Politicians and citizens follow each other on and off line. Following politics off line on the square in The Hague on a beautiful day is of course a treat for all.

Next to filling up the MpP3reporter's Nano with podcast, most of the weekend was in favour of the kids. Visiting the premiere for the new Wallace & Gromit with a green rather then a red carpet was followed by some great time in the park. Probably one of the last sit outside weekends this year. But we said that before too.

The day after the introduction of the Dutch Creative Industry Fund at Ilse's party on the water of Amsteram, I can still enjoy the evening by following the online reporting of the event and offlien by enjoying the Blognomics' podcasts on the new black iPod Nano (no scratches yet) and the cookies from the cookies tin. A cookiepod combi :)

Today was a day with communication and creativity (innovation) as core elements. Next to talking to several Public initiatives, some exciting announcements came through ilse. First of all they introduced the very first IPTV high school soap www.perfectdays.nl that will be 'online' as of 25th of October. Also the Dutch Creative Industry Fund (www.dcif.nl) was announced. An investment fund espcially to promote the digital creative start up sector within The Netherlands. Exciting as we will be accepting business plans as of November this year.

The media week continues, with some of the more interesting parts, namely 'spotting'. Spotting is selecting those parts of a registration to be used in the final compilation. The advantage is that I saw www.denhaagtelecom.nl back again, in full, a couple of times....

The convergence between media and telecommunications becomes very clear from the material, but also from the discussions I had today with Apple. We will see many new formats, tools and other productions coming to market.

An interesting session Krijn and I went to at our own peril was the IPAN Podcasting event. Dressed in true cross media look, i.e. corduroy jacket, shirt, jeans and suede shoes we went to Villa Arena to hear the latest on the Dutch podcasting scene. Presentations from succesful podcst provider Radio 538 and new Podcast publisher Podplaza were on the roll for tonight. The interviews with Thomas van de Weerd (538) and Roelf Sluman (Podplaza) can of course be found as Blognomics podcast # 4 on www.blognomics.nl.

HDTV is getting a lot of attention now in The Netherlands. After the demonstrations last week at Den Haag telecom meeting, HD promotion appears everywhere. Even special Japanese cars are creating awareness for this high quality television service. Or am I spinning now?

Technology is not always the core of the quality, there is of course much more to good audio or video then just the kit used. On the otherhand the egocaster or MP3reporter will find that after toying a little with the technology, there are large differences between elements in the production chain.

The new digital studios are popping up everywhere with highly specialised professionals driving the technology. Watch this space for more to come on this topic or visit www.blognomics.nl (Dutch only) to find some more interesting podcasts and articles.

Today was another day with fast moving media activities. Both from the MP3reporters point of view, the egocaster turning into a roving reporter with the m-audio 2496 as from the tradional mainstream media's point of view, media are moving fast through the digital age. Still there is a digital divide between the professional mainstream media with the highest quality material and professionals. On the otherhand the quality of the 'prosumer' equipment is becoming so good that even professional multiskilled reporters are using it. Media will be an exciting area to be in.

Today it was an interesting day where I was allowed to chair the 8th edition of www.denhaagtelecom.nl together with Marjet van Zuijlen. The biggest audience ever gathered in The Hague to discuss the state of play in the telecommunications sector, or was it the media sector as more and more media elements are showing up. HDTV was part of the programme not only in the discussions and presentations, also in the capturing of the event.

Next to the more tradional and main stream media, new media where around in MP3reporters or Podcasters, DV film crews and live (video)bloggers. More on the conference can be found on various places, on which more later.

A very interesting evening tonight which I was allowed to host and chair. The cities of Amsterdam and The Hague had organised an industry analysis evening on the TIME sector, ahead of www.denhaagtelecom.nl. Two great analysts from the UK came over, James Enck of eurotelcoblog and Martin Geddes of telepocalyse. (The pictures of Martin were unfortunately not good enough to post).

They shared a fairly pessimistic viewpoint on the telecommunications industry, where slim to get fit seems to be the best effort, rather than innovation. Innovation is coming from new digital creative start ups, that require less funding but that can capture what the consumer wants. And there is still a lot to be done in that area.

The first blognomics podcast was made with these two analysts and it will be available shortly.

Much has been said about this mythical disc. The recording of the Diner Pensant 2004. The disc's theme was: What will we be watching? I am interested the see what the 2005 team will do.

The first in Europe! The M-audio microtrack 2496 MP3 recorder. Thanks to excellent work done by the distributor Mafico audio-specialist Vladimir Kastelan, the coming days I will be capable of making on-the-fly podcasts. The sound quality with the included stereo microphone seems to be good, the follwing days will bring us more on this item.

To ensure that digital creativity remains stimulated a lot of preparational work has to be done. Demanding and rewarding, that should be a good combination.

The carrier of digital content becomes less and less important, in the end the 1's and 0's can be put on anything. Transferring them from CD to harddisk to iPod or to the rest of the world has become household knowledge. Still there is room for the off-line world too. www.believermag.com has an interesting combination of website and magazine with goodies such as DVD's or CD's. I see that many formats of content are or are becoming free, think for example newspapers. On the other hand people are willing to pay for an experience or convenience. The transformation is happening and following it closely is, well (cough) interesting.

Today was again a beautiful summery day. In the morning I went with Roderick and his class mates to the school gardens. What a fun they had over there. We drove to the gardens with the open beetle. The kids loved it and it is very enjoyable to be a parent then....

Following the school garden we met to discuss the challenges of the e-world between citizens and politicians. Challenges there are, but they might be conquered by disecting the topics one-by-one.

Then finalising the day, team cooking. Excellently organised by Elvire, we (over 60 people) cooked a nice four course dinner. As I had to take the pictures, I was excused for cooking, I think.....

Sometimes my experience and intuition should warn me better. A seminar with three breaks of one hour each on an afternoon session where one 'can network and visit the information market', is probably an interesting set up indeed. At the first break opportunity I left, avoiding the mingle and information market crowd. One thing I did learn at the hour attending that Event driven marketing, is not about event that can be held in a tent.

Coming out of the Beurs van Berlage heading home, I therefore was puzzled even more when I saw a big group of people at Dam square holding their arms over their heads, hand in hand with each other. This was within the circle. Outside the circle people where staring into the air. As this event was not in a tent, it cannot have been event marketing, nor was it event driven marketing. Or was it?

After a day in the suit (to be honest I quite like being 'suity' for a day), I went to pick up Roderick again from my sister in law. Roderick has made a friend there, Joosje, and the two are inseperable. Very nice to see how happy people can be together.

Main stream media, certainly TV and Radio are excellent media to cover such an important event in high quality and different viewpoints.

On the other hand new media were discussed too for example by Pieter Broertjes of Dutch daily 'De Volkskrant' who last weekend launched their blogoffering and Paul Molenaar of Ilse Media, one of the largest blog service providers in The Netherlands. Their expert opinion is that the coming years more and more new media will be covering major events.

the third tuesday in September is a special day in The Netherlands. The government budget for the coming year is presented. After the presentation by the Queen, all gather for a little snack and drink in the House of Parliament.

Main stream media are very useful in these environments, not alone do they offer the Members of Parliament the opportunity to air their view and/or give comments to the budget, it also gives the Dutch population a high quality insight into what is happening that day from various viewpoint.

More pictures can be found at http://flickr.com/photos/vannispen/sets/985165/