Week 6: New Egypt Now

(Image from Fffound)

It was only a few moths ago I was visiting Egypt with the Swedish Institute giving a talk on the internet being the infrastructure for change for young leaders, journalist and changemakers. I was invited again to give a talk on GeekGirlMeetup for the SheEntrepreneur program, a mentorship program with entrepreneurs from the MENA region initiated by the Swedish Institute.

My adept, sadly enough did not have the opportunity to show up, but i had a chance to meet interesting women from the region, that put a strong perspective on their (and my) everyday entrepreneurship.

During the last evening presentations Mubarak stepped down, and it was an emotional moment, without a doubt. The girls called it New Egypt, im from New Egypt.
That night was the entreprenuers freedanced. And like we say at the Kaospilots, if I can’t dance its not my revolution.

Young Swedish Entrepreneurs on the rise.
This was not the only young entrepreneurs i met this week. I also had the priviledge of being invited to DAC (Digital Arts Center) to be on a panel for the future bright minds of tomorrow in IT, presenting their ideas. With Peter Sandberg aka @poppetotte from Disruptive.nu and a few others we had the chance to give them feedback on ideas and presentations. Thank you, it was very inspiring!

(Image from Fffound)

Week 52 Bono on failure and learning

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:

Week 50 #talkaboutit

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.

Julia Skott´s take on it.

Week 49 Bievenue

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.

I spent tuesday night at Stockholm Nightowls, a working together meetup, working with a sideproject. I met the team behind RSS Grafitti who have been nominated for the Mashup Awards Best Social Media Service for Small Business.


GeekGirlMeetup says hello Mexico from h3idi on Vimeo.

Mexico just held their first GeekGirlMeetup with over 100 GeekGirls. More about that here. Follow the @OhProducer stream here:

I heard LeWeb, was Epic, and heres a video from the conference, interview with Paypal Osama Bedier, covered by TechCrunch:

Week 48 Cest tres populár

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.

The title was changed a few times, and from GeekGirls Sweeet Revenge(.jpg), loosley miss-interpreted to Sweet Geek Girls Revenge(.jpg). It was later, more correctly called, “The Dream Network (.jpg)” on the front side of the economy section.

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.

WIKILEAKS AND ASSANGE

@brokep micro finance focused startup Flattr makes it possible to donate to whatever you like.

[Edit: this is not avaliable anymore, as Flattr was based on a Paypal Plugin. More about that at TechChrunch, via The Guardian]


Nominee #5 Anna Oscarsson – multitalent and changemaker

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!

The kidds are allright! #1 #2

Yesterday I nominated my previous assitant Josephine Sivertzen 21, to the Tillväxtverket and Vinnova Advisoryboard nomination, that is to advise them on how to suppport young peoples innovation. It’s open until the 30th of November, nominate here!

I nominated Josephine due to the fact that she worked for me as an asstistant during my time at SYRUP in Stockholm, and helped me with my projects RunAlong.se and GeekGirlMeetup. The young dudette is a whitty writer, a clever thinker and she understands social media and the art of a good story.

Today I nominted Anton Johansson, 21, BizDev, strategy and communication at the brilliant start-up Twingly. Right now he´s also an aspiring e-commerce entrepreneur with Headler.se. This young dude has the energy of few, is an idea-generator like few and always has the finger on the tech pulse.

Week 46 – Conference week: Topp 100, to SIME, to GeekGirlMeetup

Martin Deinoff på Creuna

A selection of intresting stuff from week 46.

  1. INTERNET TOPP 100 with Binero– the best sites in Sweden 2010. Read more about it at Bineros Blogg.

  2. SIME with Binero, and here a few takeaways
    “Skype makes you cry, Facebook doesn’t” SIME10 day 1

    ”Every customer that comes in, is a potential journalist”
    – SIME2010 dag 2

  3. 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).
  4. 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.

Dialogue and API´s as a tool for change

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.

#entrepreneur #unplugged by Disruptive.nu

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.