nice red hoods, and one with a shovel, they’re like two inch high and…”

Last night I got a prank call, which made me laugh very much. Some guy calls me if I would like to buy 32 garden midgets. On saying that I don’t have a garden, only a balcony with dead plants he replies saying there’s even one with a watering-can.

After a few minutes and he mentioned the name of the newspaper, and where it’s stated it reminded me of a friends who lives in that area. While he continues talking -which I don’t mind- I google my gmail looking for the guys address. After he says about dropping the figures of, I recall he can place them at a friend of mine, who lives there –saying the street name-

Silence..

“You Bastard, you knew it.”

The friend was sitting next to the guy, who called me saying they do this sometime and it’s ‘super fun time’. I got the joke too early, he says, but no matter and I give him some names he could call aswell.

Later on, I kept on thinking of this thing, this prank calling. It is a nice business. When not getting any sleep, I ran to my pc and googled prank call company’s. And yes, it already exists; company’s who get paid for making prank calls. Funny… I didn’t knew that… it was a good idea though.

And on browsing I came up with this funny prank call, it doesn't have to do anything with garden gnomes, but It is still worth mentioning, just listen:

THE WEB AND BEYOND

2008-05-24T13:04:00.006+02:00

On thursday the 22th in the Beurs van Berlage a conferance was held. The 12th conference of Chi Netherlands (which so I heared is the second biggest) with the theme of today; mobility. Now that interactivity, user generated and a lot of communities are the latest trends, mobility is the next one. Mobile operating systems, everything mobile... which is funny... in China, the other half of the internet users 'mobile' is the standard for using the internet. Not the desktop. Interesting.

I signed up as a volunteer; after doing half hour locker-room maintenance I could run around the whole day for free. So that was nice, joining all the readings, and meeting people on the drinks, like Joost, Soocial and OpenOffice. I had even the chance to touch and play with the EEE for the first time, which was quite a big issue on the conference itself. I did not find this very renewing -as some of the *oldies* in the hall- (looking on old blog posts, See "An Organizer with Attitude", and the announcement a half year ago), but it was still amusing.

Especially because it is one of the main items of mobility, which was the theme of today. If I had the chance in China, I would already had bought one. But nevertheless, it doesn't matter, I'm waiting on the 9" version. Which is on the market right now, but not in the netherlands yet... and it's going to cost a little more (*damnit*). Maybe I would buy one in france (out on the 28th of May) this summer, when I'm on the moped again.

Some of the readings I found to vague, and could be told in like 5 minutes, without the whole governance and maintenance issues like privacy. Alright it's an issue, but I was looking for new stuff, trends, innovative things. Like on of the readings of Luminis, which has invented a system for within the 'caring' sector (for the people who are cleaning homes, and helping the disabled), which I found quite interesting, and took away a lot of problems and unnessecary administration. Their service product 'iO TouchPro' just launched and has over 5000 clients already.

An other reading of Robert Gaal (Alchemyst) was also quite interesting; he introduced the Roomware project, which is the operating system for interactive spaces. He explained some of the technological and cultural challenges, as well as opportunities to make spaces more interactive. Like with your bluetooth connection on your mobile phone is a lot more to do, as the audience experienced a live feature using the phone's in the room. Got it ? I guess not, let me explain briefly. He showed one of the systems the firm build, which was build for an experience when taking a pee. People go in the toilet, and music starts to play (it activates on your bluetooth). But you hear only one instrument, when somebody comes in the toilet an other instrument will play and joins the band. Funny.

For the fun of it; he has showed some other cool stuff aswell, like from a party of 'hyves' (the biggest community website in the Netherlands). People who were invited were asked to change their 'mobile blue tooth name' as the username used of within hyves. On the party, pictures were shown on the walls randomly, which were pictures from their accounts!

Think of privatised commercials, and all of the extra features you could bring with it. Not mentioning even the extra things that you are transmitting; like gps, infrared, wireless and RFID chips...

Top Twenty (New!) Things

2008-05-19T14:58:00.011+02:00

Every time you go to the supermarket there are new things, maybe you won't see them but while browsing you think "ey, that's funny" or "huh, I didn't knew this". We have went to the supermarket to look for those things, and came up with the most funny products, a top twenty, enjoy.

1. Children's Toilet Paper
Well, there is a reason why I put this one on the number 1. It's just so damn funny, and stupid, and very well thought over. Why should children have there own toilet paper, what's wrong with the normal toilet paper; well they are smaller: so small and soft toilet paper is the result! It even has pictures on it and there is a special holder for it (from the same brand, next to it, very smart) !

2. The BBQ Fan
OMG! What's wrong with your breath, or an old newspaper. The funny thing: this device doesn't work on batteries and claims to be 'Eco' but c'mon ! The whole damn thing is made out of plastic !!!

3. Double Decoy for the ants
Hahaha, I laughed when I saw this one, there is now a DOUBLE decoy, with two different flavours. So if a few ants would miss the 'single' one they have now a double place to party. Such a bummer you find your friends dying inside... what's next, the Triple Decoy ?!

