Yup, that’s what the blog’s been looking like for the past couple of days, while I thought I’d have the time to redesign it all – which, unfortunately, I did not. But I’m definitely on the right path, aiming for an ultra-minimalistic design.

But I realise that I simply do not have the [...]]]>

Yup, that’s what the blog’s been looking like for the past couple of days, while I thought I’d have the time to redesign it all – which, unfortunately, I did not. But I’m definitely on the right path, aiming for an ultra-minimalistic design.

But I realise that I simply do not have the time to get the job properly done in a matter of days. This is going to take weeks, so I’ll just take it down for maintenance again, every now and then, if you don’t mind.

You will notice, in time, that the blog is going to be a lot less serious (for want of better words), much less ambitious, too, but hopefully much more frequent.

For now: Welcome back. It’s definitely been a while.

No, really. But I must admit to ulterior motives, [...]]]> As an act of compassion for – and in solidarity with – the old media, whose inevitable demise has become painfully apparent over the last couple of years, I have decided to discontinue Insignificances for now, both in its English and Norwegian incarnations.

No, really. But I must admit to ulterior motives, the real ones chiefly being lack of time – and the fact that all the fun went out of self-hosting. In addition, quite frankly, I’m tired of blogging serious posts (which was this blog’s intention). I do that for a living. In all honesty, I  appreciate having the ability to distinguish between pastime and work – which is something I all-too rarely get to do. As a result thereof, comments are no longer possible, relieving me of the gatekeeper responsibilities. I will however keep blogging over at WordPress.com.

You can always keep tabs on my whereabouts at Magntize. Who knows: I may even decide to re-open.

My absence from the social media scene during summer, mainly based on a number of all-too time-consuming assignments, has lead me to realise that I simply do not miss it, save for blogging, as you will understand. And I think I know why, as I suspect I really tired of the social media more than [...]]]>

My absence from the social media scene during summer, mainly based on a number of all-too time-consuming assignments, has lead me to realise that I simply do not miss it, save for blogging, as you will understand. And I think I know why, as I suspect I really tired of the social media more than a decade ago. “Hang on,” you say? “Social media didn’t exist at the time”?

Dear reader, I beg to differ.

The sudden enthusiasm for web 2.0 and, in particular, the scores of social media outlets emerging over the last five years or so (in some instances much less) is a very puzzling one, implying that we’re dealing with something altogether new – which indeed it is not. In fact, many of them are, for one reason or the other, 1990′s phenomena – some even older –  cracked up to be new.

You have to wonder though, where the enthusiasts were in the early 1990′s to the mid-nineties, at which time the social media flourished, even though you cannot blame them for revelling in the wonders the rest of us hailed some 15 years ago. Even so, it is fascinating to see how so many of the newly converted appear as experts, chiefly based on mere ardour.

My guess is that most of them still wore shorts at the time, lacking Internet access, as most did. Which, in my view, is a perfectly understandable and valid excuse. I, for one, am not the least surprised that they perceive social media as a novelty.

Granted you never found sophisticated, convoluted packages such as Facebook, with its multifaceted solutions back in the heydays of Web 1.0. Nevertheless most of them did exist, albeit separately. What Mark Zuckerberg et al did, was to offer it all as a package, invoking much praise. For work already done by the included third-parties.

Also, video clips weren’t nearly as accessible back in the 1990′s as they became with the launch of YouTube. But accessible they were, even in pre-web times. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we’re back in the 1980′s, at which time even many of Facebook’s, Twitter’s and the instant messengers’ basic features indeed were available.

In the 1980′s you had access to the net, even if it was a different one, by way of a slow dial-up modem and a plethora of Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), first and foremost championed by CompuServe, as I recall (please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong in that assumption). It offered much of what we find on today’s Internet, less the GUI (Graphic User Interface) and hypertexted functionality. Let me mention but a few:

• YouTube? A matter of instant on-page access only. You could download just about any video you wanted back in the 1980′s, although often as native AVI files (later, in the early 1990′s, Apple’s Quicktime MOV files came to)
• Flickr/Picasa? Same thing here: Photos were shared by the numbers, quite often at impressive resolutions for that time
• Socialising? Numerous fora were available on the equally numerous bulletin boards

As for socialising, by the end of the 1980′s, some had even been on the Internet for almost two decades, enjoying the blessings of email and the very email-like Usenet (more often referred to as Newsgroups), offering threaded discussions, not to mention IRC (Internet Relay Chat), when it came along at le fin de décennie (i.e. the 1980′s).

