Social networking has taken off

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

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

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

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

interactive entertainment

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

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.

Small goals need celebrating too

Hurray! I submitted two paper abstracts today, and as I'm a firm believer of treats even when small goals are achieved, I just made myself a fine strong cup of coffee latte style. I'm saving the Veuve Cliquot to the moment when I've actually finished them both...

Intelligent bunny

Yesterday, I was occupied with the thought of getting another pet, a dog preferably. But after seeing this, I reckon why not get another bunny, naturally not so much for myself but as company for my two rabbits. [via thinking with my fingers]

Blog ad clicks

Hans Kullin, the writer behind the blog Media Culpa, recently conducted a survey on 700 Swedish bloggers and blog readers, for the second year in a row now. The questionnaire was online and he encouraged bloggers to fill it out by blogging about it himself and asking other bloggers to link to it as well. He concludes that the typical blogger in his study is a 26-30 year old female holding an academic degree, who loves to write and blogs every day. The typical blogger is anonymous and reads about 6-10 blogs a day, spending in average 6-10 hours a week reading other blogs. What thrills the average blogger in Kullin’s study is reading ordinary folks’ opinions and life stories.

What interests me in his findings is that the average blogger has never clicked on an ad on a blog. The majority of the ones claiming they have decided to take a closer look on the ads is men. In total though, a third of the participants in the survey claim to have done so. I thought the figure would be much smaller; I’m a bit surprised at this! Men are also more prone than women to host ads on their blog.

Another juicy nut is that women blog anonymously (68,2 %) whereas men don’t (29,6 %). All in all, 55 % of American bloggers blog without revealing their real name and identity, according to the Pew Institute report released in July this year. There’s no data on gender and anonymity there though.

WoW addiction

Dr. Maressa Orzack is interviewed on computer game addiction on twitchguru.com. She estimates that about 40 % of all WoW-players are addicted to the game and she hopes that we would name the addiction for what it really is, a mental disorder. When I find some time, I'll google her research, I'm interested in her definition of heavy use of MMORPG's. I wonder what category I'd fit into, probably a heavy user (of WoW, the photo is my 22 lvl mage fishing). Meanwhile, I really enjoyed reading the posts and comments on the article where many WoW-players ponder when a hobby is merely a hobby and when is it an addiction? Can you compare lying on the couch watching TV a whole evening to playing a computer game all night? And who's responsability is it that some players devote most of their awake hours to gaming, perhaps making the studies or/and work suffer? [via WoW Insider]

Here's btw a link to the Smith & Jones Center in Amsterdam that offers treatment for alcoholists as well as heavy gamers. I read a story about the guy who started this centre in Le Figaro I think it was last July.

User experience

I'm currently planning a usability research project and I found a great graph on user experience, which really fascinates me. I really like that the creator included the "word of mouth" variable, which does have power to influence things. [via användbart.se]

First call for papers to euroitv 07

I'm back at the office after 5 splendid weeks of sunny days off. I've been sorting e-mail all day and scribbling down loads of deadlines to struggle with this autumn. In this initial stage, I absolutely love it! It's exciting to fill up my outlook with deadlines for papers, meetings and projects. Ask me again in October and you might get another answer...

Anyhows, the first call for papers for EuroITV 07 is out (deadline for full papers is December 15th). The special theme for the conference is ITV, a shared experience. More info here.

14th century plants

Interesting. Enthusiastic people have been digging in front of the cathedral in my former home town of Åbo/Turku for two summers now, in order to track the early phases of the town. Since this intrigues me, I wish I'd be there to follow the excavations but since I'm not, I'm happy that there are regular posts on the findings (the weekly presentation of the findings is not in English unfortunately) and the proceedings.

There’s been some debate on how old the town really is, and the mission is to shed some light on the age of the town. It has been considered that the earliest settlement of the town had developed during medieval time. During the excavations last summer however, no evidence of proper building lots which could have been dated from the end of the 13th century was discovered in the area. The earliest evidence of settlement dates from the beginning of the 14th century, as the traces of ploughing marks discovered indicate. Thus, at least part of the area was under cultivation before the 14th century.

Now, the researchers have found interesting parts of plants and seeds. One litre of humus from the area contains about 4000 rudiments of plants. They now know of 350 different species of plants that was cultivated in around the time of 14th century Turku, among which hazel, plantain and seeds of fig, which is considered to be the oldest finding in the Nordic countries. Furthermore, rudiments of caraway, dill, walnut and parsley have been found which gives the researchers an idea of the scope of the contemporary trade.

By the way, check out the fashion report in the picture hereby (downloaded from here). It’s a piece of a spur of metal, an important part of the rider’s equipment, but also a sign of fashion awareness and status. Judging from where it was found, the researchers believe it stems back to the 15th century.

Lazy yet creative Paris

Je passe mes vacances en France, à Paris. Il fait très chaud, même la nuit, mais pourtant, c'est merveilleux!
So I'm in Paris again, staying in my much beloved Montmartre. The ambiance got me a bit artistic, hence the photos.

Happiness in schools

Also belonging to the present summer’s pile of books to plough through is a book called Börja tala, Start talking. It’s on the art of rhetoric, on the stage fright many suffer from and on why Nordic speakers are know for being dull and non-engaging speakers. Such an essential book! Last weekend, me and some friends pondered why happiness isn’t part on the school schedule. I mean, Aristotle stated some 2300 years ago that what most individuals seek in their lives is happiness. Most actions strive to increase a feeling of being happy. Today, this is no less the case, on the contrary. So as all seem to agree that being happy is good, and worthy some effort, then why don’t we teach our kids how to try to find out what happiness means to them and how to obtain it? And why isn’t happiness part of any state program? I’d say the same about rhetoric, teach kids the art of storytelling, of capturing an audience in any purpose, may it then concern selling a product, to entertain or convey academic results. I wish I had had loads more training in this area when I went to school!

Summer reading

The first stack of books that I intended to read this summer is read and contemplated (see image to the right under the section Books getting my attention right now). These are the insights I gained:

• Lovage and ruta graveolens keep the flies out. Could be a priceless trick, I have to try it out!
  
• The 50’s must have been a dream for every interior designer, I love Eero Saarinen’s furniture and Verner Panton’s heart shaped chair.
• I still haven’t read the autobiography of the man stating: “I would love to play the part of Jesus! I fit it perfectly because I am a comedian" (Charlie Chaplin). It’s tough to try to get to know someone, perhaps that’s why people go year in, year out to shrinks: they just don’t seem to really get to know the person staring back to them in the mirror? I guess I’m a bit afraid of the amount of attention needed to reading an autobiography. It feels as if the words gotta weigh double the usual weight as the image conveyed in the autobiography is exactly the one the writer wants the reader to have, it's no second-hand information and rumours and therefore it’s harder to just skim through the book, to dismiss thoughts or paragraphs with a shrug.
• I now have a much deeper understanding of the background to the current situation in Sudan, thanks to Scroggins’ biography on Emma McCune. It’s been a while since a book surprised me in this fashion. Judging from the cover, I expected to read about Ms Emma McCune’s life, her voluntary work and marriage with a guerilla leader. But the book was much more, among other things a history lesson and a story of the author’s, who’s also a journalist reporting from the country, own, professional relationship with Sudan. But what got me going the most was something not specifically written but something I noticed along the way; how one’s significant others influence you through life. How the way of life your parents lead affect you, how relative’s actions influence yours years and years after they occurred and sometimes also subconsciously.
  
• The comic paper I bought, combined with the manga series Ragnarök, awoke my latent desire to take up drawing. I’ve been practicing calligraphy for many years and I love photography but the drawing interest failed due to lack of realism. Man, portraits are tough! Thus, I’m hoping that learning the basics in drawing Valkyries and comic series dogs will be easier.
  

