Darwin's "Origins" 24 Nov 1859 - 24 Nov 2009

Photos: Birgit Jevnaker, and credit to exhibition poster and exhibits to Oxford University Museum of Natural History

One hundred fifty years ago, a book appeared in England that eventually changed how we view the world: Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

I enjoyed visiting Oxford University Museum of Natural History this August, a special exhibiton on Darwin, http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/visiting/whatson.htm

Norwegian Form's Jacob prize 2009: Egil Haraldsen

Credit images/photos:
to the left - Roberto Di Trani, Norsk Form
in the middle and right - Egil Haraldsen, Norsk Form

Do you have a Dag Solstad book or another "October" book near you? Then it probably is Egil Haraldsen and Ellen Lindeberg in Exil design who designed its bookcover.

JACOB PRIZE. This week graphic designer Egil Haraldsen (b. 1952) received Norway's highest award for design and architecture, the Jacob prize, for his long achievements in visual design fields. Haraldsen has created and cocreated numerous book covers and cinema posters and served many clients well through creative collaboration over decades. He has also contributed to expressions beyond the brief and conventions.

EXAMPLE. Working recurrently with Solstad, a distinguished, contemporary writer, Egil Haraldsen is given considerable freedom, he tells Oslo's newspaper Aftenposten after the prize ceremony. It is worth noticing that Haraldsen for instance came up with the idea himself to put 'Dag Solstad', the author's name in parenthesis on the book cover, an interesting angle to Solstad's excellent and self-reflective authorship. See book cover above, from Eleventh novel, book eighteen.

Excerpt from interview with Norsk Form (in Norwegian):
- Hva er et godt bokomslag?
- Det må ville noe. Ikke være et forventet tapet, et gjesp. Det må skille seg ut, ha en idé, tanke, innfallsvinkel.

Det er ikke alltid lett. Haraldsen forteller at på slutten av 80-tallet ble designet temmet. Da begynte markedsavdelingene og forfatterne å ta mer kontroll.

- Forfattere er blitt opphøyd til guder. Noen ganger kan de komme med bilde og fonttype.
- Det er deprimerende at yrket designer ikke nyter mer respekt. Folk finner aldri på å krangle med en rørlegger eller skomaker. Men de krangler med en designer.
See full interview text in Norsk Form's website (see link below) by Katharina Dale Håkonsen.

JURY STATEMENT. Here is the jury statement (in NORWEGIAN):
Egil Haraldsen debuterte i 1983 etter utdannelse fra Grafisk avdeling/SHKS, og han har i et kvart århundre vært en av de virkelig toneangivende innen norsk bokdesign. Han driver eget
designstudio i Oslo – Exil design – og arbeider med grafisk design for kulturfeltet, hovedsaklig med bøker, filmplakater og tidsskrifter.
De fleste hjem har et utvalg av hans arbeider. Haraldsen har designet omslag for forfattere som
Dag Solstad, Kjell Askildsen, Tove Nielsen, Knut Faldbakken og Edvard Hoem. Han har definert
den visuelle profilen til forlaget Oktober og har også arbeidet med bokdesign og omslag for en
rekke andre forlag som Pax, Gyldendal, Cappelen, Aschehoug, Tiden, Kolon og Humanist.
Egil Haraldsens solide produksjon representerer en konvensjonell typografisk tradisjon og
presisjon. Samtidig søker han det ukonvensjonelle ved sin eksperimentering og reflekterte relasjon til samtid og subkultur. Hans repertoar er fra det sublime og rent typografiske til det fotografisk- illustrative og koloristisk eksessive. Egil representerer selvsikkerhet og distinkt egenart kombinert med respekt for det unike i tekst og kontekst for hvert prosjekt. Bøkene for Oktober og filmplakatene til Arthaus er utmerkede eksempler på organiske visuelle identiteter som vokser fram på grunn av langvarig, nært og respektfullt forhold mellom designer og oppdragsgiver. Kulturprodukter trenger ikke merkevarestrategi, men kvalitetsbevisst, kløktig og variert innholdsformidling som trigger sanser og nysgjerrighet.
Haraldsen er faglig fundamentalist, en vakthund for typografihåndverket, for viktigheten av
bokstavenes billedlegging av språket og en streng kritiker av faglig slapphet og selvtilfredshet. I hans debatterende og kverulerende ærlighet og satiriske humor ligger det en blod-alvorlig insistering på faglig kvalitet, kompetanse, meningsfylde, ærlighet og arbeidsmoral.
Egil Haraldsen øker tilgjengeligheten og livskvaliteten for et lesende, seende og tenkende
publikum, inspirerer kunder og samarbeidspartnere og er et utfordrende forbilde for grafiske
designere i alle aldre.

«Design oder nicht sein!»

(Source: via Norsk Form 19.11.2009. http://www.norskform.no/

See also a good interview in Aftenposten, by Thorleif Andreassen,
http://www.aftenposten.no/kul_und/article3382354.ece
Accessed 21.11.2009

Cocreator of Central Park's Gates passed away

Jeanne-Claude, creator of the "The Gates," the 2005 art installation in Central Park, has passed away. http://tr.im/FiLq

Jeanne-Claude, with Christo and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg February, 2005
Courtesy for photo: Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

According to the New York Times, 19. November 2009:
- The artist Jeanne-Claude has died. She was 74. The Associated Press is reporting that the artist, who, with her husband, Christo, created “The Gates,” the 2005 art installation in Central Park, among many other works, died Wednesday night at a New York hospital from complications of a brain aneurysm.

Comment: I did not see The Gates, but my very good friend Louise Birkeland, Bergen, did. And she was thrilled by actually walking through the Gates in Central Park. Here is a part of an appraisal by Michael Kippelman.

AN APPRAISAL
In a Saffron Ribbon, a Billowy Gift to the City

By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN

Published: February 13, 2005

It is a long, billowy saffron ribbon meandering through Central Park -- not a neat bow, but something that's very much a gift package to New York City. "The Gates," by Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, was officially unveiled yesterday.

Thousands of swaths of pleated nylon were unfurled to bob and billow in the breeze. In the winter light, the bright fabric seemed to warm the fields, flickering like a flame against the barren trees. Even at first blush, it was clear that "The Gates" is a work of pure joy, a vast populist spectacle of good will and simple eloquence, the first great public art event of the 21st century. It remains on view for just 16 days. Consider yourself forewarned. Time is fleeting.

