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Taken from: http://www.lego.com/press/facts.asp#5
*****
FACTS
*****
LEGO Company
------------
Want to know more about LEGO Company? Go to http://www.lego.com/info/
LEGO Direct
-----------
LEGO Direct was established to nurture the relationship with the core LEGO
constituency and so help build the strongest brand in the world among families
with children by the year 2005. Today this relationship includes more than 6
million visits each month to LEGO.com, one of the most visited children & family
sites in the world. It also includes 6 million visitors annually to LEGOLAND
Parks in the U.S, U.K and Denmark and approximately 3 million members of the
LEGO Club and 1,9 million readers of the LEGO World Club Magazine.
The LEGO Shop at Home, the largest LEGO store in the world, offers consumers
from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States the largest LEGO
assortment anywhere. This includes approximately 450 different LEGO sets, 67
different types of bulk bricks and products not available at retail e.g. bulk
bricks, LEGO Mosaic, LEGO Mini-figure and the Statue of Liberty. In 2001 the
LEGO
Shop at Home will be made available to consumers from Southern Europe and Asia/
Pacific.
LUGNET TM
------
Suzanne Rich and Todd Lehman met online during the summer of 1996 while pursuing
a shared interest in LEGO design and web-site creation. Shortly thereafter, they
met in person and, at a local restaurant, drawing on the back of a paper
placemat, they conceived the idea for LUGNET™ - which stands for LEGO® Users
Group Network. Suzanne and Todd launched www.LUGNET.com in 1998 and have since
dedicated themselves to its evolution. A wedding at LEGOLAND California is
anticipated in 2001.
LUGNET unites an entire global community of approximately 10.000 LEGO
enthusiasts from Europe, USA, Asia and Australia through a web-site and network
of user groups. Thousands of people in more than 30 countries currently
participate in continuous LEGO conversation - meeting one another, sharing
ideas, and displaying accomplishments in a friendly setting.
As an independent site by fans, for fans, it is neither owned nor operated by
the LEGO Company. LUGNET is a privately owned and unofficial fan-created
Internet site designed and run for the benefit of those who enjoy building with,
discussing, collecting, buying & selling, trading, and exchanging information
about LEGO products.
LUGNET user groups and networks around the world include, e.g.:
BayLUG - Bay Area LEGO Users Group
DixieLUG - Dixie LEGO Users Group
GMLUG - Greater Midwest LEGO Users Group
ITLUG - Italian LEGO Users Group
LUGOLA - LEGO Users Group of Los Angeles
NCLUG - North Carolina LEGO Users Group
NELUG - New England LEGO Users Group
UKLUG - United Kingdom LEGO Users Group
VLC - Vancouver LEGO Club
WAFOL - Wasatch Area Fans of LEGO
WAMALUG - Washington Metro Area LEGO Users Group
A complete list of regional LUGNET user groups is available at:
http://news.lugnet.com/org/dates
**********
STATEMENTS
**********
Building new relationships with consumers
-----------------------------------------
"We are dedicated to revolutionizing our relationships with our consumers making
them a part of the LEGO Company in a way we have never done before. Cutting edge
technology gives us the opportunity to listen to and directly involve the
creative powers of our consumers to design new and one-of-a-kind products from
the ground up."
- Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, Owner and CEO of the LEGO Company
"By inviting consumers inside our company we are able to express more deeply
what the brand is all about."
- Torben Ballegaard Sørensen, Executive Vice President, The LEGO Company
"We have always believed that LEGO products should be open-ended, and now we're
taking that idea to its logical conclusion online. Rather than closing the
shutters to the world, technology now enables us to involve our consumers in
product development - so that they're not simply consuming a product, but
inventing it."
- Torben Ballegaard Sørensen, Executive Vice President, The LEGO Company
"The potential for LEGO.com is enormous! Without any marketing spending visits
to the redesigned LEGO.com has increased by 300%. To me, that is a testament to
the power of the LEGO community out there."
- Brad Justus, Senior Vice President, The LEGO Company
Future building experiences
---------------------------
"Most use of the web today involves downloading information and sending
messages. To makethe most of the web in the future, we need to add a more
creative experience, letting childrendesign and share their creations with each
other online."
- Mitch Resnick, Associate Professor at the MIT Media Lab and LEGO Professor
"In 2002 LEGO builders will be able to build any three dimensional creation
using free software to create building instructions for their model - and then
order the appropriate number and type of bricks."
- Torben Ballegaard Sørensen, Executive Vice President, The LEGO Company
About LEGO Mosaic
-----------------
"I think LEGO Mosaic is a way for kids to move back and forth between the
physical world and the pixilated world of the computer, enriching the way
children think about and understand images and patterns in the world."
- Mitch Resnick, Associate Professor at the MIT Media Lab and LEGO Professor
"The LEGO Company has always encouraged its consumers, whether children or
adults, to build beyond what comes in the box. That's the beauty of LEGO bricks
- you can mix and match them based on your own imagination. LEGO Mosaic grew out
of that idea - to be able to design your own set."
- Eric Harshbarger, LEGO Sculptor & Software Developer
"With LEGO Mosaic kids get to build a mosaic which they know no other kid in the
world has. And they are actually designing and creating their own instructions
to build from. I think they find that very encouraging, and certainly it
develops their imagination."