Kvarken added to world heritage list

Together with 8 other sites, among which a Mexican landscape of blue agave that gives the world the tequila spirit, Kvarken was added to UNESCO's world heritage list yesterday. The archipelago is added as an extension to an already existing site, namely the High Coast of Sweden. The following is a statement of the World Heritage Committee:

It [Kvarken Archipelago] features unusual ridged washboard moraines, “De Greer moraines”, formed by the melting of the continental ice sheet, 10,000 to 24,000 years ago. The Archipelago is continuously rising from the sea in a process of rapid glacio-isostatic uplift, whereby the land, previously weighed down under the weight of a glacier, lifts at rates that are among the highest in the world. As a consequence of the advancing shoreline, islands appear and unite, peninsulas expand, lakes evolve from bays and develop into marshes and peat fens. This property is essentially a “type area” for research on isostacy; the phenomenon having been first recognized and studied here.

Garden documentation

Yep, today's been one great day to conduct the annual photo documentation of the garden, and (surprise, surprise) especially of the peonies.

Cross-stiches for the ipod

Yes! To and handicraft/techy freak like me, this is pure beautiful. I made a similar one to my pda and it was of great use. Although, a few weeks ago I forced the pda to retire, which means the cover is now to be found way back in the closet.

Mission impossible: paper cutting

I'm struggling with what I'd like to call an impossible task. I need to cut a paper I wrote and presented from 7619 words to a neat sum of 5000, cuz it's getting published. I really loathe the process as, although I'm great at mass producing floods of text sometimes containing drivel, it's mostly content that I feel is necessary and that plays a role in the context. My method is to shorten paragraphs and say what I want to say in shorter, more substantial sentences. But I can't help but feeling that the rythm is lost this way. The hand guiding the reader through the paper, which I feel is crucial in a read worthy text, is somehow getting lost when the not-so-facty phrases are removed. Perhaps I should write the different parts on a dice, throw it and simply erase the fateful part on the side turning up ;)

Bonus of the day: 3 days til my first full-length, fully paid 4 week vacation!

florae blues

I'm conducting usability tests for clients at work now and the thought of doing a test on this blog has been spinning in my mind for a good while. About a week ago, I realized that doing an eye tracking study, which I regularly do at work, on this Paeonia blog would be interesting as, apparently, I'm not expressing the corner pillars or the identity if you will of the blog clearly enough. This insight hit me when I was sent a review of my blog, made by a student. It turnes out that the reason of the name Paeonia is not clear enough, the link between the name and my passion for flowers and then in particular peonies is not evident enough.

And consequently, like some people start devoting lots of attention to their beloved when the date of Valentine's Day or the Wedding anniversary is approaching as a way of making up the downturns since last anniversary of Valentine's, I think to myself that I'll relieve my conscience by posting an all-flowery post. And this guzzling in florae photos is not just a making up-gesture but also an hommage to the stunningly beautiful nature outside my window. It's mid June and the nuances of green is about as saturated as you can possibly want them to be. Enough babbling, I activated my Flickr account again and here's a selection of photos to ilghten up the academic twist on this site. (Hmm, I also noticed I haven't blogged my handicraft craze either in a while, therefore the photo at the top. It's illustrating 5 pillows I sewed earlier this week for potential hangovery guests this weekend).

White light fights piracy

A group of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a prototype device that can block digital-camera function in a given area, a method that could fight the movie piracy. More here.

More on happiness

As I'm studying positive experiences in my own PhD, and since I'm fascinated by the notion of happiness, I bought Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Here are two thought-evoking quotes (my translation):

How can it be that, although we've created miraculous successtories that no-one could even dream of, we are more helpless than our less privileged ancestors were when life is concerned? The answer is clear-cut, while humanity has collectively increased its material wealth by the thousand, it hasn't advanced at all concerning improving the content of the experiences. (Page 34)

As an opposite to what many believe, the best times in life are not passive, receiving and relaxed moments. The best moments occur in general when a human is stretching her body to the maximum in a conscious exertion in order to achieve something difficult and effort worthy. (Page 20)

The last quote makes me think of the two running competitions I've participated in this last month. The 10 K run went beautifully well, no difficulties whatsoever. The 5 K run on the other hand was hard and the agreeable, nice feeling was lacking. We even had to start swearing to get through the race with a good mood. And now when I think of the races afterwards, I enjoy the harder run more than the longer, easier one. Strange but true.

Finnish ICT use

Statistics Finland has new figures on ICT use. Interestingly, more women than men in the age group 30-49 use the internet. However, of pension-age people men are more often on the internet than women. I also was surprised to learn that internet banking isn't as common elsewhere as here. It's been a completely natural part of my every day life now for quite some time. 3 out of 4 Finnish internet users manage their finances on the net, apparently.

About three out of four, or 73 per cent, of 15 to 74-year-olds used the Internet in spring 2005 in Finland and according to Pew Internet & American Life Project, the same goes for Americans (these figures stem from 2006 though. The percentage for Americans using the internet the same period in 2005 was 66 %).

NordForsk doctoral course

I'm in a conference mode still, I recently found an interesting PhD-seminar that's held in Denmark in early November. It's called Publics, audiences and users: Theoretical and methodological challenges in a multidisciplinary field of research.

new media conferences

The Centre for Usability Research at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has a much needed site where all the deadlines for conferences and journals in HCI, iTV, user research etc are listed.

Are cameras literate?

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about my latest purchase, a new shining ixus camera for travelling. But by mistake I accidently deleted the blog post, where I praised this little handy gadget, almost instantly. I never bothered to rewrite it though as the content of the post wasn't exactly earth shaking and revolutionary news. Well, as I got out of the airport in Athens last week I spotted an amazing long line of yellow cabs, as far as you could see. And when I grabbed my ixus, it was stone dead, refusing to co-operate in any way. Not one ray of hope. For a photo geek like myself, it's tough being on the move without a camera! I figure it might be a revenge for removing the blog post. So I took it back to the store tonight and off it is now for service. Meanwhile, I'm glad there's a site such as flickr. David Geerts at the Centre for Usability Research in Leuven uploaded his photos of Athens, I'll enjoy them instead.

Btw, since Lordi's number one spot in Eurovision, the interest in Finnish metal and heavy seems bigger than ever. I promised to compile a list on bands I like. Some glam rock and the like is included as well but still. This is not exactly bubblegum pop:

Children of Bodom
Mokoma
Hanoi Rocks
Stam1na
Viikate
Sonata Arctica
Apulanta
Nightwish
1G3B
Uniklubi

69 eyes is a must see live, especially the drummer!

Mona Lisa was 83 % happy

Further on the happiness subject, Dutch researchers scanned a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece and subjected it to an "emotion recognition" software. Their finding is that she was 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful and 2 percent angry. She was less than 1 percent neutral and not at all surprised. At first, I thought this technology ought to be tried out after first dates, as it would perhaps save many from the famous "will he call me or will he not?" but then again, the excitement of not really knowing is great too. And apparently, subtle emotions are not trackable with this device. Full article here.

Post running

I'm back home from an unmercifully hot Athens, after a week of conferen- cing, networking and eating enormous quantities of food, more than I'm likely to experience ever again. A greek colleague tells me that not finishing everything on the plate is a major insult to the chef, the restaurant staff and to greek hospitality in general. Since I'm quite a petite mangeuse, I must have offended many souls this past week, sorry for that!

