after-sale service delight in open-source

I’m the proud user of WordPress since July 2008. I always wanted to blog but for some reason I didn’t like Blogspot. One evening I discovered WordPress and by 01.00 in the morning 2 blogs were born, BerlinRomExpress and his sister AflatinBerlin. The two blogs are now up and running, and 2 micro-websites (1920 and 1960) have been created by hijacking the blog format, because I am just a humble user, not a geek…and like all cats, a bit lazy too.

Until now I was just a happy user of this platform. Now I’m a delighted customer.  A few days I had a small tech problem, the first ever (a post wouldn’t save) and I asked for help via e-mail. I could not believe my Mac screen when I saw that Matt had not only answered to my query, but solved the problem…a few minutes later.

Well I never experienced such an attentive and effective after-sale service in my whole life. And the paradox is, I actually bought nothing. I am using this platform for free. Amazing Automattic.

The Italian in me is trying to find where the pitfall is. The progressist in me is wondering if Automattic is a reasonable and equitable employer. The web freedom lover in me is hoping that WordPress won’t play Big Brother. The open-source absolute beginner in me – MeinMann being the open source guru of the family – sees a new paradigm of co-operation.

I guess eventually WordPress will be making money somehow, but first it gives out a layer of service for free. Like guerrilla dinner. You pay what you feel it is right. If you are happy with the basic service for free, you’re more likely to upgrade for a fee because of a reliability track record.

Thanks to the Automattic crew, Theme Czar Dean J.Robinson for the groovy black-red locomotive, Happiness Engineer Matt for keeping it going and all the other gals and lads working from everywhere in the world, for making the Berlin-Rome Express train running on time!

U2 at Brandenburg Gate

Photo: Berliner Morgenpost – dpa

Festival of Freedom – Berlin, 9th november

From the mauerfall website:

The ‘Festival of Freedom’ will begin at 7 pm with an open-air concert at Pariser Platz by the Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim. After the concert, the fall of the Berlin Wall will be symbolised by knocking over the designed dominos, which will be broadcast live in ZDF from 7.25 until ca. 8.15 pm. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend this extraordinary event.

Under musical direction of Daniel Barenboim the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Staatsopernchor (choir study: Eberhard Friedrich) play the following programme:

• Richard Wagner: Lohengrin, Prelude to Act III
• Arnold Schönberg: A Survivor from Warsaw, op. 46 (Speaker: Klaus Maria Brandauer)
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 A major, op. 92, IV: Allegro con brio
• Friedrich Goldmann: Es ist, als habe einer die Fenster aufgestoßen (Fragment, 2009)

Ca. 7.25 pm Entrance of the guests of honour (heads of states and governments) through the Brandenburg Gate from East to West

Ca. 7.30 pm Greetings and speeches by Klaus Wowereit and Angela Merkel and representatives of the former Allies Nicolas Sarkozy, Dmitry Medvedev, Gordon Brown and Hillary Clinton. Speech by Marianne Birthler in the company of Katrin Hattenhauer and Roland Jahn.

Ca. 8 pm Statements by Lech Walesa and Miklós Németh in discussion with moderator Guido Knopp and fall of the first dominos at the Reichstagsufer, followed by music from ADORO. Appearance of Mikhail Gorbachev and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, brief discussion with moderator Thomas Gottschalk. Followed by Bon Jovi presenting the song “We Weren’t Born To Follow”

 

Ca. 8.25 pm Berlin pupils and Jerzy Buzek and José Manuel Barroso in discussion with moderator Klaas Heufer-Umlauf at the Potsdamer Platz. Fall of the longest row of dominos, almost all the way to the Brandenburg Gate, accompanied by the band Stamping Feet. Statements by Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus and young artist Ahn Kyu-Chul from the divided Korea in discussion with moderator Thomas Gottschalk.

Ca. 8.40 pm Finale: Paul van Dyk presents the hymn “We are One”. Fall of the last domino in the presence of everyone involved and the guests of honour at the Brandenburg Gate.

U2 – today in Berlin!

Today U2 will be playing at the Brandenburg Gate! I wish I was there…Achtung Baby is one of my favorite albums.This is how U2 decided to participate to the EMA MTV awards…classy!

20 years since the fall of the Berlin wall, 16 years since my first U2 concert. Fond Zoo TV Tour memories, June 1993. I passed out in the crowd at Hyppodrome de Vincennes during Velvet Underground reunion tour supporting intro and was “floated’ above the crowd to the emergency site. Some sugar and hydration later (I had spent 6 hours under the baking sun) and I was back in the crowd just in time for the start of the U2 concert. Trabant flying and beaming…”Lemon”, my favorite U2 disco-dance hit!

No public transport available when the concert ended…thousands of people stranded in the dark in the middle of the road works of east Paris, out of the peripherique…hitch-hiked and walked back to Paris XVIIeme where I was living at the time. Abenteuer in Zooropa…

Now that I think of it, my top 3 favorite musicians have something to do with Berlin: Bowie, Depeche Mode, U2. Therefore I suggest that Subsonica moves to Neukoelln for its next album…from the murazzi on the Po to the banks of the Spree!

