Paeonia

French food for dreams

2008-01-29T22:36:00.000+02:00

I'm off to Cannes for an intense week in April, as I'm attending the MipTV and Milia. The main themes for the five conference days are known but the speakers are yet to be announced.

And right outside Cannes, there's a lovely paeonia garden, La Villa Noailles. I do hope I can arrange time for a stop there! It's my dream to run a lush, green, quiescent garden where peonies would grow throughout the season starting early spring and ending in autumn. I'd run a small café with sherry, gâteaus and orange liquor, with tables only for two or three parties maximum. It's intentionally not a very profitable enterprise, rather it's the spirit, l'esprit of it. Hopefully, I get a bit of nurture in Cannes for my dream.

Finally a grain of outdoor activities

2008-01-27T16:24:00.000+02:00

It's been a hell of a winter, pardon my French, but it has. There are few positive adjectives I can come to think of when describing it. It's been dark, quite warm, little snow but instead very rainy, resulting in unusually wet forests and no frost in the ground. The river running by our house is usually covered with ice in January but not this year. And since we're currently living January, the festivities of Christmas and mid winter are all behind us leaving little mental nor physical light to cheer for. And when you add that to the usual polar night spirit (or Kaamos which is the term in Finland), only keeping the eye lids open is a task comparable to walking ten thousand miles. That's why I jumped out of bed with a big grin on my face this morning, the sun was rising, the temperature was -10 and a white blanket of snow reflecting golden sunbeams. Beautiful! I grabbed the camera and headed out. Let's hope it stays this way for a while longer. Otherwise, I need to indulge more in my survivor trick during dark winter times, knitting, needlework and embroidery (the angel came about last November...).

Notes from Ebba von Sydow's talk

2008-01-25T16:16:00.000+02:00

Her talk treated mostly trends in young women's media consumption, behaviour and taste.

The internet is as such no biggie for young Swedish women. It's like any other medium, it's considered a carrier of other media, such as radio, TV, news papers...
Many are more comfortable with expressing emotions and opinions in front of a computer screen or via sms, instead of face to face. Young women of today are afraid of making a phone call and talking to someone, instead, they prefer electronic communication.
Ebba von Sydow dislikes the claim often heard today, that young people lack engagement, that they don't care. They do care, and they engage through clothing, fashion. The means of expressing the engagement is new, she stresses.
As for the environment awareness, young Swedish women seem to think: "That's great, but I won't...". A t-shirt made of organic cotton every now and then may be ok, but making a long-term commitment is out of the question.
She mentions the importance of involving the user in online sites and communities, the two cases she talks of are Ellos and Lego.
Finally, the brand is of minor importance for teenagers online. They're extremely disloyal and unfaithful to brands. What counts is what buzzing at the moment, what others are talking about.

Ebba's blog is here (in Swedish).

The night prior to inspiration

2008-01-24T21:53:00.000+02:00

My expectations of the coming weekend are high. It's the first conference for this year, and it's a good one, Mediespråk (media language). Two years ago, the chief editor of a Swedish evening newspaper, Bo Strömstedt, made fall in love with language and poetry again. On an early Saturday morning no less. I completely forgot the hangover and instead, I came to terms with the grudge against classic French literature (long story). I'm still impressed by the man. This year's main speakers are the journalist and fashion blogger Ebba von Sydow and the award winning journalist and author Mustafa Can.

Pen measuring emotions

2008-01-21T18:27:00.000+02:00

According to NewScientist, the company Philips is launching a pen measuring heart rate, skin conductance, finger pressure and temperature in order to get an idea of the current state of mind of the author. I'd love to write a book about that pen, preferably a detective novel. And I'd love to see the SCL curves of Ms Rowling when finishing the Harry Potter series.

Highlighted in DN

2008-01-14T08:43:00.000+02:00

The #1 daily newspaper in Sweden as to distribution and readership, DN, has an article on movies and audience screening. The reporter, who's taken part in such a testing, describes the process of having a say on how entertaining a movie is and presents an overview of the available methods of film screening on the Swedish market. This is where our iDTV Lab appears.

Although the Americans have carried the system of movie test screenings to an extreme, many of the technical progresses are made not in the West but in the East, in iDTV Lab in Vasa, the reporter writes. The article is found here (in Swedish only).

A YouTube for thinkers

2008-01-13T10:46:00.001+02:00

Do you feel like YouTube clips mostly resemble silly sitcom copycats with little substance, that only occasionally succeed in providing semi-funny haha moments? Longing for depth and intellectual snack? There's an alternative now, a YouTube for big thinkers, grand ideas and genuine, thorough discussion. It's called Big Think, read more on the story behind it here.

Looking for a cool job in new media and research?

2008-01-07T08:18:00.000+02:00

Then do send us your application! We're hiring more folks to the audience research lab at work. If you like exploring why people would bother being interactive on the web or on TV after a rough day at work, why someone would get excited over a thriller movie or if you enjoy finding out best practice of creating digital products with high scores in user experience and usability, this is the post for you.

What's going down next year?

2008-01-06T19:55:00.000+02:00

I'm a bit disappointed in contemporary journalism. Too little attention is devoted to the glorious art of following-up. It seems to me that news media is way too focused on tomorrow, tonight (and possibly on the "right now" although not much), which consequently leaves the history and yesterday all gray and forgotten in the dumpster in the back yard. I'd appreciate a remembrance every now and then, a check up if you will, of the goals, beliefs and visions at earlier days and how it all turned out. For example a comparison between the actual weather and climate data of 2007 and how it was predicted by a) the local foretellers using coffee grounds or the mating behavior of frogs or swallows b) the meteorological institute and c) climate researchers. Who came closer to the truth? Or a comparison between the election promises given by local politicians and now, after four years of power, the results. Or a comparison between the fears and hopes regarding the web back in mid 1990's versus how we actually use the net today. Are there great differences? Did someone foresee the social networking craze of today?

My memory is extremely bad and I'm sure I'm not the only one to suffer from this. This being the case, there's money to be made :) But since the news I consume seem to be occupied with the next year's flowering season rather than with the roots and last season's blooming, I started documenting the weather and happenings myself in order to be able to make comparisons and remembering later on (a dream I have is to take an identical photo of say the views from my balcony, every day at the exact same time. That would make an impressive index of weather, the changes in how the local community evolves as new houses, trees and road would emerge and old ones perhaps disappear. The idea falls short however due to my constant moving around.) I've also been thinking of collecting the trend reports and predictions that flourish at every turn to a new year, and compare them with how it all turned out say after four, five years have passed. I've been happily reading every trend report I've come across, in all sorts of contexts, and this year, they're a bit contradictory. According to Kairo's institute, we'll see more of the blending of private and public on arenas such as MySpace or FaceBook. But as a consequence, conflicts in law, organization culture and conventions (what's suitable to reveal regarding your work online for instance) will emerge. This trend watch report was a great read, I do recommend it! The women's magazine Amelia on the other hand predicts that IRL is back, a social networking fatigue will hit us and we'll favor integrity and keeping thorough, deep discussions face to face with our friends. I will try to keep up and see which prediction is more accurate.

Playful products

2008-01-03T13:54:00.000+02:00

I stumbled upon an article by Jonathan Follett on UX Matters. He suggests four characteristics for a playful product, and thus, these are the variables to measure when studying the playfulness of a digital product.

lots of small rewards and positive feedback for taking action
no negative consequences for experimentation
the ability to take someone else’s work and build on it
frivolous interaction

His suggestions are a good start. There are two more features I immediately want to add to the list, socializing and challenge. For instance challenging your friend to create a cooler Nike shoe than the shiny masterpiece you just did, by sending him or her an e-mail.

The tale of the well-being

2008-01-02T20:16:00.000+02:00

D Kahneman (a psychologist awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences six years ago) tells a tale of being wrong in the research of well-being.

"Measuring experienced happiness turned out to be interesting and useful, but not in the way we had expected. We had simply been wrong. Experienced happiness, we learned, depends mainly on personality and on the hedonic value of the activities to which people allocate their time."

wii 2.0

2008-01-02T15:43:00.000+02:00

For a long time, we've been clueless regarding what to do with our Wii at work (gaming has naturally been out of the question), but that's hereby a solved problem.

I can fool you anywhere!

2007-12-31T15:45:00.000+02:00

Evidently, I need a reality check and get updated on civilization, as it turns out I've missed out on a famous magician and psychological illusionist, Derren Brown (thanks Jonas for the tip!). I knew nothing of the guy so I did what anyone would do, I browsed YouTube and yes, j'ai trouvé. In this clip, he raises an interesting point regarding the individuality that we praise today, regarding how our mind works and how we subconsciously register messages that affect us without our knowing it. Interesting, I must say.

Gendered Simpsons?

2007-12-28T17:29:00.000+02:00

Sweet, thanks to Mr Santa Claus, I am now the proud owner of two more DVD boxsets of my favorite TV show, The Simpsons. The fact that this show, probably along with The X-files and Seinfeld, is on my all time top 3 list on TV shows came up at a party a couple of weeks ago and to my big surprise, people were astonished to hear this. Apparently, the typical Simpsons fan is considered to be male. To be honest, this is nothing I've thought about, and spontaneously, I'm a bit doubtful as to if this is true. There's no doubt plenty of women enjoying watching the bad manners of Homer, the many pranks à la Bart and admiring the sharp wit of young Lisa, right? Well, perhaps therefore, this gender "prejudice" intrigued me to such an extent that I did a bit of ad hoc-research. It turns out, not many women at the party watch the show, whereas many men do, and when asked about it, most felt that the show appeals to men in the 20s-30s. And now, when I google it to see if there's audience research or sociological studies available to shed some light on the matter, I find nothing. I did find that gamers seem to include the show in their TV consumption, but I still don't know whether there are more men than women in the fan club.

Interestingly, while browsing for information on the demographics of the audience, I found out via Wikipedia that The Simpsons turned out to be a viewer success in Japan, only after the marketing spotlight was put on Lisa. I'm having a Japanese friend of a friend coming over to stay with us tomorrow, I'll have to ask her about the audience of the best animated series there is in her country.

Cuisine and games

2007-12-23T13:39:00.000+02:00

Sweet. The home made Carrot Casserole is ripening in the oven, the beetroot casserole is already cooling down and... there's snow on the ground! Yey! So far though, the holiday has been revolving around cuisine and games (and that can't go wrong...). I've downloaded the classic arcade game Bubble Bobble to my Wii. It's good fun, although not as challenging as my all time favorite Boulder dash. And I realized that one of my favorite stand up comedians at the moment, Björn Gustavsson, appears to be a true WOW gamer ("du, du är precis som en priest som inte healar". Muahaha!). And interestingly, as for the board game Draughts, it seems to be game over.

Christmas party video

2007-12-21T14:52:00.000+02:00

One of our visual contributions on last night's Christmas Party at MediaCity is out on YouTube now. It's in Swedish, but the visual language is, should I say, rather alive and present. The 10 minute masterpiece is here.

AC going on

2007-12-21T13:37:00.000+02:00

The current spirit of this blog is perhaps best illustrated by the poor fate my cactus out on the balcony faced this winter: drained of energy and struggling. Remains to be seen if this post is just a First aid care performed just once, on the compulsory “tying up the ends” day at the end of the year, or will it instigate more posts in the future. In the documentation of the blog’s medical history, the reason for the low activity is found in the author, naturally. Lately, I’ve been focusing more on identifying and posing the right questions, on the nature of the battery of yet un-uttered questions there simply must be out there still, concerning everything really, mundane things as well as metaphysical ones. I haven’t been too much concerned with trying to find answers, to write papers or outlining views on the world and therefore, the need to write has not been all too prevalent.

