Relevant History

Keep Calm and Carry On redux

After yesterday's excitement it was fitting to see this piece in the Guardian about one of my favorite posters:

[I]n the spring of 1939, it was an anonymous civil servant who was entrusted with finding the slogan for a propaganda poster intended to comfort and inspire the populace should, heaven forbid, the massed armies of Nazi Germany ever cross the Channel....

The first [poster], designed to stiffen public resolve ahead of likely gas attacks and bombing raids, was printed in a run of more than a million and read: Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory. The second, identically styled, stated: Freedom Is In Peril....The third... was for the real crisis: invasion. A few may have made their way on to select officials' walls, but the vast majority of the British public never got to see it. This poster enjoined: Keep Calm And Carry On.

And suddenly these days, it's everywhere, from homes to pubs to government offices. The Lord Chamberlain's Office at Buckingham Palace, the prime minister's strategy unit at No 10, the Serious Fraud Office, the US embassy in Belgium, the vice chancellor of Cambridge University, the Emergency Planning Office at Nottingham council and the officers' mess in Basra have all ordered posters. Even David Beckham has the T-shirt, we are told.

It really is a terrific piece of work. Whoever came up with the slogan was (at least for five seconds of his or her life) a genius.

via Keep Calm Gallery

Thought of the Day

Brilliant hand-made posters from Keep Calm Gallery, based on a World War II poster.

The postcards are also pretty cool. But if keeping calm and carrying on isn't possible, there are other options.

[via coolhunting and Mathias]

art, England, signage

The best picture from vacation

Written on the wall of Brasenose College, Oxford:

via flickr

children, England, Oxford, Oxford University, signage

Blenheim Palace and the tourist peasantry

Friday we went to Blenheim Palace, which is one of the greatest of England's great country houses. Begun by the first Duke of Marlborough after his great victory commanding the British forces at the Battle of Blenheim, finished years after his death, and then updated, renovated, and expanded since, it's pretty amazing for a single-family home.

via flickr

There's a cool new exhibit about the history of the palace that reminds me somewhat of Pirates of the Caribbean (the ride, not the movie) or other animatronic diorama-type things. You walk through a series of rooms with different scenes from Blenheim's history, with the ghost of a servant as your guide. Maybe the most interesting thing about it is how they solve the challenge of being distracted by the poor facial expression on animatronic or robotic figures. In a couple rooms, they have large displays that project full-body video; in others, they have animatronic figures facing away from the spectators (sitting at desks with their backs to us, for example), and their faces are visible in mirrors (displays). It's a pretty good solution.

via flickr

We also wandered around the gardens a bit (Capability Brown redid the grounds in the mid-1800s or thereabouts), and visited the maze and kids' area. Those were a big hit with the children.

via flickr

Something struck me when I was walking out of the gift shop: tourists are the new tenants. 200 years ago, a significant source of income for a place like Blenheim was rent: peasants lived on your land, grew stuff, and gave you a cut. Today, the peasants are gone, but tourists have replaced them. It costs about $100 for a family of four to visit Blenheim, and the place was crowded; add in the income generated from the cafes, gift shops, private tours, etc., the place must be like the Roach Motel for tourist dollars: I'd guess that tens of thousands of tourist dollars check in, and don't check out.

via flickr

We tourists don't live on the edge of the property: even better (to quote The SImpsons Mr. Burns after he starts a casino), we come in, empty our pockets, and leave. The fact that a servant-- albeit a relatively high-ranking one, the first Duchess of Marlborough's personal servant-- is your guide through the interactive exhibit is another clue to your status.

Bus to Heathrow

We're on the bus from Oxford to Heathrow, where we'll fly out for San Francisco this afternoon. We've got power but no wifi, so my son is listening to iTunes on my machine, rather than borrowing my iPod (he couldn't find his before we left).

Traveling with kids has been a challenge, but an interesting one.

My son is six, so he basically lives in his own universe. It intersects at certain points with the rest of the world, but those points are unpredictable: which means outside Westminster Abbey he might be fascinated by a dog, or see the Greenwich Observatory as cool because you could roll down the hill and break your leg. As a result, the questions he asked me had little to do with-- well, anything, from an adult's point of view. Here's a list of what he asked me on Wednesday, and where:

On the bus:

• Why doesn't the bus have seat belts?
• Are we allowed to keep the headphones?
• My foot is warm.

At Westminster, in the gift shop:

• Do they have arrowheads?
• Are those real daggers?
• Are they made out of metal?
• What's the Holy Grail?
• Was there an Indiana Jones movie where he looked for the Holy Grail?
• Why did the Nazis want the Holy Grail, too?
• Can you put milk in the Holy Grail?

On the London Eye:

• Why can't you go to other countries without a passport?
• Why aren't the seagulls flying up here?
• Why can't you sell living things on eBay?
• Why do they have tugboats?

Everywhere:

• Why was Homer Simpson a bad teacher?
• Where are we having lunch?
• Can I have a snack?
• Where are we having dinner?

Generally, not the kinds of questions I'm used to having to deal with when I travel.

bus, children, England, ox, Oxford, Travel, Travel

Back in Hamburg

I got up at 2:30 this morning, after not quite sleeping for a few hours-- more like drifting in and out of consciousness. Fortunately, the night porter opened the restaurant up for just me, brewed some coffee, and made sure I was taken care of until my ride to the airport arrived (five minutes early).

If there is a heaven, I suspect it bears more than a passing resemblance to a well-run English hotel.

via flickr

The ride to the airport was interesting, as my driver lived in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Of course, at the end of the ride was Stansted, which was its usual multilingual, middle-of-the-night madhouse. With all the various languages, the slightly desperate yet all-too-often unhelpful signage, and people sleeping everywhere, the place feels like a refugee camp with duty-free shopping.

via flickr

My flight was delayed an hour, though, because the pilot forgot to fill out some critical piece of paper, so we had to turn around when we were on the tarmac, go back to the gate, and have him do it all over again. And since the cabin door had been opened, we had to listen to the safely video a second time.