Trabant reborn as electric car

No comment...except noticing!

Courtesy: Photo to the left and in the middle: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
Source: www.life.com

Photo to the right: Birgit H. Jevnaker, taken in DDR museum in Berlin, July 2009

Will it take off

Trabant Reborn as an Electric Car - Photo Gallery, 12 Pictures - LIFE

Photo in the middle (sorry so little but go to the Life website):
What's Old Is New Again: The new Trabant nT (right) and an original Trabi from 1957.

Photo to the left:
Nov 12, 2009
A visitor takes a snapshot of a restored mural that famously depicts a Trabant smashing through the Berlin Wall.

Walid al-Kubaisi inspiring Anne Grete Preus

www.pluto.no/.../mk.kveld/ Walid_al_Kubaisi.htm
photo of Anne Grete © Marcel Lelienhof
Courtesy: Anne Grete Preus, see http://tinyurl.com/yl8l2rs

Anne Grete Preus' Lille Hjørne:

Fra julepresang til åpningssang (IN NORWEGIAN)

Det begynte med en fin julegave sist jul. En kjær venn ga meg et abonnement på Dag og Tid. Jeg satte stor pris på gaven for denne nynorske kulturavisa var et nytt bekjentskap for meg og jeg likte både tonen i bladet og mange av artiklene. En omtale av Peter Norman Waages bok ”Jeg” tiltalte meg spesielt, forøvrig en fin og original kulturhistorie. I omtalen brukte skribenten ord som glød og inderlighet, ord jeg er fortrolig med, men som dessverre har gått litt av moten til fordel for et litt anorektisk norsk som ofte preger de mer seriøse tidskriftene. Hvem var denne skribenten som kunne skrive om Wergeland så jeg for første gang ble nysgjerrig på mannen bak barnetog og norsk nasjonalisme? Walid al-Kubaise – ja han er nok ikke født og oppvokst på Lillestrøm eller Norheimsund tenkte jeg. I neste nummer av min julepresang (veldig fint å gi en gave som en får mange ganger!) leste jeg min første artikkel i Kubaisis serie Blekk og Blod og ble enda mer imponert. Håper dette blir en bok så jeg kan lese denne fine og personlige artikkelserien i sammenheng! Jeg har en god, gammel venninne som reiser mye i Midtøsten og arabiske land med et stort kulturprosjekt. Etter flere måneder på reise i disse himmelstrøk har hun også funnet en kjæreste der nede. Jeg følte dermed det var på sin plass å inkludere følgende lille melding i en av mine rapporter fra gamlelandet. Kjære M, …. Alt vel osv osv…….. PS Nå er også jeg blitt fan av en araber! Han heter Walid al-Kubaisi. Sporenstreks fikk jeg en mail tilbake som var en mail med to adressater:
Kjære Anne Grete og Walid ! Dere er tvillingsjeler og jeg er glad for å sette dere i forbindelse med hverandre så får dere selv sørge for å treffes. Hilsen M
Jeg tok oppfordringen på strak arm og bare noen dager etter satt jeg på Walids al-Kubaisi kontor i Dag og Tid og drakk kaffe mellom de overfylte bokhyllene. Den samme varmen og nysgjerrigheten som jeg hadde sett i artiklene hans lyste ut av de brune øynene. Med meg fra dette møte hadde jeg to gaver. Det var en diktsamling av Muhammad al-Maghout Gleden er mitt yrke, som Walid hadde oversatt til norsk og hans egen artikkelsamling Norske poteter og postmodernistiske negere. Begge skulle få betydning for meg i skrivearbeidet.

På side 11 i artikkelsamlingen beskriver Walid hvem han er i en liten orddans i identiteter. Og plutselig slår det meg at dette er en sang! Jeg mailer på nytt til Walid og spør om han kunne tenke seg å skrive denne teksten sammen med meg. Selvfølgelig svarer denne vennlige mannen ja og vi avtaler et møte ved mitt kjøkkenbord. Etter et par treff og en god kaffe på benken ved siden av Welhaven statuen på Riddervollsplass har jeg fått så mange gode bilder og tanker at det er nok til mer enn en sang og jeg innser at dette må bli en sang om Walid og om at vennskap handler mer om sinnelag enn at en har hatt samme pålegg på skolematen. Noen dager senere sendte jeg først utkastet til hovedpersonen og mottok igjen et vennlig svar. Hvor lite Oslo er fikk jeg forøvrig bekreftet når Marcel Leilienhof kom innom Rainbow studio på en liten reseach før han kom for å fotografere meg i innspillingsarbeid med tanke på coverfoto. Jeg hadde akkurat startet med den første grunnsporet på Walids sang og medprodusent Jan Erik Kongshaug og jeg prøvde ut litt ulike tempo. Før jeg hadde sagt noe om låta forteller Marcel at han kjenner Walid godt. Fin fyr, er den presise beskrivelsen han gir og jeg blir enda mer fornøyd med at jeg har skrevet denne sangen! Før Marcel er ferdig med sin befaring er sangen spilt inn.
I går kveld var Walid en av mine gjester da jeg inviterte alle som har hatt noe med Nesten Alene å gjøre på en ettermiddagsfest på mitt kjøkken. Jeg føler av og til at jeg har besøk fra en ungdomsklubb når jeg nå om dagen treffer de fine folka på Warner Music. Er det gjengen der som blir yngre og yngre eller er det jeg …… har tross alt hatt Warner som tilholdsted for arbeidet mitt i 22 år!
Etter at Erland og jeg fremførte sangen holdt Walid en fin tale om identitet for oss. Den konkluderte med at Ibsen tok feil! I løk-scenen fra Per Gynt letes det etter en kjerne i mennesket, men Walid sier det er lagene som er vår identitet og løken bærer frukter når vi planter den ut i menneskenes hage. Da kan den blomstre selv om den er lag på lag og ingen kjerne har! Å se disse unge menneskene bli like forført som meg når Walid sjonglerer med ord, kiler Ibsen under haka og sender takknemmlige tanker til Gilgamesh og forteller om sine 5000 år gamle tårer, var en fantastisk opplevelse.
Både julepresangens avsender og min barndomsvenn M var sammen med oss på kjøkkenet denne kvelden da Walids sang avsluttet sin tilblivelsesreise. Det skal bli spennende og se om den har nok i seg til å komme seg videre på en egen hånd.

