picnic printed 26.09.08
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Five minutes before the decisive moment page 5 Photo by ivo van der bent
What’s up vogels?
boomerang creatives
Female Internet Heroes
lies, lies, lies lies, lies!
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Brainstormy day
Expecting to be wowed
TheNextWomen on PICNIC: Start-up Pitches by the Future Female Heroes of the Internet. Bianca Bodes wins with her webshop, which is not pink by the way.
Amazon’s Werner Vogels was kind enough to answer a few questions when we stopped by Thursday to inquire: ‘What’s up?’
By Marjolijn Kamphuis
‘Don’t think pink’ is one of the first statements being made at this PICNIC side event with an audience of fifty composed primarily of women. Marianne van Leeuwen, serial E-entrepreneur currently focussing on marketing to women, starts off with some words of wisdom on female consumers: they don’t recognize themselves in traditional marketing messages, they live complex lives trying to balance work and family, and they don’t necessarily like things that are pink. Simone Brummelhuis, organiser of the event and founder of TheNextWomen adds, ‘And they don’t like the word “pitching”, which is why we called this event Brainstorm Camp.’ Simone is on a mission. She wonders why a female Steve Jobs hasn’t come along yet. TheNextWomen is her first step in creating more awareness for successful female internet heroes. Today she’s looking for new talent.
Finally, Bianca Bode came up with the idea of a website where one can list all the books, movies and music they own, in collaboration with a large eshop she refuses to mention.
Bianca Bode Photo by Ivo van der Bent
boomerang creative
PICNIC Back Channel Report thursday
artwork: Daniël disselkoen daniël is one of the 6000 creatives that are active on Boomerang.nl Curious to see more of his work or work by the others? Go to www.boomerang.nl
BY MAARTEN lens-fitzgerald (dutchcowboy, Mobile monday amsterdam, sprxmobile)
People are talking everywhere at PICNIC. Also talking on the virtual side of PICNIC: the back channel. This channel is accessible everywhere, via computer or phone, as long as there’s a connection. People use Twitter for short messages, Flickr and Mobypicture for their pictures and some even use video via services like Seesmic. What were people talking about today? JosK: #picnic08 @werner is the commercial guy in the discussion 3 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet16.41 LeoLovesTwtr: @loic vertelt over iemand die suicide wilde plegen op Seesmic ->gave IP address -> politie kwam. Whow. - #picnic08 15:49 Polledemaagt: @loic thanx for the preso; its really really nice #picnic08 3 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet · Thread Show Conversation 15;41 loiclemeur: about to talk innovation to hundreds of students and creative people at #picnic I am going to explain how I do it http://is.gd/TDi (expand) about 1 hour ago · Reply · View Tweet14:29 johanschaap: Bijna omver gelopen door IkRun #picnic 13 minutes ago · Reply · View Tweet 13:34 marlooz: #picnic Morgen om 09:00 Laatste ronde Vodafone Mobile Clicks in Westerliefde! http://bemba.com/t/21345 13:10 mathys: I want a digital toaster! #picnic the weather is printed on your toast about 2 hours ago · Reply · View Tweet 12:56 sverweij: WWWWHHHHOOOOOO IK GA MORGEN NAAR PICNIC 2008 :D about 2 hours ago · Reply · View Tweet13:12 Rhymo: Daughter sick so no Picnic after all for me. Thank god for the livestreams about 2 hours ago · Reply · View Tweet 12:34 erwblo: Volgens mij is het pakkendag op Picnic. #picnic08 about 3 hours ago · Reply · View Tweet 11:54
http://picnic.slandr.net/
What brings you to PICNIC? ‘First of all, it was great to get an invitation to speak here. My driving force is a deep curiosity in the Dutch start-up culture. I want to get a better understanding of how this interesting mix of creativity and everything is working, because Amsterdam is unique in that sense.’
Interestingly enough, all cases are judged with great rationality by the female judges: which one is the most viable, which business model would make more money, who will be able to get some big partners on board. It is Bianca’s idea of favs.nl that eventually stands out as being most feasible. And one thing is certain: its site design will not feature the colour pink.
The three female entrepreneurs that get to present their business case bring a wide variety of concepts to the table. Maureen van der Burgh starts off with the idea of making more creatives aware of new techniques for making video clips. Petra KroonGoedgeefs would like to create a platform that involves freelancers and small companies into social/entrepreneurial projects in the third world.
by Joitske Hulsebosch and Kerim Satirli.