This is not a new turn of event though. I’ve always thought that life in general is much more about the whys and the hows than about the ergos. That is, I’m not so much interested in one big truth or a definite recipe on how things are but rather on challenging these views by asking how they could be, according to a number of perspectives. Consider a funnel; my way of working is moving my way from the narrow spout upwards towards a much greater space. I’m probably like a child stuck in a “why” phase that never tapered off :)

Well, anyways, at the Christmas Party of MediaCity last night, a journalist and my former colleague, currently on leave of absence for completing a PhD, asked me whether I miss journalism and writing news features for a news paper. I confessed that I do. That’s a profession that suits me, apart from the evil deadlines. And the reason for that is exactly that I talked of above. Along the lines of classic journalism, you get to explore and shed some light on an event or a phenomenon, and typically, you need to do so out of multiple perspectives, in order to explain it and tell it to your audience in an intelligible and engaging way. In short, you get paid for asking loads of whys and hows, to put bits and pieces together in a simple manner, and then move on without ever becoming an expert on the issue.

But as we were talking, I realized that the focus of people’s mind is like an alternating current, whose direction vary in a cyclic way, as opposed to DC (yes, I did ask the band to play AC/DC but I really can’t remember if they ever did…). And the wave of my focus is presently changing, it’s just that I hadn’t realized it until last night. I’m actually leaving the phase of why and how now, in favor for the ergo. The signs are there, like we’re hiring a research manager at iDTV Lab, which will kick start the getting below the surface-phase pretty seriously and I’m really looking forward to that. Also, I fell in love with a book on how to get answers to all your unthinkable questions, of which I have a bundle. I found it at Designtorget down town Stockholm last Monday, it’s called Can cows walk down stairs? I do recommend it!

Well, first aid treatments are by default simple and provides only limited care, therefore, over and out.

Finland's three T:s

2007-08-06T00:44:00.000+03:00

I'm one of those people who crave instant answers. If I could, I'd integrate an audio Wikipedia in something that I always carry with me (most likely the keys, the phone is increasingly left behind these days). Whenever I come across something that I'd fancy knowing, a simple question would be uttered and a definition would be read to me within a few seconds, or perhaps a minute. It would take too long to fiddle with pens on pda:s or googling via 3G and besides, that requires time and effort. No, I want it instantly, without grand energy investments on my part. But then again, such a system would be the end of the fun ways knowledge hits you at times. Like the night before I went on a holiday to Rome. Late, I finished R Florida's book on the Creative class, as he labels persons working in fields such as research, computer programming, art, law etc. People whose jobs somehow revolve around creativity. Florida has found a correlation between high socio-economic development of an area and a large population of creative workers. Florida argues that in order to attract and maintain this much sought for creative class, cities and regions must have functioning “Three T’s”. These are Talent, Tolerance and technology (learn more here). When reading the book, I was wondering how well Finland is doing in this regard. We most certainly do have the talent and the technology, but what about the part regarding tolerance? Well, the answer came to me a couple of days later at one of the two metro lines in Rome, in an Italian Metro paper (No, I don't understand Italian but I do have 20 something ECTS-points in Latin so I figured the stem of the words ought to resemble at least). Apparently we're doing good, we made the top three of the big T:s of creativity.

Societal thoughts

2007-06-05T22:39:00.000+03:00

Two pence worth of thoughts, i.e. things I feel worthy of contemplation.

In December last year, I predicted a future Western society where values and thoughts, instead of money and gadgets, rule. I still believe in this vision and I'm wondering when this transition will be completed. When will the zeitgeist equal thoughts and values, not things and gadgets, and focus on the process, not the final product? And when we're there, how do you show off to others? Say today, you can flash with a designer bag worth of 5 000 euros. Not everyone, but significantly many, admires that item. But in a world where thoughts, ideas and visions make the currency, how do you show off to friends and colleagues? The contemporary Finn may buy an even better, more powerful SUV to outdo the neighbor, but that won't do the trick tomorrow. Probably, clothing will still play an important role, signaling what you stand for and in what intellectual hemisphere you currently roam.
Will categorization according to gender ever disappear? I mean, will we ever primarily consider the human, and the gender as a secondary aspect? It's seems hard to stop labeling people and raise expectations on others depending on their gender.
Will micro issues surrender to macro ones when debating politics, visions and suggestions? It seems today, when important and relevant issues are being discussed, the focus lies on details and is not often shifted to the bigger picture, to a macro level.
How many have considered who, if anyone, has something to gain on the climate debate currently raging? Is the question of who may have an interest in instigating such a debate, and why, and are these reasons of such a kind that we want to support them or not, raised at coffee breaks at work places around the world? I wish it was raised and genuinely analyzed. I hope I'm not falling into a conspiracy trap here but I believe it's sensible to ponder why we are debating current issues and who benefits from it.

eyesonitv stolen notes

2007-05-30T12:49:00.000+03:00

The Eyesonitv is well under way, it's just frustrating to be swamped with work to that horrifying degree, that I have to skip about half of the talks. Good thing Simon just blogged an overview of what has been discussed so far.

Notes from EuroITV 07 part one

2007-05-27T23:33:00.001+03:00

Astrid Weiss of University of Salzburg, the host city of next year’s event, presented findings on how the TV audience perceives their living rooms. It plays a role of a recreational area yet at the same time as a place for socializing. She quoted a woman saying she wants to watch TV in her living room, read and be lazy but the same room is where her son plays PS. A truly multi functional space, it appears. I’ve always been fascinated by how people act, when they have friends over; do they kill the tv or do they actually turn it on, as a background noise or perhaps as an aid or instigator to get the discourse going. But now, when I'm in the middle of a moving process where the function and roles of new rooms are designed, I started reflecting on how I perceive my living room and the role of TV. I chose to have a different room for media. It’s quite small, with a blood red wall, Kill Bill motives painted on the walls and b/w curtains. It’s a place for playing WoW and watching movies. In the living room on the other hand, the only media will be piano music and talk. I see that primarily as a place for socializing and resting. Interestingly, many seem to combine these two, but I’m not comfortable with that solution (anymore I should add).

I have a thing for jewelry, especially rings, but it’s definitely not precious metals and stones that set me off, neither do “bling bling”. Anyways, in Amsterdam I wore one of my favorites I got in London, a black ring by a Japanese designer, made of sponge. Suddenly I overhear a participant commenting it to my colleague: “Susanne is wearing a very special ring. Is it very common to be that different in Finland?” I started laughing, and contrary to the question raiser’s fears, I wasn’t offended at all. Quite the opposite really, I don’t mind wandering off the beaten tracks at times. That doesn’t however mean I don’t possess a sense of community, a desire to belong to a Gemeinschaft. This division between individualization and community characterized many of the presentations and issues raised, in my view, during the conference. That is, especially these days, many long for expressing themselves in a highly individual way whereas the need for belonging to a group and being part of a community of own choice is very important as well. Many TV viewers want to enjoy the social experience that TV consumption is, via watching shows or programs with family and friends, and discuss the shows the next morning over coffee with colleagues at work but highly personalized, niched content is also appealing to them. This is evident even in a concrete and physical manner, at times you watch the news in the living room with your family, at other times you watch them in bed upstairs in your own room on your own TV-set or via mobile TV. So how do you combine the desire for expression of individuality and the desire for belonging to a community? (If you find the recipe, you’re likely to do good. I think the popularity of services such as Flickr lies in the fact that it combines these two factors.) And is the need for belonging to the group (who watched the Eurovision for instance and thus can discuss whether the right song won, the clothes of the artists etc) transforming? This is what comes to my mind when reading the long tail theory, which I largely agree on. According to it, small (as opposed to hit products and mega markets with more, bigger, better) is beautiful and even profitable, the future is all about giving the consumers the choice to choose what they want, when they want it, and niche content will be prevailing. But doesn’t this imply that colleagues around the coffee table have each seen different Sunday night movies, instead of earlier when many watched the 9 o’clock movie on Channel X? There’s no sense of belonging to a group when every colleague watches different, personalized content. The question is, does it matter? Will people be satisfied with the fact that the group they belong to (say those who watched the Eurovision) is likely to be scattered around the world, instead of geographically close, as friends’ and colleagues’ TV guide may look completely different? Will the habit of chatting about last night’s 9 o’clock TV series or movie at work slowly disappear? Qui vivra verra (He who lives, shall see).

Photos from the conference here.

On the issue of love

2007-05-14T20:18:00.000+03:00

I just finished the book Essays in Love, written by Alain de Botton. In a witty, but at times way too philosophical, way he treats the topic any reader can identify with, namely le mal d'être deux, that is being in love. I loved reading it, I kept laughing out loud as I recognized myself and others. There’s no point in listing examples here as then, I’d have to go on forever. Instead, get the book and get revealed (and no, I'm not bribed to say this :) ) It’s easier to mention the two thoughts I couldn’t quite embrace. Firstly, the character in the book states that we fall in love, hoping that the target of our feelings does not, like we do, possess any of the following: cowardice, weakness, laziness, dishonesty and pure stupidity. I’m not so sure. I believe that we choose not to focus on these traits when we’ve fallen head over heels in love. We perceive our beloved as a flawless ideal at first, but that’s something different than actually _hoping_ these characteristics don’t exist. And secondly, the hero of the book firmly believes that silence in company of an attractive person is beyond the shadow of a doubt a proof of you being an absolute, dreadful bore. I disagree. Silence is, to me, a sign of self confidence, courage, comfortableness, open-mindedness (!) and sexiness. In my opinion, the rate of inflation of words these days is very high. The less chattering, the better.

Attributions to bad driving

2007-05-10T17:01:00.000+03:00

Lately, I've had a hang-up about appearance and constructions of social reality. I've reflected on how, and why, we choose to convey who we are and how others interpret the message and ultimately understand us. Today, I learned something in relation to this, namely that I tend to make external attributions. I'm digging into Rhodes's and Hamilton's article "Attribution and Entertainment: It's Not Who Dunnit, It's Why" (in Vorderer's and Bryant's Psychology of Entertainment) where the reader is provided an explanation of the attribution theory: it's the prediction of whether an observer will attribute an actor's behavior to internal or external causes.

Think about the last time you were driving, and another driver cut you off.

the writers ask rhetorically. Peace of cake, that happened today, on lunch hour. So they continue:

Did you explain the breach of driving etiquette by focusing on the situation characteristics such as that the driver must be in a hurry, or having a bad day? Typically not. Under those circumstances, most Americans would make disparaging remarks about the driver's bad character, that is, they would make an internal attribution.

Interestingly, I did make a situational attribution as I suggested to my angry passenger that she, the driver cutting me off, probably was late for a meeting or had stretched her 30 minutes lunch break a bit too much, transforming the shortening of the Friday working hours an illusion yet again. I did not look for causes in her personality or character. But I'm wondering if that has anything to do with her being a woman. If it would have been a male driver, I suspect I'd be more prone to look for causes in a bad character.

Papers to the EuroITV conference

2007-05-09T11:46:00.000+03:00

We just added the papers we'll present during the EuroITV event in Amsterdam to our research website. The work in progress paper titled "Different” and “exciting”. The impact of set-top box and mobile phone interactivity on TV viewing experiences is available for downloading (pdf), as is the Doctoral Concortium paper Decoding experiencing entertainment in iTV. Oh well, inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes.

Dating

2007-05-08T10:57:00.000+03:00

I feel like a polar bear squinting against the sun after months of hibernation. Or in my case, weeks. I've been busy with a client's audience research and yesterday, after days of collecting data and analyzing it, the conclusions were finalized and the report was handed over. In such projects, I do nothing but devote my time to that, I don't check my calender to see what's up next month or follow up on interesting links I get. I'm "live by the hour" and "carpe diem" personalized. But now, when there's time for dating, that is to cruise around in the digital calender, I notice there's a lot of interesting things going on.

