Alex von Halem

Here's to the Crazy Ones

2012-01-29T07:28:00.001-08:00

Gamification and Progression to Mastery

2012-01-27T05:35:00.001-08:00

Gamification - The New Loyalty from Gamification Co on Vimeo.

Gabe Zichermann's gameification Blog: http://gamification.co/gabe-zichermann/

Storytelling

2012-01-09T01:14:00.000-08:00

Presentation by Doro Martin:

Storytelling for Social Banks

View more presentations from Doro Martin

Not a Vermeer...

2012-01-02T13:52:00.001-08:00

… but check it out, nonetheless:

Medieval Ronneburg Castle in Germany

Cooking Lesson

2011-11-17T08:44:00.001-08:00

Bratwursttoaster Made in Germany

2011-10-22T23:51:00.001-07:00

via Klaus Wolfrum.

fuck you very much - We need a break

2011-10-20T10:53:00.001-07:00

fuck you very much - We need a break. :

(Via fuckyouverymuch.dk)

Gadgetworld

2011-09-29T01:05:00.000-07:00

Business Model Canvas Poster

2011-09-23T04:17:00.001-07:00

via @snowatx

Business Model Canvas Poster V.1.0

View more presentations from Alexander Osterwalder

Richard Dawkins on the Magic of Reality

2011-09-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Via Jörg Kantel.

Fight the Powerpoint

2011-09-10T00:40:00.001-07:00

Fight the Power(point)!

View more presentations from Todd Reubold

Don't worry...

2011-08-18T16:05:00.001-07:00

… now there are games on G+

Folk Camp 2011

2011-08-18T12:14:00.001-07:00

This year's Folk Camp:

Who woulda thunk?!

2011-08-16T10:47:00.001-07:00

Posting G+ Invites is blocked on Facebook

Facebook seems to be pretty afraid of its competitor and blocks G+ invite links posted on your wall to be seen by your friends.

I guess you can always get around that by posting it elsewhere (like here).

Go ahead: Give G+ a whirl (If you haven't yet)

Yet Another Game

2011-08-07T13:06:00.001-07:00

{EAV_BLOG_VER:01291f7937683eae}

Have you heard of Empire Avenue? Probably only if you are a complete nerd and early adopter and spend considerable amounts of your waking hours online. What is it? I suppose I would characterize it as a sort of stock market game. The difference is that you speculate on the social media success of other people on the net. The more they tweet, use Facebook etc. and the more followers and/or engagement they garner, the higher their stock value will rise and with it your dividend - if you bought shares. I'm not sure I'll be sticking to this, but it's worth a look, at least.

Pretty Tired...

2011-07-07T03:27:00.001-07:00

Emilio Awakens, a photo by barockschloss on Flickr.

It's been pretty busy here at the castle which - of course - is good. I still got around to podcasting weekly, though. It's a German podcast I host with a friend. We invite guests from our area (the city of Schweinfurt and a radius of about 20 miles) who have interesting stories to tell. I've been pretty quiet on the English front and need to get back to blogging for bavariancastle.com, too.

geek @barockschloss

2011-07-02T00:47:00.001-07:00

my g+ profile

Google+

2011-06-29T01:25:00.001-07:00

First Wave (dead) then buzz (still breathing) now +

Will it stick?

A Little Song for In Between

2011-06-13T04:14:00.001-07:00

What's up (What's Going On)- 4 Non Blondes Acoustic Cover (Jorge and Alexa Narvaez)

Found via twitter @textundblog

Awesome. Just 4 Chords.

2011-06-11T12:46:00.001-07:00

thanks to: Florian Kohl @ revista.de

Yesterday's Apple WWDC Keynote

2011-06-07T05:27:00.001-07:00

(MindMeister mindmap by Martin Gratzer)

If Apple produced the C64...

2011-05-31T08:23:00.001-07:00

Ferris Again

2011-03-27T04:31:00.001-07:00

Interesting remake using original footage:

The 11 themes of the Zeitgeist for 2011

2011-02-10T08:05:00.001-08:00

via http://echtzeitgeist.posterous.com/

The 11 themes of the Zeitgeist for 2011

View more presentations from rossdawson.

The Power of Storytelling

2011-02-05T01:27:00.001-08:00

Power of storytelling on Prezi

Transmedia Storyteller

2011-01-27T03:49:00.001-08:00

Interesting and visually impressive Slideshare presentation from ZenFilms (Robert Pratten):

Transmedia Storyteller

View more presentations from Zen Films.

Bikes and Memories

2011-01-25T02:47:00.001-08:00

Telling a personal story with pictures (memories) and music. Found in Christian Henner-Fehr's Blog Kulturmanagement (German).

Transmedia Storytelling

2011-01-19T09:40:00.001-08:00

KLM rewards tweets with little gifts

2011-01-06T12:54:00.001-08:00

Battle Analysis: The Battle of Jena, October 14, 1806

2010-12-24T02:25:00.001-08:00

I dug out a batch of old zip disks the other day. Unfortunately only about 3 out of 15 of the disks were still readable. A ton of my writing from the 1990s is presumably irrevocably lost. One of the military disks still worked, though, and I found my course paper I wrote "as a budding scout platoon leader" at the Armor Officer's Basic Course at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in October 1994. This might be a good place to bunker it for posterity.

The aim of the military history paper required for the course was to write a battle analysis. Here is my intro followed by the paper itself:

My Battle Analysis discusses the Battle of Jena fought between French forces under Napoleon and Prussian forces under Prince von Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen of Prussia at Jena on October 14, 1806.

Brief Description: Napoleon defeated Prussian forces under Prince Hohenlohe by successfully employing his forces in a manner that could be considered to adhere to the principles of war (FM 100-5). While his subordinate commander, Marshal Davout, was faced with the Prussian main element at Auerstädt, Napoleon defeated Hohenlohe in a fast and decisive blitzkrieg battle.

Conclusions: The main lessons of the Battle of Jena are that commanders must seize and retain the initiative, use their forces in mass, form reserves which they can employ at critical times during the battle, and must establish clear and unified lines of command, control, and communication.

The Battle of Jena was fought on October 14, 1806 near the town of Jena in Thüringen, Germany. This battle between Napoleon Buonaparte's French forces and Prussian and Saxon troops under King Frederick-William III of Prussia was one of two major battles known collectively as the Jena Campaign. The other battle which occurred on the same day was fought nearby, at the town of Auerstädt.

Historical Material Available

There is much information available on this battle, to include information derived from diaries and journals of commanders and common troops alike. The primary sources are hard to come by, however, and are more easily accessed by reading one of the more comprehensive secondary sources listed below.

David G. Chandler is perhaps the foremost of historians who have studied Napoleon in great depth. His comprehensive study of Napoleon, The Campaigns of Napoleon, written in 1966, and subsequent studies of individual battles such as Jena 1806 and Austerlitz 1805 of the Osprey Campaign Series provide a wealth of information to include maps, illustrations, and annotated bibliographies. Chandler bases his assessment on the written accounts of witnesses to the battle, to include Napoleon's own correspondence. Chandler's is probably the most comprehensive works on Napoleonic warfare.

General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall's book Napoleon as Military Commander of 1967 is valuable because of its detailed accounts of the logistical aspects of Napoleon's war machine and because it includes numerous eye-witness accounts and quotes Napoleon's Correspondance in detail. Marshall-Cornwall provides us with detailed accounts of Napoleon's operations orders which illustrate how he used his subordinate commanders.

Albert Sidney Britt III's The Wars of Napoleon, published in 1985 as part of the West Point Military History Series, deserves mention because of its readability and its glossary which facilitates understanding Napoleonic warfare for the novice by translating terms into 20th century terminology. Britt concentrates on the tactical aspects of the campaigns he describes and furnishes excellent maps. His book is obviously aimed toward students of military history who seek a broad, basic understanding of campaigns.

The Road to War

By 1806 Napoleon had defeated Austria at Austerlitz and thus gained control of Bavaria and Württemberg. In July 1806 he dissolved the Holy Roman Empire and created the Confederation of the Rhine whose members were to be loyal to France (Chandler, 449). To secure his growing empire, Napoleon put many of his relatives in charge of the new territories. Such forced rearranging of the power structure did not sit well with all of the neighboring nation states. Most notably, Prussia was distressed by Napoleon's increasing proximity and his continued massing of troops in southern Germany (Britt, 58). Humiliated by Napoleon's previous diplomatic maneuverings, Prussia was moved to war when Napoleon offered Hanover, originally offered to Prussia, to Britain (Chandler, 451). When Prussia occupied Saxony despite a formal warning not to, war seemed inevitable (Chandler, Jena, 9). Prussia decided on war on August 7, 1806 and began to mobilize shortly thereafter (ibid.).

Other than wanting to halt further expansion of the French Empire, Prussia's objectives were less strategic than simply to restore national pride and to seek revenge for humiliation. That is perhaps why there was no clear strategic plan on the Prussian side and why Prussia's military high command could not reach a clear agreement (Chandler, Jena, 11). Napoleon's goals were more clearcut: (1) protect France from invasion, (2) decisively defeat Prussia to prevent further aggression, and (3) to invade Saxony and expand the empire. Having been forced to war, Napoleon was now going to exploit the situation for maximum benefit.

Technologically the two nations were similar. Both had a strong industrial base and were able to man their armies through conscription. Prussia also utilized Saxon troops which were forced into Prussian service. Both armies had artillery and were able to muster a sizeable force of infantry and cavalry. These troops were well trained on both sides. Both armies enjoyed the support of their native countries, at least at first. This was to change for Prussian forces who were treated badly by their own civilian population as they retreated after their defeat at Jena and Auerstädt (Britt, 71).

The Area of Operations

Jena is located in Thüringen, an area of Germany just northeast of the former border between Bavaria and what used to be East Germany. Jena, itself on an open plateau, is surrounded by the heavily wooded area of the Thüringerwald. It is overlooked by the Landgrafenberg, a steep hill on the south end of the plateau which was to become key terrain in that it was the site for Napoleon's artillery. It proved a formidable natural obstacle, however not one which Napoleon's engineers could not handle (Chandler, Jena, 23).

The battlefield itself "covers a rectangular area of some 42 square kilometers," limited on the east by the River Saale, on the west by a stream, a winding pass on the south, and only by the soon to be retreating Prussians to the north (Chandler, Jena, 47). Chandler, who has seen the area of operations in person, explains that "at the season of the year there were no standing crops" and that "the deciduous trees were beginning to shed their leaves" (Jena, 48-9).

Despite the open nature of the terrain around Jena itself, visibility was poor due to the weather. To the French troops' advantage in concealment, "a thick mist capped the Landgrafenberg" (Chandler, Jena, 48). The wet and cold weather complicated French movement on their forced march into the area of operations and must surely have affected soldiers' morale, on both sides, as they waited through the night for the battle to begin (ibid., 24).

The Opposing Forces

The Prussian Army had a battlefield strength of roughly 180,000: "121,000 infantry, 35,000 cavalry and 550 cannon (manned by 15,000 artillerymen)" and was augmented by 20,000 Saxon troops (Chandler, Jena, 38). The Prussian forces at Jena , roughly 35,000 troops, were commanded by Prince von Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen. A detached Corps of 13,000 positioned at Weimar, commanded by General von Rüchel, was later called as support. Hohenlohe's commanders at Jena were Generals von Tauenzien, von Zechwitz, von Grawert, and von Prittwitz. General von Holtzendorff commanded the cavalry attached to von Grawert's division.

In all, however, Prussian mobilization was inefficient and the army was able to muster only a fraction of its potential forces (Britt, 62). In contrast, Napoleon's Grande Armée totaled over 200,000. Of these forces, those involved primarily in the Battle of Jena were the corps under Marshals Soult, Augerau, Ney, Lefebvre, and Murat, totalling 145,500 troops during the height of the Battle (Chandler, 476).

Prussian command and control was weakened tremendously by the fact that the Prussian Army had three competing commanders "who operated almost independently of each other" (Britt, 62). Communication in the Prussian army was further complicated by the fact that "the Prussians had not yet adopted the formation of army corps, so the commander-in-Chief's orders had to be transmitted to 14 divisions separately" (Marshall-Cornwall, 157). Napoleon had no such problem and orders were passed quickly and clearly to his field commanders through his Chief of Staff, Louis-Alexandre Berthier. Both opposing commanders had equally weak intelligence in that Napoleon thought he faced the Prussian main element near Jena, whereas Prince Hohenlohe merely expected the French flank guard there (Chandler, 479).

Prussian soldiers were well trained, if rather authoritatively. Prussian training practices of "beating soldiers into obedience with the stick" supported the Prussian Army's use of "pure linear" tactics (Marshall-Cornwall, 500) which demanded blind followership rather than creativity and initiative. As a result of this drilling, Prussian troops "could load and fire faster than any rival force." (Marshall-Cornwall, 500) Prussian infantry consisted of musketeers, grenadiers, and fusiliers (light infantry) (Chandler, Jena, 39). Prussian cavalry, who had an excellent fighting reputation and whom Chandler considers "best-mounted in Europe" at that time, (ibid., 44) consisted of heavy, dragoon, and light units, and cavalrymen "carried swords or sabers , pistols, and a carbine apiece" (ibid). Prussian artillery was organized to provide close support to infantry and, as Chandler points out, was neither massed nor organized in reserve. (ibid., 45)

Napoleon's Grande Armée was not only well equipped but enjoyed tremendous morale and had the benefit of ample battlefield experience. French infantry was organized into light forward scout (voltigeur) companies and light infantry (tirailleur) battalions. (ibid., 31) French cavalry, cuirassiers, dragoons or light, generally attacked in "twin squadron charges" and were "armed with swords or sabres, pistols and carbines"(ibid., 32). In contrast to Prussian cavalry, some of the French troops "still wore breast and back plates" (ibid.). Napoleon's artillery were highly mobile and flexible. Heavy artillery was placed under Army command. This facilitated coordinated volleys of fire and heavy bombardments, which Napoleon often used to open a battle (ibid., 33).

What Happened on October 14, 1806

The previous night the French advanced under cover of a heavy mist. Napoleon placed his guns on the Landgrafenberg and was not budged by Hohenlohe's forces. Thinking that the plain north of Jena was where the main element of Prussian forces was located (they were actually northeast of Auerstädt, commanded by General Brunswick and were defeated that same day by Marshal Davout), Napoleon gave the order to attack north of Jena at dawn. French artillery opened up in mass. In response, the Prussian forces formed weak and dispersed lines of infantry which had little effect on advancing French skirmishers (Marshall-Cornwall, 502).

The first phase of the battle was marked by an attack on the villages of Cospeda and Closewitz by Lanne's corps. Prussian forces commanded by General Tauenzien retreated to Vierzehnheiligen and counterattacked successfully, splitting the French forces (Chandler, 480). However, Tauenzien failed to exploit this advantage and retreated further to link up with Hohenlohe's main element (ibid., 481). This allowed Napoleon to further bring his troops on line. Von Holtzendorff's cavalry was defeated on the French right flank by Soult's cavalry, badly shaking Prussian morale (ibid., 483).

When Prince Hohenlohe realized that he was facing more than just the French flank guard, he requested assistance from von Rüchel's army at Weimar. This help was to come too late, however, as the Prussians were engaged by Marshal Ney's advance guard, which he impatiently pressed forward before the rest of his unit had arrived (Chandler, 483). Napoleon, however, saved Ney's troops by sending in his reserve cavalry (ibid., 484). Once again Prince Hohenlohe's troops retreated and reconsolidated. And once again Hohenlohe could have counter-attacked in force. Still, Hohenlohe decided to wait for von Rüchel's corps (ibid.). Hohenlohe was not to recover from this act of indecisiveness.

Hohenlohe put everything he had on the line and counted on Rüchel to arrive. The Grande Armée, however, now reinforced by Murat's reserve cavalry, attacked the Prussian line in force. The Prussians were steadily driven back, and, with Rüchel's arrival less and less likely, soon began to crumble and break apart in disorder (Chandler, 486). When von Rüchels' replacements arrived from Weimar, they too were demolished by Napoleon's Army.

Following the twin battles of Jena and Auerstädt, where Marshal Davout had defeated the Prussian main body commanded by General Brunswick, the Grande Armée drove the Prussian Army into the heart of its homeland and occupied its territories.

Why Napoleon Was Victorious

Napoleon gained a very clear victory at Jena. The battle was decisive in that the Prussians could not have recovered from it and, coupled with Davout's victory at Auerstädt, succeeded in permanently unsettling the Prussians for that campaign. Strategically, however, the battle was "an incomplete achievement," as two more campaigns had to be fought to bring about peace negotiations (Chandler, 85).

In bringing about French victory at Jena, morale played an important part. While Napoleon's troops had great confidence in their commander and were well fed due to good supply and liberal looting policies, Prussian soldiers had little confidence in their leadership. The forceful integration of Saxon units did not help either. Personnel issues were keenly handled by Napoleon who wisely kept forces in reserve which he could send into battle should unexpected contingencies arise. Napoleon's elite forces, the Imperial Guard, were generally kept in reserve, much to its eager soldiers' disappointment. This flexibility allowed Napoleon to transform Ney's blunder into a victory, for example.

Poor leadership on Hohenlohe's part must also be cited in determining the cause of the Prussian defeat. Had Hohenlohe responded to Napoleon's blitzkrieg in kind, counter-attacking in force when he had the chance, he may have suffered fewer losses or been able to hold things in sway until von Rüchel's arrival.

Lastly, it must also be said that Napoleon had some luck in the whole affair. For one, Napoleon outnumbered his foe by 20 percent (Chandler, 503). To Napoleon's ignorance, the Prussian main force was located elsewhere. It is hard to say whether Napoleon could have succeeded against both Hohenlohe and Brunswick with Marshals Davout and Bernadotte an Naumburg. It is also hard to say what may have happened had Davout been unsuccessful at Auerstädt. Altogether, for Jena and Auerstädt, Prussian losses equaled 20,000 dead and 140,000 prisoners of war (Chandler, Jena, 85).

Analysis

Napoleon's victory at Jena can be analyzed, though anachronistically, in terms of the Principles of War outlined in FM 100-5 (Operations). These are objective, offensive, mass, economy of force, maneuver, unity of command, security, surprise, and simplicity.

The principle of focusing one's efforts on a clearly defined and attainable objective was more clearly adhered to Napoleon than by the Prussians. Napoleons objective was to destroy the Prussian Army using whatever force necessary in one great meeting engagement. The Prussians meanwhile were indecisive about whether to mount a preemptive attack or to defend, or where to defend.

Napoleon, in distinct contrast to Hohenlohe, exercised the principle of offensive by seizing, retaining, and exploiting the initiative whenever possible. Even when he was uninformed, Napoleon was able to come out on top by taking the initiative and forcing the enemy to fight on his terms.

By keeping forces in reserve, Napoleon was able to adhere to the principle of war of mass: "massing the effects of overwhelming combat power at the decisive place and time." (FM, p. 2-4) This is particularly evident in his use of artillery which was employed in mass against critical targets, rather than assigned to maneuver units as in Hohenlohe's case.

Economy of force was not handled to perfection by either commander. In both cases there were units not effective engaged in the battle or available for employment. Rüchel's absence and the fact that Bernadotte's corps did not enter into the fight, are two examples.

Maneuver, or "placing the enemy in a position of disadvantage through the flexible application of fire power," (FM, p. 2-5) was less applicable in this case as the battle constituted a meeting engagement. Once engaged, however, Napoleon did effectively deploy his cavalry against key targets.

Whereas Napoleon effectively used unity of command, singly issuing orders to his corps commanders and granting them latitude in their execution, the Prussian Army's lack of a centralized command system resulted in the lack of a clear plan and confusion on the battlefield.

Security was compromised by Ney's hasty and imprudent attack. By throwing himself into the battle without support, Ney allowed the Prussians to gain an unexpected advantage, even if this advantage was short-lived due to the prompt rescue maneuver by Murat's cavalry.

Surprise, due to a lack of intelligence, hindered both commanders. Neither knew much about the enemy. The sheer speed by which Napoleon's Army moved must have achieved a surprise effect on the Prussians, though.

Finally, the principle of simplicity, especially in issuing clear, easy-to-understand orders, aided Napoleon in communicating his intent to his field commanders. Prussian plans for action were anything but simple and the fact nobody really knew what the overall objective was, probably resulted in the splitting of Hohenlohe's and Brunswick's forces.

Military Lessons Learned

As a budding scout platoon leader, I can identify a few distinct military lessons learned. First, establish clear lines of command so as to facilitate control and the flow of communication. Napoleon did this quite well through his six corps commanders. The Prussians were indecisive due to bickering among top commanders and were thus unable to take the initiative despite the fact Napoleon had no clear knowledge of Prussian whereabouts or intentions.

Second, form and keep reserves. Had the Prussians kept a clear reserve, rather than forming one great line with the entire force, they would have been able to maneuver around and assist in times of crisis.

Third, fight as a combined arms team. The Prussians made the mistake of mixing their divisions, of integrating all elements of arms at the division level (Chandler, Jena, 39) And finally, take the initiative whenever possible so as to confuse and disrupt the enemy. If you gain an advantage over the enemy, exploit it; don't let him regroup and take it back from you.

It is just as well that we are not nowadays faced with fighting by massing troops in giant formations on the ground. The principles of maneuver warfare, of seizing the initiative and decisively cutting through the enemy in blitzkrieg fashion, are as important today as in 1806. For me that is the most important lesson: Fight decisively and do not let yourself get bogged down in a war of attrition.

Works Cited

Britt, Albert Sidney III. The Wars of Napoleon. Ed. Thomas E. Griess. Wayne, NJ: Avery, 1985.

Chandler, David G. The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: MacMillan, 1966.

---. Jena 1806: Napoleon Destroys Prussia. Campaign Series vol. 20. London: Osprey Military, 1993.

Marshall-Cornwall, General Sir James. Napoleon as Military Commander. London: B.T. Bratsford, 1967.

Headquarters, Department of the Army. Field Manual 100-5: Operations. Washington: Department of the Army, 1993.

Angry Birds

2010-12-15T09:47:00.001-08:00

Found in Oliver Gassner's Buzz:

A Life

2010-12-15T07:21:00.001-08:00

(found in this slideshare presentation shared on Facebook by Wolfgang Gumpelmaier)

The Cat Whisperer

2010-11-13T02:09:00.001-08:00

Is anyone here a transmedia producer (yet)?