However, we did eventually make it back to Hamburg. I'm here until Sunday, when we all fly back to England, and head for Oxford.

airport, England, Stansted, Travel

Why I love England

I came across this sign today.

via flickr

It reads:

Metropolitan Water Board
Motor Car Act 1896 and 1906
Notice.

This bridge is insufficient to carry a heavy motor car the registered axle-weight of any axle of which exceeds three tons, or the registered axle-weights of the several axles of which exceed in the aggregate five tons, or a heavy motor car drawing a trailer if the registered axle-weights of the several axles of the heavy motor car and the axle-weights of the several axles of the trailer exceed in the aggregate five tons.

By order.

The great thing, the bridge doesn't really go anywhere. It crosses the stream, but opens into a tiny field.

England, signage, Travel, Ware, river

Quick post

My last night at Fanhams Hall; I'm tired, have to get up at 3 a.m. tomorrow to get a cab to Stansted, so I'm singing off soon.

I had an excellent day, which consisted of doing nothing-- or nothing by the standards of my usual life. Last night I ended the day with several pints of beer (or three of beer and one of cider), so I woke up pretty late this morning. I briefly entertained thoughts of going to Cambridge or London, but realized I rarely get out into the countryside, so why not take advantage of it?

via flickr

I walked around the village of Ware, which is pretty nice. After topping up my phone and buying some postcards and stamps, I stopped for lunch at the Old Punch House, and had Yorkshire beef and pudding, in convenient wrap form.

via flickr

I then wandered over to the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, which was quite impressive, as it's been there (in one form or another) for almost a thousand years, and the oldest stones date from the 1380s.

via flickr

From there, I found the River Lee, and walked along it for a while.

via flickr

From there, then cut through town to a field that's being preserved as a piece of Real English Countryside. I felt a bit like a character from Jane Austen: they always seem to tramping through fields, when they're not in drawing rooms.

via flickr

England, Travel, Ware

Fanhams Hall Hotel

Late last night I got into Fanhams Hall, the hotel I'm staying in for the next couple nights.

fanhams hall at night, via flickr

I got checked in pretty quickly-- there weren't many people up, needless to say-- and got settled in my room. I did a little work on my talk, set a bunch of alarms, then went to sleep.

my chair is so squeaky, i think it might be haunted. via flickr

This morning I woke up to what sounded like half a dozen different kinds of birds-- I would guess partridges, something that sounded a lot like owls, and who knows what else. They were loud, though, whatever they were.

via flickr

The grounds looks pretty impressive-- there's a formal garden, a miniature Mount Fuji somewhere, and they've very smartly created some new rooms by filling in space between the older buildings, a la the great court in the British Museum.

the giant jello mold topiaries are famous throughout england. via flickr

I'm here for a couple more nights, thanks to the complexities of booking flights on Ryanair (which I now hate with a burning passion), but more on that later. I guess there are worse places to be stuck....

England, Fanhams Hall, hotel, Travel, Travel

Made it to Stansted

I'm in a taxi on my way to Fanhams Hall, which seems to be deep in the country. This should be interesting.

Flying Ryanair is the aesthetic equivalent of having an overdose on bad branding. Never before have I felt Cayce Pollard's allergy to logos and advertising. And I have two more flights on them in the next week. Gaaak.

Worked on my polishing my talk on the plane-- I was able to fall effortlessly into Airplane Thinking Mode (well, with the help of two cappucinos, served to me by a bemused Ukrainian barista), and work out the transitions and turns of phrase. For me, it often feels like 80 percent of the work of writing a talk is at one of two levels: the structural, where you focus on the big ideas and logical construction of your argument, and the fine details, the rhetorical joinery that make the pieces snap tight in the mind of the listener.

We're really out in the middle of nowhere: we've driven through two picturesque villages so far, and when the GPS sys "continue on this road for six miles," you know you're into some serious Country. I'll have to get enough sleep to get up early and explore before breakfast.

Third tiny village. We're getting into a Wicker Man level of remoteness.

Follow the course of the road for four miles. Oh my. Wait, we just turned onto a freeway, All is not lost.

airport, England, Stansted, Travel

Greetings from Stansted Airport

It's pre-dawn in England-- Hell, it's the middle of the night-- but we're up because 1) we have to go to Stansted Airport at 4 a.m., and 2) the kids are seriously maladjusted and have no idea what time it is. My daughter got a few hours of shuteye, but my son never went to sleep last night; I suspect he's going to pay dearly for it today.

We flew in yesterday from San Francisco to Heathrow. I'm pleasantly impressed at how good my kids are at travel: of course they lose things, drop stuff under their seats, or leave critical things in the car (we're traveling with only one Nintendo DS), but all these things will get better as they get older. Besides, speaking as someone who thought he lost his international SIM cards and extra SD cards, only to discover them in a pocket in his backpack, and who carries a travel mug on the plane precisely because he's saturated one too many of the small areas that constitute your seat and tray table, I can say that even the best of us can make those kinds of mistakes.

After clearing customs and getting our bags (United is now landing in Terminal 1, but their videos still talk about what you do when you get to Terminal 3), we caught a coach to Stansted, then an airport shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express. It's a totally forgettable, corporatized/globalized hotel, staffed entirely with Eastern Europeans (that seems to be the law-- at least a law of economics-- here). Our room has an exciting view of the parking lot. We had dinner early, then played some poker (the kids are now big fans), before turning out the lights. After a certain amount of thrashing, giggle fits, arguments over exactly where the center of the bed was, and complaints about everything from the size of the bed to the sound of the air conditioning, my daughter fell asleep. I don't think my son went out for even a minute.

Nonetheless, I went downstairs, did some e-mail, and caught up with a couple people at the office. I'm trying to keep the amount of work I do down to a minimum, but the fact is one can't be completely out of touch; the best I can do is focus more on my own articles and writing projects, and trust that the Institute-- particularly the wonderful new people we have working on my main project-- will take care of itself.

