Since I like frogs I have to add this one to the doodle-collection on this blog. Google honours today the 220th birthday of Gioachino Rossini, one of the most popular opera writers of our times, “The Barber of Seville” being one of his most famous oeuvres. Read his life story, he also had his fair share of history.
A colleague of mine found this overview online and posted it to me. I knew that a lot of people in the US had German roots. But that many? I am wondering, though, in which category they put Swedish here. Wondering if they mixed it with German? There were a lot of Swedish emigrants to the United States as well. However, they are not listed separately like i.e. the Norwegian and Finnish.
Therefore I wonder if one should trust these stats as much as the News…
This year started off like the old one finished. Fast. And furious one is almost tempted to add.
Hence why I do not hesitate to already share the news with you that I will be visiting the two main conferences of this years Berlin Web Week – re:publica and NEXT. Less than 90 days till then it is, so the countdown is on!
For the first time, both events will happen within one week – a lot of inspiration to take in during such a short time. Thrilling! Mark the date from the 2nd to the 9th of May if you haven’t done so already.
Especially when it is already clear that at least three inspiring speakers from totally different corners of the web world already said “yes” to re:publica. This will add a lot more international flavour to the biggest German digital conference which started off six years ago as a re:union event mainly for German bloggers. What an achievement!
The call for papers closed this week, and I look forward to what the organisers will choose as part of their program and share with us during the next few weeks.
Until then I re:watch their streams on Flickr and YouTube, and try not to miss any news via their blog, Facebook and Twitter.
re:publica will be followed by NEXT – another digital conference not to miss!
Whilst re:publica started off as a blogger-meetup, NEXT was founded from a pure business perspective by Sinner Schrader, one of Germany’s biggest digital agencies, or even agency group, since they cover quite some different business areas.. Read more about their history here.
Although founded from different backgrounds and having a different focus, both conferences have a few things in common. They both came to life in 2006 and both discuss the developments, changes and opportunities the fast moving digital world has to offer. Both conferences give new impulses to their visitors,they get them thinking, be it from a creative, cultural or a business perspective.
Being part of the social web and digital business world myself, for me both conferences complement each other in a perfect way, and I love the fact that I will be able to visit both of them – again!
For me it’s therefore not so much a question of the one vs the other – I want both!
Like re:publica, the NEXT-preparations are in progress at the full! The call for sessions is over since quite some time, the results can be seen here, the program yet has to be put together. I hope that Elísabeth Grétarsdóttir from EVE Online will be part of it. I loved her part at SIME in Stockholm last November and since Gamification is one of the trends in Marketing her experience would inspire a lot of people at NEXT.
NEXT also looks for the top 100 people who will influence the digital world during the next 12 months. I suggested Henriette Weber since she is one of the people I know who really make a difference in what they do. Henriette will be part of the team of official bloggers at NEXT, just like she was last year, and also like she is on a regular basis at LeWeb. Get to know her and don’t forget to vote for her! Not being a feminist really I do think, though, that the web world needs a few more prominent female voices that actually make a difference. Or proper social web rock’n roll chicks, as Henriette would put it.
You can watch last year’s sessions at NEXT here – my personal hope is that they get a great host like Pep Rosenfeld for the international track again. Either last year’s host Pep or Ola Ahlvarsson would be my favourites!
Follow NEXT also on their blog, on Facebook and Twitter. I look forward to their programme being announced – the different tracks are already defined.
Just some of the nice people I will hopefully meet again at NEXT 2012 😉 …
The other day I came to think of how fun it is with hairstyles. What we considered to be cool some years ago is now totally out, and one wears exactly the opposite style. Or, if long enough time has passed, some hairstyles even come back.
Take this one from the Eighties – what the Germans call “vokuhila” (“vorne kurz hinten lang = translates into something like “short at the front long at the rear”)
Today, the total opposite (called “undercut”) is in, in a lot of different variations…
Following this development, I honestly wonder, if this type might become the next trend?
This year we celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens, and especially the UK has many related events going on throughout the year.
Today’s Google-doodle for marking the event is definitely pretty and therefore worth saving.
Google even takes the opportunity and markets their free eBooks of Dickens, check them out here.
Berlin, underground station Heinrich-Heine-Straße. Beginning of December I entered the station for the first time ever. An instant feeling something being rather different appeared. And I looked closely. Unlike in other stations, there were no advertising billboards. Kind of unique in a big city like Berlin. The sign “Heinrich-Heine-Straße” was definitely from at least GDR-times. And then this strange colour of the walls. Something that couldn’t quite decide between a light pink or a light lilac. The air being kind of wet-coldish added to an almost slightly spooky atmosphere. Like as if time simply stood still here. It most likely would not have been my favourite station to ride home from, late at night. That much I knew.
Now I learnt via Wikipedia that the atmosphere I felt in that station was spot-on. The station had been built 1928, and the strange colour of the walls is from back then. Almost 90 years of the same tiles. Back then, the station’s name was “Neanderstraße”. During the Second World War the entire underground net was closed, Neanderstraße reopened only in 1945.
In 1960 the station got renamed to Heinrich-Heine-Straße. But it was only used for almost a year after that. Like a few other stations, it became a “ghost station” when the wall got built. Trains only passed through but they didn’t stop – until 30 years later, when the station reopened 1st of July 1990 together with all other “ghost stations” in Berlin. The year when Germany started to grow together again.
Still, since then, almost 25 years later, nothing really changed down there. At U-Bahnhof Heinrich-Heine-Straße the breath of history truly embraces you, and it is a rather strange sensation.
Some of you might recognise a certain truth in this one 😉
Wha'ever! 