startupi

Arriving at Campus Party for another intense afternoon (for the unconference of the launch of Rede de Atendimento, Informação e Orientação - Raio Sebrae) I ran into Marcelo Branco (director general of the event) right at the entrance. We had a quick but wonderful conversation relating to the themes Startupi covers, as well as the upcoming Social Media Week São Paulo. A few observations from our chat:

• the growth of people participating online is creating a new way of being a citizen; people are demanding change in society in a more active way;

• digital inclusion can create social inclusion;

• Campus Party allows meetups between participants with disparate networks: technologists meet activists, who meet entrepreneurs, who meet educators, who meet communicators, etc.

• this type of interaction is paralleling the development of a web economy: innovation is not just happening in laboratories or in the academy, nor coming just from government or business;

• this type of interaction encourages the proactive and motivated energies of entrepreneurs;

• we noted that the businesses and projects most likely to flourish are the ones that are best at reaching outside the limited community of their own original network, institution or organization.