When it came to video, we also had Real Player and Quicktime files embedded in web pages for years and years prior to YouTube, which by the way really wasn’t much of a novelty in terms of technology, as it was based on Flash, introduced back in the mid-nineties.

My chief motivation for hooking up in pre-web times was the ability to “modem” (as a verb) brochure and magazine originals to print offices. Little did I know, at the time, that the yet-to-come web would make printed publications obsolete.

Before long I was, however, deeply fascinated by the interactivity (as in interaction between the individual and the on-line community – and between individuals) offered by the web, at a time when “interactivity” was largely seen as a highly graphical experience, with avatars and landscapes, in which the participating parties roamed. VRML (Virtual Reality Markup language, as opposed to the static HTML, Hypertext Markup Language) came along at some point, bringing hope to those who were taken to the idea.

There were simpler, more widespread alternatives, too, such as The Palace, Virtual Places and WBS – of which the latter really brings out the nostalgic in yours truly, a regular guest back in 1995.

Screendump from the soon-to-maybe relaunched Webchat Broadcasting System, with the look and feel of its mid-nineties predecessor.

Later on, early 1996 saw the first major Norwegian webchat, SN-snakk on Schibsted Nett:

The mid-nineties header of Schibsted Nett, with changing daylight as the day (and night) progressed… A feature that I found highly intriguing at the time.

And oh, there were some quite advanced instant message systems and clients out there, too, such as the mid-90′s PowWow, with VoIP and shared whiteboards! I remember trying it out for a while, before I laid eyes on ICQ and AOL’s IM.

Soon after, in 1999 or so, I found myself a victim of social media fatigue. Which, I suppose, makes my marvelling in present-day social media enthusiasm all the more understandable. At any rate you will, of course, understand that I find the novelty of social media to be greatly exaggerated – and that my absence from social media is to do with more than just time-consuming assignments.

In many ways the various on-line communities of yesteryears were endowed with several (isolated) features superior to those of Facebook or Twitter. In blessing Twitter for its unsurpassed role as conveyor of breaking news, useful links and so forth and so on, we completely ignore that in fact all of the above mentioned, now outdated, services had it all – even that. To their own misfortune they were launched at a time when business models were immature, to say the least.

By the time Larry Page and Sergey Brin eventually incorporated their spare-time project, Google, on 4 September 1998, the infamous dot com era was already long since on its way. I worked in a leading Norwegian daily’s Internet edition at the time, in sync with the Internet’s constant development, as it were. We all sensed that a “new economy” was afoot, even if we did not anticipate its short lifespan.

Google in 1998.

But Page and Brin inspired much innovation by demonstrating how far you can go with limited funds. The company, founded by the two not yet eleven years ago, now boasts some 20,000 employees, after several credit crunch motivated cut-backs. Nevertheless, I think it’s fair to say that Web 2.0 started with the two. I even took an initiative myself, back in 2000, which could well be construed as a web 2.0 phenomenon; video assisted on-line medical consultations. Needless to say; raising money in the post-dot com period wasn’t easy. Five years later we just could’ve pulled it off.

But others, who either waited the crisis out or came up with their ideas at a later, financially more favourable stage, succeeded, supported by huge expectations to the second generation worldwide web. With Ajax and other means of integration, syndication and cross-publishing came the ability to package a lot of functionality in one portal – or as many as you like. Third-parties were invited to contribute in an open community, such as Facebook.

Wikipedia, launched in 2001, paved the way for content collaboration, such as citizen journalism or even competitors. The blogs, a factor to be reckoned with even then, grew to unfathomable proportions, utilising elements imported or embedded from many of the above mentioned, as well as mutual syndication, linking and, not least, by facilitating a dialogue, by way of reader comments.