On to Hamburg, via Lubeck.

airport, children, England, Germany, hotel, Travel

Packing lighter

I took a pretty big bag with me on this trip, but I've realized that under the right combination of circumstances-- which in fact happen on most of my business trips-- I could get away with carrying far less stuff.

For one thing, I brought half a dozen shirts, thinking that I'd have the hotel in Budapest wash the dirty ones before I left. However, my favorite travel shirt-- a version of the Tactical 5.11 made from CoolMax nylon-- washes and dries very quickly. If I got two more of those, so long as I didn't need to really dress up, I could just travel with those, and wash them ask I travelled.

This'll work if I'm not working with the same group for longer than a few days, but also not moving hotels every night. If I'm based somewhere for a couple nights, but doing different things, it'll work. Pack two shirts and one t-shirt (to wear at night in the hotel when I'm washing stuff out), and be done. I also found some good travel detergent at Boots-- that's essential for making this scheme work. I bought several packs.

I'm not sure this would work in the wintertime, when clothes tend to be heavier and require more time to try. And whenever I needed to carry a suit, I'd have to rethink. But maybe I could make it work.

I'm also starting to think that I could replace the Mac with something like a Nokia N810. It would require putting more of my working documents on Google Docs, and seeing if the offline editing option for Gdocs works on the mobile flavor of Linux that the N810 runs, but I really don't need the Mac, and it would cut my travel load by several pounds. It might cut down seriously on my photoblogging, through; I'd need to check how well it works with Flickr, and whether there are any special tools for uploading pictures and blogging.

To store all the pictures I take, I might need a new iPod. That's a distinct possibility. But of course I already carry one of those, so it would be a substitution play. And one that would make me just a little bit poorer.

Of course, if the iPod touch supported Flash and had Bluetooth (so I could use a keyboard with it), then all my problems would be solved. I could run Gdocs on it, and there'll probably be other word processing applications available in short order. The touch screen would also let me do incredibly cool things with ZuiPrezi.

Or are there other devices that I should consider? I thought the Sony MyLo was close to being good, but not quite there. The AlphaSmart doesn't quite do enough, I think: I really need good browser access and connectivity when I'm on the road. None of the Windows CE devices strike me as really great. And while my N95 has wifi and Bluetooth, and so hypothetically I could use a keyboard with it, the screen is too small to work with very easily: it's not robust enough to replace the online functionality of a laptop.

airport, England, Heathrow, Travel, Travel

Greetings from the Terminal 1 Star Lounge

This morning I took the Tube from Earl's Court to Heathrow, and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. United has just moved from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1, so I was a little worried that the place would be a total mess; however, check-in was fine.

I've only been to Terminal 1 once before, when my wife and I were going to Finland. It's okay, but rather old for an international terminal. (It's interesting how much airport design styles change over time: I'm sure that one day places like Terminal 5 and Kuala Lumpur, with their vast open spaces, will seem dated.) Fortunately, they got the Star Alliance lounge open, so I can hang out with the free food and drinks, and in somewhat nicer chairs.

The new lounge isn't quite as since as the one in Terminal 3, but I think they're still furnishing it. But if the check-in process was smooth, the lounge feels like just another day. Having basically fallen into a line of work in which I organize events for a living (or one of my livings, anyway), I have a far better appreciation for just how much work goes into making something like this run smoothly out of the gate. The staff is clearly working overtime, and the lounge manager-- or porter, or whatever she's called-- is really focused, but they're making it work. As a fellow craftsman, I'm impressed.

airport, England, Heathrow, London, Travel, Travel

Another night at EasyHotel

I spent last night in London, basically squeezing in another evening before flying home. I had to plan this trip without knowing exactly when I would be where, so I decided to buy one SFO-London ticket, then buy the inter-European tickets as my itinerary worked itself out.

EasyHotel is the hotel of the people who started EasyJet, the low-cost airline that's allowed millions of Europeans to get to know each other, usually when staggering around drunk and generally behaving badly. It's amazing in the wake of cheap European airlines the EU is still together: when most of your contact with fellow Union members happens when they're drinking, shopping, and trying to have sex with your {insert various family relations or genders here} sorely tries the notion that travel makes us all more cosmopolitan and tolerant.

EasyHotel is perfect if you feel that you don't get enough of the convenience and comfort of air travel while in the air, and would like to have the experience on the ground, too. Basically, the hotel is a technological tour de force, because rather than having to renovate rooms, EasyHotel just plugs in these room modules, connects electricity, water, and air (seriously-- air is circulated through holes in the wall that look a little like the air vents over airplane seats, or like something out of a horror movie involving people being forced to make horrible decisions about which limbs they can live without), and calls it a hotel. I suppose it's also a miracle of linguistics, and possibly the lax state of hotel regulation enforcement, that they can do that.

EasyHotel room, via flickr

However, while I prefer Goodenough Club, I like it well enough to stay when I need a place for just a night. It's right on the Piccadilly tube line, so you can go straight from the hotel (either Earl's Court or Gloucester Road) to Heathrow. It's also in South Kensington, so it's near stuff I like, like the Natural History Museum.

And it's just off one of the city's busiest main roads, which I really came to appreciate last night. Despite getting in late, I felt it imperative to go down to the Embankment and walk across the Jubilee Bridge, which offers my favorite view of London. So I took the Tube down to Embankment, walked around, took lots of pictures, then headed back to the Tube stop just before 1. I was feeling rather proud of myself-- I'm turning into a bit of a local, and know the city well enough to get around easily.

via flickr

However, I'd forgotten that the Tube closes down after midnight. Not only that, but I'd spent all the money I was carrying to top up my cell phone and buy some dinner (chicken drumsticks at Sainsbury's-- I felt a great need for portable protein); plus, my credit card has been acting up-- it's literally falling apart now, and I need to get it replaced as soon as I get back home-- and it wasn't clear that I could pay a cab.

via flickr

So I walked back to the hotel. Fortunately, you can stay on the same road and it goes from Leicester Square to Piccadilly, past St James Park and Hyde Park, past Wellington Square, past Harrods, past the V&A, past the Natural History Museum, and to the hotel. It took something mover an hour, but once I was certain I knew what I was doing, it was a fine walk: it was good to know how these different parts of the city, and different parts of the same road, all connect. I had never realized that Harrods, where I've been once, and Piccadilly Square, where I've been lots of times, were on the same road.

via flickr

So all's well that ends well.

