Ever thought having a very selective wine and food from Mediterranean? The Market Quarter, an online retailer specialising in French and Mediterranean products such as confits, cassoulet and foie gras can bring you that experience in most effective way and now using the web. If you live in UK, go and visit the online store and get some cool interesting products with fashion you don’t find in retail stores.

Week 2 of e-business course held from 19-23 May 2008 produced various discussions, tactics and ideas for doing e-business in Kosovo. Also during the second week, Kosovo students had the unique opportunity to hear two days guest lecture from Prof. Jonathan Briggs, E-Commerce professor in Kingston University, London. Mr. Briggs engaged the students with activities using the online tools which helps e-businesses: Google AdWords, Shopify and many advertising models in internet. Students were given a task to analyse The Market Quarter success story to help them coming with interesting ideas during the week.

Ideas generated by students:
Classified ads:
Advertisements placed by people and businesses to let people know about renting, selling property and available jobs.
Tentenet
Online store selling traditional custom items, clothing, and decorations.
Kosovarja Company
Online service which helps foreign tourists while they spend time in Kosova, monetization through membership clubs and affiliation with partners whom services will be promoted online.
Restore Hair
Online shopping selling shampoos with immediate effects in hair development
PC-Kos
Web magazine for IT providing news about IT market and selling pre-paid mobile scratch cards online.

From the e-business course that I am lecturing, last week students came with four e-business ideas:

Growing People Kosova
Website which provides information on pregnancy, baby, birth, child care, kindergartens and includes the part where you can exchange ideas, discuss articles & reviews, ask questions, and contact directly to the doctor also having an opportunity to book him from online calendar.

Lojrat.net
Educational games in albanian language designed to teach kids about a certain subject, expand concepts, reinforce development, quizzes, traffic knowledge assisting them in learning a skill as they play.

I-study
Open directory for high schools graduates in Kosovo seeking to register in Universities, website providing consultancy, tests, stimulative exams and tour guides of existing Universities in Kosovo. The website will also be used as a communication channel between universities and students network.

Autoplus KS
Find auto parts online, order auto parts online, get them delivered, rent a car service, rent a limousine online and pay faster. Compare cars, compare prices, list autos all using one single website about auto enthusiasts.

I wish students good luck on developing these ideas.
This upcoming week I expect some new e-business ideas for Week 2 class.

Congratulation to my friend Hajrë Hyseni for the Flare Award - Entrepreneur 2008.. I am really impressed!

I had the unique opportunity this year to visit CERN’s Large Hadron Collider a day after LIFT Conference 2008, an experience which helped me to understand better CERN and its innovation. I was in a group together with Bruce Sterling, Ben Segal, Robert Scoble (who did the video below), Aral Balkan and others. Below is a video which helps you understand what is happening underneath CERN research and scientific labs. Thanks to Robert Scoble for recording and putting it live in FastCompany.tv.

Its declaration of independence is the start of another chapter, not of a new book, says The Economist quoting my comment about technology opportunities in Kosovo.

Kushtrim Xhakli, an internet entrepreneur, says the problem lies deeper: stick-in-the-mud thinking and no tradition of letting private companies get larger than one family can control. “They are frightened of modern technology and losing control,” he says.

I’m going to LIFT Conference 2008 with set of tools to create, share and present. I will create network possibly by increasing my Linkedin connections, I will share conversation and a presence during LIFT08 with Twitter, and will get much social with Facebook (physical contacts only).

Here is the trend graph of recent months popularity of these social networks:

Meanwhile I will have a possibly to present my open stage proposition: How innovative projects can transform education and ICT opportunities. (Your vote and support is highly appreciated at this stage).

And the most important part is to meet with network of people i created last year, compliments to LIFT team for making the event this year much more valuable to be part of it.

I do think that the more you travel the hardest it gets, I missed my flight to Prishtina, Kosovo today operated by British Airways. The reason was my fault, i did not make it in time, and I was 30 minutes late.

British Airways kindly offers flight deals but when you are in need they are well known to analyze the importance of your travel, so they start to increase fines and provide expensive solutions. That is how I got rewarded today. My travel agent managed to re-book me for 12 January, the only possible date to go back, it was fully booked. People are traveling but there are only 3-4 flights a week.

Update: I need to come up with something to solve this 3-4 flights a week problem. I have in mind something.

1. Write a new business plan idea each quarter
2. Wake up one hour earlier and go to sleep a hour earlier than in 2007
3. Subscribe to The Economist, Time Magazine, Wired this year.
4. Read books about Airlines Industry
5. Use often my new Sony DSCT70B Digital Camera and buy a Flickr Pro account
6. Spend less time typing in Instant Messaging applications, using Twitter as alternative channel
7. Use Skype for booking conference calls
8. Fly only with Miles and More partners in order to use Fly Award points to flights.
9. Not trying to beat my air-travel stats from 2007 (16 Take-Offs)
10. Learn cooking and finally get a driving license this year.