Tag Archives: Iceland


Confidence tricks: can crowdsourcing keep our feet on the ground?

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Ville Miettinen

… most attempts at using crowdsourcing to design better alternatives have met with limited success ( Iceland’s constitution being one of a few exceptions).

Despite such setbacks, as we learn to use crowdsourcing more effectively, I am certain that it will solve all the world’s problems caused by overconfidence. Absolutely, 100% certain.

Tags: Brad Guigar Charles Darwin crowd crowdsourcing Deepwater Horizon Dunning–Kruger effect Iceland Lynn Johnston microtask microwork

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Life, liberty and the pursuit of crowdsourcing: Iceland’s constitutional saga

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Ville Miettinen

If there was a top ten of crowdsourcing nations, Iceland would be the new number one. Back in June the small Northern state hit the (tech) headlines when politicians announced plans to crowdsource a new constitution. At first, I confess I was skeptical. In my experience government crowdsourcing projects are like Mars probes: there’s a massive launch, then six months later they mysteriously vanish without trace. But not this time. On July …

Tags: crowd crowdsourcing Facebook Iceland Icelanders Jedi microwork Open government Reykjavík youtube

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The Travelling Salesman is back – Part 2

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Tommaso De Benetti

… more anecdotes and even some Danish blondes, we present the final, thrilling installment…

Iceland and Denmark: Optimistic and familiar

Iceland, with its famous scenery and videogames industry was an eagerly anticipated destination for Kristoffer. Discussing this little volcanic island Kris says: “I was surprised by how positive everybody was despite the financial situation. Nobody seemed bothered by that…They were all setting up new startups, also the videogame industry was …

Tags: Denmark Finland Iceland nordic countries Norway salesman Sweden tech startups travelling trip

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The Travelling Salesman is back – Part 1

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Tommaso De Benetti

In October 2010, we left Kristoffer Lawson with his plan to visit Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark in search of promising tech startups. After many vicissitudes, the trip is now over and he’s back. With a presentation held the 16th of December in the premises of Aalto Venture Garage, he went on retelling his legendary journey of networking and (self) discovery.

Good trip, but luck

“When I started thinking about this journey,” began …

Tags: Denmark Finland funding Iceland incubator kristoffer lawson Landrover Norway setok startup Stavanger Sweden tech traveling salesman travelling salesman Umeå

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Welcome to the Open Ministry

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Jack Reynolds

… data-processing and translation, the crowd is now getting to work on the business of government. Iceland is preparing to implement a crowdsourced constitution, and this March the Finnish Parliament passed the Citizens’ Initiative Act. The Act allows any citizen to present a law to Parliament, providing they can get the support of 50,000 citizens.

Spotting the opportunity for a groundbreaking piece of online activism, Finnish entrepreneur Joonas Pekkanen assembled a team of volunteers, …

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