4. Ambipur Triple Smells !
You wonder and get agitated by the smell of only ONE ambipur ?! Well Ambipur has a solution! It's a smell which differs once in a while, so it never gets bored... people people... just open the window once in a while.

5. Princess Biscuit
Yeah pretty cool aint it, it's exactly the same as Biscuits, but these has a nice princess look and feel. Great. Where are the PIRAT biscuits?! I want Pirate biscuits!!

6. Rexona For Men and others
Yeah it's true... there are now FOR MEN adds everywhere, and even rexona has a lot more than that only to make it extra super duper cool. Also greenish and eco stuff...

7. Edet Easy Poo
COME ON PEOPLE. What a name! This is just like a small version of the big baskets you see in cafe's and bars but now smaller for your toilet because it is so much easier than a normal toilet paper holder... ofcourse...

8. Disco Lolly's
Haha! It's real! Disco Lolly's! It's like icecream which has all kinds of sparks on it, pretty cool and it probably taste nice. I've heard about but I now saw it for real, well it's an enlightment I can see *sarcastic*.

9. Breakfast Cookies
Nothing to add... you can have cookies for breakfast now. It's a revolution.

10. Senseo pad's
Did you know that at the first there were like 1 kind of Senseo pad, and now it's amazing there are over a hundred flavours, the most weird ones as well. And new things like Senseo Chocolate and Senseo Thee... which still tastes like coffee.

11. Spring Union Garlic - Flavour
It's amazing to see what kind of flavours there up to, you didn't even knew they existed like this union mixed with garlic, but the spring ones... I'm fond of these flavours though but they are getting quite extraordinary...

12. Sweet Union!
What the hell, what kind of weird sauces are there, the same as the above, there coming more and more sauces you don't know you want them, you probably want them now since you know they exist.

13. Chips!
New Chips, rough and tasty, different brand, different approach and not expensive. Nice.

14. A lot of Nuts
Well that's a new thing, somebody came up with putting nuts in a bag, but all of them, as many as possible with fruits and dried stuff in it. Great, but now all the other Nut-Brands are going mad, and so you have seen they immediatly have an own version of all kinds of different nuts in a bag.

15. Suck your baby's nose!
It exist longer than you know. I've had never heard of it, so an eye opener, and made me think of Toetanchamon, like those egypts sucking the brain out of peoples heads... well whatever... btw my mother told me in some countries the mother sucks the babies nose as well... brrr!

16. Danio Delight
Well we have a Light version, and now a Delight, haha.

17. Soup in a Bin ?
Thats funny, in my family they do there soup in a bin and in the fridge if it didn't empty at dinner, well now you can buy already in a bin. Clever.

18. Turkish Apple
Even PickWick and other tea branches are having new sorts, it's amazing to see there collection. And they are different! Out of expierence, yeah I'm a tea lover; China Blossom, Golden China, Ceylon, Forest Fruit, Strawberry and Earl Grey english tea blend.

19. New Spa Bottle
HOW IRRITATING! Spa has the same opener as the one of Evian! They finally found a solution for people lasting less long with the same bottle (the Dutch are number 1 in recycling their bottles) ! Which is irritating, because this new opener does not last that long with as the previous one.. grrr... no spa for me anymore.

20. Bob the Builder Bacon
Yeah... it's quite old fashion, but still I would like to mention it; Bacon with a print of Bob the Builder on it, still think it's great. You're not only killing him, youre also eating him.

Pinky and the Brain, Brain Brain Brain!

2008-05-11T13:14:00.007+02:00

Well the brain training is over, so I’m back being dull again. What am I talking about? Well two months ago a friend of mine told me about this test you could do in a hospital and get paid for it. What? I’m not getting drugged, no way, and for G’s sake they sterilize you as ‘this comes with it for free’.

No, no, you are getting it all wrong! It’s fun, it really is. I did not have to take any pills, you have to do some exercises for six weeks long. Your exercises and results will be measured and put next to a group of people who didn’t exercise (and if you want to know; yes they get less money of course).

So what do you do ? Well it is training like hell, for a maximum of around an hour per week, for six weeks long and take one MRI Scan at the beginning watching Finding Nemo and at the end, watching some old cartoon about some stupid cat running after a highly intelligent mouse (you know! But I lost the name, you may hit me for that).

So you get paid by watching? Yep, and doing some of these tests, and you will be escorted by three naked nearly graduated nurses, or well almost naked… or maybe I’d imagined that. Well it’s okay we all know we are thinking every five minutes of… I’m drifting away; back to the subject. They were pretty though.

For me it was the first time doing this MRI Scan, and I have to confess; it is frightening at the beginning. I felt the first hour quite uncomfortable in this huge toilet paper holder making sounds like one of those old cassette decks you’d dropped for over a hundred times, mixed with Autechre and Aphex Twin in reverse.

