Homo Viator

As you can see on the left sidebar, I have added a new category, called My New York. In the coming days and weeks I will post some very amateur videos of this vibrant city. I once described India as a place that attacks all your senses. New York is very similar in this aspect, although I would not use the word attack here. New York spoils your senses. The overflow of input that one is exposed to at every corner of this city almost leads to an over stimulation of one's brain. To some this may be a rather stressful, unpleasant experience (like my grandma I guess). To others, like me, it is purely addictive. I have been coming here for 27 years, every year, for long periods of time, but every time I step onto the streets of New York, I stand in awe of this city. It is modern day's cradle of human kind, a knot that seems to connect the whole world. Any given day you can hear more than 20 languages. You just need to go into the subway for that. At a dinner last week, we were 11 people, of 8 different nationalities. An old ad put it right: If you stand on Times Square long enough, you are likely to meet every person in the world.

The video below offers only a poor representation of the claims I just made. It only shows you a very small slice of the Big Apple: Union Square on a normal, quiet Thursday night.

Even though newspapers are growing their online segment and the corresponding advertising revenue by impressive rates, this promising segment can still not make up for the losses that newspapers incur in its traditional turf: print. While advertising on newspapers' Web sites climbed 31%, a gain of more than $630 million in revenue, ad sales in the $47 billion-a-year print market dropped nearly 2% last year, which relates to $797 million. A reader that switches from print to online, like me for example, creates another problem: The average subscriber to a print newspaper represents $350 in annual revenue, whereas an online reader just represents about $40. What can be done?
In my point of view, magazines and newspapers that offer opinionated articles should charge for them. The Google and Yahoo facts-based news can and should remain for free, but why should an online reader not pay for reading the same article that his counterpart has to pay for when reading it in print. Of course fees should take the lower cost-base for online distribution into account. I would not mind to pay $5 a month to be able to read Spiegel articles every day. I am already paying for such service at The Economist and I also used to pay a monthly fee to enjoy CNN live streaming. By the way, CNN Pipeline now comes free! Paying $5 for Spiegel would still cost me a quarter less than buying the print edition every week. Online newspapers and magazines must also improve their products in order to be able to charge for some premium services. Why does Spiegel still not recognize the kind of news that I am interested in and then customizes my daily news intake? iTunes does an amazing job at this, recommending me great music based on my past purchases. Believe it or not, but I buy a lot of these songs that I would have otherwise not even known of. Spiegel offers an option, where the reader has to define what kind of news he is interested in, but that requires clearly too much effort for the spoiled and pampered consumer of the 21st century.

One long break between this and my last blog entry. Seeing the visitor stats I noticed that most of you kept checking every day, which makes it even more regretful. I am sorry about the delay and once again promise that it won´t happen again. As a sign of good faith, I have decided to give this blog its own domain. I will be working on a new site this weekend and hopefully present it next week. Regarding the lack of writing: I have been in New York for the last two weeks, out of which my suitcase (with laptop charger) was lost for a good week. When I did get all my chargers back I went to the streets and took some videos that shall be blogged this weekend. Videos cover a helicopter ride, a street concert and an erotic show in New York´s hottest club. So enjoy your weekend and when the grim reality of a Monday morning strikes you, the Homo Viator will offer some naughty morning entertainment to you.

I wanted to blog about Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge and Henry Kissinger today, but got stuck running errands before leaving to New York tomorrow. I arrive tomorrow night, so the blog will get a rest until Friday.

Before you start bashing the new design of the site, let me tell you that I do not really like it either. I just think that it is a bit more structured like this. Unfortunately these blog site only give you very limited choice when it comes to designing your blog. I guess that time has come to get my own domain and design. Soon!

Whenever I am back in Munich I realize that whatever this city lacks in terms of dynamics and progressiveness, it makes up with beauty and quality of life. Below a little video of one of my favourite spots.

Maybe it is just web boredom, but you never know, maybe these guys will end up creating the first online circus. Circuses are so out of fashion these days that they would definately need to revamp their image a bit. Maybe You Tube could host the first Web 2.0 Circus place. I would love that idea, a global circus with local acts, customs, traditions, music and jokes.

I just read a very interesting article about Mr. Kouchner, France's newly appointed Foreign Minister, a truly inspirational character. In 1971, while working as a young relief doctor in Biafra, he co-founded Médecins Sans Frontiéres (MSF). It is quite surprising to see such a man join the cabinet of ultra-conservative Mr. Sarkozy. Then again, I am surprised by Mr. Sarkozy over and over again; I actually start liking this guy. His drunk press conference after the G8 summit may have been immature, but he at least brings some fresh wind to France´s dusty political establishment. Then again, Mrs. Ségolène would have also achieved that. Whether it was a clever PR stunt to present Mr. Sarkozy as a consensus seeking bipartisan politician or not, I surely welcome when a conservative invites a member of the Socialist Party to join his cabinet. Mr. Kouchner did not pay a high price for accepting. Although the Socialist Party dismissed him from the party, he now has the opportunity of a lifetime. He can build upon his MSF experience that he got on the ground in war-torn countries and let it guide his ministerial approach. While before he brought short term relief directly to affected areas, he can now work on implementing sustainable relief and reconstruction plans. Considering his past however, his most valuable contribution may be to inspire other leaders to help countries that may not be at the forefront of geopolitical interests. He started out well, organizing a mini-summit on the armed conflict and massacres in Darfur, which the international community and media carefully neglect.