Having said that, homepage owners of the 1990′s had much of that, too, even if comments were usually made in the now archaic guest books. But we had feeds, even if the technology behind wasn’t called RSS. I personally had a number of various hard coded (html coding in Notepad) homepages, some made in WYSIWYG editors, too, between 1995 and 2002, of which the last is still available (in Norwegian), by the way.

In many ways the only new thing about blogs, back when they first surfaced, was that they required no prior knowledge of html coding.

In short: Web 2.0 and the social media brought about precious few new features. It has, however, been cracked up to have done just that. Probably, as already mentioned, because the enthusiasts couldn’t possibly know that last century’s Internet indeed offered much of the same.

Upon reading this, I see how I must be perceived as anti social media, but believe me; although I’ve tired of them, I still urge my clients to make good use of Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and so on, as demonstrated on this website, that I recently helped to launch. Most enterprises’ participation in the social media is long overdue. However by approximately 15 years, not four or five, as the newly converted social media consultants would have it.

The real revolution in web 2.0 lies in the so-called cloud. We all know Google Docs and a number of similar services. Personally I’m currently testing the promising G.ho.st service, reminiscent of older thin client solutions, which most definitely is the way to go.

Even Microsoft recently announced a “cloud computed” version of their Office 2010. Who would’ve thought, only two years ago!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBzFdmmeomA

But wait… There has to be a catch. Will the use of Office 2010 provide a Sharepoint server of your own – or access to one? That’s pretty much what it sounds like to me. Otherwise they just wouldn’t be Microsoft. But things definitely move in the right direction.

Therein, dear reader, lies the novelty in Web 2.0. Social media, on the other hand.

That’s just yesterday’s news.

I am yet not departed. Actually, I’m not even sick, except perhaps, mentally. But I do struggle. With unimaginable loads of work, preventing me from blogging, twittering, facebooking – or leading a life of my own at all, truth be told.

For the better of a fortnight I’ve been my clients’ exclusive property 24/7, [...]]]>

I am yet not departed. Actually, I’m not even sick, except perhaps, mentally. But I do struggle. With unimaginable loads of work, preventing me from blogging, twittering, facebooking – or leading a life of my own at all, truth be told.

For the better of a fortnight I’ve been my clients’ exclusive property 24/7, and am likely to remain so for most of summer, amid our family’s move from the Oslo region to the west coast.

I’m terribly sorry for late responses on comments, tweets, private emails and what have you, but can assure you that I’m very much alive, kicking and up and about.

Please forgive the absence, for the duration of I don’t know exactly how many assignments.

As for the rest of you: Enjoy summer (even if it pours down in these parts).

P.S. Some probably would have written something along the lines of Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, so I won’t. What is it with that phrase anyway? Do we think we introduce our readers to great wit by recycling it ad nauseam?

Some of us have mourned the apparent demise of CitJ site iNorden.org, a service we all hoped would once become the Scandinavian response to the Korean success OhmyNews, which, evidently, never came to pass. After about a year’s existence, iNorden flopped big time last autumn, at which time I decided to retire [...]]]>

Some of us have mourned the apparent demise of CitJ site iNorden.org, a service we all hoped would once become the Scandinavian response to the Korean success OhmyNews, which, evidently, never came to pass. After about a year’s existence, iNorden flopped big time last autumn, at which time I decided to retire myself as editor, leaving it all to co-editor Øyvind Strømmen, who clearly didn’t have much time to spend on the project either.

The remaining staff, if that’s an appropriate term, was unable to uphold the regularity we came to rely on during iN’s first year, leaving us all to believe it had come to an end. Until Øyvind mailed a few of us the other day, wondering if any of us had any ideas. Along came iNorden 3.0 – a full-fledged social media outlet, boasting functionality never before seen in the open (seeing as Facebook provides a log-in), and I have to say: For the first time in about a year, I’m all about great expectations, if Dickens will excuse my insolence.

