Activate is the Guardian newspaper’s forum for industry leaders who are using technology and the internet to make the world a better place. As a winner at the 2010 Activate Summit, Victor was interviewed this year on using social technology to help academics collaborate and discover research.
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Let’s play the blame game. Government and universities have failed researchers.
I have written before that there are too many PhDs being produced every year. That’s our most viewed post with twice the traffic of the third most viewed post. I think that says something. The result of too many PhDs has meant a surplus of academics doing multiple post-doc tours of duty, lower wages, and a waste of tax payer money. All would be fine if there were enough jobs outside of academia to support those researchers in industry and government, but there are not. Let’s clarify that, there are not enough jobs willing to pay PhDs what they are really worth. And guess what that gets you? Sure, some really smart and passionate lovers of science/research who stick with it, but many of the smart people move on to careers outside of traditional academic jobs where there is money. You lose your talent.
Today is not about arguing this claim at greater length though. Today is about alternatives to this problem by asking where are all of the venture capitalists and startup angel investors?
To everyone who came out to our Office Event: a special thanks for braving the cold and warming us up.
We met lots of fun and interesting people from NYU, Columbia, SPARC, New York Academy of Sciences, American Museum of Natural History and a few twitter invites. The night started with yummy food and delicious drink. Then Jan talked about Mendeley’s journey from an idea between friends to a research network that spans the globe. Our guests made their way over to our trivia wall for a bit of fun and before we knew it the night was over.
On behalf of the NY Team, thanks for a great night. So great that we’re hosting more in the future. If you have any ideas about what we should do or who we should invite, don’t hesitate to let us know. We’re looking forward to it!
Mendeley is now settled in our new office space in New York. We are hosting an Office Warming & Open Science Event this Friday November 19th from 6-9pm. We want to invite neighbors and colleagues – if you are interested in Mendeley and the future of open science we welcome you to join.
The evening will be a chance to share ideas, connect with others and get to know the Mendeley team better. Jan, our Co-Founder, will briefly talk about Mendeley’s journey and give an update on what we hope to achieve. The New York team will also introduce themselves along with good food, tasty drinks and fun activities.
Looking forward to meeting you!
Our new Cafepress Store is up and running. Now you can eat, sleep, and drink in style. We’ve covered the basics: t-shirts, hoodies, magnets, mugs, etc. But Cafepress is customizable, so if you need a baby pajama for a future Mendeley user, let us know and we’ll add it to the store. And FYI, this store is for our fans, not for profit. We’re not earning commission on the items you buy.
Our Chief Scientist Jason Hoyt already has boxers. I’m definitely buying buttons. So get a Mendeley mug and drink… label side out.
Visit our store: http://www.cafepress.com/Mendeley
<New York at Night by British photographer Jason Hawkes>
We’ve made our way to the other side of the pond. We’re a small, talented team of six hard at work! Our NY team is ready to reach out to those who still suffer from the pains of managing their references. We’re also reaching out to those who have not yet seen the light.
First, we want to help researchers be more productive. What’s more, we’re really here to support their collaboration. We want to pair bright minds with similar research interests and help them spend less time searching for papers. Our goal is to empower the discovery of new works on today’s hottest research topics.
…and our beloved University Advisors. For those who missed the news, we recently launched a community outreach program for our strongest supporters. They are integral to what Mendeley is building and give us valuable, critical feedback. Team NY is here to dedicate more energy to working closely with our Advisors.
With Team London as our guide, we look forward to hosting something like Open Office Friday in our new digs once we’re settled. So get pumped for jam sessions or pizza parties or dart night or [fill in your wish]!
Here we are, posing pretty, with our Mendeley poster.
From Left: Lauren Johnson, Jan Reichelt, Jessica Mezei, Jonathan Keidan, Miji Choi,
Andrew Bennie (who just joined us today) and the Liaisons-at-large William Gunn in Southern California and Ricardo Vidal in Toronto.
William Gunn
Ricardo Vidal
Pressure, the good kind, is continuing to build up. We are being named, listed, and watched.
Just a month ago, Mendeley was named as the start-up most likely to change the world for the better at The Guardian Activate 2010 Summit. What better encouragement could there be, we thought. We jumped up and down, patted each other on the back, took a deep breath, then went back to work so that we can live up to the prediction.
Today, UK-based Telegraph released another list, Top 10 European Technology Companies of 2010, compiled by PROfounders Capital’s Brent Hoberman, the co-founder of Lastminute.com, and Rogan Angelini-Hurll, who formerly headed the Citi Pan European Media Research team.
Mendeley is listed as no. 5. That’s one step up from being ranked 6th in the Guardian/TechMediaInvest 2009 list of Top 100 Tech Companies.
Stepping up to the plate one rank at a time… Go Team!
And you, Mendeley users and followers of our blog, Go You Too! Pressure us and keep us on our toes. Use Mendeley until you are no longer satisfied. Let us know what excites or frustrates you – and give us a shout at Mendeley Feedback Forum.
Great news! We’ve been picked by Chinwag and the UKTI to don our cowboy boots and Stetson hat before jetting off to the great Lone Star State on a Digital Mission.
“39 of the UK’s leading digital companies have been selected for the second annual Digital Mission to South by South West interactive (SXSWi), taking place in Austin, Texas from 11-17th March 2010. [...] The successful companies were chosen from over 120 submissions by an advisory board of industry experts drawn from the UK community including: VC’s, export specialists, journalists and industry pundits to take part in the Digital Mission to SXSWi.”
(You can find the full list of participating companies here.)
There are some great presentations in the line-up at SXSWi, some of the ones we’ll be looking out for include: Can the Real-Time Web be Realized?; Crowd Sourcing Innovative Social Change and Is The Brain The Ultimate Computer Interface?
We also hope to swot up on doing business in the US (not by watching re-runs of Dallas) but attending some special events and seminars set up for tech entrepreneurs. SXSWi brings together some of the brightest minds in the tech world and a line up of special programs showcasing websites, video games and start-up ideas. If you are planning to attend, let us know and we’ll be happy to hook up.
A big thanks to Digital Mission for making it possible and we’re looking forward to a great event!
Happy New Year 2010!
The whole Mendeley team would like to thank you for a great year in 2009! And we promise, 2010 will be a really exciting year as well, with great plans and so many cool things in the pipeline…
And as the team arrives back in dribs and drabs following their holidays, here’s one more piece of news we’d like to share with you.
Earlier in December, Jan and Victor were presenting Mendeley at LeWeb ’09 in Paris, and the guys over at intruders.tv took the opportunity to interview them on the latest developments at Mendeley:
Last Friday we finally moved to our new office, just a few blocks down the road. That’s 4,905 sq.ft. of pure leg freedom (or 455m² to you metric people out there). Turned out the hardest part of the relocation was disentangling the team members, who have been piling up over the last few months, as Mendeley grows and grows.
Fitting all these people in our old 1,090 sq.ft. office had become quite difficult: Alright, place the new designer over here, seat the new data mining experts over there, cram in a bunch of developers in that corner and don’t forget to fill up any remaining space with interns.
Single-handedly, our very own Captain Cindy managed the whole relocation process within a mere matter of hours. Lured by corporate pizza, the whole Mendeley team pitched in highly motivated. Some ha-ha-funny guys even volunteered to carry the wireless network cables!
Ou
r new neighbours kindly hosted a nice house warming party last Thursday. A big “Thank you” to the friendly people at IDEO and we happily accept your table soccer challenge.
Let’s hope that this time we can stay a little longer than just one and a half years.
You’re welcome to have a look:
