About

Hi! Thank you for dropping by. I’m Vidar @blacktar Andersen and I don’t talk about myself in the third person. I’m the founder of blacktar.com Social Media Lunch Cologne and co-founder of the Plone CMS, together with Alan Runyan and Alexander Limi – and I hope to found me some more before that final curtain call. You may also know me from them there internets as ‘blacktar’; my nickname. This is my personal Blog soapbox.

I have no agenda other than that of participating in the global conversation. Actually, this is perhaps more about you than it is about me. I’m sincerely interested in getting to know what’s on your mind – so don’t hesitate to engage me in a conversation. I’m convinced you have some great stories to tell and I’m eager to hear them. Seriously.

I’m a Norwegian living in Cologne (Köln), Germany since 2005 and yes, I’m currently single desperate taken.

I’ve been working with internet based services and solutions, specializing in usability and content management – making processes and people play nicely together with the help of web based applications – since 1997. I somehow survived the roller coaster bubble ride unscathed, but without ever receiving a dotcom cent – nor even some shady options. Yes, I’m not bitter.

Details about my professional life can be had at LinkedIn and XING if that’s more like the sort of thing you were looking for.

I’m into entrepreneurship, people, cinema, photography, design, music, Open Source, innovation, usability, Squash, inline skating, swimming and you. Yes, YOU.

In further trivia, I’m also a shareholder in the Aston Villa Supporter’s Foundation and a member of the ACLU, although more of a libertarian than a liberal.

I can also be found floating around the social web thingamajig often referred to as web2.0 – whatever that word may mean to you. You’ll find me larking about at more than the following places mentioned below. Just search for ‘blacktar‘ or ‘Vidar Andersen‘ on other sites not mentioned and feel free to get in touch or invite me to new ones – I’m accessible.

Mail – blacktar@stopmebeforeiblogagain.com

Voice (international) – +1 (650) 450-8047

Voice (Germany) +49 (0) 221 3023 953

iPhone Ping! – thatblacktar

twitter- @blacktar http://www.twitter.com/blacktar/

facebook – http://www.facebook.com/blacktar

flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/blacktar/

vimeo – http://vimeo.com/blacktar

youtube – http://www.youtube.com/user/therealblacktar

friendfeed – http://friendfeed.com/blacktar

foursquare – http://foursquare.com/user/blacktar

brightkite – http://brightkite.com/people/blacktar/

USTREAM – http://ustre.am/aQ8

plancast – http://plancast.com/blacktar

tripit – http://www.tripit.com/people/blacktar

dopplr – http://www.dopplr.com/traveller/blacktar/public

skype – ‘blacktar’

ms im – ‘blacktar’

gtalk – ‘blacktar’

and so on…

Caveat Emptor:

I would like to state – for the record – that the opinions published on this blog do not necessarily reflect those of my employer(s), my own company blacktar.com nor occasionally even those of my own.

Currently I’m not receiving any money from maintaining this blog. I reserve the right to add measures to monetize (no evil lame stuff ever – I swear) on this blog, should the need arise to switch to another more expensive hosting plan and/or change servers.

I hope it’s self evident and that it makes sense to you that I cannot take any responsibility for the external contents that I may link to.

The contents of this blog is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

Other copyrights and licensing may apply to embedded / externally hosted content.

This blog is being hosted in the US of A.