Arctic Startup

ArcticStartup: "Megapolis, a Finnish born festival for global urbanites, is planning to go international. The theme of the third Megapolis is Happy Cities and according to Roope Mokka from Demos Helsinki says the event is going to be bigger and better than it was last year and that international expansion might be in the cards:

• Theres plans, but they're still v. much plans.
• You can see the whole discussion thread here at Jaiku.

Once we get a same kind of buzz and self confidence going country wide and everybody buys the mindset that we can make it anywhere and everywhere, we’re doing just fine even without the ill incentiviced governmental early-stage investing and other market distorting subsidies from the public sector agencies."

Facebook Value

This summer has been lots of Social Media for me. I'm co-writing an Enterprise 2.0 ebook and my theme is Virtual Organizations 1970 - 2010.

The Web 2.0 social media evolution is much stronger in US than in Europe. Linux and IRC were invented by Finns, Linux Thorwalds and IRC by someone from Oulu.

Why does it take longer for us in Europe to grasp the advantages and benefits of Social Media? Loic LeMeur wrote in his twitter/blog some time ago that the language landscape isn't as monolithic as in US.

European online web 2.0 entrepreneurs are still rare. Skype was invented in Europe but we didn't know what to do with it. Key technologies for the Apple iPod are from Germany, but European biz's didn't know how to make Mp3 to a business.

Nokia is great on the global market but its market share of the US mobile market is only 10 % and global market share is 39 %.

New things this summer for me:

1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. Jaiku

Just to mention a few...

Between the lines writes, "This is the summer of Facebook. The social network went from relative obscurity outside of college campuses to the next big thing, with a multi-billion dollar valuation and more than double number of users. Some of my fellow travelers are questioning the (personal) role of social networks or suffering Facebook fatigue. Jason Calacanis characterizes Facebook as bankrupt..."

Rex Hammock’s weblog » Blog Archive » Happy Birthday, Doc

The blogging culture isn't very old. I did start early. Blogging is still a minority hobby in Finland and those who use Twitter, Jaiku, Facebook and other Web 2.0 and social media tools is even smaller. The short form SMS twitters and jaikus are a great way to communicate with the world. Podcasts are very useful but take more time to produce.


rexblog.com: Rex Hammock’s weblog » Blog Archive » Happy Birthday, Doc: "The first time I ever heard the word, “weblog,” it was from Doc Searls. And the first time I ever heard the word, “podcast” it was from Doc Searls (on September 28, 2004 — I blogged about it the next day).

I am a big fan of Doc’s and the things he says. Heck, I’ve listened to and internalized so much of what he’s said, I’m sure a lot of what I write here is merely channeling Docisms.

Doc also taught me to look out of the window when I fly. Because he takes incredible photographs out of the windows of airplanes, I look forward to his travels because — in “where’s Waldo fashion” — I can’t wait to see what geologic formation or natural phenomena he’ll record: I can recall photos of mud-slides, forest fires and, just recently, an awesome display of the Aurora Borealis.

I think Doc Searls sees lots of things the rest of us don’t because he looks while others don’t think to. His depth of curiosity is, fortunately, balanced by his gift for analysis and the ability to write in such a way as to convey perceptive — sometimes even radical — ideas in a provocative (but respectful and professional), non-technical and entertaining fashion"

Where are we all in the summer time?

It’s vacation time in Finland and a valid question is where have all the people gone. Business life is at its low but retail stores are selling better in July than during the Christmas sales boom in December.

But those who use their blogs and wikies, jaikus and twitters are easily found. Put their name into a search engine and you will find their hangouts, where they are this moment.

Those who look for friends and business associates through social media isn’t yet a big number but web traffic indicates that the web presence is paying off. There is a global distribution of attention.

I need to think more about the content and what kind of pictures and visions to paint for display on the world wide web.