New York's major in Dubrovnik

New York's major Micheal Bloomberg is visiting Croatia this week. On friday, he will be present at the conference in Dubrovnik a bid for 2012 Olympics to a group of European Olympic committees.
Newsday reports on that.

Mobile meets atom

Interesting read for today, blog named The Pondering Primate. All forms of mobile future are topics of this blog.

Top blogging service

I am sure, BlogSpirit is currently the best web based blogging tool in the world.

Forget for a moment about TypePad ( which isn't free ) and Blogger.com or closed blogging gheto services
( LiveJournal ). Blogspirit is free with the same simplicity and power ( just like many blog scripts), and much , much better then Blogger.
It's up and running as of today. Very warm recommendation to the people to let try this clean, easy to use and features rich blogging experience.

It's very fast and full customizations available. It's made by the team of people who know a lot about blogging, web publishing and the whole blogging ecosystem. Everything is considered and nothing left to coincidence, very carefully planned and executed , indeed.

It's the best blogging tool for the novice and for the advanced bloggers, in my view ( exept for those very advanced and with different requeriments such as domain name etc..who can have their WordPress running).
BlogSpirit is just great and I am sure time will prove my words ;))

Mobile scent

After music melodies and pictures for alerting mobile phone owners about incoming calls , now there's available another "signaling" mode, namely smell !

It was only matter of time, I guess. Remember those "refreshers" hanging in a car ? I remember how croatian workers , coming on holidays from Germany during second part of 20th century, were introducing this refreshers inside cars and after that almost every Ficho ( Zastava car ) had a one in place :))
The smells out of mobile phone ornamentsare , you know already, Japan's invention deep-seeded in their Ketai ( wireless) culture.
It can stink or it can have nice aroma :)) I wonder will it be used for diversions in public spaces ;)

I can easly see how fashion industry could jump on that bandwagon. Simply put, fragrance manufacurers and designers could have millions of people available for advertising and promotion. Look someone is calling me , it's Gabriela Sabatini parfume and I know who's calling ;))

Just like music industry used opportunity to sell ringtones and make great promotions for their contractors ( musicans), the fashion industry could use it for obvious reasons.

No booga booga !

Is there someone who didn't read today's article from Boston Herald ?????

Stephan Roach is well known strategiest for Morgan Stanley ( bearish all the time but this...???), and it struck me a lot when I heard what he said to exclusive club of fund managers .
I can only think what kind of a Domino effect it might folllow. At fears it could be slow way down, and not suddenly crush.
Roach according to Boston Herald:

"Roach sees a 30 percent chance of a slump soon and a 60 percent chance that ``we'll muddle through for a while and delay the eventual armageddon.''
The chance we'll get through OK: one in 10. Maybe "

This is to me no booga booooga !

Blogging words flame over Balkan !

Bosnia's blogging. Blogger.ba is in beta testing .
This is a third blogging service ( web based ) made exclusively for Balkan and southeastern Europe ( as some would like to call ''slavic langauges '' )
The first was croatian BLOG.HR blogging service, and the second was ''mojblog''.
The common for all three seems to me is that they have an idea source in the BLOG.HR, but that's not the issue now.
They are here and work fine for the bloggers. I tried Blogger.ba yesterday and seems to me it's a very good and clean web based service for novice bloggers.
It has only simple features ( no RSS and categories ) and works pretty fast. I was thinking to write few observation but I'm tired right now, so maybe next time.
One thing's sure, Bosnia is becoming web- diary land :))

The Caffe is closed

The case is closed, at least for me, regarding Vibbi blog. He set up his own destiny with naive and immature blog writing .
I feel sorry for every person who lose job because of blog. It could be everyone, but blogging is hobby, and everyone should think about their words and how far she/he might go.

Update: Diplomat blog

The news about croatian diplomat in Washington, who wrote web diary , is becoming world news. Reuters picked up this story today, and it reveals blogging emergent impact here in Croatia only 6 months after the first blogging service opened its doors.

UPDATE , media reports about the sad story:
Blog Herald, Digital Media Europe, Washington DC blog, Online Journalism Review, Toronto Pulse 24 , MemeFirst,

I already wrote about Vibbi web diary when the story broke in croatian blogosphere, but then, it was mainly speculations that under "vibbi blog " could be croatian diplomat ( Vibor Kalogjera ) in Washington and son of a well known croatian journalists who by accident covered US presidential elections for croatian television from Washington. And now, it seems that they are both out of office ( her mother was recalled as a correspondent from Washington )

Author called Vibbi wrote his web diary at WWW.BLOG.HR blogging service ( the first croatian blogging service), and after one of the bloggers wrote a blog article where she speculated who could be author of this blog, vibbi blog was terminated, apparently by its author.