Werner vogels Photo by Ivo van der Bent
What do you hope to gain from PICNIC? ‘I don’t know yet. I like to be surprised and I am really expecting to be wowed. There are myriad innovative happenings taking place here on the lawns of PICNIC. To get a better understanding of the whole scene, I am going to hold a brainstorming session with young students, who I find to be usually bursting with ideas. But I also hope to give something back and share some of my own ideas with the next generation.’ Is business changing? ‘The way businesses are created is changing radically: whereas you used to need lots of money up front to become successful, entrepreneurs have increasing access to both expertise and a range of services to build up their idea. Everyone is trying to be the next YouTube or Facebook. But many companies fail to build a sustainable business. I will be bringing some good
picnic pitch A single good idea is looking for its match in investment. We bring them together at PICNIC. By Sascha Walstra & Ellen Mannens
Man with the good idea: Maarten van Walsem Company name: Cuckaluhr
The possible investor Erik-Jan Gelink Company name: Deloitte
What’s the plan? ‘We’ve designed a module to create storyboards on the internet in an easy way. Compare it to the Stone Age when communities communicated through cave drawings.’
What’s your first impression? ‘It really sounds like a good idea, but it will be a challenge. Nowadays it’s hard to stick out with a good idea that involves internet. First you have to get people’s attention and then make sure they stay with you.’
How does that work? ‘Instead of a tribal community, nowadays we have a global community. But communicating through images is still the most effective way to tell a story. People doze off when you tell a story in words only. With our module even a computer dummy can make a storyboard to tell the story in visuals.’ How was the idea born? ‘I used to work as a change manager and that’s when I learned that people understand a message better when you show it to them in images instead of words.’ Why this date? ‘We started our company this April. The module is ready for use and now our concept needs to get known.’
How can Maarten achieve that? ‘Make sure you have good marketing and good content. That means you’ll have to find the right business partners. The risk of this idea is that you won’t be able to protect it because it’s open source.’ But do you feel like a second date? ‘ Absolutely. I want to invite Maarten to show the module to our web gurus so they can help him to refine it. The plan sticks out in the fact that it’s a fan community, which is different from social communities like Facebook and LinkedIn.” > Do you have a good idea you want to share? Go to the KvK Creative Businesslounge in PICNIC CLUB.
start-ups on stage to talk to them. To highlight the challenges they faced and show what they did to create what’s referred to as the long tail.’ How green is Amazon? ‘What is Amazon doing in terms of becoming a greener company? We, the world’s largest eTailer, have been optimising our fulfilment process in recent years, moving away from plastic and toward better, more sustainable packaging as well as giving customers more insight into the carbon footprint of their order. Also we are making our data centres more efficient, which has the welcome side effect of becoming more green.’ Werner Vogels, the chief technical officer of amazon.com, has spent the last five years developing his company’s vision of technology. Prior to joining Amazon, Vogels worked as a computer science researcher at Cornell University, where he investigated the scalability and robustness of mission-critical enterprise computer systems. > Interested in the whole video of the interview? Visit http://kerimsatirli.com/blog/media/ interview-with-werner-vogels
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Closing One Big, Crazy Circle
and the winner is Eben Bayer As the jury prepares to decide who will receive the 500,000 euro Green Challenge award, the four finalists make their cases. by Liz Farsaci
Nike Techlab or Nike+ big shot Michael Tchao took the stage in an overcrowded Zuiveringshal.
Innovative, inspiring and sustainable these were all words used to describe the products and services of the four finalists of the PICNIC Green Challenge. On Thursday morning, the four who were charged with creating carbon-reducing products or services presented their ideas to the panel of judges and an audience of spectators.
