autofunk.dk

Speaking at OuiShare in Paris + heading to Republica, Berlin // #OuiShareFest #rp13 #OSFopen

admin — Thu, 02 May 2013 05:28:51 +0000

. . These next 9 days I'll be in Paris and Berlin to participate in two conferences: OuiShare (Paris) and Re:publica (Berlin) - as part of my community manager work with Open Knowledge Foundation. At OuiShare I'll do two panels: The first titled "Open Government Data: What, how, why?", that - as the name states - discusses and the second "Creative Networked Communities", which looks at how it's now possible to organize activist and advocacy communities virtually, and what aims, values, organizational structures and online toolboxes are applied - as well as what economical sustainability issues and other challenges such communities face. Both panels take place today, Thursday. Next, I'll head to Berlin for the Republica conference. Here I will not be giving talks, but simply networking and meeting up with my colleagues at OKF Germany - as well as others from my networks. Please get in touch if you're there and want to meet up!

Speaking at Open Source Days 2013 (Copenhagen) on Saturday and Foraarsmessen (Aalborg) Friday

admin — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:41:50 +0000

. . I have two public speaking gigs lined up for this upcoming weekend. On Saturday on the Open Source Days conference in Copenhagen, where I also spoke last year. This year I'll give a talk titled 'Open Government Data: What, why, how?' (16.30 on the Ernst & Young stage) as well as meetup up with a bunch of budding OKFN-community members to discuss making an OKFN Local Group in Denmark. Join us! Update: There is now a blog post on the official Open Knowledge Foundation blog, made by co-organizer Codrina Illie, about the OSD conference (it has mention of my contribution too). Friday I'll be giving a brief talk in Aalborg Kongres & Kulturcenter during Foraarsmessen ("the spring conference") about my thoughts on alternative entrepreneurship (on the New Bizz stage @ 13.00). Open Source Days web - full program - Facebook Foraarsmessen web - full program .

Billig 2-etagers andelslejlighed til salg i Aalborg centrum

admin — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:28:00 +0000

. .

Jeg sælger min andelslejlighed i Aalborg Midtby / Vestby.

**Se detaljer nederst og skriv til villum @ autofunk . dk for fremvisning.**

. Området Beliggende i Poul Paghs Gade, 5-10 minutters gang fra strøget. Indkøbsmuligheder lige om hjørnet, og 5 minutters gang til fjorden. Lejligheden 1-værelses lejlighed på 50 kvm inkl. soveværelse i hems. Entre/fordelingsgang med plads til overtøjet. Lys opholdsstue med fritlagte bjælker op til kip/hems og fine behandlede plankegulve. Stuen har en god størrelse og der er plads til både sofagruppe og spisebord. Der er flot udsigt over Aalborgs hustage til begge sider. Fint nyere køkken og nyt funktionelt badeværelse med toilet og separat bruseniche. Soveværelse er på 1. salen i hemsen (8 m3 i hems som ikke er regnet med i det officielle boligareal). Til lejligheden medfølger kælderrum på 1 m², fælles vaskeri (inkluderet i fællesudgifter), cykelskur samt lækkert og indbydende gårdmiljø med borde og bænke. Der er samtidig gode parkeringsmuligheder i baggården. Ejerforeningen er stabil og har eksisteret i godt 15 år. Alt i alt en hyggelig og unik 2-etagers lejlighed med den helt rette beliggenhed tæt på centrum og med indkøbsmuligheder lige i nærheden.

Andel DKK 349.000,- eller giv bud! (andelsværdi DKK 372.000) Boligudgifter: DKK 1.975,- Forbrug (a'conto): DKK 975,-

. Billeder Køkken: Hems: Mellemgang/entré: Badeværelse: Udsigt (for- og bagside): Plantegning: .

