Social Swedish Web Camp 3 at Tjärö Nature reservoir, Sweden 2011 gathered developers, thinkers and other internet enthusiast to share their thoughts on the ecosystem around the Swedish scene, ideas and culture around the future state of our internet.
Emily Green and I hosted a SkrivaPå tech session about Haskell, we´ll she did most of the talking on functional programming, functors and monads, and i continue looking t tutorials on sundays. I introed a short talk about SkrivaPå and most of that info can be read in the blogposts here, and the talk can be found on SlideShare.
Pernillan asked me to participate in a talk on how to do an internet un-conference (like GeekGirlMeetup.com) together with Kristin Heionen + Thomas Wennström (who arrange SSWC) and Stellan Löving who arranges Webbcoast in Gothern burg. A lot of questions were raised of how to organize un-conferances and personally I believe control is an illusion, what you can try achieve is adaptability to change and clear communication of the state of the project and how much effort is needed/spend in projects.
A happy and fun thing i observed was PM Nordqvists Twitter printer, that he built during his maternity leave, just for fun.
Talking of fun, this year i did not jump the cliff, like the first and the second year, as i didn’t think it felt like much fun, but mostly pressure. Clapping pressuring hands before i jump wasn’t what I opted in for, I just did it for fun. Altho i was happy to see the fun continue in a good tradition.
The most appreshiated sponsors were as always Binero with morning coffee, chasing away the sheep, and the guerrilla pillow sponsors.
I was asked by Internetworld to give my take on 2010 happenings, and what i was hoping for in 2011. The whole thing made me think a bit more about the whole act of leadership and the responsibility that comes with developing people as well as ideas. This reflects upon the book that i was sent by Emil Ems.
After attending my friend Ph.D David Bismarks course on Publishing and Social Media earlier this year i met Emil Ems, another curious Ph.D I taught how to blog. He was set with a wonderful skill, he was very curious and had an ambition to learn, so he just needed a push in the right direction and he was on his way. What i did not know, was that he was to sum up his travelling diaries from California and make a book about it. A first “preview” book was printed and sent to me, limited edition issue 10/10. Perfect for christmas reading. Stories and pictures from my favourite universities, yay!
This act of learning, speaks to me of the polarity of 2010 in the way that we in Sweden, a high-tech nation, yet we still have people who don’t know how to use mail, or what a browser is etc. Emil is not one of the people, and probably never will be, due to his curious nature, and will to find out how things work, finding another way of solving current issues.
However we have a huge digital devide in Sweden where closer to a milion (1/9) of Swedens population is still uses the internet very seldomly or never. As not everyone posesses the the curious nature that will find a way to learn like Emil, we still cant afford having illeteracy in Sweden. The IIS aka .SE is is doing a wonderful job minimizing the digital devide, and conquering the digital analfabetism that cripples so many, by offering to create projects that teach especially elderly that are over represented in the group of digital illeteracy.
The act of learning is a tedious part, and like many new things we learn, you have to be comfortable sitting in a chair – knowing nothing. Accepting that you know nothing. That can be a pretty stressful concept for a lot of people, especially if you are taking to much information, and we can’t consume it. A good teachers role is to see when the student has had enough, and can walk out of the session feeling sucessfully taught, and proud with what they have learned. This way a student can start making new thoughts and new argumentations for logical ideas.
But.
We know that people get stuck. And frustrated. Even angry. (Including me) The point is that even if we don’t manage to learn everything, its not a failure, if you have really tried, and learned from it. Edward de Bono says it best with his famous quote:
“Fully justified venture which did not succeed for reasons which could not have been predicted and which were beyond control” – Edward de Bono
Being curious and willing to test new things will make you fail, you can count on it. We need to start learning that at that given point you know what didn’t work. It’s not the end of the world. It never has been, it never will be. And it automiatically let’s you test new ways, new possibilities. I’m hoping that more people in leading positions take it to their heart that people need to develop, test, and learn how to fail successfully to not grow old at mind. Development (people and products) is a question of leadership advocacy, and tech is just the device. I hope we all in our everyday leadership with our dreams and goals start keep this in mind.
Summing up:
Some mistakes are better learned from watching others
We should be learning by failing, as if we are learning to walk.
We should welcome some failures, as we then know we have at least given it a fair shot.
Worth the read and look:
Intrested in more about learning? Christer Holger has a brilliant blog called the Learning Lab.
Maria Telenius, works at the public city library in Stockholm, and has interesting thoughts on how to modernize the library. I am hoping to read a bit more about that soon.
The “let’s talk about it” campaign about sexual harrassment and rape, #prataomdet was started on Twitter by @jocxy Koljonen with aimes to ad perspective to rape, grayzones and responsability. The campaign was followed up by an article in DN article, an numerous posts, Same same but different wrote about it, Hanna Friden reflected (+ many more).
#Prataomdet quickly adapted it´s anglosaxic version #TalkAboutit. The site Prataomdet.se that was published later on a simple WordPressblog, collects all stories. It’s a very interesting collection from a historical perspective as it portaits the stories by them selves, without questioning. Not happy sunday reading.
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.
Christian Rudolf asked me to tell my story about RunAlong and our new API at his entrepreneurial tweetup along with Jonas Lejon of Bloggy.se and Stefan Mahlstein from Wordon. Rudolph wanted to tell the stories behind us entrepreneurs, to inspire other future bright minds of tomorrow, but also to create a spot for entrepreneurs to talk amongst ourselves about the topic. We ended up re-naming it to Entrepreneur unplugged.
The first time I met the other co founder of the blog Disruptive blog Peter Sandberg, it was at 2008 Sime.nu, it was my second Sime and i had decided to continue with my idea for RunAlong.se. I met him with a few friends, an i remember not daring to tell him what the idea was. He told me to start talking about it so that i could polish it faster. Some very good advice, and that i want to keep pushing for, share your ideas faster. Its a good way to test your idea, and not only have the yes sayers tell you it´s fantastic.
Other observations…
Im still struggeling with seeing myself on film, i dont know if its ever going to feel completely comfortable, but its ok, i had an audiance, i got the message across, and the intresting dialogue afterwods was all worth it. IVA thought so to.
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 ? =)
GeekGirlMeetup.com is a webconferance I founded with Andie Nordgren with aims to create more female rolemodels and networks within web, code and startups in Sweden. Thru the years we have had lot of help from people helping us with taking time to make it happen, by coding, organizing in other areas of Sweden, sending us sponsors and most of all, just putting those extra hours of extra effort.
@Emma Koszinowski and I filmed some voices on GeekGirlmeetup, this may 2010 and gave it a brief cut. For the ones not familiar with the concept, heres one angle of it. This is in Swedish, maybe more will follow in English.