Oslo , 7.nov 2009
Publisert 08 Nov 2009
Tilbake
design © treepixel 2008
photo © Marcel Lelienhof

PERSONAL COMMENT: I found this by chance a couple of days ago. What magic, I thought, here two of my favorite poets had come together by good chance circumstances and a song was born. A lesson to learn is to continue give the special Dag & TId newspaper as gift to friends for Xmas! Then good things may happen...

Oxford Scholarship in the name of Neda

After Guardian 11 Nov 2009
A demonstrator holds a photo of dead Iranian student Neda Agha-Soltan during a protest in New York
COURTESY Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Queen's College Oxford naming philosophy scholarship after young student Neda Agha-Soltan killed in Tehran.

The first holder of the scholarship, Arianne Shahvisi, is studying for a master's degree in the philosophy of physics. In a statement on the college's website, she said: "It is a great honour to be the first student to receive the scholarship in the memory of Neda Agha-Soltan, which is particularly meaningful to me, being a young woman of Iranian descent also studying philosophy."

BACKGROUND. Guardian informs that Queen's College announced the graduate scholarship in memory of Neda Agha-Soltan who died in June at the age of 27.

Her final moments were captured on a mobile phone and broadcast round the world, making her a symbol of Iranian resistance.

A donor contacted Queen's College after her death, to set up the scholarship in philosophy, the subject she had been studying, for Iranian students. The first recipient is now studying at Queen's.

The college said today that a letter it receieved from the Iranian embassy in London said Agha-Soltan's death had been staged by enemies of the regime. The letter accused the university of joining a "politically motivated" campaign in creating the scholarship.

Queen's replied that donors are allowed to decide what to call any scholarship they fund. The name of the donor of this scholarship has not been made public.

Professor Paul Madden, provost of college, said: "The college is keen to support graduate students and this scholarship will help Iranian students to study at Oxford, regardless of their financial background.

"Donors make their own decisions, within reason, on how to name scholarships that they fund.

"In this case, the donor who was instrumental in establishing the scholarship is a British citizen and is well known to the college."

ON NEDA AGHA-SOLTAN. See also another blog entry from this summer.

Leadership in Action 10 years in action

10 years
This autumn is the tenth year for arranging the Leadership in Action program, a final special leadership and organization program in the Bachelor of Management executive education of BI Norwegian School of Management. On 18 august 2009, most of the teachers and administrative supporters involved were meeting up for a FAGSEMINAR at BI. Kari-Mette Mørdre made the very good WHITE LADY cake herself. I think the photos suggest lots of good spirit in LiA.

BRIEF BACKGROUND. It originates in an initiative Spring 1998, when a program proposal was developed by two associate professors, Agneta Karlsson and myself with encouraging support from a few BI administrators (incl. Dag Aadne Sandbakken).
Back then, Agneta and I were both newly recruited to BI. A suggestion from our head of Dep Rolv P. Amdam put the two of us together on the task.
Accidently, it turned out that we had ideas, backgrounds and hope for approaches, which were not difficult to tune. Complimentary competences and many a good laugh together probably also helped make the proposal real quickly, we were both eager to start something new & somewhat different from conventional, mainly one-way classroom teaching, although we kept, and tried to strengthen, the theoretical inquiry - by good scholars as well as students themselves.

In brief, we wanted the student to go on an active learning journey with other adult learners - from the initial grounding when formulating own challenges, to learning to find own literature to respond to own themes of interest, and grounding this in both theoretical reflections and own good examples and experiences. Leadership in Action allows to explore all this further in own term paper project - doing small studies in own organizations. The latter is not unique for this course, but some other ingredients were perhaps more unique such as finding your own literature, writing a synopsis and engaging further via a special synopsis exam. Or doing ARL tasks and reflective dialogues as part of the learning trying to weave the various aspects together in an experience. Of course everything was not so clear by then, but these aspects emerged soon in our development and experimental work with the course.
We also tried to respond to the adult and diverse learner by having a blend of good ingredients and ways of learning in each learning module - theory lectures preferably with some research frontier critical reflections, student group exercises in the form of action reflection learning, insights from selfreflective practitioners as guest lectures and lots of dialogues. In the process, when becoming the first teachers of the course, we learned to really appreciate the many spontaneous and emergent possibilities for learning among experienced adults from many parts of business and the society.

The program became approved already in 1998, yet it turned out that it was too late to launch it that same year. So first course realization was Autumn 1999, that is, ten years ago. It started with one class offered by BI's Net studies, teachers were both Agneta and myself, as said, and Kjersti Hatlevold and Boas became excellent adm supporters. We had great fun doing this together!

Later on, another class started in Oslo and one in Bergen and eventually 6 classes were up and running, i.e., from 2007/2008 (And some time before that, Agneta had stepped down and also moved back to Åland, but even before that, or later on, many other good persons were recruited as local responsible teachers such as Stein Lavik, Roald Nomme, Tonje Haalien, Randi Skare, Elisabeth Seim, Ragnhild Wiik, Frode Solberg, Leif-Runar Forsth, Jennifer Teague and Benedicte Brøgger and also several administrators became key and have contributed recurrently to the program).
This autumn it is 8 classes: 1 Net studies, 2 in Oslo, 1 Bergen, 1 Stavanger, 1 Drammen (new) and 1-2 Stavanger coarranging with and for Kristiansand.

This brief story is summarized after memory for this blog and is only one initial personal part of the background, of course. It is way much more to say about the further development of content, and the students' manifold practice backgrounds, searching abilities and course activities. What we have encountered and what we try to bring about in this course, may be another posting.
Just like to add that the name Leadership in Action, (or sometimes called just LiA) came later (an idea/initiative from me, to help signify its identity and orientation with a short name).

