The hole in the wall

I was in Copenhagen last May 29-30 to get my annual dose of ideas and inspiration overload at the conference aptly called reboot. It’s an annual gathering — a community event to be more precise — that’s been going on for a decade; it has been a crossroads of digital technology and change where practical visionaries meet and reboot.

From the organisers’ own words: “2 days a year. 500 people. A journey into the interconnectedness of creation, participation, values, openness, decentralization, collaboration, complexity, technology, p2p, humanities, connectedness and many more areas.”

I like being in reboot, mainly because it’s so different from your usual corporate conferences. There’s an air of excitement and anticipation, but everyone’s just cool to everyone. The energy sizzles in the air and good will just overflows. It’s good to be stuck in such a place that houses stories and inspirations of people of different nationalities, who share ideas as artists, writers, bloggers, developers, entrepreneurs, researchers, analysts, teachers, cultural workers, designers, information architects, and so much more.

I almost did not go after having had long, tiring and bad day at work, but it’s a good thing I did. I really needed to shut down and reboot ;-)


Walking through walls
This year’s theme was ‘Free’: not just the price, but the freedom to flow, create and re-create spaces and interfaces around and within us.

One of the topics that struck me the most was the talk on ‘walking through walls’by Molly Wright Steenson. It was a military strategy used by units of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on its attack on the city of Nablus in April 2002. Described as ‘inverse geometry’ as it re-organised the ‘urban syntax’, it used the streets, roads, alleys, or courtyards that constitute the syntax of the city in a non-traditional way; as well as the external doors, internal stairwells, and windows that constitute the order of buildings, the soldiers moved horizontally through blasted walls, and vertically through blasted ceilings and floors. Because the rebels interpreted the spaces made by doors, windows and alleys in a traditional manner — places where you can walk through or enter, but also places where you can be trapped and confronted — Aviv Kochavi, then commander of the Paratrooper Brigade decided to perceive these spaces not in the same way as every architect did. He considered it forbidden territory and thus looked for other ways of moving through the spatial boundaries they were in.

“…. We interpreted the alley as a place forbidden to walk through, and the door as a place forbidden to pass through, and the window as a place forbidden to look through, because a weapon awaits us in the alley, and a booby trap awaits us behind the doors. This is because the enemy interprets space in a traditional, classical manner, and I do not want to obey this interpretation and fall into his traps. Not only do I not want to fall into his traps, I want to surprise him! This is the essence of war. I need to win. I need to emerge from an unexpected place. And this is what we tried to do.”

I found deeply interesting the unexpected way the space — or the interface — was reinterpreted by the military. In this case, it was not the spatial boundaries that created and directed movement, but it was the movement itself — the walking though walls — that recreated the space around it. “Walking-through-walls” re-conceptualised the city as not just the site, but also the very medium of warfare.

I find this very relevant in our work with experience architecture, where we give structure to and analyse information on different digital platforms: it reminds me to keep on rethinking the interfaces we design and develop; to challenge the usual flows of data and how users access it.

But although I have a grudging admiration for this perspective, the tactic of ‘walking through walls’ has greatly impacted the democratic spaces offered by both public and private domains. By invading and worming through the domestic interiors, the inside has been turned to outside: private domains became thoroughfares of conflict where fighting takes place ‘…within half-demolished living rooms, bedrooms and corridors of poorly built refugee homes, where the television may still be operating and a pot may still on the stove.’

If they have walked through walls and reinvented the spaces around them, what could have then been removed or displaced? Which pathways have been blocked or rendered impassable and which new spaces are going to evolve, adapt and perhaps fill in the gaping holes in the walls?

On the lighter side

There are a lot more topics served in reboot that whet my appetite, but I will share those musings another time. Here’s some lighter stuff that help me reboot on a daily basis:

• There’s a game console designed for active playing indoors and outdoors
• Crowds naming products and getting paid for it
• And my personal fave — a 2.8 inch karaoke machine (w00t!)

Sometimre ago, I read about Locomatrix, a UK-based company that develops location-based games. Locomatrix creators, Richard Vahrman and Moira Nangle, who described themselves as ‘keen walkers’, wanted to make game that would encourage kids to play outdoors. Now, there’s ‘Swinxs’, a game console designed to encourage active and social play among children. It’s created by Swinxs B.V., a Dutch games developer.

How it works: You’ve got Swinxs, the game console. which talks, cheers and explains the games, referees and keeps score. Then there are the XS tags, wristbands with microchips that communicate with the console. It starts the games, retrieves player profiles and measures performance. Up to 10 individual players can join in a game.

Players can connect Swinxs to the computer through a USB cable to download new games (for free) and upload performance data at swinxs.com. They can also issue challenges, share experiences. The games are grouped by age and category and are mostly educational and adventure games. A software development kit (SDK) is also available that lets players or third parties create their own games for the system. I haven’t tried it myself, but it looks like the kids are having fun.

Then there’s ‘NameThis’, an online site where community members submit names for products and services requested by innovators. Their selling point is that why settle for the ideas of the few when you can get the ideas of the crowd. People requesting names pay $99 and within 48 hours are guaranteed to have three ‘world-validated’ names for their ‘thingamajig’. The site is powered by Kluster, which claims to use complex algorithms that let the brightest ideas surface, not just the loudest ones.

They take $80 out of each naming fee and distribute it to the members who create/influence the top three names:

1st Place: $40 to Namer, $10 Shared Amongst Influencers
2nd Place: $16 to Namer, $4 Shared Amongst Influencers
3rd Place: $8 to Namer, $2 Shared Amongst Influencers

Check out the names being bounced around – some are quite witty and right on target, while some can make your hair stand.

