A Gentle Introduction

This is it - after years, or at least days of hesitation, I decided to create a blog. The event that finally tipped the scales was as simple as the Vox invitation that Jyri sent me.

I don't expect this to become a Technorati top 100 blog (although I already have at least two readers! :). Instead, I would like to use this as a kind of a semi-public channel for communicating with my friends, colleagues and a few others who share the interest in the weird, wonderful world of high-tech startups. At the moment, I am especially interested [and also involved] in mobile Internet consumer services, mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), online games, and rich presence.

Most likely my angle on things will be somewhat Finnish: although both Jaiku and First Hop are quite international, I feel there is already enough blogging on the global high-tech scene. However, I may break the rule every now and then and write about a few, typically software-related technologies and projects for the simple reason that I cannot help but to become excited about cool programming languages, clean and efficient libraries, or beautiful, easy to use end-to-end services.

About the name of this blog: There does not exist a good word for entrepreneur in Finnish. The closest one is "yrittäjä", which can be translated as "trier". According to Oxford American Dictionary, a trier is "a person who always makes an effort, however unsuccesful they may be". It is no wonder Finland was recently ranked the 26th country [out of 35 countries)] in the ratio of entrepreneurs triers per capita, which was less than 5%. It is encouraging, however, that the general start-up scene in Finland seems to be revitalizing and there are already a few success stores such as Habbo/Sulake and a number of game and 3D graphics boutiques.