The conference on Media Literacy, in which I participate with a poster, is taking place here at my university in two days. There's a blog too for posting ideas and sharing experiences during the conference, which is a great idea! I wish there were more digital meeting spaces around events taking place off-line.

The date of the conference that my colleagues are organizing, Eyes on iTV, is also hurdling towards us. Registration is still open.

I'm off to Amsterdam in two weeks, for the EuroITV conference. Makes me kind of wonder, where was I during the spring? It feels like it's 2 months or so away. I guess I need to start preparing for it.

The deadline for submitting abstracts to the Virtual conference is 15th of May. More here.

And regrettably, my loan of the excellent but yet half unread book Psychology of Entertainment is way too soon due. Which, by the way, is an excellent excuse to occupy the cozy sofa in our lab :)

WoW and flow

2007-04-24T10:22:00.000+03:00

One of the most popular search words referring to my blog is MMORPG addiction or WoW addiction as I blogged this matter once. It seems that the issue engages, or worries perhaps, many, as for some, playing the game is affecting work, spare time, spending time with friends etc in a negative manner. I can certainly understand the popularity of the game as WoW is highly engaging for players on all levels, for both the noob as well as the the lvl 70 gamer, for the casual player and the hard core player. I’ve praised my restless character many times as it’s unlikely that I dwell on things, or get hooked on one single thing. My WoW-playing is more of the character that when I play, I do it fully and whole heartedly but quite rarely. As soon as I get a little bit tired, I quit. I forget about the game for weeks and when people ask me what level I’m at, I can’t remember. That said, that doesn’t mean I don’t like the game, I do. And it occupies my mind at times as I find myself thinking, “I should log on to see if my items were sold at the auction”, and I sometimes refer to items in the game when talking with friends. The game’s got me good but not hopelessly, in my opinion at least. To me, it’s pure entertainment.

On my desk at work, I have two books of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the issue of flow. I’ve read his theory on what happens when we’re engaged in things we love to do and I’ve applied it on interactivity in media and on iTV but one could also of course apply it to video games.

In short, Csikszentmihalyi argues that we’re the most happy when we’re completely immersed in something we love to do. When this occurs, we’re in a Zen like state of mind, “in flow”. When we find ourselves in that state of mind, we can lose track of time, may forget to eat and probably wouldn’t notice at all if a lion roared behind our back. The flow state is full of enjoyment, fulfillment and pleasure and naturally, it’s a state of mind that most people wish to be in quite often. According to Csikszentmihalyi, a couple of prerequisites must be met in order to this flow state to occur. For instance, there must be clear goals. There must be a challenge but one that relates to the level of skill. It’s like playing a set of badminton with an opponent much better or much less skilled than you, it’s simply not fun nor rewarding. There must be immediate feedback and the actor must have a sense of control.

Now, with WoW, all these requirements are met, in my view. There are two clear goals, the conflict between the Horde and the Alliance, and the goal of reaching lvl 70 and the “end game” (or leveling in general as then, the character is more powerful, gets better gear and stronger aids, and for some reason, humans always strive towards “better”, “higher”, “more”). There’s always something to work towards, depending on your moods. For example, you can develop your character and hunt for better equipment, weapons and gaining experience by completing quests. Or if you’re not up for loads of action, you can sit by the river fishing as that improves the skills of your character and ultimately, helps you reach the goal. The sense of control is great as there’s little that you must do. It’s up to you what quests you do, which skills you have, and what regions you play in. This is one of the big hooks of WoW in my opinion as since you can make what you want of the game, that is you’re designing your own gameplay experience, it’s likely to appeal to you in a great way. If you want a game where you can socialize with your friends or other players a lot and just occasionally go on missions, look no further! If you’re mostly interested in developing your character, feel free to do so. If you’re looking for taking part of an epic story much like a movie, you certainly can do that as well. There are huge challenges for those who look for that, like the raids or instances or trying out quests that are “aimed” at characters at much higher levels. Of course, you can choose easier challenges as well, although the reward of leveling might take a while then.

As the requirements for a flow state are met by the design and structure of the game, I’m not surprised that many find WoW a highly rewarding and entertaining game to which they devote a lot of time and energy. The trick is to keep the playing time at moderate levels.

My personality has been unveiled

2007-04-21T11:50:00.000+03:00

I've never taken a personality test in my entire life, apart from the ones of a more entertaining character like "which of the girls in Sex and the City do you resemble the most?" (turned out to be Miranda btw). And I rarely browse around, or surf around, on the internet. I actually installed the Stumble Upon-feature of Firefox to get me started but I've used it once. I always know what kind of information or source I'm looking for. This morning though, when reading the usual dozen of online magazines, I read a column where the journalist listed cool self tests, where you may find out if you're a leader, a complete idiot or if you stand a chance to make it to heaven or not. Boldly, and admittedly full of excitement, I took the "What your boss wants to know about you - your personality traits". Evidently, it's a test based on Carl Jung and Isabel Myers-Briggs typological approach to personality.

Having answered 2 of the 72 questions, I started thinking about how I could make better formulated statements myself. Like this one "You are almost never late for your appointments". How much does the negation affect your choice of answer, "yes" or "no"? And is your notion of "almost never" equal to mine? Or this one, "It is easy for you to communicate in social situations", how many would seriously answer no to this positively formed statement? It takes a great deal of courage to say No, actually, it is not easy for me to communicate in social situations.

Well, I figured there's not much I could do about the formulations so I filled it out and got the results. Et voilà, I'm a INTJ rational mastermind, a personality type that about 1 % of the world's population belongs to. In short, such a person is considered to be an enigma, of some even weird. They are self confident, of some considered even arrogant, they know what they want, they have a huge passion for knowing how thinks work and acquiring more knowledge on the world. In short, they are analytical, process driven, idea loving individuals that try to make sense of the world and of other people. When reading the results, I laughed so hard I nearly tipped over my cup of coffee. Some assertions were so right to the point! One example is the desire to constantly gain more knowledge. I'm currently reading, at the same time, 8 books. I'm reading loads of online magazines and newspapers every single day. Take that possibility away from me and I get restless like the wind. And what I just did when filling out the questionnaire, that is tried to improve the questions and hunted for signs of low validation and cheap tricks to make the results as general and widely applicable as possible, is a characteristic for INTJ persons. Lol!

What strikes me though is that the results were not as generally crafted as horoscopes and astrology models tend to be (like "You generally want to do good". Honestly, who doesn't?!) but rather detailed and to the point. Other things again were rather loosely defined. I don't fully buy into the type I was labeled with though. A lot of it is applicable to me but certainly not everything. But it sure was a good deal of fun to read through the suggested character and to recognize oneself at times.

I doubled my foot size

2007-04-18T18:58:00.000+03:00

I made a sad discovery yesterday. I attended a class on ecological footprints and I decided to measure my own remains. Turned out to be 6.6 global hectares and compared to my last measure, which I did 2,5 years ago, it has doubled! Lately, when reading and hearing about how frustrated and stressed some feel regarding the climate change and what to do to prevent it, I’ve suspected that the real issue has been a slight exaggeration. Not so anymore. My body actually feels stressed and I feel upset that this score (it is exactly that, a score among many, but one of the better measurements of how one’s consumption influences the Earth) of mine actually doubled although I’ve tried to live in a sustainable and ecologic way.

So I started troubleshooting, that is looking for the reasons to this increase and I found two: the use of cars and flying, two things that are not merely comfort issues but necessities. I have to travel in my work in order to attend events and to conduct audience research. I guess I don’t have to fly to Amsterdam in May, but driving or taking the train means less hours at work. Lately though, I’ve wondered what it would be like to arrange conferences and meetings say in Second Life. I know students who have their classes in SL are generally satisfied and happy with it (it was tested at Åbo Akademi last semester), could it be a model for work meetings as well? Being a sociologist, I’m kinda skeptical. And as for the use of car, it’s frustrating that it’s out of my control. I’d love to have the bus as my primary transportation vehicle, like I did for 7 years when studying, but it’s hard with the current bus routes in the countryside (on Saturdays, they’re leaving once an hour to town, the last one way too early at 17:30, and on Sundays, nada, zip, rien.). I could always approach the local politicians and/or the bus companies but oh well, it’s easier not to make a fuss and jump in the car. Sadly enough.

Jean Valjean and the changing identity

2007-04-16T21:55:00.000+03:00

Tonight, I did something I can't recall doing for ages. Flickering through the TV channels only to find a program I've seen before, but nonetheless remaining absolutely absorbed hooked the next hour although every scene is familiar and totally predictable. I normally don't do that but when something as brilliant as the story of Jean Valjean and his move from being an prisoned thief to becoming a noble citizen and mayor of a small town is on the telly (in the Les Misérables from 2000), you simply got to make an exception.

And I'm not much of a superstitious person, but indeed a drama queen, and therefore, I'm amused by a coincidence here. I stumbled upon the show at a major turning point where Jean Valjean, the villain, chooses to alter his identity, name and to change his way of leading his life. That's one way of looking at it. Another is that he cowardly escapes and runs away as his noble turning point, that is returning the penny he stole from a child, came a bit too late and he's charged with theft and thus sought after by the police.

I'm also at a major turning point in my life where my decisions will influence my identity. I've decided to buy a house, which is a golden opportunity to express who you are to others. I know pretty much what I want, and in what surroundings I want it, but I was thinking the other day, could you get away with faking it? At the end of the day, what the brochures with new houses try to sell you is an identity, "the modern one", "the traditional one", "the arty one" etc. But what if you find yourself in seven years saying, this is not me (anymore)? I don't see myself in this house? Suppose that a city girl, much like Carrie in Sex and the city, fancies a big red house out in the countryside, and decides to get one with huge vegetable gardens, sheep, bees and apple trees, solar panels and a life style endorsing an ecology and sustainable living. And it'd turn out, she tires of it in a couple of years, then what?

What I'm ultimately chasing here is the volatility of identity, and in the long run, much like Jean Valjean in Les Misérables was pondering, the importance of appearance for how others perceive who you are. Foucault claimed that identity is not something you have or possess, it's a shifting discourse, a construction that emerges when you interact with others. Giddens talks about the reflexive project, that we keep working with, reconstructing and rebuilding, our identity our entire lives. If this is the case, how do you succeed in making a sustainable and honest (to yourself) choice as to how you're going to live the next 20 years, at least, and in what area you'll live and so on? What if in the midst of skyscrapers a desire for a lush garden emerges, or if a yearning for a city life with cafés and bars rages in the midst of fields of wheat? I doubt that my favorite character in Les Misérables, Mr Javert (magnificently acted by John Malkovich), would agree with the life project ideas of Giddens nor with Foucault as he states that once a thief, always a thief, there's no way a villain will regret his doings. And if this was to happen, the person will always remain a thief in the eyes of the public. He'd better not be right.

Marge's view on the fate of Grad students

2007-04-05T09:38:00.000+03:00

I watched another episode of the Simpsons again last night and this time, Marge was the one to serve words of wisdom one can't do without. Bart holds a pony tail up to the back of his head saying "Look at me! I’m a Grad student and I made $600 last year." whereas Marge scolds him saying "Don’t make fun of Grad students Bart. They just made a bad life choice." Absolutely brilliant!

Catch your thoughts

2007-04-02T14:05:00.000+03:00

I watched an episode of The Simpsons last night, where my favorite character Lisa got caught thinking. In her opinion, it was morally wrong to dissect an animal. After telling her teacher this, the "Independent thought-alarm" was pushed and a series of brainwashing followed. A group of researchers at the University of Illinois catches and monitors thoughts too but in a complete other way and for a completely different reason than the Springfielders do. Here's a snapshot of the exact moment when the brain understands the received visual information (from the eyes), and here's a short video clip of the same event.