Interestingly, I sometimes got a couple of raised eye brows as an answer when mentioning my nationality to other conference goers and locals in Athens. And when the guys and girls at restaurants try to lure me into their particular restaurant by addressing me in - what they think - my mother tongue, they never get it right. I counted seven different options as to where my home base is (one being China), and no one got it right. But my action scheme immediately after closing my apartment door with all the luggage and tax free bags in my arms uncovers my nationality quite well though. I did the following in a chronological order. 1) I fired up the sauna 2) I fired up my computer and internet connection 3) I put some heavy metal on 4) I enjoyed some dark bread with shrimp mixture on top.

I'm quite eager to start studying the proceedings of the 2 conferences closer as there were many really interesting past and on going studies presented but that's out of the question today as I definitely need the rest. I ran 10 K at a running event this afternoon and after adding that to walking one week around Athens in quite new shoes, my legs are punishing me with aching, soar knees. So nope, this day is devoted to lying comfortably in the couch watching television and playing games.

Papers available

Cheers all entertainment lovers, there are now goodies available on our website. The papers I wrote for the conferences I'll attend in Athens next week just got up-loaded so check them out to see what conclusions were drawn in the audience research on enjoyment and interactivity we conducted last year. Also, there's a article on audience research on movies and... on my job really... that was recently published in Nordicom.

Btw, if any of you readers happen to have a much craved spare ticket to the Eurovision finals in Athens, then do contact me! I feel this could be an occasion to use some of my savings :)

Happiness formula

Do you have no friends but still aspire for happiness? Then you'd better have £50,000 on your account. According to the economist, Professor Oswald at Warwick University, this amount of money is what it takes to make up for not having friends and still be happy. Although, luckily enough for all of us with small purses, according to research on happiness, deep and meaningful relationships with friends and family has a much bigger effect on average on happiness than a typical person's income. BBC News writes more on why the sense of happiness doesn't increase along with the standard of living, and on what does boost happiness, here.
[via 3quarksdaily]

News flashes

My work's in the news again. The format Probe, developed by MediaCity and Sveng.com Interactive, has been nominated in the category "Best Enhanced TV Program" of the international iTV Award (the winner is announced at the 2006 AFDESI Awards, held in Cannes on the 4th of April). The audience research we conducted on the interactive quiz is referred to here. Furthermore, an article on MediaCity's iDTV Lab was recently published here (in Finnish).

2 years anniversary

Today, two years have passed since my first, personal blog post. And a lot of confusion has been dispersed with those two years, I'd say. When I talked about blogs back then, and describing my academic interest in blogs, few knew what I was talking about. Many didn't see the point in up loading one's personal issues and inner thoughts for public scrutiny, as if a blog would only play the role of a diary. A general reception my "latest passion" (I'm known for rushing into things with great passion and enthusiasm, but not always nurturing them to survive) got was scepticism, al though mixed with a drop of curiosity. Now, the scenery is completely different. A couple of weeks ago, a guy came up to me in a bar saying "Hey, you're the one keeping the Paeonia blog. I occasionally read it." He recognized me from the photo in the sidebar to the right. Some ask for advice on how to post, some want to engage me in a intellectual debate on the publicity and responsibility involved in blogging that, unfortunately, some tend to forget and some feel blogging is a clear sign of the blogger's lack of more important, more meaningful things to do. The fact that blogging is a topic for discussion now and more and more are seeing the advantages of this way of distributing information and thoughts delights me.

Looking back at what I first felt like stating to the world, I realize it wasn't all that original at all. It was some words of wisdom of one of my favorite writers, Voltaire. I still have this quote (Il faut cultiver notre jardin) as a greeting in my pda. To honour this, I'll give you a few more devices à la Voltaire to chew on:

"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." (Epistle on the "Three Imposters").

"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too." (Essay on Tolerance)

Rocking International Women's Day

Today, as you probably all know, we celebrate International Women's Day. What you may not know though is that you might be celebrating Alanis Morisette's Day today, as the city of Ottawa declares this day in her honor. However, Morissette refuses to accept this honor because the date is already "occupied" by the International Women's Day.

If you feel like indulging yourself in feminine matters today, I recommend a plunge into Ada Lovelace, regarded as the world's first programmer (but whose contributions remain disputed by some). Here's what she had to say on the Analytic Engine:

Again, it [the Analytical Engine] might act upon other things besides number, were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine . . . Supposing, for instance, that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.

It sounds pretty much like a modern computer doesn't it?

Old news

A reader asked for the article on my work that was published in some Swedish newspapers, and that I forgot to blog (it was published one and a half months ago). There are some flaws in the text, for instance MediaCity is not a company but a detached unit of Åbo Akademi University. Well, here it is.

Vasaloppet race timing

Pretty cool, I'm tracking down how my friend is doing in the Vasaloppet ski race via the transponder attached to his leg. He's now covered a distance of 10,5 kilometres out of a total of 90 in almost two hours. Way to go! Here's more information on how they do it.

Oscar fans

Many film buffs are impatiently waiting for tonights big event, the Oscars, but I think few os us can match these two ladies (see Finlay's post of 4th March 0500 GMT), who've been following the event alongside the red carpet for 37 years straight. Wow!

fate uncovered

A friend stated yesterday that blogs, due to the grand explosion of the number of Finnish bloggers and the hype around them, have become an epidemic. I’m sure many feel that way in Finland now. My own interest in blogs though, both as a phenomenon and news/entertainment source, has been worn and torn for a while now. I rarely browse around hunting for new bloggers with fresh, piquant views on matters. I stick to the ones I’m used to and occasionally check out their blogrolls.

My ability for enthusiasm isn’t completely crushed though. I’ve joined the hype of mastering one’s fate. Many friends have recently undergone a test where the probable date for their death is calculated and with a fascinated air asked if I’ve done the same? As I’m currently dwelling on the couch with a sore throat on a perfectly beautiful as today, I figured I’d give in to my hesitation and uncover my fate. It turns out that, given that I don’t change my living and consumption habits, I’ll live until the year of 2065. By then, I’ll be a hardy lady of 86 years old. I’m not sure whether I’m happy and relieved about the fact that I due to healthy life style have a big bundle of years ahead of me, free to fill with things of my choice, or worried as this probably implies that I’m not taking risks in my life, and probably not being all that adventurous and spontaneous as I thought I am. Hmm…

The test is here, it’s in Finnish, provided by Helsingin Sanomat, the leading national daily in Finland.

hooray again!

I just got the word that another paper of ours has been accepted for a media conference! This conference is also in Athens, in May. I guess that city will see a lot of me this spring. The bad news is though that all the tickets for the finals in the Eurovision are sold out, apparently they went in 15 red, hot minutes. And we got none...

Mystery of dialects

Fredrik Lindström has been sorting out the mysteries of different dialects of Swedish this winter in his TV programme at SVT, the Swedish Public Service Broadcast Company. The last episode of it aired last night and the theme for the night was my own lingua, Swedish dialects in Ostrobothnia. The crew discussed semantics and phonetics with teenagers, whose mother tongue also is Swedish, in my previous home town of Åbo and in municipalities close to where I live and am from, such as Närpes and Korsnäs, where the ancient dialects of Swedish have been rather well preserved over the years.

Lindström concluded the programme by stating that the fact that many are keen on talking a strict, polished Swedish may indicate the fear of not fitting in, of not being adequate or suitable enough that he sees in the modern society. Conversely, if you speak a dialect you take the risk of standing out. Standing out, but in a positive and sometimes exotic manner, is sometimes what I do when I speak my dialect instead of the strict, clean Swedish that is intelligible for all, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I couldn’t change the way I talk without it reflecting my identity.

The entire programme on Swedish dialects in Finland is here.

Paper accepted!

