(un)fencing the mind

42 haunts me

Elmine Wijnia — Sat, 04 May 2013 14:05:13 +0000

I’m not sure why, but the I see the number 42 every time I look on a clock. Or so it seems. What is the universe trying to tell me?

Birdie on yellow

Elmine Wijnia — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:16:32 +0000

Learning to use Adobe’s Illustrator, the trial and error way. Made this in two hours.

Impossible Magic Moments

Elmine Wijnia — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 13:41:20 +0000

I was standing besides my mother, in a very dark corner of our attic. Only a little orangy bulb was burning, casting a very secretive light. Three little baths with chemicals and water on the table top. A big machine standing next to it. My mother inserted a negative in the machine and all of a sudden, on the white surface below, there he was: one of my brothers, chilled to the bones standing besides a small lake, somewhere in Sweden. A piece of paper was put in the right place. My mother turned on a light in the machine, counted, shut the light down and put the piece of white paper in the one of the little baths. Slowly, the white piece of paper started to transform. Vaguely first, clearer with every second. And then that moment when all the development had been done to a picture, and we were able to switch on the regular lights so we could see what my mum had created. You never knew if you’d done it all properly until then.

It was like magic.

Digital photography took most of the uncertainty out of photography. A good thing I’d say. People’s snapshots are now in focus, because they’re able to check it instantly and take another one. The amount of blurry negatives we had on our family holiday rolls, what a waste! Still, that same certainty and instant gratification of seeing your picture at the back of your camera, a mere second after taking it…it has taken the joy of anticipation away…but now it’s back!

You may (or may not) have heard of The Impossible Project. In 2008 Polaroid stopped producing integral instant film and its last production site, located in my home town (Enschede), was closed down. And then something unexpected happened:

“In October 2008 The Impossible Project saved the last Polaroid production plant for integral instant film in Enschede (NL) and started to invent and produce totally new instant film materials for traditional Polaroid cameras. In 2010 Impossible saved analog instant photography from extinction by releasing various, brand new and unique instant films.
Therewith Impossible prevents more than 300.000.000
perfectly functioning Polaroid cameras from becoming obsolete, changes the world of photography and keeps variety, tangibility and analogue creativity and possibilites alive.”

Thus, my former neighbours (I used to live next to the Polaroid factory), continued to produce instant film. From scratch though. They had to reverse engineer the whole process, find new partnerships for producing the chemicals needed, and with small steps produce a film that could be used again.

My dear friend Pedro was the first person to tell me about The Impossible Project, and the first person I knew to jump on the band wagon when the first films were on sale in 2010. He infected me.

If you’ve been following me elsewhere you may have noticed that a while ago Pedro gave me something. An old-fashioned camera. One without a SD-slot or Flash-card, yet with a big slot for cassettes with photographic paper inside. He gave me a Polaroid SX-70 camera, for me to experiment with. And thus I took my first Polaroid-style pictures ever.

A week ago we visited Pedro and his wife Patrícia in Düsseldorf (to pick up Peter) and while strolling through the city, Pedro carried several camera’s with him, all using a different type of integral film (and watch him buy more camera’s on the go). Pedro said something about the instant gratification it gives, to have, yet again, a physical picture in your hand, with a somewhat unpredictable result.

I have to agree with him. I’ve taken so many digital pictures, but none of it ends up in a physical form. They live in iPhoto or end up at Flickr and for most of them, that’s good enough. I can’t even be bothered anymore to throw away the bad shots. Disk space is abundant. But sometimes it feels like a picture has lost its value all together. There are so many of them, and I carry one or more camera’s always with me that they’ve become too easy, too abundant.

The polaroid camera brings back that moment of anticipation, that unpredicted outcome, that thrill when turning over your picture for the first time, minutes after you took it, the disappointment when it failed, or the joy of it being better than expected, how the colour still develops in the next 24 hours. Even the failed pictures sometimes turn out to be beauties.

The current Impossible Film makes a photograph a thing beyond capturing a moment in time. Due to its experimental phase, there are many tricks to using the film, such as shielding the picture from light immediately after the picture ejects from the camera. A challenge resulting in interesting hacks added to the camera. The rather unstable form of the current Impossible Film transforms a picture in an unpredictable way, and I like that.

