Processing Impressions is temporarily closed – Here comes Andipreneurship
Call me foolish, call me creative – I had to it again. I just felt like I had to switch my blog name again. I find processing impressions too much related to my travel experience to use it as a channel for communicating my thoughts on what’s currently happening in my professional life. For this reason and because I love the ease of use of it, I switched back to Blogger, back to where I came from. You can now find my blog posts at andipreneurship.blogspot.com until the point of time when I decide to go on a trip again.
January 31, 2009: The first StartupCamp Switzerland to take place in Basel
Are you a high-tech, Web or life-science entrepreneur just starting up in Switzerland? Or an investor, funding agency, vendor or consultancy particularly geared towards startups?
Then attend the first StartupCamp in Switzerland!
Further information can be found in the Synetgies Forum. You might as well want to check out the corresponding Facebook group.
The next Google / The next Facebook
People around the internet are debating about Web 3.0, about Mobile Search, about disruptive video publishing and editing technologies, etc. Most of the discussions aim at identifying the next big thing aka the next Google OR the next Facebook. The secret is very simple, you don’t have to look for one OR the other, just combine the best of both and you’ll find the holy grail: wuala.
Facebook plus Google equals Wuala
The scientific value of the Oktoberfest
Last saturday was the second time for me to get to Munich late, get up early in the next morning and wait in front of one of the tents at Oktoberfest “only” to drink some beer with friends. We arrived in front of the tent around 7:30 am and ended up standing somewhere in the very middle of the crowd that aimed at getting in the same entrance as us. Everybody was happy and everybody knew exactly that the door was not going to open before 9am. Everybody also knew that there is very limited space for people to get through and that pushing the crowds would not have any effect on the “time-to-beer”. However, the people in the back could not wait to get closer to the door and started pushing, which made people in front of them (second last row) trying to save their breath and push the people in front of them (third last row). This wave continued until there was only a wall that could not be pushed away by the people in the very front. Trying to resist the enormous forces that develop when the mass of 300 people pushes against you, they pushed their arms against the wall and therefore started a wave of pushing towards the back.
Now why would all this have a scientific value?
Well, there are concepts, such as the wisdom of crowds, which deal with the intelligence of swarms or groups. My addition to all the concepts is that two attributes of our human race (maybe only Germans) have to be considered when dealing with “the intelligence” of such groups:
- People generally seem to care about themselves first, then think about the effect of their actions on others (I do not mean such complex things as the claim of inequality of income, I’m talking about very simple things like being to first to get a beer)
- Some very few can give impulses to groups which develop into waves. These waves will put hundreds into the need for protection. Their actions for self-protection will continue the waves and will eventually lead to a massive backfire on the impulse-givers. Those might interpret the backfire the wrong way and give even stronger impulses. The loop continues until a very strong force stops the waves.
That leads me to a research proposal:
My assumption is that I’m not the only one who really dislikes this way of getting into a tent.
My question therefore is, whether the best solution for the Oktoberfest would be to install fences to direct people or if the tent owners should conduct a social study among their clients and develop a concept to give the right impulses?
To answer the question, a lot of research would need to be undertaken. Thus, the Oktoberfest can serve as an application case and as a large resource of probands at the same time ;-).
How many countries can you name in 5 minutes?
I could name 67 countries in five minutes. The trip has had its effects. More importantly than just naming the countries, I could connect a certain impression of how the country looks like and what makes it special with a large share of them. How many countries can you name just from your memory? and what is the most impressive image that comes to your mind while you brainstorm?
P.S.: If you think you are faster at handwriting, I’ll accept hand written proofs, too
P.P.S.: I wouldn’t mind dicussing the answers to my questions in person, so responses by phone or during the next meet-up will be taken into account for the final ranking.
😉
Germany (Koblenz) and Switzerland (Zurich)
Some time has passed since we got back from our very exciting trip around the world. I always tried to avoid people talking about an “around the world” trip because in my opinion an actual around the world trip is a trip on which you get to see each and every country of the world (or at least a larger share of them than we did). Technically though, I have to admit that we went around the world once and that I have to accept that people talk about an “around the world trip” when they refer to Flo’s and mine past few months.
Touching down in Germany and coming back to the town of Koblenz after more than a year of absence, I started to realize how beautiful well-preserved old buildings actually are. It was probably the contrast to so many other places that changed my perception. We had seen so many old buildings that must have been very beautiful in the past but either countries or their governments didn’t seem to care about the preservation of the cultural goods or they simply didn’t have the money to afford it. I’m glad to originate from a region where we are able to appreciate these charming treasures of our very recent and sometimes not so recent past.