This morning I slept fairly late, got checked out of the hotel, and finally got a real English breakfast, right down to the stewed tomato and mushrooms. Why the Hell are stewed tomatoes and mushrooms-- not to mention baked beans-- considered a breakfast food? Talk about two peoples separated by a common language.

via flickr

England, hotel, London, Travel, Travel

back in london

in london, typing at an internet cafe with a mystery keyboard. made it here safely from vienna, which was a fascinating city, though i overdosed on pastry and mozart.

am just here for a few hours, but am determined to make the most of it. my tube pass expires at 4 am, and one can see plenty of stuff between now and then....

Moving images in airport

books, heathrow terminal 5, via flickr

baby, changi airport, singapore, via flickr

airport, Changi, displays, England, Heathrow, Singapore, Travel

The new style in vast airport terminals

I hadn't realized how much giant, open-span main terminals now dominate airport design. Some examples I've been in recently:

Kuala Lumpur, via flickr


Singapore, via flickr

Heathrow Terminal 5, via flickr

Hong Kong, via flickr

airport, Changi, England, Heathrow, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Singapore, Travel

Running into the Antiquities Road Show

After my technology transfer breakfast, I went back to my room, packed and checked out of the hotel, and then headed out for a walk. I first braved the crowds and stopped at Boots to pick up a couple things. From there I went on to Blackwell's, because... well, it's a huge bookstore. (There's a Caffe Nero on the first floor of Blackwell's, but they makes Starbucks' over-roasted coffee seem like a light refreshing brew.)

I wandered downstairs to what's (accurately) called the basement, only to discover that the "basement" occupies about half the block, and seems to stretch under the Balliol College gardens. It was very cool.

via flickr

I picked up a copy of Donald Braden's and Susan Greenfield's latest books, then wandered over to the Bodleian Library, and around the Radcliffe Camera and St Mary's Church.

via flickr

Off to the bus

I'm heading out shortly to get the bus from Oxford to to Heathrow 5, for my flight to Budapest tonight. It's mid-afternoon, but I'm leaving a lot of time because 1) I don't want to get stuck in unexpected traffic, 2) Heathrow 5 is said to be a lot better, but still could be a disaster, and 3) Oxford is so packed with tourists you can't turn around.

Not that I've gone native or anything-- I find I get more American rather than less when I'm in England; if I were here for a month, I'd probably end up dressing like a cowboy-- but it really is very crowded.

Besides, I need to do some work for my workshops on Monday and Thursday, having been distracted by things back at the office. The difference between going an academic conference when you're an academic, and going to a conference when you're, well, me, is that when you're an academic, you don't have regular work still going on, and other people needing you to do things.

England, Oxford, Oxford University, Travel

Technology transfer breakfast

Had breakfast with an SBS student who's doing a summer project on technology and IP transfer. It was a good time: I find the SBS students interesting to talk to, both because they're working on cool stuff, and because they're useful informants about the local culture of the business school.

One of the things we talked about was the degree to which you could think about intellectual property as something akin to a manufactured object, or something that's inherently social. If it's the first, the challenge people who want to facilitate intellectual property have to deal with involve reducing transaction costs and asymmetries, because IP is something that you could move as easily as an iPod moves from the factory floor in China to your door. If it's the second, though, and if the transfer of intellectual property is more a process of social negotiation in which creators and users of IP create a common understanding around pieces of IP, then you need to design a very different system: one that facilitates relationships between creators and users, rather than facilitates transactions between anonymous buyers and sellers.

I've finished packing, and now I'm going to go check out, walk around for a while, then take the bus from Oxford to Heathrow Terminal 5. I'm going to leave ont he early side, to make sure I get there with plenty of time; then I figure if I have a long wait, i can wander around T5 and take pictures, while my clothing disappears into some strange black hole.

England, innovation, Oxford, Oxford University, Said Business School, technology, travel

Last day in Oxford

I got a decent night's sleep last night, and woke up without yesterday's confusion. I'm having breakfast with someone I ran into in SBS-- a graduate who's doing some work on innovation in Asia, and overheard me talking about the subject-- then I'll finish packing, and get things together to leave this afternoon.

I'll spend a little bit of this morning playing tourist, but mainly I'm going to work on things for the Budapest and Vienna workshops.

England, Oxford University, travel, Oxford

Back at SBS

My day starts in earnest now. I never got back to sleep, so I spent a couple hours doing e-mail and reading, and making sure my various alarms work. (They do.)

I'm meeting someone at 9 (in a couple minutes), then another person at 10.

I actually had quite a good conversation last night at the pub-- we spent a while talking about an article I'm supposed to be writing about the future of futures, and it was one of those drunken states in which you manage to think through a bunch of things all of a sudden. Incredibly, I pretty much remember it all. Usually it's only a plane ride or gigantic amount of coffee that puts me in that state.

conference, England, future, Oxford University

I'm late! I'm late! No wait...

When I finally got to sleep last night, the sky was getting light. Not much time until I have to wake up, I thought. Naturally, having been out last night, once I was in bed I fell right to sleep.

I woke up with a start. How long had I been asleep? Why didn't I hear the alarm? What time is it? I crawled out of bed and looked at the computer. 10:30???

DAMN!

I was supposed to meet people at 9 and 10, not to mention the conference, which cost a small fortune to attend. Damn it. Damn it.

I ran-- staggered or sleep-walked, more like it-- into the shower. How the Hell does this thing work? Finally I got a shower going, thought the bath never stopped running. I got out without killing myself, but I did slip enough to get a bruise. Damn improvised plumbing and layout.

