I am publishing this monthly review a little late. Vacation first. I just returned from Slovenia and Croatia and feel fully recharged to start with new ideas and projects again. Before, just a quick review of May and it was a very busy month.

My trip to Berlin and re:publica18 already seems so long ago, I can hardly believe that it is just over a month ago. I wrote a post about my favourite things about it here on this blog and I was planning on rewatching all the talks that I missed on the re:publica website, but I am far behind on this already (maybe I have to wait for a rainy weekend).

Just on the next day after I returned from Berlin, I participated in the #MucGov18 barcamp on how the city can be more digital in order to benefit its citizens. I particularly liked the diversity of participants, since it was not (only) the usual “digital boheme” barcamp crowd, but people interested in politics or working in social or governmental institutions. There is a great video summary (in German) that you can watch here:

When I was asked to give a talk at the Digital Day in Bozen, I immediately accepted. I spoke about Digital Maturity, the results of our study and findings from my dissertation and I was aiming at giving some actionable insight and best practice examples that would inspire the participants from mostly smaller companies in the Bozen area.

After Bozen and another client workshop in Dresden, I was ready for a vacation. But since I am always up for an adventure I applied for a scholarship for one of Jan Chipchase’s expeditions to the borderland of Tajikistan and Afghanistan. However, there were a lot of applications and since I am really good at designing concepts for digital solutions that is of little use on an expedition like this, so I did not make the cut. Jan published an article about his latest similar expedition in the Pamir area which makes me really want to go some day.

So the month did not end with an adventure into the unknown, but with a relaxing trip to Bled and Ljubljana in Slovenia and finally to Croatia. Spending your days with a book next to the sea is the best to wind down and calm your thoughts.

Reading recommendation (for your vacation):

• Andrea Wulf: The Invention of Nature on Alexander von Humboldt is one of the most captivating books I have read in a long time.
• Ten years ago, I heard Adam Greenfield speak at the EuroIA conference in Amsterdam and his book “Everyware” was a great inspiration for me at that time. I started reading his latest book Radical Technologies in my vacation and I enjoy his rather critical perspective on the digitisation and monetarisation of our everyday lives.
• For everybody who is into ethnographic user research, Jan Chipchase’s field study handbook is a great source and well worth the investment (it might be too big for the standard travel luggage, though).