About Us
Traveling Geeks is a consortium of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, authors, journalists, bloggers, technology innovators and influencers who travel to countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public to educate, share, evaluate, and promote new, innovative technologies. The initiative was founded by Renee Blodgett and Jeff Saperstein in 2008.
Trips are funded by sponsorships from corporations, organizations and governments. The first tour was sponsored by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a trip that successfully marked the proof of concept that could expand to other countries around the world.
Read MoreThe World of the Crowd Surfer
In a dialogue back and forth with Martin Thomas recently, we talked “crowd surfing.” Below are some interesting and amusing extracts from his book.
“There is a story, probably apocryphal, about an architect who designed a university campus. On the day of the grand opening, he was approached by the Head of the University, who commented that ‘the buildings look fantastic, but why haven’t you put in any paths to connect them?’
The architect smiled knowingly and replied, “I will come back in six months to put in the paths, once I have seen how the students have chosen to walk between the buildings.” Rather than impose his own views of where the paths should go, or use some elaborate computer simulation model, he believed that an enlightened architect should respond to the behavior of the crowd.
Welcome to the world of the crowd surfer: a world in which a new generation of business and political leaders have learned how to harness the energy, ideas and enthusiasm of today’s empowered consumers. They are not manipulators, demagogues or mere populists.
They have been smart enough to recognize that people around the globe – emboldened and enthused by a new spirit of enquiry and self-expression, and powered by the internet – have changed the rules of the game.
They realize that surrendering absolute control – giving their customers, partners and employees a greater say in the way that their businesses operate – is paradoxically, the most effective way to manage their corporate or political destiny.
Crowd surfers are the people that concur with racing driver Mario Andretti’s maxim that: ‘If everything seems under control you’re just not going fast enough.'”
European Entrepreneurs Come to Life with their Latest Creations
I spent a day at London’s Seedcamp earlier this month, where I met with a number of England and France-based startups, some of which have a presence in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world.
Seedcamp’s goal is to provide a catalyst for the next generation of great European entrepreneurs and help them take risks, think big, and succeed.
Participating in Seedcamp gives startups enormous validation and access to a world-class network of advisors, which helps entrepreneurs with every aspect of their business, plus a direct route to seed and venture capital. (Continue reading this entry…)
A Chat with Think London’s Barbara Grull-Cacao
I had a chat recently with Think London’s Barbara Grull-Cacao. We ended up engaging in a bit of a Q&A. Her thoughts below.
Renee: what technology saves your life every day and the one you are most grateful for?
Barbara: It’s quite simply accessing emails and the Internet on the go. My PDA is more valuable than my office access card as I win at least an hour per day to get things done.
I usually liaise with people in both the US and Asia, and in the early mornings I can still juggle night workers on the West Coast and queries from Asia at the same time. Now all I need – at the moment – is a solar charger to untie myself from the need for a plug.
I’m actually most grateful for the fact that I never have to set foot into a supermarket again, thanks to online shopping. That’s another important time saver and may be symptomatic to the way Londoners embrace online consumerism.
Renee: what technology and/or gadget or both makes you more productive than any other?
Barbara: Again, it’s my PDA, which allows me to crunch time for accessing emails, online news and information and tweet live from events.
Renee: What’s your role at Think London?
Barbara: I manage Think London’s ‘London Now’ marketing program. This is all about reaching out to potential overseas investors into London, stakeholders and partners, making the case that there has never been a better time to invest in London.
This program is the umbrella for a huge number of marketing activities, ranging from campaigns, events and webinars to media outreach and messaging support for influential partners and stakeholders.
Renee: what’s your goal for Think London in the next year?
Barbara: Find the web 2.0 or possibly web 3.0 key to engage most efficiently with our vast number of communities, which are spread across a dozen different sectors and more than 40 countries.
Help even more fast growing companies from the US and other countries to jump on the opportunities that the current market conditions have created in London, before that window is closing.
This city has been maintaining an incredible buzz and is now cheaper to live in than New York, has got more affordable top property and talent readily available than ever before, is on the path to transforming itself into a sustainable city and has the 2012 Games and 75,000 business opportunities on its doorstep.
