OpenLife

Jens Heurlin is a close friend from when I was studying law at Copenhagen University. Now he heads the legal department of Post Danmark - the Danish postal service. Often we go for lunch together. This photo is from our lunch 23 June 2003 at a new sushi restaurant.

I was quoted in Berlingske Tidende for the following statements (in Danish) during the Open Source hearing last week:

Advokat Martin von Haller Grønbæk, der af Berlingske Tidendes Nyhedsmagasin er blevet kaldet »det nærmeste, Danmark kommer på en digital frihedskæmper«, understregede vigtigheden af, at »vi skal sikre det reelle valg« ved indkøb af software. Her vil åbne standarder efter hans mening give bedre konkurrence på et næsten monopoliseret marked.

Read the full article at http://www.berlingske.dk/it/artikel:aid=332378/. Author: Thomas Breinstrup.

Advokat Martin von Haller Grønbæk, der hører til fortalerne for brugen af open source-programmer, understregede, at verden ikke er sort/hvid.

»Og så skal der være fuld indsigt i, hvad programmerne foretager sig. Hvis vi en dag skal stemme elektronisk til valg, må det for Guds skyld ske med open source-programmer, så nogen kan kontrollere, hvad der sker bag façaden på programmerne. Open source skal ikke dikteres, men lukkede standarder skal heller ikke dikteres,« sagde advokaten.

Read the full article at http://www.berlingske.dk/it/artikel:aid=333898/. Author: Thomas Breinstrup.

Friday 20 June 2003 was Reboot 6.0 day. For the sixth consecutive time Thomas Madsen-Mygdal invited people to his unique gathering where people from the Internet world get together to discuss technology, society and changes. To have been able to hold this event since 1998 and every year through boom and bust times is per se a momentous achievement by Thomas which exemplifies his spirit and commitment.

And Reboot gets better every year. This year’s Reboot gave us a slate of fantastic speakers with insights to share, a maturing application of the open space concept and the first experience on Danish grounds of live blogging and online interaction. Furthmore, Reboot are becoming an international event.

Keep up the good work, Thomas. Reboot has the potential to become a recurring event in the same league as Esther Dyson’s HighTech Forum is (was?). Maybe, next year you should reinvent your “angry-young-man slamming Microsoft and the Danish establishment” image. Perhaps, the expected change in your personal life will change that automatically

The morning after Reboot 6.0 I spend at Arena with Nikolaj Nyholm, Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, Tim O’Reilly, Cory Doctorow, Kim Østrup talking about open source, open standards and open data with a lot of good people from the Danish government adminstration.

A really nice guy with a legitimate big ego - Marc Canter - was one of the speakers at Reboot 6.0. He took this nice picture.

Every second Wednesday morning I spend at the offices of Devoteam - a close partner of von Haller law firm - to assist on urgent matters and just to do sparring and informal information exchanges to further our collaboration. Around this morning - Wednesday 18 June 2003 - was Ulrik Stilhøj, a consultant at Devoteam.

The roof on of the buildings that make up our house in Copenhagen is very old and damaged. So we finally have obtained permission (and financial support) from the Danish Cultural Heritage Agency to have it renovated. And today - Wednesday 18 June 2003 at 7 am (!)- the work started. Hopefully, the new roof will be finished before mid-August. What a mess and what noise until then!

This morning I gave a short speech in support of open standards and open source at a public hearing on open source.