When I was in college (mid 1970’s), I used a travel agent to book my flights from New Hampshire to Minnesota. Having a good travel agent who really knew their stuff was a smart idea. On the way to the airport I would pick up the Boston Globe newspaper for the long trip home to Duluth.

Fast forwarding to the year 2006, life has changed. Did you know that it is now possible to use a real travel agent to visit the virtual world?! That’s right, if you want to cut down on the learning time for SecondLife, and learn the hot spots … reserve your virtual travel agent, but remember … you will need "real" money:

• From Fortune Business Innovation Blog: Synthravels

Now, the Boston Globe might not be too handy in the virtual world … thus take some time out to watch this MIT World broadcast:

• The Emergence of Citizen’s Media

From the MIT description of the panel discussion:

Extra, extra, browse all about it!  The newspaper (as we know it) is history. As David Thorburn 
handily describes the situation: “The younger the cohort is, the less
interested it is in printed materials and the more committed to
emerging technologies. The implication is, within 25 to 30 years, there
won’t be people who want to read newspapers.” These panelists discuss
newspapers’ transformation in the digital age.

The wedding in the Czech Republic was a fantastic experience for many reasons; however, the most important reason was seeing Pavla married to a bright, sensitive young man. I posted a few pictures of our week, both from the wedding and the surrounding countryside.

• A Czech Family Wedding

Here are two items which I really liked about the Czech "wedding experience", compared to our American version:

1. The day before the wedding, the couple visits the cemetery to remember and thank relatives who were important in their lives.
2. In the morning before the ceremony, the couple visits the parent’s homes to formally thank their parents, and receive a blessing.

There were other items of a similar nature, but the key focus was on "the family".

Finally … you may wish to link to my comments about our quick trip to Krakow.

A little more from my Thomson NETg meeting … they are messing around with Second Life. NETg put up a training center in the virtual reality world of Second Life, and since the first of the year they have had 24,000 visits … and now even an inquiry from Intel to add on an annex.  I had been aware of Second Life, but had never given it a test ride.  I guess it’s time.  NETg is not certain where the experiment will lead, but it’s a neat search.

My avatar is named Ole Northmead.  See you around (either online or in the flesh)!

I am attending a Thomson NETg meeting in Chicago, and I’ve just played a stock based trading simulation with 20 other large corporations. After a few "years" of trading on eLearning and eLearning stocks, we then discussed why we made the trades we did …

One very controversial topic was advertised based learning. Would you be willing to use eLearning that has ads? Some companies said "no way". However, what if Microsoft offered 300 software courses for free, but you had to log in via their portal … with obvious advertisements?

Hello from Krakow! I am sitting in an Internet cafe two blocks off the main square in Krakow (pronounced Kra – koof). This town in southern Poland is delightful, and full of history. Krakow was not destroyed during World War II, and thus all the old buildings have survived. Better yet, the dollar is strong versus the Zloty … which means great meals and other value for a very reasonable price.

For instance, one full hour in this Internet cafe will only set me back 66 cents! It is hard to spend over $50 for a real nice dinner with wine. In fact, last night my wife and I dined at a Russian cafe, with two glasses of wine each … our total bill was $30. Krakow is easily as beautiful as Prague, and there is a lot more value for your money.

On the technology front, this town in Central Europe is full of contradictions. The city is buzzing with activity as it moves into the 21st century, yet in many town squares you still find "working" hand water pumps. Yesterday we took a day trip to Zakopane, a mountain village in the High Tatras in the Carpathian Mountains. During the train ride, we passed a train yard with several working steam engines.

We head back this afternoon to Ostrava in the Czech Republic. My wife and I will spend one more weekend with our newly married "Czech daughter".  Time to go have breakfast … pastry from a sidewalk vendor. Life is tough!

• A few of my photos from Krakow … and the Czech Republic

Next week it will be back to software and engineering content!