Okay, I'm sharing the NSFW (for bad language) video, but what I find really interesting is the blog post I found it in (shared by Frank Tentler). Transmedia storytelling is on the rise and Frank figures the "transmedia producer" will soon eclipse the so-called "social media expert".

Get yourself a beer and enjoy the video (Julie Klausner is the Cat Whisperer):

TV & Movie Spoofs
Tags: Atom.com,Atom Originals,Atom Blog,Upload Videos

Zeilitzheim Safari

2010-11-04T10:23:00.001-07:00

My daughter Katharina (5) has taken to photography. Granted, I have to delete quite a few of the blurred pictures but she has a great eye and perspective at times. And she manages to take some pretty candid shots.

The Cat with the Crooked Mouth

2010-11-01T10:27:00.001-07:00

Digital Storytelling

2010-10-28T05:46:00.001-07:00

My storytelling links (list is growing):

Storytelling

trailmeme

2010-10-11T12:51:00.001-07:00

This is a slightly longer (more detailed) article on my experience with the web app trailmeme.com that appeared in the trailmeme blog today. The shortended version lacks the information on what trailmeme is, because readers there already know...

I stumbled upon trailmeme.com recently on a friend's Website (Christian Henner-Fehr). Thanks to the wonders of Google translate the site's developer and project manager, Venkatesh Rao, got in on the discussion. I mentioned that I was planning on presenting / discussing trailmeme at the Knowledge Camp in Passau, Germany, on October 8th. An interesting conversation ensued and Venkat offered some slides for my presentation.

But what is trailmeme, anyway?

trailmeme.com is a project Run by the Xerox Corporation. The Site was conceived by Venkat (See the rest of the team behind the project here).

What does trailmeme do?

With trailmeme you can blaze trails through the internet, thus curating content that can then be viewed in so-called walks. This is achieved by saving "markers" (there are browser plug-ins to facilitate this) that can subsequently be arranged in a map in which relationships are specified (order of the walkthrough).

The following information can be stored in the markers (this information is displayed when mousing over the marker):
- Name
- Blurb (a short information about the link / web content)
- Editorial comment (this can be a longer text)
- tags (not displayed at mouse-over)

In this way you can preview a trail's markers. A double click on a mark starts the "walk", a two-pane view of the original web content with a trailmeme section at the top (this can be hidden). In the top navigation are links to the next or previous marker in the trail - if more options are set in the "map" section it will show an overview of possible next choices by name. This makes it possible to follow different paths through a trail, depending on choices made along the way.

In the welcome e-mail I received upon registering, Trailmeme calls itself "a game of skill". You start at "novice" level and the aim is to increase one's level through activity: "as you blaze more trails, and as more people walk them, you will be promoted to higher levels". This is aimed at increasing adoption and use, I'm sure.

I tested trailmeme with my own first trail (http://trailmeme.com/trails/trailmeme_exploration) and a second one about the German brewery Schneider Weisse (http://trailmeme.com/trails/Schneider_Weisse).

The key question I asked myself in preparation of the Knowledge Camp (a barcamp where people who work in the field of knowledge management meet) was: how can trailmeme and tools like it further knowledge management in particular?

My initial observations: Trailmeme furthers curation of information found on the web and makes it visible in a logical manner. It is a good tool to use to publish trails for others to follow, allowing annotation of the waypoints. Junctions along the trail allow users / readers to make their own decisions along the way which makes it more interactive. What the service lacks is collaboration on trails. While you can share / save trails to the most common social-bookmarking sites, users cannot be invited to add content to a trail. There is a "discussion" feature embedded into each trail, however.

Venkat provided an interesting insight in the comment conversation on Christian's blog:

"I have found through my own trailbuilding that some visual asymmetry and apparent ‘chaos’ in a trail is very useful. If you build a trail in a very regular pattern like a grid or symmetric hub and spoke, it is easy to forget the meaning of the trail. But if you give each trail a unique shape by making things slightly asymmetric, it helps you easily recall and recognize things. This is similar to maps. It is easier to remember states/countries with some unique shape based on visual asymmetry than very regular patterns (as in, Texas is easier to recognize than the „square“ states in the middle of the US). I later found there is actually research supporting this."

The knowledge managers at the conference received the news and demonstration of trailmeme well. For professional use in their corporations, however, they requested a closed version that would run on their own servers. This comes down to a typically German view on privacy or publicness. Even though we discussed the merits of open sourcing information in an effort to achieve mutual gains, the majority of the knowledge managers attending cited a closed version as a critical feature.

Venkat had foreseen this, as he wrote me before the conference: "We are working on designing the enterprise version, so thoughts on that would be especially valuable, especially given that Germans seem to think differently about enterprise, since things like SAP are philosophically different from the way Americans solve the same problems."

At the conference we examined the benefits of trailmeme and storify in their ability to further dissemination, accumulation and evaluation of information through story telling. Generally there was a consensus that story telling is a method well-suited in this regard and there were other presentations on the topic such as using scripting and storyboarding to prepare presentations. Of the two tools discussed, trailmeme gave a more scientific appearance while storify had more of a touch of an "end-user product" characterized by its drag and drop feature and social-media integration. Conference attendee Ralph Traphoener turned me onto yet a third tool, that probably lies between trailmeme and storify in functionality: pearltrees.com.

Austrian conference attendee Dr. Angelika Mittelmann, a knowledge manager for the Austrian steel manufacturer voestalpine, agreed to offer feedback to the trailmeme team in preparation of its upcoming enterprise version. Angelika uses story telling in the company to aid in knowledge transfer, for example to convey lessons learned previously before starting new projects and to document organizational knowledge prior to change of key personnel. She explains:

"At the beginning the assigned project team defined the objectives, selected the events (in our case the modification of one of our production plants undertaken about five years ago), assigned the commentators and interviewees. Subsequently ten former project team members were interviewed. Afterwards the project team collected their personal views and searched for "puzzle stones" found in the transcribed and anonymized interviews. The challenge was to select all momentous statements belonging to the hidden threads. After this complex and time consuming task the experience document was prepared containing six threads structured according to the project phases. The selected citations were fed back to the interviewees asking for their permission for publication. At the end the experience document was given to the members of a new project team constructing a similar production plant. During a workshop the interviewees, the new project team and the Story Telling project team came together in order to reflect and discuss the content of the experience document. The new project team found many improvements and decided to concentrate on three most important ones."

To me this whole experience around trailmeme is a prime example of how social media can further knowledge in different ways. To sum it up, a brief breakdown:

1) a friend of a friend, at whose conference I spoke at this September, found trailmeme on the web.
2) my friend wrote a blogpost explaining trailmeme.
3) I commented on that blogpost and
4) so did trailmeme developer Venkatesh Rao (thanks to Google Translate).
5) we exchanged comments on the blog and via e-mail.
6) Venkat shared slides to use at the conference via Google Docs.
7) I gained feedback at the Knowledge Camp I am able to provide back to the dev team and
8) communication continues...

Photo: Passau on October 8th, 2010

Perfect Fall / Autumn

2010-10-04T01:42:00.001-07:00

It's my favorite time of year. And yesterday was probably the nicest day of the year: sunny but not too hot. We spent the afternoon harvesting the apples in the castle garden. The bees and butterflies were out in force, doing some harvesting of their own.