An slr camera as a mental sling

2007-03-31T19:14:00.000+03:00

I'm currently on holiday, for quite sometime as well, 2,5 weeks :) We did have plans on going abroad this week, but the urge kinda faded out. I don't know whether it's all the talk about flying to Thailand or even southern Europe is the ultimate proof that you're an environmental culprit or just that there were no really interesting last minute flights available. We had been to all the cities available, even lived in one of them so... Instead, I "wasted" my money on a new SLR camera, a Nikon D40. So far, I'm more than happy, rather excited really, I even neo-launched my flickr account that has been in a respirator for quite sometime now.

And today, I was again reminded of why it is so important to me to always carry around a camera, to always document things. The breakup of the ice in the rivers and streams has occurred unusually early this year. So when discussing this, my mum comments "yes, it's rather early but the ice breakup has been this early before too" and she tells me the year. Same thing happened when the past December was unusually warm, a friend of our family could pinpoint the exact year (I think it was in the 1930's) the weather had pulled similar tricks on snow sick Finns celebrating Christmas. And this is what bugs me, people remember things, they store knowledge in the nervous system well hidden from complicating factors like oblivion and they can more or less with little ease pull the information out of there. Whereas I don't. Sometimes, when I solemnly swear I don't know/remember something although having told a friend about it earlier, I'm told "I know you know that". That's pretty bad. And this is because I have to see an image in order to recall something. When I do, or when I'm told the scenery or surroundings of the situation I try to recall, all sorts of information comes to the surface such as who participated in the event, when and where it was, et cetera. It's the same thing with books or magazines, I always know on what page an article or even a piece of information is. And since I'm very interested in time spans regarding the weather, fashion, music, politics et cetera, taking pictures and storing them with a time stamp and a short, descriptive tag or is the only means I have to ever recall anything. Perhaps this is a form of photographic memory, on whose "to be or not to be" there seems to be a controversy going on...

Link herbarium

2007-03-26T19:32:00.000+03:00

I shouldn’t really be doing this, currently being on vacation and all, but I simply have to put down some links and decompose the Hemavan conference a bit. I'll keep it light though. There was a debate regarding the exact phrasing of the Finnish sentence, that once won a European contest for being the most pleasant sounding sentence. After a bit of googling, I'm naturally a lot wiser. It appears to be Aja hiljaa sillalla (which means "drive carefully/slowly on the bridge" and is taken from a road sign), an option that wasn’t even mentioned by us Finns :) I really like the sound of it, but this one is a lot better:

-Kokko, kokoo kokoon koko kokko!
(Kokko (surname) build up the bonfire!)
-Koko kokko?
(The whole bonfire?)
-Koko kokko!
(Yes the whole bonfire!)

There's no denying, Finnish is a great language!

Monique de Haas has a blog on cross media communication and she recently blogged an interesting project that awakes the gamer in me. Anyone can sign up for co-creating a game from scratch and once it’s a huge success, you can look forward to loads of royalty revenue. I’m kinda curious on the work methods though, as there’s a risk that the game will be a mosaic of the contributors’ compromises. Karin Danielsson told me about a BBC TV format that is now to air on SVT, called Slutet på historien (end of story). Established writers and authors provide the beginning of short stories, the ending is up to the viewers to write. Evidently, it’s a massive success in the UK. Mattias Arvola pointed me to Comikit, a creative software for children to train language among other things. I need to tip my colleagues working on the Space Trainees format on that.

Phew, now, the vacation may start!

Photo stream...

2007-03-26T10:41:00.000+03:00

from the conference in Hemavan added to Flickr.

Jak's narrative

2007-03-24T17:56:00.000+02:00

I'm currently listening to Jak Boumans's speech and when checking out his blog, I found a good and extensive recap of our time here in Hemavan.

Enchanting surroundings

2007-03-23T12:15:00.000+02:00

The second day of CMID is well under way. Christy Dena gave a great key note on cross media interaction design and she gave a three step method well worthy of keeping in mind:

How to move audiences between platforms?

Prepare and motivate the audience
Give instructions how to do it
Reward and acknowledge the action.

Now, the hills are less than one hour away.

Made up word?

2007-03-21T19:18:00.000+02:00

Earlier today, I prepared the Powerpoint presentation I'll use at the Cross Media conference CMID this weekend (it's jolly good to attend a conference in the snowy mountains of Hemavan, as you can toss away a few of the compulsory black cocktail dresses from the luggage and instead add a soft and cuddly slalom outfit) and I'm wondering whether there's such an English word as cross mediality. Even now, Blogger suggests swapping the word to cordiality or materiality and the post-modern quality check Google generates only 523 hits. Umm, I believe I need to rephrase that.

Outdated expected value

2007-03-10T16:52:00.000+02:00

I was given a fun read a couple of nights ago. It was a list of ages and behavior, mirroring the fact that in most societies, there are a set of expectations concerning age and accomplished growth and position in life. That is, if you've reached a certain age, you don't behave in way X but instead in way Y and your position in life is Z, not Q. The list, put together by three American researchers in 1969, treated appropriate behavior in relation to age. It was a fun read, and it turns out, I'm "inappropriate" to the max! I learned that "the best age for a woman to marry is 19-24 years old". I've passed that and no ring on my finger yet. Will I remain an old spinster now? And what if I ever remarry? Further, the list defines a young woman aged between 19-24. I'm not 24 anymore and I still believe that I'm quite young. (I rejoice like a child at Christmas when I'm in a flow and there's no stopping my tears when I face setbacks. That's not a typical adult behavior.) Also, the best age to graduate and get a job is 20-22 years old. A rather hurting claim these days, I imagine, when many start a new education after 20 years out on the labor market. The troublesome part is that this list was handed out to psychology students. I truly hope the aim was to illustrate how age and behavior once was, or could be, depicted, not to illustrate how it de facto is today.

Hip knitting

2007-03-03T10:03:00.000+02:00

I read in a magazine lately that according to a Swedish trend guru (his name simply slipped my mind as it was so ordinary. I believe it was Jonas Karlsson) it's ultra hip to 1) favor tea over coffee, especially latte, 2) stay at home in the living room couch instead of hanging at the local wine bar, not keeping the telly company but to... 3) craft your own clothes, bags etc. Especially crocheting and knitting is in. I just had to give up a huge laugh when reading about this trend, as this is what I've done for ages. It made me feel somehow exposed to exoticism. It's like when people from the other side of the globe visit your home or local neighborhood and they go all "Wow, this is fantastic, how truly beautiful and exotic!" and they are mesmerized by ordinary things, like a cheese slicer, and you simply can't grasp the extraordinary element of it as you see it every day. The photo to the right here is a proof that my couch is my castle and the knitting needle is my weapon. Last night, we were invited to a birthday party. A couple of hours before, I realized I didn't have a greeting card. So I headed for the couch with a ball of yarn, et voilà, I crocheted a pink peony, glued it to a card and "happy birthday!".

Cultural WoW

2007-02-27T14:44:00.000+02:00

I noticed that Jill Walker has a chapter (perhaps several?) on WoW in a new book on role-playing and games. I should get my hands on that publication although I'm quite text stressed now. Too much interesting to read in too little time. (I'm struck by another fatigue as well, the "No! Not another season-fatigue! I want my favorite TV-series to tell their story in only a few seasons. It's naive, I know, and I foolishly believed that the enigma of Life on Mars would be solved in 8 episodes. Stupid me! I was not thrilled when I found out I "had to" follow another season of it.)

She also blogs on the multitude of references to culture, music and other media in WoW. For example, you can buy a Hanzo sword for your character and if you're familiar with the Kill Bill movies, you'll recognize the item. It's a great surprise when accepting a quest with references to Bob Dylan for instance. It's an Easter Egg, making you smile. Speaking of items, I did the Deadmines with my Draenei character last Sunday and there, I got myself a truly dreadful weapon... a rolling pin! Watch out!

Accepted papers and conference site launch

2007-02-26T16:21:00.000+02:00

Lots of academia in the pipeline now. I got my papers accepted for two conferences, the CMID07 in Hemavan, Sweden, concerning crossmedia interaction design and EuroITV in Amsterdam in May. Hurray! I'm so looking forward to indulging myself in passionate, scientific discourse and chilly, snowy slopes!

At the same time, the preparations for our own conference Eyes on iTV has taken off big time now, as it's due to take place in late May here in Vasa. I started drawing on the logo for it last week and finally, today, the new, improved site launched. During the conference, we're putting together an academic ensemble, where researchers can present and discuss iTV related issues. There'll be no publications, pre-submissions of paper propositions or the like. Instead, the outcome will be a meeting between media scholars and media practitioners. I'm fond of this form of encounters, where experts share their insights and case studies with an audience for say 20-30 minutes followed by an open discussion with the audience. The ones I've attended have provided with loads of knowledge and few yawns, I hope ours will do the same. The submission tool for abstracts for proposed presentations will be up in a few days.

exEnteractivity's got a new look

2007-02-16T10:59:00.000+02:00

My other blog, or perhaps rather a resource site for my PhD thesis, has been pimped up. I added the recent findings on how the viewing experience of iTV differs depending on the interactivity tool, i.e. the mobile phone or the set-top box. My near future agenda with conferences to attend and papers to have camera-ready soon is updated as well.

Stojetari

2007-02-13T18:43:00.000+02:00

Pretty fascinating. The tale of Stojetari, or why people from Malax has a reputation of being gluttons for food, is often brought up as I'm born and raised in Malax. But the roots of the tale have been a bit ambiguous and now, I found an explanation to the story that differs from the "modern" one. This is an assumption regarding the background of the tale made by the municipal doctor Hampus Granfelt, in early 20th century, and the quote is from the book Malax 1914 – En undersökning av kommunalläkaren Hampus Granfelt om Malaxborna och deras levnadsförhållanden i tidigt 1900-tal, published by Malax museiförening.

"Man hör ofta isynnerhet i Österbotten uttrycket “äta som en Malaks storätare”, dock tror jag ej att malaksbon äter mera än hans grannar i norr och söder, öknamnet torde tilldelats honom af hans granne i norr såsom jag hört uppgifvas, emedan malaksbon förut vid sina stadsresor ofta medförde ”matsäck”. Födan är mycket enkel och saknar omväxling, de förnämsta födoämnena utgöras af bröd, potäter, mjölk, gröt eller välling, smör, som dock i allmänhet ej förekommer vid hvarje måltid, salt fisk och salt kött, det sistnämnda torde dock vara en ganska sällsynt gäst på matbordet." (pages 32-33)

Blogs and me in the news

2007-02-09T10:06:00.000+02:00

The daily newspaper Vasabladet, at which I worked a couple of summers both as a writing and layout reporter, has a feature story today on blogs. I contribute with the explanation part, as to why people blog. I once blogged on the underlying reasons and in the feature story, I repeat that I believe two human needs are met by blogging, that is the need to express oneself and to belong to a community (or as the sociologist love to call it: Gemeinschaft) or a peer-group. The story is not on-line, curiously enough, but if I find the time, I'll see if I can upload a screen shot of the story.

Mobile testing

2007-02-05T21:37:00.000+02:00

Desperate housewives ain't all too exciting so I'm testing mobile blogging.

Individual or collective net action?

2007-02-05T09:43:00.000+02:00

In the Davos07 aftermath, Jeff Jarvis ponders the elements and power of the net in a blog post. He concludes that a "Society 2.1", where people come together online, is at the horizon rather than a "Web 3.0" which is all about individual action online and nicely handing over UGC material to others.

Mobile cloak

2007-02-02T13:39:00.000+02:00

Earlier this week, I got myself a new Nokia N80ie. Since the display is rather big, it's kind of vulnerable lying around naked amongst pens, books, keys and other stuff in my bag. Naturally, I had to eliminate this threat to the usability of an otherwise pretty good mobile by crocheting a warm, protective and comfy mobile phone cloak. Turned out pretty nice.

