Meet our People

I am a project manager in the R&I (Research and Innovation) division of Telenor, Norway. To be more specific, I’m involved in a research project called iLabs – innovation Labs. It is a very interesting project, not mainstream Telenor research at all. Today, users collaborate, share and produce content together. The same trends are emerging among users and developers of software.

We get our inspiration from the Internet. Open source coding means applications can be ‘tweaked’ according to specific and specialized needs. The iLabs project investigates how free software and open source programming can spur the innovation of new and cutting edge (mobile platform) services. We believe wholeheartedly in the principle that ‘Innovation happens elsewhere,’ meaning that new ideas and new services are generated where people are, not in remote laboratories. That is why we have made a toolkit, based on open source, which is designed to help service innovators create mobile applications very easily. The aim is to build a growing network of participants who use and contribute to the toolkit.

In addition to the task of managing the project, it is my job to interpret our findings and translate these into strategic advice for Telenor. Our experiences will guide Telenor in how to use this kind of open innovation in our own business development. We are not quite there yet, but we are getting there.

I started working for Telenor in 1999 because I heard that the R&I division was an exciting place to work. The idea of being involved in interdisciplinary research appealed to me. I might add that even at this early stage in the history of mobile phone services Telenor already engaged users in developing new services.

Well, for the past 10 years, I have mainly been in and out of various managerial and project management positions.

My colleagues. No doubt about it. I learn a lot from them and we have some very good discussions.

My project occupies a zone where everyone has assigned desks. I’m comfortable with this ‘open’ arrangement; it is easy to ask questions and get answers quickly and to discuss issues. Most of the time it is calm and quiet, which means we can concentrate on our work.

Innovative. Yes, I think that must be it. Telenor allows people and projects like iLabs to go ahead and explore new trends at an early stage. The goal is to learn and to put the knowledge gained to good use.

What we are doing right now in iLabs is very exciting. Start-up companies and service providers from Norway, the US and Asia are using and contributing to our toolkit. For instance, eZ Publish, a Norwegian open source content management company, is considering using our mobile blogging client for their blog services. Another example is a Bangladeshi company called ‘Somewhere in…’ that is developing a social network service and plans to use our toolkit for its mobile applications. To encourage programmers to use open source in general and our toolkit specifically, we award a number of scholarships to academic institutions worldwide. Who knows what the future holds? As a project manager, I naturally enjoy the current activity surrounding the toolkit.

To be involved in more innovation and to see our efforts and commitment to the open source philosophy bear fruit at Telenor.  Do you know what we call it? We call it ‘open clouded’ innovation, as opposed to the ‘closed’ traditional kind of innovation, where the exchange between developers and Telenor is much more cumbersome. We believe the future belongs to the open clouds…

I like spending time with my family and friends. Like many Norwegians, we often go out of the city to enjoy the natural surroundings, whether we are hiking, boating, or skiing. Being outdoors gives me a lot of energy.

During the summer, I would show my visitor the islands in the Oslo fjord. In the winter, I would take my visitor skiing in Nordmarka. At the end of the day, we would enjoy warm apple cake and a cup of hot chocolate – with plenty of whipped cream on top – at the old log cabin of Frognerseteren, situated on a hilltop overlooking Oslo. The view from the café is breathtaking.