"They all cook with water" - Day 1 of Social Media Study Tour

The Campanile at the UCB Campus

After a nice dinner at Kuleto’s on Sunday night today the Social Media Study Tour (the group) was kicked off at Swissnex. At the introduction to Swissnex (what we do) Christian Simm gave us the first important advice: They all cook with water!

The first highlight of the day was the presentation by Chuck Darrah. As a cultural anthropologist having neither a cell phone nor any social media presence he discussed the question what is Silicon Valley all about? And he’s convinced: “It’s a place not only for technological but also for social and cultural innovation.”

He came up with three main characteristics of the Silicon Valley:

1. Prevalence of high tech industry, spirit of innovation, creation of high tech jobs, culture of risk taking, big sense of optimism, 2. Complex cultural diversity, and 3. being an area of management with deeply connected networks which are constantly evolving: “networks are sometimes more real than companies”.