Ovi
Ovi Story
Ovi magazine was borne out of frustration one evening in May 2004, when Asa Butcher, Thanos Kalamidas and John Pederson agreed that they each needed a live portfolio, an opportunity to hone the skills and to have some fun.
After a month of heated discussion, they elected the Finnish word 'Ovi' to become the title of their online portfolio. The word means 'door' and was chosen because it symbolised the barriers and difficulties we must all overcome in life, especially when living in a foreign country, which was the situation of both Asa and Thanos.
Issue 1 went online in December 2004 and the theme 'Three men and a deadline' emphasised the lengthy correspondence now required, since John had returned home to America. The first three issues saw the trio producing all the content and continually tweaking the web design; something that was new to all of them.
The first new team member joined in issue 4 and she immediately brought a feminine touch to the male-dominated Ovi. Juliana Elo, a Brazilian living in Finland, gave Ovi a new dimension and allowed them to tackle subjects that had been previously off-limits, such as sexuality.
Month after month, issue after issue, more people joined the team and Ovi's readership steadily grew until they realised that the magazine was no longer a live portfolio, but a breathing magazine.
The website had its first facelift in issue 10 and a few much-needed changes were implemented, but the site wasstill flawed in many areas. During the first ten issues, changes were also being made in the personal lives of both Asa and Thanos, with two births; Thanos' daughter Daphne and Asa's daughter Katie both arrived during the same period.
After sixteen issues there have been over 700 articles and had almost 45 different people contribute articles, columns, poems, stories and illustrations, plus comments on our forum and feedback on our blog have brought even more readers into the Ovi family.
Deciding to go daily was an easy decision because contemporary events were changing too fast to allow incisive comment and opinion in a monthly magazine. We became daily on September 4, 2006 and the daily edition gave our team a new freedom to share their opinion on current topics.
The daily magazine continues to go from strength to strength, with the Ovi boys building new partnerships and working harder than ever to bring the best of themselves to their ongoing project. After two-and-a-half months of daily updates, the 1,000th article went online, although that doesn't include the Le M»tÀque content, exhibitions, cartoons and other sections they update each week.
In January 2007, Ovi magazine came second in Newropeans Magazine's Grands Prix 2006 awards. They were nominated as one of the three finalists in its 'Citizenship - Information' section. The awards reward people behind the democratisation of the EU. A registered jury of around 1,000 people voted online awarding Ovi magazine 29% of the vote.
On August 21st 2007, Ovi published its 2,000th contribution online.
On January 13th 2008, Ovi published its 500th cover.
What the future holds is unknown, but the Ovi team are never short on ideas and plans, so stick around and join the Ovi project.
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