Florae trend

2007-01-28T21:02:00.000+02:00

I rarely follow trends when it comes to my home's interiors but as I love to keep up with what's going on, I read an article on the trends in home furnishings 2007. Apparently, country style is so hot with leaves and flowers at the forefront. I'm thrilled! I'd love to have the bureau to the right, with all sorts of peonies on it.

The science of the tingling sensation

2007-01-25T10:53:00.000+02:00

Yesterday afternoon, my head hurt, my eyes were sore and there was not one thought worthy of a single moment of attention passing through my system. Luckily, I know what makes me hurtle out of such a coma and back to reality: running. While sweating on a tread mill last night, I localized the deep, pleasant and highly rewarding feeling also known as runner's high. For me, it's like a jellyfish of power mooching about in the center of the abdomen, with tentacles injecting tingling sensations. One had better feed this jellyfish of strength as when it's awake, it makes you feel like you're God almighty crossed with Popeye and Forrest Gump, who ran across the continent. (And yes, it's the same jelly fish arms that arre somehow annoyed when you get a stitch.)

While jogging on, I started pondering whether the runner's high experience is somehow interlinked with my barometer of a good game. According to me, a good computer game is one that makes my stomach tingle. Following the Burning Crusade of WoW, I created a Draenei character (I'm on the Al'Akir server, named Paeonia, so there, now you know to whom you want to address coins of gold) and while learning the secrets of totems, I gained wings and flew off a mountain. And I'll be damned, it actually felt like I was flying myself. The moment my character had no soil under her hoof, a tingling sensation spread in my stomach just as if I was flying myself. This emotion was more temporary and diffuse but nonetheless real and more intense than the runner's high. I'm playing with the idea to wire up some of my friends, or myself, to the skin conductance and pulse electrodes in our lab at work while playing - or flying for that matter - in WoW. There hasn't been all too many studies measuring bodily responses to playing games, although I recently read one where the researchers found a significant effect of conduciveness for pride and joy. That is when the game runs smoothly and you're likely to achieve your goal, emotions like joy and pride are likely to rise. Perhaps it is joy, or pride, I'm feeling as I'm improving my character's skills by flying off the rock, but that's not the whole truth, I suspect.

And speaking of running, why is it that one's strength and stamina improves and lasts longer when someone is running next to you at the exact same pace? Is it an heritage from our 9 months spent in mummy's belly and experiencing the simultaneous beat makes us feel secure and relaxed? I wonder if there's a relation between the heart beats of the child and the mother. Do they beat simultaneously and if the mother's heart beat takes off, does the child's heart pace keep up with her beat? It's funny how I benefit from one rhythmic beat, that is having someone next to me who's heel touches the ground the exact same second mine does while others annoy me. I utterly recent playing the piano with a metrometer accompanying me. I guess I've always regarded the metronome as an intrusion in my creativity, something that limits my freedom to interpret a minuet in my own way. Unfortunately, my piano teacher back in the 1980's didn't agree...

Schlager slayer

2007-01-23T13:10:00.000+02:00

The truly excellent video produced in house and shown at last year's Christmas party at my work is now available on youtube. The Schlager slayer is a thriller with a great pinch of humor, made by the media students.

I'm a piece of white chocolate

2007-01-22T17:09:00.000+02:00

I attended a seminar on language and media last weekend and opinions were raised regarding the preferences of language style of different generations. The assumption was that elderly people don’t really like reading English words in the news paper, slang or expressions like rofl. About midways in the debate, I started reflecting on which generation dwelling I confess to (I’m born 1978). Am I a Generation X:er (people born 1965-1978)? Or do I belong to the Generation Y (1979-1999) or even the MTV Generation (1974-1985)? At times, I feel like I belong to Generation Y, that is net-savvy folks brought up in an wired world where a natural source of news is the online version of the local newspaper. But then again, I don’t really feel like I match the description (although I was fortunate enough to have a commodore 64 in my room with the splendid game Boulderdash). I feel like I’m a piece of white chocolate, which is referred to as chocolate, but contains neither cocoa beans nor caffeine. It is not real chocolate, close but no cigar, kind of. Shortly, I feel like I’m too old for the net generation category but too young to tick the generation X box. I’m somewhere in between two distinct generations.

So I started listing what stands out for people, born like me in 1978 and teeter-tottering between Generation X and Generation Y. This is a highly non-scientific, statistically non-significant but indeed a subjective identification of a pattern: Many of my friends in my age value friends and family (as opposed to the job), money (ironically enough considering the earlier parenthesis), sharing and connectedness. They tend to think in terms of chains instead of hyper links. They are net-savvy and wired, but still don’t give the possibility of leveling in WoW higher priority than strolling around in the park a beautiful, sunny winter’s day. Right about here, a label for this group of people came to mind: Generation W. The “W” would be ideal, not due to the evolution of www (the web) while we were young and neither due to our life being pretty wired, but because of the typography. The W is basically two V:s in one, which symbolizes a fellowship, a togetherness. Depending on the font used, the first V is mirrored, that is identical but yet different. And because it is mirrored, it’s easy for another letter to take over (like WW). That reflects the sense for justice and thinking in terms of chains. The letter W also, depending on the font, resembles a pot which of course makes one associate to inclusiveness, togetherness.

Excited about my “new” notion, I googled it to see in what contexts it has been used and whether it is a widely used term. Apparently, there’s a tv-series with this name aired in the late 1990’s. But other than that, I did not manage to get a clear picture of what “Generation W” stands for, or who it comprises. According to one source, it’s been applied to persons born in 1980-2000 (the W stands for web perhaps). Another blogger writes about the war generation, in other words kids born or brought up while Bush is in the White house. If any of you readers are familiar with the field of generation research and how the notion of generation w is used, please let me know!

Content manifest

2007-01-18T13:30:00.000+02:00

When people learn I blog, the general reception is a joyful “Ah, yes, I regularly read some blogs myself, it is an interesting phenomenon.” Some ask what I blog about, and with what software and ask for the url, but not once has the question of why – the reason for my blogging - been posed. I’ve pondered why that is. Perhaps it is so, because those who know me know that writing is my true element and therefore, it does not really come as a great surprise that I’m writing blog posts on the internet. Or perhaps one of the greatest human basic needs is so widely recognized that most don’t reflect on it, that is the need for self-expression. Maybe when they learn that someone blogs, they automatically think that “yeah, putting down one’s thoughts and sharing them with the world, that makes perfect sense” and wouldn’t come to think of questioning it or digging into it.

To be honest, I’m glad I’ve never been asked to “justify” my blogging as I haven’t had a clear, pin-pointed objective. I had to reflect on it when I recently updated the layout and template of my blog. I figured I should add some sort of product description of Paeonia to guide new readers. I’m not assuming people have the time to read through half my archive just to get a grasp of who I am or what topics I write about.

Tangled up in thoughts on motives for blogging, while updating my template, I came to think about the papers I used in my teaching on blogging last autumn. Susan Herring found in her study that “surprisingly many” blogs contain few or no links at all. The blogs were not as interactive as one would expect, but rather individualistic, even intimate, and they seemed to play the role of a tool for self expression. Again, the self expression. I believe that is a huge drive for us humans, perhaps increasingly more so these days. People love to talk about themselves, their life and to share stories and experiences they’ve had. Nothing new, nothing bad about that. Perhaps the fact that the majority of blogs are personal, diary-kind of blogs mirrors the need to express one-self.

Another assumption would be to consider the blog a means to reflect upon one’s identity, using Gidden’s thoughts on self-identity. He basically says that our self, our identity, is nothing we simply inherit from our parents. It’s not static or impossible to redefine, on the contrary. Our self and identity is rather a story or biography that we keep telling ourselves around us, by our clothes, our actions, hobbies and tales we tell. Naturally, this is not done in a vacuum either, the tale you tell about yourself to others and their feedback is important. This is of course something that goes on every day, you can’t build it one day and preserve it like that forever. Now, is this why diary-like blogging is so popular, because it serves as a tool to keep our story, our biography, going? Is blogging a tool to keep reflecting on ourselves and the world, and to (re)define our place in it? The beauty of it is that as you keep the story of yourself going, you also get to share it with an immense audience, who can actually give you feedback on your biography.

One thought that lands close to the one above is that the limit of how far the individualization of our society can go is perhaps close. Maybe people want to take a step back, maybe they want to be individualistic by blogging, but together with others, in blogging communities on the net. Like small islets forming an asymmetric pearl necklace in a lake, individual but still together, within reach.

Well, I did manage to identify the two main ingredients that make up Paeonia. There’s, firstly, a need for storage for thoughts, links and ideas. Secondly, I think better when I write. I formulate myself better then as I need to visualize an imagined audience. It helps getting to the core of loose thoughts. (A friend who I went to university with had a complete opposite way of doing things. At exams, he sat for hours simply thinking, with an entirely blank paper in front of him. Then the last 30 minutes, he put a perfect answer to paper, handed it in and got straight A:s. I on the other hand need to draw and write while trying to figure out what to say.) So voilà, the answer to why I blog is that I need 1) a place to store interesting things I stumble upon and 2) a creative sandbox where I can grow loads of toys and then refine those I believe in. What really bugs me though is that I don’t have much time to actually sit down in this sandpit and play with the thoughts and develop them into something. Thinking requires time and I’ve been short of that lately.

Crisp thoughts

2007-01-12T16:31:00.000+02:00

Best idea of the day: while struggling with narrowing down and concluding my thoughts into an abstract on 200 words, I decided to take a walk around the block, in an attempt to produce some new ideas (I trick I learned while working at Åbo Underrättelser, thanks Yrsa!). Naturally, it did the trick. It's -8 outside, sunny, a small chilly breeze, these are such beautiful surroundings I live in. Life and blood returned to my head and synapses reproduced at a massive rate. There, a free tip for all with challenging tasks ahead.

tv quiz solution

2007-01-09T10:59:00.000+02:00

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the buzz word quiz I did on hot words at the conference on iTV in London I attended. Well, here's the solution (as a pdf-file).

My blog went wii

2007-01-07T20:42:00.000+02:00

This is how my blog appears when read on a TV screen, using a Wii. I feared that browsing (in Opera) and reading the posts on a TV screen would be troublesome, near-sighted as I am, but it wasn't. And there was no need for squinting either as the "zoom in" feature made the text intelligible and clear.

Have your say on three pilots on science

2007-01-03T10:15:00.000+02:00

Here’s an interesting interactive project involving the TV audience as content experts. PBS, a public broadcaster in the US, is asking the viewers for help in deciding which of three TV pilots – “Wired Science”, “Science investigators” and “22nd Century” - will become a regular science series on the channel. You can watch the three pilots free of charge at the PBS website and then comment on them. Based on audience research and on the feedback of the viewers, PBS then decides which pilot makes it into a series.

New look

2006-12-30T18:29:00.000+02:00

Last night, my fiancé and I, we were preparing our New Year's stay up north by packing overalls, warm winter ski outfits, cameras, the whole works really, firmly believing we were going to head north early this morning. Just before heading into the sauna last night though, our eyes fell on the printed reservation for the place we'll be staying at and what do you know! The reservation we'd made was for the 31st December 'til 2nd January, not 30th-2nd! If we hadn't seen that, we would've driven up there, without a place to stay that night! So I realized I gained, or won, a day. One additional, entire day without any plans, completely up for grabs for the best ideas. That truly was a strange feeling! So I started off by going out for some drinks with friends, getting home way too late and thus ensuring that my body opposes any activities today. It's not the most cleaver way to spend a day earned but hey, the human mind does not work rationally all the time.

