Hello everyone! Finally I’m trying to get back to blogging as I’ve been lazy blogger in the last three weeks, with a good excuse: I am in Rome, Italy for now the fourth week running around, working, settling, apartment searching, adjusting, non-learning Italian yet, trying to keep up with emails. Thanks to all of you for congratulating me, writing me emails, asking how I am – I appreciate you being a part of my micro-community.

First about the work, as many of you asked: I work in the great surrounding, knowledge – sharing – science information – technology – open office with internationals in UN, FAO, networked with the lot of people internally in Roman high institutions as well as externally with EU organizations in a collaborative project that you’ll hear when it’s time to be heard. I’m very honored to be in charge from UN side for this project and thankful to my colleagues and especially my supervisor who gave me full trust and confidence that i can do it. This is great challenge in my career and I am so happy about the work that is developing because it has great future and even greater purpose in technology, science and semantic web, web 3.0. w00t! Every beginning is a bit odd as you try to keep up with everything what’s being done so far, to learn, study a lot, get familiar with new things – and sometimes I feel like a small ant amongst super-smart giants, but on the other side there are lot of colleagues on and off UN who are really owing me with their kindness, their efforts to help me and also learning things from me. One of the surprises from digital life was that half of them read this site/blog or any other written word on Internet. The other half is on Twitter interacting or following me. Those who are not familiar with UN structure would think it’s uptight, too formal institution and I agree – but I am so damn lucky to be in creative, innovative, cooperative part of this institution that is easy-going, relaxed, but hard-working at the same time. So, I am very grateful for being a part of it, participating and creating something new. In the upcoming posts you’ll read more about technology, life and web 2.0 and web 3.0 for sure.

Rome, and Romans: you all know that Rome is the city of architecture per se, no words here to describe how blessed I am to live in this ancient, eternal city (some of the photos). Every corner has it’s own story, many social and cultural characteristics remind me on Belgrade (well, it’s only 1.5 hrs by plane), many differences I’m trying to accept as they are: from the everyday functioning to people’s modus vivendi (referring to Roman people). Everything is assuming and there are no rules. Italians rarely speak English, or not at all. It can be difficult for everyday life – off work, but hopefully if you have some basics in old Latin or French, you can easily catch up with the conversation and understand what it is about.

Oh, I have so many stories to tell so far, but first settling and getting my base here. What I really like in my new Roman life here is that I have enough free time (oh weekends, I love you!) to do whatever I want, not to think about my PhD dissertation (for now), not to think about zillions of freelance projects I’ve been doing lately, exhausting late nights working for 14 hours and more, thinking about the existence or global economy crisis.

I’m trying to establish network of contacts and friends here, and if you happen to read this and you are in Rome, or planning to come - say hello and email me. There are many of my friends coming here and I’ve been meeting few since I’m here, please follow my Dopplr or LiveStream for more accurate information, and I’d be more than happy to meet you for aperitivo, walk, chat, hanging out in Rome.

More writings to come soon…

I have been keeping this great news for about two weeks to myself and was trying not to burst it out in the online public, but now officially: from March 1st I am joining the UN (KCEW department at FAO) and moving to Rome, Italy! w00000t!!!!!

I am so ecstatic as everything happened all of the sudden (well, there were some indications around New years Eve and during my conference in US).

I’ll be working for UN as consultant on metadata standards, semantic web, web applications, new projects within the house and with other major world wide organizations,  in a word: I will be participating in creating the future of the Web! w00t!

Going to UN is a natural continuation and the new start of the good things to come. I’m so happy and excited as all the years of my studies, practice, information technology visions, projects, permanent learning, writing, talking, communication, networking with others, activism, will be placed on the right spot, a place that is super stimulative and (for me) futuristic. Remember the connecting dots from Steve Job’s Commencement speech at Stanford? Well, this is exactly happening to me. Everything I’ve been working on since the age of six (6) and upwards have oh so meaning.

And about serendipities, real life serendipities: I remember in 2002 I was in Rome at Semantic Web conference where I was for the first time professionally and deeply introduced to semantics on Web, and later I’ve tried through talks, presentations, writings to spread it to my country but seems then and now noone was really interested in this. I never thought that I will go back to my long forgotten passion. Also, a colleague who was on that SW conference reminded me the other day that I was throwing the coins (oh well, I remember valuable 2euro coins and eating gelato whilst sitting on the edge of the fountain) in Fountain di Trevi assuring me that I’ll come back to Rome, as I never thought about this possibility afterwards. Looks like that the future of the web has reached me and I am so overwhelmed, everything is new for me and challenging.

In the next few days I am getting introduced to a new system, programs, new colleagues, projects, but before that I am finishing what I need to finish in Belgrade and beyond, packing (boxes, luggage’s and mess around me), and looking for a new apartment in Rome. I will reside in Rome (w00t!) which is wonderful as I will be working and collaborating with International team and speak and use English, but after work I will learn (or re-establish my forgotten Latin) Italian, and soak myself into Italian culture (super ecstatic as I’ve always inclined to Mediterranean lifestyle). I started to read Repubblica’s technology and science section with a little help of Google translator, but you’ll see me talking fluent Italian very soon. Those who live in Rome, say Halo or Ciao to me when you see me!