Hooray! I got the word a couple of days ago that our paper on the viewing experiences of the interactive TV quiz show Enigma (Probe) was accepted for the EuroITV 2006 conference in Athens in May. Here's a teaser in advance, i.e. the abstract. I hear the weather in Athens at that time is pleasantly warm so I'm hoping for many participants (hint, the early registration for the conference closes March 15th). The ticket sale for Eurovision Song Contest the weekend before the conference starts in ten minutes, I'll head over here to make sure I get a ticket, pronto!

Entertaining past

I was hunting online java games for kids last night as I'm planning on using them in teaching languages. I found some good ones for this purpose, but I also stumbled upon my absolute favorite one as a child: Boulderdash! I ended up sitting all night hunting down those same diamonds I did 20 years ago out of pure pleasure and enjoyment (thus missing out on last night's goodies of the Olympics). The tactic I used back then to get around the evil butterflies was still crystal clear in my mind, which really fascinates me. Imagine that the ways of getting around in a computer game I employed 20 years ago are still there and that I can still use them to successfully play the game! Although the game is a light version of the one I used to play as a kid I was absolutely thrilled to find it, and although a bit old fashioned, it countered well my other passion at the moment, playing alchemist as a gnome in World of Warcraft.

Runeberg's Day

Today, Finland celebrates the birthday of our national poet J.L. Runeberg, who was born in Jakobstad and studied at the Vaasa Gramar School, and at the University of Åbo (Turku). His poetry, written in Swedish, has attracted great attention around the world.

This day is one of my favorites as I get to wallow in Runeberg's cup cakes, just like he did. There's a recipe in English here, definitely worth the effort! For those of you interested in his poetry, and literate in Swedish, I recommend the Project Runeberg site, where free electronic texts of Nordic books are published. Do check out Runeberg's epic poem Fänrik Ståls Sägner.

Photo associations

Thanks to an observant reader of my blog, pointing to broken links in my blog roll, I’ve spent the evening weeding out links and updating the blog. I rarely use these links myself as I subscribe to the blogs’ rss-feeds so I hereby send a thank you-nod to my helpful reader.

When sorting through the links, I eventually reached the photography site of Esa Wendelin. It’s been a while since I had a look at his wonderful photos so I decided to offer my eyes some visual sweets. And what do I find? He’s chosen one of the dearest places in my heart as the front cover of his 2006 calendar! To all of a sudden be confronted with the beautiful, illuminated dock of the small river of Åbo genuinely made me happy, as it holds an infinite number of memories. I’ve done many interviews there, on the river side, while working as a journalist; the river has defined my city identity as to by which side of it I live and I’ve strolled there at all times of the day in various sets of moods. One of the saddest phone calls I’ve ever received was by the bridge you can see in the picture. The artillery of meanings, associations and significance a single picture can hold never ceases to surprise me.

Organizational blogs are more conversational than web sites

Blogs are a good place to speak candidly with a conversational style (e.g., "invite people to a conversation"), and this conversational style may be an important part of the process of building and maintaining computer-mediated relationships for organizations, conclude Tom Kelleher and Barbara M Miller in their paper “Organizational Blogs and the Human Voice: Relational Strategies and Relational Outcomes", published in the latest issue of Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.

Some of the most important findings of their study, where the hypotheses of the potential advantages of organizational blogs over traditional Web sites were tested, are

• blogs were perceived as more conversational than organizational Web sites
• this conversational human voice correlated positively with other previously-identified relationship outcomes. The perceived personal nature of organizational blogs, in this case, is related to relationship indicators.

However, the authors note, "blogs allow people representing organizations to speak candidly, blogs may not be the best venue for "PR" messages intended to talk up an organization's commitment to its public relationships."

U2 on audience and performance

I got my hands on a two months old Rolling Stone magazine featuring an in-depth interview with Bono, written by Jann S. Wenner. Interestingly, Bono states that very little has been written about performers' psychology. Performers usually try to fill a hole, that's obvious, Bono says and continues: "What's less obvious is that through this insecurity we develop a kind of a third eye or a sort of reptilian sense of what's going on in the room.".

I experienced one of those moments when you realize that what you just read, you've always wanted to know, it's just that you haven't been aware of it until then. The question on what goes on inside a singer's head when performing in front of a crowd of thousands of fans really caught my interest, for some subconscious reason. Perhaps because I sense a paradox when it comes to performing music. On one hand, music has a way of completely absorbing you once you start playing or singing. You can really lose yourself in producing sound and the surroundings basically disapperar. But on the other hand, there are great performers who read their audience brilliantly, artists with great stage presence who are completely aware of what's going on in the back rows of the arena. Robbie Williams is one of them. After a quick search for academic writing on this delicate balance between complete absorbation and complete connectedness with every individual in the arena, I'm no smarter. If anyone can point me to resources, readings or blog postings about this, I'd be grateful!

Further down the article, Bono answers Wenner's question "What are you trying to do with the audience?" like this:

"To lose my own sense of self, self-consciousness - and theirs."

There's an excerpt from the article here (RS 986, November 3, 2005), though not containing the citations above.

New survey on set-top boxes

IT viikko reports on the major reason to Finns not getting a set-top box: many feel it is still unnecessary. This is particularly the case in cable households, according to a telephone survey ordered by the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority. The survey also concludes that respondents owning a set-top box are in general satisfied with the purchase and taking it in use didn't cause any problems for the majority. The usability of the STB:s was lauded by many users.

Eyes on iTV site up and running

Me and my colleagues at MediaCity are currently organizing a conference about iTV. The event will take place in September 27-28th 2006 here in Vasa. The outline is to shed light on the development and production of interactive television programs and the broadcasting of them. Naturally, the focus of the conference also turns to audience testing of iTV (that's what I'm currently working with at the iDTV Lab). For more information, sign up for the news letter at the conference web site.

I'm in good company

About a year now, I've been actively involving my left hand (I'm originally right handed) in everyday tasks, such as writing and using the mouse. The reason to why I started this endevour was an ever increasing pain in my right hand wrist when writing, cooking and so forth. ALong the way, I realized that it is surprisingly easy to transmit the tasks of the right hand to the left one. And it's quite efficiant too being ambidextrous; when I'm scrolling up and down a web page with my left hand, my right one takes notes. The same scenario a couple of years ago would have had my left hand resting all along while my right one did all the working.

Anyhows, since I may be someday a full-fledged ambidextrous I decided to look up the phenomenon and I realized I'm in good company! Kurt Cobain, Leonardo da Vinci and Harry Truman among others were all ambidextrous. According to the wiki site, playing the piano has an impact on this interesting ability. Now there's a benefit of playing my piano I've never come across before!

Tip of the day: loads of short films available on the net to watch at the Sundance Film Festival's site.

EuroITV registration

The early registration is now available for the EuroITV 2006 conference.

Moblogging

There's a moblog about the conference Mediespråk 2006 I'm currently attending.

Found: a form of studying that works (for me)

Finally, a weekend spent merely at home. It feels like I've been running around like a blind herd of sheep again, both due to private and leisure matters and to working more or less, like the weekend course in Biological Psychology I attended (as I run tests with psycho fysiological measuring at work, I consider it to be work related, al though I've always been fascinated by the human brain).

The creative result of the weekend is portrayed in the picture, one pillow and 6 christmas cards for relatives (hope they're not reading this blog, otherwise, the surprise will be spoilt for them!). And while sitting with my feet on the desk, cross-stiching and sewing, I decided to listen to some of the podcasts I subsribe to. I decided not to go with the more entertaining ones but rather scientific ones, like Vetenskapsradion (science radio) and Forskning och framsteg (research and progress). Et voilà, I discovered a great way to learn new things. The combination of listening to a story on what current computer and programming trends a Head of Research at Microsoft sinks and systematic cross-stiching was brilliant for me. There's no point in simply listening to pod casts as I get way too restless to be able to follow the discussions. I've tried to work at the same time, but that's too distracting. Working steals my attention away from what's being said. But this, creative handicraft work combined with analysis and reviews of research conducted around the world, is a winning combination for me.