Later on, croatian media Vecernji List and some other online media covered unfolding story as well. Seriouse questions were raised going up all the way to the Foreign Ministry who launched offical investigation into the case and our ambassador in Washigton was alerted because diplomat blogger wrote very openly about his meethings with World Bank officials, and other sensitive taughts like for example " Americans are stupid'' , harsh words indeed, possible case for the diplomatic scandal in the making )) , Reuters:

he described most meetings as boring and predictable and also said there was "no difference at all" between President Bush and his rival John Kerry in the U.S. presidential elections earlier this month.

Although this blog had been deleted , some bloggers set up mirror site with the content of this blog and it's still available here ( croatia language ).

As I already wrote, blogging mini revolution is spreading trough out croatian web space. For those who are unfamilar with the advent of blogosphere in Croatia, just to remind, the first blogging service called WWW.BLOG.HR started in May this year and after only 6 months become a place for more than 11.000 blog authors.

It's spreading very fast and the main reason for strong media impact at its infany is that bloggers voice and writing work can be very widely distributed over Monitor.hr ( the sisters site of blog.hr ) , one of the most visited news portals here in Croatia.
It's a true beggining of citizens reporting in the making.

I had a privilage and opportunity to work from the start as the adviser for BLOG.HR project with a person who cofounded www.blog.hr, a young croatian Dario Markus, editor for the online version of croatian daily Vecernji List who started working for online media with only 15 years old.

He's now 19, and he wrote all this years for numerouse croatian web portals and news sites and was the IT editor for Monitor.hr news site. ( We started project blog.hr from August last year )
I 'll use this opportunity to ask him few questions on the croatian blogosphere and context for case about diplomat blog affair.

Dario, what was your first reaction when you heard that other media covered blogging issue about Vibbi blog?
Well, I haven't expected that BLOG.HR can have so much influence. The news spread very fast. BLOG.HR has an interesting feature not very much known to foreign blogosphere, namely, every blogger has a button for sending his blog post from blogging editor to the editors and impressum of BLOG.HR, who can then publish news on the main page.
And what's more, almost immediatly, the same news could be published as news on the MONITOR.HR news portal , which is sister's site by BLOG.HR ?
BLOG.HR was started in partnership with MONITOR.HR news portal, which is one of the most visited news portals here in Croatia. In that case, if we pick up valuable story of one of the bloggers from BLOG.HR , we have this ability to spread the news to potentially 100.000 people every day.
I think, it's a strong case for citizen reporting, and mainstream media are starting to wake up to this possibility and as many say, BLOG.HR is apsolutelly hit this year on croatian internet . What was first aim in building BLOG.HR project, simplicity of use ?
Yes, the simplicity was our voiding star, blogging should be easy, and it is with the simple registration procedure for a new user and has a clear interface, and seems that every web user in Croatia can participate with only basic understanding of internet and become publisher of its thoughts, opinions, etc. At the same time, we made easy-to-use web publishing tool and strong media voice for the authors.
You are not schooled journalist but I know you have ambitions, you write online for years. Currently, you write for online edition of Vecernji list and you are part of their editorial stuff .What's your dream for the future ?
I have a great wish to work and live in New York , actually. The New York has a magnetic infuence on me, and I think that in the future only US market and the life overthere can bring me opportunity to make all my projects and ambitions for real. One day I'll make it ! I am sure.
But, first, there's so much still to do about blogging here in Croatia ;))
Thanks for this too officialy small talk :)) We must make self-congratulations from time to time :))
hehehe

PBS and Balkan blogs

Strange, PBS producers happened to mention Zec Online Journal blog in his Frontline World series.
Drax blog and Zec Online were profiled on their select blog listings .
Quote:

Zec Online Journal
A young blogger writes about life in Croatia and expresses his feelings about the November 2004 elections in the United States.

They picked up my writing about US presidential elections and I must say I was vindicated by correct predictions of the ultimate outcome ;)
After more search I have found out that Frontline World produced by PBS is :

Developed by FRONTLINE producers in conjunction with public television stations KQED San Francisco and WGBH Boston, FRONTLINE/World is a national public TV series that turns its lens on the global community, covering countries and cultures rarely seen on American television.

