A Perspective on Entrepreneurship, Technology & Locative Dynamics

OK, already some days ago but it was good to keep some distance on all these manifold impressions of the LIFT conference 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland. I attended the event as part of the 20 international students sponsored by the Gebert Rüf Stiftung. LIFT is about the opportunities and challenges of technology on our society. It is one of the major web conferences in Europe and thus characterized by great speakers and very interested attendees. From designers, entrepreneurs, developers, sociologists, freelancers, professors to students every group was represented. I liked the variety and the mix of so many different and often opposing ideas. It is a place where you gather impressions.

The conference had only one single track with very diverse sessions. Online Environments, Gaming, Sustainability, A Glimpse of Asia or User Experience to name a few. Videos of these talks are available at Nouvo.tv or at VPod.tv in full screen mode. It is great to have them freely accessible for everyone. I should also mention the great social and artistic events that accompanied the conference. But a cheese fondue with over 600 persons was definitely the highlight. At the end of such a conference you will recognize: “I got LIFTed”.

Here some more or less random links to interesting websites and blogs of speakers or attendees I met.

• Nabaztag - The First Smart Wi-Fi-enabled Rabbit, developed by the French company Violet
• On the luck of Seven - An open-source journey around the world documenting free culture, social innovators & global change.
• Kevin Warwick - Professor of Cybernetics, The British “cyborg”
• Open Innovators - A Website about Crowdsourcing and Open Innovation. By Philippe de Ridder from Belgium
• Zentrale Intelligenz Agentur - A company from Berlin experiencing new ways of working
• Ewan McIntosh’s edu.blogs.com - Social participative media, education and the future
• Wireless North - A Canadian blog covering the mobile sector. By Thomas Purves.
• Remarkk! - Mark Kuznicki, a Canadian tech blogger with a focus on creative communities
• WattWatt - A community for individuals interested in electrical energy efficiency

To conclude, I totally recommend going to the LIFT conference, also because Geneva is a great place to visit and a good starting point for some traveling or skiing in Europe.

Noel Hidalgo, On The Luck Of Seven - An open-source journey around the world documenting free culture, social innovators & global change.




Paul Barnett is creative director for Electronic Arts Mythic.




Robin Hunicke is both an academic and practitioner working at Electronic Arts




Kevin Warwick, the British “cyborg” researcher who implanted a microchip in his body.

Rafi Haladjian talks about his latest venture: Violet, the French tech company behind the wi-fi-enabled rabbit Nabaztag.




Enjoy watching some great talks.

I posted a blog entry on the LIFT conference community blog. It is about the characteristics and differences of mobile and web content, if you want to separate these two. Feel free to comment on these thoughts.

The Internet and its services play a more and more important role on mobile devices and thus I am interested in mobile application development and its chances for startups. Everyone is waiting for mobile killer applications for years but we are coming closer and I expect 2009 to be an interesting mobile year.