Traveling Geeks

Culture, Language and the Online World

In my teens, on two different occasions, I spent a few months living in each of two countries (outside my native US), learning the predominant language and picking up the culture. Every once in a while it smacks me in the face that this makes me significantly different from many people in the US.^[1] And it often affects how I react in both business and personal situations.

In northern Mexico, as a teen, I learned first hand how teenage boys functioned in a society that was moving from poverty and religious conservatism to modern urban life. In Québec City (Canada) I studied at the largest French-speaking university outside of France, and learned the pride a community takes in its native language and culture.^[2] And I became aware of some of the movements working to preserve the language.^[3]

So when one of the Traveling Geeks became somewhat stuck to the tar baby of how the French are going about world brand-building all wrong^[4], I um kinda felt it in my gut more from the point of view of the French than the American. Robert might be right about what has to be done to build a world-wide brand, but maybe these companies weren’t about building world-brands, at least at this moment. (more…)

Electronic Picture Frames are getting lots better

I’ve been playing with electronic picture frames for almost two years. I started with a Ceiva frame two years ago, because it was capable of placing a phone call (modem) to pick up photos, and this frame was for a relative who doesn’t have access to any Internet services at all. It seemed like it would be perfect. It functioned well, held about a hundred photos (I bounced against its capacity, but it wasn’t annoying at all), and the only problem for me was the yearly fee for the dial-up service. But it meant that I could upload photos and within 24 hours they’d appear in the frame on the other side of the US. (If you’re like me, you write a paper letter once a year, to that rare relative who hasn’t yet gotten an email address—so sending photos electronically is a breeze compared to printing out those photos and writing a letter.)

But the Parrot Grande Specchio (pictured at left) has advanced considerably, and I like that. Continue reading to see what has happened in the last two years… (more…)

Nicolas Steeghann from Stupeflix Gives GREAT Demo #tg09

I’m looking forward to doing a custom project with the guys at Stupeflix. The Traveling Geeks met with them in London over the summer; I learn about new features and functionality from him in Paris earlier this month at one of the five incubators housing start-ups in the city.

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Urbi on Robotics

Another innovation we saw during the Traveling Geeks tour to Paris was Urbi, robotics software platform and operating system from Gostai, that makes all robots compatible.

Urbi is already compatible with numerous robots on the market, including Nao, Aibo, Spykee or Bioloid, and advanced consumer applications based on Urbi have been demonstrated on the Spykee robot in partnership with mobile phone operators: home surveillance, entertainment for kids, or remote presence.

Gostai’s project is to provide a standard environment for robotic applications development and to contribute to the growth of a new industry: service and consumer robotics.

Urbi plans to go open source in May 2010 because there is a clear need and strong trends that calls for an open source OS for robots today.

Parrot’s Henri Seydoux Paints a Picture of His Vision #tg09

At their offices in Paris earlier this month. We started with what is current but also had a peak of what’s coming in Q1 under embargo. No phones. No cameras. No video. And yes, there was a back channel joke about the deep dark secret unveiling and the NDA.

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Think Orange is all Phones? Think Again #tg09

The Traveling Geeks learn about Orange’s latest developments – Lionel Fumado and Stephanie Hospital tell us more.

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French Startups Give us a Sample #tg09

Music on the Streets of Montmartre

Even though its only 33 degrees, music warms the heart and soul on a cold December day on the streets of Montmartre.

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Thoughts on Le Web 2009

Here’s the summary – Le Web 2009 was like a diamond, a few flaws but on the whole brilliant and sparkling and deserving of its place in the Conference Crown Jewels of tech land.

And now for a little more detail… (more…)

Silicon Valley Geeks Can Learn From European Geeks…

Silicon Valley Geeks and Parisian Geeks have a lot in common: lots of passion, great ideas and they speak the lingua franca of “geek.”

But there is an important difference, as Beth Blecherman at Techmamas recently found on a visit to LeWeb:

While Silicon Valley geeks put on a clean tee shirt for tech conferences, European geekstake it up a notch. Here is a random geek waiting in line for LeWeb. I told him I was chronicling European Geek Chic. He looked confused but smiled for the camera. To top it off, he and many other Euro-geeks paired the geek uniform of jeans with a nice pair of (non-sneaker) shoes.

Just to keep up with the style, I put on every black and stylish piece of clothing I had. If I had time, I would of shopped from the assortment of beautiful french scarves to take my outfit up a notch.

Please see the full post, where Beth also looks for European girl geeks, which are even rarer than here:

Techmamas: Geek is a Global Language – But Twitter is Not (yet)