Click for full size (1:1).

iNorden 1.0 started out as an online newspaper, really (as seen in screendump to the left, click for full size), with an ever-growing number of contributors – up until a certain point of time. Personally I have to admit to losing faith as I discovered that I was left to edit the whole thing single-handedly for the last couple of months prior to my “retirement”. By then we were already slightly connected to other social media, boasting a few functions ourselves, but nothing close to what we see in today’s version, offering blog pings, feeds from major Scandinavian ping services, Twitter-style dialogue and an integrated, filtered blog search engine, courtesy of Google. For now.

Apparently the ambition is to offer Nordic newspaper listings (feeds, perhaps?) and a host of additional functions, undoubtedly, and in all honesty, this may very well turn out to be the place to be for Nordic on-line socialites, citizen journalists, bloggers and all of you who are simply interested in Nordic goings on.

I can tell you this much, though: Even if I’m no longer involved, other than as an average contributor, I keep my hopes up high for iNorden’s re-introduction, which is much more in line with the 21st century social media requirements. That said, much remains to be done about the interface, and several functions are yet to be implemented, according to Øyvind Strømmen. In other words, it’s early days yet, but I can say this: Here’s a site with potential aplenty.

If you read this: Please don’t hesitate to spread the word. These things tend to rely on a certain participatory level, but are more often than not short of funds necessary to make themselves known.

iNorden 2.0 is still available, by the way, in a very crude, default WordPress theme.

Top photo: The Nordic social media outlet and ping service iNorden.

I’ve never had the pleasure of counting myself among the Alexa elite (as a matter of fact, this blog holds a humble 8763rd place – among sites Norwegians visit). Never paid much attention to search engine optimisation, commenting wildly on other bloggers’ posts for requital [...]]]>

I’ve never had the pleasure of counting myself among the Alexa elite (as a matter of fact, this blog holds a humble 8763rd place – among sites Norwegians visit). Never paid much attention to search engine optimisation, commenting wildly on other bloggers’ posts for requital traffic, unless I should, for other reasons, but I do appreciate frequent visitors and love the input you provide, unless you’re up to no good, that is.

In short, my insignificances are indeed highly insignificant, in the big picture that is the blogosphere, but I cherish my readers, who, more often than not, provide additional facts to my posts – or correct them, even, which is even better. There’s no better way to expand your horizon than to have your own misconceptions rectified, no matter how embarrassing at the time. Which is why I’m pleased to pride myself with a highly competent parish, whose own blogs I admire immensely.

Even though my traffic figures have been and remain modest, I’ve discovered that there’s really nothing to boost traffic, if that’s what you’re after – provided you have the time, unfortunately a very sparse commodity, to actually maintain the blog regularly.

Seeing as I prefer quality over quantity, I broke my stride the other week somehow,  on deciding to experiment with a somewhat more popular – some would say common – approach, delving into the realms of popular culture. Which, believe you me, is a lot easier in Norwegian, as we Norwegians do not much care for high brow phenomena, save for the odd occasion when, for one reason or the other, we’re flaunting our faux intellectualism. In reality we’re every bit as commercially inclined as the outrageous Americans. The decision was made: I was determined to attract the salt of the earth by blogging a few posts of monumental interest to the average news reader (useful information: Hereabouts the term “news” refers to entertainment, celebrities and the “heinous Muslim immigrants”).

My blog boasts a meagre average of some 500 visits a day (not unique), but on 20 April  I published a post on the Pirate Bay verdict (in Norwegian), which was all over the place, linking liberally to every Twingly-enabled news outlet, thereby securing a minor boost in reciprocal traffic, to 2252 visits and 10,475 page views that day, an exercise I repeated on several occasions, in relation to other popular subjects, such as Norway’s Eurovision Song Contest contender, who accidentally won the whole thing (did I remember to inform you that Norwegian news are all entertainment, celebrities et cetera?).