Cold and Nasty

2010-09-25T23:51:00.001-07:00

That does *not* describe the current situation here. I mean: it *is* cold, but certainly not nasty. It rained for the past three days which is why the wine-harvest festivities set for this afternoon on Zeilitzheim's marketplace were cancelled on Friday. Too bad because the sun is now shining on this fall Sunday morning.

Lesson learned: sometimes you just have to stick with a plan, believe in it. If you don't believe in something you plan on doing you might as well not even start.

I had a feeling from the start that the "Weinlesefest" was not entirely wanted by the varying parties who have a stake in it. My part this year was very small: I designed the flyer and had it printed. Those are now flying off into the sunny Franconian fall.

It certainly is a wonderful time of year in northern Bavaria, Weinlesefest or not.

I am beginning to believe...

2010-09-15T11:15:00.001-07:00

... that Germans still have a *lot* to learn.

Social Media in the UK 2010

2010-08-20T10:02:00.001-07:00

A quick look toward our little brother across the channel: the United Kingdom.

I found this video on British habits regarding the internet on Thomas Knüwer's Blog Diskretion Ehrensache". Sure, the video is advertising, but check out the stats!

The internet does not care about you

2010-08-10T09:16:00.001-07:00

Short (1:24) piece of an interview with Seth Godin, whose blog (aptly titled Seth's Blog) I read regularly.

I found this on Josiah Mackenzie's Hotel Marketing Strategies Blog.

Enjoy:

Religulous

2010-08-08T03:56:00.001-07:00

Great quote: "you don't have to pass an IQ-test to be in the senate" re: talking snakes. Funny trailer:

Life is Awesome

2010-07-21T15:39:00.001-07:00

There's just been so much happening lately - too much "real life" so to speak - for me to find time to write about any of it online.

For starters: Spencer and Mila are currently visiting from the U.S. which is extremely cool considering I last saw Spencer (my college roommate's son) when he was 3 years old 15 years ago. The net has brought us back together and I am so grateful for that because these two human beings are two of the finest I have come across yet. I would never have known what great things had become of Spencer and his wonderful girlfriend Mila had it not been for the net (specifically: Facebook). They have been visiting for the past 2 days on their way from Paris to Munich and I am so thrilled.

We spent the day in Bamberg and Schweinfurt today (a trip well documented on Gowalla which is kind of silly but lots of fun - especially on the iPad). Our daughters took to Spencer and Mila immediately, sensing that there is a real personal connection there. They're like family, although they've only been with us for such a short time.

On the downside of current events: our iMac died on us the other day. It's our first Apple device to actually quit on us (we have 9 Apple computers/appliances including the various iPods; all of them - except for the iMac - still going strong). I'm blaming the "heat wave" that hit Germany about two weeks ago. That and the fact that there is no air conditioning. As far as data goes: It's a good thing we automatically backed up to the time machine as I hope to recover hundreds of thousands of photographs from that external drive once the iMac is running again. No pictures for the blog in the mean time as I have yet to recover that iPhoto library.

I suppose there is a lesson and an upside to every setback, though. And a deep thankfulness and appreciation for those things which we tend to take for granted until they break, go away or die. And for "windfalls" like Spencer and Mila's visit that is something I would not have imagined possible a year ago and is a great enrichment. So, yes, life is good. Awesome, in fact!

I Want A §$&! iPhone

2010-06-29T00:33:00.001-07:00

NOT safe for work or children...

Found on Techcrunch via Indiskretion Ehrensache.

Just the way you are

2010-06-27T06:19:00.001-07:00

Just The Way You Are

View more webinars from Holy Cannoli.

We Are All Connected

2010-06-22T05:37:00.001-07:00

From: The Symphony of Science by John Boswell. Check out the rest of these awesome videos there.

Cat And Fox

2010-06-04T14:12:00.001-07:00

That's a lot mof ear to lick.

Way Better Than A SmartPhone

2010-06-03T05:47:00.001-07:00

News Anchor

2010-06-02T10:12:00.001-07:00

Was not spanked. At least not as a kid.

snowtape

2010-05-23T11:33:00.001-07:00

I've been using snowtape for mac lately to listen to internet radio streaming. What's more: it actually allows you to record the stream from many stations and lets you save those titles as MP3s, title art and all. No, that does not make me a pirate. It's totally legal. AND: it's actually caused me to buy stuff I've listened to on the radio via iTunes. It's all about discovery. Love it.

Not sure where some of the album art on the screenshot went, though. It's still here, for me! Enjoy.

Yes, I Want One

2010-05-13T08:03:00.001-07:00

I know it's "just a toy". But isn't life all about toys, anyway?

Televison is a Drug

2010-05-07T22:55:00.001-07:00

Television is a drug. from Beth Fulton on Vimeo.

Found via Thomas Knüwer (Indiskretion Ehrensache) who, in turn, found it at Das Kraftfuttermischwerk.

Thomas Knüwer's premise is that social media have the potential to change the way we interact with each other. Television (specifically: advertising) yells at us and fosters a culture of yelling at each other. Social media encourage listening to each other more. I hope that will hold true!

Bug Report

2010-05-04T01:21:00.001-07:00

I have a couple of bugs to report. Find any for yourself?

Catnip

2010-05-02T07:56:00.001-07:00

There's catnip in between the roses in the castle garden. Especially Charly is very happy about that. He loves to just lie down in it and gets all excited as he claws and licks at this "cat drug". It doesn't seem to have any major side-effects other than that he gets a little possessive of the plant while he is "in" it.

The Internet of Things

2010-05-01T05:38:00.001-07:00

Just imagine if all those "things" that are measuring and sensing data would communicate and/or we would be able to make sense of the chatter and put it to good use. This video will help that imagination along:

Virginia's New iPad

2010-04-27T00:52:00.001-07:00

This Video is making its way through the internets. The lesson here: there *is* HOPE.

In Praise of Publicness

2010-04-26T12:12:00.001-07:00

I've been listening to the "This Week in Google" podcast with Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani and Jeff Jarvis and their guests ever since Episode 1. I have become quite acquainted to the three of them and their views and insights.

Jeff Jarvis (visit his blog at buzzmachine.com) recently spoke here in Germany at the bloggers' conference re:publica. His roughly 1-hour speech on publicness vs. privacy titled "The German Paradox" is well worth the time. Invest it!

Oh. And it just so happens I just finished reading his book "What Would Google Do?" today. Also a very recommendable read.

16 days without a blogpost

2010-04-23T10:07:00.001-07:00

It could have something to do with the fact that I have a whopping 7 blogs listed in my MarsEdit that I should be updating... I know, same old story, yadda yadda yadda of blogging gone stale. But this "personal blog" was never meant to be overly insightful or up to date. It wouldn't hurt if it were, though.

Or just practical. I found a neat setup for windowless rooms at a friend's blog today: Winscape gives you a room with a view.

Another friend is going through a week of documenting everything she does with a camera. You'd expect the pictures to be trivial, but they're not.

My mom's taken to blogging. A bit. I post her articles in the German blog.

Now that the weather has improved I'm back to taking more pictures. Some of those I've been posting to flickr. And Kati and I have been busy gardening in the castle garden.

All of that has been more exciting than blogging, though it doesn't hurt to share it here, too.

What do you want to be famous for?

2010-04-07T07:59:00.001-07:00

I am currently rereading Tom Peters' 1992 "Liberation Management". I find Peters' style somewhat hard to digest but there are many morsels of insight in the book. The subtitle is "Necessary Disorganization for the Nanosecond Nineties".

Well, the 90s are over. Well over. But the tenets of "disorganization" and knowledge management are as important as ever in our increasingly nanosecond world.

