The web commune The Goa Web Folks, a group started by Luke Sequeira and Fabian Mossberg plan to rev up the technology scene in Goa by providing like-minded people associated with the web in any way with a space to meet and network via meet ups, startupgoa.org and co-working space in the city
Joyce Dias / The Goan 20 July 2013 They are very much at home traipsing the infinite world of the web. It is their world away from the world, their parallel universe. But one day Fabian Mossberg and Luke Sequeira decided to gather these Goan citizens of the web -- people who were involved with the web in any way and organise a get together via meetup.com (this shouldn’t come as a surprise because technology is their mother tongue) calling themselves the Goa Web Folks. “The response was overwhelming – it seemed like Goa was just waiting for a gathering of this sort to happen, only the stimulus was missing,” says Sequeira. On Saturday, July 6, 41 members of Goa Web Folks gathered in Panjim, interacted and networked. The gathering was as unstructured and informal as could be. “The idea was to network with others who share the same interest. There are possibilities that people will connect and do business together,” he adds. The meet ups are also meant to connect people with potential co-founders, employees and investors. Mossberg runs a web agency based in Sweden that makes campaign websites, e-commerce websites and real estate websites. “I can work from anywhere, so I chose Goa,” he says, adding, “I moved here in October 2012 and missed the social part of working with the web. Back in Sweden, I used to go to a lot of meet ups.” So he decided to create one here via meetup.com and asked his friend Angela to attend. “This meant that it wouldn’t be just me, there would be at least two people. I even told her I would pay for food and drinks,” says Mossberg, who now lives in Chorao. Not too far away, in Saligao, Luke Sequeira was thinking the same thing. “I logged on to meetup.com and saw that there was already a meet up happening in the state. So I got in touch with Fabian and we decided to meet,” Sequeira laughs. They met two weeks before the first meet up (this took place in Porvorim on June 1 and saw 30 people in attendance), happened to be wearing the same kind of sweater and (and this is freaky) had both independently seen the same space that they were interested in hiring out as a co-working space in Panjim. “A year ago, I had an idea to promote tech companies in Goa. Startupgoa.org today runs a job board, a blog and now this co-working space, where freelancers or people who travel and combine work with vacation can sit and work in peace for no charge. Small start-ups can also rent out tables in this space.” says Sequeira, who is based in Vancouver, Canada and builds websites for clients in Jordan and Vancouver. He also runs goa.me, which is Goa’s largest digital network. “There are people that spend just 2-3 weeks here and would love to connect with people in the same profession. A co-working space such as this would enable this,” says Sequeira emphasising that they do not mind paying the rent and bills for the co-working space. “If we have even three entrepreneurs working here and if they build even a small company to start with, that is enough for us,” Sequeira concludes. http://www.thegoan.net/The-Great-Goan-Weekend/Young-Goan/The-web-commune-/05047.html -- FN Land +91-832-240-9490 Cell +91-982-212-2436 [email protected]
