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.

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.

I went through Rrethi.com tonight which is a service that allows you to locate places, businesses and events in Prishtina, the capital of Kosovo. It uses Google Maps API and has quite clear imagery of Prishtina. This meshup website will introduce local thinkers to bring the power of web interactivity in Kosovo. Very good initiative.

IDI (Information Development Initiative) in cooperation with the company Inter-Service is sponsoring scholarships for the CISCO NETWORKING ACADEMY in Kosovo. Scholarships are distributed into three categories: Category A scholarship covers 100% of the costs (10 scholarships), Category B scholarship covers 50% of the costs (30 scholarships), Category C scholarship covers 30% of the costs (50 scholarships).

You can apply online by going at IDI website

NLB Group signed the contract on the acquisition of a 50.14% stake in Kasabank sh.a., Prishtina, Kosovo. This brought it to the market of Kosovo, where it was not present before, which is in accordance with the strategic goals of expansion and growth in operations of the NLB Group on the SEE markets according to NLB press release.

The purchase of the majority capital stake in Kasabank opens the door to an even closer co-operation and strengthening of good economic relationships between Slovenia and Kosovo, where several Slovene companies are already present.

Slovenia remains as the most interested country on doing investment in Kosovo.

In case you don’t know where I’m from, here is a small website with some general information regarding Kosovo.

I did a small research on the The Networked Readiness Index Rankings to see where does south east European countries are indexed on using technology. The report was delivered lately by World Economic Forum judging countries who integrated technology into business and helped developed an infrastructure on their countries, usage of technology in innovation, culture and leadership.

The Networked Readiness Index 2006–2007 rankings
Here is the 2006-2007 top-10 technology countries: (2005 ranking)
1: Denmark (3)
2: Sweden (8)
3: Singapore (2)
4: Finland (5)
5: Switzerland (9)
6: Netherlands (12)
7: US (1)
8: Iceland (4)
9: UK (10)
10: Norway (13)

——-
South East European Countries:
30. Slovenia (35)
46. Croatia (57)
55. Romania (58)
72. Bulgaria (64)
74. Serbia and Montenegro (80)
81. Macedonia (81)
89. Bosnia and Herzegovina (97)
92. Moldova (94)
107. Albania (106)
*Kosovo is not included separately in the statistics

During March 2007 group of entrepreneurs, researchers, developers and designers helped me and worked hard to put the site back on its form with many new features on it.

Now this blog will mainly cover stories about web 2.0, technology, mobile, new media, entrepreneurship and education on south east europe region focusing countries: Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania.

On this occasion I would like to thank Kushtrim Sogojeva, Alban Gerguri, Hajre Hyseni, Mentor Pacarada, Kushtrim Dragusha and all others who helped during this process.

Happy Relaunch