Most in the startup world will tell you — the more feedback you get from customers, the better. We certainly agree with that statement, which is why we have another few questions for you, if you’d be so kind.
When I decided to hit the travel trail in late 2011, I planned to go to Southeast Asia and be a digital nomad building WordPress websites (such as this one for Room77) until I figured out what my next career move was (which turned out to be building Oh Hey World). I did all sorts of research to figure out the best places to live as a digital nomad in Southeast Asia, and I eventually decided upon Chiang Mai due to the sheer volume of good recommendations about the city from other travel bloggers (Koh Tao was my second choice). When I arrived in Chiang Mai in early February to stay for a few months, I had a few very specific questions related to getting acclimated to the region:
That information was hard to find, so I set out to solve this problem on Oh Hey World. Our digital nomad welcome kits now answer those exact questions for digital nomads all over SouthEast Asia — and, eventually, the world.
Globetrotting around Southeast Asia right now making money from your computer? If so, you’re in luck because we have welcome kits we’ve specifically curated for you for the major expat hubs around the region.
Have you been to any of these cities, and have something we should add? Leave a comment here or email shannon@ohheyworld.com and we’ll add them to our collection. If you’d like to create your own completely custom welcome kit for a city (such as this one for Santiago), then head over to our Welcome Kits page to learn more.
PS: You can also view some community generated welcome kits and OHW curated welcome kits in the US.
Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.
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The Oh Hey World welcome kits are a cornerstone resource for OHW users. Once you check into a new city, we want you to have a concise handful of tips tailored exactly to your interests and travel style that are relevant to where you find yourself. That means if you’re keen to use coworking spaces in each new city you visit, whether you land in Denver or Singapore we’ll show you the most relevant shared working environments (from great wifi cafes to coworking spots).
The OHW community is still growing (we’re in beta and we so appreciate your early support!) and for that reason the welcome kits contain city tips sourced from our travel network. We’ve looked to long-term travel community and curated the best tips and resources they have to offer on cities all over the world. These welcome kits will grow and change as the community grows up, and we expect many more tips to surface not only from our curated network, but from you—our OHW users.
Right now, if you see a tip you love you can “like” it to help others in the community know that it truly is a top way to experience that city. We’re counting on the collective power of a strong global community to create user-generated and dynamically changing tips as new cafes, shops, and businesses surface.
If you haven’t seen a welcome kit yet (we’ve rolled them out in select cities in the US and Southeast Asia) have a look at Bangkok or perhaps San Francisco. Both of these cities are hubs of tech entrepreneurs and digital nomads and as such, we’ve collected the most relevant information you’ll need on arrival in either of these cities.
Really, it varies depending on where you land. If you’re in Denver, we suspect you’ll want to touch base with the entrepreneurial scene and perhaps the best nearby hikes. But if you land in Bangkok, we give some tips on finding long-term accommodation alongside the best coffee shops in the city. As the tips grow, you’ll also find custom kits for families since we know you have different needs than an entrepreneur in town on business.
We think this feature will change the way travelers arrive in a new city.
It starts with a check in on OHW to notify of your safe arrival (update the Book of Face) and then see if any friends (or friends of friends) are nearby. After the check-in, our welcome kit gives you a bead on the exact tips you need to get right to the travel experience with minimal fuss (and only the best handful of tips).
Then you’re on your way to that great coffee shop, coworking space, restaurant, or hike.
In short, the tips will grow a lot in the coming weeks and months to customize welcome information for every type of interest or traveler. And if you’re keen to create your own welcome kit for a city you know and love, email me and we’ll give you special early access.
Many thanks for being a part of the OHW community, and if you’re not signed up yet, request private beta access!
A storyteller and knowledge-seeker captivated by the world. Formally an actress and web-nerd, I left in 2008 to travel solo, volunteer, and hunt down delicious vegetarian eats all over the world. She recently published "The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook, and her travel stories and photography are recorded on her world travel blog, A Little Adrift.
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As you know, we partnered with Month of Microfinance with the goal of organizing the world’s microfinance community into local communities. I wrote an “autobiographies of microfinance” for Month of Microfinance that was published today titled “What mark are you leaving on the world?” You can read it here.