On top of that, the film isn’t cheap, so you’d better think twice about what you’re going to capture. Therefore it’s back to basics when taking a picture: looking, watching, stepping back, stepping forwards, checking the composition again, and turning the camera off without taking a picture if it doesn’t look right through the lens.

Last Friday I stocked up on some new films, bought at the Factory Outlet for a very reasonable price, since they were from batches that weren’t 100% OK. On Sunday it stopped raining (at last!), so Ton and I set out for our usual stroll around the neighbourhood. Obviously, I had to take the SX-70 with me to experiment with the new type of film (using a ND-filter on top of PX680 film). Ton being a very good assistant, standing ready next to me with a box to immediately put the pictures in, to shield the pictures from light (unlike men, I have very few shirts with a breast pocket. Correction: I have none). I can tell you this, people walking past us noticed we were taking pictures back from the future.

Capturing Impossible Moments, it’s like magic again.

Just a regular Sunday afternoon in Düsseldorf

Elmine Wijnia — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 09:32:57 +0000

But what is Pedro actually doing?

The true case: self-publishing a book as a network

Elmine Wijnia — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:51:29 +0000

Last Monday we, a group called LOSmakers, launched a book with 11 cases and cross-analysis on learning and organizing using social media. The real story that needs to be told: how we wrote, edited, designed and published a book with a group of 15 people, not binded by any contract, but for the willingness to commit time, energy and a only a little bit of money to get the job done.

This is the story of how a group of loosely connected people starts to grow into a brand.

How the group met

Four of us already worked together for a number of years, training people to use social media. We’re self-employed, forming teams for clients on a project basis. The four of us also know many others like us, working with social media, helping clients to get up to speed with social tools. Talking to eachother we noticed that we all dealt with similar issues to find solutions for and answer questions by clients. We also knew how pleasantly we worked together as a small network and at some point of time we, I guess it was Joitske in particular, expressed the wish to add another layer to our collaboration, with a peer network to share experiences around social media and learning.

We sent an invitation to people in our networks who might be interested in joining us and thus, in spring 2010, we met for the first time as a group.

First steps in sharing

Since that first meeting we started sharing. Sometimes in face-to-face meetings, exploring specific topics, more often in virtual settings where one or two of us would present something during a webinar. We showcased our projects during those webinars, discussed together and at the same time explored different tools to play with during these online meetings.

When the group becomes LOSmakers

One year after the groups’ first steps we felt the need to get a little bit more serious. We wanted to create something for a wider audience, so we could present ourselves as a group. In a meeting was decided to start working on a ‘book with ideas’ and that we needed a name for the group.

In June 2011 we did an online brainstorm for a name and opened a wiki for collecting cases to end up in our ‘book’. By the end of the month we branded ourselves LOSmakers and by the end of July we had a list of 11 cases to write about.

Working to a deadline

People who suggested a case were responsible for writing that specific case and a group of four took the overall responsibility for the process, in other words: kept the group reminding to deliver to the next deadline.

Our first deadline: all cases should be written by October 6th (2011), which obviously wasn’t met by all of us Nevertheless, several cases had been finished as a draft and we started working towards polished versions from that point on.

The PDF grew into a book…

At first we had the idea of putting together a decent PDF and publish this for all to download for free. During that particular meeting in October this somehow evolved (I wasn’t present at that meeting) into printing a proper book, with the use of an editor and book designer.

For a text document to grow into a book you get into the messy process of editing and rewriting, re-reading and re-editing. I’ve lost count how many versions of my own case I’ve written and how many versions of the document I scanned for typo’s. And that times 15, the number of people involved creating the book.

We found ourselves a brilliant designer who voluntarily created a template for our book. He found us a printing house as well and between the 15 of us we could order enough copies of the book for a reasonable price. The hard copies would serve as our own marketing material, the PDF would be distributed in exchange for a tweet.

Idea to book conversion: 10 months

So then we’re back to where I started: last Monday we had the experience of taking our first glance, as co-authors, at the printed version of the book we wrote together and launched the website for people to download the book.

From idea to product in 10 months.

Ingredients: clients, writing experience, perspiration, co-working spaces, skype, pbworks (wiki), google docs, googlegroups (aka email), datumprikker (pick a date), dropbox, Erik Vos…

…and of course the combined hours spent by the LOSmakers.

A special thanks to Hannelore, Sibrenne, Joitske and Simon for pushing the group forward, one step at a time. Without you, it would never have become a product to be proud of!

