Reminder for those who are into science blogging: you have two more days to participate in PLoS ONE  Second Birthday Synchroblogging Competition, it is right time to submit your posts! You can find here how.  Still, you have time to vote in the 2008 Edublog Awards. Check out nominations, there are some great edublogs.

Those who are planning to attend or participate in ScienceOnline09 , you can follow updates on FriendFeed , my Twitter timeline or Bora’s site.

I know that PayPal issue is painful in Serbia for years - each year I write a post about this and lot of comments are coming my way here, but I just hope very, very soon that people in Serbia can use normally PayPal.

Anyway, these days I got  feedbacks on Twitter, via gmail and here that some people at some regions cannot proceed their contribution to edu.cause for new laptop. The main issue is if you are not logged into your PayPal account you will probably receive page in Dutch (NL -the place where is my PayPal account open). This is because redirection to PayPal is executed by flash inside widget ChipIn (one of the reasons I do not like flash). I wrote today to ChipIn tech support and I am expecting reply.

Until then, you can donate by logging to your PayPal account or when redirected to page in Dutch to follow these two simple steps that I marked on the screen shot. You enter some sum (step 1), and below you’ll get a drop menu with the list of the countries - let’s say you’re in US (Verenigde Staten in Dutch). Next thing you select your country (step 2) and the page will be loaded to your language. Give me some credits for learning Dutch! ::smile::

Last Christmas and Holidays I’ve spent in lovely analogue world receiving updates from Twitter via sms, interacting and communicating apart from (the failures of) GPRS, micro-blogging applications, my browser.  GRPS is not reliable especially for Holidays. I was so happy to have wifi on my PDA only for interwebs and mobile for texting and twittering.

Since Twitter doesn’t support anymore facility of receiving free sms’s on my mobile device, I am testing few services these days, and came to conclusion that the only micro-blogging service that treats you with free of charge sms, direct messages and other notifications is - BrightKite. I found many Twitter buddies there, both International and local (locals should sign up) who post micro-notes, comment under each one of them, post/upload their mobile pics - and it is cool! Service doesn’t charge you any received sms or direct message, if you live here in Europe. You can also send Brightkite notes on Twitter, but I still didn’t figure out how you can receive tweets on Brightkite for free. If someone knows - let us all know!

While I’m testing all micro blogging possibilities for the upcoming Holidays without GPRS or wifi dependence (just in case) - you can sign up and friend me at BrightKite.

Despite the fact that ‘Belgrade and Beyond’ blog exists in other form {digital serendipities}, I am still writing  about interesting events and electronic resources on Belgrade, Serbia. For those of you who are not familiar and you happen to reside in Belgrade for some reason, this information may be valuable to you.

Belgrade Foreign Vistors Club (FVC) presents the online community for foreigners in Belgrade, created by  Jonathan Davis. Beside Belgrade FVC there is Belgrade Foreign Visitors Club Wiki, an online information resource for foreign residents and visitors to the city of Belgrade, where you can find high quality community edited information resources and guided directories with useful links.  Also, check out Belgrade FVC forum where you can interact with other members, Twitter feed, and there is Facebook group informing users with current events, reviews, recommendations. I hope you’ll find this information and links useful especially if you are planning a trip to Belgrade or maybe to move here.

Can social web services be used for science and research causes?

This post is for those who are surprised to see on my web site the widget (on the right sidebar) with the cause: new laptop. I work on my PhD research (I’m in the phase of collecting data, literature review parallel with other activities: writing papers, conferences) and have no back-up, support from University or any other body (Ministries, e.g.) such as scholarship, paid PhD work, or finances for the travel, research costs, books, other material, and of course the computer. In Serbia seems that education and science has always been in shade.
So, everything was working fine (well, ‘little dragon’ - dead laptop and i have had hiccups in the past 4 years many services, interventions, etc.), until it died few days ago and I am using interwebs in Internet cafes, and temporarily friends’ laptop.  I was contemplating to buy laptop that will help me in my research, while moving, travelling - light, functional, reliable machine. And I decided to be the MacBook (13,3″), or Dell from recommendations).