So I'm parked in the couch with three heat generators, the cup of coffee, the laptop and the peach blanket I got for Christmas way way back, and I'm pondering what to make of this sorry day. Et voilà, I'll do a new template and layout for my blog, something I've been meaning to get around to for quite sometime now. When I'm hangovery, I'm always very creative - I get my best ideas in a weary state of mind - and thus this current project.

I did an eye tracking study about two months back on my blog. I had a couple of colleagues, who hadn't visited the blog before, to look it up and read what and as much as they wanted. Turns out that the heading is of no interest. That could imply two things, that a heading to someone entering the site is of no interest, or that my heading simply does not attract any attention. As my heading does not cover any substantial information that you absolutely have to know, I'm keeping it simple. No photos, no fancy graphics. Just two sentences.

Another finding is that the readers all started off by reading the blog posts, which were earlier to the left. This is interesting as there were several images, that usually attract the gaze, in the blog roll to the right. I'm guessing they have learned to ignore small features to the right as sponsored ads and other commercials are often in that very place, to the right. Therefore, I'll do a switch now, I'll have the blog roll, links and archive to the left as that is substantial information that I'm hoping people will see.

I was also thinking about coloring "Comments","Posted by Paeonia..." with a greenish nuance but judging from the heat maps, people tend to read them anyways, perhaps 'cause they're so obviously separated from the blog post. Therefore, I see no reason to color them, but one. It would be awfully boring not to blend the brown text with another color, my visual eye won't rest until something breaks the brownish advantage.

Only one more thing to do now really, and that is to figure out how to accentuate the links in a blog post. Now, they're not highlighted at all, which makes them disappear. I need to work on that...

Update: an image of the snowy slopes, when we finally got there

New year's resolution

2006-12-29T20:00:00.000+02:00

Being a former journalist, I know what makes the press tick and therefore, I rarely complain on news stories. I do not approve of the negative, sensational perspective many news stories are presented with, but hey, I can always choose not to read them. I'm quite good at browsing further down after spotting a heading containing chock, porn and scandal.

But last Wednesday, I simply had to shake my head and complain a little. I was listening to the radio while heading to town and the news were on. The anchor informed me that the firework sale for making the New Year's Eve a bit brighter had started that day. And she continued: "Many are likely to hurt themselves while attempting to light a sky rocket or a Roman candle." The big event, the New Year's Eve, was still four days ahead and already there were speculations on how many was going to get hurt! Not if there would be any accidents, that's taken for granted, but how many. It wasn't a bit from a press conference or a story on accidents, the piece of news were basically three sentences, the first being that the sales started that day, followed by many will get hurt and finally for how long you'll be able to purchase fireworks.

Firstly, I wonder where's the news in this piece of information? Every year, accidents related to fireworks do happen and are very well reported on in the news. Secondly, why kill the excitement and joy? Why not report on the issue of New Year's in a positive, enlightening manner? Why the constant negative perspective? I guess the intention was to enlighten and to make sure that people are aware of the risks involved and to promote security while firing up the rockets. This is a good thing of course, but is this necessary every year? Why not at least add something like tips on how to spend it, what events are happening in major cities, some historical spice like how the Chinese invented it as a means for entertainment or whatever. People are interested in other things than death, injuries, sex and violence. Therefore, I suggest that some media folks ought to make it a New Year's Resolution to try to see things out of a more positive perspective.

Well, enough complaining, Happy New Year everyone! I'll be making an old dream come true, finally, which is waving off this year and embracing the next one in Lapland among deers and snowy mountains.

Is money loosing its value?

2006-12-28T21:59:00.001+02:00

After an evening of intense wii playing in the living room (no, nothing broken yet except illusions of being a champ at tennis with a good old retro graphics) I decided to calm my brain with some aimless browsing on the net. I stumbled upon a recent study by the research company United Minds on what’s high-status and what’s not according to Swedes. It turns out that status is not for sale, as non-material values top the chart (these are all my home brewed translation):

1. To be well read
2. To be a good and engaged parent
3. To possess a fortune derived from one’s own work
4. To be capable at work
5. To master several languages
6. To be able to be on vacation the entire summer
7. To spend time and money on helping people in need
8. To have many friends
9. To live in a big villa/apartment
10. To have an entirely own style

To be able to buy posh new clothing brands did not make it high up the list. Qualities you can possess without a chest loaded with money by your bed, like being good at what you do and being a good friend, did however, which does not surprise me. I’ve sensed a change for a long time now. I’ve seen indications perhaps not on an anti-movement to the consumerism, to the materialistic society characterized by an “the one with the most gadgets when s/he dies wins” attitude and a love for “hard values” but certainly on a large scaled, firm declaration that “my choice is different”. That “Although I accept that you do the race, I choose not to participate in it. I don't need a 300 square meter house with exclusive floorboard from Africa in order to be happy and content with my life.”. I thought about blogging these signals that I pick up, lastly when commenting the President’s choice to wear a gown dating a couple of years back at the Castle ball. But it sank into oblivion until tonight when I read this press release on the status list.

Status can’t be bought, says United Minds, and neither can happiness, according to Kari Nars, whose book Pengar och Lycka (Money and happiness) I just finished. KN claims that the more a society stresses material efforts in order to land a happy life, the less it values the search for a deep satisfaction with life and the inner meaning of life. “Materialism marginalizes religiosity” he writes and gives as an example the great number of people resigning the church in Finland.

I’m not convinced this is the case and I don’t equal the fact that many do leave the church with a poor interest in religiosity. Maybe there simply are better ways of practicing it, according to many. I think on the contrary that more and more people are searching more and more for a meaning of life and take and interest in spiritual nourishment, religiosity and non-material values. Perhaps as a consequence of being tired of living in the material world that KN depicts. The great interest in self help books, the great number of days devoted to team building at work places and seminars on how to be a better employer/employee/father/lover/friend are examples of the evidence of a big interest in the meaning of life and spiritual matters, in my eyes at least. I don’t believe people read a book on, say, ”Making the most out of your job” in order to advance to become a boss in 2 months time. I believe there’s a desire for spiritual nourishment, for getting to know who you really are and who you want to be that lies beneath. And in a broader sense, speaking of the material values getting cold, I notice that many dig through their grand parent’s attics now, hoping to find a vintage/retro beautiful handbag to go along the city shopping afternoon, instead of simply buying a brand new bag with a rugged look. More and more people are actively supporting locally produced food and handicraft. Another signal of a declining materialistic view on life is the collective spirit found on the internet. I know of many who don’t pay for support when setting up their own websites. In stead, they consult discussion forums and user forums, where other people are glad to help and trade advice, for free.

In short, I see people striving to be and genuinely valuing what’s on the top 10 list in the beginning of the post. To them, money, gadgets, costs and surface is not as hot as are values, engagement, reliability and to dare have a deep and intense discussion on things. I for one would love to see more of that!

tv quiz

2006-12-13T12:35:00.001+02:00

This is a puzzle (a pdf-file, print it if you like!) I created when I got back from London. The hot words that I repeatedly scribbled down on paper during the conference are to be entered into the quiz, with the help of clues. There’s no prize to be won unfortunately, other than the great personal satisfaction of completing it successfully. Enjoy!

Consumerism

2006-12-06T20:42:00.000+02:00

I did make it to the V&A Museum in London last week. It was a thrill, I spent most of the time at the exhibition of da Vinci's notebooks. I love it how he used mirror-writing, due to lefthandedness. It was a real challenge reading his notes, especially as he didn't exactly waste any paper, the words were close to one another. I guess it's a lazy but yet very effective way to learn things, to watch the movie or go to an exhibition instead of reading the book. I did it with Mahatma Gandhi and now with da Vinci. I read about half way through a biography on da Vinci, but after realizing it was more beneficial for my sleep than for my curious mind, I threw it out and decided to go to the museum instead. Which worked just fine, I didn't for instance know da Vinci studied the anatomy of the tongue when we produce sounds and that he was a gifted musician. Luckily enough, I had time to visit the exhibition on fashion as well. There was one section devoted entirely to 60's UK fashion, fabulous! I totally love skirts and dresses. Having said that, I regret to say that though I spent one afternoon hunting for skirts and dresses, I bought none. Not a single one. The problem was that they were all too expensive considering a couple of buttons and seams were hanging loosely. A friend questioned my sanity, going to London without bunkering up clothes, like squirrels! But I've never been into consumerism of that sort. I've sewed skirts of old table cloths and curtains because I absolutely adored the fabric. I re-use my mothers dresses from the 70's and buy second hand. I avoid to all cost the Christmas season rush in the stores because I get totally stressed out watching how people run around buying - in my view - unnecessary things. The joy of small funny plastic toys is particularly ambiguous to me. It seems that this sort of recycling in clothes has reached many others. I watched the ball at the President's castle on the telly last night. Apparently, President Tarja Halonen's black dress, which was very beautiful, was the same one as she wore a couple of years back, only a bit moderated this year.

More photos here

Music in games

2006-11-28T12:12:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, I did a quest south of Menethil Harbour, in the Wetlands region, in WoW. The waters were new to me and so was the music played there. It was oriental, something I'd listen to while doing my yoga. In fact, it was quite irritating and it disturbed the game play. But apart from this particular area, I love the music in the game as it's extremely subtle, it reinforces the gaming experience depending on whether you're flower hunting or fighting troggs and it sticks to my mind like rabbits to hay. I sometimes find myself humming the tune played in Inns and in Stormwind. So, last night, I thought I should do something out of my passion for classical music and playing the piano. I'm not much into playing pop music but rather classical and instrumental and I figure that computer games must be a market for that. The sort of pieces I play at home are exactly what I want to hear (or not hear but on a subconscious level) in games. Perhaps I should start my own company for it. Then, I'd only have to find myself a symphony orchestra to accompany me :)

Think for yourself

2006-11-23T16:42:00.000+02:00

It is often said that most users don't want to think when they're online. Whenever it's possible, they should be aided in appropriate ways, like when Google suggests phrases in your search. Naturally, I'm the exception. Among the first things I did when I got a new phone was to switch off the function where a dictionary suggests words based on the first syllables when I'm composing an sms. Neither am I a fan of my car's rain sensor nor the auto correction feature of Word. But at times, it's quite fun to have the program think for you, like I did today when spell checking an activity report I'm writing. Instead of EuroITV, Word suggests Erotic and Neurotic. Hmm, maybe not.

PhD comics

2006-11-22T15:47:00.000+02:00

I can't believe I haven't stumbled upon this comic site on the hardship of being a PhD student before. Well, all the more joy to catch up with now then. (I adore comics, hope Santa Claus reads my blog...) Regarding the strip, I sure hope I never find myself in the same situation!

telephone of the future

2006-11-21T17:13:00.000+02:00

I'm in a vintage phase again, as looking at things out of a time perspective sort of puts them in perspective. That goes for a lot of things, not only societal phenomena. I found this old ad in the comic magazine Kapten Stofil (4;2006), I especially like the byline claiming that this is how the telephone of the future will look like.

Three step model in London

2006-11-20T12:31:00.000+02:00

I'm off to London in a week, exactly 2 years since I last visited this marvelous city. It'll be a brew of "very old", "old enough to be vintage" and "brand new" which I'm looking forward to. The "very old" and "vintage" part is covered by the Leonardo da Vinci and Sixties Fashion exhibitions at the V&A Museum. I'll be very short of time but I just have to make it to these two events, otherwise I'll be very disappointed. The Digital Hollywood event we'll attend - iDTV Lab is participating in a session called "Research, development and investment in internet, entertainment technologies and media studies innovation." - takes care of the innovations bit. Many of the sessions during this three day long media conference will focus on the future, what's hot right now and what's the industry focusing on right now. I wonder what the verdict on UGC will be, is it a hit or not?, and whether there will be any consumer research results presented. In a week, I'll be wiser.