I had a wake-up call and my computer alarm set. How could I have slept through both of them? The computer alarm is a godawful air raid siren, to boot. This is going to be a real problem on workshop days. If I can't wake up on time, Bad Things Will Happen.

No time to shave. I gotta get over to SBS, figure out where things are at, and make some apologies.

Check the clock again. 10:40 PM.

A long minute, staring at the computer.

10:40 PM?

The computer is still on Pacific Time. I haven't changed it.

That means it's... add 8... try to add 8...

It's 6:45 AM.

I'm not late.... I didn't sleep through the alarms. They didn't go off... because they're not going off for another 45 minutes.

Of course, now I'm way too pumped to go back to sleep. Though maybe I'll manage it.

conference, England, Oxford University, travel

Day 2 at Oxford

It's really late here, but I still feel the need to have a short post.

me and bicycles, via flickr

I spent most of the day at the conference; of course I was giving a paper this afternoon, so I was going to a couple talks, but ducking out of others to work on my own presentation. After some frantic last-minute fiddling with the presentation technology in the Edmond Safra Lecture Theatre (work for the nephew, speak in the theatre of the uncle!), I was able to give my talk using ZuiPrezi, which was fun.

said business school, via flickr

After that, I took a little time to write some postcards and get a SIM card for my phone. So now I have phone numbers in the US, UK, and Singapore. Part of me thinks this is cool. Part of me thinks it's a sign I need a different life.

main gate, oriel college, via flickr

Dinner was at Oriel College, one of the oldest of the colleges at Oxford. As I've already confessed, I'm a sucker for these kinds of events.

oriel dining hall, via flickr

This one was a little less alcohol-soaked, but still very good. Dining at the long tables under portraits of the Queen and stained glass pictures of Edward II is never bad when you're an American.

courtyard or oriel college, via flickr

After dinner, I met up with a former student, and we had a few pints at The Jam Factory, a gallery-restaurant-bar near SBS. Damn good beer.

the jam factory, via flickr

After that, I wandered around town for a while, taking lots of pictures. Eventually, after crossing Magdalen Bridge, I doubled back, and stopped at a kebab van for a little something.

via flickr

With that, I headed back to the room, to do a couple hours' work. The big difference between going to a conference as an academic, and going as... me... is that my job doesn't stop when I'm away. But so it goes.

via flickr

Tomorrow I'm going to meet various friends and business contacts, and generally take it a little easier.

drunken bicyles, via flickr

Substantive stuff about the conference tomorrow.

conference, England, Oxford University, travel, Oriel College

Last post of the night

I've pretty much finished up work on my talk tomorrow, so I'm going to turn in.

via flickr

Greetings from "A Turn to Ontology in STS"

Well, I made it. I may fall asleep, since my body thinks it's 2 a.m., but at least I'll fall asleep at the conference, rather than some random place in England.

via flickr

I got here about an hour late-- not only did the bus take a little while, but I was dropped off about 10 minutes' walk from SBS-- but I got checked in, dropped my bag, and came to the lecture hall. Of course, in classic 19th century fashion, the doors to the lecture hall are at the front, so if you're late everyone can see you. (There are doors in the back, but the young lady who was doing registration didn't tell me how to get to those doors. I think she was punishing me.) So everyone knows I'm here. Not that more than a handful of people might recognize me, of course....

via flickr

Walking up High Street, I went past a vast number of teenagers with their parents, all holding maps or slender catalogs. Is a summer school session starting? Or is this what Oxford is like all summer?

via flickr

conference, England, Oxford University, Said Business School, STS

On the bus to Oxford

I found the Central Bus Terminal at Heathrow, after a little wandering around and being misled by the station right outside arrivals in Terminal 3.

via flickr

I must look like I'm on my way to a conference: the bus driver grabbed my bag, took one look at me, and said, "High Street then, innit?" Umm, yeah.

The bus looks promising. It's nice and clean, and there are power outlets on the window seats (they're not working yet, but I have hopes). On the other hand, the seats are a bit cramped, and recline about 1 degree. However, I should get into Oxford just around 10-- a little later than I'd meant, but I still shouldn't miss much of the conference, and having come all the way from California, I hope they'll forgive me.

I have the vague memory of taking a bus from Heathrow before-- I think there was problem with the Tube, and people were being shuttled from the airport to one of the stations closer to the city. So the novelty of the "luxury coach" experience-- the category really isn't one we have in the States, innit?-- is preserved by the unreliability of my memory.

bus, England, Heathrow, Oxford University

Landing in a couple hours

We're about 3 hours away from London. It's about 8 PM back in California, and 4 AM GMT-- which means I'll be landing around 11 my time, and will basically be up all night at this conference. Should be fun.

I managed to avoid watching 27 Dresses and Jumper, but there was a film with Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt that I succumbed to. It involves a terrorist attack against the President at a summit in Salamanca, Spain (actually Mexico City and Santa Fe), and is mainly interesting for how it runs the same scene several times from different characters' perspectives. Despite it having a great cast, I never heard of the thing.

England, travel, UA 930

Greetings from UA 930

We're now over eastern Canada, and the sun is starting to go down. Of course, when you're flying east, the sun goes down really fast, so we're soon going to be in darkness.

I managed to score an exit row seat for this flight, which is nice for the leg room it affords; the fact that I don't have as much storage space is a bit of a pain, but well worth being able to stretch out more.

Whether by luck or design, the other papers in my session tomorrow (Thursday) are pretty nicely matched with my own, though they're quite different from each other. One is about using theatrical techniques to help groups build common views of company processes, organizational challenges, etc.; the other looks at representations of modern finance, as seen through advertisements in the Financial Times. Since my talk is partly about why paper continues to be a valuable medium in workshops, and partly about how we use paper spaces as a foundation for other products that are then used in other engagements with clients and audiences, I'll split the difference between talking about group practices, and creating representations intended to get viewers thinking (about the future rather than banking, but still).

