All posts in English

  • Pay as you drive

    What happens if you have to pay (congestion charge) every time you pass a certain point with your car in the city?

    This is what they tried in Stockholm:
    “The controversial trial of congestion charging in Stockholm ended at 6:30pm Monday [31/07/06], with the future of the tax still uncertain. The trial, which started in January, which cost 3.8 billion kronor to set up, claims to have reduced traffic in and out of the city by 22 percent, and garnered 400 million in revenues, much less than expected”. Source: The Local

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  • Corporate blogs: still too many actors out there

    The Ikea post (sorry, Dutch only) made me think of the role an advertising agency can (and in my opinion should) play in writing a corporate/business blog. I wrote this post with Ikea in my mind.

    I think a (real) corporate blog should not be written by an advertising/PR agency employee (unless it’s the agency’s blog itself of course). The main reason will be the fact that this person will lack some of most the important elements: passion, authority and credibility to represent the company to the outside world.

    I’m not saying an employee or an external agency cannot be passionated about a topic. But he/she will miss things like the company buzz, other colleagues telling stories about contacts they had with clients, encounters in the elevator, rumours and stuff that happens on the company floor. The outside world will see this person as a representative from an agency, but not as someone from the company itself. It will be much easier for a real employee to become an authority, speak with a credible voice (based on inherent knowlegde) and be the face of the company.

    Does that mean an advertising/PR agency cannot help a client to start a company blog? Of course not! They have been communication partners in the past, and there is no reason this should change. An agency can analyse the company’s needs and determine the goal of the blog. In the end, the set-up, layout and all the necessary tools (RSS, tags etc) are important, but not key (I don’t like blogs which are too slick, but I’m sure creatives will strongly disagree with me on that).

    The most important aspects will be the company’s culture towards open communication and the corporate blog authors/bloggers.

    First.

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  • MTV on K800i

    Damn, I’m so jealous…

    Mobile phone: Sony Ericsson K800i.

    Provider: Telenor Sweden (TV free first month, 7 EUR/month afterwards).

    Owner: Mobile Viking
    Guess on which device DopplerMobile will work very soon 😉

    Update 10/08 (on request): check these pictures if you want to check the quality. Example: panorama view. Read more

  • AOL 2452032: fantasy or reality?

    Today, I was suprised to read (online, newspapers) how many people started minimalizing the impact of the AOL searchdata dump. Let’s see if we can make something out of 1 random data dump.

    Facts:

    • User 2452032 visits MySpace on March 1st and 27th of May. He searches for mail.myspace.com on the 29e and the 30e of may. Note: mail.myspace.com is only available for registered members.
    • On the 4th of May the users types instantmessenger with an “a”.
    • On the 15th of March, the users searches for “bsholl01”. This could be a login that has been typed in the wrong field (maybe you don’t do that, but I’ve already done it myself).
    • User searches for “msu” on March 9th.

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  • Stockholm C – Göteborg

    Stockholm Central Station

    Stockholm C – Göteborg, 471 km, 3 hrs, X2000 train, maximum line speed: 210 kmh/130 mph, 1st class, 693 SEK (75 EUR).
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