This video of Shibuya (Tokyo) at night was made by my friend Jose and posted in his blog UnGatoNipon. Jose lives in Tokyo and blogs in Spanish about all things Japanese. He is my point of reference for what is going on in Japan and a great friend.

The video portrays a typical nocturnal view of Shibuya though it might me meaningful only to whom has lived it… and now that I’m far away it has taken me there for a few minutes. Nothing fancy, just a collection of moments, expressions and usual places I was walking around until recently.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I deed. Ciao!

Tokyo Nights HD from ungatonipon on Vimeo.

I guess I have a particular ability to get entangled in great events and, even though I’m on a sabbatical, I did it again… I guess that’s one of the problems of knowing a lot of cool and interesting people around the world!

After several World Business Forums, Pangea Day and barcamps, this time I’ll be in Sapporo, Japan, collaborating with the iCommons team that is organizing the iSummit ‘08. This is one of the most interesting and stimulating real life meetings on global digital culture. I’ll be in charge of the live blogging and some other interesting stuff.

The programme ranges from keynotes to labs and local events.

These are some of the keynotes:

• The Literacy Project: Encouraging Best-Practice Sharing in the Non-profit Community by Jessica Powell
• Ready to Share: Fashion and the Commons by Johanna Blakley
• Collaborative Creativity: How innovation together has stood the test of time by Rishab Ghosh
• Status of the Commons by Joi Ito
• The Future of Open Search by Jimmy Wales

The labs:

• Open Education Policy and Practice in a New Century: Implementing What Works
• Open Business
• Local Context Global Commons: Open Publishing
• DIY video
• Frontiers of Openness in Japan
• Research Workshop on Free Culture

This is a brief description taken from the official iSummit website:

The fourth global iSummit will be held in Sapporo, Japan from 29 July to 1 August, 2008. iCommons in association with Digital Garage, Creative Commons Japan and the City of Sapporo will bring together pioneers of the free Internet from over 60 countries around the world.

Inspired by Japanese innovation and hosted in a city fast becoming recognised for its modern, creative, technology-orientated approach to business and public initiatives – this year’s iSummit will be a ground-breaking event that showcases pioneering approaches to furthering digital culture around the world.

Join and follow the event on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Youtube
• or visit the official website and blog

If you’re going to Sapporo, please drop a line and let’s meet there.

I just finished watching “Once“, a low budget irish movie that had a huge box-office success last year (the main song, Falling Slowly, got an Oscar).

Even though it’s after 2 am here in Tokyo, I wanted to briefly share my impressions (will try to wright something longer later, though nothing can replace watching it).

Intimate, delightful, happy, sad, vivid, delicate, a story about normal people (actually the actors aren’t so but musicians). Full with lovable small details. How often do you find the right person? (the movie’s tagline).

Trailer:

a great idea, with huge potential for hard-core travellers as myself (in particular now that I’m on a travel sabbatical)… hope to see it arround the world soon and with lots of other features!

Official site (in private beta): Offbeat Guides
I found this through Joi Ito’s blog

some of the suggestions (actually want-to-see features) I left on their blog

- While I think that simplicity is one of the key points, for hard travellers it could be useful to add some other optional questions to taylor the guide more to their interests. eg: you like martial arts? go to this school to practice your Aikido. You like photography? check out these exhibitions. Are you vegan? these are the right places….

- Some other cool features could be adding a “blank” area where the user can paste some stuff found online related to the trip and then have it printed (I know, copyright sensitive). But it would be pretty helpful…

- Similar to the above, scan my address book (gmail, facebook, whatever) and list the contacts that live in that city with their phone/address, etc

- Photos: add some CC or something like this photos of keypoints from the places I’ll be visiting (schmap guides makes something like this)

In this strange period of “pre-sabbatical”, I’m doing a lot of interesting things… Last weekend, national holiday in Italy, we made a videoclip with an italian band (Ottavo Richter) that plays the Tibetan anthem. This is part of the “friends of Pangea Day Milano” initiative I’m part of, in which a country plays the anthem of another (eg. UK plays Argentina).

What a more intimate thing than the anthem of a country? Pangea Day wants to unite people, through film but not only.

The video was made with the Pangea Day Milano team (MGM Digital Communication, Maria Grazia, Cristinaand me), Stalker Video (Francesco and Daniele), Macchinazioni Teatrali (Franco and Barbara), Regia (Tommi), AiEP (Claudio), Benedetta and Andrea.

watch the video:

Next time you need to buy something, buy an old thing!

(if you don’t know the “green thing”, you can discover it here: www.dothegreenthing.com)

He feels useless… but he has some interesting stuff to say. He’s fun, fascinating and inspiring at the same time.

Talking about mutants, poetry, genius and… well yes, design.

“nobody is obliged to be a genius, but everyone is obliged to participate”.

“God is a trap. God is the answer when… we don’t know the answer”.

Just 18 minutes you shouldn’t miss. enjoy!

WBF 2007 seen through Animoto.com!