On the margin of tonight’s event Der Spiegel reports on a controversial issue. Apparently A WALL will be blocking the view to people without the (free) tickets…hm…see below…this is not classy though…

For those who will be away from in Berlin, see the MTV website…

Mauermobbers…swap places please!

We just received confirmation from Martin Butler that the Mauer Mob will definitely happen: the police said “Ja!”. But unfortunately the fabulous location we had chosen to cover – Reichstagufer – is among those “off limits” for security reasons…Fellow Mauermobbers from group 110 to 121 close to Ritz Carlton on Potsdamer Plz, you too, you need to move to another group if you want to be part of it!

Retrieve your confirmation e-mail, cancel your first booking by clicking on the “cancel reservation” link, and then quickly rebook yourself on another group…

Striped Cat and Mein Mann are not far from Reichstagufer, we just are across the Spree, at Group 106, next to the Calatrava bridge!

Now we only need to buy our torch lights!

 

press to exit

Tonight at my German history course we went through the famous Schabowski Zettel, the document which tore the wall down…

In September the East German refugees in the GDR Embassy in Prague celebrated in this way the word “Ausreise” pronounced by Hans-Dietrich Genscher…

next monday: 20 years later, the fall of the berlin wall!

Twenty years ago the Wall came down. This year take a moment to think about it. Buy a ticket online, go to Berlin, if like me you missed that event in 1989.

If you took already a look on Wikipedia and want to know more, in this section I loaded some videos, links to useful websites and took a note of interesting books on the topic. There are countless press articles and TV broadcasts in these days about the wall, but it is on the radio that it all becomes more intense. The official Chronik der Mauer website is your best source for original audio documents tracing back the existence of the wall, from August 1961 until November 1989.

On November 9th many events will take place in Berlin. A 24hr open air exhibition at Alexander Platz traces back the main events.

The Festival of Freedom will begin with an open-air concert at Pariser Platz by the Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim. After the concert, the fall of the Berlin Wall will be symbolised by knocking over the designed dominos, which will be broadcast live in ZDF from 19.25 until 20.15. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend this extraordinary event. See the rehearsals done in the Summer.

Why not joining the 33,000 people flash mob by choosing your location on this website…

…and reaching your sector between 20.00 and 20.30 with a torch light? Where once stood the wall thousand of people will recreate a wall of light, which will dissolve before the party begins…

For almost three decades Berlin had been seperated by a Wall. The government of the GDR had erected this Wall on 13 August 1961 to cut off the connection between East and West Berlin and with it the escape movement rooted in the growing economic gap between East and West Germany. The government of the GDR itself called it an ‘anti-Fascist protective barrier’ although everyone knew that with its barbwire and firing order it was to prevent the GDR’s citizens from escape primarily.

source: Mauerfall09.de – satellite photo: NASA

the long shadows of triest

The BerlinRomExpress stopped today in Triest…here our beautiful town in a picture done by my brother. The problem is, it took me from 14.44 until 22.30 to cover the distance between Rome and the outskirts of Triest. It used to take up less time. As Richard Florida says in “Who’s your city?” the distances are not collapsing, they are increasing. Trenitalia says that the Venice-Triest section is not profitable, so they don’t invest on it. I bet it’s not profitable, if people feel they can’t have a proper service they won’t rely on it.

Maxxi dialoge

We love the film 24hberlin. In one of the evening episodes we discovered Sasha Waltz’s performances, filmed in the Volksbühne. The RomaEuropaFestival has just started and Sasha Waltz will create a performance for the inauguration of the MAXXI, the new museum for contemporary arts designed by Zaha Hadid, at mid november…

We followed the development of the huge building site over the years…but refrained from going there in the latest months…we want to have the big surprise.

Roma kaputt mundi

The dark of the Middle Ages has engulfed Rome, you knew that already, but we’re reaching new depths and beating new records.

In the evening entire streets plunge into complete darkness, only the traffic lights (when they work) are source of light. Pedestrians risk to break a foot on the uneven pavements and risk their lives when crossing the street. In the spring it happened once in a week, one block or two. Beta test. Now it’s kick off time: yesterday I crossed San Lorenzo and the whole area was plunged in complete pitch-black darkness. Of course this does not happen in Piazza Navona, but you need just to get a bit out from the historical city center and, on rotation, entire neighborhoods are plunged into darkness. But nobody talks about it, be it newspapers or tv.

During the elections the name of the game was security, Veltroni had to go home, the right won the local elections. And just after the 2007 elections the cases of rape increased. Now attacks to gays and gay couples happen on a daily basis. And at the same time the government encourages the formation by citizens of (pathetic) rounds in order to increase security.

It’s the market of fear. And trading is increasing. Isolate people. Make them use cars even more and not feel secure on the street or in public transport. A de-facto curfew. Stay at home. Watch TV. Roma kaputt mundi.

So these are the interesting developments since we have the new Mayor, Alemanno. I’m glad that once in a while my Mayor is Klaus Wowereit.

Berlin poor but sexy. Rome even poorer, but nasty…