there's something about krakow

maybe it's the architecture. maybe it's the weather, which can go from rain to wind to snow to sun, all within 5-10 minutes. maybe it's the food, the delicious and filling food. maybe it's all the cobblestones which a student said contained "the spirits of our ancestors." maybe it's all the people who have lived here and all the people who have fought here and all the people who have died here. maybe it's all the young people - one-fourth of all krakow residents are college students. it is an old city filled with young people.


this morning, susan parker-burns, public affairs officer at the US consulate in krakow, and i went to RMF FM for a radio interview with grzegorz jasiński and bogdan zalewski. we talked about president obama and his use of new media and new ideas. we discussed digital democracy, grassroots new media activism, and about everyone making our own media. bogdan is extremely smart and creative - both as a radio journalist and a big-time blogger - and connects literature to culture to politics to technology. after the interview, grzegorz gave us an excellent tour of the huge facility and shared with us some of the innovative ways the station combines traditional and digital media.


later that afternoon, iwona sadecka, public affairs advisor at the US consulate in krakow, and i headed out of the city center to the new jagiellonian university campus, where i gave a guest lecture on digital storytelling to professor maria magoska's journalism class. similar my earlier lectures, i encouraged the studenets to make media, share media, and collaborate with others to make even better media.


near the end of the lecture, i gave the students homework. i explained to the students that their professors are very smart and that they, the students, can learn so much from them. but when it comes to tomorrow's media, we professors are waiting for you students to invent it. so, your homework, i said, due in 2 or 5 or 10 years, is to invent the future and share it with the rest of us.