Internship in the Caribbean?

Yep, why not? Alvarion, the company providing equipment and training for the WiMAX-rollout i was working on in Tajikistan last summer has won some major contracts in the Caribbean. I guess they could need a helping hand, but why change the rain here in Aachen for the sunshine and beaches of Bahamas?

More from OverTheAir

So, me and Jonas decided to enjoy the free drinks and the party instead of coding the whole night. Above is a picture of the wine we drank. I’m wondering if RWTH-Aachen or LiTH-Linköping also has a wine?

Since I didn’t sleep much the night before and didn’t get much of sleep this night either, I’m kinda wasted right now, but trying to manage as much cool sessions as possible. Now it seems to be time for some FireEagle.

From OverTheAir

OverTheAir is a conference that has the proud goals of: “Bringing together developers, designers, hackers and entrepreneurs to explore the exciting future of wireless and mobile devices/applications.” It’s supported by Imperial College in London, and of course I’m there! We’re hanging out in the Sherfield building, about 400 of us. Some international visitors but mostly UK-ppl.

I took a early flight from Köln/Bonn (and yes, that means getting up reaaally early in Aachen). So far there is one more Swede here, and maybe we’ll make a contest contribution. Contest? Well all kinds of apps/widgets/tools/services with anything mobile can participate… so why not?

I’ve been to some interesting sessions, and some less interesting. As it always is on this type of conference. Check, as an example, this out

I also do quick comments on twitter: twitter.com/rhodin

Now off to a session about Java in Mobiles.

We’re not leading? Mobile Startups in US and EU

You know, the one and only industry that Europe has been leading in the last 100 years or so is telecom. I don’t mean IP-based, since Cisco and others owns that one also, but wireless and wireline: Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens, Alcatel, etc they are all European (Motorola being the exception). I found two nice posts one mobile startups, first the one from TechCrunch: The holy grail for mobile social networks. (OK, it’s “only” mobile social networks.) and this post from Sasha whom I met at the barcampruhr. It’s a comprehensive list of German mobile startups.

Nice Slides about social networks in Asia

Sometimes is easy to get stuck in the models from “our” social networks (xing, facebook, myspace, studivz…). This nice slide shows some nice facts about social networks in Asia..

Thnx to Andrew Chen on Futuristic Play

Sonntagmorgen.com live!

As you can see in the video, I’ve got my first shipment of non-beta coffee from Sonntagmorgen.com. I briefly covered Sonntagmorgen here earlier in this short post. At the time they were not even in Beta, but as time moves on… Just in time before X-mas the first beta-testers got the possibility to order via e-mail. Of course I took the possibility to get some nice presents for family and friends – all of them very satisfied. A couple of weeks ago
the site launched for the public(German speaking, that is;-) with great success(In the online-sphere).

This is a video (in Swedish) covering my opening of the first “live” packet. And yes, it tastes delicious!

Short recap on the concept: visit the site, make your on mix of coffe-beens (or order the pre-mixed sorts) together with aromas, write what you want published on the package, pay, get it shipped to your front door in the next few days.

Bulgaria and Macedonia

In the beginning of March I was spending one and a half week in Bulgaria and Macedonia. Suggestion: Young people, use the border-less possibilities of New Europe! (Oh well, with Schengen in place it’s not borderless at all for some (A LOT OF) ppl).

Some notes and tips for cost-minimization and “meeting exposure”-maximization :

1. Me and a friend from Sweden (also on exchange-year in Aachen) booked a return ticket from Cologne to Sofia for 80-100 Euros. (Germanwings).
2. In the region, we used CouchSufing for free of charge living and valuable insider information as well as contacts. Also check out hospitalityclub.
3. The new Europe is connected, and it’s not MSN Messenger. And it’s not ICQ. And it’s definitively not AOL. Use Skype my friends! Add me; spartac5 – is my skype-id.
4. Use social networks to keep in contact. (FB is big in Bulgaria, MySpace in Macedonia)
5. AND use E-mail to keep in contact.

Swedish companies are not just doing boring commercials. An example from Skopje:

In this case it’s Oriflame trying to increase market share in Macedonia with help from Elena Risteska. Watching the crowd it seemed like it was a great move by Oriflame – Very popular among the 12-year old Macedonian girls… and for Swedish tourists

More on busniess opportunities in Bulgaria in later posts.

BarCampRuhr in Essen

This Weekend I’ll be in Essen (“Ruhrgebiet”) on my first BarCamp. Anybody else joining? If so, feel free to contact me. I’ll hope to get a post up on it asap, and also cover some of the cool things experienced on my latest Balkans-trip (Bulgaria and Macedonia).

Mobile payments in Afghanistan

Vodafone launches mobile payments in Afghanistan, according to this news flash from Cellular-News. According to the only coverage map available on www.gsmworld.com, there is only coverage in Mazar-e-Sharif, Kabul, Kandahar and 3 other cities. (The map is from ROSHAN, which is the operator useing Vodafones mobile payment solution. The map is outdated.)

Yet another Swedish comp does the mobile Internet? Mondozer

Let’s follow Mondozer. Cool widgets from your favourite Inet services straight to your mobile. OK, cool BUT: You, the App-creator has to pay for the users using your App! Do you see where this goes wrong? This will strictly reduce the number of users creating their own small cool apps “just to try it out” and the end effect will be that Mondozer misses the “next YouTube”.

PS. This charging info is only available on the Swedish version of the web-page not on the English. How come?