Blogger's hunt on Radovan Karazic

A law student in the United States ( obvioulsly, of Balkan heritage) writes blog Finding Karadzic.

Somehow I discovered this blog today. It' s devoted to to the task of disscusing hunt on the famouse war criminal who is hidding somewhere in Bosnia or the neighbouring countries.
For those who aren't familiar with Balkan issues, Karadzic was the leader of bosnian Serbs during 90's and accused by International War Tribunal in Hague for war crimes.

The international forces are hunting Karadzic who managed to escape and hide to this day.
Finding Karadzic blog has many pictures of the locations in Bosnia and Montenegro where he could be hiding according to public speculations.

Natural Naomi

Nice comment found on one of the blogs I read today. It's about advertising in general, antropology perspective.
I like that quote even ads are not so ''cool '' every time :)

commerce is a naturally emergent phenomenon
in any sufficiently advanced community system.

heideger + habermas = mobile phone

it's okay to have advertising.

when it's gets too much, your readers
will find a quiter place to read.

it's all cool.

Rohit Gupta said this words.

Microsoft's search engine toy

The selected team of technology enthusiasts ( so called MSN Champs) was today alerted that they can officialy announce Microsoft Search ( in Beta - testing version ).
Roobin Good has an early call for the first use of the MSN search engine. So, is it MS as usual or something which is viable alternative to Google and Yahoo search ?
Hard to tell as far as I can say. It's still all in the brand, easy to use, relevance and people habits.
To me, Google is still up on the list, but their future is not granted as far as I judge for myself.

When diplomats write blogs !

Another blogging scandal shakes croatian web space, specifically blogosphere.
Apparently according to media reports croatian diplomat in Washington wrote anonymously weblog/online journal in which he revealed many details about his personal life and what's more troubling, insider information about work for croatian diplomatic stuff in the United States.

The trouble is , he could be a son of a known croatian TV journalist according to some media reports. The blog was deleted from internet ( Blog.hr) apparently by its author but the content is still available on Google cache.

Croatian daily Vecernji list picked up story which came on the surface from croatian weblog service blog.hr.
Croatian bloggers read for months blog called "Diplomat in the USA ".

Now, media and bloggers are speculating that this blog wrote Vibor Kalogjera ( his blog was at vibbi.blog.hr address and has revealed on comments on other blogs that he's working in the ambassade ) , son of the well known croatian correspondent for Croatian television in Washington -Silvija Luks.

Silvija Luks covered US presidential elections recently, and was accused this week about lack of profesionalism for her reporting from Washington.
It's obviouse that this is an example of irresponssible and naive blog writing revealing too much.

The most troubling words he wrote on his blog when he said that they were laughing Americans and the waitress in the bar. Is someone for diplomatic blogging scandal, perhaps ?

In my view, this is now moment when croatian blogosphere is approaching tipping point and when it's starting to be force not only for valuable purposes but for doing damage to people.

Therefore, it is legitim starting discussion about bloggers ethics here in Croatia before someone gets hurt.

For those who aren't familiar with emerging blogosphere here in Croatia, it has differences to foreign blogosphere. The most popular blogging service in Croatia is BLOG.HR which started to educate people about blogs and offer them place for setting up free blogs.
The difference is that in the 6 months blogosphere becomes more information -oriented ,at least according to impact scale ( not communication, learning, projects...) and a true citizen reporting started to raise some seriose questions. The main questions are related to some legal issues ; libel , invasion of privacy and author's intellectual property.

After all, we are small country and the information is spreading very fast over net.
Therefore, it's a need having some sort of disscusion about blogers ethics before it is too late and people get hurt.

Short on words

US presidential elections are among ordinary people here - already passe. Today, silence and not much talk about Bush and election. Nobody seems to be willing to recycle these issues.

Croatian media are somehow shy about their analysis of foregone election. Maybe there's more than enough reasons for the above mentioned behaviour.
One reason is that we have our own media stories currently at the spotlight, croatian foreign minister Zuzul is accused of corruption, and the second reason might be that croatian presidential elections, scheduled for January next year , are becoming hotter to watch.

General wisdom says ( and all relevant polls) that president Mesic does have very clear chances to win these elections.
Only for note, I made several contacts few months ago with president's advisers and offer them blogging strategy as a part of online presentation for upcoming election.

