What ?

Well, how I feel today ? Thanks for asking. Crappy . Variation on the theme.
Nothing important. But these weeks are tough, much to do, not so much time for myself. I am busy all the time. Week before Christmas was tough.
So, blogging must wait better mood and more time on my hands. We are in the last week this year.
Indeed, it was for me successful year. Really. Always could find space for "BUT". But what ?
I am observing myself right now. I am very intimate right now. My public diary and I. I don't wan't just news blog.
Blogging is about personality of its author, so should I more time reserve for personal stuff.
I feel I need more reflexion these days.

Deported to Croatia after 18 years

A Croatian man deported from USA who lived 18 years illegally. The parking space dispute led authorities to investigate him. Bad luck !
I can't find a link where I read the story.

Start your own blogging service

21Publishing is interesting solution for everyone who wants to run weblogging service out of box and it is aimed for groups and organizations. That's how they are trying to be differerent.
But it comes at cost. As far as I can get, it's blog portal that one can set up and offer blog hosting for other users. No need to find programmers to build blogging tool from scratch. It's all there .
See how this wizzard explains !

Blog Superman !

So, Superman comic is guilty for the word ''blog'' !
Apparently, Superman comic book from 1959 mentioned Blog, and it was the name of a cavemen that was engaged when helping Louis Lane fighting dinosaurus.
Cavemen ? Altamira blogging :))))

Bad business-to-business app for web tenders

In today's Dnevnik business newspapers I saw an article about croatian B2B web service for tenders ( matching buyers and sellers for the products and service of smaller value , more than 5.000,oo kuna).
It's called OPEN ( in croatian : Oglasnik privatne nabave.)

I said, "wow" ! I thought for a while, "finally !!". But after I opened Open page / I was dissapointed. It's not properly executed and is a good laugh for me.
I am not making fool out of this service, just I am dissapointed. We can't here in Croatia make decent business web application. Shame !

After digging more deeper trough sidebar links I found out that aformentioned service is offered by the press cliping agency Briefing.

Oh, and Briefieng doesn't seem to understand living web around blogger's buzz and writing and their importance to properly service their clients. RSS is for their freelance contractors unknown and uncharted territory. But that-s another story...
As far as I can tell according to my sources.
Still, web service made by Briefing is good idea ( immature still ) but very bad executed. Just look at the user interface ( can you see login button immediatly ? )
Look at the carefully and marketing naive wording...

There are several legal constraints regarding web tenders services. First, they can't be legally offered for the companies from public sector ( where the biggest pie is , remember Narodne Novine), and second, it lacks know-how in Croatia for this service. Awareness , too !
One can argue about the second, but I believe it's the case.

Have I mentioned that press cliping agency Briefieng doesn't grasp online sources as a real-time generator of news and buzz of interest to their clients ? :)) My guess!
Ah, old-fashioned press clipping agency :) "Do you know what other write about you, your products and services on the living web ? " :P

Not so private anymore

Sometimes I ask myself the very same question when writing this blog in english.
What happened to my private thoughts and blogging about my private stuff?

I feel I've done more reporting after reading so many RSS feeds. It's all so newsy, or how should I call it ?
Opinions and attitudes is still there, fascination about small losely part of politics, economics, web, technology , blogging that makes me "high" is still there, but lacks personal stuff ?

Why so ? Do I feel I need it ? No. But this was allways part of this salad called Zec Online Journal. Maybe I write more news -oriented because of the language and because I feel I want do that right now.
Don't know what's the right answer .

Blogroll adition

I wonder why I have not already put Goran's blog on the blogroll list.

Very good read over there at Goran's blog called Svakodnevnica. Goran is from neighbouring country Serbia and writes about many interesting issues and has a very strong voice and opinion.

He's long -time blogger ( one of the first in Serbia ) and enthusiast about blogging, RSS and the one from whom could be learned much about software , web design and services, etc.

I really need to have some good sleep. Lately, too much work, too much stress.
As this article suggests....

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.