News flash

2006-11-16T15:34:00.000+02:00

A usability report I just finished is being news flashed, apparently :)

World Usability Day today

2006-11-14T13:24:00.000+02:00

It's the World Usability Day (hear, hear!) today, make sure to check out the web casted events all around the globe here.

PhD-student's haiku poem

2006-11-10T12:10:00.000+02:00

En höstlig doktorandkurs i Danmark
fick en aningen försenad avspark.
Men väl framme på ort
och kråset blivit smort
krossades illusionen om en lekpark.

Ett intensivt program tog fart
med syftet att göra mig smart.
Men lägesrapporten i halvtid
indikerar en övergödd humanoid
vars hjärna till pølse smalt.

In short: one week of intense academic work, sometimes for 13 h/day, in Denmark has been fun, inspiring but somewhat exhausting.

Update: Photos from the PhD week here.

Pervasive games

2006-11-05T15:34:00.000+02:00

I wonder if there has been any pervasive games, like Uncle Roy all around you, in Finland and/or Ostrobothnia? It would be so cool to devote Christmas break to such a play. I need to refine that idea, no time right now though. I'm off to the PhD course in Denmark early in the morning and I haven't hunted down my suit case yet, no to mention packed... :)

Gaming

2006-10-31T21:52:00.000+02:00

I won’t put all notes from today’s seminar on line as the ppt-files apparently will be uploaded soon.

I will mention the “aha!” though. Manu Pärssinen talked of current trends in the gaming world. Apparently, innovative and creative games do appeal to reviewers but not to the consumers as these games don’t sell. Licensed games and sequels on the other hand sell well, such as NHL 2005 and Cars. Does this mean that parents are a large percentage of the game buyers? Does it mean that it’s easier to buy a game with characters you’ve seen in the movies and on posters around town, than a game with unknown characters but with great reviews? Seems like the Long tail theory doesn’t apply here, although that’s how I pick my games.

About games and playing games, I enjoyed watching an enjoyment element in playing in action last weekend. We were a group of friends playing Alhambra, or Alahärmä as we call it, a great game, get it if you of some weird reason don’t already own it (and no, there‘s not a stock of money on my bank account now). Usually, there’s one clear leader and one evident poor looser when we play the game, leaving a bunch of mediocrities in the middle competing with each other. Therefore, most don’t really fight for winning but to get in second or third. No real challenge. But this time, all of us were doing about equally good. No one lagged desperately behind, no one spurted ahead and therefore, the fighting spirit and challenge increased big time. Everyone stood a chance to win and it made the game so much better and pleasurable. At the end, all agreed it was one heck of a game, much more enjoyable when you competed against everyone, not just a couple of contestants. Although one conclusion at today’s seminar was that the definition of a good game is very individual and hard to boil down to, say “a good story”, “graphics”, “social context”, I wonder if not challenge is applicable to most gamers. If there’s no evident challenge, then is there pleasure and enjoyment? I doubt that.

The tale of a perfect Sunday night

2006-10-29T20:01:00.000+02:00

Today's great weather made such an impact on me that I had to head for the nature again. I actually brought a thermos bottle of hot chocolate this time which was great, however I forgot the cookies. Perhaps that's why the moose decided to remain at a distance as they wouldn't be up for any treats.

A tale of a perfect Sunday morning

2006-10-29T12:27:00.000+02:00

I enjoyed a cup of coffee while browsing through the morning paper, being content that I wasn’t feeling all that hang overy. I decided to listen to this week’s pod casts I subscribe to, starting with the science news by the Swedish Radio P1. A very daring adventure an early Sunday morning, I know. While listening to the part on the recent discovery of the female gene (a “male gene”, or the sry-gene carried by most men, has already been identified and now, a group of researchers have found one gene determining the female sex) bright light hit my eyes. A pale, late-October sun rose above the roofs. Finally, after this weekend’s blizzard! I decided to grab my camera and have a walk (actually flopping around is more accurate due to the snowdrifts) in the forest to wake myself up and get some air. The serenity in the midst of the woods was incredible; it was just me, snow crystals and rays of sun light. Hard to top a morning like that!

Friday's blizzard left its mark.

It's such a shame I didn't get around to collecting any rowanberries this year. It's a Christmas tradition I have, to do a bit of alchemy in early October and voilà, you have a nice bottle of rowanberry liqueur at Christmas Eve. Sadly, it's too late for it now.

I went through the kids' play ground on my way home. They thoroughly appreciated the snow and chill, laughing in their sledges. I guess the birds of passage above us didn't quite agree.

Retro evidence

2006-10-27T15:55:00.000+03:00

I'm attending a course in presentation skills, which I've really looked forward to. I'm great with words but talking, well, there's work to be done there, to put it diplomatically :) So, today I held a presentation about entertainment and it all went really well. Every participant filled out a feedback form and what's more, the whole session was being filmed in order to let us study our presentation closely at home to reveal all silly hand gestures and nervous ticks we do. Which was great, accept that we got the video material on VHS! That's way too retro for me! As I don't have access to a VHS player, the video will probably remain unstudied. Hopefully, I can transform it into a dvd at work though.

Occupational injury

2006-10-26T14:14:00.001+03:00

For six months now, I've been training scientifically. That is training accordingly with my heart rate. Apart from reaching those training goals I set out to do, I'm fascinated by being in such a direct contact with my body when exercising. If I decrease the intensity of the exercise, of course I feel my heart's response to that. But what gets me going is to actually monitor the heart rate while increasing the pace, say from 7 to 7,3 km/h, and to make comparisons over time. One friend of mine interprets this as "being a control freak". Hm, another friend is more right on track I think "Oh that's just you, you're always so scientific!". Maybe it's an occupational injury.

CfP to EuroITV

2006-10-23T10:22:00.000+03:00

The 2nd call for papers to EuroITV 2007 in Amsterdam is announced. More here.

MMORPG addiction

2006-10-22T09:33:00.000+03:00

It's early Sunday morning, the snowing has ceased and it's all quiet outside. I'm having the first cup of coffee for today while skimming through headlines of online papers. I also found this blogpost on WoW addiction, written by a (now ex) leader in one of the largest and most respected guilds in the game. His story fascinates me, and what's more, there's a massive 797 comments to it! I'll actually try to read them, partly due to personal interest and partly as I noticed a participant of the same PhD doctoral course I'm attending in Denmark in November will present a paper on WoW.

Seminar on games

2006-10-20T15:51:00.000+03:00

Conveniently while I'm preparing a powerpoint presentation on interactivity and games, especially World of Warcraft, an e-mail on the Media Research Seminar on games in Vaasa drops in. The seminar takes place on 31st October at the University of Applied Sciences in Vaasa and is open for everyone interested in media. Bits of the programme: Game world trends and product placement in computer games.

Memorable individuality

2006-10-16T09:27:00.000+03:00

I'm enjoying a cup of coffee at the trainstation in Tampere again, while waiting for the train to Åbo. The cashier of the café did what she does every day, purely out of habit, telling me the price and whether I wanted to pay with Visa or credit card. But when she had a look at my credit card that I handed her, she burst out "Hey, I remember this card! You were here a month ago and I loved your image on the card!" That's pretty cool, I never thought the individualized credit card with an image I've taken and chosen myself would function like this, that people would recognize me through it. I always thought of it as a nice feature that'd please me. A nice side effect indeed.

Brain mono track

2006-10-11T19:50:00.000+03:00

The Logitech keyboard I use at home simply gave up on me last night, as did the Microsoft one at work today. My primary reaction in both cases, when realizing none of the letters I typed actually appeared on the screen, was violence. I hammered the buttons harder and harder and now afterwards, I wonder why. It's not like the keyboard will start working thanks to my hammering it. If it's broken, it's broken. I wonder if this is a human basic instinct, I've watched people get a remote control without batteries in their hands. When they realize nothing happens, they shake it hard, hammer the buttons and slam it against the couch. With no success obviously.

Another indication of the mysterious ways the human minds works in: I got a mind game gadget last weekend. A ring was hanging in the midst of a tangle of iron and my job was to get it out. Naturally, the easy, obvious way to go about didn't cut it so I had to figure out more options to get it out. Which I did, it's just that when I'd tried them all, my brain shut down. If I took a break and tried to solve it a while later, it simply repeated the non-solutions I'd tried earlier. Nothing new came out, my brain was stuck in reverse, repeating the same old options to get the ring out. Scary. The ability to think of something new didn't exist. Sometimes, I see people doing this in life as well. People repeating the same actions all over again although they're clearly not a good solution. Oh, about the ring, I did get it separated from the iron web, after a good long walk outside.

Handicraft obsession

2006-10-01T10:16:00.000+03:00

I'm off to an arts and crafts exhibition and fair now, I'm a bit nervous that my handicraft craze, that has been latent and quite for a while now, will blossom yet again with a vengeance. Knitting, cross-stiching etc is loads of fun, it's enjoyable but also quite consuming, tiring. I hope I don't end up like this lady in a neat, animated Finnish short movie. Anyone with a hobby ought to watch it.

EU kids online

2006-09-29T13:09:00.000+03:00

If you're conducting research regarding children's internet use, or if you know of such, you may want to contact EU kids online network. It's a network within the EU Kids Online, a project examining ongoing and new research carried out across different EU member states regarding how children and young people are using the internet and other online technologies.

Philosophical bits

2006-09-29T09:49:00.000+03:00

I’m having dinner with a friend tonight and we’ll probably devote it to red wine and philosophical discussions. I’m really looking forward to it; I’ve been in a debating, reasoning and philosophical mood lately, probably cuz I’ve dug deep into works of Giddens, Habermas and Goffman. To fully grasp the notion of “The reflexive project of the self” you really need to active some grey mass!

Also, a researcher colleague and I exchange e-mails over whether there really is an equal sign to be put between one’s self/identity and one’s work (it’s geeky, I know, but I enjoy it a lot). Neither of us is working on finding any antidote to severe deceases, may we still feel proud of what we do? The conception that you are what you do for a living, I claim it’s a very narrow way to look at the notion of work, and I don’t approve of it. I rather try to keep people’s identities apart from what they do in order to have food on the table. But I only need to look at myself for the theory to start decomposing. I work with what I love and that occupies large bits of my spare time as well, namely movies, TV content, interactivity in several areas such as gaming and curiously questioning the world about what they do and why.

This "work-identity issue" sprang out of my colleague’s “turning 30” crisis, and perhaps with this discussion in the back of my mind, an article on how people born in the 1970’s “really are” caught my attention. I rarely fit into neat categories and thus, I felt that the article would only entertain me while reading, that’s all. But I actually recognized myself in the text, which is a bit scary. People my age often think they’re so individual and unique, and thus to see that others are just like you is a bit confusing. According to the article in the Swedish womens' magazine Amelia, and based on studies conducted by Kairos Future, children born in the late 1970’s are mobile, commercial and playing hard to get. If they don’t feel content, they’re off. Ouch, that’s me in a nutshell! Further, according to the survey, the children of the 70’s don’t want to grow up, commit to a family nor a permanent job. Life’s not about getting a gold watch after a long and dutiful 40 years at a single company. It’s rather about collecting experiences, thrills. Freedom is everything. They’re not loyal to anyone but themselves.

I see myself and many friends illustrated here. We’re definitely charmed by the idea that we’re mobile, that any day a great opportunity comes our way, we’ll take it. I’ve done that and never regretted it. I’ve often pondered that the freedom and a sort of healthy ego-individualism seem to characterize many of my generation. Work doesn’t really mean much unless it’s fun and you get a chance to grow and develop as a human being. Lucky for us, the times are what they are, with an enormous freedom to choose profession, place of stay and family mode. However, this great freedom we’re offered is quite stressing as well.

