A Million years ago.

I have thought a lot lately what to do with fulltimechris, It hasn't been full time lately and still I only want to post stuff which makes sense. However I did feel that I needed to share some things with you ever since I went sabbatical in January.

So how did my last 6 months go?

As you might know, I have been studying in Madrid at the Universidad Europea de Madrid. An university on which I did a lot of experience in the filming and advertising industry. I have mastered loads of effects in Final Cut Pro and learned a lot about managing a film production.

I have embedded my two best video's below this post.

Next to the studying I also gained a lot work experience at Orange Aria. I work for this company for over 1,5 years now and I still could do video production, social media intergration and blog building while I was in another country. This has been a great opportunity, and a good basic income to manage my social life in Madrid.

I have seen a lot of things in Madrid. Just like the last time I have been there (July, August '08) they just use social media in a different way than people use it in The Netherlands. Some sites like the Dutch Hyves and the Spanish Tuenti can be seen as a similar website. However the " little" differences in the websites make a big difference in the use of the 2.0 app.

Tuenti for example doesn't make it possible to "spy" on profiles with which you haven't connected. Hyves however is the biggest James Bond application in The Netherlands. A lot of people don't know how to switch on the " private profile" modus and hyves has become a symbol of your image. What photo's do I upload? Which " scraps" do I leave on my profile page. Do I say that I'm in a relationship? etc. etc.

The filter which other social networks have can be seen as a safe thing. Especially if you think that somebody with pedofile beards can see your daughters Hyves profile page. But doesn't it make social networking extremely fun as a teenager? At least I find it fantastic to see how my classmates of high school are doing and that I'm able to see with who they are connected etc.

Enough about this social networking, I can go on forever. I have ideas about producing a documentary from January 2010. I will update you guys on this blog about my progress on that. See this post as my return on the blogosphere. Although I have been doing a lot of videoblogging ;) " In Dutch "

Here are the video's I have been talking about.

My selfportrait

Videoclip - Do it Again

Sabbatical blogging

I had my first sabbatical. It has been the 2nd of December since my last blogpost ( what a shame). Last month has been a real crazy rollercoaster ride. I have been busy working with www.marketingfacts.nl where I have been active as a projectmanager, managing a team of Interactive Media students, like myself. 

Also my work at Orange Aria has been a real exciting experience. I have been involved in producing a new concept called Blogstars. We had a redesign which has been a great improvement on the website. check it out on www.blogstars.nl. 

And of course! I have been preparing my 6 months Madrid safari. Mainly finding a home for the next period. I managed to get a room in a student flat based around 40 meters from Plaza Mayor. =D.

So what will I be doing now? 

Some people may know that yesterday I arrived in the wonderful city of Madrid. I am in Spain to study as an Erasmus student. In a few hours I'll be getting a tour on the campuss which is located in Villaviciosa de Odon. Really exciting! 

Next to all the studying, I will continue my work for Orange Aria. I'll be mainly focussing on www.blogstars.nl , on which I also will have an account. There I will gather blogposts, video's and podcasts in a blogstar environment.

I hope to have this ready in the coming weekend. I'll update you guys about that once I have dealed with it. 

My next challenge is to get a montly ticket for the public transport, my spanish is not that good, but I think I'll be able to manage to do this. 

Hasta luego! 

The cause of the plane crash in Madrid.

One day before my flight a plane crashed at Barajas Airport in Madrid. Around 150 people died and this was so close. A lot of helicopters and ambulances could be heard in the city. 

The left engine failed during take off and made the airplane crash on the airport. It must have been terrible for the passengers because it was the second try to take off. The plane had a lot of fuel inside, which causes a really big fire. 

A member of the Sin Futuro team 'Boris' didn't think this was just an accident. In a conversation with him he told me that 3 months before the crash Barajas airport had fired 25 % of the employees. "including 68 mechanics". They did this because they couldn't pay them anymore. 

What happened was that there was a shortage of mechanics on the airport which meant the Pilots had to dubbelcheck their planes themselves. These people were not trained for this but had to do it because they had the best knowledge about the plane. 

I was glad the next day the atmosphere on the airport was really relaxed so I could have a relaxing flight..

What I also found Interesting is how Twitter was used to inform other people about the crash. Within 10 minutes I got 58 tweets which informed me about what happened, how many deaths, flight details etc. Also people used twitpic to show the world of twitter what it looked like from the Highway.

I think Twitter is becoming a very up to date social newsroom...

Good times at TwittMad

Same time, same place, same day. Yesterday I have attended the TwittMad in Madrid. 

