Actics Blog

I was invited to do a 4 hour seminar with brand executives from P&G at the company´s own ‘creative workshop‘ - an ex brewery in the slums of Cincinnatti: very creative class. The topic was the ethical economy, and they loved it. They all agreed with the message and I didn’t have to convince them of anything. People in big corporations sense that the tide is turning and they want to prepare for the next phase.

And, yes, there were also the primaries…

Hurrah- Actics is exploding in China! According to Google Analytics, we’re attracting tens of thousands of visitors a month from all corners of the People’s Republic and are rapidly moving towards six-digit figures. Great news, isn’t it?

Well, not exactly. As our in-house Sherlock Holmes Henrik realized, something didn’t make sense. How could it be that Actics had so much Chinese traffic but not a single Chinese user? When you have tens of thousands of visitors you would expect at least one of them to sign up, wouldn’t you? It seemed like an insoluble mystery, but Henrik put on his deerstalker, had a quick last puff of opium, and then went out and discovered the answer: 

Actics has been copied! A Chinese site by the name of exnb has stolen our design- and as a result their traffic is now popping up in our Google Analytics reports.

Maybe we should be upset about such blatant theft. But then again: we’re not exactly alone. As I discovered in an article in the Economist, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube all have hordes of Chinese copycats. And on a funnier note, even Harry Potter hasn’t been spared. If you want to find out more about such contemporary classics as:

• ‘Harry Potter and the Waterproof Pearl’
• ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Relative Prince’
• And the best one of all: ‘Harry Potter and the Chinese Overseas Students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’

then check out this hilarious piece in the NY Times.

What do you do when you’re sitting around in Dubai and have a couple of minutes to spare? Exactly- you log in to Actics!

That’s what our intrepid reporter Neils Peter from experience design lab did. Or rather: he tried to, but then he got hit by the following message:

That’s right: Actics has been banned in the United Arab Emirates!

But why? What is it about us that is “inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates”? Eager to find some answers, I checked out the OpenNet Initiative, which is a great site on internet filtering and surveillance, and had a look at their country profile of the UAE.

As it turns out, the UAE are extremely active on the internet filtering front. To give a few examples: they block all sites in the top-level domain “.il” (no prizes for guessing what country that belongs to). They pervasively filter pornography, gambling, and sites promoting alcohol and drug use. And they also selectively filter sites that “express alternative political or religious views”. So is that what they found so objectionable about Actics: the fact that we “facilitate ideas” that are potentially “in breach of the general order”?

Whatever the case, the whole affair certainly adds a nice dose of glamour to Actics. YouTube is blocked in Iran and the BBC in Myanmar- and now we have made it into the big league, too! I’m tempted to say that it calls for a drink- but since that might get us banned by another 7 countries I should probably keep quiet.

Fresh from the press. One of our Actics members - Morten Østergaard the vice-chairman of the Danish Social Liberal Party - was interviewed by a Danish newspaper on his use of Actics for political purposes. A well known Danish academic offered a critique of such ‘spin’ use a couple of days later here. Judge for yourself whether the critique is fair and relevant.

The foundation for P2P Alternatives, the world’s perhaps most prominent (thanks to the admirable efforts of Michel Bauwens) resource of information and debates on P2P systems, the information economy, new media developments and new possibilties for technology enhanced social activism now has an actics widget on their blog (a must read for anyone with these interests)

Check them out at blog.p2pfoundation.net

There’s a couple of interesting things in a recent Harvard Business Review interview with one of the most influential psychologists alive, Howard Gardner. In his coming book Five Minds for the Future, Gardner extends his famous list of seven intelligences with five cognitive minds, one of them being the ethical mind. The interview unveils a number of points on business ethics funnily resonant with what we believe and do in Actics.

