I have been traveling in Spain, Italy and Germany for a couple of weeks now, and offer this perspective. As always, looking for analogs in the built world makes it easier for me to write pieces like this, so here goes.

1. There are still "undeveloped countries." After a week in Tuscany, on the move between Pisa, Montereggioni and Venice, I can tell you that Italy is an undeveloped country. I'm not saying this to be patronizing or name-calling; I am reporting on my anecdotal experiment on getting internet access in a small light-industrial city called Colle Val di'Este. Before I talk about this town, let me say that no hotel we stayed in (let's face it, we're in the midprice market) had Internet access or could even point me to it. It took me about an hour to find the Internet parlor by showing my computer to people and saying "Internet Café?”  A very friendly Italian gentleman took me for what he predicted would be a “5 minute walk” but was actually a stop by the town square to meet his friends, a stop by the gelato parlor and several other detours.  An hour later, I discovered that for $1.35 per hour, you can get Internet, but you're more than likely to wait a turn. Most of the Italians in this town were renting the time to use Skype, so they were on one of the 5 machines for a while. I did the same exercise in suburban Madrid, with less luck. I believe urban Madrid would have yielded more success.
2. Language continues to be a huge issue. As I typed to someone this morning from Leipzig in East Germany, I found the keyboard entirely confounding. After 3 days of adjustment, here’s a message about it.

German kezboards are entirelz different than those we use in the <united States, especiallz when it comes to the back slash ß and the apostrophe in donät or wonät.  >if zou examine the kezboard, zouäll see that it actuallz is one kez wider than <us versions.

I now have a better understanding of how important it is to localize websites if a company intends to be successful worldwide. I also now have an understanding of the frustrations and little problems that make being a geek in any of these countries difficult. You have to find little utilities to translate file formats to and from certain devices, cell phones are omnipresent, unlike computers, and nobody I met seems to understand either technology very well.

1. East Germany seems to be an "emerging market". I spent the afternoon in the equivalent of Best Buy today, just observing and buying a few adapters. This place was *on fire*. And this was a Monday. Long lines at checkout in a 3-story store, plenty of choice in consumer electronics. The home we are staying in is wired like mad, and the train station has wifi hotspots.

Ciao for now!