One item I want to share is a quote of David Maister from his book "How's Your Asset?":

"As you think about your career, here are some questions to ponder: In what way are you personally more valuable on the marketplace than last year? What are your plans to make yourself more valuable in the marketplace than in the past? What specific new skills do you plan to acquire or enhance in the next year? What's your personal strategic plan for your career over, say, the next three years? What, precisely is it that you want to be famous for?"

Exactly. Skills. Need to keep learning. Learn new things. It's not enough to just be good at what you do and know now.

Wendy & Hannah - Take 2

2010-03-29T05:46:00.001-07:00

If you enjoyed my story about reconnecting with Wendy Colonna of the former college musicians "Wendy & Hannah", you might enjoy hearing about how things are developing.

The voices of Wendy and Hannah have positively haunted me for the past 15 years which is why I set out to find them. I wrote about that here.

I have since connected with Wendy on Facebook. My friend Marty subsequently "met" her on Facebook, too. But what's more: Marty and Sue met Wendy in person when she performed in Manhattan earlier this snowy year. Wendy told Marty about her plans for a European tour this summer. So Wendy and I talked about plans to come to Zeilitzheim.

I don't yet know if I'll be able to organize a gig for Wendy and Chad here or near here yet. But I'm thrilled that I may yet get to hear these musicians live, one of whose voices still haunts me from the past.

Wendy's style has changed and matured, but the character of her voice still comes through in her current music projects. Check out samples from her new CD "We Are One" bound to hit iTunes soon.

http://www.wendycolonna.com/

Palm Sunday in Zeilitzheim

2010-03-28T08:59:00.001-07:00

The Sunday before Easter is Palm Sunday - at least as far as Christians are concerned. Since Christianity is a big deal in Germany, it is one of the Christian feasts that is widely observed here. Especially the Catholics, who religiously "rule" most of southern Germany, it is a big thing. Church visitors wave palm leaves and there is usually a procession with a donkey. Which makes it a very cool day for kids.

Our little village of Zeilitzheim is a Lutheran enclave however. No donkeys here. But it is traditionally the day of confirmation. That means - after months of learning bible texts etc. - many presents for the kids whose baptism is being affirmed.

The Future of Publishing

2010-03-20T09:57:00.001-07:00

I found this on my friend Götz Primke's Blog at http://www.legourmand.de/. Be sure to watch the video to the end!

The Importance of First Followers

2010-03-16T04:04:00.001-07:00

I found this video on karrierebibel.de through a tweet from @indivisuell. Check it out:

Dare

2010-03-11T03:59:00.001-08:00

I found the following video the blog of my friend Claudia Schramm and want to share it here:

Seriously Strong

2010-03-07T06:35:00.001-08:00

Okay, the "punked elf" was an inside joke. So please just disregard that. Not that you really expect serious stuff on this blog... After all, you get the serious travel stuff on http://bavariancastle.squarespace.com/blog/

Here's something you may enjoy, though: cheese.

Punked Elf

2010-03-07T05:17:00.001-08:00

Andre the Knee Hugger Pixie Elf back
Originally uploaded by SpiritMama

Restart

2010-03-03T09:11:00.001-08:00

Cleaning out the closet

It's official: spring cleaning is over and we have reopened.

The first hotel guests found their way to the castle this week and on the weekend we will be quite busy. There will be a big cultural event with a dinner on Saturday and we are already busily preparing for that.

And on a side note: check out my new compendium of links at http://flavors.me/barockschloss

The internet is making you stupid, stupid!

2010-02-20T07:31:00.001-08:00

Beer Heaven

2010-02-19T04:28:00.001-08:00

Looking back at American beer

I've been back to Germany for 11 years now. One thing I really appreciate and something Germany is really known for is good beer. But I have to tell you: I am really starting to miss (good) American beers.

And, yes: there is such a thing as good American beer. On the commercial end of things I always loved Samuel Adams. They have a web page but in typically U.S. style they make you register to prove you're 21+ before you can even see the web page. Downer. Not that I condone drinking for minors. In terms of learning to enjoy and consume alcoholic beverages moderately and responsibly, I prefer the German model. Age 16 for beer and wine, 18 and above for everything else.

While stationed in Leesville (Fort Polk) with the U.S. Army I had a favorite Louisiana beer: Turbodog made by the Abita Brewing Company. Occasionally I'd get myself a huge bucket of steaming hot crawfish and corn, a cool drink from Frozen Spirits and a sixpack or two of that beer. I'd eat the whole bucket of crawfish on the porch of our Leesville apartment building and later our woodland house north of Leesville. Crawfish and beer belong to the few happy memories of Louisiana; few only because we didn't spend all that much time there. It seemed we were always deployed somewhere. First Haiti, then Fort Chaffee, Arkansas for gunnery training, then the National Training Center in the Mojave Desert (Fort Irwin, Nevada) and then Bosnia with stopovers in Hungary. Of the three years I was stationed in Louisiana I spent very little time actually being there.

Photo: a local German Doppelbock beer and the family stein with the von Halem coat of arms on the lid.

Revisiting the past

2010-02-14T07:50:00.001-08:00

I took a few minutes to reread some old blogposts from 2008 and 2009. Now that is a lot fun. I tend to forget what happened and rereading even the short blurbs in the blog kind of brings it back. I guess I'll have to back it all up sometime soon before it gets lost in google's cloud.

I've started backing up the tweets from my German twitter account (5000+ tweets). Unfortunately I started that too late and the first few thousand are lost. So I couldn't even tell you what my first tweet was. I suppose twitter still knows and I hope that one day they'll allow access to the older stuff as well.

Blogging is a nice way of journaling, albeit less personal than a private journal would be. But feeding a blog certainly provides for the necessary impetus to write at all, from time to time. That's an impetus I do not feel for a private journal.

photo: my sister Sibylle's sculpture in the pond in the castle garden (in the background).

My next business card

2010-02-06T10:59:00.001-08:00

Disappointment over the iPad

2010-01-28T04:59:00.001-08:00

People with passion can change the world

2010-01-26T00:49:00.001-08:00

Steve Jobs in shorts:

New Facebook Page

2010-01-21T07:37:00.001-08:00

Check it out:

BavarianCastle on Facebook

Tech is amazing

2010-01-17T07:02:00.001-08:00

Yes, I finally went out to the movies with two good old friends last night. That wouldn't be so spectacular if it weren't for the fact that - apart from seeing a kids' film with the family around Christmas - I hadn't been to the movies at all for about 5 years. And for the fact that the movie we saw was AVATAR which I'm sure all of my readers have seen by now. Not having been to the movies for such a long time really underscored how awesome the new technology used in James Cameron's Avatar is. After watching it in RealD-3D I almost don't want to see another movie without this feature. Amazing.

Of course I'm easily awed, especially since I was thrilled to just get out of the house with my friends for a movie and some beers.

All is well

2010-01-15T12:43:00.001-08:00

I'm waiting for the updates to my iPhone apps to download which means I have no (other) net connectivity. So I can pause to think about what it is I am actually doing.

January. Wonderfully quiet month. Well, not really. But a heck of a lot more quiet than the rest of the year. 4 couples came to check out our digs today for their wedding parties this year. Other than that: office work remains...

I've been busy working on the website for North America (trying squarespace.com for that) and other marketing projects. It's good to actually sit back and THINK about stuff for a change as opposed to just reacting (crisis management, which prevails throughout the rest of the year). Of course GTD has really helped reduce the need for crisis management a lot (and I mean: A LOT).

Kati is out swimming with a friend while I am listening to our children cough occasionally in their beds (and: yes, we got that looked into. No, it's not serious). All is well...

