deterritorialized society
March 30, 2008
through what would you define your social affiliation if you could only use one term? citizenship? religion? profession? philosophy of life?
less than ever i use my swiss nationality or any other territorial determinant to define my belonging: i work in a highly internationalized business. we post in english and german. over easter we went to spain for some windsurfing and affiliated with an international bunch of windsurf buddies. last week we spent with our romanian colleagues from epoint. the last three days melissa joined our team from england. next week our team will be in germany. the two weeks after we will be in san francisco. and so on.
people more and more spend their life with buddies that have been raised outside their territorial unit. and faster than ever the world’s geocultural segmentation is melting down in favour of global networks of people sharing the same mindset.
so, will all our children be digital nomads? mentally yes. and maybe the day will come where they lodge their bodies on denationalized and privatized territories – like camping sites for likeminded communities – being able to afford the same service level. liberal indeed!
efficient society
March 27, 2008
half a year ago we had the luck to find epoint, our romanian coding partner; without the help of any middleman, just by searching xing for specific tags. a few days ago dania booked our next flights; without the support of any travel agency, just by using the cheapest airline’s website.
these are just two examples for brokerage that has been done by human intermediaries for the last hundreds and thousands of years and is now being taken over by web applications – within no time! even swiss private bankers – probably the most discrete people on earth – are opening up to the web. why pay somebody a finder fee, if you can get to the client directly!?
the increase of user-friendly brokerage tools is leading to a world of increased transparency and “self-control”, less transaction costs, the reduction of asymmetric information distribution and therewith to a more efficient and fair allocation of resources .
people looking for goods, services and people are enjoying a much higher comparability. and therefore – with a higher probability – spend their time, money and efforts on what they really want! for example when they’re looking for the right partner on the internet, or the most interesting people to meet at the next conference. like we do – for re:publica!
There is another video on the web starring Dania at the Lift Conference. Dania gives more information on Amazee, what to expect, and our schedule for the weeks coming. Check it out!
(I did not include the original video since i fooled around with iMovie a bit last night on my way home, so be sure to watch till the end!)
In other news we created a ‘Friends of Amazee’ group on Facebook to keep people over there updated on our progress and to spread the word. So if you like to join there as well feel free — the group is open to everybody, so tell your friends.
der countdown läuft…
March 26, 2008
gründlich durchgecheckt,
steht sie da,
und wartet auf den start.
alles klar.
experten streiten sich
um ein paar daten.
die crew hat dann
noch ein paar fragen, doch-
der countdown läuft.
(peter schilling)
…bald gehts los. bis dahin könnt ihr mit uns die sekunden zählen und mitfiebern. oder noch besser: schon mal alphatesten und unter den ersten sein, die Amazee zu gesicht bekommen. hinterlasst uns dafür einfach eure mailadresse auf dieser seite. wir gehen sorgfältig damit um, versprochen! und wenn alles klappt, bekommt ihr für die nächste testrunde einen persönlichen code.
dematerialized society
March 18, 2008
do you know why material possessions still are the hottest self-promotion tool on earth? because there’s no alternative to indicate one’s importance and social standing on first sight. imagine monaco, st. moritz or commercial hip hop clips without cars, caviar, champagne, fur coats, diamonds and all the other status symbols. it just wouldn’t work without the accessories!
do you know why I think that this biological behaviour of showing off with material possessions will change after thousands and thousands of years? because people are meeting and spending more and more time in the internet – a fully dematerialized, virtual world.
the web is the future marketplace where people will try to impress and battle for attention. and this attention will only be given when the generated content is of interest – and can be found – which again requires skills and creativity. you can’t just drive up with a posh car.
society’s mindset will shift from deriving attention and social recognition from material possessions (except for the most trendy communication tools of course…) and reward those with attention and fame who are fast and flexible in accessing and promoting information – the most valuable, non-material good of our media society.
Hello World! Hello Amazee!
March 10, 2008
Today was my first day at Amazee!
Thanks everybody on the team for the warm welcome and the great start they gave me today in the morning. After visiting the office @ Techopark several times before my first day was quite busy… ranging from technical tasks to meetings and some internal things (btw: Google Sites is a great and easy tool for creating an intranet).
In the future I hope to keep you all updated on our progress here at Amazee. I will try to post at least twice a week on different topics.
Meanwhile I hope all the Amazee alpha testers are having fun. And if you read this and are not yet registered with Amazee or an approved alpha tester go to amazee.net and register or sign up for an invitation!
office planning for cost-conscious start-ups
March 10, 2008
are you confronted with an overstuffed office? no problem. amazee has developed a new double-layer system that takes the vertical axis into account. it allows you use the square meter below exisiting work places, usually only populated by two legs and some cables. please view the illustration for implementation.
liviu, malte und zürich
March 6, 2008
liviu, unser rumänischer chefprogrammierer von epoint (r.) und malte, vielleicht bald Amazees techtrainee (l.), hoch über zürich auf dem üetliberg