As you will see from this table, activity was extremely low during the year’s two initial months, until a gradual increase became evident as of March:

The May figures aren’t complete at the moment, but with all probability end at approximately 10,000 unique visitors. Still not impressive, but I’m more than happy. A monthly average from just below 1000 unique monthly visitors to say 11,000, wouldn’t be possible for a fairly new blog, such as this (launched in the end of last September, with moderate activity), if it hadn’t been for the Twingly trackbacks and Google Friend Connect. Here’s an interesting piece of information, see:

Of the above shown figures, some 48,5 percent are referred from my very limited participation in the Google Friend Connect network – among those actually referred from elsewhere, that is. I’ve joined a very moderate number of blogs, as follower, if you will. All blogs that I intend to follow, mind you (joining those you don’t care much to follow, simply in order to attract reciprocal traffic, would be a little overzealous, in my opinion).

In other words, if increasing traffic figures is a goal in itself, I really ought to join more sites – via Google Friend Connect. As the screendump to the left (or the real deal in the lower end of my sidebar) shows, I haven’t got more than 13 followers to show for myself, me included. Followers who undoubtedly have come to much of the same conclusion; that Google Friend Connect indeed is a proverbial lifesaver, in terms of traffic figures.

In fact, I’m amazed that very few blogs seem to have discovered. If you don’t have one, Go get. If you’d like to assist fellow bloggers in their attempts at improving visits, that is. If you’re all about attracting traffic to yourself: joining blogs who have it is an alternative, I suppose.

About a week after New Year’s Eve, amid Israeli warfare in Gaza, I wrote a post on Palestinian blogger Sameh Akram Habeeb, whose life was in immediate peril as he remained at home to report on the Israeli advances.

Needless to say, we were all severely shocked by the [...]]]>

About a week after New Year’s Eve, amid Israeli warfare in Gaza, I wrote a post on Palestinian blogger Sameh Akram Habeeb, whose life was in immediate peril as he remained at home to report on the Israeli advances.

Palestinian blogger Sameh Akram Habeeb (photo from Gaza today)

Needless to say, we were all severely shocked by the atrocities the Palestinians were forced to endure, even though most fled their homes to take shelter. Unlike Sameh Akram Habeeb, who provided us with the latest developments – a true and passionate journalist at heart.

Good news

I must admit that I’d almost forgot all about him, until two of my overseas readers, Tom Charles and Dana, reminded me of my blog post the other day, that is, bringing happy tidings of Mr. Habeeb’s whereabouts and further endeavours:

Tom Charles:

Sameh is alive and well and spoke at the UK House of Commons, see his blog http://www.gazatoday.blogspot.com

Dana:

[…] Thank God- Sameh is alive, launched The Palestinian Telegraph and is out doing what he does best, advocating for the Palestinian people who have NO voice. He is a brave man.

Peace, Dana

The Palestinian Telegraph, huh? I wouldn’t be a journalist if that didn’t spark my curiosity, so I set out to find out more about it. Turned out its name is The Palestine Telegraph, embellished with the pay off “We change our world”, an advanced blog cum online newspaper, with an impressive level of reporting, considering the (fairly recent – and humble) starting point (post continued after screendump).

Screendump from The Palestine Telegraph, Monday 27 April 2009.

Truth be told, I’m left in awe, overwhelmed with an intense desire to congratulate Sameh Akram Habeeb, whose life and whereabouts were most uncertain, only a couple of months ago.

International acknowledgement

Not only that: During its short life, The Palestine Telegraph has been source to international news, cited by renowned news outlets, such as BBC News, to mention but one.

Undoubtedly, the world needs an independent source from within the Gaza strip and the Palestinian territories on the whole, which makes The Palestine Telegraph’s entrance on the news scene all the more welcome. And to think it’s all done with a humble piece of blog software (WordPress, by the looks of it, but I wouldn’t bet) – while yesterday’s press crumbles all around. I have to say they’ve succeeded far better than we ever did with Nordic iNorden, though, even if the latter has been severely abated over the last months, both in form and content (then again, who would want to read about Scandinavian affairs?).

Please give your support to these good people, by spreading the link, blogging about them – or even by contributing to “The Pal Telegraph” yourself. Visit The Palestine Telegraph today.