I got curious on Kairos Future, I once attended a lecture a researcher working there held and I liked their studies on youth and their values and attitudes. I googled and found their recent study on what matters to 15-20 year olds in Sweden now. Turns out that entertainment is very high on the list, both girls and boys give second highest priority to partying and entertainment. The same variables didn’t even make the Top 10-list fifteen years ago. What matters is having fun. It’s a shame I didn’t stumble across this study last week, I would have needed recent Nordic research pointing to the fact that people of the modern society are fun-oriented and actively hunt for entertainment.

Hmm, I clearly see a pattern here. I spent the entire day yesterday spurting out words and it seems to continue today. I’d better get to the lab to do a pilot test now before the evening gets here.

The future of the web

2006-09-25T09:43:00.000+03:00

I'm having coffee at the train station in Tampere, waiting for my train to Åbo and I just got hold of this survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project: The Future of Internet II. 742 experts and technology thinkers have been surveyed on what they believe the future of the Internet will be, and there seems to be a great deal of disagreement. For example, 46 % believe the transparency that comes along with the Internet is a good thing for humans, whereas 49 % disagree. According to BBC, more than half of respondents had a positive vision of the net's future but 46% had serious reservations. Oups, the train's about to leave, gotta run. The survey is found here, the BBC article here.

Size of the blogosphere?

2006-09-24T15:46:00.000+03:00

I'm preparing the class I'll give in Åbo next week and therefore I'm browsing for information on how many blogs the blogosphere actually contains these days. I see that Technorati keeps track on 54.9 million blogs and that 75.000 new blogs see the light of day every day. I suppose however loads of splogs and the like are included in these figures, I wonder where I'd get facts on the number of blogs that are maintained by individuals, groups, schools or corporations and updated on a somewhat regular basis...

wired and tired blogs

2006-09-22T09:57:00.000+03:00

I bought the September issue of Wired to entertain me on my train ride home from Åbo. There was a table on what’s wired, tired and expired and regarding blogs, politician blogs are out in the cold as the editor’s put them in the Expired category. Programmer blogs aren’t very cool either as they’re in the Tired category. One of my colleagues, who likes them and follows them quite often, probably would oppose here. Personally, reading blogs on a programmer’s life doesn’t really fascinate me. Perhaps because I live with a programmer and have first hand experience on the matter. I do read some who blog the software they’re developing to keep me updated at work but I don’t have a personal interest in them. Ah yes, and what’s wired, you ask? Scientist blogs!

Tripoli six

2006-09-21T19:56:00.000+03:00

I got an e-mail from a Bulgarian dear friend, Mihayl, I acquainted when I lived in Aix-en-Provence. He wanted me to draw some attention to the case of five Bulgarian medical workers and one Palestinian doctor being arrested in Tripoli, Libya, possibly facing execution. They're accused of having deliberately spread HIV among children at a hospital. President Gaddafi states it's a plot directed by the CIA, while assessers of the case say the tragedy stems from poor hygiene of the hospitals.

This week's editorial of Nature deals with this issue and calls for scientists to speak up.

Researchers' night

2006-09-21T15:01:00.000+03:00

I'm participating in the Researchers' night on Friday evening, a let the brain cells loose event initiated by the European Commission celebrated all over Europe. I'll be at Vaasan Yliopisto, here's the program. Do stop by if you're around, I'll talk about entertainment and interactivity.

New article on WoW

2006-09-21T10:05:00.000+03:00

Torill Mortensen has an article on WoW in the October issue of Games and Culture by Sage, where she stresses the prework MUDs have done in order for WoW and the like to be such huge successes as they are. Haven't had time to read it yet but her argument that "for some, playing WoW is a fully social experience. They adhere to the patterns established by Richard Bartle (1996) with his four much cited and discussed player types and are pure socializers." caught my eye. I'll look into that. [Via Mortensen's blog Thinking with my fingers]

Teaching 1.0

2006-09-19T20:01:00.001+03:00

For the first time, I’m teaching students for more than 30 minutes! I’m giving a Sociology class, a 5 points class on media in the information age where I teach about blogs, social networking, iTV etc. I just got back from Åbo where I held my first two classes of the course, that many students participate in. And, I didn’t die! I proclaim this rather surprisingly as I dread speaking in front of groups larger than 2. Including me. Well, I’m a bit harsh on myself now, that’s not the whole truth. I loathed the thought of standing in front of an audience the days before the event. While I’m up there, talking, teaching, explaining or whatever, I absolutely enjoy it. Fortunately, it’s not as much of a problem today as it used to be though. I’ve turned down perfectly fine opportunities to teach, talk and convey my thoughts on issues just because of this anxiety. One day though, I got so angry with myself for being such a coward; I took the bull by the horns and decided to get rid of the stage fright. Sure, I still feel nervous but in a good and motivating way, no to the extent that I turn down opportunities to communicate with groups. One thing that helped me was learning that people who I admire, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Lasse Winnerbäck (Swedish musician), also suffered from stage fright. I thought to myself: If they could, then I can.

Well, the students just decided on what case studies they’ll do and report on later on. (Naturally, they have to present their cases in front of the class. I'm trying to prevent them from developing the same anxiety I did...) Many chose blogs, others interactivity and many chose looking on TV through the glasses of Bourdieu. I’m so excited, I’m so eager to see what they’ll find! It’s been only 2 years since I was a graduate student and I’d love to start working on the assignments myself. I find it kinda weird to be a teacher, to try to convey knowledge to students, to try to be as clear, consistent and interesting as every student wants a teacher to be. It’s quite a challenge, I’ll tell ya! Luckily, my student perspective hasn’t weathered away completely so I remember quite well what I and my student friends wanted in a good and inspiring teacher. Hope I’m succeeding in being the teacher I know I always wanted to have as a student.

Royal visitors

2006-09-15T10:21:00.000+03:00

Occasionally, my workday feels a bit more glamorous than usual. Like yesterday, when King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden decided to stop by our TV-studio.

Stay clear of blogging

2006-09-13T13:52:00.000+03:00

Haha, the "how to of the day" on Google's first page is How to dissuade yourself from becoming a blogger. :)

Cfp for international conference on Sociology

2006-09-13T13:21:00.000+03:00

The Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), whose conference I attended last May and presented a paper at, will hold an International Conference on Sociology in Athens in May next year. The call for papers is now out, for more info, check out the conference website.

Business with heart and integrity

2006-09-12T19:20:00.000+03:00

I hate to say this but I've become a careless person. For instance, I lost the form for enrolling as a PhD-student this semester. Luckily for me, it could be done via the phone as well. And I've lost my favorite rings, although the exquisite (in my view only, haha, it's made of iron thread) one I bought in a designer shop in Paris was found at the summer cottage of a friend. Thus, I decided to buy some more in Stockholm. We went to the Street Market by the sea, and what a marvellous place! I loved the small shops where most of the things were hand made and had great heart and soul in them. I found two lovely ones to adorn my piano fingers and a jar of spices for the autumn's elk meat stews.
Well, as I'm flickring through a magazine on the flight back home, I see an article on the founder of the Street Market, John Higson. He says that his motto in life is "making my dreams come true without loosing heart and integrity.". No there's a life device I can live with and by.

Social networking has taken off

2006-09-12T15:58:00.000+03:00

Over 40 % of adults with internet access have used social networking websites, such as MySpace. The number for the 16-24 year olds is higher, 70%, with over half in this age group using them at least weekly. This according to Ofcom:s research. Seeing that close to every other adult use sites like these reminds me of something which annoyed me a while ago. I saw MySpace being referred to as a networking site for teenagers, can't remember where though. I'm registered there and so are many many more, not so young teenagers. I don't really think only teenagers appreciate the service. Also, the study suggests, the reason for using social networking websites are discussing hobbies and interests (one third of the respondents) and work-related topics (26 %). Only 15 % say the reason is meeting new people, which I find a bit surprising. Could the question perhaps been posed as "The main reason"?[via Media @ LSE Group Weblog]

Migraine weblogs for 12 weeks

2006-09-12T11:20:00.000+03:00

Interesting. It's the first European Migraine Day of Action today and in honour of that, Migraine Action Association (MAA) is hosting 11 weblogs written by migraine sufferers. During 12 weeks, the reader can follow their journey to getting rid of the headaches by new approaches to managing the migraine, such as stress elimination and shiatsu. You can read them here.

Interactive advertising

2006-09-11T10:22:00.000+03:00

Interactive advertising on TV has been a hit for Carlsberg, according to research conducted by Sky. The research also suggests that 69 % of Sky digital households, or 5.3 million, interacted with their telly during one mounth. Via informitv.com.

Out of office-note

2006-09-06T19:09:00.000+03:00

I've outsourced my work for a couple of days to Stockholm.

interactive entertainment

2006-08-30T13:43:00.000+03:00

I found an insightful article on the theme I'm doing my PhD on, entertainment and interactivity, written among others by a prominent writer on the issue, Peter Vorderer. He ponders together with Hartmann and Klimmt why computer and video games, and the interactive feature of them, keep fascinating so many people around the world for so long and so often. And to that cost, I'd like to add.

Well, the research trio concludes that competition is the keyword, with two subareas: social competition (competing against an opponent controlled by the computer or another player) and competitive situations of the game such as quests, tasks. The explanation for why we choose to play computer and video games for hours on end is the human desire to maintain or enhance the own self-esteem and a positive mood and to challenge and surpass other opponents. These factors are in my view also highly applicable to interactive quiz shows where the viewer may answer the same questions as the teams/person in the studio. The opponents in this case is him/herself, the person(s) competing in the studio and everyone else in the nation sending in their answers.

As for the competitive situations of a game, they are the most important determinant of the enjoyment arising from playing computer games, according to the trio. Simply exploring the options to act in a game may be entertaining as well but doesn't quite cut it. Defeating, say a high level humanoid trogg in WoW, leads to a positive affect on the player. This high arousal state leads to an euphoric experience of enjoyment by which the motivation to continue playing rises. And on the contrary, if you don't manage to defeat the beast, negative emotions are likely to arise, as is an even stronger motivation to continue playing and solve the quest. Although in this case, "the entertainment experience is diminished" Vorderer et al state.

I agree that the competitive situations are the generator of my playing a game, but I'd like to add 2 more factors. When I look back at the games I've abadonded, simply quit playing, I realise that the reason is a lack of understanding. If I don't understand the mission of my character and it's actions and the entire idea of the game, I'm not likely to play it or enjoy it. Therefore, an understanding of the scenario is on my own list as well. Further, goal achieving is an important ingredience in my personal experience of entertainment in games. For instance, in WoW, I'm currently running around the two continents buying things from vendors and upgrading my skills. This implies no combats, no suspense and thrill, just running around, picking a flower or to, adding to my collection of items, but still, I really like it as I'm preparing for bigger, more dangerous and hopefully more suspenseful combats further on. Thus, getting ready for bigger bangs, in a way working towards achieving a goal, thrills me too.

Evidently, interactivity attract others as well. In their study, Vorderer et al verbally described a given game situation to 349 German gamers. The options were numerous weapons and tools versus little weapons and tools to act with and high/low necessity to act. Turns out that the players expected the first game situation to be more enjoyable, i.e. where there were more possibilities to act. Also, the audience rated the version with few and no possibilities to act as boring.

As for the social competition, not all players strive to compete with other players. Some are very cooperative in their playing. This article written by Phil Agre explains quite well the social interactivity and community practice in WoW. Oh, and if you’re not into reading academic papers, at least check out figure 2 “Top ten happenings that tell you you’ve played wow too much”. I’m guilty of the third one… :)

migraine placebo

2006-08-29T22:21:00.000+03:00

Tihi! I got an office chair as an early birthday present tonight, a much needed piece of furniture in my home. The one I've had has worn well for many years but not so anymore. I'm telling myself it'll relieve the migraine although diet, lack of stress and sleep are much better ways than ergonomics to reduce the attacks. But I'm counting on the placebo effect.