by Peter Bas
Tchao explained how one of the world’s biggest brands takes on mobile technology and global communities to create a global feeling as well as one of the biggest events in the world: Nike Running. Creating a community for your products isn’t the hottest thing these days; it’s more of a requirement to survive than it is a new tool to market and eventually sell more products. Nike+ however takes this concept to a new, unprecedented level. Nike+ connects their running shoes with virtual online services and athletic communities. First there was the running shoe. There was nothing fancy about it until Nike revitalised the whole concept of running in the early ’90s. Its fresh designs, new materials and stunning marketing campaigns made them market leader in no time. But what’s next, they must have thought at Nike. How do you motivate people to actively run and stimulate existing runners to run even more often? The answer was as simple as it was infinite: combine an old invention like the running shoe with state-of-the-art technology already in use while running. In this case, the music on an Apple iPod Nano. Insert a chip in every new running shoe you produce, and have it synchronise with the iPod so it can tell you the distance you ran, the time it took, the calories you burned
and so on. The whole concept was easy enough to synchronise with your computer, making your efforts even more visual and appealing. Then Nike+ just followed common sense and created on-line platforms where runners, friends or foes, could set challenges and synchronise their data with each other. Now there was even more reason to get out and run – and beat your colleagues so that they’d pay for your PICNIC ticket, for example. Internet platforms were created where runners could set up their own competition. Some of them even forced Nike+ to make T-shirts that stated the distances people had run. For instance, the 500+ mile T-shirt. Nike took the shirts to production and sold them exclusively to the runners who covered this distance. However, the marketing ideas weren’t exhausted. As you might know, Nike currently organises the biggest running event on the planet, the Human Race 10K. More than one million runners in 25 cities around the globe fasten their iPods to compete against one another. Getting worldwide media coverage and inspiring even more people to run in Nike shoes with iPod sensors (of course) is more than just clever. The marketing circle may seem to have closed… or has it? The story continues...
PRNT SCRN: Online Content Worth Printing Have you seen these ancient laptops around the picnic area? Or maybe noticed people wearing a keyboard button? We did a little investigating to find out what’s going on.
came to Picnic in search of creative collaborators. Prnt Scrn wants emerging and established talent from all creative fields to print their visions on online culture. Curious?
It turns out that Prnt Scrn, a new publication that translates screen to print,
Find a working laptop and log on to www.prntscrn.org.
First up was Dr Jochen Mundinger from Switzerland, who spoke about RouteRANK. His company has developed software which will enable consumers and businesses to calculate the time and the price for specific door-to-door journeys considering all modes of transport available - say, the trip from
3 questions for michael tchao
So you are the one that brought the two together? “Yes, I am the link.”
boomerang creative artwork: dtm_inc dtm_inc is one of the 6000 creatives that are active on Boomerang.nl Curious to see more of his work or work by the others? Go to www.boomerang.nl
Eben Bayer from Ecovative Design in New York, next spoke of his company’s product, Greensulate (TM). This organic building product can be used in structural insulation panels and could replace less eco-friendly products. The product is made from local agricultural bi-products; in Northern Europe, this would probably be buckwheat. It is then combined with cellulose from fungi and transformed into a strong organic composite. The product, which is grown and distributed locally to cut down on carbon emissions, is being tested so that it will comply with international business codes.
the US. These solar panels are aimed at urban professionals who want to help the environment but have not found easy, affordable ways of doing so. Veranda Solar hopes these panels will provide the perfect solution to this problem.
‘Easier to assemble than IKEA furniture’ ‘The presentations were very informative and inspiring,’ said Marcel van den Broek, a member of the audience. ‘The ideas are down-to-earth and realistic.’ Vanya Hristova, another member of the audience, said, ‘I’m impressed. I found the RouteRANK idea very accessible. If it were well known, it would be very efficient, especially for business people, and would make a real change. If you make people aware, you can help them change.’
Next up was Peter Yeadon, from Decker Yeadon in New York, who spoke about the SmartScreen. This is a window screen made of shape memory materials, which open and close based on the temperature of the room. Yeadon spoke of the huge amounts of energy that our buildings and cities use - and he hopes that SmartScreen will address these problems through energy conservation. ‘We can make an impact if we rethink our buildings and our cities,’ Yeadon said.
Why is the collaboration in Nike + such a success? “The key to working together fluently is speaking each other’s language. For example when Apple says some new product is still a secret, we know that they mean to say ‘Have you heard about our newest, very ‘secret’ product?’. I know this through own experience; I used to work for Apple.”