From today’s reading:

• Hamas-Faith talks resumed
• Top Hamas leader reelected
• Non Violence in Palestine: Timing and Intentions
• Israeli soldiers storm a wedding, abduct groom
• Swine flu in Israel

There’s even a story on Norwegian lawyers setting out to accuse Israeli leaders of war crimes, which of course holds particular interest to Norwegians, such as I. As for Norwegian-Israeli relations in an overall perspective, please read Norway: Maybe a little too pro Israel?

Top photo: Screendump from “Gaza Today” from Palestinian blogger Sameh Akram Habeeb (23).

Are we having fun yet, now that we have our Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Blogger, WordPress, Spotify, Skype and Google accounts, to mention but a few?

Certainly, some may find it all rewarding, in some peculiar way, but you have to admit that some of the above mentioned services are downright intrusive. At [...]]]>

Are we having fun yet, now that we have our Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Blogger, WordPress, Spotify, Skype and Google accounts, to mention but a few?

Certainly, some may find it all rewarding, in some peculiar way, but you have to admit that some of the above mentioned services are downright intrusive. At least I feel that to be the case with Facebook – and yet I’ve kept my once accidentally opened account. A couple of years ago I needed access to a Facebook group while researching a story I wrote, which required registration.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZzP_69ZTFk

Before long friend requests started pouring in, so I thought I’d have a go at it. Bummer. And then there were the applications needed to make use of various invitations, which I ignore, as a general rule. If you ever sent me one, please understand that it isn’t personal. I just don’t accept applications. Apart from that, catching up on what old friends are up to these days, and receiving reminders of their birthdays and such, is what I like about it, but I don’t care much for chatting, and I don’t like to see who’s logged on. It’s just not my business.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV4PNwpqsCc

And along came Twitter. So much less intrusive, but you have to keep up in order to find it useful. The good thing is, though, that it’s all based on exchanging thoughts, news and links. You don’t have to declare friendship, but you’re required to “follow”:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALbH63Ali9U

There’s a part two, too, if you’re not too exhausted:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwGzdbLweUI

I registered about a year ago, and soon came to prefer Twitter over Facebook – big time. It wasn’t as if I inhabited the place, though, which should become obvious if you visit my profile.

For news buffs, such as myself, Twitter’s been known to break news before the media, on several occasions, such as the fairly recent Hudson river emergency landing. Tweeters have been liveblogging from conferences and events, too, so all in all: Thumbs up for Twitter.

By the way, did I mention that I do love YouTube? A quick look at the post gives an idea. Summing up the Twitter section:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt4XENAi74M

But there’s more to video than YouTube, even if it undoubtedly is the dominating and by far the most vast, in terms of content, player on the arena. A number of services have since emerged, such as

• Ted (for science and lectures)
• Vimeo
• Mogulus
• Qik

In a social media context, the latter two are extremely interesting, but really, there’s no end to this. Needless to say, there are numerous porn-specific YouTube clones out there, too, and I expect more theme related services to surface – as we speak, so to say.

Blogs in peril?

Time's Person of the year 2006: You.

Up until 2006 – or thereabout – blogs were on everybody’s lips, which undoubtedly lead Time Magazine to dub us all, that’s right; You, Person of the year 2006, even if the scope indeed was wider, incorporating Wikipedia, YouTube – and a number of web 2.0 wonders.

You’d think that the ever-expanding supply of new social media services would lead to the downfall of the, let’s face it, technically outdated blogs, but they’ve shown a remarkable resilience, gradually adapting new technologies. If anything, blogs have been closer integrated with the emerging social media, by way of embedded video clips (as so abundantly demonstrated in this post), widgets displaying third party content – and vice-versa.

Certainly, as the number of blogs has increased, by thousands of percent, I’m sure, so has the number of completely irrelevant blogs – alongside those you may find interesting. The only thing is; that’s not true at all. While you and I may find fashion blogs insignificant, there’s probably four or five on each of us who don’t. Contrary to popular belief, blogs have gradually become a prevailing factor, even in the mainstream media, who’ve struggled to adapt to the new realities, to such extent that even The New York Times was on the brink of bankruptcy, only months ago.

