This is the name of the presentation on Saturday, October 4, 2008, in O3one Gallery in Belgrade as the part of regular program of  B-LINK festival of New Communications. It was created two years ago as a rare example of an initiative to show and adequately promote creative and innovative tendencies within web environment, primarily in domains of experimental art, web design and now researching new technologies and the impact they have on society.

Social Me section brings ID/Entity where I’ll be presenting with my co-author, visual artist and lecturer Aleksandar Macasev, educational content on Identities (personal, social, national, virtual) using different forms:  video, micro-video forms, blog, live casting.  Co-authored blog - “Me Virtual You” - will be opened for the public after the talk and presentation. We will not be physically present: Aleksandar will tune in from New York (where he works and lives) and I will be at the other geo-spot on BlogOpen meeting giving a talk. This is great opportunity to test communication performances in virtual space with attendeees and partcipants in physical space (gallery) while we are on different geo-places. You are welcomed to come and see what’s in there.

In the past few days, since I removed my blog on this address, many of you have sent emails, messages asking about certain site sections, plug-in’s, etc. I know that some people are not that tech savvy,  but in my personal opinion blog is very clear, clean and  simple to navigate. Anyway, here’s short navigation tour through site: links under the header are pages that you can jump from-to anytime, home button is above in the left corner, brings you back to blog.

./seredipity page leads you to another (external) links, including my old Belgrade and Beyond blog, my tumblr, short story on virtual Id/Entity - wiki page that I need to sort out, contact etc.

.about page i’ll try to up-to date as often as I can, .networking brings you the list of social web services and sns/sites where you can connect and interact, but I’ m mostly seen at Twitter, Delicious,  Flickr and last.fm.

.projects/activities as well as .writings (material is scattered all over the web, sites and wiki pages, soon to make it neat) should give you the scope of what i’m doing, current /past projects, participatory activities, other presence and contributions, where i’m going, talking, lecturing, etc.

.photos is an interesting part as photography is one of my hobbies, and i’m taking part for over a 7 months in Flickr’s 365 days project (which denotes to post each day a photo, not any but of self - a part, portrait, piece, whatever). It ain’t no easy but it is good for practicing discipline, overcoming some photo insecurities and practicing. I’m inviting those of you with Flickr accounts to join me in this project and buzz me there.

Many folks asked me about .lifestream page and plug-in i’ve implemented in site. It’s great interactive live stream of activities on all web sites I’ve got feeds where you can follow/read my bits&bytes. Personal version of FriendFeed.  Useful micro -information. Credits you can find at the end of this page.

.links page is created for staying in touch with colleagues, friends, there are some affiliates, institutions. The list is random and is updating on daily basis, so if I miss someone, please remind me or send me an email. I don’t mind love links if you share same/similar interests with me.

And the most important central part is blog.You are more than welcome to comment, participate, suggest, write some reflections and thoughts on posts I’m writing. You can use direct comment form below each post (which is preferable), and for specific matters you can always contact me. Not to forget that if you didn’t grab my feed - it’s tiny rss box on the sidebar, as well as my fav. email form where you can receive updates via email.

Share and enjoy!

Two days ago I was giving a talk at the International Scientific Conference, University of Belgrade (25-27th Sept). I have uploaded slides of that talk, for anyone who are interested in OA, e-resources, the usage of social media and software in education. Also, I created temporary wiki page that I need to sort out, until writings section of this blog comes to its place. There is video to be published and some of the photos on Flickr.

In general Serbian scientific community is not ready to embrace social software and Web 2.0 yet, and I was surprised that some of the speakers - e.g., Ron Davies from European Digital Library project was talking about very out-dated issues like semantic web  in ‘new’ EDL projects [seen/heard that back in 2002], but then there are numbers, million of numbers that are promising that project Europeana.net will be finished in 2, 3 years. Locally, there is high level of idleness, inconsistency and net/notworking. No surprises.