Do we overestimate our genes?

“As if our destiny is written in our genes. It’s a remarkable idea, but its continuous strong existence in our society and in debates on different issues is interesting."

Veikko Launis, Finland’s first and only Professor of Medical Ethics, on the general opinion that increased knowledge about our genes will not only liberate us from diseases but also reveal who we are and where we came from as human beings. He’s interviewed in the news paper Åbo Underrättelser today.

Squirrel mobile phone

Here's a cool project. MIT Media Laboratory graduate student Stefan Marti has built a Cellular Squirrel, a cellphone embodied in a small portable animatronic, Bluetoothenabled device.

Use your illusion

"Use your illusion" Guns' N' Roses urged us, twice even, in 1991. You can start using it here.

New Kent ep

Just got hold of the new ep from Kent, "The hjärta and smärta ep". Beautiful (and self bibliographical it seems) as always, especially the track Vi mot världen (We against the world). The lyrics go "Mina tankar är så klara nu, ni kan släppa den där bomben nu" which roughly means "My thoughts are so clear now, you can drop that bomb now.", sounds promising. It's a shame I don't have time to really listen to it until late tonight.

An adventure blog

My colleague Tommy at iDTV Lab is off to New Zealand for a month next Saturday. He and his team mates blog about their adventure here. Be sure to enjoy your stay down there!

First snow has arrived!

I had earmarked Sunday - today that is - for sitting by the computer. I planned on finally paying this blog some attention, and play Sims 2 and WoW. I still have some wild boars to take care of before my mission is done. But I woke up this morning by an sms chanting "Oh look it's snowing, oh look it's snowing". Indeed it is and that's great! This, and the fact that the temperature is -0.2 degrees celsius, means that I'll replace the blogging and game playing with changing the tyres of the car to winter ones and getting my car ready for winter.

Susanno?

In many of the Swedish blogs I read, one theme of discussion lately has been blind men and the always attentive women. The question why men don’t see that the trash needs to be taken out, or that the laundry needs to be done while the female part of the household drudges on as a martyr without any help has been pondered.

I’m not sure whether I should be affended, as the above description of the Man suits me perfectly. I rarely see and thus attend to the layers of dust on the shelves; neither do I realize that the flowers need watering until all that’s left in the pot are beige straws (happened last night to my pot of chives… I’ll try some first aid after writing this.). To prevent this, I figured I’d have my pda calendar notify me for instance every Sunday night that the green lives in our household could do with some attention. I wonder if that would help.

The answer of one female blogger to why men don’t see things as well as women do, is that way back, men hunted and women nested. Our ways of thinking are fundamentally different, strictly biologically. This is pretty much saying that I, since I’m obviously blind when it comes to householding matters, am not a woman but rather a femalish man. That does not match my own view.

I guess these bloggers write in a provocative or light, entertaining manner, and the only thing proven here is that I absolutely lack a sense of humor. But still, wondering why men as a group don’t see things that need to be done in a household (and thereby why women as a group do see them) is a bit single-tracked.

Research results on iTV

The press conference we had yesterday regarding our 77-pages long report on the first digital interactive tv-format in Finland, Enigma, caught gladly enough attention. Our results are cited in many papers and radio news broadcasts. I hope to get the time to translate the summary into English some time soon, as I believe the results could interest many. I noticed there's an ongoing discussion about the future of mobile iTV on the aoir-mailing list. I'll definitely write an article about the study of iTV and the results I got to the EuroITV conference in Athens next spring.

News

We were in the news last night, regarding the drama series NDA that was shot here in our tv-studio at MediaCity. The first episode aired last night on YLE, the public service broadcaster in Finland. The news clip is found here (in Finnish only). As a note, I'll mention that YLE is not airing any radio or tv-shows between 2 pm and midnight today. The staff is protesting against the plans on dismissing about 200 workers.

While I'm at it, I'll point you to a blog by the company DirectNIC. The blog's become known as "The survival of New Orleans blog", according to the author Michael Barnett, writing from New Orleans.

Nokia report on mobile tv released today

The results from the mobile TV pilots conducted in Helsinki this spring is out today. There's a press release at Nokia's website here.

Pilates and science

I just had a few delicious bruchetta sandwiches and mozzarella salad. Exercising really gets you hungry. A new class for the season started at my gym today, fitness pilates. Starting us off, the instructor gave us a word of warning: "This may come as a surpise, but the less you've exercised fitness pilates, the easier will it be." Thus, the more you work out, the harder will it be, which is not the case with regular work out. I think I can handle it though, as so is science. The less you know, the easier everything seems. The more you know, the more complicated the world and the structures in it seem and the questions you ask are more complex.

Reiki

I'm off to a Reiki session now. A colleague at work convinced me to join him and try out this controversal method of gaining energy. I must admit, I'm pretty curious to see how it will affect me, beyond the placebo effect...

Up date: When heading home after the session, I saw a woman, walking in the sidewalk, whose posture suggested fatigue and dejection. You could tell that she wasn't about to rank this one as one of her best days ever. Up til that moment, I had had a hard time defining my state, labelling what I had experienced, as I felt almost nothing during the Reiki. But then I realised that "light" was the best word to describe the condition. I felt light. Not healed, not cured, not energetic, not decompressed, just "light". I didn't feel spirited either, al though I had high spirits. That was probably a herd of endorfins dancing around in my cells and molecules due to the skin contact and the resting.

But what about the Reiki session itself? my colleagues ask. The word that comes to mind is the musical term "largo", which means that you play in a very slow tempo. Too slow for me.

3D tv that tickles your senses

Japan plans to take tv viewing to a whole new level.

7.2 earthquake struck Japan

An earthquake shook northeastern Japan earlier today, causing massive damage in the areas around Sendai city. A tidal wave warning has been given in Miyagi. The Blog From Another Dimension blogs about the quake.

Kvarken Archipelago stands a good chance of becoming a world natural heritage site

This weekend was the best one so far this summer. I spent the most of it at our cabine out in the archipelago and the weather was beautiful, even at night. We went chanterelle hunting (we found quite a lot actually, thanks to all the rain we've had recently.) and fishing and while sitting in the small boat, I realized that the archipelago and nature here truly is outstanding. As it's around me every day, I keep forgetting that. For instance, have a look at the rocks in the picture. They are very unique, but that's not something I think of a lot. And if I dedicate them thoughts, it's mostly concerning me not hitting them with my boat as they're quite numerous below water surface as well.

That's why I'm truly delighted to read in Vasabladet (article in Swedish here) that Kvarken stands a good chance of becoming a world natural heritage site. This past week, a Canadian expert by the name Jim Thorsell has been inspecting and reviewing the surroundings and his views are of great importance when it is decided if Kvarken will become a world heritage site or not. According to the article in Vasabladet, he was impressed by the new land emerging (the islands and parts of the Finnish coast are rising out of the sea at the rate of approximately eight millimetres per year), the clean air and water and the rich fauna. It sounds promising as I really hope Kvarken could be Finland's first world natural heritage site.

we're getting warmer

Finally, the sun is out, after days of pouring rain. According to a WWF analysis of the climate in Europe, the cities are getting warmer due to increased use of energy and climate changes. As an example, the average temperature in Europe rose by 0.95 celcius during the last century. Specifically for Helsinki, the mean daily summer temperature in 1970-1974 was 15.2 degrees celcius. In the years 2000-2004, it rose to 16.0 degrees.