We won the Artbeat Award!

admin — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:05:23 +0000

Cultural minister Marianne Jelved, Christian Villum, Lina Bergstrøm and Thomas Petersen

Yesterday in a ceremony at Teater Grob in Copenhagen, we (Platform4) won the newly established Artbeat Award! The award, which officially celebrates the best within Danish cultural dissemination and will be given to a project or a person within the cultural environment that has managed to combine something artistically new with forward looking communication, was handed to my colleague Thomas, volunteer Lina and myself (as a group on behalf of all of the Platform4 project) by the Danish cultural minister, Marianne Jelved. Here is a little video report from the event: Read the official announcement and the full report, which also elaborates a bit on the whole thing. Nordjyske did an article too, and we were interviewed by ANR Radio. The reasoning The reasoning from the jury was formulated like this (in Danish): ”Vi lever i en tid, hvor begreberne kreativitet og innovation bruges særdeles flittigt af både forskere, kulturaktører og politikere. Hvis nogen skulle være i tvivl om, hvad begreberne betyder, bør man så afgjort kaste et blik på Platform4, for her findes de i en sjældent konkret – ja, i en ligefrem håndgribelig form. Men én ting er at være kreativ og innovativ; en anden er samtidig at kunne formidle sine bedrifter, så genklangen, synligheden og den gensidige inspiration sikres – langt ud over projektets egne grænser og dets umiddelbare komfortzone. Det mestrer Platform4 på forbilledlig vis, og derfor skal de have Artbeat Prisen. Stort tillykke.” Which translates into something like: "We are living in a time, where concepts like creativity and innovation are used heavily by both scientists, cultural creators and politicians. If anyone should have doubts as to what these concepts mean, then they should look at Platform4, because here they are in a rarely concrete manifestation. But it's one thing to be creative and innovative. Another thing is to be able to disseminate your accomplishments to the outside world, so that resonance, visibility and mutual inspiration is secured - way beyond the borders of the project itself and it's close vicinity. This is an art mastered by Platform4 in a exemplary way, and therefore we want them to receive the Artbeat Award. A big congratulations." Wonderful community For someone who doesn't get very many awards (who does?) this is a proud moment. Especially proud to be part of this community of wonderful people who has invested time, effort and talent in making Platform4 what it is. What a wonderful time these last 5 years has been. -Christian (Read the background) .

Nominated for ArtBeat Award today w/ Platform4 – alongside Spotify and TV2-News (with cultural minister Marianne Jelved)

admin — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:22:33 +0000

. Artbeat Prisen 2013: De nominerede from HAVE Backstage on Vimeo. . Even though I've officially left Platform4 on December 31, 2012, there are still a few related things to attend to. One of them is quite special, since Platform4 late last year were announced as one of 4 nominees for the new ArtBeat Award initiated by Have Kommunikation. The other nominees are Spotify, the "Kulturen På News" program on TV2 News - and finally "Ananassen". Our nomination reasoning is described as: "Aalborgensiske Platform4 har formået at samle både de kreative og kulturelle aktører, universitetet, kommunen og staten i en helt ny form for kulturinstitution, som kombinerer iværksætteri, nye formidlingsplatforme og ny teknologi inden for kunst og kultur." (which translates into something like: "Platform4 from the city of Aalborg has managed to gather both creative and cultural actors, the university, the municipality and the public sector in a brand new type of cultural institution that combines entrepreneurship, new dissemination platforms and new technology within art and culture.") Read more about all the nominations here (or watch the video clip above). The award "celebrates the best within Danish cultural dissemination and will be given to a project or a person within the cultural environment that has managed to combine something artistically new with forward looking communication." To hand over the award the organizers have secured prominent Danish cultural minister Marianne Jelved. The jury is equally prominent and consists of ao. Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, Jørgen Ramskov og Knud Romer. We are, needless to say, quite honored and very excited to be nominated alongside such distinguished projects, and are currently on our way to the award show which will take place today, Wednesday Jan 30, on Teater Grob in Copenhagen. Wish us luck! Read more about the award on artbeatprisen.dk - or read the press release. .

