Jambo! Introducing Lena Holmberg

Thank you Leif, for starting up the Metafari blog!

I, Lena Holmberg, am a consultant and co-foounder of Apprino. I’m very grateful to Leif for re-introducing me to metaphors and collaborative software.

When I was a PhD student, I worked a lot with mental models and metaphors, since I had a background in computational linguistics and human-computer interaction. I also worked a lot with analogies, developing intelligence tests (human:head tree:…..?). This made me realise how fundamental metaphoric thinking is to human learning.

The first time I met Leif somewhere around 1997, we were both working with developing collaborative software. We had many discussions concerning how to make it easier for people to understand this kind of software, what it could be used for. Another favourite topic was how to use software for helping people to learn. Great fun, but somehow we lost contact when our organisations developed in different directions.

In May 2006 I went to Amsterdam with my colleagues and co-founders of Apprino, Helena Kovács and Maria Mandahl. We had been invited to a network meeting for Europeans interested in Appreciative Inquiry. Although Maria and I had been to an AI conference before, where we met Ruth Nesje, we didn’t know that many AI people. It was such a pleasant surprise to find Leif there and to reconnect.

Since then, we've had many fruitful conversations and Leif has inspired me to take on digital photography more seriously. When Leif told me about his waterhole experience and his thoughts about going on a metaphor safari, I thought it was a splendid idea and wanted to come along. I’ve been to South Africa once, and long to explore the African nature and cultures. To the left is one of my favourite photos from the Blyde River Canyon, where my mother demonstrates how to push boundaries a bit.

Through Leif I met Ingrid, adding new dimensions to metaphors and storytelling. We had a great discussion concerning what metaphors lie behind blogging. When I started blogging, I used Google to find out if there had been any debates concerning blogging metaphors. Of course there had been! The list of examples was long and creative: billboard, cocktail party, smorgasbord, conga, market stand and so on.

The metaphoric world is exciting! Let´s explore it together!