27 days until PICNIC 08

Adam Greenfield is an internationally-recognized writer, user experience consultant and critical futurist, who writes and thinks about information architectures and cities. He was happily living in New York with his wife, artist Nurri Kim, working on his new book about cities and information systems, until an unexpected invitation from Finland arrived. We caught up with Adam in mid-summer Helsinki, where the evening skies are mesmerising and all the shops are closed.

So, moving from New York to Helsinki!! That's a big step..

"Oddly enough, I've taken a job with Nokia - I am their new Head of Design Direction. Anyone who knows me, of course, knows that I've been having a ball these last few years writing and teaching and giving talks. I had virtually no intention of "getting a job" to begin with, and none whatsoever with an organization as large as Nokia.

Nevertheless, when an opportunity of this nature comes along, I think you'd have to be crazy not to at least check it out - it's something on the order of Kurt Vonnegut's proverbial dancing lessons from God."

How is Helsinki in August? What aspect of daily life so far has surprised you most?

"It's a fairly placid town to begin with, but Helsinki at the beginning of August is something like Paris at its end. Everyone is on vacation somewhere else - most likely up...