Professional networking

I’ve been a moderate user of LinkedIn for about four years, which I find a lot more useful than the social aspects of social media. If you visit my LinkedIn profile, you’ll see that even extracts from this blog are included. And there’s more. Much more. That’s how integrated everything’s become. Keeping track of old colleagues and business partners, seeing who’s available for new challenges – or may offer services that could come in handy – is really useful. As with social media on the whole, LinkedIn isn’t the only “professional” service available. There’s Plaxo and Xing, too, and, I suspect, a great number of others. But really, I just can’t keep up.

Social overload

And then there’s MSN, AOL IM, Google Talk and… and… I really don’t know where to begin, but I fear I may be in over my head. Luckilly I only use a selected few, and very cautiously, too. However, if you feel like me, using Power.com, the one-stop shop for social networkers, may just be the thing for you. And while I’m at it, let me advertise for the Norwegian alternative, Secondbrain. Alas, I haven’t used it since last summer, though. I’ve considered myself a social media drop-out for quite some time, while in reality I’m not. After all, I do still maintain a blog (this one’s the last in a series of blogs) and I try to keep up with Facebook and Twitter, at least once a day.

But I really can’t help thinking that enough is enough. After all, we’ve only just begun. There are legions of web 2.0, if not 3.0, phenomena to come – some here already. Or how about taking tweets to the next stage, with Blip.fm? And of course there’s always good old Last.fm. Hi5 is the world’s third largest online community already, not to mention Loopt… Really, there’s no use in even trying to get the picture, as it’s constantly changing.

At any rate, I think maybe I’ve reached my limit.

My apologies for highly infrequent updates of late. It’s all to do with my all-too busy schedule, alternatingly translating loads of Swedish articles into my native tongue (I appreciate that my surname gives cause for much confusion in that respect) and writing articles on women in science, IT and engineering – all due by [...]]]>

My apologies for highly infrequent updates of late. It’s all to do with my all-too busy schedule, alternatingly translating loads of Swedish articles into my native tongue (I appreciate that my surname gives cause for much confusion in that respect) and writing articles on women in science, IT and engineering – all due by weekend Friday noon. Needless to say it takes most of the nights and all of my daytime hours, rendering yours truly quite incapable of offering his usual insignificances. Luckily, however, that’s just what they are, which ought to make the absence endurable. And let’s face it; blogging isn’t very likely to make the workload go away (neither is tonight’s voluntary communal work in our daughter’s kindergarten, come to think of it).

Looking at my watch I realise I’ll just have to stop here. I have a Q&A waiting, so I’ll just find a pair of matches to pry my eyelids open, and get down to it, leaving you with a highly relevant tune (as the nights are currently just as crazy as my days) albeit not a favourite of mine. It could be yours, though, and I’m not in the habit of passing judgements. Please bang your head, too, if you’re so inclined. At your own discretion, of course:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XOgad3vXwg

Photo: PhotoDisc

I think my heart missed a beat earlier today, honest to God, as I entered my old labour of love project, iNorden, which is currently undergoing substantial alterations, at least in the visual department. The changes are long overdue, although I must admit to a certain doubt as to [...]]]>

I think my heart missed a beat earlier today, honest to God, as I entered my old labour of love project, iNorden, which is currently undergoing substantial alterations, at least in the visual department. The changes are long overdue, although I must admit to a certain doubt as to where it is headed. As I no longer have a hand in it, I’ll just have to accept my part as passive bystander, which quite honestly hurts just a little, as I muffle a desperate “That’s my baby you’re tampering with, morons”. And then I realise we’re all going to have to let go, sooner or later.

I think I can see where Øyvind (the only remaining founder – out of four) is going with this. There are traces of Twitter in there, methinks, and the occasional social media solution – a visual impression I think could profit on a typographic facelift, too (which is all good and proper, as, after all, we’re talking typefaces), in order to enhance the Web 2.0, if not 3.0 experience.