Do you have plans for any new collaboration, here on PICNIC maybe? ‘Well, that’s a secret!’
your home to PICNIC - and also the carbon footprint you will make. For consumers this means an independent, unbiased tool that will do the math for us, so that we can make an informed choice about the ecological soundness of our journeys.
the four finalists (from left to right): Eben Bayer, Jochen Mundinger, Peter Yeadon and Capra J’Neva Photo by Ivo van der Bent
Today: Vodafone Mobile Clicks Award Today we find out who will win the 100,000 euro award for the best mobile site, service or application in the Vodafone Mobile Clicks Contest. by Rolf de Boer
At 09.30, in Heart of the West, the six finalists – Nulez, Mi-I, MapTheGap, MobyPicture, Tipspot and Exphera - will be introduced followed by the announcement of the winner in the Transformer Room at 18.00. Harry Odenhoven is Vodafone’s director of online services. So Harry, who’s going to win this competition? ‘I really don’t know.’ Really? ‘We have an independent jury with three guys from Momo and one from Vodafone. But that wasn’t me.’
It’s a big prize. Is it meant for the winner to go on a big holiday? ‘We hope the winner starts up a company to make a business out of his idea.’ Why didn’t the others make it to the final? ‘Mostly because they didn’t really need financial help. Their companies were already booming.’ Are there any plans for a follow up? ‘We’re taking this competition to other countries where the Momo community is active.’
Last but not least was Capra J’Neva, from Veranda Solar, who spoke about the company’s beautiful, affordable and handy solar panels. ‘We like to think they’re easier to assemble than IKEA furniture,’ says J’neva, also from
Winner Eben Bayer showing his sustainable alternatives to conventional synthetic building materials. Runner-up prize winner (100,000 euros) is Capra J’neva and partner Emilie Fetscher.
boomerang creative artwork: DTM_INC DTM_INC is one of the 6000 creatives that are active on Boomerang.nl Curious to see more of his work or work by the others? Go to www.boomerang.nl
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Picnic and prejudice By Ellen Mannens & Sascha Walstra – NL unlimited pictures BY Jessica brouwer
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You Lie, but Will Your Mobile?
nine tips for citizen media start-ups
Learned today at the Special ‘Citizen Media: Coming of Age’.
Shirley Cheung (top) & Martijn Reintjes (below) Shirley about Martijn ‘I think he works as a multimedia designer because of his clothes and his hairstyle. He looks smart and nice in it. He’s a creative person. He’s here at PICNIC for work. His name would probably begin with a J: James or John. In his spare time he does a lot of chatting on the internet and he also loves blogging. He also has a girlfriend who is slim, tall and has a similar occupation. His disposition is shy, but when you get to know him, he will share his inner feelings.’
by sacha van geffen
Lies are everywhere; not just in our daily interaction with others, but they’re also institutionalised in culture, religion and government. While people average six to ten lies a day, technology is unable to keep up. Our devices will mostly reveal the truth regardless of our intentions.
by Marlous Veldt
Just do it. Take that idea you’re passionate about and tweak it as you go. If the idea is any good, users’ content and ideas will create the perfection you’re looking for.
Allow people to say what they think – even if they want to discuss the local mafia hangout or how it feels to drag a friend out of car wreck.
Be a public broadcaster, so you can use the tax payer’s money and don’t need to worry about business models.
Recruit your users from general websites like YouTube and offer them your highly focused audience. They will get more hits and more feedback.
Don’t be evil. Don’t sell your users stuff without giving them a cut. Give them tools to proclaim ownership and build up a reputation.
Loan your equipment. As soon as people fall in love with producing, they will buy their own (more expensive) gear
Don’t charge your users for anything. It makes the site less accessible and costs 1 to 2 euro a month per user to collect the cash.
Improve content quality by turning broadcasting dreams into reality. Link up with a local TV channel and distribute the best material.
The notion that all information should be available all the time (as on the internet) is actually a very new one. Genevieve Bell (anthropologist at Intel) tells us that secretive knowledge has been around much longer. If we look at indigenous people, some secrets are exclusively passed on between groups of men or women. Medicine men have a special status in keeping secrets. Closer to home, the Catholic Church maintains a rigid system of keeping secrets.
Put your content back in the public domain; that’s where you got it in the first place.
Making energy
100% of people entering a dating site lied. So lies and secrets are at the heart of our culture. But our intentions and those of our devices are different. Technology is just not able to keep up, I might want to lie about where I’ve been today and who I phoned, but my GPS and mobile will shamelessly display the truth.
