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 MoreUK Diary: Friday – Cambridge Consultants, Nokia And Microsoft Research Labs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT3hro-BsQc
Friday afternoon the Traveling Geeks visit Cambridge Consultants and visit the William Gates III building for meetings with researchers from Nokia Labs and Microsoft Research Labs (MRL).
Cambridge Consultants has helped bring to market products such as:
– Virtually waterless washing machine
Low cost cellular base stations.
More here.
The Microsoft Research Labs are part of the academic community at Cambridge university and the work is open and peer-reviewed. In the video our guide is Cambridge university lecturer and successful entrepreneur Jack Lang, also Ken Wood, deputy director of MRL, Tim Regan, Research SDE at MRL, and presentations from their colleagues. The video also shows some of Microsoft’s research projects.
Skimlinks Navarro & Kwaga’s Leval and Bezy
At Seedcamp in London this month, I talk to Skimlink’s CEO Alicia Navarro and Kwaga’s founders Philipe Leval and Eric Bezy.
UK Diary: Friday – Cambridge Startups
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo_aUaJlAFA
Friday and the Traveling Geeks are in Cambridge, the innovation capital of Europe.
After presentations by Cambridge university representatives and also from government agencies helping startups, the Traveling Geeks take part in a panel and also hear presentations from local startups:
– Alert Me
– Taptu
Moshi Monsters: Virtual World for Kids
I spent some time talking to MindCandy’s Michael Acton Smith talking about their primary brand: Moshi Monsters, which is essentially a Facebook mixed with virtual world experience for kids.
He talks about how kids can create pet monsters, participate in games and contests, and engage with their friends in various ways that are safe and secure.
We also dive into marketing and what kinds of things they have been experiencing with as a young company only out of the gate just over a year. It includes Facebook advertising as well as traditional TV. Learn more in my chat with Michael below.
British Consulate General’s Matthew Whiteley
A chat with the British Consulate-General of Los Angeles who talks about his interest in U.S. companies wishing to expand their business into the U.K. market.
An Interview with GroupSpaces, UberVu and School of Everything
Below is an interview with the founders of GroupSpaces, UberVu and School of Everything at Seedcamp in London earlier this month.
An Israeli’s Take on UK Startups
Ayelet Noff of Blonde 2.0 and contributor to TechCrunch Europe, The Next Web and Social Media.biz, talks about her experience on the Traveling Geeks tour to London as well as some of her favorite startups. Below, we’re chatting outside the TechCrunch Europa Awards event in London.
Wonga’s Short Term Loan Solution
Wonga’s CEO and Founder Errol Damelin talks to me about their short term lending solution.
Wonga, an Accel Partners funded company based in the UK, focuses on short term cash advances, which is also suitable for mobile. Over 100,000 loans have gone through their system already and it’s growing.
People are using Wonga today to solve short-term cashflow problems. One of the things that is making people adopt it so quickly is that it’s fast, easy, convenient and easy to use.
Within an hour, you can have short term cash in your hands and the whole application process only takes a few minutes. Tune in for more below.
Skype and the Social Web
Perhaps a little known fact outside Skype Headquarters is that the social web is fundamental to its product development strategy.
During the development of Skype 4.0 for Windows, for example, over 50,000 individual pieces of feedback were gathered from users around the world, from blogs, forums and Twitter as well as direct surveys.
Skype’s experience team, which consists of a mixture of designers and researchers, reviewed and analyzed the data they received, and their findings had a direct influence on the way the product grew and matured from beta to final versions.
Functionality and user interface were both greatly influenced by the views of Skype users, but not, of course, without the expert knowledge and experience of Skype’s engineers and designers.
For Skype, however, this wasn’t a one-off; it’s an everyday way of doing business. Peter Parkes, Skype’s blogger-in-chief, works daily with product teams to gather, collate and pass on feedback. And it doesn’t just go to the engineers and designers who build the software itself.
The feedback also helps their customer support team provide better answers to users’ questions, and helps their marketing team produce more compelling copy. Remember, every tweet counts.
Refer back to the video interview I did with Parkes and community manager Dobb.
Skype was a sponsor of the Traveling Geeks UK tour.
Staying Put for a While
I'm about one-third of the way through my 18-month death-march around the world seeking its best entrepreneurs, or as I call it in polite conversation, work on my new book. It's time for a break. Aside from a few day trips here or there I'm sticking in San Francisco for the next six weeks where I'll try to be a better blogger for TechCrunch, a more reliable columnist for BusinessWeek and get more actual writing on the book banged out. I'm going to keep working on learning Portuguese and Mandarin. I'm going to cook dinner for my husband. I'm going to reintroduce myself to my much-stood-up Pilates trainer. And I may even attempt to have a social life again.
I feel mixed about it. Most of me is screaming out for a break from 20-hour flights, endless meetings and the frustration that comes with interviewing someone from a totally different culture, who is frequently speaking a totally different language. (See photo to the right– just moments before a speaking gig. See sadder photo below. Human rights groups are investigating.) On Thursday as I was packing up to leave my hotel in London, scouring for every stray sock or earring, wondering what I'd leave behind this time (sunglasses as it turned out), and hoping I'd allotted enough time for customs, security and the like– I had a crushing feeling of I desperately, desperately need a month off!
But as I reflect on everything I've seen and experienced during the 10 weeks I've spent in Israel, Rwanda, China and London, another part of me can't wait to get back on the road. When I set out to write this book, I didn't totally know what I was getting into, aside from the hope that it'd be important and the certainty that it'd be life-changing on a personal level. The first few months I felt a bit lost and concerned, but now, six months in, it's coming together. I've written several thousand words, discovered stories so dramatic they could be made into films and the big macro themes of book are shaping themselves in my head every day. The book is becoming less of an epidsodic travel narrative and more of a, well, book. As much work as there is ahead, I know now I've got something, and that's a huge relief. (See photo to below taken in a happier, more rested moment. Although note my sad, tired computer is missing an "R" key.)
So as I pause for a bit, I wanted to thank everyone who's made the whole thing possible thus far: Dan Nova for introducing me to Rwanda, Roi Carthy and Orli Yakuel for being my den mothers in Israel, Tom Limongello for, well, everything in China, and Paul Carr for being my unofficial personal assistant in London, while Rachel Bremer set me up with some of the most impressive companies I've seen in the UK to date. Huge thanks also to Endeavor– the experts in emerging world entrepreneurship, and to BusinessWeek and TechCrunch for being endlessly supportive of this suicide-mission. And, of course, Olivia for taking care of the kitties in my absence, and Mr. Lacy for somehow putting up with all of this.
After the break, I'll finish the year with Brazil, China, India, and back to Israel. As always, let me know anyone I must meet.
[PHOTO CREDITS: Ayelett Noff, JD Lasica, Craig Newmark]