Peace

2010-01-14T10:40:00.001-08:00

That's what my daughters always say: "peace!" gesturing with those small fingers, a peace sign (having grown up in Scotland: certainly not the wrong way around). I suppose that's what their ex-Army-officer father taught them. Embrace peace. It may not last.

I've been busy reconnecting with old friends and making new ones, both of which is really nice considering that here in rural Germany we seem to live in Po-dunk Missouri much more so than when I lived in Leesville, Louisiana (I never thought I'd actually miss that place, but - in a way - I sometimes do).

The U.S.-centric website is gaining content. I've been working from home. There is a lot more to do. What else is there to say? I appreciate reconnecting with old friends and certainly making new friends, both here in Germany and back in the U.S.

Peace.

Tired

2010-01-13T09:55:00.001-08:00

It's been a great day off (I actually got a lot of work done, which is typical of my days off). Not typical work, though. I launched a new website with a free squarespace.com trial account: http://bavariancastle.squarespace.com/

Okay, I know it needs a lot more work (and content, content, content). I'll be migrating some of that from the old English language offshoot of my German website but - more importantly - I'll be creating some unique content just for this site. I hope. At least that's the plan.

What else have I been up to today? Meeting of espargo.de - a group of asparagus growers, wine makers and restaurant owners whose site(s) I manage. That went pretty well. None of the usual bickering. Which is a very good sign...

Now? Tired. Perfect way to end a day off.

Jumping Cat

2010-01-12T08:48:00.001-08:00

If it looks like Charly is in mid air it's because he *is*. At least the ground is more or less in focus.

Naked Toe Cheese

2010-01-11T01:10:00.001-08:00

Or: How I found a voice from the past

Back when I was stationed at Fort Polk in Leesville, Louisiana as a young Army Officer in the 1990s, we used to drive up to Natchitoches on the weekends (pronounced Nack-a-dish but usually lovingly referred to as "Naked Toe Cheese" by us non-Louisianans).

I remember listening to two young college girls who played guitar and sang harmony in the street. They'd sell cassette tapes of their music on the street for a few bucks. Everything about the tapes was handmade and they were lovingly decorated with little drawings.

Those girls were really good! I always knew they would make it, really big. Does anybody know what happened to Wendy & Hannah?

Actually, I think I may have been able to find Wendy here and especially here. It certainly sounds like her. It's funny how you can retain the sound of voice over years like that. And guess what: it *is* her!

It looks like Wendy made it pretty big. I'll have to dig out that cassette and somehow get the songs on it digitized. The songs were really good, especially one I would listen to over and over again while driving along those Louisiana roads in my Jeep.

Wendy's 2007 Album "Old New Borrowed & Blue" even has one or more of those original "Wendy & Hannah" songs on it. The title "Hey" is certainly one of them (though I prefer the youthful version from Natchitoches from 1996 or so).

And... confirmation: Wendy Lorraine Colonna replied to an email almost instantly and shared:

Hi Alex!
Yes, it is I, Wendy from Wendy & Hannah.
Short story is that we got signed to a label in Louisiana and parted ways after we recorded it and did 2 separate albums.

Hannah changed her name to "child" and named her album "wide eyed and blind" I don't believe she ever recorded another after that. Last I heard she was married and has moved a few times. I haven't seen her in years.

I've made 4 albums since and am about to release my 5th. It's really amazing.

I believe I have a few copies of Bunniterds at my mom's house in Louisiana. I really think I should try to record it to digital format, eh?

Thank you so much for connecting!
if you want to hear more of the tunes, they're on a jukebox on my website and facebook pages.
www.wendycolonna.com
www.facebook.com/wendycolonnamusic

Wendy

Thanks, Wendy, for responding. And yes, I'd almost forgotten the tape was called "Bunniterds". Awesome stuff. Please check her music out on iTunes, her site, her facebook page etc.

I haven't found Hannah Vincent aka "child" yet but her album "Wide Eyed and Blind" is on Amazon. It says there: "At the age of 20, Child's vocal and songwriting talents far outstrip her years. Child was introduced to music as a young girl traveling with her family to small town revival meetings in the marshes of Louisiana. Her first musical influences came from her traveling evangelist, guitar-playing father and her vocalist mother. From this foundation her songwriting talents exploded. When Child was 13 her family settled in Lake Charles, La. about midwaist through a belt of cities with rich musical traditions that begin in New Orleans and stretch to Austin, Texas. Produced by: Michael Hutchinson and Perry R. Sanders, Jr."

Wendy and I proceeded to communicate by chat just hours after connecting via email. I *love* the web!

Too stoked. Imagine: here I sit in a tiny German village since 1998. Almost no (real) connection to the outside world. Just my memories. And I've been googling "Wendy & Hannah" off and on for years. And today I find Wendy, find out she's a successful musician (of course) and proceed to correspond with her be email and chat. awesome. The world is truly opening up to real communication. Thank you, www.

Now it's time to check out those new tunes Wendy was talking about...

Update: there is an update in the comments. Small world...

Sunday in Germany

2010-01-10T01:46:00.001-08:00

The kids have been up a while and I have accomplished one of my lesser-liked chores: shoveling snow. Now I'm taking a break from typing texts for an upcoming publication and exhibition of the village history group. Listening to a baroque music channel on internet radio which is great (except for the few commercials in between, you know, the American type where they yell at you and repeat the phone number numerous times).

That is one of the few things about the U.S. I do *not* miss here in Germany: radio commercials. Of course they have them here, too, but they tend not to yell at you as much. Although that is gradually changing. I guess it's because Germans tend to think everything American is good (at least in marketing). And now that Obama is president, Germans have a more positive attitude toward the United States in general.

I'm not sure yet what we'll do to keep the kids occupied for the rest of the day. Sundays are really kind of lame here in Germany as really everything is closed. Boring. I suppose we'll go for a long walk and Kati may go sledding with the kids (I'll go if I have to... I hate the cold and snow...).

Spaced Out - Distraction-Free

2010-01-08T15:22:00.001-08:00

Ambience, baby. It's all cool.

That was my first reaction as soon as I opened ommwriter for the very first time. Just now.

It is late at night, partly because I've been sitting here waiting for the program to download (they didn't tell me in the confirmation email that the download would be 52 MB of data - definitely quite a chunk for our German village connection.

What is it?

I've written here about writeroom before. ommwriter is pretty much the same thing: A program that enables distraction-free writing. Only that instead of the techy minimalistic black screen with green text ommwriter gives you a spacy landscape to write on and ambient music to get you in the mood (for writing, I hope).

I love the minimalism of the program. I'm not sure what the spaciness and ambience is going to do to my writing style. You be the judge.

It's still in beta and it is mac only. Get yours at www.ommwriter.com You'll need to give them an email address to get the download link, though.

No Strings Attached

2010-01-08T13:34:00.001-08:00

Our daughter (4) is growing up with German and Hungarian as her mother tongues. It's never too early for the kids to learn their daddy's other language, too. So Kati is taking her to Würzburg tomorrow for her first class (not that we're expecting any wonders from weekly lessons at her age). There's a blizzard coming, though (for German standards) so I'm wondering whether they'll even get to go. We shall see.

C+M+B or Epiphany

2010-01-06T00:03:00.001-08:00

The Sternsinger will be going around the village today dressed as Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar marking houses (photo from last year below) and collecting money for charity. I especially like Balthasar because he is depicted as a Moor which means the poor kid who gets to play him has to rub black shoe shine in his face.