Much as I’d love to contribute my share, I know I’m not very good at limiting my involvement. If I’m in, I’m really in, if you know what I mean, and it just won’t do when you’re already up to your neck in work. Of course, one might argue that I keep a blog of my own, but the effort doesn’t even begin to resemble the kind of work needed in order to maintain a site iNorden’s size and calibre.

Think I’ll just watch from the sideline, anxiously biting my nails (however metaphoric), sending Øyvind et al my very best wishes in their endeavours.

P.S. How very presumptuous of me to expect widespread understanding of the CiTJ abbreviation. Therefore, and without further ado: Citizen Journalism.

P.P.S. Speaking of hearts missing beats; How about Propaganda’s 1985 hit, Dr. Mabuse? Warum schmerzt es wenn mein Herz den Schlag verpasst?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFES63Qf9JA

Never look back sounds like good advice now, I think, pertaining to my iN past.

The Norwegian version of my blog (a separate blog onto itself, really) has been put on hiatus until further notice, due to the simple fact that these are very busy days, and they won’t be any less so by provoking the extremely combustible Norwegian blogosphere, leaving time for little else than fending off disagreeing [...]]]>

The Norwegian version of my blog (a separate blog onto itself, really) has been put on hiatus until further notice, due to the simple fact that these are very busy days, and they won’t be any less so by provoking the extremely combustible Norwegian blogosphere, leaving time for little else than fending off disagreeing readers’ views.

Rest assured, though, that, however dormant, the blog is very likely to resurface once I’ve put these near suffocating deadlines behind me, albeit with unopinionated and meaningless lah-dee-dah, perhaps, lest I piss someone royally off.

Meanwhile there’s always this blog, published in a quieter environment, as the English spoken audiences are less prone to go completely off their hinges over a set of stunningly old-fashioned thoughts.

Please enjoy your stay — and feel free to leave a comment.

Well, it’s definitely not a bird and it sure ain’t no plane – even though there’s a distinct possibility that I just might be Superman. I do understand the question, though, so I’ll just clarify, once and for all: Insignificances most definitely is a blog – without a shadow of doubt, of course. The [...]]]>

Well, it’s definitely not a bird and it sure ain’t no plane – even though there’s a distinct possibility that I just might be Superman. I do understand the question, though, so I’ll just clarify, once and for all: Insignificances most definitely is a blog – without a shadow of doubt, of course. The magazine layout is merely a way of having fun, as I’m equally – if not more – interested in presentation as in content. Now that we’ve cleared that misunderstanding out of the way: Welcome to Insignificances, my brand new blog, to succeed good old Irrelevances. My Norwegian blog will undergo the same transformation, too – or rather; it’ll be succeeded by a version very similar to this.

The reason for doing this is pretty simple, really. Altghough I rather like the simplicity of my two old blogs, the very obvious minimalism, I must admit that I’ve missed being able to tweak the design and to add widgets and stuff that WordPress.com simply doesn’t offer. While Insignificances too is published on the WordPress platform, it offers several options previously off limits.

Taking it one step further

By changing name from Irrelevances to Insignificances, I also signal an intention to publish less non-sense (however intentionally in the past) albeit not material of the utmost importance – which would be an improbability, coming from me. Still, now that I’m no longer contributing over at iNorden, on a regular basis, anyway, I’ll need an outlet for things that matter more than mere irellevances.

Why in English?

I’ve come to realise that the Norwegian blogosphere has become increasingly uninteresting – or rather: Decreasingly interesting, not to mention extremely introvert. It’s all about blogging, or about themselves, if you will, and I simply can’t be bothered anymore. Besides, I’ve always kept an English blog, since I first started some six years ago. Truth be told, my interests tend more towards global affairs anyway.

However, as mentioned earlier on, the Norwegian blog will be maintained, too, even if it’s probably on a somewhat sporadic basis.

I picked a hell of a time to launch this blog, by the way, looking at a couple of incredibly busy weeks ahead, which means updates will be sparse, I’m afraid, at least for a while. Please bear in mind that the posts you find here on launching day are put together in a hurry, simply to fill the front page, but I’ll get back to some serious blogging later on.

Apart from that: Welcome to Insignificances once more. Hope you’ll enjoy your stay.