Since ‘98, I’ve been pioneering many things, projects on Web (in academia and science Serbian community), and still working on projects that I am not paid but rather volunteering. I have never monetized my blog.

I will quote/modify here a part [in the context] of David Weinberger’s (one of my fav.bloggers and IT persona) Dislosure Statement: “No one pays me to write this blog or to say particular things in it.  That includes all forms of compensation, including offers to be the guest blogger, asking me for free advice or tell me that what I do is so wonderful. I don’t run ads,  no one pays me under the table, and I don’t sell t-shirts or coffee mugs”.

I am no advertising wizard and have no tricks, I believe that the knowledge is the power. I also believe that the digital divide or information poor/rich society is not the lack of technology but the problem of the system in the country.  I believe in open access, open knowledge and sharing.  And I believe in my cause. In this case: new laptop.  I want to see how this works here.

As PayPal doesn’t work in Serbia (still), a friend helped me to have my PayPal account abroad, and now I use ChipIn widget to check and monitor the power of social web.

The plan is if half of my followers and readers donate  $5, $10, $50 or $100 , that would be more than enough for a new laptop. But you can still just donate $1.00  if you like. The aim is $1200, the timeline is Dec 31, but would be nice to get laptop from Santa a bit earlier.

Everyone can see my current status on ChipIn widget, so let’s just see what happens!

Do you find yourself posting more than ten tweets per day? Do you spend more time on Twitter and other micro-blogging services and less blog reading? Your blog posts, because of the hectic life and time (!), became rare as snow in May? You find that your friends and colleagues rather read your Twitter timeline following every single tweet you send,  than your (ir)regular blog entries? If so, welcome to (sour) times where micro-blogging services are evolving and resembling the blogosphere. Do they?

People are spending more and more time on micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, Jaiku, Plurk, also using FriendFeed facility not only to share interesting and useful links with their friends and allies but to chat, report, promote, discuss, rant on different topics. I have three group of people I follow on Twitter: endless ‘chat’ in real-time for hours on the latest gadgets (during morning hours/working European time), afternoon twitterers (East Coast of US) on elections and economy, and late night West coasters on education syllabuses, everyday situations, rants. Technology, politics and education.

Are micro-blogging forms new web 2.5, web 3.0 ‘form’ of  IRC rooms, forums, discussion groups of instant interaction, a great medium for distributing immediate attention that pushed blogs on aside?  But then, blogs are still for me the greatest social networking place with possibility of interaction through comments (more than 140 characters) but also I couldn’t help to notice symptomatic blogging situation where people are following more twitters than RSS.  Since more people micro-blog, blogs themselves are becoming aggregates of tweet digests with referred content. Probably some of you got into this page as I’ve sent short tweet with tinyurl message about it.  It is up to you (your blogging behaviour) if you’ll comment here or send me @replies on Twitter or send likes emoticons on FriendFeed.  Are micro-blogging services changing dynamics of your blogging activities? If so, how? Comments welcomed!

Today is the world’s the first- ever Open Access day, celebrating the growth of international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked archives, libraries, online databases, information flow in general,  that once hid and restricted knowledge.

One of the definitions of ‘open’ denotes ‘a piece of knowledge is open if you re free to use, reuse, and redistribute it.”  The concept of open access has already started to spread rapidly beyond its original roots in academia and software.  Other statements encourage the unstrict sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society.

Open Access is the principle that publicly funded research should be freely accessible online, immediately after publication, and it’s gaining ever more momentum around the world as research funders and policy makers put their weight behind it.
The Open Access philosophy was firmly articulated in 2002, when the Budapest Open Access Initiative was introduced. It quickly took root in the scientific and medical communities because it offered an alternative route to research literature that was frequently closed off behind costly subscription barriers.

Founders and promoters who jointly announced the first international Open Access Day, that is marked with lot of events, locally and internationally, are SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), Students for FreeCulture, and the Public Library of Science. To see a list of participating countries, universities, campuses,  visit the Open Access Day Web site. Also, you can participate in synchroblogging competiton by posting on some of the questions.

