Molecularist

Marko Ahtisaari and Jyri Engeström, with the help of a team of wonderful people I was fortunate to meet, organized a two-day event in Helsinki called Aula Movement 2006.

Aula is an ‘open community of people working in different fields of life including science, art, business, government, and NGOs.’ It is run by Marko and Jyri and a few other enlightened people here in Helsinki. I must shamefully admit that I am not half (quarter!) as involved as I would like to be – I find the mix of thinking and doing closer to my academic (philosophic?) ways.

Aula Movement 2006 was ‘about the direction of society, culture and technology.’ The theme tended towards where mobility meets the Web, ‘the overlapping of the physical and the virtual, and the social movement-like nature of new technologies.’

I was fortunate enough to attend the first day and the tail end sliver of the second day. And, as happens any time I enter the Marko-Jyri Zone, I left enlightened, my head full of new thoughts, old thoughts pulled up and shaken up again, having met and listened to the gaggle of clever and active people who are normally part of Marko and Jyri’s world.

The first day was open to the general public. As happens when I go to local events that are tech (especially, mobile) oriented, I met a bunch of great folks I already know (great seein’ ya!). There were also some folks I was surprised to see there (I have an idea why, now). Nonetheless, even though they seemed out of place, it was a needed eye-opener for them.

The speakers that day were Clay Shirky, Alistair Curtis, Martin Varsavsky, and Joi Ito. Interspersed were some music and interpretive dance pieces – to clear the mental palate, as it were, cool and interesting like lime sorbet between courses of a meal.

Clay spoke about how the open source movement allows coders to sample the full range of possibilities and fail often in a cost effective way. To the biologist geek in me, it’s a simple Darwinian selection process. What I think Clay left out, though I know he understands, is that the way you sample the space of the possible, your selection mechanism, necessarily restricts the kinds of things you come up with. So, to me, the open source process is good, but I want to see such broad sampling in the mobile world, where things are multi-part, more complex, and have larger hurdles than simply a coder with a PC.

Alistair, Chief of Design, Nokia, I am embarrassed to say, I sort of tuned out. There were too many corporate slides. And he droned on about how Nokia Design was connecting with user emotion. I am sure Alistair is a nice guy. But if you are passionate about something, especially designing experiences, which is the soul of the company, then it should show. My problem was with his lack of enthusiasm in the presentation. I keep coming back to the idea that corporate leaders should be measured on how enthusiastic and infectious they are. Case in point: Martin Varsavsky.

Martin is the Chief Fonero (I mentioned him before). He introduced the audience to FON, his grass-roots WiFi community. He was also launching FON formally in Finland (Marko is Chief Fonero, Finland). In terms of enthusiasm, Martin exuded it. He was like a stand-up comic, bringing reality to what he was saying, not being afraid to make a bold statement, and telling it in the true way of a believer. Anina has a few more things to say about Martin, and even has him on video.

Joi was the last speaker of the day. He is a breed apart, living a few years ahead of the regular world. Listening to him is like tunneling the mind-waves of how folks will live and communicate in the future. For those who don’t follow Joi, his last big trend bet was blogging. He was an early investor and supporter of Six Apart, introducing me to them (with Marko), when they were a still small company (and I have watched them blossom incredibly). Now, he’s hooked on World of Warcraft – an immersive online 3-D role-playing world. It may sound geeky, but, along with a bunch of folks he roped in or met there, he is discovering new things about how people interact, form groups, establish their own identity, and create. There have been some notes in the news about WoW (and a similar world called Second Life) being the New Golf. But, Joi clearly shows that it is actually the New Church. In golf, you get together to play a game then disband, and it’s the way to make connections in business. In contrast, in church, people get together, volunteer, in an ad-hoc fashion to accomplish certain tasks for the community or other individuals in a totally selfless fashion, and make meaningful, supportive, and lasting connections. WoW is about social reputation, accomplishing tasks in a non-authoritative environment, volunteering for the benefit of others, sharing, and so on. An interesting development to follow, for sure.

Later that evening there was a great dinner, where I had the good fortune to catch up with old acquaintances (great seein’ you guys, too!) and meet some new people I hope to meet again, like Arwen O’Reilly and her pal (name?), both from Make Magazine. Together with the inestimable Ulla-Maaria (Jyri’s other half), we talked a lot about making things and, what Ulla-Maaria champions, crafting (read her Crafter’s Manifesto!). I also spoke with Tyler Brûlé about his evolving ideas of a mobile TV channel. I also finally met Marko’s other half and partner in crime, Lisa Sounio, and some of her friends. Great bunch all.

The dinner party then moved to a local designer hotel and the conversation flowed on for hours. I met and chatted with, among others, a bunch of designers, met and spoke with Thomas Madsen-Mygdal of reboot fame, spoke a lot about the future of floor-ball with Fred, caught up with Loïc (dude, we gots to hit the road again – it’s what we’re good at!), and had a good chat on many things with Ross. While I have forgotten the details (for various reasons), I picked up a bunch of ideas and gossip that are now brewing in my head.

The second day was by invitation only and I wasn’t invited (I guess I’m not enough of a mover or shaker). But, there was a dinner in the evening, to which Anina was invited and I was her date (though I still felt a bit of a party-crasher, hence my uncharacteristic mousy-ness). Before dinner there was a talk titled ‘Tokyo Blues’ by Nurri Kim, about how she went around Tokyo and created cool photos of the many uses of a common blue tarp material all across Tokyo. Really cool.
After that, Cory Doctorow gave a great and enthusiastic talk about self-determination (I commented on a part, earlier this week). Loïc has a video of the talk – watch it.