Postings from Germany
Part One

IT WAS a cold crisp morning when I landed at Frankfurt International Airport on Tuesday morning to begin a two-week tour to visit tech companies and centres in Germany. 

Thank goodness, the temperature was at about 4-6 degrees Centigrade, still cold by Singapore standards but much better than the cold snap last week of below 0 degrees Centigrade.

The 11 of us on this tour are not all journalists. There’s Agnieszka, a curator from Poland, Risto, an investment officer with Enterprise Estonia and Ivan, an IT project manager with the Bulgarian state agency for Information Technologies and Communications.

The rest were journalists who came from Hungary, South AFrica, Australia, Brazil, Turkey and China. 

The German Foreign Office wanted to “show off” the country’s tech strengths to journalists and decision makers and it was a good time to do so as the world’s largest IT expo, called Cebit, opens in Hannover on Mar 2. We actually finish our tour with a visit to Cebit. 

So, what is a curator doing on this trip? Agnieszka wants to connect art to new media. She believes that art can help software engineers streamline business processes on how Web pages can be designed for easier use. Risto and Ivan are looking for IT trends that will help them in their work. 

Talking to the participants has been very interesting. Singaporeans always complain about broadband speeds and prices, but Brazilians really have a reason to complain. They pay US$50 per month for a mere 3mbps broadband link which is quite high compared to the S$60 I pay for a 12mbps connection. 

Prices of computers are even higher because of import taxes. The latest Macbook Pro in Brazil costs US$6,000 which can buy about three machines in Singapore. Because of this, penetration of computers in homes is low. 

Nevertheless, Brazilians are determined to go online. Orkut, a social networking site from Google, is very popular with almost everyone under 25. So is gaming. How do they do that when computers are so expensive? Well, instead of chilling out at a coffeeshop, they go to their friends’ or neighbours’ homes to "borrow" computer time.  

Tech in life
In two days, I’ve seen how the Germans use technology in everyday life. At the Liv’In hotel in Frankfurt, the hotel corridors are pitch dark. Motion sensors detect movement and the lights are turned on. Good idea for saving on electricity consumption. Increasingly, I’m also seeing more hotels with iPod players in their rooms. A great idea because I can listen to my library of songs anywhere in the world. 

Cafes in Frankfurt are use handheld devices to take orders which are then wirelessly relayed to the kitchens. A more efficient system of servicing customers, one which I hope more Singapore restaurants will adopt. 

On Wednesday, we spent at least 5 hours in the coach travelling to Waldorf, Darmstadt and Bonn to visit some companies. I thought the bus driver must have driven the route before because he knew exactly where to go, but he was being guided by the bus’ GPS - a navigation system using satellites. He got us to where we wanted to go, within our tight schedule and with no wrong turns.