More on avatar Colonel Pessian

Here are some more tweats regarding the colonel Pessian, the avatar for Oxfordgirl, a voice twittering for people opposition in Iran:

oxfordgirl @OnefortheTable Colonel Mohammad Taghi Pessian, Iranian hero who was executed by Reza Shah 4 not accepting election crook PM #iranelection (about 16 hours ago from TweetDeck)

@OnefortheTable he started rebellion by ppl Khorasan and nearly defeated Shah. His head was cut off and displayed Tehran #iranelection

oxfordgirl @durk00 Great. That is Colonel Muhamad Taghi Pessian, a great Iranian hero who died for freedom #iranelection
1 day ago from TweetDeck

THE GREAT THING. I like to add this from today's twittering by oxfordgirl: "The great thing about freedom is that I can write what I want and others are free not to believe it or read it."

Oxfordgirl's avatar

Colonel Pessian
AA 1-441 First lieutenant Mohammad Taqi Khan Pessian
Courtesy: The Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies (IICHS) Copyrigth © 2008 IICHS. All Rigths Reserved
The reproduction of articles is free by announcing the resource. Designed by RayanKaveh co. Source: http://www.iichs.org/index_en.asp?id=1680&img_cat=104&img_type=0

ON TWITTER and in the midst of the Iranian people's movements, there is an interesting communicator called @oxfordgirl. S/he is presenting her bio on twitter in this way: "I'm a writer, a literary agent and have a consultancy that helps writers with their books, plays and film scripts. In my spare time I dabble in politics."
Her picture (avatar) is an edited version of Colonel Pessian, this is not presented explicitly in the profile. However, reference to the Colonel has emerged but only a few places in the tweats and dialogues with others: "...There has never been a hero like the Colonel #IranElection" (about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to NN. (Accessed 11 July 2009.)

FOLLOWING. I have followed oxfordgirl (and also the persiankiwi and others) since the (flawed) election results were announced in June 2009. I was immediately struck by the particular gestalt, a personal voice mediated via the Colonel avatar and also the sometimes shifting aestetic background of this profile site hinting to literary and historic references and beauty of the Persian past.

A COLONEL FROM PERSIAN HISTORY. Who was this colonel, I've wondered. And why would this oxfordgirl choose a hero colonel for #Iranelection current twittering? I searched for various persian colonels but were not sure and did not find the right photo either. Today I eventually hit upon the right colonel since his name was used in a twitter dialogue, oxfordgirl with NN. Visiting NN I found the Colonel's name, at last:

"@oxfordgirl Amazing that you know Colonel Pessian. Our history is amazing indeed. Many ppl stood up against oppressors #IranElection"

According to Wikipedia, Colonel Mohammad Taqi-Khan Pessian (1892 - 3 October 1921) (also Colonel Pessian or Pesyan "Pesseyan"), born in Tabriz, was a popular military leader of Iran.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Pesian

According to an article in IICHS, "During world War one and invasion of Iran by other powers, his bravery in Mosalla battle became known to all. He went to Germany to attend a course of aviation. He returned to Iran and was sent to Khorassan as the head of Gendarmerie. Following Seyyed Zia's coup and the formation of the new government, he was on mission to arrest Ahmad Qavam. He confiscated his properties and sent him to Tehran under guard himself became the acting governor of Khorassan."
"Colonel Pessian was a brave man; at the time of death, he was only thirty years old. He was devoted to Persian literature and music. He has let some poems, translations and articles behind."

DOUBLE MAGIC. So there I guess are the roots of double inspiration - brave (& probably just) fighting for Persia and an art-maker including translating literature. A crossover figure familiar with several cultures and with believable personality.

However, it is more to this reuse of a historic figure, the colonel Pessian, as an avatar for a brave actor-networker in the current people opposition against the flawed election and for a more people-grounded governance. Notice the way oxfordgirl is twittering. What is interesting is for example that @oxfordgirl in fact do not defend violent opposition, s/he is recurrently speaking against violence... in spite of violent basij she insists on not using the same means back.

SOME TWITTER EXAMPLES (*reaccessed 11.7.2009):
1) @jim1010 he is an old dying man, nothing can be achieved by violence against him. Not sure he will survive much longer #iranelection (about 13 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to jim1010).
2) The events of last few weeks have transformed image of Iran in the world, they have seen a noble & heroic ppl not terrorists.
#Iranelection (about 14 hours ago from TweetDeck).
3) @Bergen2 a wonderful generation of young ppl prepared to die for freedom and justice. #iranelection (about 14 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to Bergen2).
3) This movement is such an example to the world. Calm and dignity and sacrifice #iranelection
4) Hate will not win this battle, only love of a country and its ppl #iranelection
5) We must learn from history, enemy of my enemy is not always my friend. #iranelection #iranelection Beware those wnt 2 use Green 2 grab power (about 15 hours ago from TweetDeck).
6) No 1 in Sea of Green has any intention of killing Mullahs or anyone . Pray that U nevr have 2 take the life of another human #Iranelection (about 15 hours ago from TweetDec).
7) @oxfordgirl recently shared this reflection: "RT @justtash71: Heroes are not born they are created in times of need #iranelection So true.! " (about 15 hours ago from TweetDeck).

The work of an artist...

The work of an artist is to change the value of things. @yokoono July 2009

Prize for 'Sun in the box' cooker

Jon Bøhmer, the entrepreneur behind the Kyoto box get media attention via e.g. BBC and Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

"A cheap solar cooker has won first prize in a contest for green ideas.

The Kyoto Box is made from cardboard and can be used for sterilising water or boiling or baking food.

The Kenyan-based inventor hopes it can make solar cooking widespread in the developing world, supplanting the use of wood which is driving deforestation."

Source: http://twurl.nl/l153sa

Heia Jon! Who is from Hedmark, Norway.

One doctor who tried to save Neda when shot Saturday

"Why we protest"

Elegant slideshow, anonymous post, from "Why We Protest: Iran" http://bit.ly/11b4tr
Found it via Twitter@TimOBrienNYT

A reaction on Neda

Many people have shared their feelings about the killed Iranian woman Neda. A British blogger, Jenny, wrote the following as part of a longer post:

- Saturday night was an extraordinarily harrowing and humbling experience. I followed the events though the hashtag and regular ReTweets from @debaucherydean who did a great job filtering out some of the noise, and at one stage organised a phone campaign to the Foreign Office to ensure their Tehran embassy was open to the injured. At one point a video was posted showing the aftermath from the shooting of a young woman. She was being carried by a group of protesters and they laid her on the road as her father ran over. At first you could see no sign of a wound. As she lay their her eyes glazed and then blood started to seep out all over her face, from her eyes, from her nose, from her mouth… and then she died. It was the most stark and upsetting video I have ever seen and to know It had happened just moments earlier made it all the more real. This video brought home the plight of the Iranian protesters, with heavy heavy thud. We later found out that her name was Neda. Her face with live with me for a long time. I’m not sure whether to post the link to the video. If anyone wishes to see it then I guess you can track it down.