I have been writing, talking, preaching about open access of e-resources, software, movement, issues  (oh, so many times) on conferences and in practice being as one of the editors of E-LIS/E-prints open access archives, and still believe that OA can make a difference in the publishing world, academia and the freedom of information.

How are you contributing to Open Access, today and every other day during the year?  What do you do to support Open Access?

Remember Science blogging conference this January? Well,  next year free three-day event ScienceOnline09, will be held from 16-18 January 2009, at Research Triangle Park, NC. This annual blogging science conference brings together scientists, educators, bloggers, students, journalists to collaborate, discuss, demonstrate online strategies and software for promoting public and better understanding of science.

See the conference wiki for further details, as well as conference program and check out interesting sessions and topics we will talk about.  If you are interested to participate, you can register here. If some of you are planning to go to NC, USA earlier next year, buzz me via contact email.

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!

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.

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.

Serbia’s Republican Agency for Telecommunications - RATEL, published the Instructions for Technical Requirements for Subsystems, Devices, Hardware and Installation of Internet Networks which have shaken up our local blogosphere and Internet community in Serbia. Reasons are many, one of them is abuse of user’s privacy. I wrote an article for Global Voices today on this topic. In case you’re interested follow the link.

Similar cyber laws and technical instructions already exist in other countries. Formally, at least, it’s good to have such regulation on one side where privacy is protected – formally, but, on the other hand, I am wondering if the Republican Agency for Telecommunications in Serbia, national security and ISP will (or will not) violate and abuse privacy of citizens in the internet community in practice.

Global Voices iSummit 2008 is taking place in Budapest, Hungary on June 27 and 28. Today, those who are not attending - could listen and watch via live stream intro by GV founders Ethan Zuckerman and Rebecca MacKinnon and variety of speakers on program for day 1. Tomorrow’s schedule brings current and burning world issues, don’t forget to check the live stream!

Everything live happening on the Internet with your friends, in all web sites you use, with interaction and posting utility from one social network to another, comes with livestream personal dashboard of socialthing. What I’ve noticed here is the lack of privacy, e.g. if you are protecting Twitter updates, even if you twit via social thing, they will appear in other social networks visible to all. For now, it’s private beta version and you need invite. Looks something like this:

On the other side friendfeed is more user-friendly and enables you to share numerous feeds with your friends. You can share updates with people you choose, protect your data, or you can choose to keep them in public, open for everyone. Lovely utility is commenting and discussion information and items among your friends. It’s free and open.

What will be the next interactive social feed (personal) directory?

Twitter is down this morning (again). This time without notification that something went wrong. Server crash or something else? I tried to reach the api, help, and the only tray of the bird I got from Google’s cache of www.twitter.com (as retrieved on 27 February 2008).  Far that I’m experiencing mind panic attacks if “Twitter is down for more than an hour”, but I got a bit annoyed of my favourite micro-blogging form. After reading interesting blog post of top 10 signs that you might need Twittervention, I came this morning to thought that this is done on purpose as we should all get back and update our blogs more often?

Thank you Twitter, and you… What are you doing?

Until the next issue of PC press mag. is about to be released: an article on microblogging and Twitter  (for dummies, advanced users, researchers), today I just popped to the one from the many (of many) texts on Twitter - this time as a tool in business communication. Via Social Media Today,  Jeff Tippett explains what Twitter means to him in everyday biz. I would add here that beside mentioned two facets of microblogging , creating the (social) network and reading/sending messages (tweets), important factors are users’ interaction and sharing the information. Also, I see Twitter in business communication as SN tool for e- advertising, promoting self, idea(ology), product, info on the Internet (political purpose, education, sports, media, and biz institutions), as well as micro-blogging in real time from important political or economic spotlights. I am wondering will the events from previous week (several elections at the same time, different geo-spots, as well as the sports events) now Super Monday, Tuesday to Super-Friday, will occupy Twitterversum and outlive good old blogging form? Do you rather blog or twit?