P.S.: you can download the PDF in exchange for a tweet or message on Facebook. Remember though: it is in Dutch. If you’re interested in a hard copy, drop me a line in whatever channel you prefer.

P.P.S: Monday we also expressed a wish to translate the book into English. Are you interested in reading it? Or are you willing to lend a hand translating to document? Drop me a line as well!

[NL] Boek ‘Omdat het werkt!’ gelanceerd

Elmine Wijnia — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 09:45:10 +0000

Het is echt waar. Ik heb een boek in m’n handen waar ik zelf een flinke bijdrage aan heb geleverd. ‘Omdat het werkt! 11 praktijkcasussen over leren met sociale media’. Met van mijn hand de casus over het project bij de gemeente: verhalen delen met video. Ik ben enorm trots op het boek!

Het boek is geschreven door de LOSmakers, waar ik ook deel van uit maak. Op initiatief van Sibrenne, Joitske, Simon en mij hebben we een aantal jaar geleden bekenden en vrienden die in hetzelfde werkveld actief zijn uitgenodigd om ervaring uit te wisselen over de projecten die we doen. Met een groep van ongeveer 15 man hebben we in de afgelopen paar jaar elkaar projecten laten zien, met alle worstelingen die we hebben gehad en de oplossingen die we hebben gevonden.

Gaandeweg ontstond het idee om de casussen die we elkaar vertelden met een grotere groep te delen. Geopperd werd om een aantal interessante casussen op te schrijven en te bundelen in een pdf, zodat we het makkelijk zouden kunnen verspreiden.

Het pdf-je groeide.

Door gebundelde krachten hebben we nu niet slechts een pdf, maar een heus boek geschreven en zelf uitgegeven, met een fantastische vormgeving.

Nieuwsgierig geworden naar het boek? Download het in ruil voor een tweet of bericht op Facebook.

Heb je liever de ware boekervaring, laat het me hieronder weten, dan heb ik een gedrukt exemplaar voor je.

Not a story teller by nurture

Elmine Wijnia — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:46:59 +0000

Telling stories was not part of my upbringing. In my family we stated facts, either true facts or perceived facts (if you know what i mean ). Now, long after finishing my formal education, storytelling is at the heart of my work for clients, so I need to get up to speed.

To me, stories resided in books, in fairy tales, but they were certainly not about real life. Only since I’m aware of storytelling for business purposes and help clients to explain organisational changes to their employees in video’s, I discover the true nature of stories and their power.

I’ve read books about storytelling and excercise my ‘storytelling’ on a regular basis by writing observations down in (one of my many) notebooks. Now that I know more about the topic I’m not sure why storytelling was never part of my upbringing, not at home and not at school.

I remember many school projects to write reports on topics such as WW II and Van Gogh, but I can’t remember a single case where we were asked to try to write a compelling story. I feel like this is a huge gap in my knowledge skills today, even though it is a skill you can learn later on, as I’m doing now.

It makes me wonder: did you learn to tell stories early on? At home or at school? Was I just unfortunate to have a family AND a school where this was not part of my curriculum? Or is it generally speaking not part of Dutch culture (compared to the English debate culture e.g.)?

Can’t wait to hear your story on storytelling!

P.S.: books I recommend are The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling, Story and Made to Stick

Hire us to help fund cancer research!

Elmine Wijnia — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:41:36 +0000

Last year on September 8th, 2011, our friend Marijke lost the battle against cancer, aged 44. Her husband, our friend Klaas was left behind. I’ve known both Klaas and Marijke since I know Ton, 13 years now.

Since a number of years, before Marijke was diagnosed with cancer, Klaas has been taking part in Alpe d’Huzes, a big yearly cycling event raising money for cancer research. Last year June, Marijke walked up the 14km long 800 meter climbing road to Alpe d’Huez in the French Alps, the same route Klaas was cycling 6 times that day, to meet him at the finish. This year, Marijke cannot be there to meet Klaas at the finish, but a group of 30 friends and family members, including Ton and me, will be cycling and walking with Klaas to make sure he’s not alone at the finish.

