0430

I decided to go to sleep early today. I could not stay too long because of the early interview with USTWO, work on our presentation for the first module at Hyper Island and quite long trip to Poland I will experience tomorrow.

Anyway, I could not sleep... And I decided to come back to school. I had this rush of adrenaline inside of me when thinking about the sketch of idea we came up with. Am I getting too excited? New information on it soon.

In need of scepticism.

High dose of inspiration from @Jocke Jardenberg.

Yesterday Joakim Jardenberg gave an amazing lecture at Hyper Island. It reopened my eyes on possibilities of building real connections online. On the top of that I had some more after-thoughts on my blog strategy:

1. Make my identity online more transparent and open for the possibilities of making real connections on the web,
2. Redesign my blog, link my social id to the blog and optimize google search when calling my name,
3. Make blog posts as short as possible, people skimm it anyway,
4. Take more pictures, brand myself.

...

5. And do a lot of constructive work, for fuck's sake!!

After the lecture I got myself a copy of "What Would Google Do?". It may be the most valuable book available for every web-being like me.

Mobile Landscape introduction and lecture with Jonathan Briggs. Week #3

Today we started our first module that is directly linked with my specialisation. We were given a brief and we are now going to conduct research and work shadowing on different fields. Our group got "Education", so we are going to visit schools/kindergartens in order to spot pattern behaviours. We will need to come up with a presentation and a trend observation with answers the following questions:

1. What are the three biggest influences on the field in the next 2‐5 years?
2. How would you like to see the industry use digital platforms in the future? How could digital services improve the industry?
3. How could we as Hyper Island student contribute?
4. Based on what you have found, which effects/demands do you see in this industry now&in the future?

My group consist of: Andréa Eriksson Nikolic, Carl Enström, Kasper Lahti, Sarper Erel, Joakim Keussen and myself. I am looking forward to conduct interviews with people from the mobile industry as its another requirement to the brief.

And of course we had a lecture with Jonathan Briggs in the afternoon and it was a real eye-opener no the opportunities of mobile applications. I will post some more reflections and the lecture itself hopefully tomorrow.



And in 10h time wil have a pleasure to listen to: Magnus Lindkvist and Mikael Ahlström. Excited!!

Idea development reflection. Week #3

In the last 3 days we went through idea development workshops. I was in a group with guys from Motion Graphics and Digital Media that I have not spoken before, so that was another great opportunity to get to know people. We went through the whole process of brainstorming, evaluating ideas, deciding and creating a description with some visuals. I was pretty surprised that in such a short period of time we could create some good looking mock-ups and a description. Of course, there would be a lot to do and plan, if we wanted to implement and make our idea work... And it is always like that.

What I found really interesting was those techniques of evaluating ideas and getting rid of invaluable or unoriginal ones. I think that I was always wanting to take part in such exercise, I am super happy that Hyper provides us with tools and facilitates our learning process. It is just what I wanted and what I am getting. Although, I was not super happy yesterday, especially when we were writing a description which IMHO was very blurry. But time was going and we had to rush it... So we sat together and finished off the piece. Obviously, it was a lot better than not do anything or spend too much time on it. We did not have any conflicts and everyone seemed happy with work.

What did I learn from working in those 3 days with my group?
1. Delegate roles in group and specify them precisely, so everyone knows what is expected,
2. Be respectful and show appreciation as much as you can,
3. Be open about your problem, communicate it and ask for help, if you are stucked,
4. Get to know people before start working, it was absolutely essential and I guess it is why we are satisfied with our piece.

We need to get together and talk about our feelings. I am very curious how my behaviour was interpreted.

And here is our work we made in 8 hours. I was thinking about making a short movie in order to present our concept, but that would require a lot more planning and getting our description simpler. And on Monday next module starts with lots of exciting lectures and a new group task.

Thoughts after the UGL week at Hyper Island. Week #2

That was a really tough week at Hyper Island. We spend 4 whole days on Understanding Group and Leadership course. I must admit that it opened me a little bit and made me more comfortable with being with all those new and very interesting people. We went through many group tasks and the main thing I learned is that in order to accomplish bigger tasks a group has to stay really close together. The thing that stayed in my head after it is the power of self reflection. It seems to be obvious, but it is so easy to forget what is going on inside of you. I often feel that I go with the flow and I find it hard to stay cool. I need to keep my personal diary. It expands awareness of what is going inside. That will be a key thing and I am absolutely sure about that.

I have always been quite cautions about belonging to any groups. I tried to keep myself away from it. What I discovered now is that there is an incredible amount of energy and power that people just pass around. I am sure though, that the biggest source of power lies within. Being an accepted part of a group empowers you and in this society is a must to survive.

Be honest.
Keep it simple.
Respect.
Commit.

I have found areas where I want to work on my personality.

1. Self-reflection
- Keep my blog updated at least once a week
- Keep a personal diary an a daily basis

2. Communication
- Get some audiobooks on communicating emotions
- Master and read body language
- See workshops on this area
- Do workshops on After Effects and Photoshop
- Ask for and give feedback

3. Motivation
- Find a short-term and long-term goal and visualize it

We have a idea generation week coming up next week. That is something I needed a long time ago. So far I am really surprised with Hyper Island I have a feeling that it was a perfect choice for a person like me. In a couple of weeks we are going to make some industry contact and Mobile Landscape exploration. I am well excited.

Another thing is organization of our Facebook Group, Twitter and blog. We need to talk about it and delegate work to other classmates. I feel some pressure right now.

Week before group dynamics and UGL

I got myself installed in Karlskrona. The first days at Hyper Island was filled with meeting new people and introduction to the course. My personal presentation looked like that.

It seems that we are a group of people with very different background and it is really exciting. Moreover, we are the very first course in the field of Mobile Applications and that's even more stimulating.

I had in my head some routines/initiatives that I will try to follow in those next 60 weeks. The first that came to my mind are:

1. Keep this blog running at least once a week, so I will have a clearer view of what's going on with my progression,

2. Try to get my hands on student competitions like D&AD2011 etc.,
3. Expand personal networking,
4. Keep track of my time and post it here once a week,

There must be more things/routines and I will add it later on. I have a couple of more things to do with my room and the flat, but there are some more days before the real learning and frustration begins.

The day before Hyper Island begins

I have chosen Mobile Applications program in Karlskrona. Big unknown. I moved again. I managed to find a reasonable place to live. Tomorrow it starts. Work. Lots of work.