Joining the Open Knowledge Foundation team

admin — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:40:27 +0000

. . It is with great joy that I can announce that as of January 14, 2013, I am officially part of the Open Knowledge Foundation team. I will be working with community management within two areas; Open Government Data and the global community of Local Groups.

Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is officially described as a global movement to open up knowledge around the world and see it used and useful. OKF brings together a diverse community, building a network of individuals and organisations, founded on key principles.The OKF is trusted, non-partisan, pioneering, passionate and create change by educating, empowering, evangelising and making. It all pretty much boils down to opening data across the globe and help people and organizations use it to create prosperity, embrace transparency and technology - and improve society. Read more on the official website, see the team and follow the Twitter stream. Although I'll be spending the vast majority of my working time (and probably lots of early and late hours) to boost OKF, I will continue to cultivate other projects on the side. This means among other that Uhrlaut Records will keep going strong (new release coming out in the spring '13) and the same goes for other current and future projects.

Great success for PRINT YOUR LIFE; our 3D-printer festival in Platform4 // #3Dprinting

admin — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 19:23:54 +0000

. . A couple of weeks back I co-organized the PRINT YOUR LIFE festival; a 3D-printing festival exploring the applications of this exciting new technology (and, in fact, the first 3D-printing festival ever in Scandinavia). For three consecutive weeks we had workskops, talks, debates and lots of designing and printing. Additionally, 8 people (myself included) made their own printer from Printrbot Jr. assembly kits. Additionally, we had 10 students from The Royal Design Academy in Copenhagen come all the way to Aalborg to join us (and build an Ultimaker printer) and Jerry Juarez from FAT Labs came all the way from Sweden to host sessions and join the fun. We even had som people from LEGO drop by for sessions during the festival. All in all we were really happy with the outcome and of course all the attention. . I've just published a blog post on the Platform4 website where lots of photos, thoughts and a little flick can be seen (for convenience, the film can also be seen below). 3D Print Festival 2012 "Show and tell" from BrknRibVids on Vimeo. Top photo by BrknRib .

All 5 Burning Man tv-programs now online // #burningman

admin — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:14:36 +0000

. . As described previously here on the blog, I had the fortunate opportunity to go to the magnificent Burning Man Festival this past summer (of which I have these thoughts). A tv-crew followed us and have now edited the footage into a series of programs that have aired through November 2012 - see them here. The idea of travelling to Nevada, US, to participate in Burning Man was to collect inspiration to bring back to Denmark and to all our ventures, including the Platform4-project. We travelled in a group of 7 people consisting of 5 representatives from Aalborg University, myself and my friend and fellow executive director in Platform4, Kristian Ravn-Ellestad. To document this process we were also joined by a camera-crew from Danish TV-station TV2Nord, who were with us the whole time filming and subsequently interviewing all of us. All the tons of footage has now been edited into a 26-minute documentary that aired in it's full length version on November 29, and in a two-part edited version of 2 x 11-minute segments on November 22 and November 29 respectively. All these programs are now available to view online: Full length version (26 minutes): Two-part shorter version, Part 1 (11 minutes): Two-part shorter version, Part 2 (11 minutes): . Additionally, the production company Samurai film, who did all the footage for TV2Nord recently released this short 4-minute film titled Ode To Black Rock City, based partly on the footage of our group. All truly stunning work. Ode to Black Rock City from Anders Christian Rasmussen on Vimeo. . Finally, TV2-Nord also invited me, Kristian, Claus Rosenstand (member of the Platform4 Advisory Board and also part of the Burning Man delegation) and Tonny S. Thorup (Platform4's co-founder and Chief of Aalborg Municipality's Business Department) to discuss Platform4, Burning Man, innovation and the future in 30-minute debate program titles "Til Sagen" (translates into "Let's Get To It"). The show aired on November 29 - see it here: . UPDATE (DEC 19, 2012): Ode To Black Rock City, as embedded above, was mentioned in today's official Burning Man newsletter, "The Jackrabbit Speaks". The caption is beautiful (and, in my opinion, very well deserved, it is a magnificently well made film): "ODE TO BLACK ROCK CITY" "Ode to Black Rock City" Perfectly Captures the Spirit of Burning Man (this one made us cry). This video comes to us from Denmark. The video's creation was led by filmmaker Anders Christian Rasmussen and is a synopsis of a longer piece which aired in full on the Danish public television station, TV2 Nord (which is to say, we can probably expect to see more Danes on playa next year). Wonderful work, Anders and crew! Watch and enjoy http://vimeo.com/54809341 .

