If you havent heard of Khan Academy yet you should immediately get out that rock you are hiding under. No joke, Khan Academy is a big thing. Watch this TED talk to see how amazing is what Salman Khan is doing. I was really happy when I saw that John Resig of jQuery fame has joined their crew to help bringing this extraordinary mission to the next level. It is really extraordinary, especially for the times of today when everything is in profits and money. But it doesn’t matter only because of that.

I come from Serbia, country which is in kind of development. Last 20 years where not that good for us. Degradation of every part of society to the critical level happened during that time. People mostly without jobs, hope and will to go forward despite the fact that time passes by them fast. Yes, time passes by and developed world is changing even faster every day. And if you stand still for 20 years, you can imagine how far world goes in front of you. It goes so far that you, from your own point of view don’t understand any more all that modern development and trends.

So the big question for countries like Serbia is how do they catch up with the modern world. How do you learn things you have to know when you don’t have access to good and innovative education, have no great people to lead the country because they are all spread around the world. Well, there are options. And improving education of people is in the core of all of them. In this context Khan Academy really matters. Not as final solution but more as announcement of future where education is going to be much less institutionalized and much easier spread across the globe, especially in the countries which need this the most.

Internet has evolved to a point where it is becoming a platform for spreading something more than Facebook and Farmville. Recently I watched TED talk of Chris Anderson on how web video powers global innovation and I could not agree more. And Khan Academy proves this in practice on a high scale and is able to motivate thousands to join the train of global education improvement and to bring it to the higher level. This might lead to looking at the education in whole lot different ways than before and using peoples potential most efficiently to solve problems of underdeveloped communities. It brings some hope at least.

Currently I live in Switzerland, country blessed by the best standard in the world and really great performance in every aspect, from administration to education. One thing I see here is that people are not aware enough how others in the world live and when aware it is on the level of general empathy and not on the level of doing something with it. Paradoxically, countries like this can give the most to the world, not only by sharing money but experiences and knowledge about their success as well. Internet in this case might be a great leverage for small and great ones to influence world wide.

Considering all of this, I though I could be one among this army of good people to help on this idea. I’ll try to contribute on this topic as much as I can in my spare time and motivate others to do the same. Translating as much videos to Serbian would be one of primary goals and promoting the idea as well.

First and most important I have finished my studies. Now I can proudly say that I’m an Electrical Engineer in the field of Automation and Control Engineering. But wait, how does Senior Web Developer position relates to that? Let that be a topic for further evaluation Let just say that in one moment I had to decide what interests me more.

Somewhere at the beginning of February, after almost year and a half, our cooperation with Tilllate ended. Thanks to the Maarten, Leo, Silvan, Cyprian, Jia-yong Ou, Michael, Thilo and others for being friendly, positive and smart to create great surrounding to work in. I have raised my skill to much higher level and learned a lot about programming in high-traffic, heavy-loaded environment and gained much wider view on software development than I had before. I’d like to specially thank to Tilllate Chief Software Engineer Maarten Manders for having confidence that I will do proper job with some crucial parts of Tilllate, I hope I succeeded.

During the March I have started looking for a new job, preferably in Switzerland. After evaluation of open positions in the market I have applied for a position of frontend engineer in local.ch. In May I went to Zurich on the interview and until the beginning of the June I was offered a job. I accepted the offer and there was just one little thing standing between me and Zurich, the procedure of getting working permission for the non-EU citizen. