After giving a talk at the incubator Aturn, I recieved a mindmap illustration of my talk, made by Pernilla Karlsson at AddGender. It made me think of the power of images and the importance of illustrating your thoughts, to keep visions, dreams and goals clear and focused. Thanks Pernilla, highly apreshiated!
I just recently started blogging in Swedish for Nya Affärer, where i have the blog Runnig Business, writing about business models and the life of running a running-startup.
Proud to present, GeekGirlMeetup was featured in the leading Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter wednesday last week, with almost 70 hits per minute during lunch time, and hundreds of comments, and still the top ten after a week, that is what DN calls, popular.
With no one to take revenge upon, we are happy about the the article as it communicates the our aim with new networks and local rolemodels within internet, code and startups and creating the future we need and want for women in the tech scene.
Lina Thomsgård at Rättviseförmedlingen also added us up on the list of internetexperts, entrepreneurs for seminars, panels and juries. Thank you @LinaT!
2 students from the University are writing their final thesis about GeekGirlMeetup as a phenomenon, exciting! More about this later.
TALKING ABOUT FEAR AND ANGER AS CONSTRUCTIVE FUEL
I am remembering how important it is to use your your fear constructively after discussions with musican Rebekka Karijord, who adresses it more like “Wear it like a crown“, and yet did this fantastic interpretation of my favourite “Smells like teen spirit”.
(And i promise to never be late for dinner again)
The Egyptian election makes me remeber my visit to Egypt with the Swedish Institute. To sum it up im linking in Måns Adlers startup, Bambuser tweet on the democratic importance of his start up service Bambuser.
I also cant seem to forget the Harrasmap that both me and Joakim Jardenberg listened to as we were both speaking at the YLVP´s Cairo Social Media Cafe this passed month. @jocke sums it up really well.
Jardenberg also disses the new apps for the iPad, by the major Swedish Media houses, and wether i agree or not I am suggesting some Margret Wheatly reading of for the people in charge of the apps, preferably Leadership and the new Science.
Today I am nominating Kaospilot, Anna Oscarsson to Tillväxtverkets Advisoryboard. Anna is a witty young entrepreneur, CEO of Kvittar.se and has creative and strategic qualities I´m shure that the Advisoryboard would appreshiate. Anna is also the girl who started GeekGirlMeetup in Malmö, and one of the first to live-stream from the Pirate-bay trial, she knows her communications and tech. Kudos!
Do you think you should be on the list, nominate yourself or someone you think should be nominated at Tillväxtverket. Go for it!
TILLVÄXTEVERKETS & VINNOVAS ADVISORYBOARD Tillväxtverket and Vinnova invites the future bright minds of tomorrow (read: you!) to a user driven Advisory Board. Take your chance to help them out during the forthcomming year, they are looking for a wide uptake of of people from sweden.
Do you know a bright mind between 18-30? Let them know, or nominate yourself! (yes, don’t be shy now).
GEEK GIRLMEETUP #4
We managed to do it again, and this time we´re thinking “oh my god what have we done?” as the organisation keeps spreading organically, not only in Sweden but to Copenhagen in Denmark, and soon Mexico. Im proud to be a GeekGirl, my love for technology has taken me far. Thanks dad and mom for buying me a computer and a barbie, and not only a barbie.
The Swedish Institute asked me to go to Alexandria in Egypt, to host a keynote talk on tech tendencies in we that i see, for the *Young Leadership Visitors Programme. I chose to talk API´s as enabling tools for social entrepreneurship and user-driven services, and the benefits from opening up information for the users, for society, goverments and for entreprenurs. This way users and programmers/entreprenurs could create possiblities for change, and solutions for their direct needs faster, and hopefully serve other citizens needs, and possibly earn money on, in this case, as we see it, apps or new user-driven services.
Meeting the participants in the YLVP programme, a creme-de-la-creme of young future orientated players from the MENA region have given me a reality check, due their hard work to keep blogging, communicating and creating democratic possibilities for young people in the region.
I also talked about GeekGirlMeetup, and the organic growth of the organization in Sweden, it’s loose organization, holding the flag high with organizers and sponsors. After my stay in Egypt I’m off to Copenhagen where the first GeekGirlMeetup.com outside Sweden is being held by Henriette Weber.
* The Swedish Institute Young Leaders Visitors Program The Swedish Institute Young Leaders Visitors Program (YLVP) is an intercultural leadership program with focus on social media as a tool for positive change. The program invites young opinion makers from Sweden and selected countries in the MENA region who are actively working for social change in their respective contexts.
*This interview was made in Sync.in (based on Etherpad-code) and the picture was taken over Skype. Yes, thats how we rock it.
The first time i met Therese Mannheimer, was with Judith Wolst, at the first 24 Hour Business Camp back in 2008, in the middle of the night hacking our projects.. Awesomeness, and when we started GeekGirlMeetup.com, Therese, the networker she is, was sending us contacts that worked wonders. With Brainspiration in her backpack, and consulting at Pool she felt the need for her a tool to cover the timeconsuming social media coverage work, and thats how Lissly came along. She called Simon Sundén, her friend and Stockholm based SEO guy, and they started scetching, to later get a firm in to build it, and heres the interview. In Swedish.
Therese, du är ju social-media-strategy-wonder-chick på Pool, och nu lanserar du en egen tjänst tillsammans med vår kompis Simon Sundén. Berätta, hur gick det till? Jag utgick väldigt mycket ifrån mina egna behov och just i det här fallet så är ett av alla mina uppdrag att bevaka mina kunders varumärken och aktivitet på den sociala webben och det är en väldigt tidskrävande aktivitet. Jag utvärderade de verktyg som fanns, såg att jag inte fann det jag behövde, varken i bredd och eller pris. De täcker inte in tillräckligt många källor, är för dyra och har på något sätt inte sin utgångspunkt i branschen. Det är ofta större amerikanska företag som knoppar av någon liten buzzverksamhet som sedan säljs med krängare… Det var inte vad jag behövde så vips så startade vi en egen, det var verkligen inte svårare än så.
När bestämde du dig? hur lång tid tog det att går från ide till gårdagens lansering? Jag bestämde mig direkt och kontaktade Simon och frågade om han ville vara med. Det ville han så vi körde igång direkt på vintern förra året. Jag tror det var vinter, det snöade…
Ja, och hur känns det nu när det snöar igen och du har en färdig produkt? galet häftigt. Att det går att göra utan en spänn med ren jävlar anamma. Coolt. Jag är lite impad av oss om jag får vara helt ärlig… hehe
Coolt jag är grymt impad av er, sist vi snackades var i sommar och du höll på med Lissly, sen har man hört lite var stans att det är på g, så det är grymt imponerande och kul att höra att ni är igång. Bara så roligt att det faktiskt går med lite energi och när alla går in head on. Det är så lätt att direkt tro att man behöver cash… eller hur? Inte alla förunnat att ha utvecklare som vill göra det på risk dock…
Exakt, man klarar sig rätt bra utan, och det finns fördelar med att det tar tid, man hinner tänka igenom, göra fel, göra rätt, bygga om etc… Japp för och nackdelar med allt men jag tror att det i det här fallet var rätt beslut, vi behövde ju inte pengarna och det andra alternativet var då att inte göra det pga tids och pengabrist, nu i efterhand var det ju aldrig ett riktigt alternativ…
Hur lång tid tog det? Det har väl tagit snart ett år men keep in mind att vi gjort allt med skarvtid..
Hur många är ni? Vi är tre delägare. Det är jag, Simon och våra utvecklare som äger via företaget Entertainity.
Beätta om arbetsprocessen? Processen har varit väldigt organisk. Jag och Simon har utgått ifrån våra behov och inte andra tjänsters erbjudande. Vi plottade upp vad vi kände att vi behövde för att göra jobbet ordentligt, vad vi ville erbjuda i alla faser, vad vi ville skulle ingå och vad vi kunde tänka oss att betala för det. Sedan började vi samla in källor, samla in API:er och bygga basen till det vi skulle täcka. Samtidigt satte vi igång designern som fick helt fira tyglar vilket ju blev bra… Vi har skött nästan allt i docs och haft veckoliga möten samt skypemöten. Eftersom både jag och Simon har dagjobb så fick det lov att bli flexibelt. Sen har många morgnar och kvällar gått åt till buggrapportering, fix, korrläsning, designfix och annat… En väldigt organisk process skulle jag vilja kalla det för.
Komer det finnas affiliate? I hope so! Vi erbjuder ju redan nu en affiliatelösning iform av Whitelabel. Där kan byråer, agenturer och andra större företag med många varumärken köpa en licens till Lissly som de kan branda själva. Dessutom så tittar vi på ett API och håller på att sätta upp former för återförsäljare och rev share.
Kommer det finnas affiliate för småföretagare som skickar kunder vidare till er? Japp det siktar vi på, som sagt så håller vi på att sätta upp former för återförsäljare av olika slag!
During this spring(2010) I started GeekGirlMeetup evening sessions becuase we felt that we needed some hands-on practical session on web, code and startups, outside the two-day conference we host twice a year. We ended up having full house everytime, we hade frontende-code, start-up night, and backend-code during the spring sessions.
Concidering that we had 70 participants at every evening session, and 100 per day during the 2 day conferance, we were today very happy to have 89 viewers of our LiveStream today, the first eveningsession for the Autumn, held at Valtech with 70 participants. A pretty good ratio.
@mariasoderberg held a session on frontend-coding, @inselhai on SEO and @animalin held a session on what the future of building themes was. Pretty awesome.
A big thanks to @heidiupdate for moderating, and @emmakoszinowski for Streaming, so that the rest of us/you can see.
A few guiding points:
You dont need to be a programmer to join us, you need curiosity. There are also different nights with different directions, we encourage curiosity, its rewarding.
Anyone can help out. We encourage you to share your ideas and thought with us, so that we can continue to create the best GeekGirlmeetup for this Autumn. We need smart, curious, challenging thinkers and most all, doers to join us. Since our im is to create new networks and new rolemodels were having an openhouse for people intrested in organizing the future of GeekGirlMeetup. Next meeting is on the 29th, at Fröjd, Stockholm. I cant be there, but thats the beauty of this network, we make it work (even if everyonecant make the meeting or skype meeting), just look how far we have come.
Hello Henriette, author if the book “Return on involvement“, rock n roll avantgarde queen of social media + thinker of Denmark + filosopher, how are things in Copenhagen? Well, I am not in CPH right now – Im working from my big black working chair in Helsingør as we speak. Anyway I still have my office in there… Denmark is rolling these days, it’s great =)
So whats up in Denmark? When I look at it is has taken the business environment here to start to embrace the more social parts of the web – but we are getting there. The geeks are starting to take over =) it’s fantastic on one hand on the other it’s getting to be such a hypefest so everybody down here is becoming a social media consultant or “insert your own hip title here”… A part of me is really happy and fond of it – and a part of me is really worried. The good thing is that I get to do stuff like social media club Copenhagen and Geek girl meetup copenhagen and there’s more than 5 people showing up =) it hasn’t always been like that…
Its not easy being an original :). I really liked you book, Return on Involvement, a nifty take on soulful business, or as you would say, business unusual. Now that everyone is on social media, where are the geeks going? Where are the boundries being pushed?
I can see several different things out there, First of all my hope is that social media is staying around for a while so we can start getting really good at it, and it’s not just having a facebook page or a twitter account and then you are doing it. my ambition for social media is, and has always been, that it can make the world better in the eyes of the beholder, and at the same time make companies cooler and sell more. But we need to get from tool-focused to substance, that’s really important to me. You need to put it in context instead of standing on a stage and showing one casestudy after another. So I think that social media will go deeper. I hope so.
Secondly there’s the location based services that people are expecting a lot from, but it’s still real early days. Services like Gowalla and foursquare that makes me feel nostalgic because it reminds me of good-old Plazes (was bought by Nokia a couple of years ago) which in it’s essence was the same, but you had to define your whereabouts yourself (there was no geo-location thing on the phone back then)…
Then there’s augmented reality that I know a lot of phone producers are looking into. I guess the first real step we’re seeing in the real world is the scan codes everywhere..
…and then, my favorite, the game layer on top of everything… it would be awesome if business would be about gaming=)
but – when everything comes together, there’s also the notion of, that we are just making digital convinient and getting back to basics in 1950s style, just in a digital way, I dig that =)
Haha, yeah, i like your perspective. So we know what happned with lovli Plazes (my best experiance with it was at Dansih Reboot in 2008) it went to Nokia, aka, “where good ideas go to die”. (Quote from the Guardian) How do you think big companies and start-ups can avoid this trap, so to say? What responsability do companies have, and how do you think they work to lead the way?