Did I tell you that I am super excited that I will work for the great cause and create the dots for the futuristic Web, participating in great world wide projects?  I can’t wait to begin with my new job, programs, and feel so blessed to be a part of an invigorating web of science, IT environment.

Hello from the other side of the pond! I am overwhelmed with positive energy. Finally found a bit of time to blog as the previous days and weeks were hectic, super adventurous and busy. Conference/unconference ScienceOnline09 is finished and my thoughts and feelings are extremely positive, warm and fuzzy at the moment as I’m trying to get together the highlights. First, wonderful organization of Bora and Anton, great number of super smart, creative, wonderful, inspiring people at one spot (research triangle park, Sigma Xi), variety of sessions, amazing brainstorms, interactions, serendipities, shiny happy people, what can I say? Make it happen next year to last a day longer! Beside my session on the open access, the issue of notworking vs networking in the networked world as well as on information society in Serbia and countries in transition I’ve been giving, here are some sessions that draw my attention: Open access publishing, Semantic web publishing session moderated by John Wilbanks from Science Commons, Web and history of science, Open notebook science, very interesting one on Reputation, authority and incentives / or how to get rid of Impact factor. Of course, there were many others interesting events going parallel in four rooms, so I was jumping for the rest of the conference from one to another – not to miss anything. The best part, beside interactive discussions and brainstorms were unconference discussions and brainstorms in the hall of Sigma xi and the lobby of the hotel – I’ve met again with old friends and colleagues, twitterati and also new wonderful, super smart, innovative, creative people that I’ve not only exchange information and ideas with, but made some plans in the future.

If you were present at the conference, upload your photos on Flickr pool and fill out feedback about ScienceOnline09. For others: check out blog and media coverage, follow livestream on Friendfeed.

As i believe that good things come in two, three, four … and infinite, I was in the meantime invited to legendary South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in March this year for the Interactive section (w00t!).

Don’t forget that the 2009 keyword is change! As so it is.

If you’re not familiar with Twine – it is web 2.5 (towards web 3.0) tool that keeps track of your interests by collecting online content, brings it all together by the topic of your interest, so you can have it all in one place and share it with anyone you want. Even more, beside personalized or collaborative  way of collecting content, sharing interests in communities, learning about new things, getting personalized recommendations.

Before I invite you to join and share with you an interesting Twine I found out recently, I’d like you to know that Twine is powered by semantic Web [one of my fav. anticipated topics since 2002]. This means the system automatically learns about your interests, groups, then makes connections and recommendations tailored to you by using RDF standards (Resource Description Framework language), URI (universal resource identifier) and OWL (Web Ontology Language). For more information how these three main components work in Twine check this page.

You can join Twine anytime and find interesting content – depending from your interests. I use Twine since May 2008, when it was ‘invite-only’ – this is me on Twine , and recently I found out great new resources on Full text. And it is free! Full text is the name of this Twine and it’s enriched with free databases and scholarly search tools, open access journals, which is opposite of locked academic online full text databases, archives or libraries that you have to pay for (or your University/ institution at least). As a preacher of the open access – if you are researcher, student, involved in academia or maybe professional interested in specific area,  this is place with great resources. Please give me a feedback on Twine or meet me there.

Twine Official on Vimeo.

I have been tagged by Bora with a bit complexed meme, more as blogging and scientific experiment in cyberspace evolution and I’d like to see how it has progressed so far, from ‘my grand-grand parent’ to parent. Here are the rules, and my answers:

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”. Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

* You can leave them exactly as is.

* You can delete any one question.

* You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change “The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…” to “The best time travel novel in Westerns is…”, or “The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…”, or “The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…”.

* You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”.

* You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.

Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

My great-grandparent is Metamagician and the Hellfire Club.

My grandparent is Flying Trilobite.

My parent is A Blog Around the Clock.

The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is:

Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

The best neo-noir SF film in scientific and cyberpunk dystopias is:

Bladerunner by Ridley Scott.

The best sexy song in rock is:

Rose rouge by St Germain

[edit] as I mixed genres, above is more jazzy-groovy.

The best sexy song in rock is:

Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode.

The best cult novel in ex-Yugoslav fiction is:

A Tomb for Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kis.

I am tagging the following people,this time my Twitter friends, to do the same:

Curt Hopkins

Anatole Fuksas

Uldis Bojars

Paul Jones

Very interesting view of time-table development, by Andrew Walkingshaw, of information, communication and science publishing between 2003 and 2019, *from the perspective of an eighteen year old.

Semantic web, finally! From the abstract of Peter Murray-Rust, Reader in Molecular Informatics at the University of Cambridge and Senior Research Fellow of Churchill College, via Yan Feng, interesting video on semantic web in chemistry, GoogleInChi, and other issues in informatics environment. Read and watch!

The millions of scientific papers published each year are an amazing source for scientific discovery but in most of them the experimental data is destroyed by the publication process. Publishers insist on converting semantic data into PDF which effectively destroys everything. We have been developing social and technical strategies to preserve and liberate this data and where this has happened have been able to create completely new mashups and other semantic resources.