Other tweets that night were for information between protesters. Advice was given as to how to be protected from chemical attack. Information was posted as to which foreign embassies were taking in the injured. We also say great compassion from the protesters. One picture showing a fallen riot police motorcyclist being shielded by a protester was particularly humbling.
---
JENNY ends by also providing some info on Twitter:

- A Twitter week from the mundane to the vital. Twitter Terms Explained :

Tweet = a short message under 140 characters, can contain links to pictures or videos

@username = your twitterer username

Followers = the people / feeds that you follow and follow you

RT or ReTweet = a tweet passed on

Hashtag or #something = a webpage automatically created to elicit shared real time contributions on a topic

Posted by Jenny Harvey at 22:02 Source: http://jenny-vs-theworld.bl...

Neda - a victim of brutal action in Tehran

Courtesy: arta07
http://twitpic.com/817ft


According to Iranian sources via Twitter and elsewhere, Neda Soltani was a 27 year old philosophy student in Tehran. She was with her father when she was brutally killed on the street.

She has become a martyr, and a symbol, for the uprising for human rights and free election in Iran and she is becoming known for the supporting world.

Neda means voice in Farsi. Voicing is what many women and men are doing just now on the streets and thru all kinds of media.

Later on Sunday 21. June I found a reference on Twitter to a new Wikipedia article: RT @idrawhouses Neda (Iranian protester)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://bit.ly/8cDwu

Twitter on the Barricades: 6 lessons learned

New York Times published this today:
- http://tinyurl.com/nxcsp2

Extracts, facsimile *courtesy to NYT
June 21, 2009
Twitter on the Barricades: Six Lessons Learned

By NOAM COHEN
Political revolutions are often closely linked to communication tools. (...)

But does the label Twitter Revolution, which has been slapped on the two most recent events, oversell the technology? Skeptics note that only a small number of people used Twitter to organize protests in Iran and that other means — individual text messaging, old-fashioned word of mouth and Farsi-language Web sites — were more influential. But Twitter did prove to be a crucial tool in the cat-and-mouse game between the opposition and the government over enlisting world opinion. As the Iranian government restricts journalists’ access to events, the protesters have used Twitter’s agile communication system to direct the public and journalists alike to video, photographs and written material related to the protests. (...). So maybe there was no Twitter Revolution. But over the last week, we learned a few lessons about the strengths and weaknesses of a technology that is less than three years old and is experiencing explosive growth.

1. Twitter Is a Tool and Thus Difficult to Censor

2. Tweets Are Generally Banal, but Watch Out

3. Buyer Beware

4. Watch Your Back

5. Twitter Is Self-Correcting but a Misleading Gauge

6. Twitter Can Be a Potent Tool for Media Criticism

THe article concludes: "Just as Twitter can rally protesters against governments, its broadcast ability can rally them quickly and efficiently against news outlets. One such spontaneous protest was given the tag #CNNfail, using Internet slang to call out CNN last weekend for failing to have comprehensive coverage of the Iranian protests. This was quickly converted to an e-mail writing campaign. CNN was forced to defend its coverage in print and online."

Source: Cohen, 2009 The New York Times, 21.6.2009 see above link.

An eyewitness from Iranian hospital

I post this eyewitness report I found on a blog, it seems authentic.

THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2009

"What I have witnessed"
A powerful note from a female medical student in Iran, translated from Farsi by a trusty reader.


Hello,

It's painful to watch what's happening.

I don't want anything to do with what has been said this far, as I neither have the strength nor the resilience to face all these unfathomable events.

I only want to speak about what I have witnessed. I am a medical student. There was chaos last night at the trauma section in one of our main hospitals. Although by decree, all riot-related injuries were supposed to be sent to military hospitals, all other hospitals were filled to the rim. Last night, nine people died at our hospital and another 28 had gunshot wounds. All hospital employees were crying till dawn. They (government) removed the dead bodies on back of trucks, before we were even able to get their names or other information. What can you even say to the people who don't even respect the dead. No one was allowed to speak to the wounded or get any information from them. This morning the faculty and the students protested by gathering at the lobby of the hospital where they were confronted by plain cloths anti-riot militia, who in turn closed off the hospital and imprisoned the staff. The extent of injuries are so grave, that despite being one of the most staffed emergency rooms, they've asked everyone to stay and help--I'm sure it will even be worst tonight.

What can anyone say in face of all these atrocities? What can you say to the family of the 13 year old boy who died from gunshots and whose dead body then disappeared?

This issue is not about cheating(election) anymore. This is not about stealing votes anymore. The issue is about a vast injustice inflected on the people. They've put a baton in the hand of every 13-14 year old to smash the faces of "the bunches who are less than dirt" (government is calling the people who are uprising dried-up torn and weeds)

This is what sickens me from dealing with these issues. And from those who shut their eyes and close their ears and claim the riots are in opposition of the government and presidency!! No! The people's complaint is against the egregious injustices committed against the people.
POSTED BY EVERY IRANIAN AT 2:40 PM
LABELS: IRAN, IRANELECTION

Iran today: what is happening now?

I can only say, stop the killing. Respect the dignity of people, along the lines Obama said.

Mousavi yesterday, Sat 20.6.2009

http://different-ways.co.cc/?p=332

Mousavi message on Twitter:
- I am prepared For martyrdom, go on strike if I am arrested #IranElection
(about 17 hours ago from web)

Yet, there is much confusion now in Tehran. The big Q is, what happens next?

Now people asks, acc to twitter sources, where is Mousavi?

And 5 members of the Rafsanjani family (he was expresident) is said arrested. Worrying news.

What is happening behind the scenes?

People suffers in the streets.

Women in the forefront of Iran upraising

Women in the forefront (of the protests)... Says Azar Nasifi, author of Reading Lolita in Iran on CNN today.

This is noticed also when twittering, many women are very active and well linked with other protesters it seems. Cannot name them here as yet.