The third BlogOpen: meeting of all the participants in blogosphere (from authors, readers, IT workers to mainstream media) will happen on October 4-5 in in Bor, Brestovacka banja. Main goals of this public meeting are:

1. Discussion about the topics and problems characteristic of this manner of public communication;

2. Realization of virtual communication in real, public space;

3. Calling wider public’s attention to this mode of authors’ presence and to the importance of an information society;

4. Promotion of an information society, electronic communication and the role of Internet as a source of information, educative tool, interpersonal networking and fostering of democracy;

5. Making notice of the most significant and most successful blogging authors and their impact as creators of public opinion and as sources of information.

More about BlogOpen in English and some valuable information - on this page, the list of speakers is here, and the program.  I’m inviting all of you who are interested in these topics to join us as this will be great opportunity to participate and discuss different range of current burning issues, as well as to brainstorm and contribute in some solutions not only in local/world wide blogosphere but in social media and alternative education processes.  You can register here. If you are not able to come, I’ll twitter from the conference some interesting points and thoughts.

Three weeks ago, when I was about to move my blog from old address to this - new one I’ve noticed that people in blogosphere have gone crazy about the post I’ve written two years ago about Michael Palin’s visit to Belgrade.  In the meantime I figured out that peeps across the pond got a bit excited not only by upcoming elections, but because of controversial and hideous appearance of Sarah Palin character. It hard to explain to decent European what’s going on there, especially if one is not into world news services.

Recently, I found out that one of my readers jokingly grabbed Palins photo and gave lol-cat treatment regarding the above political story. To be clear here, I deeply respect and love Michael Palin’s work since I was a kid and watched every episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Then, the title of this photo [The Vagina Vote], got me today into wonderful serendipity and to laugh-out-loud article “Drill, drill, drill” written by Eve Ensler {playwright, feminist and activist, best known for her play The Vagina Monologues}, starting that she is having S.Palin’s nightmares… I wonder how world would be more peaceful and friendly place if Michael Palin was a candidate.

As we moved to new URL, with new layout and RSS feed, I want to announce upcoming events for the next 2 weeks very briefly, as a trailer, more info’s in the days to come. I will talk at the 7th International Science conference at University of Belgrade about open access, digital literacy and e-resources in Web 2.0 world. This year academics  will gather to discuss following topics: electronic libraries in all its aspects, digital repositories, e-services, online databases, the usage of web 2.0 technologies, open access, digital literacy, SNS,  and ipso facto their larger positive impact on the scientific and pedagogical work in Serbia.  I’ll write more about this next week, but some valuable information of the programe is here.

You know that every year (now would be for the third time) in October is festival of new communications called B-LINK. The topic of 2008 B-LINK will be “Virtual me”. You will find out soon what is going on there. I am working on presentation with my co-author Aleksandar on different aspects of [our work] ID/Entity. I expect official program soon.

BlogOpen (4-5th of October) is South East, a regional friendly and professional meeting of bloggers which has, since last fall, been on the calendar of regular annual meetings of all the participants in blogosphere: authors, readers, IT workers and mainstream media. I will write more about BlogOpen and programme very soon, as I am listed as one of the speakers.

Since Blink and BlogOpen are happening on the same day, I was wondering how to be present at two conferences same day, same time, different geo-spots, on both i’m having gigs?! Astral projections and cloning are not the option so I’ve decided since the ‘Virtual me’ event is dealing with digital identities in this space, I will use available social media techs and appear virtually, as for those who are coming to BlogOpen - I will be present in my physical entity.

Stay tuned…

Welcome to Digital Serendipities site.  Previous blog will no longer be updated, as all content from Belgrade and Beyond can be found here.  As you can see, I am still using Wordpress platform adjusted to this new web site and blog’s needs. If you find any bugs [ I hope you are using FF, Opera, Safari, Flock], or if you have any comment, feedback, suggestion regarding the new design and site architecture of Digital Serendipities, feel free to leave the comment.

For the beginning, bookmark in your readers new RSS feed address, the one you can find at the top of the sidebar.