I hope that Western civilization is enjoying Christmas and Winter holidays as I’m fighting the deadlines several days before my holiday and turning off the interwebs.  So it is official: from Saturday, December 27th 2008. - January 12th 2009.,  I’ll be offline and on holidays which means that you have three more days to email, comment, ask, interact with me, after that I am in the analogue world (again proving to those picking up on my geekiness that I am not addicted to interwebs ::smile:: ). I may read only direct messages from BrightKite friends though.

I’m going to focus on people and things that I’ve been pushed back lately because of some current things and hectic life in the past few months, to enjoy some quite time, help those who need my help, meditate, read real books, watch films on my list, practice yoga, contemplate and draft the project(s) that I’ll commence and that will mark 2009.  Hopefully, I’m moving to practitioners way, but it’s too early to reveal anything.

The search for the perfect laptop for my needs, research, conferences, travels is still ”ON’, if you get to some updated information -leave a comment, I’ll get back to you after the Holidays.  Also, I am amazed by ‘The power of Social Web’ action for new laptop as I’ve reached so far 35% of donations for such a short time.Thank all of you who have understanding for the science, research and academic life. There is still few days left till the cause is closed though.

See you in January when I ‘ll be refreshed and ready for new exciting events and travels.

Srećni novogodišnji praznici, nova 2009. i Božić! ~ Happy Holidays and New Year 2009!

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.

Creative Commons, which produces licenses implemented in 50 different jurisdictions until now, including  Serbian project, coordinated by CC legal lead Nevenka Antic, on December 15th  celebrates its 6th Birthday around the world. Regarding this occasion, Creative Commons Serbia, Wikimedia Serbia,  and Free Software Network Serbia, organises at the Faculty of Mathematics, of the University of Belgrade (room 718, 4th floor) on Monday, December 15th at 6 p.m. - presentation and debate about free software and free scientific, education, artistic and media production to emphasise the importance of free licensing in information society. I’m inviting you tomorrow to join CC birthday world wide celebration, and embrace open source.

Today is World AIDS Day. Few days ago one photo made a confusion among us - from Twitter, FriendFeed interaction [me likes FriendFeed more and more], to Bora’s blog where discussion on the action of Serbian Ministry of Health has moved. Today, bumper, bumper was jumping and staring at me from all new-stands in the city.

Other than that: Pownce is closing and moving to Six Apart! Those of you who have used this micro-blogging service, you can export files, message until December 15th, as the main Pownce website is closing down two weeks from today.

Today is Cyber Monday, but not in Europe. I hope you found good discounts for gadgets and nice computers. And I still need laptop!

to be continued…

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!

It’s official: my computer/hdd is dead! Laptop went through many check-ups in the last 3 weeks, and while i’m writing this post from friends’ computer, i got phone call from my  tech service support telling me that there’s nothing they can do - it is time for new laptop. No wonder, poor thing passed numerous airports, travelled many many miles, had five falls on the ground, exploitation in the past few years in its fullest - master research and thesis, presentations, movings, in between time pre-PhD period, 2 spilling of tea over the keyboard, etc. I had final warning signs few days ago when i announced that i am contemplating new laptop {and new mac books arrived <3}.

So, it is time for new laptop. I know what I don’t want as I’ve had not so nice experience in the past with: Toshiba’s, Fujitsu, HP, also I don’t want Acer, Asus (though I heard they are not that bad, but which model?). I need computer for everyday work, research (lot of data), good RAM, stable OS. Also, I’m known as great exploiter of FF (if i need 120 tabs open at once because I need them for my research, reading and analysis, I have to be sure it will tolerate my requests), good graphic support (i am here and there musing myself and others with photography / see Flickr, and use PhotoShop), and sometimes I watch a movie on DVD. All in all, a bit stronger than standard one, as I may need for some extra work. Important: I don’t play any kind of games/simply don’t have time, so I don’t need super ultra state-of-art graphics/speed/performance as well as I don’t use AUTO-CAD, as friend asked me recently if I am CAD person.

Beside above described, I need light one- did I mention it? My back and shoulders hurt when i have to move or travel and take all kind of gadgets with me. Smaller screen are welcomed too (13.3”). Hum, cannot remember anything else for now: ah yes, decent price would go, well proportion of quality, performance and warranty, I am not Rockefeller, and prices of hardware are dropping everyday {they say}.

All suggestions, experiences, comments are welcomed! And please if you suggest some manufacturer add a model that works for you, and have in mind that i live in South-East Europe. Thank you!

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.

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…