Michael Carøe Andersen

Month: February 2007

  • Arb Design is blogging

    In the last year or so in Denmark blogging has changed from being something the established media and companies would talk about to be something they read and used. (Links in this post will be to Danish sites)

    I find it very interesting what is going on right now as people in companies are blogging. There are some great benefits from communicating in the form of a blog:

    • Informal way of communicating passion
    • Gain information about costumers through a dialog
    • It can underline and enhance your brand
    • Let the company have a human face and voice

    On the other hand there are some drawbacks or pittfalls as well. Blogging as a private person is different than blogging as part of an organization or a company. Andreas Johansen, former Synkron blogger wrote about some of the difficulties about blogging for his company.

    • Finding the proper voice – not too personal and geeky, not too corporate and marketing-speak
    • Its difficult to get comments so the costumer interaction stays one-way
    • It can be difficult to find the ressources to blog
    • Your boss, colleague, cotumer does not understand the blog format

    All this said we have decided to start Arblog, the blog of Arb Design. Right now it is easy to find stuff to write about because Rotaboard is getting started and getting attention from interesting places.

    Now go read, subscribe and comment and I will be happy :)

    Arblog - The blog of Arb Design

  • RotaBoard – the simple work planning tool

    The paper calendar on the back wall of a business is an easy tool to use, just grab the pen and write on it. When it is done make a photocopy to everybody on the staff and youre done.

    Work schedule

    Some time goes by and you end up with this

    Work schedule

    You know how it goes, people get sick some want to exchange their shifts or youve lost your paper copy and cant remember when you have to work next time. The shortcoming of the paper calendar is that it is difficult to keep everybody up to date on the changes – and change always happens. Enter Rotaboard

    date picker screenshot of rotaboard

    A week ago we launched RotaBoard the first of Arb Designs own products. RotaBoard is a simple work planning tool for the business or team were you have to coordinate and distribute a weekly workplan.

    With RotaBoard we wanted to retain the ease of using a simple paper calendar but add the benefits of having it online. Take it for a spin and let me know what you think. Wed love to hear your feedback. All you need is to sign up and you are ready to go

    screenshot.gif

  • IAESTE Traineeship abroad presentation

    Last year I did a presentation at IAESTE Michigans Employers Symposium where they invited potential employers to hear about IAESTE and benefits of take on a foreign trainee. This years Symposium was last month and Femi and I got asked if we would do a remote presentation. We looked into different solutions for doing remote presentations but ended up creating a video with the presentation and then doing the questions afterwards through Skype. It was fun to make and I finally had an excuse for making a presentation Lessig style:

    UPDATE: and Menlo Innovations became employer of the year.

    Last but not least the deadline for Danes to apply for a traineeship abroad is coming up 22nd of February. There are about 55 jobs waiting for Danes out there so check out the job catalogue (PDF) if there is anything that sounds interesting to you.

     

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    Tak for hjælpen :)


  • Mi casa es su casa

    Last weekend two guys from Madrid stopped by our place for a couple of days. I didnt know them and they didnt know me but they found me on the website Hospitality Club (HC) where travellers can find free accommodation. Ive been a member of the site for two years but so far I hadnt used it myself and wasnt home when people wanted to stay at my place. This time it worked out – and it was a blast.

    The cool thing about HC (and other sites like CouchSurfing) is that everybody gets something and it doesnt cost anything – social software at its best. When I travelled to America in 2000 I tried to use Servas – an off-line predecessor of HC started in 1949 – to find some people to stay with in US. The idea was great but in practicality too cumbersome for me. With HC its fairly easy and relatively safe to meet local people and get cheap accommodation.

    Nacho and Alfredo are studying aerospace engineering and architecture and they had found some cheap flights to Malmö. So they had a few days to visit Copenhagen. They brought along some Mahou Negra cerveza (thanks!) and local red wine and then they cooked a traditional Spanish omlet. Here they are in action:

    Spanish cooking

    They stayed with us from Saturday till Monday so we went to a private party Saturday night and to Sunday Reggae at Rub A Dub (thanks for that idea, Alice).

    Reggae Sunday

    Nachos and Alfredo invited us to a party at their apartment the 16th so now we just need to find cheap tickets to Madrid