Klaas will again cycle up the mountain six times in one day, something he spends months training for. Ton and I will walk the same route once. Physically that’s not the biggest challenge you can think of, but still we want to raise some serious money for cancer research. So it’s likely we need to do a little more than simply ask you to donate through my ‘action page‘ (if you hold a Dutch bank account), or through my Paypal account (if you don’t hold a Dutch bank account), even though every single Euro is welcome and counts! That’s why Ton and I are also offering our services, not in exchange for our regular day rates, but in return for a donation to sponsor our walk up Alpe d’Huez.

There are various things we can offer, like

Workshops and training on Social Media, or Open Data
A presentation or guest lecture on networked learning, open data, social media, FabLab, knowledge management or one of the other topics I work on.
Creating a simple website for you
A video on a topic that matters to you
Facilitating a session using one of the Cognitive Edge methods, Elmine and I are both trained in.

Or maybe you have another idea on how we could create value for you with our professional skills?

We’ll not charge our normal rates for ourselves but transform that into a donation for the Alpe d’Huzes fund raising for cancer research.

Contact me, to discuss what we can do for you. (Already two of my clients have committed to a project with donation)

Also don’t hesitate to recommend us to others, even if you don’t see a way of hiring me or both of us yourself. We very much would appreciate it if you could spread the word. You’ll be helping us to raise money, but at the same time, you’ll be helping yourself, your family and friends. Cancer touches all our lives after all.

Ton has a new blog

Elmine Wijnia — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:08:35 +0000

I helped Ton move to a new home today. Go check out his new jacket. It’s looking good

(compare with the old one)

[NL] Huur ons in voor ‘t goede doel!

Elmine Wijnia — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:22:56 +0000

8 September 2011 overleed Marijke aan de gevolgen van kanker. Sinds die tijd staat onze goede vriend Klaas er alleen voor (lees het hele verhaal). 7 Juni loop ik samen met Ton en familie en vrienden van Klaas en Marijke de berg op om geld in te zamelen voor het KWF tijdens Alpe d’HuZes, zodat we weer een stapje dichter bij genezing van deze te snel-delende cellen kunnen komen.

Klaas is al sinds het begin betrokken bij Alpe d’HuZes, samen met Marijke. Zelfs al voordat Marijke zelf ziek werd. Dit jaar is Marijke er niet meer bij. Een gemis voor iedereen die dicht bij haar stond en voor Klaas in het bijzonder. Wij, Ton en ik, doen dit jaar ook mee. Om er te zijn voor Klaas wanneer hij over de finish komt en Marijke er niet is om hem te omhelzen. We vinden het zo oneerlijk dat hij z’n maatje moet missen.

Klaas fietst, zoals alle jaren, zes keer de berg op. Een prestatie waar hij elk jaar weer maandenlang voor traint. Wij fietsen niet, wij lopen. Fysiek is dat niet de grootste uitdaging voor ons en daarmee kunnen we jou misschien niet direct overtuigen om ons voor een geweldig bedrag te sponsoren. We bieden daarom de komende maanden ook onze diensten aan, in ruil voor een donatie voor onze actie.

Wat Ton en ik zoal kunnen bieden:

- een workshop op het gebied van Social Media of Open Data;

- een training gebruik van Social Media;

- een presentatie of inspiratiesessie over Sociale Media of Open Data;

- een training videogebruik;

- een eenvoudige website online;

- een filmpje over ….;

- facilitatie van een sessie op een onderwerp door jou te bepalen, met behulp van een Cognitive Edge methode of op basis van Open Space.

Je mag ook je eigen suggestie doen. Zolang het maar binnen het professionele domein blijft

Het bedrag dat we daar normaal voor vragen brengen we dan niet voor onszelf in rekening, maar wordt een donatie voor Alpe d’HuZes.

Inmiddels heb ik al toezeggingen voor een donatie om voor een viertal dames een website te maken.

Neem contact met mij op om te bespreken wat we voor jou kunnen doen en voor welk bedrag.

Zie je voor jezelf niet zo snel een kans ons in te huren? We waarderen het enorm als je het doorvertelt aan anderen!

Help ons naar een mooi sponsorbedrag. Help daarmee jezelf, je familie en je vrienden. Want laten we eerlijk zijn, kanker raakt ons allemaal!

P.S: meteen doneren is natuurlijk ook een optie Ga naar mijn actiepagina en maak het bedrag dat je wilt doneren meteen over. Snel en makkelijk. Elk bedrag is welkom en elke € telt! Lees meer over het anti-strijkstok beleid van Alpe d’HuZes.