I think that both Plazes (two of my friends from Berlin) and Jaiku (former client of mine+ friends) where bought for the talent pool and not for the service, You have to look into the motives for the acquisition. I think both Plazes and Jaiku was aware that the services was not going to stay in it’s original format when they where purchased. The Jaiku acquirement by google, was to me as a consultant, priceless, it looks good on a CV. But personally I was so sad that we didn’t stay and became the cooler european alternative to twitter. Everyone I have talked to liked Jaiku best. they where fun to work with and a great team. I think start-ups needs to think about the motives for existing, is it because you want to say something important, or is it because you want to be purchased or funded by a big company ? I think we all have our own personal agenda on this (aka. personal happiness, money, creativity) – but is it adding to, or subtracting from the point you want to make ?
If I had made a startup that had a proposal to be bought up by a bigger company, I would do it if I thought it would make my personal mission on earth easier. I think the only responsability they have is not to let the community down and not ignore people that are passionate about the startup purchased. And then, in some ways, be clear on the motives… so people are not disappointed.
A solution to what problem? I don’t think there’s a problem. I think there’s a huge opportunity However I do see that a game layer could mean a cool addition to a lot of companies. A game is one of the most involving things and one of the places you would spend a lot of time. I’ve researched stuff like farmville and frontierville by Zynga since last time we’ve spoken, and I can see why people are returning, however it’s too fragmented in my mind, you can’t really play and really get into it, because then you have to bug your friends on facebook or purchase coins to get a barn or whatever. I love games that you can completely indulge in – like WoW or Sims 3. then I can be gone for 8 hours and then return to the world. Farmville and Frontierville you have to return several times a day – and if I have to do that I have no time to read perezhilton =)
I think the “game layer” can be added in different means. I am always talking about storyliving, if you can change your communication + your content production so it becomes more fun, I think that’s a game layer. Play/fun is more important to me as a curly creative who digs champagne. thinking out of the box can be a gamelayer. I have a client these days that sells natural stones for terraces. people think im crazy when I tell them that I have taken on a client like that. The reason I said yes, was because the people behind Lithos (coming soon to a garden center near you) was so committed to changing the stone business in Scandinavia that they where willing to look outside the box and play. So how do you play with stones ? Either you let a geek stand and tell you about the different shapes and sizes and why you need natural stones for your terrace, OR you take all the old stones, that can’t be used for anything else and you turn it into a ninja-stone smashing thing.. That’s a game layer to me that works especially well with boys – young and old =) (the first video will be up soon)
Thats a wonderful example, thanks for perspective.
Im so happy because we actually have a got a location now. it took us a while. We are also talking to sponsors. I met up with the fabulous Annika Lidne last time she was in copenhagen and she told me about the geek girl academy. Basically we are going to do three things at geek girl copenhagen (please note it’s my ambition and it might not work out that way – but it’s in the sponsor material as well)
1. the un-conference
2. the academy – technical and business know-how
3. the showroom. where we are talking things like a geekgirl clothes swap, a stylist, an upcycling booth and general hang out and have fun. After doing several bar and social media camps I want to demystify it all a bit so it has a broader perspective, especially in Denmark where geekgirls aren’t “cool” – not like in Sweden… So we are turning it into a celebration of cool. the word of the day is going to be reYOUse.. I’m really excited about it. And Heidi I think you should start seeing it as an income instead of a hobbyproject. Geek girl could totally make you enough money so you could get by, im so sure of that. if you don’t know how – call me =)
Ok, cool. I kind of feel ambivalent on that point, as i want it to be lust and passion driven, the results turn out to be something else than if people are doing it for money, inclusive of myself. But mayeb ai should re think that. Anyway. So the topic will be reYOUse? I think all geekgirls i’ve met in CPH/ Denmark have been radfully cool. I might just have to come down to my darling CPH and hang out with you, when is it? How many days? Free?
It’s on the 6th of november. Oh and all geekgirls I’ve met have been cool as well, there’s just some ladies in Denmark who can’t relate to the world “nørd” or “geek” because they don’t see it as being passionate, but someone who eats pizza and sits in front of the computer all the time. It’s one day, and it will be free, and it’s going to be amazing.
Sounds wonderful! I think we have to wrap up this interview, or it might just turn into a book. Could you give me a take on three people i should interview in the future, and why.
sure thing… I might aim high now, but one of the people I think you should talk to is Danielle Laporte, she so rad. Another person I think you should talk to, is Francesca Birks from Arup (I can connect you) oh and Benja Stig Fagerland up in Norway, Im doing some work with her on rocking a business board (an ebook) it’s going to be rad… maybe we should turn this into a book ? =)