After few weeks, I got the phone call from Pantovcak that they are not interested into "blogging thing".
So, it's still not prime time for presidential blogging here in Croatia.

Crazy guy on the bike

Last year Mark Boyd added me on his mailing list for his bicycle tours. He visited Croatia last year on his trip from Portugal via Croatia and back up to Poland. I was beta tester for TypePad blogging tool ( few months in 2003 ) and I have wrote short piece on our talk at the caffe on the old blog ( no longer maintained).
My mail account got another letter from his last tour across US. He ended his tour in Ohio.

Cheers !

Ok, I was right ( here and here ). Bush won another presidential mandate "to rule" with tremendouse credit by american people.
Early exit polls were wrong again. Damn buzzy and laying blogosphere ! Dan Rather is laughing now :)
American democratic party becomes joke ! America is redecorated and the fear is , generation will be needed to put American again on the path of a modern society. Stop !
New Zealand is waiting on american students and youth :))

Woof, It seems I was completly wrong. Kerry is winning this elections according to some early exit polls.
Now, it is 00.15 AM here in Croatia, 06.15 PM in New York.
And all this by much wider margin than it was expected. Maybe it is too early, it is not verified trend...Key states Florida and Ohio got Kerry.

Recount

My bet for today's US presidential elections. I don't like betting actually, but I'll make exception here.
I prefer "most likely scenario" phrase, and it's well known I do not prefer Bush as a first choice for the Empire.
Nobody knows who' will win.
Here's a list of the most likely scenarios", in my view:

a.) Bush is re-elected

b.) Recount- voting scandal about irregularities in key regions or ...............House of Representatives is choosing Bush in case of tight results ( neither candidate get 270 electoral votes)

c.) Kerry's clear victory

d.) Booga booga, Al Qaida is allowed to strike again and the emergence situation is in place ( most unlikely)

e.) Will Smith fail to save US from alien's attack and White House is gone, and Croatian ministar Zuzul express deeply regrets for this unfortunate situation :))))

Web marketing myths I heard, yay!

Few mistakes noted when speaking with some PR/ marketing people here in Croatia. I saw an enormouse misunderstanding regarding marketing on the web.
These people are terrible wrong with the nature of doing online advertising and presentation. I am deeply convinced of that.
So many myths I heard from them.

They are deeply in this " banner" web shit. I

t doesn't work for most advertisers on the net. Capito ? Big , well-known companies can use the classical banner/type of advertising on the web as a mean to build awareness for the company on the web as yet another chanel having in mind their marketing mix strategies ( TV, radio, web, print..).
The first and foremost mistake these people are doing is that they just don't understand that internet is not mass media. It's not. No, seriously! I mean it. The web is not mass media, and the people on the web are not crazy about mass messages. Stop.

The second myth I tried to debunk in their minds is pure concept of advertising as known in other media like TV, radio, print.

A type of mindset which is present mostly in middle -size businesses with more growth potential and "easy" marketing budget available for selling growth story in the media ( advertising products and services ).
Often is the case that the plan is to slice the marketing budget pie ( either they'll do it alone or "experts" from PR agencies will do ) and burn the cash for advertising on the web. It's only "advertising " for them. A huge , ineffective ADvertising. Stop. It doesn't work because they are focusing on "space", not search engines,Yay strategice alliances , rich and relevant message...oh, and mostly on the wrong places on the web.

Third, who needs flashy , blinking, loud, and has hippy colors ( and fucking ugly rainbow ) ? Nobody. Ok, some of them think it's cool. It's about taste ,too. But , generaly, forget it ! Consuming content doesn't go with that.
The ad should be cleare, exhaustive, focused, organized...Stop.

Wait a minute, why I am giving and writing this !
I won't anymore.

One day, people will eventually find these misconception alone, by error and trials ;))
There's so many web marketing myths I heard I couldn't belive it.
Yay !

Spleak

I didn't use Spleak, but it sounds very interesting, and it comes from Copenhagen, Denmark. But why is this plug-in only for MSN Messenger ?
Mrrrr...I'm not using instant messegers very often, but ones that imitates natural talk is allways welcome.

PRESS RELEASE: 25,000 People Talking to Spleak Interactive Agent Only a Week After Launch of the First Beta Version on the MSN Messenger Network: "committed to combine instant messaging and artificial intelligence into a totally new interactive medium, where the interface is simple natural conversation. These messages exchanged with the 25,000 people who have downloaded Spleak as soon as the first beta version was released and talked to her through MSN Messenger."