The most frightening part is when it is all dark. The lights are off, you can’t see a thing and you are stuck in this machine. Your head is stuck in a barred bucket, you feel trapped in a small sewer. You have elastic bands all over you to hold you from moving. If necessary you can press the emergency button wired on your side. You are seconds away to be send out to space. Then the sounds starts. Lift off.

The whole machine, as so it feels, starts to move, like a theme park attraction. You hear multiple sounds, from the cluttering sound of a jamming cd, to the high voltage beep sound of an old television. Simultaneously, and sometimes differing in speed and wave length. Amazing. You start to focus on this ultra dolby digital surround sound. As in you are in the seat of a machine where Jodie Foster should be. You are to be send out to another world. Then somebody asked through your headphone if you are still awake.

Mongolia Booklet Preview

2008-05-02T16:04:00.015+02:00

It is Done, the booklet I am working on for over four months now! The booklet contains out of 21 pictures with a title to inspire, followed by a meaningful script which is sometimes surprising, realistic, sad and even funny.

The booklet contains photo's from Russia and Mongolia in a chronological appearance which could use as a guide or as motivation to go to / or do a course in a foreign country, and I hope to inspire other students willing to go somewhere. Each photo is representing a motivation, but has also a story to tell. Therefore it should be a booklet which is fun to browse trough but also to study closer.

A translated example page:

you will create objectivity

you will fall back to the facts and will not be influenced by you feelings. the slaughter of some livestock and giving the bladder to the dog could be horrorfying at first sight, for the other it is essential to survive, like this craftsman stripping sheeps near Avarga Toson.

'Enlight' Pressure Cooker

2008-05-02T15:47:00.006+02:00

The night falls again and in Rotterdam 25 creative minds with different backgrounds gather, this time the Hub, where they are received by the Pressure Cooker team and members of 'Enlight'.

It's the third Pressure Cooker event organized by the 'Nieuwe Garde' ('New Guard') in Rotterdam. The meaning of Pressure Cookers is to come with the best result within a very limited time. To be precise; create with a group of young creative’s a solution for the problem a company is facing with.

Though this time it was slidely different because 'Enlight' is in fact a codename. A new voice is emerging and will be on the market soon, and the Pressure Cookers had the pleasure to invent new promotional stunts for them!

Which resulted in a wonderfull night with a magnificent outcome, the company was so pleased with the results that some of the people who joined the evening are still in contact with them right now for some future assignments!

I've been working on the rapport and some video, which will be online soon! Though it will be... uhm kind of... censored...

For Pictures:

http://www.pressurecooker.nu/2008_Enlight/website-fotoboek/

Open Sesame

2008-04-21T22:48:00.012+02:00

*update: the concept won the 5th prize out of 33 contestants!*

Finally the battle is over, and the concept has been accepted by TNO. TNO ? Yes, two classmates and me joined a battle of 'Battle of Concepts' (http://www.battleofconcepts.nl/) for the TNO battle...

According to TNO there are three media types; professional content, user generated content and archieves. And in their briefing they explained two types of media instruments; the television, and the pc with internet...

We did a lot of research and made some extrodinary sketches about mediaworld as it is today, and how internet (especially web2.0) is taking part (for others; going to take) in that, and offcourse how 'Sesame' our concept is the solution for this all. For Dutch speakers the document is downloadable at:

http://student.cmd.hro.nl/0766740/minorpd/BoC_TNO_SESAM_CONCEPTv5.pdf

A (very) short English version of the Introduction:

The Media image as we see it today changed rapidly and the easyness is something that is important to people, because of that the intensity of the use of internet increases. Not only for information, but also shopping, administration and community building is getting a frequent habbit and is much more used than ever before. In 'The New Economy 2007' with results of the last years it is stated that it is getting more usual to call with the use of the internet, and reading news, watching television, listening to the radio is getting for a lot of people almost comprehensible.

We expect this to continue, and even increase exponential if the mass sees the easyness of accessing the internet for almost everything on high quality and portable devices. From the Apple iPhone users there were already 85% of the users accessing the internet in January 2008.

We see people going to do this more, mobile or locally, like sending emails instead of letters will be on your phone calling through the internet. With the use of these high technology devices people are also getting more handy, when you maybe first had a photo album you will bring a USB stick, or one step further on an online Operating System like Netvibes, Jooce, iGoogle, Windows and so on. This saves in space also, and you do not need a case or anything, only a screen with a connection would be enough. But not only people are getting more handy, also the devices, with this high technology they are even made (or not made) possible to connect to connect to other devices. Think of the automatic synchronisation of Apple Devices, but also on the unexpectedMicrosoft's XBOX with the Sony PSP.

Now it is up to us to let these devices connect with each other, on the most powerfull way, according to the briefing. Maybe there should not be another device but the software behind these devices. The technology is there but they are not connected with other devices optimally. How would it be if these devices which connects through wireless accespoints and mobile operators also could exploit the internet ? Like if they could spread the internet as well, functioning as a portal for the internet ? That every device would feel and understand other devices and automatically connect with each other ? Everywhere and All the time. Open Sesame.

