Aula 2006 ─ Movement

Dear 3QD Reader,

Aula is a Helsinki, Finland-based open community of people working in different fields of life including science, art, business, government and NGOs. In 2002, they started a group weblog called the Aula Point of View, which I edited until 2004 at the invitation of two of Aula's founding members, Marko Ahtisaari and Jyri Engestrom. Like 3 Quarks Daily, the Aula POV was mainly a links blog, and this is how I got my start in blogging. So, in a very real sense, 3QD owes its existence to my earlier blogging experiences at Aula. (If you'd like to know the full story of the Aula POV, I wrote a short article about it which was published in the book Exposure, and the article is available online here.)

Next week there is a meeting in Helsinki organized by Marko and Jyri called Aula 2006 ─ Movement. It's a two day affair with some very interesting speakers and will focus on various broad themes related to the direction in which society, culture and technology are heading:

The theme Movement points to mobility 2.0 (mobility meets web 2.0), the overlapping of the physical and the virtual, and the social movement-like nature of new technologies...

Movement also means a section of a piece of music, and the gathering will include interventions in music and dance. This event will be less of a conference, more an intimate gathering of people to discuss, detail and experience critical topics.

We, meaning 3 Quarks Daily, are Aula's official blogging partner for this event, and Morgan Meis and I will be traveling to Helsinki next week to attend the meeting, give a short presentation, and report any and all happenings of interest there. Each day this week, starting tomorrow, I will be profiling one of the main speakers: Clay Shirky, Alastair Curtis, Martin Varsavsky, and Joichi Ito. And next week, as I mentioned, Morgan and I will be blogging live from the meeting itself.

So in addition to the usual links, there will be some Aula 2006 ─ Movement related blogging here for the next nine or so days. We hope you'll find it interesting.

And if you should happen to be in Finland, do try to come to the public event on Wednesday, June 14th. It should be a lot of fun!