There are a couple fairly active toddlers on the plane, who have been wandering up and down the cabin, with mothers in tow; lots of other people, though, have just gone to sleep. I usually fall asleep right before takeoff, but just nap for a little bit; the ability to sleep through a flight could be a useful skill, but I find it elusive.

England, travel, UA 930

Greetings from the SFO Red Carpet Club

I'm at SFO, waiting for my flight to London. The trip is going to be something. Two conferences at Oxford, one on ontology and STS (I'm really hoping to get through the papers on the flight over so I can understand what the Hell that means, but some friends are going to be there, so when I got the invite I said yes), the other on visualization in business (the perfect conference for me, given my prior scholarly work on scientific visualization, and my current obsession with visualization tools). Then I've got a bunch of meetings in Oxford and London with various people, to do some Institute business.

Saturday I head down to Budapest, for a workshop on the future of science, co-organized with my friends at Ithaka. After that, it's up Danube (or down? must check) to Vienna, and a second future of science workshop, co-sponsored by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. Once that's done, it's back to London for a day (EasyHotel, here I come!), then home on the 4th of July).

I'm taking an express bus from Heathrow to Oxford, and I should get to the Said by about 9:30-- a little late for the conference, but still, I'll be there for most of the day. My own paper spaces talk in Thursday early afternoon, so I've got lots of time to carve 20 minutes out of a 40-page paper. I've got to read the other papers in my session, so I can work in some references to their work. Reading other papers always impresses conference organizers.

The last few days I've really been dragging-- tired, feeling overwhelmed, really aware of everything I have to get done or am behind on-- but now that I'm here at the airport, I'm getting that irrational exuberance and burst of energy that comes when I travel. In fact, I think I'm almost at the point where that feeling of spending several days in this high-energy mental zone is more attractive than my destination. It's a weird Pavolovian response to the stimulus of international terminals, foreign hotels, and conference rooms.

I can't actually get onto the wifi here, because I'm not flying first or business class. Maybe I could pay, but the free wifi only comes if you've spent many thousands of dollars. I'm not going to stop coming here-- the chairs are comfortable, the windows let in a lot of sun, there are lots of power outlets, and I do appreciate being able to drink coffee and Diet Coke until I float away-- but it is a study in how, if you drive expectations down far enough, any amenity can be repackaged as a luxury. The Red Carpet Club in Heathrow is okay, but I love having access to it because the main terminal waiting area totally sucks.

I'm also burning a couple DVDs and charging up my iPod (this time I remembered my iPod connector-- last time I went to Europe I forgot it, and had to buy a really expensive on in Frankfurt).

airport, England, SFO, UA 930, United Airlines

Another line on my c.v.: Associate Fellow, Saïd Business School, Oxford University

I don't think this was a very well-kept secret, but now it's official: in addition to my day job, and my work on the end of cyberspace book, I'm now officially an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University. It's a two-year appointment, which runs through the spring of 2010 (through Hilary Term, for those of you keeping track across the pond). I don't teach any courses, but I do work with students, and am on call to do things with SBS groups visiting Silicon Valley.

via flickr

The appointment was initially approved in March, but they only got me up on the Web site this week. Such is the pace of things there. (And as one friend said, "My god, your picture on the SBS website is so Californian!" It was taken in the garden of Howard Rheingold's house. You don't get more California than that.)

I've still got my affiliation with Stanford, and thank heavens for that: having access to the Stanford library has been critical to my continued viability as a thinker. But I've got a couple executive MBAs I'm working with at Oxford, and have had a good time collaborating with people at the James Martin Institute. And in the last few years I've been to more conferences there than Stanford.

Strange to have closer intellectual ties to a university in England than to one three miles away, but such is life these days. Or my life, anyway.

Needless to say, this is a real thrill. Not because it represents some prospective return to academia, but because it's an interesting hybrid position. SBS is one of several business schools that are real intellectual hot-houses these days. Some of the best B-schools are no longer places that just train people to crank out exotic formulas or spout jargon, but are seriously thinking about what it will mean to do business in this century. Oxford the added virtue of having the James Martin Institute, which in the next few years will-- if it has any sense at all-- become the global epicenter for serious futures work. So this is a good time to get connected to this little world.

I've already promised several people that I won't start speaking like a character out of P. G. Wodehouse, as tempting as that would be.

[To the tune of Drew Barrymore & Hugh Grant, "Way Back Into Love [Demo Version]," from the album "Music & Lyrics".]

Technorati Tags: academia, Oxford University, postacademic

Liveblogging Harry Potter in England

My wife is now on her way from Cambridge to Hamburg, to spend the weekend with friends before flying home next week. Before she left, though, she got copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Apparently, it was quite the scene.

Most of the people here seem to be adults and teen-age girls.  There are a few little kids, some look under 10, and I am not quite sure what the point of that is, although the fellow who just came by had a brilliant Harry Potter costume on, he looked just like the young Harry Potter – but should he be up this late getting the last book?

It should be no surprise that many adults have academic robes to use for this in Cambridge.  What is a surprise is how many children have them.  Did they get them just for this?

The family that dresses up together, stays together

[There's] a large group of very small boys, they look they are like they can’t be older than 8.  They are dressed as a Quidditch team, they look very cute, but they will be so tired tomorrow.

12:50.... I walked past Waterstones. The line went out the door, and all the way down the street past the gates to Sidney Sussex College.  It was amazing.

Also, one of the exchange programs had a bunch of students who wanted copies, but the program has a strict curfew; so they agreed to send some of the tutors out to buy copies for all the kids, and bring them back to the college.

I really need to reread volume 6 before too long. I hardly remember any of it.

[To the tune of Keith Jarrett, "Vienna, Pt. 1," from the album "Vienna Concert".]

