So What Did We Accomplish?
by Jeff Saperstein on August 10, 2009 at 10:55 pm
This morning I spoke with Roland Harwood, our counterpart at NESTA, who did so much to make The Geeks trip to London as productive and beneficial as we all could conceive. We agreed it was an extraordinary experiment with a leap of faith that our formal and informal encounters would have both short and long term beneficial impact on the region as well as for everyone involved.
Our visit, sponsored by NESTA, EEI and other donors, was a pilot experiment to see what would happen if we could turn bloggers, authors, and videocasters loose to communicate about innovation in London/Cambridge. Using the connectivity and immediacy of the Web in service of extending “knowing” rather than just knowledge about London/Cambridge, we took the leap.
The number of blog posts, twitters, videos, podcasts and photos is prodigious. Posted is a wide range of work that we plan to categorize for easy access.
The site itself, built and maintained by the Traveling Geeks, is an example of what can be done to dynamically archive the collective experiences on this unique journey. Hopefully, it may affect how technology is used to build community through interactivity on the web for many organizations.
Tens of thousands have followed the twitters; thousands more will see the postings, photos, and videos and will see/hear the videos and podcasts. This should increase general awareness and knowledge of the dynamic innovation in London/Cambridge.
Perhaps the most important accomplishment is the personal connection and engagement for each participant. We hoped we could both listen to learn and speak to provide our individual experience and perspective for the benefit of our kindred spirits in the region.
The generous hospitality of of our British hosts enabled each member of the group to relate individually to peers—formally and informally. Hopefully, connecting people everywhere to London/Cambridge through our personal experience on this trip— then using the web to extend those experiences to the awareness of many—will do good for a long time to come.
We are grateful and appreciate what so many have done for us.