Another city development interview – how I think creative hubs can be created // Dagbladet Holstebro

admin — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:23:55 +0000

. . A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed again in connections with a city development theme, this time by Dagbladet Holstebro - a regional newspaper from the city of Holstebro, a provincial city a couple of hundred kilometers south of Aalborg. There they are dealing with an abandoned meat packing complex in the middle of the city and are currently discussing strategies for making it into a creative hub of some sort. So they gave me a call because of my work with the Platform4 project, and as always I am more than happy to share the experiences we made ourselves over the last 4.5 years shaping the project. In general I feel really proud and humbled whenever newspapers, tv, radio - or city planners - feel that I can provide inspiration for their audience and projects, respectively. As always I highlighted what I think is one of the most important aspects when trying to pinpoint the reason for the large amount of success Platform4 has enjoyed over the years; namely how the financial funders (Aalborg Municipality and Aalborg University) gave the executive working group of grassroots entrepreneurs - the group I was lucky to be part of - almost entirely free hands in shaping the project, thereby paving the way for the creation of something authentic, something rooted in the energy of the city, something in tune with local creative communities. A bold move with a large amount of risk for the funding parties, but also a move of confidence that paid back in the sense that it encouraged us to throw ourselves relentlessly into an insane work frenzy to create the space we had always hoped for. My point is therefore that this is the kind of dedication you often get, I believe, by showing confidence in the up-and-coming grassroots entrepreneurs of a city. Read the interview here (pdf), Danish only. Additionally, there is a small segment in the online version of the paper, too (also Danish). -

Moving to Copenhagen

admin — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 11:04:01 +0000

. This is actually somewhat old news, as I made the public announcement two weeks ago, but I feel I should mention it here on my own web space too: I will be leaving Aalborg and Platform4 to move to Copenhagen in the beginning of 2013. Copy/pasting the announcement from the Platform4-website below: After five intense years being part of founding, developing and running Platform4, it is now time for one of Platform4's executive directors, Christian Villum, to seek new challenges. He will be leaving his position at Platform4 at the end of the year and will be moving to Copenhagen. His thoughts are: "- The decision has been made with great hesitation and reluctance, because Platform4 has been a wonderful and integrated part of my life since 2008. But a move to Copenhagen has been a suppressed urge of mine for the last couple of years, and I feel that the time is now right to take thought into action. The decision has been incredibly difficult though, because I've been putting my life and soul into Platform4 together with the other platformers, and the desire to continue that work and development is enormous. Additionally, it saddens my heart to have to leave the amazing Platform4 community. But sometimes you have to make difficult decisions to follow your dreams, and at the same time I sincerely hope that my forthcoming ventures can be used to continually be involved in starting ad hoc national and international Platform4 projects - from remote. Moreover, I plan to visit and participate as much as possible when being home to visit family and friends and doing freelance work in Aalborg. I still have no set plans for what I'll be doing in Copenhagen, so all directions are open - and I will continue to drive forward all my other projects including the Uhrlaut record label, my project development company Spraengfarlig and the work for the global open culture organization Creative Commons and as a free web activist in general." Villum will be leaving his position on December 31, 2012, and will continue his Platform4 work at full throttle until that date. A re-organization plan for Platform4 will be presented during the fall. --- Big thanks for the kind comments about this news on the Platform4 Facebook-page. I really appreciate it. -Christian