Technorati Tags: books, Cambridge, England, Harry Potter, travel

London, the place above the Underground

Once I get outside the zone that's really familiar-- the areas in a rough line from Westminster to Russell Square, along the Embankment between Westminster and the Globe, and South Kensington-- London becomes a bunch of isolated zones above different Tube stops. Until last trip, I'd never been in Hyde Park, nor did I have any sense of how it connects the area around Paddington with South Kensington.

On the Underground, via flickr

Of course, one of the great pleasures of being in London is that an amazingly large number of interesting things are within walking distance of each other, so long as you've got good shoes and a bit of grim determination. But after six trips, some of those things are starting to be nice... but I don't feel quite the same serious pleasure I once did at seeing them. In particular, the churning crowds around Covent Garden and Leicester Square were once more entertaining; now, they're starting to feel a bit in the way.

On the Underground, via flickr

I suspect in the future I'm going to head out towards Saint Paul's and the Tower, and find interesting places there to walk in the evenings. I don't think I'll give up these long marches; but I'll find new places to do them.

Technorati Tags: England, London, travel, Underground

Heathrow Express

Monday morning my wife and I took the Heathrow Express, the nonstop train from Paddington Station to Heathrow Airport. Normally I just take make sure my iPod is charged and take the Tube-- it's a solid hour central London to the airport-- but we were at Paddington Station, and thought we'd try it.

Paddington Station, via flickr

It's quite a bit more expensive than the underground-- 15 pounds rather than 6-- but it is very quick and quiet. Indeed, it feels rather like a plane: the seats are similar, there's a seat pocket in front of you, an overhead compartment, and a monitor with helpful information about the airport and BBC headlines. The logo looks a bit like a cross between NATO and XBox, but that's only a small distraction.

via flickr

However, be warned: there's a ton of construction in Heathrow right now, so when you get out of the express train station at Heathrow, expect to walk outside for a few minutes to get to departures. A bit of a pain unless you have luggage carts, but there are lots of free luggage carts at the Express terminal.

via flickr

Technorati Tags: airport, Heathrow, Paddington Station, train, travel

I wish I had the concession on Left Luggage at Paddington Station

This morning my wife and I checked out of our hotel, and planned to leave our bags at Paddington Station while we walked around for an hour before going to Heathrow.

We knew there's a Left Luggage service at Paddington, but mysteriously, the Web site didn't mention how much it cost. But, we figured, how much could it be?

Paddington Station, via flickr

We saw why there wasn't any information when we got there, Turns out it costs twelve six pounds to leave a bag for up to 24 hours. For a couple with a suitcase and backpack each, that's about $100. It would cost about the same to leave the bags at the hotel, then take a cab to the airport. Just incredible.

I hope whoever has the concession gives a lot of money to charity!

Technorati Tags: London, train, travel, Paddington Station, England

In the Goodenough Club

I've stayed at the Goodenough Club on my last several visits to London. Normally, I choose the cheapest room, which is on the small side, but is perfectly fine for one person. This time, since my wife and I are both here, we ordered up a double room. However, when we arrived, the room wasn't ready. However, one of the suites was, and they let us have it.

via flickr

Taking such a thing is a bit like flying first class: you run the risk of being completely spoiled by the experience, and resenting having to return to your normal life.

via flickr

We'll do our best to deal, though.

Technorati Tags: England, Goodenough Club, hotel, London, travel

Grand views

Most of the time I'm in London, I'm working; I got out walking in the evening, but usually don't go into museums or other major tourist attractions. This weekend, though, I got to go to Westminster Abbey and the British Museum, both for the first time.

Technorati Tags: British Museum, England, London, travel

London trip photoset

A Flickr photoset of pictures of this weekend. No captions or geolocations yet, I'm mainly focused on getting them up.

Edmund Halley plaque at Westminster Cathedral, via flickr

It's a lovely morning, though my wife's luggage is still missing. Now off to breakfast. Doubtless I'll post pictures of that, too.

Technorati Tags: England, history, history of science, London, travel

Yet MORE James Cook-related monuments!

To add to the ones at Greenwich and Kauai:

A plaque to cook at Westminster.

via flickr

And a memorial in Turku to Hermann Sporing, a Finnish naturalist who went on Cook's first voyage.

via flickr

Technorati Tags: England, history, history of science, James Cook, London, travel

Made it to London

We're in London, though unfortunately my wife's suitcase didn't make it. And British Airways has no idea where it is. So after a pleasant day today, blissfully ignorant of the fact that the bag had fallen through the cracks of the BA luggage universe, we might do a bit of shopping tomorrow.

via flickr

Technorati Tags: airport, England, London, travel

Bicycle ambulance

I've never seen a bicycle ambulance before. I assume if someone actually needs to be carried somewhere, they're not slung across the back rack, but a golf cart is summoned. Or I hope.

Heathrow Terminal 1, via flickr

Maybe this is yet another good reason not to get sick when traveling.

[Posted from Sokos Hotel Hamburger Bors via plazes.com. To the tune of David Bowie, "Thru' These Architects Eyes," from the album "Outside".]

Technorati Tags: airport, bicycles, England, heathrow, London, travel

Gadgets on the road

It feels like about 2/3 or what I'm taking with me are electronics: obviously my computer, and various adapters (the slender 2-pin for Finland, chunky 3-prong for England), headphones, rechargeable batteries, a battery charger, etc., etc..

The big dilemma, which I'll go back and forth on until the moment I close up my suitcase, is whether I should take my red rain jacket. I travel with it a lot.

Aarhus, November 2004 via flickr

London, November 2006 via flickr

But it's supposed to only rain one day on the trip, the Sunday we're in London. So maybe I'll leave it here, and pack an umbrella. Or not pack either. I just don't know.

Update, 6 June 2007: I brought it.

[To the tune of George Harrison, "Beware Of Darkness," from the album "All Things Must Pass (Disc 2)".]

Technorati Tags: clothing, England, Finland, travel

Cutty Sark

Last time I was in London, I had dinner at a pub with a view of the Cutty Sark, one of the greatest of the 19th-century clipper ships.

via flickr

Last night there was a fire that destroyed part of it:

Fire today ravaged the Cutty Sark, causing extensive damage to the world's last remaining tea clipper and one of Britain's most important maritime treasures.

