Today May 25th, is Geek Pride Day. In an ideal world, this should be a day when geeks and non-geeks come together to celebrate ‘geek culture’ and how much this community gives to mainstream society. Geeks are innovaters, early adopters, and many times bright and passionate people.  

It is not always clear what is meant by ‘Geek’.  Julie Smith describes a geek as  “a bright young man turned inward, poorly socialized, who feels so little kinship with his own planet that he routinely travels to the ones invented by his favorite authors, who thought of that secret, dreamy place his computer took him to as cyberspace—somewhere exciting, a place more real than his own life, a land he could conquer, not a drab teenager’s room in his parents’ house.” This is a limited perspective.

Geeks have become increasingly relevant to the Information society that we live in. This is even recognized by the fashion industry. A few months ago I was in and around Edinburgh and Dublin and was surprised to see that ‘Geek chic’ or ‘Geek fashion’ was very much, ‘in’ and ‘happening’. Geeks are influencing the world and popular culture.

Merging Passion with Business

However, it is not in fashion where Geeks come into their own but in technology and increasingly, business. Through the Internet one can find countless examples of geeks who have become successful because they were able to transform their skills and passions into real hard cash. Although geeks do what they do because they are passionate about it, there is no contradiction whatsoever in converting what many times are personal innovations into business opportunities. And this is exactly what is needed.

An example is Matthew Inman (I dunno the guy but I fancy he’s a geek), who amazingly built a dating website in 66.5 hours, transformed it into a big success and then sold it to a competitor.  A web designer, web developer, viral marketer, the guy managed to combine his knowledge and creativity to bring innovative ideas into the market. I fancy he has a nice bank account by now.

Big Thinking

Going beyond the norm and creating, modifying or acquiring stuff that is superior or unique is central to Geek culture. Especially in these tough economic times, we are becoming increasingly dependent on Geeks for their enthusiasm, their focus and their innovation. To quote the Geek Manifesto, it is a Geek’s responsability to ‘take over the world.’  How’s that for thinking  big?  Bill Gates founder of Microsoft, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen founders of YouTube, and Kevin Rose founder of Digg, definately all thought big.

Increased Collaboration

The Geek stereotype is that of a thin or overweight guy, wears glasses, has very little concept of hairstyle, may be unhygenic and doesn’t have much of a social life. The thing about stereotypes is that many times they paint an imprecise picture of real life.

In reality, many geeks have thriving social lives, both online and offline. Fact is that many geeks are well connected, many times with similar folk and this is why we can speak of a Geeks as a subculture. It is this socialisation and collaboration between them that is so important because it has the potential for amazing things. The collective intelligence of a crowd is better than that of an individual. Think Wikipedia, and you’ll get my drift.

Will geeks ever rule the world? That is improbable, but one better believe that in this increasingly technology-based society, one will see their influence gain importance. To quote the self-proclaimed change agent Seth Godin, “today the people who got made fun of in high school – they are the ones who matter so much. They’re the ones shaping new technology that diffuses to the masses.”