The Concept under the name of 'Sesame' is currently taking part in the TNO Battle

awaiting for the results, in time i will try to translate :)

Emphasise the Problem

2008-04-18T17:56:00.004+02:00

In one of the brainstormsessions lately, thinking about viral campaigns somebody told about a belgish campaign which drew my attention. With some simple research I found a diversity of video's on youtube where you can see the -what's the buzz about?- in action. It was ment for gaining publicity that even water isn't that comprehensible (though it always stands there on the ancherman's desk).

The publicity was for a fundraising activity of Studio Brussel who plead for pure drinkwater third world countries. I think this is a great way of gaining publicity and made me think of other activities to emphasise the problem (and reminded me of some concepts within 'working 8 hours late' - 8UO - Nieuwe Garde ). Like the Clochard Project from SVN ( a foundation that helps street children in the netherlands ) who came up with carton bed sheets:

Buy & Die !

2008-04-16T13:54:00.004+02:00

Some time a go, in the time of the CPD, a Guest lecture was held. The lecture organized by students contained two speakers and a workshop. The second speaker was the strategy director of Ara, a company responsible for the promotion of the royal Netherlands air force, Cordaid, Campina, several ministries and many others. He had an interesting and understanding vision.

Trends on the internet, which was the subject of the day, wasn’t easy according to him. A thing to start with is to read the clue train manifesto which is downloadable on the internet for free. He referred to the manifest as that a powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed with result that these markets are getting smarter.

Markets are like conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. There is a question, an answer, a conversation between two sides. Traditional single side media is going downhill, because of this oneway traffic, social media is making individual and group activities more and more possible and visible to the rest of us. And most corporations –quoting the manifesto- lack in the involvement of the customer, ignoring this development. Which I would like to call the "Buy & Die"-Attitude. They stick to talk in a soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, ignoring their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

Because there are people that will match your communication. And that is interesting. According to that statement he showed a display of integrated marketing communication:

As presented in this diagram you can see there are four categories of people in the world of the web (see the pyramid on the right). The creators represent 7% at the top of the pyramid, the ones that make content, contribute if via Wikipedia etc. The next step in the pyramid are the critics which account for 18%, collectors 18% and finally the wonderfully named “couch potatoes” (Robert Armstrong, 1976).

Engagement by marketing differs per group. With couch potatoes reached by Push marketing, collectors are reached by providing content, critics with dialogue and finally the creators can be touched by giving a platform for their creativity. Interesting and definitely good in understanding marketing and communications worldwide.

Do you have a Bie & Die Experience ?

For Your Consideration

2008-04-05T14:44:00.004+02:00

The Young Ambassadors, a group of youngsters all younger than 25 willing to stand up and work for a better city. They are functioning as a direct advice to the government and several institutes.

Thursday evening I joined a meeting of the Young Ambassadors, in the City Hall of The Hague. Besides their usual progress reviews four party’s joined the evening to get advice and interest for all to participate.

1. At first a project, name is in development, motivating potential school dropouts preventing them for dropping out. Their problem; the potential dropouts are demotivated, and the existing dropouts are discriminated (getting back to school, into a job or institute later on).

The solution so far by the organisation is doing research and making interviews of dropped out pupils who are going back to work (like example stories). From this a movie will be made, presenting it to the potential dropouts and rewarding them with some kind of certificate of not dropping out.

This raised many questions amongst all ambassadors. At first putting a stamp on potential dropouts is not going to work and example movies of pupils who dropped out, is more motivating them to drop out than to stay on school. I raised another issue that this certificate would have a very tricky aspect as well, how would this “nearly dropped out”-certificate affect possible future education and work environment?

The idea to motivate the pupils is good, but the first understanding of the project is slightly wrong. The value of this certificate, like gaining competencies (with workshops, and lessons that interest them) could be far more interesting, like a scan of motivation, cause points do not only result in your degree, but also your motivation. Research, research, research, Please!

2. Then the next. A governmental fulcrum who takes care of people caring for sick people; one on ten youngsters is taking care of somebody who is mentally or physically ill. This fulcrum helps those youngsters to get the help they deserve, because many times there are many solutions for helping in their situation. But the fulcrum has a problem: These ‘caring youngsters’ are not looking for help, they think they are alone, and they cannot reach them. They have multiple buildings in The Hague but they are running out of clients!

The ambassadors and me are slightly overwhelmed by the situation and I indicate how they are managing their clients at the moment. The problem, which easily can be found by the first question is that they targeted these people by a word, a term, discriminating and separating them from the rest and that is exactly what these people do not want. Going to schools and explaining who they are and what they are doing is good and we suggest to do that a lot more than they are doing that right now, and not by giving those people a name, but offering those people help if they would like that.

3. The last presentation is about a woman who wants to create a book. But not an ordinary book, a book which is created by youngsters taking away prejudice, eliminating discrimination of cultural minorities. The idea was represented for The Hague Talentshow ‘The Komet’ to win money to realize, but lost without arguments –stunned faces-.