If this worries you, I suggest you check this out.

Political blogs appeal to Americans

Interesting survey on what interests American blog readers. According to comScore, 43 % visit blogs about politics and news. Life style-blogs and tech blogs were also popular.
[via digi.today]

wiki on the visual aspects of social life

A wiki on visual sociology is born.

Metaphores

If there's something I loathe, it's vague wordings and great numbers. If I come across the like, I usually pose embarrassing questions like "But what does that mean?" or "What concrete consequences does it impose on my life?". If possible, I want it explained visually or as metaphores as I seem to think in an image mode. Some get uncomfortable when being asked to translate the abstract into the concrete, but I think it's essential.

Therefore, I absolutely love to read "A short history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson as he exemplifies like there's no tomorrow. (I doubt he acually did all the calculations himself, but rather is he citing someone who's done it before him. But still). In the part where he discusses the vast universe, he states that astronoms today believe that there may be up til 140 billions of galaxies in the visible universe. It is pretty hard to imagine that figure. Therefore, Bryson illustrates it to the reader. If galaxies were deep frozen peas, there would be enough to fill a music hall, such as Royal Albert Hall in London. Spot on!

Bryson also illustrates the Avogrado's number that is 6,0221367 times 1023 (23 raised). This is also a figure, rather hard to fully grasp. Thus, Bryson lets us know that it equals the amount of soda cans it takes to cover the entire globe, the layer being 320 kilometers thick (i.e. hight). And it equals the amount of unpopped popcorn it takes to cover the US with a 15 kilometer thick layer.

See? It's much easier to grasp the width of the figures now!

Berners-Lee on blogs and the web

Here's an excerpt from the interview with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, aired last night on BBC 2 (Newsnight). Berners-Lee ponders what the web will be like when it turns 30 and he says that he hopes it will be "more stable, something that people don't talk about." I've noticed that it's starting to be that al ready. Many around me say "I read it in Aftonbladet" for instance, and very few mean that they actually read the paper version of the evening paper. Everyone means the net version and it's understood that this is the case. Berners-Lee continues: "My goal for the web in 30 years is to be the platform which has led to the building of something very new and special, which we can't imagine now."

Also worth mentioning here, Berners-Lee feels that blogging is close to his original idea of a read/write web and he states that "When you write a blog, you don't write complicated hypertext, you just write text, so I'm very, very happy to see that now it's gone in the direction of becoming more of a creative medium.".

Thanks Masse for the link!

Vacation of music

What a great way to start off my first ever vacation with full salary: Iron Maiden's gig in Helsinki last Thursday, and finishing off with a 3 day rock festival in Åbo. About 22 000 people came to see Rammstein play last Friday, and it was well worth while, although their show was almost exactly the same as their concert in Helsinki last October. At the Maiden gig, Bruce Dickinson dedicated one song for the victims of the London bombing earlier that day and swaying lights where everywhere in the crowd.

Now back out in the heat (it's 27 degrees) and off to the concert, Hanoi Rocks, the Hives and Within Temptation are yet to come!

Ruisrock festival blog

Hufvudstadsbladet, which has the widest circulation of the newspapers in Swedish in Finland, has just launched what seems to be their first blog (though the blog lacks certain features like comments and the like but the author calls it a blog) and it's theme is... Ruisrock, a great rock festival in Åbo where I used to live. Super! I just got tickets to it and I'm counting the days to go there. I'll definitely keep up with this blog.

The Finnish dream

I must be getting old. Never before have I even considered listening to a radio talk show where two people sit and dissect the world for half an hour. Now, I’ve even looked it up, twice, at the internet (radio on demand).

I’ve been playing around with ideas about creativity and creative economy lately so I decided to browse around for interesting references. One of the radio talk shows I found starred Pekka Himanen (who obtained his PhD in Philosophy at the age of 20 from the University of Helsinki) who has been giving much appreciated speeches about the creative capital at conferences around the world lately (the radio interview in Finnish here).

Over lunch with the reporter, Himanen explained his theory on how Finland will keep up with the rest of the world. He said that just as the Americans have their own dream (the American dream which is about personal success, according to PH), the Finns should have their dream, i.e. the Finnish dream. This implies a society that is creative but caring. Like a creative welfare state in the midst of the information age. If a creative and caring society is what bodes for a boosting economy then Finland has every reason to smile. Welfare and caring is our middle name and industries like culture and information technology are strong here.

After a bit of googling, I found this account (in Finnish only) of the challenges of the information society that Himanen wrote for the future committee of the Finnish Parliament. I’ll read it as soon as possible, seems interesting.

Nokia Sensor out today

Nokia released "Sensor" today, a phone software app with which the user can create personal pages on the phone. He or she can also scan the surroundings (up to 10 meters away) for other Sensor users, and exchange fotos or messages with them. Could be pretty cool to try this out but the application is not available for my antique phone (demo of the application here).

The blog leads the way

Timo Tuovinen, an adviser at DOORStories Media Content Solutions, was talking at a seminar I attended today about how important it is to know where you’re going, if you want to manage out there in the big, big world. He referred to a Finnish driver who started doing business in Europe about 40 years ago. Back then, the driver didn’t know any other languages than Finnish. Well, in a recent magazine interview, the driver with 4 decades of experience of doing business abroad concludes that you get by fine out there as long as you know where you’re going.

Tuovinen posed the question about the functions of blogs: Blogs, do they tell stories about persons [who keep them and of others] or are the bloggers rather trying to get a grasp of a fragmented world?

In other words, one could ask if a blog is a means and tool in the quest of knowing where you’re going? I’d say definitely. It’s a great way to sort thoughts, and store threads of thoughts. Once written down and visible on the screen, I get a better perspective. Therefore, I’m easier off targeting where I’m going. And if this bodes well for the ability to manage and survive, then all the better! But not to forget, the first part of the twofold question is also correct, that blogs tell stories of persons, perhaps mostly of the one tapping the keyboard.

Interactive movie

This is rather old piece of news but still interesting to me. The audience of an interactive movie prefers having their individual choice taken into consideration (instantly and at several times during the film) over having the audience's majority vote decide the direction of the movie. At least, this is the experience of the writers, Ali Bali and Violaine Meunier. The 19-minute long episode is found here.

Getting back behind bars

I'm taking up my old summer job as a bartender tonight. I realise now that I've missed mixing flavours to the joy of others, and not just for me and some friends. I feel so inspired, actually, that I just might trade the summer beer for drinks this summer. A speciality tonight will be the Japanese Slipper, add a cherry on bottom and voilà, a treat for both eye and taste buds!

And what's the occasion you might ask. Well, just anything you could imagine. That summer's in the air, for instance, or that it's been 50 years and one day since the first public tv broadcast took place in Finland. A reason as good as any to raise a toast. Or that it's only one year until the 50th anniversary of more or less regular tv-broadcasting, both in Finland and in the UK (the first widely available tv broadcast took place in November 1936 from Alexandra Palace in the UK). Or that it is about 830 days left until the switch from analogue to digital tv-broadcasting in Finland. There are thousands of occasions worth attention.

CfP for the 4th Euro ITV

The first call for papers is announced for the fourth European Interactive TV conference. The theme for next year's Euro ITV is "Beyond Usability, Broadcast and TV".

The conference is taking place in Athens May 18-19 next year, which suits me absolutely perfectly as the preliminary date for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens is the 20th May. Man, I'd love to get tickets to that musical feast!!

Blogs are all around me...

