Friday, February 6, 2009

Venipedia 2.0

Kyle has revamped the look of our Venipedia wiki as the WPI students who were at the VPC during the anniversary term made specific wiki entries for each of their projects.

Check out the entries for Moving, Living, and Young projects... 
Moreover, the students also contributed several very interesting and informative WikedVenice suggestions!  Venipedia is really starting to take shape.  
Our alumni will be proud of us!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Word spiders

I just found this new gadget which is very much a Santa Ve contraption from Thinkmap, called the Visual Thesaurus.  People are already combining word clouds with this and getting the complex connections that are woven into our word choices.  Fascinating!  Play with it!


Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Hossein Hakim - - (fvpc2)

A while back I made the first entry of the Friends of the Venice Project Center (FVPC).  Today, I would like to make another one dedicated to Hossein Hakim, the head of the Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division in the nineties, when it was probably still called Division of Interdisciplinary Affairs.  
I had started the Venice Project Center a few years before Hossein took the reins, and therefore I witnessed first-hand how he transformed our pioneering efforts into an efficient program of truly global perspective.
Personally, I am tremendously indebted  to Hossein who insisted that I be treated as a full-time faculty with full recognition of my contribution to the Institute.
Thank you Hossein! You are a wonderful man.  
After passing the sceptre to Paul Davis, Hossein invented a new life for himself as a passionate dancer, inspiring us all to "loosen up" and enjoy the rhythms of life...
Hossein has been, no, an inspiration to me and I love him dearly.