Author Archive
notes on founding a company
As I mentioned before, I’m in the process of founding a company. By ways of documentation, and because it might help others in the future, here’s a few of the bits & pieces I’ve learned so far, in no particular order: There is no right timing. Move. Move now. When you’re ready to go, you [...]
Slides “Neue Medien – Fluch oder Segen”
The other day I visited Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) for a day to give a keynote speech and a workshop for FES stipends at the summer academy. (Full disclosure: paid gig.) For completeness’ sake I’m posting the slides below. In order for them to make sense I’d recommend downloading the file from Slideshare so you can see [...]
Google Streetview in Germany, some thoughts
A little while ago I wrote a little rant about the fake Streetview Google had launched in Germany, an odd Google Maps & Panoramio hybrid. Eventually that’s about to change: Google Streetview is coming to Germany for real. And boy, are people in Germany going crazy over this. On the one hand you have those [...]
Personal life update: There’s a new shop in town!
Big news (for me) – I’m founding a company. More concretely, I’m setting up a boutique agency with two partners. And heck, I’m excited! Basics first: Who? At this point I can only name one of my partners – my long-time co-conspirator and close friend Igor Schwarzmann (@zeigor). Our third man is still bound by [...]
SXSW: “Social Media: How to make it in Europe”
Short version first: I’d like to present at SXSW 2011. You can help if you vote for my panel proposal. Here’s what it’s about. Earlier this year, I went to SXSW without knowing that I’d end up giving a session myself: I was asked (and more than happy) to fill in for Robin Grant and [...]
If you’re an entrepreneur, you don’t blame others
This might be obvious to you, but during some recent conversations I noticed one thing over and over again: Freelancers, and entrepreneurs, don’t blame others. If something bad happens to you and your impulse is to blame someone else (client! colleague! bank! landlord!) for the injustice, then maybe you shouldn’t work as an independent. It [...]
Presentation: The Real Life Social Network
Paul Adams is a Senior UX Researcher at Google. In the slides below he shares some findings from his research, focusing on what’s important to keep in mind when designing for the social web. It’s chock-full with insights on how relationships work online and offline. It’s a fantastic presentation. Must read. The Real Life Social [...]
Thoughts on the mainstreaming of openness
Disclaimer: I’m strongly biased towards openness. I prefer free and open software over closed systems, I prefer an open and decentralized web over a closed and centralized one. I prefer transparency over obscurity. That said, I’d also consider myself a pragmatic idealist (thanks for the hint, Igor) in the sense that I think to reach [...]
Cognitive Cities Conference: New Date!
A few weeks ago, we announced to run a conference on the future of cities & technology, Cognitive Cities Conference. (I blogged it here, too.) We just moved Cognitive Cities to a new date: 26/27 February 2011. My co-organizers and I explained our reasons for pushing CoCities on the Cognitive Cities blog, but let me [...]
Wikileaks, Afghanistan & The New Rules Of Engagement
As of two days ago Wikileaks has released 92.000 documents about the war in Afghanistan, leaked (most likely) from within the US military. After discussing this with quite a few folks, we all agreed that this will be one of the biggest – if not the single biggest – story of 2010. As a former [...]
