I am here for work interviewing academics, civil servants as well as representatives of the private insurance side in the French health care system. Broadly speaking it has to do with resource (re)allocation in the health care system (we are doing a multi-national study comparing 7 countries). During one of the interviews I had the view of the Hotel National des Invalides and the golden dome was wildly bright. I would probably have to wear sunglasses if that was my office. During another interview I had a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower. It’s a nice way to see Paris.

 

Here you see only part of the dome of the Hotel National des Invalides, an old soldiers home. Clearly, veterans were treated quite differently during Napoleonic reign.

Brasseries in Paris tend to have signs in the windows advertising free wireless. And that is exactly where I am right now with my Cafe Creme (latte equivalent with a twist). Though as you can see, many wireless setups are security enabled. In the offices I visit I see many Dell computers and a few have laptops as well. However I have not seen one Tablet PC as of yet.

 

In general, Paris is la cite de wifi gratuit – there are always a few people who kindly leave their wireless wide open, so that you can sit in most cafes, parks, squares, and be in touch with the rest of the world without paying. Of course the charm of the local environment does make escape via the internet less necessary than in some settings!

The other day I stood on a corner with my tablet, headphones on, someones donated wireless and skyping some friends in Canada.  

And here Lynette and I gave an opportunity to let the TC1100 see the Eiffel tower. There were more close ups but, truth be told, we did not take the tc1100 everywhere! And you have to look carefully for the Eiffel tower (it’s in the back!).

 

Bonjour from Paris! Here we are in Paris where our TC1100 receives a few stares here and there, but it does look awfully pretty in front of the Notre Dame!

 

From the Seine side 

 

and the front:

  

As the previous entry tells you Tablet Zero has spawned to 9! What can we learn from looking at this data?

Gender?

Well, all are women except one.

Field of choice?

Here is a chart of Tablet PC uptake by field. Technically the chart is more complicated because of cross-appointments etc. But this will do for now.

Where?

All work or teach or study at Canadian universities (mostly Dalhousie University), except for one (the sole male). He is located on another continent.

What can be gleaned from this? Well, probably not much except that we influence the adoption of new technology by those with whom we work at the university. And you can infer (backwards) that we work somewhere in the intersection of epidemiology, health policy, medical sociology, bioethics, philosophy, and law!

And another one joins the crowd. Number 9, M, who purchased a TC4200!