Since you asked, I'm having a good World Cup. At the moment I'm second in the local university 'tips' pool, as the Germans call it. And if England do the decent thing and lose to Ecuador tomorrow, thus saving us from more footballing and journalistic boredom, I will probably go top. That's without my 10 point bonus for Argentina winning. Although, as the English saying goes, don't count your chickens before they've hatched.

Just before the World Cup started I had an interesting talk with George Auckland, Head of Innovation at BBC Learning and Interactive. George is one of the pioneers of user generated content and has some pretty interesting ideas (I will post again on this later). We got to talking about the World Cup. George told me that he thought this would be the event which would 'make' High Definition TV. Now on this one he got it wrong. Rather than people sitting at home watching wide screen, high definition TV or paying for entry into private arenas with large screens, this is the event which shows what you can do with a projector and a little ingenuity.

I have already told of friends who have put together their own collective viewing arena in a garage. Todays photo is of my favourite World Cup venue - the Viva pub in Bremen. OK, the quality isn't great. the projector is too close to the screen but if it was any further away, people at the back would not be able to see the screen. And the screen itself stands on a chair at the front. But what makes it is the atmosphere, the remote is on the table for the customers to use. At the end of the game someone strolls over and fills in the wall chart. Its local people, getting together to participate in what should be a community event in their comminity. And the beer and food is available all day. Heaven indeed! Viva la Viva.