Posts by Esther Kool

Shifts in power through sharing; The Next Web Conference 2011 Wikileaks panel

By Esther Kool on 9 May 2011

On the 29th of april the third and final day of The Next Web Conference 2011 was held in Amsterdam. The first order of the day was immediately one that stuck by me. It was a Wikileaks panel with Alexander Bard and Rick Falkvinge led by Andrew Keen. Rick Falkvinge is the founder of the Swedish Pirate Party. Alexander Bard is, well, a writer, sociologist, philosopher and TV talk show host. Also; successful record producer, artist and songwriter. This makes him a very interesting person to talk to about file sharing and illegal downloads because he has a foot in both worlds. During the panel, Bard and Falkvinge discussed the importance of sharing, pirates, power, and integrity with a fair dosage of humor.

tagged with: rick falkvinge, pirats, spotify, record labels, artists, alexander bard

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Rise in location-based services?

By Esther Kool on 18 April 2011

Last year, when I did my placement at the Netherlands Youth Institute, I attended an expert meeting with social media researcher Danah Boyd at the University of Tilburg. When she was asked what ‘the next big thing’ in social media would be, she didn’t hesitate and immediately responded that mobile is on the rise. “The technology is leading towards mobile. Location-based technology, like Foursquare and Gowalla (online social media through which you can tell people where you are). The first ones to use new technology are always the geeks, freaks and queers, so I look to them to see what will happen.”
I count myself in at least two of the above stated categories, so obviously I have been using Foursquare like mad for months trying to wrestle the title of ‘mayor’ out of the hands of other geeks and freaks around Utrecht.

tagged with: location based services, foursquare, feest.je

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