But, she is still going for a subsidy application. The ambassadors and me directly hand over more foundations, companies and institutes that could help her realize her idea...

So... Comprehensible

2008-04-02T22:55:00.001+02:00

It is said in many occasions; returning home from a study or course in foreign countries enlarges future possibilities and opportunities. But not only job opportunities is said to magnify, gaining experiences, feeling other cultures will broaden your view.

What I have noticed as well, and with me many others, is that it also will also create a certain point of view on your own country, your own town, your surroundings. You begin to notice how easy some things are, it is so comprehensible that it makes you feel lucky.

Lucky to be born in this country. Lucky to grow up in a regular family where you have water, food, electricity, television and even a computer later on. A garden where you could play in and a ridiculous amount of accessories that would trigger your creativity.

When I think of Vladanka, a
friend from Serbia, it makes me feel sad. She is working overtime in a pizzeria
and working in one of those orphanages seen on those news items sometimes. Or
Igi, my Mongolian mother, who is working as a teacher to support her mother, her
son and her nephew. Not to speak of the street children who are even worse off,
demanding money, daily.

It makes me feel unpleasant, of how
people sometimes criticize so easily, not being critical at all. It is ignorant
and most of all ingenuous. If things are bothering you, if things are not right,
if things have to be done and you know how, step up, talk, undertake and be
entrepreneurial.

For instance:

In my city there is even a special bulletin for youngsters that is functioning for direct advice to the government and several institutes. I am going to visit this group soon, it is filled with active youngsters participating in making a better city. I’m looking forward to work with them...

8UO: Working Overtime. Voluntarily.

2008-03-30T16:25:00.008+02:00

Send a postcard to a child without a home address, hand over a business card which belongs to a professional drug dealer, spread an interactive flyer with the image of a child holding a box where you can choose if it is a lunchbox or a package of cocaine…

These are some of the ideas created while brainstorming for the Juconi foundation, a foundation that gets street children off the street. Juconi works with children from Latin America (focus mainly on Columbia) and is characterized by Unesco with one of the most effective method of approaching street children providing them a better future.

Juconi was one of the foundations joining 8UO better known as ‘working 8 hours late’) an initiative of the ‘Nieuwe Garde’ (-‘the New Guard’) which was held on Friday the 28th of March in the former Caballero factory in The Hague. Also in Rotterdam, Groningen and Arnhem collaborations were made and worked overtime for foundations like Greenpeace and Red Cross.

After some drinks and a good meal the creative minded were divided to groups and escorted to their working space where an introduction round was held. As everybody introduced themselves the foundations clarifies the case and the problem they are facing, and like a lot of foundations like Juconi donations necessary. How can Juconi get more donations and create brand awareness?

The foundation indicates on a promotional campaign like flyers, banners , newsletter and then leaves us to our first round for some lucidity and possible brainstorm. At first we clarify their goal; which is creating more donations. We ask ourselves how the foundation wants to reach their potential ‘customers’ and why they are choosing classic and familiar ways to reach their target group. The answer to that question is that a promotional campaign proves to work and everybody knows this kind of advertizing, it is well known fact. But it is a well known fact as well that this instrument is widely used, flyer holders are overloaded and you have to find more ways of how to create your awareness. Stickers? Please.

We want to create a buzz, and in this short time the AIDA method is a great thing to create and categorize new ideas. For those who are new to this, AIDA stands for creating an Attraction which should create an Interest which should make a Desire bringing it back to an Action.

So how do we create more brand awareness, how do we stimulate the contact between the foundation, their clients and their potential customers. You can think of a wide range of ideas like flying those children to The Netherlands putting and throwing them on the biggest shopping street here, insane? Yes, but it would definitely result into attention creating awareness by the shocking effect which could reach television and newspaper without paying for it. Shocking with a blink…?

Interactive Flyers, a ‘real’ video on the movie theatre, exaggerate the problem, make it humoristic…

High Tech Super Soldier

2008-03-24T14:50:00.017+01:00

Once upon a time the planet is going to be torn apart, if it is not because of ourselves with all our wars and destruction and resulting climate shifts, it would be by external forces like asteroids, artificial intelligence and little green men.

It is slightly easy to spot a recent movie with one of these future scenarios, but come on; the future scenario just isn’t that bright.

But there is a light in the dark. Salvation is near. There is a massive rise of mankind; evil will be defeated with all sources available and humans will live happily ever after

But what are those sources, these appliances where mankind deals with in the future. Technological breakthroughs in times of warfare are impressive (according to a lot of people; the most advantageous) because people are under pressure, and the one with the biggest gun wins. In science fiction movies (and games) based in the future you see this as well; like all the technological possibilities of weaponry and other arsenal in Star Ship Troopers.