The titel makes me think of the version "Christmas is all around" (a cover of the Trogg's Love is all around) sung in the movie Love actually. It makes me smile goofily everytime I think of it, what a feel-good movie :)

It is true though, blogs are all around me it seems nowadays. Blogs have been a buzz in the news and perhaps therefore, quite a few people have asked me what's the deal with blogs (to mimic Jerry Seinfeld...), why do you write them, for whom and about what topics? Some have also started their own blogs, like Emmi and my former boss, member of parliament Astrid Thors. Welcome to the world of blogging, my friends!

Finland gets bronze medal in IT use

Finland gets the bronze medal in internet use in the EU. According to a recent study by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European communities, the highest level of internet usage in the EU in 2004 was found among Swedes, followed by the Danes and the Finns.

According to this study, the proportion of men using the net is higher than for women. This does not however apply to the Baltic countries and Finland where the surfing is more equal.

theme of the day

The subject of today has definitely been peonies. I woke up and turned on the telly and found myself watching this season's first programme of the gardening tv show Pioni (apparently, the show's been running since 2002 but I've never come across it. Perhaps because I rarely watch tv early Sunday mornings.). In the afternoon, I went to the trade fair that's hit town this weekend. Although the main attraction on the gardening side was orchids, the peonies did a good job in getting people's attention. And half an hour ago, part of the lifestyle tv show Strömsö dealt with a garden where peonies grow.

It is such an appropriate theme for a day like this, as it feels like spring's finally here. The sun's beaming down through the trees and the mercury decided to break through and stopped at 10 degrees. This time of year leaves me bubbling of energy and inspiration and I truly believe that there's nothing I couldn't do. It's a similar situation as when the first scents of your chocolate muffins baking in the oven hit your nostrils. You know that you're in for a good treat (=the summer) after some hard and dirty work (=the winter) and it's only a couple of more moments away (=it's only spring). And according to me, watching the muffins rise through the oven glass is more rewarding than the actual eating.

Baudrillard and Malta

I’m back home from the vacation in Malta, and I keep thinking about what Jean Baudrillard said about hyper reality and simulation. He claims that the images we see in the media seldom represent reality. They are rather phantom images of a reality that gets lost on the way through the media channels to the consumer. What we see is therefore a hyper reality.

The reason why this comes to mind is that in my quest of useful information about Malta before I left, some websites encouraged me to explore the islands by bicycle:

"Put on walking boots, hire a mountain bike and head out from the village squares on the narrow farmers’ tracks."

and

"Highlight: hire a bicycle and explore the Maltese Islands."

Since I’m fond of biking, I thought to myself that “yeah, that’s a good idea, I’ll look into that once I get there.”. But once I got there, I realized that it probably isn’t such a good idea. Why? Because the traffic was chaotic! Few pedestrian crossings, very few bicycle roads, narrow roads and loads of cars passing you by in high speeds. Perhaps I’m over sensitive because I’ve been in two traffic accidents but there’s no way I’d get into the Maltese traffic on a bike. Therefore, the image I got of the conditions of the bicyclist on Malta on the tourist sites and what I finally saw when I got there did not match. I saw only one person biking during the whole week and the Maltese themselves seem fond of their cars, as there are more than 200 000 cars on the island, and about 350 000 habitants. But it's great fun to find out that things are completely different than what I thought. It’s healthy and educational.

Despite the trouble of crossing the roads, I really enjoyed Malta. There were lots of things to do for a film buff like me. There’s the Popeye village, built for the shooting of the movie Popeye, and the Mediterranean Film Studios with two large circular water tanks, where movies like The Count of Monte Cristo, Revelation and The league of Extraordinary Gentlemen were shot. It was pretty cool to visit the places you see in the movies. (This is a picture from the movie The Odyssey and this is my picture)

Unizon conference streamed

For those of you who are interested in the mobile phone as a tool for co-operation and education, I recommend the virtual part of the conference "Crossborder Networking and Learning - Unizon Conference" that's taking place here in Vasa today and tomorrow. Today, at 14.00 - 15.10 (CET), Gunnar Wranne at Ericsson and Riitta Vänskä at Nokia are talking (in English) about mobility and work. The sessions are streamed here.

TV viewing

Last week I enjoyed Aalborg, Denmark, where the euro itv conference was held. While at the university, I visited VR Media Lab, one of Europe's largest virtual reality installations, and played around in its cave. The cave is a small room where continuous images are projected onto side walls, floor, and ceiling and when experienced through lightweight glasses, it felt like a 3D-world. In this picture, I had a go at basket ball game. It was quite tricky so I only scored 4 points… It was pretty cool but I felt quite sick afterwards so I don’t recommend this as an alternative for dessert.

During the conference, it seemed to me that every discussion at least touched upon two topics: 1) social TV viewing and 2) active vs passive TV viewing. The first issue deals with the question: is the TV viewing mostly a collective action or not? Are the TV programmes mostly watched by groups of people, e.g. families or friends or are there loads of single individuals sitting alone in the TV couch? Because the nuclear family is no longer given and the number of singles living alone is quite high, the old notion of TV being a media product consumed in a group has changed.

The other topic that the debate quite often boiled down to is whether TV viewing is a passive or an active action. And if it is a passive one, is that so bad? We’re active and engaged almost all the time in almost every area of life, then would it be so bad if we relaxed in front of the telly? This makes me think of a Swedish stressresearcher, Aleksander Perski, who says that there’s a new addiction around in the modern Western civilization today, namely time addiction. We are time addicts because we are too active and we don’t allow ourselves to recover from stressful events or a couple of hard days at work. Since he takes up the cudgels for recuperation and rest every once in a while, the new word on my mind (in the sidebar to the right) will be time addiction. I’ll think about it when I’m enjoying my vacation on Malta next week.

Curio: There are only two countries in the world that don’t allow divorces by law: The Philippines and Malta, where I’m spending my holiday in two days.

Written Swedish is not threatened by the web

There are great variations in language and communication in discussion groups on the net, just as is the case offline as well. The variations are contextual, meaning that if the writer wants to chat, the written language might vary from the one used when (s)he for example searches for information. Therefore it's difficult to draw any general conclusions such as a presumed, ongoing decline in the quality and correct use of written Swedish, says a researcher colleague in Åbo, Lotta Collin.

She's not however worried about the written language deteriorating due to discussion groups on the web as she believes that people can tell apart "web language" and more formal language. She defends her doctoral thesis, where she linguistically analyzed 1000 Swedish postings in a discussion forum for diabetes, tomorrow in Åbo.

There's an article in Swedish about her here and here.

Red whortleberry birth and pochard eggs as world origin

Finland celebrates Kalevala Day today, to honour Finnish culture and the old folk poetry recorded in Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot on his collecting journeys in Karelia. The stories these songs tell are swollen with magic. There's the story about Ilmatar (the Virgin of the Air) who descends to the waters. A pochard lays its eggs on her knee and when the eggs break, the world is formed from their pieces.

Also, there's Marjatta who conceives a child from a red whortleberry. Being fatherless, her son is condemned to death, but the child speaks out against the sentence and is christened King of Karelia. And the whereabouts of the miracle mill Sampo are fascinating as well. A national epic truly worthwhile reading. For a resumé of the poems in English, go here.

The paradisegate won the International Ice Sculpture Competition

A duo from Czech Rebublic who has made an incredible peace of art called Paradise gate won the International Ice Scultpure competition in Vaasa.

Even though it's freezing cold outside (although the sun is warming quite a bit already) the interest in the competition and voting for the best sculpture was so great that the organizers ran out of voting ballots. The sculpture with the snake by the gate to paradise was both the audience's and the jury's favorite.

