Erik Sundelöf

I am now over the same ocean, but in another direction transiting home to Sweden to meet my family after ten amazing days. Ten days that has taught me so much. Ten days with incredible experiences and companionship. Ten days of peace, happiness, and excitement. It has truly been an incredible and wonderful time. All thanks to the dearest person to me.

The trip has very much proven to me where I want to be and why. These ten days have amazed me in so many ways. So many impressions. They have shown me what really matters and ultimately guided me into the path I probably already knew in my heart is right, but in some ways was afraid to pursue. How that path can become reality is another problem however, but time will tell how that will happen.

I am sad to leave. I wish I could stay. I have many reasons why, but I will not go into details. Yet primarily it is one reason. I do believe the place and company are right. It is right on all levels.

I have mixed feelings flying here over the ocean. Part of me just wanted to stay, and part of me look forward to see my family. It has been a long time since I last saw them.

One thing is for sure. It felt and feels empty leaving… It felt like home to the soul.

(I wrote this blog 10 days ago and didn’t get a chance to post it. However I still do think it fulfills a value.)

I am right now at 38,000 feet over the ocean. Flying over an ocean I have never ever been over. My destination is a place at which I have never been. Never been… Never been in so many ways. My destination is not only a completely new country and environment for me, but it is also a completely new experience on so many levels.

My feelings are very much a combination of delight, excitement, anticipation and curiosity. All weaved together into sincere and profound happiness.

The decision was made a few weeks back, when I woke up with a very clear mind that this is what I should do. A few friends have asked my why I chose this path, yet they know me. This is the trip for me at this time with this iternary.

Parts of my trip will have some direct meaning for what I do daily but predominantly the trip will guide me in ways I cannot foresee other than I know this is the experience I need to have now. Not because of a lack, but as a foundation for growth.

Experiences are funny. They should be had, but never “constructed”, yet so many people try to construct or dictate their reality. Certain things cannot be changed and certainly not when they give us peace, happiness and joy. You always have to be honest to your soul even though it could complicate your life. In all honesty I too try to construct my reality, but it seems as the more I try to construct the experience after what I would like it to be the less it becomes that way. Part of me do feel the quest between mind and heart, but I do know my happiness resides in my heart and not mind.

I do believe that maybe this trip will teach me to listen in ways I haven’t been able or have before. What I will ultimately listen to, I don’t know. What I do know is that just knowing it will teach me to listen in new ways gives me a tickling feeling in my stomach.

A tickling, exciting feeling. I love it.

A reflection after the RemakeCamp yesterday at which I spoke. For me the key is to refocus the media arena to understand that it is about the community, the society which the media should serve. Any media – in particular news media – is there to serve and give voice to the community in various aspects – jobs, classified, entertainment, information, education, but probably the most important part as the 4th governing power controlling the other governing powers. The power which should give voice to the ones in need – whether this voice is channeled through a journalist or by themselves is not necessarily important. What is import is the room for their expression of it. The challenge moving forward is to make sure these voices are diverse, free and expressionate. The channels at which these are heard should be diverse, yet they should be kept sane, on-point, human and compassionate.

Ultimately, media should refocus into a dialogue fostering aspect and leave the broadcasting approach behind.

The key is to once and for all move away from seeing the problems and see solutions. The challenges are issue will always be there, and there will be new ones. What we always need to focus on solutions and how to move forward. The steps might not be long. They might be small. But they will be a step towards a change. A step back to the roots of journalism – the humble and dedicated servant of the community and its needs. The servant can either be a journalist or a citizen, and we need the tools for it.

Yesterday at ReMakeCamp it was a discussion about trust. Instead of focusing on how we can provide guidance for the consumers whether it is to trust the journalists, provide channels for them, provide funding or “simply” giving the tools to see if other citizens tell the truth or are juste for what they are covering it ended up being a discussion focused on all the problems we have. That is a very unfruitful discussion that leads nowhere. I think the key for me is that I have the ability to find solutions by listening to the needs and try my best to eliminate myself as much as possible from the projects over time. Only then will we start to walk a path towards change.

Now imagine we start to constantly stepping towards bringing such tools that allows anyone to provide their voice and open up for a dialogue. I think the key for myself and the work that I have done is to show that that the obstacles are not there if we don’t want them to be. It is easier to hind behind an obstacle and hide from it instead of moving around it and get going. It is the perfect excuse not to do anything. We should move around obstacles and as technologists we should constantly strive for not being a needed constant in it.

I read Steve Jobs Thoughts on Flash and why Flash is locked out of the Apple products. It is an interesting piece yet I do not understand it. It seems to me he is missing one of the biggest reasons for why to allow it.

The consumers.

They should choose if they want a “bad” performance or not. Not Apple. Not any company.

Anyhow.

In this whole discussion technology has been brought up. Yet the whole time seems as the discussion has been between technologists about technology. It is not about technology ultimately. It is about what the consumers want and give them as much as possible.

I heard all the arguments that oh yeah they can get a lot of content. True. Can they get all? No. Allowing only some channels is moderated content distribution. That is bad. Really bad.

And.

It is the core problem. It is completely overlooked.

Just think about it. Apple – a software and hardware company – indirectly chooses what content is allowed on their platform and not. Does that make any sense? Nope. I don’t get how you claim that approach is open in any way. It is not. It is not cool and very closed.

I also don’t like it because it invites more companies – which not content driven with the expertise – to start making decisions constraining the content availability. This make even less sense on devices that should move towards more freedom of content. It is not a very healthy development.

It seems as Apple is successively moving more and more towards locking down their “platform”. If they want to or not is their business, yet I personally do think it is a mistake. However don’t start pointing fingers on others claiming they are closed and you are not. They might be closed or open.

The bottom line is that Apple does not stand for a completely open platform.

Putting any constraints on your platform will diminish your market and that makes no sense from a business perspective either if you do not think it will cost you more than you gain by having it.

On a bigger picture note, the web was created to bring freedom to information, yet we continue to see moves these days by technology giants bringing constraints and boundaries. Maybe we are too driven by our short-term financial spreadsheets and short term goals. I do not know. These items have to be there. These items are needed. These items alone should however not dictate where we go though.

I do know we have a bigger responsibility here. I understand the different sides here, yet I do not think we as a global society would gain from this. Some will. The ones who need more freedom will not. We with freedom should not put obstacles in their path for freedom.

Oh and then we have Facebook and their Open Graph… Scary. Pew. That’s for another day.

At least the sun shines outside. :-)