Protecting People Against Surveillance & Fraud
During my recent trip to Cambridge, I ran across Steven Murdoch, who is a post-doctoral researcher and developer at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and is working on the Tor Project, which is free software and an open network built to help protect people against surveillance.
The Tor Project is being used today by human rights workers, journalists, bloggers, law enforcement, and ordinary people.
Tor also helps resist censorship, allowing people to access websites which are being blocked, and protect themselves when publishing sensitive material. I am working on how to improve the performance and usability of the Tor.
Another project Steven has been working on is around banking security.
Since 2006, the UK has moved to using smartcards for credit and debit cards — so called Chip & PIN. While in many ways this is an improvement of security over the older system, there are a growing number of fraud victims who are not being refunded by their bank.
The banks claim that Chip & PIN is secure, and so anyone who states that they are the victim of card fraud is either mistaken, lying, or has been negligent.
Steven’s research evaluates the security of the Chip & PIN system and, along with a team, they have been able to show that there are numerous security vulnerabilities which can (and sometimes have) been exploited by fraudsters.
Further information on the banking security work can be found here.
SaaS Goes Open Source: Kaltura’s Yekutiel Tells Us Why
Kaltura’s Ron Yekutiel talks to us about open source and video. They organized and participated in a SaaS Goes Open Source panel at AlwaysOn this week, together with SpikeSource, Zimbra, Acquia, Fenwick & West and Alfresco.
It’s disruptive he says, but tears down those gardened walls giving corporations better control, flexibility and better integration. More from Ron on the SaaS model, video and open source below.
My6Sense Updates Us
Barak Hachamov and the My6Sense team gathers in Palo Alto to talk about their updates and upcoming iPhone app.
A Kiwi’s Mission to get Millions of Women Pregnant
Below is Shamus Husheer, the genius behind DuoFertility, which is being launched in the UK this month. Shamus’ Mission? To get millions of women pregnant.
Below Shamus holds the monitor that consists of a discreet, hand-held reader and a small sensor, roughly the size of a £1 coin, which is worn underneath your arm. The sensor measures your temperature continuously and uses this information to pinpoint your ovulation and identify when you are most fertile, helping you to get pregnant more easily.
Below Shamus talks to me in a video interview during a dinner held at the oldest college at Cambridge University: 1284, hence the quality of the audio.
William Tunstall Pedoe of True Knowledge Talks Semantic Search
True Knowledge improves the experience of finding known facts on the Web. Think: semantic search. Their first service – the True Knowledge Answer Engine – is a major step toward fulfilling a longstanding Internet industry goal: providing consumers with instant answers to complex questions, with a single click.
Picking up where search engines leave off, True Knowledge’s Answer Engine automates the laborious, time-consuming work that users generally must do to get final answers to their questions.
True Knowledge does this by structuring data in a way that enables computers to work and think like humans do, drawing inferences and conclusions when needed to find the information that’s requested.
Another key differentiator: True Knowledge is tapping subject matter experts around the globe to build its information repository – bringing together the benefits of machine-driven automation and people-driven intelligence.
In the below video, I’m chatting with the founder William Tunstall Pedoe in Cambridge England.
Wise Advice From a Wise Geek
Advice from Jeff Saperstein on Changing Careers
While I was in Cambridge on the Traveling Geeks trip, I decided to interview one of the wisest geeks I know- Jeff Saperstein for some tips on how to make the switch. If you’re at all looking to change careers this is the video for you.
[vimeo 5700747]
10 videos from eConsultancy roundtables
From eConsultancy:
A few weeks ago Econsultancy hosted the Traveling Geeks roundtables in London, where the US digerati turned out in force to discuss and debate trends and issues.
The Geeks – featuring the likes of Craig Newmark, Robert Scoble and Susan Bratton – found that there is far more in common between the UK and US than is sometimes suggested, albeit with some notable differences (“fear of failure”).
The UK-based attendees included Poke’s Iain Tate, lastminute.com’s Marko Balabanovic and Steph Gray from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
After the roundtable discussions had taken place we shot a little bit of video, where we interviewed a bunch of the attendees to figure out what they’d learned from the day. Do check them out…
