AuthorIvanka

Thank you

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This weekend @petegale, Jules and I completed Oxfam Trailwalker in 24 hours 39 minutes. We could not have done it without our amazing support crew: Tom, @clarissima, @harveymarketing and Nick. Thank you for patching us up and keeping us going. Thanks also to Ben who turned up with sweet hot coffee at just the right moment. Thank you to the Gurkhas for the smiles, the cheers and the clapping. All...

Design and the art of walking up hills

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I quite enjoy the challenge of taking on long distances; mostly walking, sometimes bicycle. There is something enormously satisfying about getting to the end. In order to be fit enough to undertake these efforts I exercise quite regularly. I cycle wherever and whenever I can and I go for short runs when I don’t have time for long walks. It is inevitable (especially living, as I do, in...

Art in the open

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Are you a musician? Do you make beautiful illustrative wallpapers? Do you take amazing photographs? Do you make clever and inspiring videos or animations? You may be interested in the Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase. Do you make open-source tools for creating any of the above? I hope you will be interested in the Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase. Do you create works of art on free and open-source...

Invite the future into the room

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One morning on my train journey to work I read this article by Alex Steffen (thanks @argonaut for the link) I began drafting this post the week before the UK General Election. We are now embracing our new Tory Light government. UK current political hot topic is cuts. Turns out that we aren’t that powerful when it comes to volcanic ash and oil leaks. From Alex’s post: The future that...

Reasons to celebrate 29th April 2010

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One of the first things I did when I joined Canonical just over a year ago was conduct some user research. The idea was to identify some broad areas that needed to be addressed and so I devised sessions that included topics like dealing with music and photos, browsing the Internet, chatting with friends, etc. This initial set of participants had never used Ubuntu nor were they familiar with open...

What makes a good design critic?

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While at CHI earlier this week, I went along to a session with the same title as this blog post. I was looking for some inspiration, something to take to a UDS (Ubuntu Developer Summit) session perhaps, something to turn into a blog post, food for thought. The session at CHI included a food critic, a restaurant designer, a food stylist, a chef and a user experience director; correction: the chef...

Trailwalker

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Every year Oxfam runs a Trailwalker event in the South Downs. 4 people, 1 goal, 100km (60 miles for those of you who are old school), 30 hours. I am delighted to be able to participate this year. (I am also very nervous about doing it and slightly apprehensive about discussing it with my mother who is still cross with me for fainting after the 60km Just Walk event last year. Shhhh…)...

Reasons to celebrate 15th April 2010

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Karmic saw the first community wallpaper competition and delivered us a beautiful set of photographs for our desktops. Last cycle’s winners were this cycles judges and everyone has delivered. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the results of the wallpaper competition! Congratulations to the winners and huge thanks to the judges. I know, from my experience as a judge last time, that the task is...

Last night a Brompton saved my life*

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To give context to this story you need to know two things about me: 1) I am a commuter. I live in Brighton and work in London which means that I have a one hour train journey at the start and end of each working day. 2) I like cycling. I have used a bicycle as my main mode of transport (where reasonable) since I was about 17. I love the freedom of getting around on a bicycle, especially in a city...

About Author

Ivanka

Ivanka Majic works in technology. She was Head of Design for Ubuntu, service managed Digital Marketplace through to beta, was acting director of digital for the Labour Party. She lives and works in Brighton where she works with the council’s digital first team, does a bit of teaching at Sussex University, and works with her husband on projects like restaurantsbrighton.co.uk and the BRAVOs. She has also started a podcast with her friend Michael which you can listen to at grandpodcast.com.

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