Being in Movement

Update June 15: added images and captions, some minor text changes.

I’m writing this in Bio Rex, enjoying the talks and the performances in Aula Movement meeting. And of course meeting a lot of friends and acquitances.

Marko Ahtisaari opening the event

If you are not familiar with Aula, it is an organisation that promotes use and development of the latest global social and technological trends, such as Web 2.0, in Finland. Their objective is to help Finland not just to follow but also to lead in this area.

Clay Shirky and “Failure for Free”

The first presentation was held by Clay Shirky from New York University. He talked about being free to fail in the context of social networks, such as open source development organisation or newly introduced social networking services (think Flickr and the gang).

Jukka Perkko playing

Two prominent Finnish artists performed in between the speaks. First, Jukka Perko played saxophone and later Nina Hyvärinen performed a dancing piece.

Nina Hyvärinen dancing

The second speaker Alastair Curtis leads Nokia design and he talked about how Nokia embraces the social networks with design, how to understand customers better, and how to be able to create products that are more meaningful to them as individuals.

Alastair Curtis speaking about design embracing users’ needs

After a short break, Martin Varsavsky had a hilarious speak about Fon and its benefits — infrastructure built by the people. The idea behind the company is worthwhile checking for anyone roaming the world.

Martin Varsavsky and the benefits of free Wi-Fi

Mr. Perkko visited the stage again with his saxophone between the speaks. A really nice idea from the organisers, mixing performances and speaks to structure the flow of the event.

Jyri Engeström introducing Joichi Ito

The last speaker for the night was Joichi Ito, who has been awfully active in shaping the Internet to the network that we know now. Once again he has moved forward, and now focus on 3d communities, such as World of Warcraft or Second Life, and polychronic time — knowing people’s presence and availability, you are able get things done asynchronously.

Joichi Ito answering to the questions of the audience

For the uninitiated, Bio Rex is an old movie theater located in very central spot in Helsinki — in an 30’s Bauhaus style building. Really nice surroundings for having a mixed high-tech, business and social happening.

Check out also 3quarksdaily coverage on the subject.