Photo: Door in Zeilitzheim, Germany, marked with the year and "C+M+B", the initials of the Magi, also interpreted as "Christus mansionem benedicat" (Christ bless this house)

A Rite of Passage

2010-01-05T11:35:00.001-08:00

Katharina gave up the last of her pacifiers today! Hung them on a tree... and they're gone. The fairy brought her a special gift she's been wanting and took the pacifiers to give them to other, smaller children.

And guess what: she is soundly asleep!

Photo: A Rite of Passage (by: yours truly)

Christmas in Germany

2009-12-27T05:16:00.001-08:00

It was our daughters' 5th and 3rd Christmas, respectively. Each of these has been here in Germany. Perhaps they'll get to celebrate Christmas in Hungary next year, their other home country.

Not being religious we leave out church (though the kids did get to go to church with the other kindergarten kids, so they aren't completely missing out on that part of German culture). We do foster a few traditional German Christmas rituals and some of our very own family rituals.

Presents are opened on Christmas Eve here in Germany. In our small nuclear family we prepare the living room (setting up the tree etc.) during the night of the 23rd and keep the living room closed throughout the 24th. In the late afternoon of the 24th the family mills around the dining room for cookies and/or drinks. "Santa" known as "der Weihnachtsmann" rings a bell from within the living room three times (in intervals). This requires some logistical pre-planning and one of us to sneak away from time to time to go ring the bell. It has always worked well so far. Of course this modus operandi deprives the kids of decorating the tree so we may change this as they get older. The kids' joy is always quite overwhelming (for all of us), when they finally get to enter the "Christmas room".

Of course food plays an important part of our very own Christmas proceedings. We usually have one of our main meals on Christmas Eve which is not typical for German families who more often than not will have Wieners and Mashed potatoes or some other similar "factory lunch" in support of the "Hausfrau". And when my sister Sibylle visits for Christmas, which was the case this year, there is usually some form of exotic communal cooking going on more or less around the clock.

Today being Sunday we get a third holiday (not that it usually makes that much of a difference what day of week it is at the castle - except Wednesdays when Kati and I religiously take the day off, which is not to say that some of my best business ideas weren't born on these office-free days). We are now gearing up to the New Year's Ball and bookings are picking up. The daughters are enjoying their presents (and, of course, quarreling over some of them).

The tree stays up until the 7th of January (something I insist on, although Kati would prefer to keep it up longer). But as I am prone to relent on how to execute most other Christmas rituals, I stay firm on this one.

Merry Christmas, folks!

Photo: Traditional German gingerbread house decorated with candy.

Christmas Weather Forecast

2009-12-20T02:10:00.001-08:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

First Snow

2009-12-17T04:33:00.001-08:00

The girls playing in the snow in the castle garden.

Germany, Bavaria, Franconia, Zeilitzheim.

Google is scaring me

2009-12-15T12:00:00.001-08:00

But I like it.

Google suggest on "Alexander":

Or "Alex":

Moon and Sun

2009-12-11T07:31:00.001-08:00

Looking east on a pre-fog winter morning.

Christmas in Germany

2009-12-05T05:33:00.001-08:00

It's almost upon us, once again. At least Kati and I agree that the tree doesn't go up until Christmas Eve (although we can't seem to be able to agree that it could come down right after Christmas or January 6th, at the latest...).

So: no tree yet. The picture is of an "Adventskranz", you know, the wreath Germans have with four candles on it. Each Sundays before Christmas one more candle is lit. So tomorrow number two is on for its big appearance.

Pre-Holiday Observations in Germany

2009-11-29T08:31:00.001-08:00

I've been kicking this cold around for the past two weeks. I used to go for many years on end without having so much as a cold for more than a day or two. Seems like old age - in relative terms - is starting to get the better of me.

Apart from not really feeling up to snuff I'm starting to enjoy the gradually increasing peace and quiet around the castle. We still have a few milestones left to go but the brunt of it is over (the "brunt" still to culminate in the New Year's Eve Ball).

I am hoping to be able to use the quieter season for some "quality time" with my family and for some IT projects I've been postponing to the "quiet season" for a couple of years. We'll see how that works out...

A few days away from the village in a non-work context would be great, too, but I'm not setting my hopes too high for that goal.

For the kids everything is gearing up toward xmas. In Germany the "Nikolaus" Day on December 6th is almost as good as Christmas itself and today on Advent Sunday we lighted the first candle on the "Adventskranz". We aren't religious (though it says "Buddhist" on my Army dog tags - just because I thought "no religious preference just wasn't true) but the kids *are* growing up in the German cultural context which just so happens to be very much dominated by medieval religious practices. So they get to play, if they want, in order not no be left out at kindergarten / school. They'll figure things out when they grow older...

Digital Strangelove...

2009-11-11T03:59:00.001-08:00

... is great slideshare slideshow by David Gillespie subititle "or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet).

Bottom line: Paid content is possible. But of course there is a lot more to it than that (at 263 slides). Valuable for the creative commons pictures alone.

Digital Strangelove (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet)

View more documents from David Gillespie.

Fallen

2009-11-06T02:30:00.001-08:00

It's getting increasingly cold and wet here in southern Germany and the season is gradually winding down. I get to give a group of about 60 a tour of the castle this afternoon, though.

Preparations for the annual Christmas market are fully underway now. 75+ vendors are coming and we have an especially large program of events on the side. Lots to coordinate but everything is looking pretty well - thanks to GTD!

Watchful Eye and Ear

2009-10-26T12:17:00.001-07:00

More and more friends from days of old are popping back into my life thanks to the wonders of the internet in general and the benefit of social media in particular.

It's amazing, what touching base with my past is doing for me in terms of digging up long-lost pieces of memory. That is - I am very glad to say - mostly a very good thing.

I also find the general implications of this increased interconnectedness very interesting. Is the world evolving into one big - almost organic - brain of information? Information that is easily connected and reconnected to from every part of its web?

I certainly find it easier and easier (and faster and faster) to find pertinent pieces of information. Accessing the social network assures that the quality or usefulness of this information increases constantly. And reconnecting with old friends is helping to find information within me that I didn't even know was there (anymore).

What a great world we live in! What great prospects...

Scotch Terrier Parking

2009-10-22T14:48:00.001-07:00

It's quiet on the home front, but only because there is much to do.

And it is getting pretty cold here in southern Germany. I don't particularly like like as it causes the heating bill at the castle to go up drastically.

Waiting for Indian Summer in Franconia... but I suppose it's a little late for that.

It's A Sneaker Thing

2009-10-12T04:26:00.001-07:00

Travels - Wave - Wikinomics

2009-10-06T09:03:00.001-07:00

I've been away. Pictures here. It was all about Culture & Castles.

What else is new? Finally got my Google Wave invite today. Very exciting, early adopting and all. So I'm busy waving at the few friends I have, that also have a wave account.

Oh, and I'm reading "Wikinomics" by Tapscott/Willaims. Unfortunately I could only get it in German at the bookstore in Düsseldorf's train station.

What are y'all doing?

Frankenwein - Wine in Franconia

2009-10-02T04:04:00.001-07:00

I gave a short presentation on the wine industry in Franconia last evening. In order for quicker upload I have stripped the presentation of all photos but if you're interested in the topic, the following slideshow might still interest you:

Frankenwein - Wine In Franconia

View more documents from Alex von Halem.

Many thanks to my "Gästeführer mentors" Georg Bätz, Dr. Hermann Kolesch and the "Bayerische Landesanstalt für Weinbau und Gartenbau" in Veitshöchheim for the data (don't pin me down on exact numbers; I'm trying to paint a general picture here).