- Eric Harshbarger, LEGO Sculptor & Software Developer
***********
BIOGRAPHIES
***********
Mitch Resnick, Associate Professor at the MIT Media Lab and LEGO Professor
--------------
Mitchel Resnick, USA, Ph.D. in computer science, is currently an Associate
Professor at the Media Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
LEGO Professor. Some of his research interests include the role of technology in
learning and education, design of computational systems for non--experts and
children, decentralized systems and decentralized thinking. Resnick has led the
development of the Programmable Brick, which served as the prototype for the
LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics invention system. Also, he has lectured on the use of
computers in education in more than a dozen countries.
Todd Lehman, Co-founder of online LEGO community - LUGNET.com
------------
Todd Lehman got his first LEGO set when he was just two years old. "I think I
spoke LEGO before I spoke English," he says, adding that his favorite models
have always been space ships. His latest building project is in the planning
stages - a giant Mars colony - but so far Todd hasn't been able to get all the
elements he needs. He hopes that the new "bulk bricks" feature at the LEGO Shop
At Home will help make his dream a reality.
Although Todd stopped building with LEGO bricks as a teenager, he says his
interest as an adult is "stronger than ever now because LEGO ideas can be shared
online." After a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison
and six years as a software developer for ColorSpan Corp. in Minneapolis, he
decided to dedicate his life to the LEGO hobby, and together with his partner
Suzanne Rich, created LUGNET.com. Todd is now employed as a systems programmer/
analyst at Boston University's Office of Information Technology, a perfect match
for his LEGO lifestyle.
Suzanne Rich, Co-founder of online LEGO community - LUGNET.com
------------
Suzanne began her career with LEGO bricks at four years old and still has
classic space sets that were released in 1978. She went on to gain a B.F.A. from
the Massachusetts College of Art in 1992 and scored her first proper job as a
designer for Sky & Telescope magazine. During her lunch hours, Suzanne could
often be found "taking time out" in a nearby toy store, where she scoured the
shelves for interesting play things and inspiration for her own career. One day,
when she stumbled upon a new version of the LEGO train, she felt her childhood
memories come flooding back. "That set attracted me like a magnet," she says. "I
was thrilled by the idea of working with this creative system that was both
playful and sophisticated."
More recently, she has worked freelance as a designer for a number of clients,
including The LEGO Company, and in 1999 studied under Fred Martin and Mitch
Resnick at MIT's Media Lab. She now works full time with Todd on LUGNET.com.
Eric Harshbarger, LEGO Sculptor & Software Developer
-----------------
Eric Harshbarger gained a Master's Degree in Mathematics from Auburn University
in Auburn, Albama in 1994. He later moved to the San Francisco Bay area to work
as a software developer and consultant for Sun Microsystems. In 1999, Eric
rekindled his childhood passion for LEGO products and has been sculpting and
making mosaics out of LEGO bricks for himself and private collectors ever since.
He has also helped the LEGO Company develop LEGO Mosaic, based on a program he
had written for himself. "I've always been able to look at an object, or a
picture, or a photograph," he says, "and turn it into LEGO bricks in my head."
His most impressive works to date include a six-foot by eight-foot, 30,000 brick
mosaic of the world's most famous painting - the Mona Lisa - and a fully
functioning LEGO desk for a corporate employee in Seattle. Meet Eric at http://
www.ericharshbarger.org.
Henry Lim, Librarian, Music Composer and LEGO Sculptor
----------
Born in San Francisco and living in Los Angeles the majority of his life, Henry
is a 28-year-old librarian at the UCLA Music Library. He has a bachelor's degree
in communications from UCSD and a master in library and information science from
UCLA. On the side, he is a music composer and LEGO sculptor with an affection
for LEGO dinosaurs, Star Wars' Queen Amidala and Beethoven.
*****************
RELEVANT ARTICLES
*****************
Related articles
Media have already shown an interest in LEGO enthusiasts
LEGO: A Hacker's Best Friend
-----------------------------
What does a conservative company do when hackers suddenly become obsessed with
its products? When programmers started fooling around with the proprietary code
used in the microcomputers included with Lego Mindstorms robotic kits, LEGO had
to decide whether they should batten down the data-hatches or invite the hackers
in to play.
The Michelangelo of LEGO
------------------------
There are a lot of unusual jobs, but very few people put bread on the table by
sculpting LEGOs. But thanks to the enduring lure of the brightly colored
building blocks, especially among the technology crowd, Eric Harshbarger is
beginning to carve out a niche as a professional LEGO artist.
Dot-com crowd loves LEGO
------------------------
Stock options are nice, but what many high-tech workers really love is LEGO. The
plastic toy has worked its way into the hearts, cubicles - and even hiring
contracts - of new economy employees.
Kein Kinderspiel
----------------
Fur die meisten mogen Legosteine Spielkram sein - fur den Programmierer Eric
Harshbarger sind sie mehr: Der 29-jahrige Amerikaner ist wohl der einzige Lego-
Bastler der Welt, der fur seine Stuck-Werke Geld bekommt.
LEGO love
---------
Sure, kids love to build things with the blocks, and so do a growing number of
adults They're sterile. Literally. They have no action-figure charisma, zero
microchips (usually), and all the cuddliness of PVC pipe
*********************************
Other unofficial LEGO communities
*********************************
LEGO enthusiasts from around the world meet and exchange their LEGO experiences
in unofficial LEGO communities:
http://www.zacktron.com/ring/
http://www.adequate.com/lego/
http://homepages.svc.fcj.hvu.nl/
http://www.brickshelf.com/
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