CURRENT MISSION

I'm on a mission to marry cultural studies and technology (hoping to complete my PhD before I turn 40:)

ABOUT ME

Grew up in a village in Germany, close to the former German-German border, left when I was 19 - not because I knew what to do, but because I knew I couldn't stay.

Went to South Africa at 23 to defeat my fear of being alone and far, far away - learned using the web whilst planning to get there. That was in 1996. Been homesteading on the electronic frontier ever since.

Freelanced and worked part time as a web developer, community manager/online editor whilst studying. Evaded the web agency business as the bubble burst when I was ready to work full-time. Worked as an online project manager for about a year for a consumer electronics company, then moved to Austria to teach media studies in English at a University of Applied Sciences.

Relocated to Vienna in 2007, a city I love almost as much as I love Cologne. In the meantime decided that I never want to work full-time again. I don't need a car or a Mauritius getaway.

Made a living as a corporate blogger for a Semantic Web Company, learning a lot about and learning to believe in the Web of Data. In December 2008, I started work as a part-time research manager for the Dept. of Theatre, Film and Media Studies at Vienna University.

Also in 2008, I commenced my PhD project on Digital Online Media - which explains the origin of my most frequently used nickname: digiom.

PHILOSOPHY

No regrets!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now, I'm living in a tiny one-bed room apartment, with a shower in the kitchen (this is still common for smaller/cheaper apartments here in Vienna, Austria). But there's a living room with a comfy sofa, preferably offered to female CouchSurfers.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Signed up on July 23, 2009 no experiences to report yet!

Interests

Culture, technology, film, running, singing - would like to do more yoga. If I travel, it is mostly to attend a conference. I am not much of a vacationer - if I visit another country, I prefer to be able to stay a few months, or at least weeks.

• culture
• singing
• acting
• perfumes
• yoga
• running
• electronics
• technology
• traveling
• blogging
• homesteading
• business
• communications
• cultural studies
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

I would like to read more literature, but my reading time is split between academic fare and blogs at the moment. This is a fine blog from Finland which I like reading: http://oddun.blogspot.com/

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

My greatest experience (pre-CS, but I guess in tune with its philosophy) was when I shared a train ticket with a Polish former actor in the South of Germany. He had had a stroke a couple of years ago, and had lost parts of his speech, remembering occasional bits of English, French, and German. So our conversation of 2 hours was solely enabled by gestures, drawings and the occasional loan word - and yet it worked! This was truly a miracle, and a very special social experience. I hope he is well, where ever he might roam right now.

Teach, Learn, Share

These days, I end up explaining Twitter to many people I meet (I am also doing research on Twitter: http://webasculture.de/index.php?id=67). I once taught German in South Africa, and I am very happy to help here. Also, I know a bit about click sounds in African languages, and I can help people with their web stuff (editing images, get started with blogging, etc).

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