Retweat, do not know if confirmed
@IranRiggedElect: Zhila Baniyaghoob (journalist, women's rights activist) has been arrested (via @iranbaan) #iranelection

Do not know where Rafsanjani's daughter is at the moment, it seems she is still in Iran (she and a brother were probably stopped leaving Tehran, according to previous tweats).

Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Mousavi stepped up today for the people's march 20.6.009.

Power play in Iran

The Independent reporter Robert Fisk suggests this thesis:

"...Because the fundamental conflict in Iran is being fought not on the streets of Tehran – a mere tragic, brutal sideshow that could soon become a bloodbath – but beneath the cupolas and minarets and pale blue tiles of the mosques of Qom."

http://tinyurl.com/nxsk3g

Robert Fisk on the difficulties to check what is truth in Iran

20. June 2009 The Independent correspondent Robert Fisk reflects on the challenges to know what is truth or fantasy in Tehran
Source: http://tinyurl.com/nqnj7o
"...So let's take a look at those Iranian elections. A fraud, we believe. And I have the darkest doubts about those election figures which gave Mousavi a paltry 33.75 per cent of the vote. Indeed, I and a few Iranian friends calculated that if the government's polling-night statistics were correct, the Iranian election committee would have had to have counted five million votes in just two hours. But our coverage of this poll has been deeply flawed. Most visiting Western journalists stay in hotels in the wealthy, north Tehran suburbs, where tens of thousands of Mousavi supporters live, where it's easy to find educated translators who love Mousavi, where interviewees speak fluent English and readily denounce the spiritual and cultural and social stagnation of Iran's – let us speak frankly – semi-dictatorship.

But few news organisations have the facilities or the time or the money to travel around this 659,278 square-mile country – seven times the size of Britain – and interview even the tiniest fraction of its 71 million people. When I visited the slums of south Tehran on Friday, for example, I found that the number of Ahmadinejad supporters grew as Mousavi's support dribbled away. And I wondered whether, across the huge cities and vast deserts of Iran, a similar phenomenon might be discovered. A Channel 4 television crew, to its great credit, went down to Isfahan and the villages around that beautiful city and came back with a suspicion – unprovable, of course, anecdotal, but real – that Ahmadinejad just might have won the election.

This is also my suspicion: that Ahmadinejad might have scraped in, but not with the huge majority he was awarded. For with their usual, clumsy, autocratic behaviour, the clerics behind the Islamic Republic may have decreed that only a greater majority for the winner could decisively annihilate the reputation of its secular opponents. Perhaps Ahmadinejad got 51 per cent or 52 per cent and this was preposterously increased to 63 per cent. Perhaps Mousavi picked up 44 per cent or 45 per cent. I don't know. The Iranians will never know, even though the Supreme Leader told us yesterday that the incredible 63 per cent was credible. That is Iran's tragedy.

Yes, Ahmadinejad remains for me an outrageous president, one of those cracked political leaders – like Colonel Ghaddafi or Lebanon's General Michel Aoun – which this region sadly throws up, to the curses of its friends and to the delight of its enemies in the West. And the Islamic Republic itself – while it has understandable historical roots in the savagery of the Shah's regime which preceded it, not to mention the bravery of its people – is a dangerously contrived and inherently unfree state which was locked into immobility by an unworldly and now long-dead ayatollah.

And those nuclear arms? How many of us reported a blunt statement which the Supreme Leader and the man who ultimately controls all nuclear development in Iran made on 4 June, just eight days before the elections? "Nuclear weapons," he said in a speech in which he encouraged Iranians to vote, "are religiously forbidden (haram) in Islam and the Iranian people do not have such a weapon. But the Western countries and the US in particular, through false propaganda, claim that Iran seeks to build nuclear bombs – which is totally false..."

There are few provable assurances in the Middle East, often few facts and a lot of lies. Dangers are as thick as snakes in the desert. As I write, I have just received another call from Lebanon. "Mr Fisk, a girl has been shot in Iran. I have a video from the internet. You can see her body..." And you know what? I think he might be right."

Aung San Suu Kyi 64 years 19 June 2009

Courtesy for photo THe Guardian, Getty.
Burmese demonstrators in New Delhi pray for Aung San Suu Kyi on her 64th birthday. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images/AFP/Getty Images

Aung San Suu Kyi is 64 today.

"She marks this milestone, as she has so many before, in detention – this time within the confines of Rangoon's notorious Insein jail, almost two decades after the election victory of her party.

Millions in this country have never seen Aung San Suu Kyi but she remains the thread which connects many of them to hope
They've never heard her speak. Many probably have only a vague idea of her views. But they know very well what she represents. They know very well how their lives have changed for the worse in the two decades she has been gone and what is at stake in this trial.

Ranged against her and the other brave people who struggle for a better future is an intimidating apparatus. An army over 350,000 strong. A different intelligence organisation for every day of the week. Eyes and ears everywhere. Crushing of the most minor displays of dissent. Yet for the last few weeks this unequal contest has shrunk itself down to a lone figure in the courtroom.

Aung San Suu Kyi once said that those struggling against oppression had no alternative but to draw on their "own inner resources" as they fought for their inalienable rights "as members of the human family". It's this core of dignity and determination that has won the admiration of the world ever since and which has shone through in her court appearances. Poised and dignified. Utterly assured. Mixing humour and seriousness and showing no hint of exasperation at the absurdity around her.

One could be forgiven for wondering who was on trial, captor or accused."

Posted by
Mark Canning Friday 19 June 2009 12.19 BST
guardian.co.uk
---------------------------------------------------
Aung San Suu Kyi spends her 64th birthday in Rangoon's Insein jail
Latest post in a series by the British ambassador in Burma, Mark Canning, one of the few outsiders who has been allowed into the courtroom during the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mirriaam's hand raised for freedom in Tehran

http://img.piqlet.com/img0623.jpg
18 june. Imam sq. my hand :)

The world is watching and twittering...

Oxfordgirl twittered this afternoon:

"I went for a cup of coffee and there were more than 5000 new tweets on #iranelection #tehran #gr88. The world is truely watching."

