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Ms. Dewey Dressed in Black ... from Microsoft

The Dewey Decimal System, this ain't! However, this has to be the strangest search engine I've ever encountered, Ms. Dewey.  The lady in the photo (Ms. Dewey) takes you on a trip on the World Wide Weird Web. Make certain your audio is on .... and to begin with, don't enter a search ... just wait:

• From Microsoft - The Ms. Dewey Search Engine

I don't know about the significance of this fact, but I learned about Ms. Dewey ... all dressed in black ... via the Librarian in Black. None of this has anything to do with Halloween ... kind of freaky.

Open Source Wikis and Microsoft

Yesterday's announcement that the SocialText wiki will now run under Microsoft Sharepoint really surprised me. Ross Mayfield, the CEO of SocialText is a Wikipedia kind of guy (literally and figuratively), thus this is an interesting alliance:

• Read Announcement

The fact that Sharepoint 2007 will include both Microsoft blogging and wiki software, makes this even more unusual. I need to grok this, and don't.
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Update on November 3rd:
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Open Source and Microsoft seems to be a contradiction of terms.  However, I may be wrong. Here is a conversation between Ross Mayfield (CEO of SocialText) and Sam Ranji (Microsoft) on this very same issue.

The Changing Net

When I was in college (mid 1970's), I used a travel agent to book my flights from New Hampshire to Minnesota. Having a good travel agent who really knew their stuff was a smart idea. On the way to the airport I would pick up the Boston Globe newspaper for the long trip home to Duluth.

Fast forwarding to the year 2006, life has changed. Did you know that it is now possible to use a real travel agent to visit the virtual world?! That's right, if you want to cut down on the learning time for SecondLife, and learn the hot spots ... reserve your virtual travel agent, but remember ... you will need "real" money:

• From Fortune Business Innovation Blog: Synthravels

Now, the Boston Globe might not be too handy in the virtual world ... thus take some time out to watch this MIT World broadcast:

• The Emergence of Citizen's Media

From the MIT description of the panel discussion:

Extra, extra, browse all about it!  The newspaper (as we know it) is history. As David Thorburn  handily describes the situation: “The younger the cohort is, the less interested it is in printed materials and the more committed to emerging technologies. The implication is, within 25 to 30 years, there won’t be people who want to read newspapers.” These panelists discuss newspapers’ transformation in the digital age.

A Czech Wedding

The wedding in the Czech Republic was a fantastic experience for many reasons; however, the most important reason was seeing Pavla married to a bright, sensitive young man. I posted a few pictures of our week, both from the wedding and the surrounding countryside.

• A Czech Family Wedding

Here are two items which I really liked about the Czech "wedding experience", compared to our American version:

1. The day before the wedding, the couple visits the cemetery to remember and thank relatives who were important in their lives.
2. In the morning before the ceremony, the couple visits the parent's homes to formally thank their parents, and receive a blessing.

There were other items of a similar nature, but the key focus was on "the family".

Finally ... you may wish to link to my comments about our quick trip to Krakow.

Second Life and Training

A little more from my Thomson NETg meeting ... they are messing around with Second Life. NETg put up a training center in the virtual reality world of Second Life, and since the first of the year they have had 24,000 visits ... and now even an inquiry from Intel to add on an annex.  I had been aware of Second Life, but had never given it a test ride.  I guess it's time.  NETg is not certain where the experiment will lead, but it's a neat search.

My avatar is named Ole Northmead.  See you around (either online or in the flesh)!