Flickr’s Small, Beautiful World

The Flickr Blog is mostly pretty pictures. Every now and then there’s also a beautiful story.

Last week Stewart Butterfield posted a gem about the guy in this picture. (I noted an earlier sparkler here.)

Here’s the caption from themexican, who took the picture: 

Rashit in his yurt. He spoke several languages and was always trying to learn more. When he found I spoke Spanish he spent hours learning new phrases from me and steering clear of smalltalk. "No talk, we learn. Word for horse."

With so much yipping about 2-point-that and 3-point-this, it’s nice to be reminded of the values underlying all this technology — information, people and the world.

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The Federline Folksonomy

Wow. David Weinberger points out some serious tagging on Amazon’s Kevin Federline page. It’s like a wiki for snarky insults. If it weren’t for the ridiculous picture at the top of the page, I might feel sorry for the guy … 

Manny vs. A-Rod; WebInno vs. Tech Meetup

I went to another WebInno event this evening in Kendall Square. I just moved back to the Boston area, and it’s fun to connect with other people here starting businesses on the web.

Dave Beisel organizes WebInno, and he does a great job. The meetings have the same demo & schmooze format as the Tech Meetups I went to when I lived in NYC, although I’m amused by the differences. They kinda correspond to differences I see between the two cities. For example:

In Boston, both sessions were at The Royal Sonesta; in NYC, the Tech Meetups I joined were in an NYU classroom and a cramped Meetup.com conference room.

In Boston, just about everybody (including me) was wearing khakis and a buttondown; in NYC, it was jeans and hoodies.

In Boston, at least half the crowd was from a VC shop; in NYC I remember bumping into one or two.

In Boston, Dave ran efficient, orderly demos; in NYC the crowd jumped in with questions whenever they wanted — it was demo if you dare.

How’s that for a list of generalizations?