The Independent today: Cockburn commenting on Iranian uprising

Courtesy: GETTY and the Independent (see link)
Protesters hold up a poster of Ayatollah Khomeini during a demonstration against the Shah on 1 January 1979
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/history-suggests-the-coup-will-fail-1708996.html#

History suggests the coup will fail, according to Patrick Cockburn, who reported from Iran during the 1979 revolution. In an article today he reflects on the fall of the Shah and explains why the current uprising is very different

Friday, 19 June 2009
"At first sight, what is happening in Tehran today looks very like the extraordinary events of the Islamic Revolution 30 years ago. But how deep do the similarities go? On 2 December 1978, two million Iranians filled the streets of central Tehran to demand an end to the rule of the Shah and the return of Ayatollah Khomeini. It was the most popular revolution in history. At night, people gathered on rooftops to chant "Allahu Akbar – God is Great". In the daytime, mass rallies commemorated as martyrs the protesters who had been killed by the security forces.

The methods of protest are very similar."
-"The spectacle, the symbols, and the language in Iran in 2009 are similar to those present in 1978-9, but the political forces at work could not be more different. The protesters then were much stronger than they looked; those of today have the odds heavily stacked against them."

18 June 2009: Sea of Green in Tehran

18 June,Imam sq rally

Courtesy: Mirriaam,
http://twitpic.com/7q5l6

Zan's editor Faezeh Hashemi

Because of the current situation in Iran, it may be interesting to learn more about some potentially key figures. Here is an old interview with Faezeb Hashemi, former Parliament member, former editor of Zan (Woman) and daughter of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Meeting Faezeh
The rise and fall of a talented woman

By Massoume Price
October 5, 2000
The Iranian

The first time I met Faezeh Hashemi was in December 1998, a day after my arrival in Tehran after 15 years of absence. We had never met but corresponded, exchanged gifts and knew about each other's private life. After the first Muslim Women's Olympics in Tehran in 1993, she sent me a copy of her book with a memo. Later on, being sarcastic, I sent her a see-through chiffon blouse and to my amazement I received word that she loved it. I still wonder where she might wear a blouse like that?

http://www.iranian.com/Features/2000/October/Faezeh/index.html

BBC News covering Iran protests

Industrial designer investing in Saab

Today it was announced that the designer Bård Eker via his 100 % owned company Eker Group is actually investing in the Swedish car-maker SAAB together with some other investors. Saab is owned by GM and is not making any money, rather it has been in big debts (today "akkord" solution was agreed upon).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPDwncq36GU

Today in Tehran

Source: Twitter today via @mirriaam

Why blogging is helpful for innovating

http://www.tendocom.com/view/behind-the-scenes-the-impact-of-blogging-on-the-tesla-roadster-690

Who has tasted freedom... Rolf Fisk is reporting from Iran

Robert Fisk: Fear has gone in a land that has tasted freedom
In defiance of the ban on foreign reporters, The Independent's Middle East correspondent ventures out to witness an extraordinary stand-off on the streets of Tehran

Wednesday, 17 June 2009
AP
Supporters of Mirhossein Mousavi protest on the streets of Tehran yesterday


http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-fear-has-gone-in-a-land-that-has-tasted-freedom-1706912.html

Nobel Women’s Initiative - 17 Nobel Peace Laureates Sign Declaration for the Elimination of Nuclea...

Nobel Women’s Initiative - 17 Nobel Peace Laureates Sign Declaration for the Elimination of Nuclea...

Shared via AddThis

On garbage fleet into Venice

great idea!

- The Brooklyn artist Swoon and her merry band of anarchists from deepest Bushwick are invading the Venice Biennale this week—on boats built from garbage. New York City garbage.
By Vanessa Grigoriadis Published Jun 7, 2009

http://nymag.com/arts/art/features/57181/

Productive distractions

In favour of distractions, what I've felt right for many years in order to think or do things differently. So attention economy and scanning widely are not necessarily dichomotous, I suspect there are potentially productive disctractions but aided by a certain attention economy (to be able to scan quickly, move on etc). 

http://nymag.com/news/features/56793/ *discovered this link via my colleague and friend Thomas Hoholm, BI.

BI TV: Master student Daniel Urzin Haugen reflects from Inno & Ent master study

Legal services exchanged in "new ways"

Legal services expected to be reorganized and bought in many "new" ways, see lessons from new book grounded in interviews.

http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/legal/story.html?id=1590420

Knitting - again!

http://socialbydesign.wordpress.com/2009/06/15/glem-skoleb%C3%B8ker-sats-pa-youtube/

Saab+Bård Eker?

Exciting times, wonder if designer entrepreneur Bård Eker together with Koenigsegg etc will manage to buy Saab.
http://www.dn.se/ekonomi/han-vill-ta-over-1.890683

Read SaftSuse from Berlin!

http://saftsuse.blogspot.com/ thoughtful pieces in Norwegian. 

*from my daughter.

2009 Year of Astronomy

It is four hundred years since Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) constructed his version of the telescope.

Courtesy to Wikepedia:

In 1609, Galileo was, along with Englishman Thomas Harriot and others, among the first to use arefracting telescope as an instrument to observe stars, planets or moons. The name "telescope" was coined for Galileo's instrument by a Greek mathematician, Giovanni Demisiani, at a banquet held in 1611 by Prince Federico Cesi to make Galileo a member of his Accademia dei Lincei. The name was derived from the Greek tele = 'far' and skopein = 'to look or see'. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo#cite_note-3

Interview with the creator of Bubble Project

Wave is here! New conversational beta email

How would a new email or digital conversational tool look like if we could start anew?

Wave is here from Yesterday 28 May 2009, as beta /Google wave. 

Congrats, exciting news.

See an exclusive probably first interview here with the founding team incl two Danes Brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen and Stephanie Hannon (the two brothers are serial innovators, see the originating of what became Google maps elsewhere): 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/exclusive-video-interview-with-the-google-wave-founders/#comments

Movie on 60s Pirate Radio station: The Boat That Rocked

23 May, Oslo: 

Saw fantastic film Yesterday, The Boat That Rocked, by Robert Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, etc). This movie, however, is not romance but rather about a weird gang of DJs and a pirate radio station broadcasted from an old boat out in the North Sea. With lots of 60s good pop music to enjoy.