After my quick visit to Germany I went back to Zurich. The city is supposed to be the city that offers the highest quality of living in the world (Mercer Management Consulting says so). I really liked the city before we left but I started to love it after we came back. Of course there are many cities in this world where there is a lot more going on in terms of variety of restaurants or nightlife. But since I either way fell sick with going out with less than 10 friends recently (because it seems to be all the same everywhere around the world in every club you go), I have to admit that I could imagine to stay here for a long time. The beautiful lake, the closeness of the mountains, the clean air, the excellent public transport system, the good looking crowd, the charming old town, the security, etc. make tis city an outstanding and unique place. Furthermore people usually don’t trick you here, you just pay the price that is indicated on the label. One doesn’t have to fear to fall sick from cleaning their teeth with tap water, etc. Zurich generally just offers a very, very high standard of living to everyone.
I’m happy with my decision to start working in Zurich for now. Let’s see how my gut feeling evolves as my memories from the amazing past year fade out and everyday life fades in.
Ecuador (Guayaquil, Galapagos)
The final stage of our trip brought us to Ecuador. First we had a one night stop-over in Guayaquil, a harbour city at the Ecuadorian coast, then we went on to the amazing Galapagos islands. Since we were the only part of the group that arrived on the late AeroGal flight instead of the early Tame flight, we had to try to find our guide which apparently had already left the airport. Since the 250 guides on the Galapagos all know each other, we asked around and could easily find the guy who was responsible to transport the group´s luggage to the ship. We joined to luggage on the lorry and safely arrived on board of Angelito.
The ship and the amazingly friendly crew managed to provide us the holiday we had longed for at the end of our first long trip “around the world”. We had to get up early every day and Diego aka “El Commandante” always made sure the ship´s bell would ring at exactly 7 o´clock to call everyone for breakfast. We usually went off to some island for roughly two hours, had a short break and went snorkling thereafter. Then – while having lunch – we usually continued our cruise to another spot on the island or to another island and spent about two hours enjoying the unique flora and fauna. The rest of day was free for swimming or simply relaxing on board before we had our very funny daily information session at exactly 18.30 in order to be ready for dinner at 19.00 (and no single minute later).
The cruise brought us to almost every visitable spot on the Galapagos islands and showed us the bio-diversity this unique enclosed ecosystem had to offer. From albatrosses (on their “airport”, where they jumped off the cliffs) to giant sea lions (under water, on rocks, on beaches, on boats, etc.), over sharks and giant sea turtles to land and marine Iguanas (as well as hybrids), we got to see a good share of the wildlife the Galapagos have to offer. We could snorkle with sea lions, play with them and follow giant sea turtles as they were feeding. We could compare ourselves to giant land turtles at Darwin station and we saw “vegetarian” iguanas eating left-overs of dead birds. Generally speaking, we added many, many very unique and interesting impressions before we packed our backpacks for the last time in order to start our long journey back to Europe.
We are again in Guayaquil for a stop-over and take off in direction Frankfurt tomorrow. It was a great time, we – which nobody would ever believe us – never really had serious conflicts except for the choice of restaurants (sea food or not sea food 😉 and collected an endless repertoire of unique impressions that we are going to remember for a very long time. I´m now looking forward to catching up with friends and family and to finally start working in August. If time allows, I might post some results of the “explorative cultural studies” we performed during the last four months.
– STOP, OVER and OUT – see you all in beloved Switzerland.
Peru (Puno, Cuzco, Salkantay, Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu)
We continued our trip along lake Titicaca from Copacabana to Puno. The small town has nothing to offer but some very touristy rip-off trips to some small islands. The highlight was to enjoy the Eurocup final inside some crowded restaurant with Spanish and German fans. We moved on to the neat and very toursity town of Cuzco, where we explored the place a bit and used our time to relax before the big Salkantay trek. The best thing to see in this town is Plaza de Armas, the cathedral, as well as the restaurant “Granja Heidi”. Seldomly on our trip have we enjoyed such good food!
The Salkantay trek, a five day walking tour along the Salkantay mountain in direction Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu, was an amazing adventure. We started in a hot, well-vegetated environment and walked about 1300m further away from the sea level. Our camp was located below two glaciers at 3800m, therefore the night was freezing. The next day we had to cross a pass at around 4700m and go back down to 2900m – another very exhausting but fruitful experience. We got to see many different kinds of landscapes and could even watch Condors passing us quite frequently. Two more days of walking in the jungle, partially along rail ways, and we finally reached the highlight of the trip: the ruins of Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is another cultural complex that cannot be described in words. It can only be experienced because all the snowy mountains, the jungle and the environment as a whole add a lot to the impression the left-overs of this ancient city make on its visitors.
In summary, Machu Picchu was another highlight (who would have guessed that? 😉 of our trip and the food in Granja Heidi added a lot to our perception of the quality of living in Cuzco. One thing is for sure: Machu Picchu has to be part of every trip to South America, it is – just like Angkor Wat – a cultural highlight of the region.
We are now looking forward to pass Lima in order to spend our last week of the trip on the Galapagos Islands.
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