If you want to have a look at the sculptures who came in second and third, and at a selection of the masterpieces in the competition, go here.

Oscar delay

While getting in the mood for tonight’s glamorous Oscar gala, you might want to check out the blog posts by the producer of the show, Gil Cates. “I think it's wrong to have a tape delay because we run the risk of infringing upon the right to free speech.” is his comment to the fact that there will be a network delay this year as well, as a consequence of “Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction during the Super Bowl halftime show”.

Be a champ at wife carrying!

The registration for the wife carrying world championships in Sonkajärvi, Finland is now open, although the participation form in English is not yet updated. How cool wouldn’t it be to participate!

The event takes place 1-3 July this summer. For information, go here and choose “Wife carrying” to the left.

Article on the lab

There's an article in Finnish on us and iDTV Lab in the latest issue of Puhelin, an information technology magazine.

Banner ads do catch our attention

In my quest to find some information on news paper reading behaviour, I found something surprising. Researchers at Stanford University found in their study of on-line newspaper readers that 45 % of all banner ads were read and fixated an average of 1 second. That’s a much higher figure than I thought. In my own on-line reading, I would have guessed that 10 % of the banner ads succeed in getting my attention. But perhaps I’m glancing at them for such a short period of time, that I don’t actually perceive and remember it.

Cool weekend

The square in Vasa is a cool place to be nowadays, as it is covered with 2 times 1,2 meter fresh water ice blocks. They’re untreated yet, but not for long as the 5^th International Ice Sculpture Competition is taking place this weekend. With a little help of a chainsaw and a couple of chisels, the ice blocks turn into masterpieces. I heard that competitors from about 10 different countries are participating in this event, and the audience can cast their vote on the most magnificent piece of art on Sunday night. Can't miss that.

The actual competition starts at Friday, which is two days away from now. But there’s no need to worry about the ice melting. The temperature here in Vasa was -17 this morning.

Reactions to strong scenes on TV

I got the hardbound copy of the master’s thesis by two students, who conducted their study for the Master’s degree in our iDTV Lab, yesterday. I read it at a stretch last night as they, Klas Backholm and Sebastian Lindqvist, had chosen a fascinating theme.

The purpose of their study was to see whether there are differences in how people with different characteristics react to strong (violent, emotional and scary for example) film scenes. In order to find out, they showed 20 scenes from movies, documentaries and news features to about 60 persons, who started off the test by filling out the NEO Five-Factor Inventory personality test. While the viewers watched the scenes, psycho-physiological tests were conducted. The skin conductance, i.e. sweating, was measured, as was the viewers’ pulse with the help of a photopletysmograph. Backholm and Lindqvist also used video surveillance, self-reports and questionnaires in the study.

The conclusion that the guys come to, based on the questionnaires, pshycho-physiological results and self-reports on the scenes, is that emotional scenes in a film do invoke physiological effects in human beings, at least in short term. And what’s more, we react differently to programmes on television or to film scenes. One of the findings is that “nice”, caring persons (scoring high on agreeableness) tend to react physiologically stronger to television and film scenes in general. They also tend to react in a more negative manner to unpleasant scenes than persons with other personalities.

Furthermore, extrovert and social persons (scoring high on extroversion in the personality test) liked documentaries and scenes from real situations (such as sports and news) more than the other participants. And intelligent persons (scoring high on openness to experience) got frustrated with romantic and harmonic scenes. Backholm and Lindqvist suggest that these persons have a high degree of imagination and guts, and thus demand more of a film than mere romance and harmony.

Another finding in the study is that women rated romantic scenes higher than men, who tended to like scenes with eroticism, humour and violence more. This comes quite close to traditional, stereotypical roles of the sexes, where women are supposed to be into romance and men supposedly dig violence and action. And naturally, I seem to belong to the standard deviation in this matter. Last weekend, I saw a romantic comedy that my boyfriend picked out, Girl fever, and I fell asleep while watching it. The only romantic movie that has passed my test yet is Love actually.

Passion for TV

I gave TV activists at Malax TV, a small, voluntary community TV-station from the small village I'm from, a tour around our TV-studio and iDTV Lab tonight. And I feel absolutely lyrical, almost high, as the group's enthusiasm and passion for tv-production was so obvious and "contagious". They genuinly seem to love what they do although it's a lot of unpaid work in their sparetime. They posed lots of questions and they brought up many thoughts so I've learned loads tonight.

I had a look at Malax TV's website and I found a great collection of links. Among many other interesting things, I found a database of Swedish newsreels and short films from way back. I've had a look at something similar in the UK but I didn't know about the Swedish one. I loved the commersials, especially the animated one about the bank dating back to the 1920's. Definitely worth a look!

Science transparency and the origins of aids

Yesterday at Göteborg Film Festival, I saw an interesting and controversial documentary suggesting that someone else than God or homosexuals is the originator of aids, namely the West. The movie "The origins of AIDS" pictures the 1950's, when there was a race going on in the laboratories in Western countries. Many doctors and researchers wanted to find a cure for the disease that affected millions of people at the time, the polio. With the purpose to develop medicine with the help of tissues from chimpanzee kidneys, a laboratory is built in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo. The vaccine against polio that is developed here, 10A11, was distributed to hundreds of thousands of people in the region. Shortly after this, in 1959, the first cases of HIV and aids are found in these exact regions. This could imply that HIV and aids is the result of the human being's fight against another disease, the polio.

As I'm no virologist, I can't say whether this hypothesis – that the origin of aids is mass vaccination - is likely to be true or not. But being fond of conspiracy theories, I like the message in the movie. The idea that it was Western doctors that transplanted HIV from monkeys to human beings is not new though. Journalists have written about it before, for instance in the Rolling Stone. But their findings and hypothesises were dismissed by scientists. They didn't take the theories very seriously and thus, the Rolling Stone was made to publish an excuse for including the article in one of their issues.

This troubles one of the directors of the documentary, Catherine Peix, who stopped by for a short Q & A session after the film. According to her, the science society dismissed the book containing this theory and upon which the documentary lies (The River by Ed Hooper) in 3 minutes. Researchers didn't even bother to look at it, let alone to challenge the notion that the polio vaccine that was given to people in large scale had its origin in chimpanzee tissues, and thus being a possible carrier of HIV. Neither did the minister of public health in France when the documentary was about to be broadcast on national television. 2 hours before the documentary was to be aired, the minister called the head of the broadcasting channel to stop it, according to Peix.

The obvious ”backing each other up” among researchers bothers Peix. So does the hush-hush around the research for a polio vaccine and the insufficient procedures. An obvious way of testing the hypothesis of the film would be to analyze the vaccine, 10A11, to see if there are traces of SIV and S40 that chimpanzees carry. But, according to Peix, there were no notes taken at all at the laboratory in Leopoldville. Nor are there any samples left of the oral polio vaccine. What is left however is the testimony of villagers that worked in the lab. In the documentary, several former employees say that the vaccine was made out of monkey kidney tissues and thus being a possible carrier of SIV and HIV. But the doctors and researchers from the West who worked there deny this. That's why the director Peix states "Science needs to be transparent. We need to think for our selves, and be careful." She's worried that these same non-transparent procedures, with risk taking, no note-taking and sneaking around, may be employed again, when it comes to organ transplantation to human beings from pigs, for example.

Unfortunately, I missed the debate with Ed Hooper, Catherine Peix and a professor in virology yesterday. I heard that it was far from a dull one.

Off to Gothenburg

I'm off to Göteborg Film Festival now. If you're around, do come and listen to and discuss with us. We're talking at the seminar series Cinemix 2005 about audience research and filmmaking, tomorrow Friday at noon.