So, what mark are you leaving on the world?
Remember, to help us achieve our goal of bringing microfinance advocates together in person:
Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.
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Oh Hey World enables you to instantly see other travel bloggers nearby, and receive notifications when others show up nearby in the future. If you’re interested in meeting up with other travel bloggers in person, here’s the short version of how to get setup:
Pretty simple, right?
PS #1: If you need the raw registration code, it is as follows: cbf7ea57-7607-44b2-9fe1-156d8b22dafc
PS #2: Remember, Oh Hey World instantly updates your WordPress.org blog when you check in.
Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.
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When Jeff Turner writes, I listen; he’s one of the few individuals I follow close enough to the point where I read virtually every post he shares. Jeff recently wrote “What are your ‘go to war’ values?“. I believe in the power of understanding why you are doing what you are doing, and hence, firmly believe outlining Oh Hey World’s “Go to War” values is a useful exercise…
We believe a connected travel experience is a better experience. If you want to bury your head in the sand to the world around you and remain in a silo, we’re not the travel partner for you. Sure, visiting a 4 star resort for several days every now and then is fine and dandy. But if your entire travel experience, every single time, is focused around getting pampered – we are not the right partner for you.
We believe in the power of social good. If you are reading this blog, chances are extremely high (98% or above), you have had tremendous opportunities to succeed in this world. You’ve probably never faced hunger. Never slept on the street. Never not been able to see a doctor when needed. Never needed to walk five miles for water. Nor have we. But we’ve seen and spoken to many people throughout the world who have faced all of those issue – and we couldn’t live with ourselves if we didn’t do something about it.
There they are. Our go to wars values, right out in the open.
If you don’t like them?
Leave.
[Photo via http://www.socialbene.com/]
Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.
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As you may know, Month of Microfinance is in full swing…
To help us achieve our goal of bringing microfinance advocates together in person, you just have to do two things:
PS: I encourage you to also join the Kiva community on Oh Hey World.
Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.
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You may have noticed this blog has been down for a few days — that occured when we switched our BETA site from beta.ohheyworld to www.ohheyworld.com last week. Since the blog is hosted in a different environment (Dream Host) than our primary site (EngineYard), the switch meant that we needed to put this blog into a subdomain rather than a subfolder.
We’re still ironing out a few redirects, but we should be back at 100% shortly. Thanks for your patience.
Note: the site is still in beta, we just wanted to get it on the permanent URL sooner rather than later.
[Graphic via http://nextlevelvision.com/]
I published a post over at GeekWire about what a redefined feed reader experience looks like (hint: it involves community)…to me at least.
Go read it and come back…
Waiting…
Waiting…
Ok, let’s continue.
You’ll probably agree the Internet is great at connecting people virtually, but it does not do a great job making smart connections — at the right time, with the right context — in the physical world based on your online activity. I hope you’ll also agree that bringing people together in person is exponentially more powerful than organizing people online, as strong relationships are built in person.
Now, let’s go one step further in terms of the extension of the reader experience outlined on GeekWire.
Add a social layer based on the physical world.
What do I mean?
Connect me with the nearby real people who belong to the communities where I spend my virtual time. Turn every online blog community, into a real life community. Who else reads Microfinance Gateway or AVC near me? I have no clue, and maybe those are not even interesting as standalone points – since I’m in Seattle with a fairly large microfinance community and most everyone in the tech community reads AVC. But, who reads Microfinance Gateway in Nairobi (a place I visited in 2010)? Or, who is part of the Microfinance Gateway community in Chiang Mai (where I lived in early 2012)? Even better, who reads Microfinance Gateway, AVC, Kiva Fellows Blog, and Jeff Turner’s blog — and within 25 miles of me, right now?
Now we’re talking.
Show me THOSE people. That is the future value to my feed reading habits.
PS: For those building the feed readers (Feedly, Zite, Digg, Newsblur, Frontpage, Intigi, etc), we happen to have an API that could help facilitate the location part of this…
[Photo via http://www.bigbadbulldog.com/]
Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.
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