Martijn about himself ‘I’m a game designer and I’m here just for fun and also to learn new stuff. In my spare time I’m also always online for work. But then again, my work is also my hobby… Cooking on the other hand is a real hobby. About my disposition: I’m not shy at all! Well, I used to be shy, buy I’ve outgrown it. By the way, I do have a girlfriend. She is shorter than I am and doesn’t work in the online industry or anything related to it. She’s in child psychology and sometimes she even complains that I’m always on the internet. Ha ha. ‘
artwork by jan willem wennekes
‘Online social networks will soon be superseded by offline ones’
the Waag Society Workshop, Green City Lab. ‘We are working on a Personal Power Plant’. Photo by Jessica Brouwer
Behind the scenes...
The team Photo by Fred Byrman
buy the book
Stripped Event Managers take care of the logistics of PICNIC.
This is what we like! Modern Living is the new book+dvd by Han Hoogerbrugge.
You can imagine a lot needs to be done before the Westergasfabriek is ready to host PICNIC.
It’s all about the unparalleled and offbeat work of one of the most original and popular artists-slash-animators currently active on the Web and beyond.
The team on the photo (they’re not playing golf by the way) work on logistics, infrastructure and technical support with 20 other colleagues – before and during the event.
The book Photo by Jessica Brouwer
Have a peak @ the bookshop in the PICNIC Club.
‘Men lie 20% more than women, this raises the question wether women are not just better at lying’ ‘I see you do not have a heart yet, here is one, cheers’ ‘As with every picnic there are a lot of bugs, but i’d rather have them crawling on my hands than on my computer’
‘RFID is so 1984’ ‘I’m trying to meet my friend, but everybody wants to talk to me’
Bell quotes James Katz in there is an ‘arms race of digital deception’. There are online services that can provide you with ‘better lies’ (get your PICNIC programme, hotel receipts and plane ticket online while (yes, you) actually in Mexico with your secret lover (don’t
stay in the sun too long; it will give you away)). There are also lie detection algorithms competing for technological supremacy.
Could technology become so human it would lie? People lie online about their identity, their intentions, their location and their context. According to a Cornell survey, 100% of people entering a dating site lied. They lied mostly about their weight (women) or height (men). It turns out that we like our online lies. There are even websites celebrating them, like postsecret [1] . According to Bell, we like these lies because we like to protect our privacy and security, and lying is a very effective way of doing so. In fact, Bell argues it will be more fruitful to talk in terms of secrets and lies than in terms of privacy and security when looking at technology. This is a very interesting perspective if you look at today’s world and how we are connected. Many lies we tell do not really matter. Devices which allow you to actively create false steps may eliminate any sense of betrayal and change the trust we have in technology. Could technology become so human it would lie?
Links: http://www.postsecret.blogspot.com/
boomerang creative artwork: Mark rooker Mark rooker is one of the 6000 creatives that are active on Boomerang.nl Curious to see more of his work or work by the others? Go to www.boomerang.nl
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1) Friday 26th of September 08.00 – 10.00 Logica Business Breakfast Refining Room
3) Friday 26th of September 24 h Floortje and Nine Design at the spot Gashouder - Boomerang News Lab
5) Friday 26th of September 15.05 – 15.30 What will Google do? PICNIC Conferenze – Zuiveringshal West
2) Friday 26th of September 09.00 – 17.00 Surprising Africa Machine Building
4) Friday 26th of September 14.00 – 17.00 Argumented Reality FlexBar
6) Friday 26th of September 19.00 – 21.00 BNO - Creating Brands Presents: ‘Design on Demand’ Machine Room
ILLUSTRATION BY ZSUZSANNA ILIJIN
slowmotion fantasy football players Photo by Henri Smeets (www.C360.nl)
COLOPHON Collaborators Picnic Printed Concept PICNIC’08 and Boomerang Media Els Steenhagen, Pola Zijlstra Publisher Boomerang Media Editor Gijs van Meurs Editor Boomerang Creative Pascale Bosboom Concept design & Art Direction Nine Fluitsma, Floortje Bouwkamp (and thank you Kim van de Groep) Copy editor Tim Muentzer Special thanks Amsterdam Weekly, NL Unlimited, Indrukwerk, PresTop