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!
It’s not everyday you have a friend from school, that buys land, on the Andman islands, located in the Bengal Bay, planning to start a working studio. So when your asked to do the digital strategy, you say yes, pack your bag and check out the premises.
And there i was thinking i should be able to work from there. Well, the satelite internet has a lot left to wish for, and i barley managed to finish the assignments i was already working on, so there we go, yes theres a need for a propper working studio in paradise. Paradise works!
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.
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!
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.
Hello Oyuki Matsumoto! How are you? Fine thanks, little jetlag but happy to be in my country again!
You are the organizer of GeekGirlMeetup in Mexico, could you tell me about how that came to happen? I had the oportunity to be at the Geek Girl Meetup in Helsinborg this springtime and I just became so inspired to see so many girls together sharing experiences that i thought i should definetely bring it to Mexico. I think my country is growing really fast, but unfortunately is still very man dominated, so I thought this would be a great project to “spread” and see what happen… and well i contacted some of my friends here and they got interested also so we started planing it in the late summer…
And so who is showing up? We have 102 girls registered, its all from programers, IT developers, fashion designers, artists that use technology in their work, girls working in emarketing, community managers, and bloggers…
We are still getting mails today about empty places so we have decided to have the registration from 9-9.45 and all the empty places we will give them to the girls that never got a place in those 100….
What do you do in the daytime Oyuki? I work in Malmö as a projectmanager at Stapelbäddsparken. I have a bachelor in Media and Communication from Mexico. I studied university here in Guadalajara where this meetup is happening. I use a lot social media in order to get inspiration for my work..and that is how i found on the first place about Geek Girl Meetup….
I also hear you are a DJ, “the DJ plugged in to bring the GGM to Mexico”. Is that true? I heard once someone said “Im a closet dj” haha.. I love music and i listen to all kinds of music…but Im not really a DJ… I dont mix.. I just program music… a music geek maybe?! heheh
Any other tips for people how to get ther geek on? Well I think Social Media and all the new ways of communication is opening so many doors, I think is just about to take the chance… get inspiration and spread your knowledge… Share…and connect…
How does the Mexican tech, code and startup scene look like, who are the local heroes we should know of? Well first of all these girls producing this together with me Elizabeth and Jackeline Maldonado, Ericka Garcia & Karla Gradilla…they are full on and have been doing such a great work to put up a great event together… The tech, code and starup scene in Mexico…uff though question as i dont live here anymore…but just right now going through the registration forms I see a lot of interesting girls doing so many cool projects, I think Geek Girl Meetup can help to get all these girls connected and start new things… find new way of cooperation…that is one of our main aims…
Well, i think that i speak for all of us back here in Sweden, who wish we could join you on the other side of the atlantic. best of luck, have a blast!
O: Thank you and hello to all the girls up there…thanks for spreading these..and lets keep on working!!
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.
Terese Alvén, en Spark i baken, is an blogging sensation and fast mover, both blogger and instructor. Terese is one of the healthy bloggers that stands up for healthy eating and reasonable workouts in times when there a pressure targeting you women to perform, more, harder and be thinner. A role-model, that has gone after what she believes in – all in, and we love her for it. Im confident in knowing that she would contribute to the Advisoryboards outdoor, and sportsrelated young health innovations.
Do you think you should be on the list, nominate yourself or someone you think should be nominated at Tillvaxtverket. Go for it!
Jonas Hombert is another one of them whitty young tech-savvy entrepreneurs who at the early age of 21(!) became the CEO and co-founder of Jaycut, a video editing service online. Young, clever and provocative, challenging the way things should be done. W00t!
Do you think you should be on the list, nominate yourself or someone you think should be nominated at Tillvaxtverket. Go for it!