THE PLOT is the weird DJs fight to keep up their Pirate ROCK Radio station against the British Government including a stiff, control-driven Minister (played by Kenneth Branagh) and some overeager Gov officials. We´re back in mid 1960s (1966 I think it says in the film) when the British Government did not like this music nor its broadcasting, and BBC allowed only a very limited time for the new pop music played in official channels, as far as known. 

POP MUSIC SPREAD QUICKLY. Despite limited BBC access,  the 60s new pop music did not stop but rather spread fairly quickly and eventually became a flood-shed. Pop music gained increasingly more in popularity... whether listened to from radios stuck secretly under children´s pillows or shared more in the open by teenagers and eventually others, in variable places indoors or outdoors, thanks also to new transportable radios.

 

I wonder how this diffusion was actually feasible when BBC and Government were restricting the pop music broadcasting severely at the time? How active they were I do not precisely know, could be interesting to know more about this. (I´m not an expert in this field and was a bit young at the time but my friends remember more and listened to e.g. Radio Caroline. We also have a record with authentic recording from this and other pirate stations). 

Anyway, a lot of new pop-based pirate radio solutions popped up so to speak... What is only hinted to in the film, is the role played by commercials. It was probably not merely the closed state broadcasting regime but perhaps also (or even more) the actions of numerous commercial interests spreading ads in relation to popular music programs that nourished an outside-the-shore pirate solution. Broadcasting via boats and a "free ocean solution" seemed to be financed by commercials and was tried successfully for some time... opposing and bypassing the severe restrictions on the British island. Remember Radio Caroline and other pop and commercial boat solutions at the time. 

This is timely to remember now in our new pirate music and movie situations, I guess...

And if you enjoy pop music from the 60s as well as  the DJ lads´ongoing relationship plays - a thrilling mix of bad and good behaviour  and much humour - this is smth for you. Enjoy. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/5049946/Richard-Curtis-talks-about-his-new-film---The-Boat-That-Rocked.html

Exploring the load of twitter

Is twitter a narcissistic fallacy or like sending friends a postcard?
See more on http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article5747308.ece
Form the Sunday Times, 22 Feb 2009

Anno 2009: i-tweet-i-am

http://valleywag.gawker.com/5158699/i-tweet-therefore-i-am?skyline=true&s=x

Remember that Descartes changed his mind, from "I think, therefore I am" to something significantly different, as far as I remember: "I am, I exist"
(source TBA)

Fiddler on the road - towards Moscow

Alexander Rybak (21), born in Minsk, now living on Nesodden, Oslo, won the Norwegian song test "grand prix" this evening. 

He is a multitalent playing violin, composing, singing and acting - even wandering around in local communities in Norway to get inspiration. 

 http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.yohan.no/images/stories/alexander%2520rybak%2520i%2520farta%2520web.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.yohan.no/component/content/161%3Ftask%3Dview&h=299&w=448&sz=62&tbnid=wyfGlPYMyAk6tM::&tbnh=85&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dalexander%2Brybak&usg=__SaCrjX04z50D2QhCdmkYwigme_A=&ei=8IOgSeYoipX6BtKQlbYO&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=7&ct=image&cd=1

He is going to represent Norway in the Eurovision song contest in Moscow this May.

Becoming Munch Exhibition Art Center Chicago Feb 2009

the best way to explain a piece of art is with another one, according to a critique of the new exhibition Becoming Edvard Munch. http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/Munch/index

See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/arts/design/13munc.html

MOD Jan 2009

See http://www.bi.no/Content/Article____73371.aspx

MoD Oslo 2009

A COCREATING SCHOOL AND STUDENT COLLABORATION. Since Winter 2006-2007 faculty at two very different higher education schools in Oslo, that is, BI Norwegian School of Management and KHiO, the National Academy of the Arts, and some of their student groups have cocreated what we call MoD, management of design (*originally management and marketing of design).

It is a crossover kind of ideation, project management and entrepreneurship course for bachelor students from the two higher education schools involved. So far, students and faculty from two educational areas, 'culture and leadership' and 'design' of the two schools respectively can engage in this. The joint 'MOD' learning project is focused on concept-development, visual design and communication, and management of creative projects in interdisciplinary business and design groups. The business and design students are organized into preset mixed groups and 'thrown' into joint ideation and project managing practice for three weeks.

THE TASK each year is to come up with eventually one core idea in each group and make, refine, organize and communicate the group's core idea, visual design, and project and business planning around the idea chosen within a short time frame. The groups are free to choose idea and set up of their project organization within the overall aims and frame of this learning project. See the MOD overall aims and intentions as well as history and experiences outlined elsewhere (modoslo.blogspot.com). Brief on the background initiative, see note below.

IN MOD 2009 18 groups have been working from 5. to 23. January in a highly intensive cocreation in addition to lectures, seminars, field visits, guest lectures and so forth.

On last Friday, the 23 January, 18 groups presented their idea - many in highly triggering 15 minutes performances. The ideas varied from culture-communication focused ones to business ideas based on mixtures of health, safety, and environmental concerns. Arts and design aspects were essential in the projects. Many concrete ideas could contribute to social and service innovation for people and places in Oslo. For example a project that could light up literally dark areas along the Akerselva (*river in Oslo) because many people want to walk in this area.
It is amazing how the groups had developed their ideas and team spirit in few weeks.
It will be exciting to learn about the future careers of the 2009 MOD students and see if any, or other related, projects will become realized. Most important perhaps is to learn to collaborate in new ways.

---------------------------------
Note on background
THE INITIATIVE for MOD was originally taken in 2006 by four faculty members, two from each school, i.e., dean of design Halldor Gislason and fashion design professor Tove Kjær from Khio and Donatella de Paoli and Birgit Helene Jevnaker, both associate professors from BI. Thus, the collaboration also is involving two of BI Management school's departments, 'Communication, culture, and language' and 'Innovation and economic organizing'.
Both Dori and Birgit had run ideation and entrepreneurship/design-business creativity oriented courses previously (also in other school settings), and we have also friends that have been involved in some related initiatives in other countries. The other faculty members, Donatella and Tove also had long and varied experiences that could be reused creatively for this joint learning project. All were also in formal positions (*with course or program responsibilities) at their schools to influence the school's courses and students' work. Last but not least, I would say a critical success factor, is a group of at least four faculty members have been highly engaged in both launching AND following-cum-realizing this project. A creative joint effort by more than one faculty made this crossover initiative feasible in practice.