Residents in Greenwich, south-east London, where the 19th century ship has been in dry dock since the 1950s, described hearing an explosion at around 4.45am.

Firefighters arrived to find a "substantial" blaze had engulfed the timber and iron hulled ship, which has been undergoing a £25m renovation.

English breakfast tattoo

As someone who blogs about breakfasts in England, I couldn't help but note this piece in the Guardian:

A 19-year-old today had a full English breakfast tattooed on his head.

Dayne Gilbey was inked with bacon, eggs, sausages, beans and cutlery during the six-hour session.

Mr Gilbey, from Coventry, answered a plea from the tattoo artist Blane Dickinson, who wanted a human canvas for the iconic dish.

The North Wales-based tattooist etched out the brightly-coloured design, which resembles a smiling face, at his local pub The Albion, in Conwy.

[To the tune of Marvin Gaye, "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," from the album "The Very Best Of 60's Gold, vol. 3".]

Technorati Tags: culture

Throwing the switch

I spent a good bit of last year working on a project for the British government on the future of science and technology. It was an immense amount of work, but the kind of rare project that seems to make use of everything you already know, and forces you to learn a lot of new stuff. It's also what allowed me to go to England four times last year (okay, the fourth project-related trip was January).

In about an hour, I get to throw the switch on the database that we developed as part of the project, and release it to the general public. This wasn't part of the original plan; but the government ultimately decided that this was worth making more widely available. Good for them. (I don't get to turn it on because of my privileged position on the project; I just happen to be the one with the right administrative access.)

I have the odd feeling that this project is going to have consequences for me far beyond boosting my frequent flyer account and getting me to learn about MySQL; but I don't know what they'll be.

[To the tune of Prince, "Purple Rain," from the album "Ultimate".]

Technorati Tags: future, science, technology, UK, work

Maybe I should stop going to London

When I was there in the summer of 2005, I left two days before the suicide bombings. Now it turns out I was across the street from the bar where police now believe Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned. It faces Grosvenor Square, where I spent part of a Sunday afternoon a couple weeks ago.

Millennium Hotel, Grosvenor Square [by Steve J, via flickr]

Fortunately, this was a couple weeks after the poisoning.

The thing that really amazes me is that the hotel is about 100 yards away from the American Embassy-- so if Litvinenko was poisoned there, not only did it happen on British soil, if you were a Russian spy who wanted to accidentally give American diplomats radiation poisoning, you couldn't pick a better place.

9-11 memorial, Grosvenor Square [via flickr]

As one British intelligence official said in response to a Russian dismissal of the idea that the Kremlin could have been involved, it's bloody cheeky.

I still want to go back, though I might carry that copy of "Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain" along.

[To the tune of Johann Sebastian Bach, "BWV 0227 - 02. Es ist nun nichts," from the album "Motteten".]

Technorati Tags: England, Grosvenor Square, London

Beirut Express

The last night I was in London I had dinner at Beirut Express, a Lebanese place (surprise) in South Kensington.

It's not as fancy as Bacchus, my favorite Lebanese restaurant in the world, but it was quite good.

I sat at the bar and ate various combinations of Lamb And Things, wrapped in pita bread.

There were lots of cool desserts (none of which I tried), and endless bottles of some drink.

Technorati Tags: England, food, Kensington, London

Hotel Niki Paddington

So now that I'm safely back in the States, I can catch up on my London hotel reviews. I already wrote about easyHotel; I just alluded to the Niki Paddington, where I stayed the first two nights I was in London. Like easyHotel, the Niki Paddington was okay, but not great-- cheap as London goes, but not a bargain, in that you got what you paid for, but nothing else.

The good part: the location. Half a block from Paddington Station is great if you expect to spend much time on the trains, and it puts you within easy walking distance of Hyde Park. If you're ambitious, Notting Hill and Baker Street are also reachable.

The culturally curious stuff. As I mentioned, I was the only person there who wasn't a native Russian speaker. This isn't particularly a drawback, just something that adds yet another unexpected layer of strangeness atop the already dislocating experience of being in a foreign country, even one as appealing as England. Unless you're Russian, of course. Then I'm sure it makes staying there easier. And it's the only hotel I've ever stayed in whose name sounds like an English porn star.

The neutral. The room was small, but functional, and the bathroom was all right. Again, decent, but not a bargain.

The downside. No wifi, though there's an Internet cafe just up the block; but for someone who doesn't have a cell phone that works in the UK, and whose family is accustomed to being able to IM with him while on the road, having wifi in the room is now a must-have.

And the complimentary continental breakfast isn't worth it. Rolls, weird sandwich meat, little hotel jars of jam, and pieces of cheese.

"Hotel breakfast" by askpang

There was the basic continental breakfast stuff, but compared to the breakfast at the Goodenough Club, it was uninspiring.

"Hotel breakfast" by askpang

So high points for location, low for the breakfast. But there are also tons of other hotels in that area, so if I'm back in the neighborhood, I'll probably experiment with some others.

Technorati Tags: England, hotel, London, Niki Paddington

Suspect Nation

For the time being, at least, Suspect Nation, a British documentary that I was interviewed for back in September, is available on YouTube. Most of it is about technology and the decline of civil liberties in the UK, but they spent some time in the U.S. as well. (Here's a Guardian article about it.)

Don't know if I actually made it in, or am languishing on the cutting-room floor. Given that they got Al Gore and various other cool people on-camera, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm nowhere to be seen.

Update: Looks like the B-roll that they shot in the store made it in, but I didn't. Ah well.... Still, it's a good show.

Later update: There's a weird gap in the film-- actually, a section that appears twice. So I can't really tell if I made it or not. Who knows?

Technorati Tags: England, policy, politics, privacy, RFID, security

A couple picture from the trip

From my flickr photoset:

from flickr

from flickr

from flickr

Technorati Tags: England, Kensington, London