1. The ethical mind is about fundamentally deciding which kind of person or organization you wish to be. It’s a reflected and pro-active way of engaging with your surroundings that pays of with consistency and resilience.
2. Different to ‘the respectful mind’, the ethical mind acts proactively instead of merely respecting authorities and rules. A clear pendant to pro-activity instead of compliance in CSR.
3. Gardner calls for period evaluation by people both inside and outside the organization. Give us feedback!

But Gardner’s story of a former Harvard president lying to get a weekly day off for reflecting as an example of ethical virtue is quite a bit off.

We had a blast last night. We coded frenetically until last minute, gave a proud presentation, got lots of nice and supportive words from the guests and in talks by partners, customers and friends and partied all night with the team and the hangarounds. We’ll definitely do this again when we get the chance. See for yourselves:

Startup style: twenty minutes to launch at our Starbucks office and still things to improve and solve

Nicolai a bit more untroubled about the event about to start than Simon and Andrea our event manager

OK, we’re ready for your presentation of this ‘Actics’ Mr. Peitersen

Nicolai in the upper room giving his presentation

a short break for our nice guests before…

…more presentations by our friends from Biomega, ClownFish Marketing and…

… Niels from Experience Design Lab

Jens surrounded by beautiful women

… and Adam, our sociologist in residence in dandy position

Henrik in action

A relieved and proud team

Don’t mess with our accountant Michael

When we’d dried out the gallery, we went on to crash a MTV party on Leicester Square starting out bling-style with Champagne (Thanks Thomas, right) looking over the London skyline

The bubbles starting to take effect. Here’s it’s Niels and Søren our chairman almost as tipsy as the photographer…

Some of us survived until this morning - I don’t know about any casualties yet.

What a night!

Come and celebrate the upgrade of Actics.com

It’s tomorrow we proudly unveil new ways for people and companies to live their values by engaging with people around them.

The Actics party takes place March 8th at
The Coningsby Gallery
30 Tottenham Street, London W1T 4RJ
6 – ?

We look forward to seeing you!

Download invitation here

Launch party invitation

Come and celebrate the upgrade of Actics.com from humble widget platform to fully fledged social community.

Finally, in March, we proudly unveil new ways for people and companies to live their values by engaging with people around them.

We’ll demo the new Actics.com and you can even test drive it yourself. We also hope you’d like to discuss the ethical potential of the web with likeminded industry luminaries.

Vibrant tunes accompany nutritious drinks and snacks.

The Actics party takes place March 8th at
The Coningsby Gallery
30 Tottenham Street, London W1T 4RJ
6 – 8pm for the serious part of the evening
8 pm till late for the fun

We look forward to seeing you! (Please comment on your participation)

Download invitation here.

There’s a war going on out there. A war between darkness and light, between right and wrong, between what really matters and what doesn’t. Left is shattered individuals and companies, straying in dismay, lost in the wilderness of the modern world with it’s manifold temptations of shortsighted and misguided material objectives. Morally numbed without a natural contact to their feelings of attachment and blinded without a sense of direction they are beyond salvation - unless saved by brave and sincere soldiers fighting their way through the dark waters to save the marooned. Stand up and join the chosen bound for a daring mission to bring home the lost souls. Are you prepared? Ask yourself, can you answer YES SIR! to our code:

I’m not afraid; I will not bend or be let astray. Harnessed with a profound respect for the demonic lures of the capitalist jungle. Together we will silence the songs of the sirens and steer the herd clear of the cliffs of amorality guided by the lighthouse of reflection. Ethical stewardship WILL prevai. The future is ours – the future is ACTICS.

Then ENROLL IN ACTICS – TODAY!

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What I’m trying to say here is that we are looking for skilled developers and designers to help us realize the Actics concept in applications like the web has never seen before. If you’re good, passionate, focused, and fit for the euphoric freedom and tough responsibility in a start up - get in touch. The salary’s right, our coffee always freshly brewed, the team is skilled, mostly nice and always challenging. You will work from either London or Copenhagen. Need I say more?

Get in contact - get enrolled.