What exactly is Twittmad?  

TwittMad is the first meeting organised by Twitters for Twitters. Marilin Gonzalo ( one of the founders of TwittMad)  used twitter for quite some time. She has been following people, but she wanted more. She and here Argentinean fellow Twitters decided to meet up one time. And they organised this through twitter. 

They had a dinner somewhere and had a great time. They decided to do it more often. Maybe once a month? Because they met up using twitter, people who followed them noticed that they were meeting up, and they also wanted to know who the real people behind these Nicknames are. 

TwittMad was born.

Yesterday the 11th meeting of TwittMad was being held in the Irish Pub at Calle de Brasil in the heart of Madrid. They have loads of space there to manage up to 100 people. The strength of Twittmad is that they don't want to make money out of it. It is just for meeting up with twitterfriends!

At the moment people are also organizing Twittmad in Barcelona, Lisbon and there was even one in Tokio. The idea of the meeting is to Network, have fun, talk about blogs/twitter/mobile phones/your addiction to chocolate/plurk/Apple/music/Laptops/your favorite colour and the rest. 

So why is this meeting different?

There wasn't really a goal or a presentation or anything that HAS to be done around here. And for once it has really been relieving that you don't have to sell your blog..

I think the idea of meeting people there, getting introduced by others and drinking some nice beers was a great way of discovering who these guys you follow look like.

I finally met some people which I knew for a long time. And it was a really nice experience to meet these people in person. Personally I would really love an event just like this in Holland,

Of course you have meet ups. Such like twitterborrel. But I'm not sure it will be the same. 

I would love to see a meeting just like Beers & Blogs, and Twittmad organised in The Netherlands.

Anybody feeling like organizing it with me?!

check my flickr for all the photo's I made.

Or other the other photo stream of Marilin

My interview at Agora News

Yesterday I found that the interview I did was placed on the web. Pretty weird to see yourself back like that.

Woke up, checked my stuff y voy en Madrid!

Woke up, checked my stuff y vamos!

Arrived in Madrid this afternoon after a good flight with KLM. And now I'm enjoying this fantastic temperature.

First thing I did is installed all my electronics so I could be in touch with you guys. After that, I went for a stroll in the city.

Grotere kaart weergeven

I already made some pictures and bung them up on the my flickr account.

Tomorrow will be my first day where I will be meeting Jaime from Agora News. He said he had some work for me, so I'm having dinner with him. Also I'll be interviewing my first victims which I will ask all about Madrid!

Do you guys have a suggestion about who you would like to see interviewed? Please contact me and I'll see what I can do.

Noticed by chris:

Did you know:

"that in Madrid everybody smokes? I'm surprised to see how many people smoke over here."

"Madrid is a green city! Not only are there fabulous parks, but I saw some commercials which encourage people to save water and energy."

"Madrid has a very interactive show on TVE called Canta! , they use the ps3 singstar to find there Idol. The score of the ps3, the judge and the audiance decide who will be the next Idol. Funny to see that Spanish television is using Gaming to make a very modern Tv Show. "

As told to chris

If you follow me on twitter you might have read it. I'm planning a trip to the sunny and hot Madrid. I'll be leaving Wednesday the 16th and I'll be coming back the 21st of August. What will I be doing there?

Madrid, a big and hot city which doesn't stands still. I will be working on a big article over there. An article about new media in Europe. At the moment people in Europe think the new media revolution is happening in Northern Europe. I am not so sure about that, as I see a lot of online video channels and other great initiatives coming from the South. I will be interviewing people from these upcoming companies and will investigate what's going on there.

How will I brief you guys about this?!

Just today I made a podcast channel called "As told to Chris". This will be a weekly show in what's happening over there in the world of New Media. Are they ahead of us? What sort of gadgets are the most normal thing in the world over there? How does a Southern-Europe Culture use New Media? Next to that I'll be adding interviews with interesting people. I'm trying to reach Martin Varsvasky, Gabe Mac, Anil de Mello and some other guys which I think will have a interesting opinion about this subject.

Besides that, I'll be producing little video's which I'll post on fulltime chris, these will contain little documentary's about the city, the interviews and other reports about New media in Madrid. Also I will be making photo's which I will upload to Flickr, the idea behind this is that the pictures should talk for themselves. So I won't be saying more about that. You can check these pictures on As told to Chris or on my flickr account.


Going to Madrid alone is pretty exciting for me. I hope you guys will follow the show. And have input on my output.

It would be very cool to have a lot of interaction with you guys.