Last, but definitely not the least, is the world’s smallest karaoke! Created by a Japanese toy-maker (Tomy Co. Ltd), it’s a seven centimetre (2.8 inches), on-the-go, must-have gadget for the young pop-star wanna-be. It targets elementary school kids, girls in particular, who adore pop stars.

This so-called ‘Hi-kara machine’ comes with headsets, but can also be used with a second set of headphones or put on speaker mode. Apparently, the invention of the Hi-kara machine follows the trail of an emerging trend in Japan, called ‘hitokara’ -- or "lone karaoke" -- which means going out to sing karaoke alone.

I can imagine myself doing karaoke alone in the house, but it’s much more fun to do it with your friends (and lots of beer and lots more food ;-p ). I think I’d use the Hi-kara not to go on a solo karaoke trip, though, but I love the idea of mobile karaoke! But then again I’m Filipino so I think that’s hard-wired in my genes. ;-p

Mangoes and lansones

Orange muffins

Letting them cool...can't w8! :-P

rebooting @reboot.10

2nd day in copenhagen for the annual reboot conference and enjoying all the musings, viewpoints, questions, stories -- it's my annual information-binge before i turn off and hibernate ;-) (awake by monday though ;-p )

reboot 10 is al about that everyday, sometimes controversial, sometimes invisible, often taken for granted stuff called 'free'. ranging from the philosophical and political to the cultural and technological, this year's theme is both bite-size and a buffet table depending on which talks you attend. so far my menu has consisted of large helpings of:

architectural principles applied to urban warfare
urban elements and the creation of play / games
social justice, well-being and freedom
democratic organisations who are transparent, let employees collaborate, vote and directly affect policies -- and they make millions, too
new journalism
some talks about spam on the side

two more hefty meals on the way before i curl up and suffer from indigestion, and later throw up and feel sick with all the information and inspiration! and after the delirium, when i finally reboot in my beloved holland, the after-taste of too much thinking still fresh in my mouth, i will sit quietly and relish the memories of the fiesta of inspiration and interaction that was reboot.

White choco-raspberry cupcake

Melts-in-your-mouth cupcakes from Mali :-D. Whee!

Thank you, Burmese citizen journalists

“They came and put the flag, gave us 10 candles but no food.”

“They don’t help, but force us to leave. Where should we go, my young man?”

“Nobody comes (to help)! But they have taken away all the donations from us.”

-- survivors expressing their anger at the Burmese government


We are in trouble, help!
We are hungry!
- written on the road after the storm

Enabled in part, and mediated by today’s internet and networking technologies, citizen journalism—or participatory journalism— has become a more permanent element of the media landscape. Whereas before was a clear delineation between author and reader, news maker and audience; today’s social, networking and collaborative-based applications like blogs, wikis, forums, widgets combined with easy-to-use but hi-tech digicams and mobile computing have blurred the lines between ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’ in the world of journalism.

That average citizens can engage in the writing, production and distribution of news and opinion is not an entirely new concept. It has been rooted in many struggles for change in world history and advocated in recent years by development workers.

Thanks to many ordinary citizens who participate as both witness and storyteller of the world around them, even more people like us get to see the world from a point of view other than that of oragnised media industries. More than this, in the midst of danger and conflict, the world is given the chance to see what’s real, raw and unglamorous — reality uncut. Like the plight of Burma.

Burmese citizen journalists
The devastation of Burma in recent weeks was not really unleashed by Cyclone Nargis. It was its military junta who made a natural catastrophe an unbearable tragedy. This I learned thanks to the Democratic Voice of Burma and its group of Burmese reporters and photo-journalists — all ordinary citizens — working covertly to bring the world the real story of the storm. The DVB is based in Norway and comprises a handful of Burmese activists in exile.

Burma's military junta, with its tightly controlled state media, paint a picture of a country quickly recovering, with mostly upbeat images of the country's military leaders handing out aid to survivors. Photo-journalists are not allowed to take photos of the more gruesome reality: hungry survivors squatting on roadsides, stinking corpses floating in flooded waters, injured survivors waiting hopelessly for help. Local relief organisations and volunteers are threatened to not coordinate with monks, who are once have gathered in the streets not in protest, but merely to help the communities.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has claimed that as many as 127,990 people may have died as a result of the cyclone, while the UN says more than 100,000 may have perished. The UN also estimated that between 1.6 and 2.5 million people have been severely affected by the disaster.

As of this writing, the UN is still unable to mount a full-scale relief effort, because Burma has not yet granted visas to dozens of disaster relief specialists. This despite the fact that US and French ships loaded with aid are in the waters close to the country, but without clearance to port. Even Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has stood up to say that the junta has committed crimes against humanity in its handling of the catastrophe; that the regime had "effectively declared war on its own population."

Thanks to Burmese citizen journalists, we are not kept in the dark and fed false images of recovery Hopefully, the world can repay them with supporting the Burmese people in their struggle not just to survive this natural catastrophe, but also to regain its freedom and a better quality of life.

Crispin Beltran, Grand Old Man of Philippine Labour

'Ka Bel', as he popularly known and fondly called by fellow labourers and comrades in the Philippine labour movement, has passed away. He was 75 years old.

Just read in the news that the tireless labour leader and Congress Representative died 11:48 a.m., Philippine time. He fell from the rooftop of his home, the head injuries proved to be fatal. He was fixing a leak on the roof. Fixing stuff around the house was part of his morning ritual according to his family.

He always said he would like to die in action. That he died in an accident and that his death was not expected, doesn't make his life any less heroic. It only makes his death a greater sorrow. He is truly one of the Philippines' modern heroes. This loss will reverberate strongly in the hearts of Filipino workers around the globe.

Rest in peace, Ka Bel.

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