In a lot of games and movies (maybe for the first time in Alien, 1979) there is this simple utility that helps seeking your comrades in the field. The product is simple; a small screen which shows your location and the location of your other fortune members. The product is used in many games (for instance Halo seen below) which creates a good overview and reduces friendly fire.

The need for this product rose tremendously on account of friendly fire incidents amongst the Dutch Soldiers in Iraq. According to Menno Bentveld in a show called ‘Nieuwsblik’ on 23 February a same sort of product will be used by the ministry of defense in 2011.

According to Dutch Newspaper ‘Trouw’ the device is already there. The so called CIM (communication and information module) is a pocket computer where you can see the commander and the location of its troops. At the moment the CIM is in a test phase though, next year it will be a standard in a soldier combat utensils…

Though the product cannot show the opponent…
...yet.

Rabobank PressureCooker

2008-03-17T12:02:00.000+01:00

When the night falls on Rotterdam, 25 creative minds with different backgrounds gather on the 16th floor of a big office building, where they are received by local employees of one of the biggest banks of The Netherlands, the RaboBank.

It's the second Pressure Cooker event organized by the 'Nieuwe Garde' ('New Guard') in Rotterdam. The meaning of Pressure Cookers is to come with the best result within a very limited time. To be precise; create with a group of young creative’s a solution for the problem a company is facing with.

The RaboBank needs inspiration to conquer the cities new minds, maybe it is possible to create more creative, smarter and more challenger ideas than what the Bank is offering to youngsters at the moment. Referring to the green student couch of ABN, one of their competes.

Before we take off an inspiring member of Syndicat takes the lead by mentioning to think of letting go your boundaries for a while, looking directly at the bank employees, and give creativity a chance. Approach the product from emotion, what do people want? Is the product low involvement ? Well, how can we make a boring insurance company, less boring then ? Where is the user, how does he/she feel? What would the user do? What are their Needs ?'

After these inspiring words groups of five random creative’s are directed to several rooms where the paper blanks, pencils, post-its and most important of all CHOCOLATE are waiting to be used. Thoughts of exploring, game involvement, communities, events and contests are flying through the rooms and landing on papers, and before you know it is time for dinner.

After dinner the groups return to their rooms to the most important part; creating order in chaos. The second round is used to clear your mind, make a choice and criticize from all those post-its and working the best ones out. Some ideas create more ideas, others are rock solid. In the last minutes everything is written down and thought of how to promote this in front of the company.

It ends where it started and the results of today’s effort are soon to be revealed. When everybody is seated the teams are given one by one a presentation. Five enthusiastic groups are given the time tp present one, or more possible ideas in front of the company. Laughing and Chatter is widely present, and the barrier between company and the creative minds nearly visible and in time the jury gives a brief comment from the company’s point of view.

“We never had this amount of great ideas in such a short time”

Rabobank Report:

http://www.pressurecooker.nu/download/Verslag-PressureCooker-Rabobank.pdf

More Pictures:

http://lauranet.nl/pressurekleur/

Woman with Balls

2008-03-09T23:20:00.025+01:00

Woman with Power, like in the book of Thea Beckman ‘Children of Mother Earth’ and other looks far away. Though it is a statement of many marketers. And with the woman’s right to choose (since 1919 in The Netherlands) it was said that ‘there would be less wars’.

Now anno 2008 it is a true fact that in politics and labour that woman are making a hard try for leadership and equal treatment. But it is hard world, it is a men’s world.

The answer of Madeline Albright (ex-minister Foreign Affairs from the United States) on a question in Nova College Tour (21st of February of 2008) about what she would recommend to present female students is as follows; “You have to work hard, you have to work at least twice as hard as men. There is no room for mediocre women, there seems to be plenty of room for mediocre men.”

The brain pattern at the moment seems to be that you can be anything you want. But is it widely accepted ? I do not think so. Though a regular pattern as in the woman in the kitchen and men at work seems to be more common in the western world as we know it. It is true that mainly men at the moment on higher grounds.

In our cool hunt we saw that nowadays more and more marketing is focused on Woman with a goal to be stronger and independent. You can see it in books, magazines and even in woman underwear. Besides that there is the image of models and icons who are pretty and smart as well.

Men are working on their image as well. A lot of products are tagged with the ‘FOR MEN’-phenomenon, for instance Coca Cola Zero, Labello and Andrelon. Besides that the baskets in shops are more than ever filled with a diversity of accessories like necklaces, bracelets, scarves, caps and hats. With our empathizing ability we can say that we agree with what some marketers say, that men are becoming more female.

But we see this development as some kind of seesaw. Slowly man and woman will grow to each other and reach a balance eventually. In the future the relation between man and female will be more equal, with woman being treated equally which will give them more chance in the men’s world.

Because, for everybody to know, man and woman are not equal, but can be equally. Like men are physically stronger than woman, but woman are mentally stronger than man, besides man is easily sexually influenced as woman are in contrary strongly affected emotionally.

Our future image is that this trend will continue when the current development will be accepted and stimulated from society, the trade and industry, and with a major role and influence; the media.

