Wow. I am at a loss for words. I was staring at this yellow text box in front of me this morning for at least a minute, after having browsed all of your comments. I’m deeply touched by your posts! It truly feels wonderful and uplifting to be part of a large, thriving and caring online community. Fluther really is very, very special. In addition to all the interesting questions and answers and wonderful debates, it creates worldwide connections. This is why I like it so much.
This might come as a surprise to some, but one of the reasons I decided to join wis.dm and Fluther – and really get involved quite seriously – is that I miss America. My time in Kansas really changed my life. Before that I’d been a graduate student in Germany in 1988 and competed with others to win a scholarship for a 1 year stay at an American university. Well, it turned out to be more than a year and above all our twins were born in Lawrence, KS in 1989, a place where we met the most friendly and supportive people in the world. Eventually we had to decide where to settle and the decision wasn’t easy. Our kids grew up in Germany, but we tried to never lose touch. As tourists – every other year or so – we went back. Very often it felt like coming home, which is not so say that we don’t like Germany. We like both and it’s a bit of a shame that there’s this huge ocean in-between. On the other hand, on Fluther all other countries are just a mouse click away!
There was a time at my company that involved lots of business travel, mostly to New York, but also some other cities like Baltimore or San Francisco. In many of our international IT projects we’re having IT folks from Frankfurt, London, New York and Bangalore for example. There are cultural differences, but since I know about them I’ve got involved quite often. As people get older, frequent business travel is losing some of its appeal, in fact, it can become quite a burden. And there’s a difference between having to fly to Milan or New York. Restructuring IT organization seems like an all-time popular pastime, so a couple of years ago my focus shifted. Doing European projects is interesting and challenging as well, but as I said, I really began to miss my connection with America. Maybe this was also one of the reasons I decided to write a science fiction novel set in the US. To me the US really is the number 1 place in the world where people are encouraged to think big. Where else could a journey to the stars begin? Of course, having written an English book I had to come up with an English-sounding pen name and this is how I became Matt Browne (well, Matt is also short for Matthias which is my German forename). Most of my characters are Americans of course, but I sprinkled some folks from other continents into the story as well.
Fluther has the charm to attract folks from many countries, not only the UK, Sweden or the Netherlands, but also India for example. Thanks @prasad for your wonderful post above (there are thousands of software experts from India working in the Frankfurt area over here and I got to know many of them quite well). On Fluther I think we should try to attract more people from Asia as well as Africa.
It’s also great that there are so many very smart people on Fluther with knowledge and expertise in all sorts of subjects. I think the moderators are doing a wonderful job keeping all of this up and running. This modern form of sharing insights and ideas on a global level is the future. Seriously. I’m convinced that American-only or European-only perspectives are far less powerful. We all can expect more undestanding and progress by having joint platforms that include not only all continents, but also include men and women from all age groups, cultures, ethnic backgrounds, belief systems and lifestyles. Fluther has created its own online way of life and lurving culture. I think it’s wonderful to have the 10K celebration ritual. It deepens community and friendship.
Thanks so much for all your wishes!
