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What’s wrong with capitalism: patio umbrella edition
The patio umbrella’s pulling cord snapped. Just replace it, how hard can that be? Turns out it can be very hard, in fact impossible. Why? The umbrella is put together in a way that I cannot access the place inside the hollow pole where the cord is tied around the bolt connected to the crank…
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The upside of sharing personal data
We had a rather interesting lunch yesterday at the MyData Silicon Valley Hub, on the occasion of a visit by Julian Ranger, board member of MyData Global and founder of personal data startup digi.me. Julian offered a striking proposition that I had not heard before. It is very much worth writing about, starting with some…
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My DIY backyard hydroponics system
And we are … live! Here it is, in all its glory :-) A few months ago, considering the deteriorating state of our planet, I decided I want to know more about how food grows (or fails to grow). So I started to read up on hydroponics. And a few weekends ago, I started building.…
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MyData in Silicon Valley – notes on our first full-moon meetup
What does a typical meetup in Silicon Valley look like? Some meeting room of some tech company Pizza, beer and soda Lots of dudes either pitching their latest wild startup, quietly waiting for the speaker to start, or looking for a job Some speaker pitching their new thing and while it will be the greatest…
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First MyData Silicon Valley event on Tuesday
We have been organizing a new regional hub in Silicon Valley for the MyData Global movement, and this coming Tuesday, July 16th, we will have our first public event in San Francisco. It’s open to the public and you are invited. Our goal is to create an ongoing in-person conversation about Ethics, Privacy and Personal…