There will be a more female side of men, as there will be a more male side from woman. We estimate this will have a positive effect on the balance and equality between man and woman. On the other side a more feminine-man or a manly-woman will be marked as a homosexual which discourages the trend.

Because it is aberrant. And things that are aberrant are different. And different is strange. And bound to that there are consequences.

In this future image there will be a group which rejects the current development and becomes the total opposite, a polarization as well as appealing towards each other.

In the ideal future image we estimate the manly man and the feminine female will practically be extinct.

Sander Westerduin &
Ellen Schrik , Saida Jahjah

The Comeback of Taboo !

2008-02-23T17:54:00.009+01:00

This week a ‘remarkable’ outcome of a question survey was great news in The Netherlands. On all popular magazines, television and radio it was stunning news with a universal statement: “youth are watching porn, massively!”. Because in the results of the survey 83% of the participants in the age of 12 to 24 said they had watched porn previously, of which the absolute majority for FREE, through the internet…

At the same time there is a lot of commotion about a movie called ‘Deep Throat’, a porn movie from the eighties, which should be broadcasted today by state television. Two third of the participants from the same survey said they will not have a problem with that, and a small amount of that said they are going to watch it as well ('oh No! Save our children!?').

It seems a lot of commotion about nothing, but is this nothing? Today a show called ‘EenVandaag’ (‘OneToday’) will be interviewing youngsters about how they see the present porn, like mtv video clips and if this changes their sexual experience. Writers will also give their opinion of this so called ‘Pornification of the Society’.

But in my opinion this kind of development is already playing longer than we know!

And this development we spoke past week with other students. In the same discussion about the world in 2050 (see previous post) a statement was made, as in an open society taboo like Sexual behavior and content. The Problem, or so called Remarkable thing we noticed is that: The current development is that explicit sexual content gets more open and visible for everybody. In our group we discussed and shared the same opinion that this would be more of a taboo in the future; as in that it gets more private again.

We came to a conclusion that the current development would be parabolic, as the time continues a this so called ‘taboo’ would have a variety as in the acceptance within a society as seen in the picture above.

Another Planet

2008-02-17T17:01:00.001+01:00

To feel what concept and product development is we are supposed to see a development as seen in the post earlier about the organizer with attitude. But what is a trend, and how do you recognize a trend? We are about to explore a sixth sense of the human being. For a start we begin with an assignment of how Europe will look like in 50 years from now.

As an interesting discussion follows I write down all the necessary statements. The idea is to see and think about new technologies and habitats, and how this will take shape over this time period. Discussion groups gets formed easily and a flexible environment, compared with a cafeteria -including the need for coffee in this early morning-, is created.

World leadership will change is definitely written down as one of most important factors, Asia will be more open and understood with Europe as a sidekick, or most reliable partner.

As our group continues we get to the following statements that for instance Asia, with China as the main factor will be the future as in dominance and behind the steer of the boat, but Europe will be an important factor in this. Europe with countries like the Netherlands will have an important meaning in years of sustainable entrepreneurship; as in pioneer technology. Besides this a development as stimulation of this technology will get a new vision; more taxes on current methods, and even possible boycott against environmental damaging products, like fuel for instance.

It was an absolute majority about replacement of transport in the future and America would stay behind. Asia would get very important in this as they are currently already ahead on many occasions (for instance fast and commercial light rail trains) and aware of the current situation; as they would produce and consume the same as an average American they probably would need another planet.

An organizer with attitude

2008-02-17T00:49:00.002+01:00

This Friday the first lesson of the minor Concept & Product Development took off. The minor is given by lecturer Saskia Best, an active professional at Redmond in creative marketing with a specialization of concept and product development.

At first we had to introduce our selves and get encountered with the first things you noticed this week and getting the feel and meaning of this specialization of your study: “Tell me your name, your course or familiar job experiences past half year, a trend (current development you noticed), why you chose this minor and what is it that you expect of this minor.”

As I introduced myself and telling in a short sentence about my course in Mongolia the attention of people grew. My laptop at the time of travel was heavy and annoying and took away a lot of space and weight which is the reason I am looking for a new laptop. The development I suggested, or rather noticed was that of the latest version of a device which comes really close to the $100 dollar laptop mentioned earlier this year. This one is triple the price though, but still almost nothing.

This device from Asus weighs less than a kilo, runs on any required platform (as the standards can be adjusted) and is a little bit bigger than an Envelope (with a screen of 7 inch). The ideal for students, business presentations, travelers or in a school environment. Smart thinking as the name is as well EEE what stands for; Easy to learn, Easy to work and Easy to play. Intel has described the Eee PC as in line with its “World Ahead” marketing drive — which aims to provide anyone around the world a chance to own a PC...

Amongst professionals it is stated that the device is the first on the market of a All-in-One product, making the computer also possible for the lower groups (see the $100 laptop concept). The device –as I did not stated the device earlier- is not a laptop, as you may think, but more comparable with a portable DVD player with a lot of extra functions. An organizer with attitude.

