Comments on: Interconnectedness 2.0

By: sustento

sustento — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:04:58 +0000

Yep ChCh just doesn’t have the vibe or networks as far as i’ve seen but there are lots of people around doing all sorts of stuff. At VortexDNA we probably know more people in San Fran than ChCh. If we were based in Wellin it would be way different. That’s probably why we are having a board meeting there on Monday

I’ve been at the NZ Association of Economists conference today in Christchurch (makes a change) and a lot of people down from Wellington and a fun bunch they are (economists are real people!). Maybe we’re too surburban in ChCh or maybe we need to make more effort?

By: A cool tool…. « business, strategy, economic development and manufacturing in New Zealand

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 08:45:34 +0000

[...] 27th, 2007 One of the businesses on display last night was Interclue who have developed a cool little extension for Mozilla Firefox that allows one to [...]

By: benkepes

benkepes — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:57:55 +0000

No probs Bren. After all 25 or so years living in Wellington compared to a mere decade in Canterbury make me more of a Wellingtonian than a Cantabrian. And yes – Wellington is full of displaced persons making it more likely to harbour an open vibe. Christchurch – well it’s still shipped in a “First Four Ships” mentality

By: Brenda

Brenda — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 06:11:08 +0000

Hi Ben
Sorry for getting your mainlander status confused – take it as a compliment perhaps
One thing that I find interesting about the Wellington bloggers that I referenced, particularly the business ones, is that they seem to mix their business and personal postings all together. Gives them some kind of humanity at the same time as illustrating their business interests and focus.
I suspect something similar may happen in and around Auckland, although perhaps more on a social level there …

By: Morris Johns

Morris Johns — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:20:46 +0000

Hi Ben, First time caller

Blogs are a symptom of interconnectedness, not a cause (wonderful article by Brenda).

The vibe coming from Wellington amazes me. There is the same talent down here, but there is no obvious signs that people gel together in the same manner.

Wellington has a financial heart, it has a cafe culture, and it has Courtenay Place at night. To keep connected personally is as easy as a coffee during the day, a drink at night, or running in to someone on the street. Also most everyone is there for business, often dislocated so open to new friendships, and people end up with social groups across vastly different job and personality types.

Trying to kick-start the same vibe down here feels a little forced and unnatural – perhaps similar to trying to replicate skunkworks or Google culture.

Great to meet you last night – all the presentations were superb – we were all very happy with the whole night!

Morris

PS: Seth Wagoner from InterClue has a very good blog: http://sethop.com/ — and I have a zombie blog http://blog.morrisjohns.com/ !

PPS: This makes me think of the anthropological studies of businesses and inter-person connectivity e.g. in a high rise between people on different floors of a business versus on the same floor – one floor difference had a big impact on how much contact there was between people; or the study that each 10min extra commute leads to 10% less friends.