cruel to be kind

“It is not all sunshine and flowers” says Stowe (meaning his talk), and the several problems with recording this interview should have been a warning for me that the editing would not be a walk in the park either. Let’s just say that while I am extremly unhappy to release this last interview so late, I am more than grateful that I managed to recover the pieces (and keep most of my hard drive). nuff said.

We start from semi-international conferences via the obligation of web culture to do something for the greater good via “do not switch your brain off” …

Francesca Birks is a analyst with the Foresight group at design and engineering consultancy ARUP in London UK.

She and I talk about her work and what a foresight analyst does, how destilling information is relevant, how her area of engineering and technology is on a different time scale than for example the internet as well as about her topic of “structure versus freedom”:

Structure vs Freedom: An exploration of the dynamic relationship between freedom and structure in the fields of architecture and engineering.

How do structures create freedom, and when is freedom constrained by the deliberate imposition of structure? When …

Ianus Keller is questioning if you still are able to collect images / impressions or if you are too focussed on the computer, the net and social tools.

You might remember Ianus from Reboot 2006 when he presented “a low cost version of the Jeff Han / Surface table”, which is called Cabernet.

He and I talk about collecting visual impressions and getting inspired by it (or not). Misqouting him a bit, but Ianus basically noted that interaction designers like to zone out of the physical space – and not even touch it. For them there is not much more …

Ton and I talk about why we should “speed up awakening to the effect of internet and mobile communications”, the benefit of the pro active role of citizens, intuitive ways of perceiving information and how the Eurocup is reminiscent of the old race of nations. ;)

Quick and dirty abstract + links
[please feel free to add helpful comments :)]

• his proposal: “New Complexity, New attitudes, skills and Tools to match Or how we can speed up awakening to the effect of internet and mobile communications”
  He also suggested “arduino workshop Build your own ambient devices” and “Facilitators Pool – A pool of volunteer …

Brian Suda is best know for his involvement in Microformats, but also plays around with mobile now.
[Note: When we recorded this, Brian thought he would not be able to make it, but good news is now, he managed to get plane tickets!]

Quick and dirty abstract + links
[please feel free to add helpful comments :)]

• we talk a bit about his talk why freeloaders are an asset and not a liability, different examples of freeloaders making companies like flickr, youtube, skype, or stumbleupon more valuable
• why microformats are awesome and why they may be even better on the mobile
• his proposal: FreeLoaders: …

[Preliminary shownotes as I am on the road today but wanted to put this quickly online as the file did not need much editing. ;) Proper context will follow this evening.]

This is the interview with Guy Dickinson, who will not only do again the awesome Micropresentationformat, but will also foster conversations about the cool topics of “urban gardening, why not grow your own food” and “future of books”.

Links:

• Website
• Guy’s reboot page
• micropresentations (again!)
• Free Food? Allotments, balcony gardens, veg patches…
• The future of the BOOK? Will our ideas be free, when they’re not bound in paper?
• Free Your “I haven’t got time/Skills” ideas 1 minute …

Martin Ludvigsen is an interaction designer with a special interest in the physical space where we live our ordinary lives.

In his talk he wants us to rethink the user: “Design for the collective user’s experience“, meaning instead of coming from the single user rethink the approach with a collective in mind.

Similar to the analogy of people considering the Internet to be about computers but others see it as a space / place, his desire is to connect the meat space with ’social’ gap that bridge between the worlds so that the collective wins and not just the single user.

My favorite quote …

Anne van Kesteren works for Opera on web standards and will talk at reboot about “Keeping the Web Free“.

The proposal consisted of one sentence “A talk about the recent advancements in Web browsers and Web standards to keep the Web free from proprietary lock in.” – so this is probably a longer ‘description’ of the possible content. ;)

We talk about the tools of the trades and the standards; how while the web grows, so does HTML and how bad things lead to standards.

He wants to hear about your examples and use cases, so try to find him and talk …

Peter Rukavina finds himself exteending his time in Copenhagen every reboot he attends – which makes sense, because it is a long way from Canada. His ventures pay off for us, because he discovered the great Sim card deal at Thelia.

At reboot he will be dong a talk about “Working for Free” and tells a bit in this interview what this could mean and how it can work.

When I work for free, I retain almost complete creative freedom — what are they gonna do, fire me? — and so, ironically, I find myself working better, faster, and more …

Picture by Duncan Davidson

Claus Dahl is a software developper from Kopenhagen and would like to hear sounds from you. Well more he wants us to make / have a Sine Wave concert!

“You can add yourself to something which you cannot do on your own.” Listen to how it works and how you too can be part of this. We also talk a bit about how reboot has evolved over the years and why you need to participate.

He was so kind to share the following links:

• various recipes for making sine waves with laptops
• A recording from Ars Electronica of sine wave …