Or should it have a nice name? Like Laptop is from Lap, because it’s on the top of your lap right ? Because the Desktop is on top of your desk… So uhm… HandTop ? ( Hmm… that would make an mp3 player a Fingertop than…) Yeah I like that. Handtop. Or TipTop… as we say in Holland when ‘it’s okay’ ?

The TipTop is slightly bigger than the sketchbook but smaller (and lighter) than an ordinary dictionary

So, tiptop in everybody’s head, we went over from the introduction of C&P-D to the assignments we are supposed to fulfill the next days, weeks, months. As we are human beings with ideas and concepts which we are faced with every day, every week, every month, until we die.

Introduction

2008-02-15T22:00:00.016+01:00

I wanted to say for those of interest you can find more work of me on:

My Portfolio Website

***

***

Move over my Wise Line and see what I've been doing lately:

***

btw, the banner is part of a picture out of my drawings seen below

it stands for structurization...

A01: Summarize Goals

2008-02-15T22:00:00.013+01:00

For the time being a "Communication & Multimedia Design - Student with the minor Concept & Product Development" it is obliged to specify your learning goals using Smartie's, which comes from the SMART abbriviation often used with concept and product development. It stands for: specify, measure, accept, realistic and time boundaries, which I will explain below. But now we have to two extra letters (which stands for Inspiring and Effort), and one added by myself the S, which stands for the Solution...

Well what are we waiting for, let's start with those damn smarties!

The Personal Learning Goals I want to work on:

Time for Creativity
Deal with Handicap
Listening & Understanding

Specification

Can you specify your goals ? Which situations & are other people involved ?

Time for Creativity; because of work, school and my social life I have little time left for creative passions like writing stories, playing music, photography, drawing and painting. Mostly I am working alone, but in music I would like to play with other musicians. As I found the people I previously played with we decided to try and set up a night and start playing together more seriously.

Deal with Handicap; because a lot of work is on the pc I’m trying the best to take my time off because of an ache in my hands and arms. I have had special training for this but the best way is off course doing other things; which suits me for taking more time for creative expression without the use of a computer. I want to make clear to myself and find a way of hours spend of what I can do and what not. And I have agree with that, that I can not do some things any longer any more.

Listening & Understanding; I see myself often as a bad listener. As I try to write as many things down and remember most of conversations I can not stand the fact that my concentration is sometimes low and easily drifting away; like thinking of other things or staring at nothing for a long time. I want to try and focus more and look for ways of how I can improve this.

Measurable

How do you know you reached your goals ? How is this measurable ?

Time for Creativity; I know I have reached this goal as I am satisfied with my work and as in music; the cooperation and successful evenings playing together with productions of value would be enough.

Deal with Handicap; when I do not bother, or taking time or thinking about any form of handicap any longer I would reach this goal.

Listening & Understanding; As I would see actual trust and remembrance of important or less important points without drifting away I would reach this goal.

Acceptable

Are your goals acceptable for everybody ? Why should you, and why should you not do it ?

Time for Creativity; is creating more time for other things and working out less things in digital format. This endangers digital productions or other editing to reserve the use of a computer.

Deal with Handicap; as seen in the previous point I made is creating more time for creative passion to deal with the handicap, and use only when necessary.

Listening & Understanding; is definitely an important factor in social life as well as in school or freelance assignments. I see myself taking more time to specify the speaker, like debriefing and capturing important facts of the speaker without loosing the essence of the conversation or discussion.

Realistic

Are your goals realistic and achievable in your current situation and within your competency?

Time for Creativity; could be real within weeks. The budget is limited so it is important to create as much out of it as possible. As it is possible to combine certain goals and achieve the maximum.

Deal with Handicap; an efficient way of working is possible and achievable but I have to clear to myself and putting borders. Deadlines and milestones are important as in (school) work but do not spend more time than necessary.

Listening & Understanding; is realistic and achievable as in it is measurability of the speaker and own criticism.

Time Boundary

When should your goals be achieved, when are results to be expected ?

For all of my goals there is a time boundary of within 1 to 3 months.

Inspiring

Are your goals summed in a positive way and inspiring for you (and other people), and how important are these goals for you ?

The goals are definitely inspiring and could create a possible conclusion document how to create the maximum out of the minimum; work but have time for your personal interest as well and combine those to choose an environment without letting other people down.

Effort control

Are the goals within your own reach and are you the one making these goals possible ?

The goals are within my own reach as I am mainly responsible for what is happening to me or how I would like to evolve without the effort of a lot of other people. If I am not the person taking the step, it will not happen. With all of the goals I am though depending on other people making to make it possible. As I have to deal with a handicap I can have spare time for creativity alone or with other people with listening and understanding while working together.

Solution

Is there a brief solution to achieve your goals?

The solution is to create in the upcoming 2 months a new way of working which would state in a conclusion document how to create gain the maximum out of minimum effort in a world where I can create time for creativity and social needs and wants.