Ugh! Returning by Metro from a very nice running even in the forest I got chewing gum on my new, sexy (gold!) Hummel sweatpants. So I had to spend my lunch break going to the local store for benzene to clean the mess. Damn! Out of stock. What a waste of time.

But then I ran into LEGOs CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp who was giving interview to national television, as The Danish Association of Managers and Executives today appointed him as ”CEO of the year”. I have been a LEGO fan boy since I was three years old - and therefore could not stop myself from commenting on something he said about how LEGO stimulates creativity and encourage children to innovate on their own.

He gave positive feedback - and we talked a little about the development in LEGO, about my three-year-old daughter who is ready for something more advanced than DUBLO - and the attraction which a guy like me (a 31 years old and “suppose-to-be- grown-up”) feels about the new LEGO Mindstorms..It is a very promising kit, which allows you to build computer-controlled robots which can move, “see” and “feel” etc – and it is kick ass advanced compared to the robots I constructed back in my childhood in the 1980s from old “Nilfisk” vacuum cleaners, LEGO bricks and electronic components I got from old TV sets. I hope it wasn’t too embarrassing for him! ;-)

Anyway, Mr. Knudstorp proved himself as a resolute CEO able to improvise, so he promised to send me the new LEGO Mindstorms NXT for review here on Machine Culture - and I am looking very much forward to receiving it.

Meanwhile, read Wired Magazines article about the innovation process behind LEGO Mindstorms. It is a somehow old article, but a fascinating store about the marketing power of fan boys, the potentials of user involvement in innovation processes and how LEGOs “rewrote the rules of the innovation game” by an Open Source, Community inspired approach.