(my) Life is a festival

Sometimes all pieces of the puzzle come together. Last week I got this feeling at Festivak, a congress for festival organizations in RAI Amsterdam. In one afternoon my past, present and future festival experience passed before me eyes. Here is a short summary of my festival life in one afternoon.

Tagged with: crowdsourcing, festivals, participation,

Polls: the opinion of the people or statements from the media?

The third week of September is traditionally an exciting week for Dutch politicians. It’s the official start of the political season. It all starts with the speech of Queen Beatrix on ‘prinsjesdag’. The content is written entirely by the government, and contains the political program for 2011-2012. After the ceremonial happening of the balcony scene (where the entire royal family waves to the people), it’s the Secretary of Finance’s turn to present the suitcase with the national budget. The real fireworks start on Wednesday as the government defends the choices for cuts or taxes.

Tagged with: polls, panels, politics, participation,

Social use of social media : the small benefits can be the biggest

There’s a lot of talk about the big opportunities and benefits of using social media. Examples of these benefits are customer engagement, direct customer communications, the speed of feedback/results, learning customer preferences, low cost, brand building, credibility of the ‘crowd’ or reach. You can hear or read al lot about the benefits of social media for marketing purposes, customer service, personal use, for relaxation and public services. The discipline you hear less about the benefits of social media is social welfare. Therefore, E-society organized Next: a congress about the benefits of ICT for professionals in social welfare. This congress contained a combination of presentations and workshops of research and good practices during the last ten years. I would like to present some good examples how social media can make a difference in a community.

Tagged with: social media, communities, participation,

House of Alijn

At the expert meeting of the CVN - Commission Cultural Treaty Vlaanderen – Nederland – (www.cvn.be) last week in Antwerpen I participated in a breakout session lead by Sylvie Dhaene of ‘Het Huis van Alijn’ (House of Alijn; www.huisvanalijn.be). This former museum of folklore has set out to tell a timeless story about the culture of everyday life. In the museum ordinary objects and curiosities offer an introduction to the common inheritance of the time periods of the fifties, sixties, seventies and so on, up till now. Digital media is used to let you zap through photo albums, listen to sound recordings and plunge into film excerpts.

Tagged with: participation, vlaanderen, cultural heritage, pace,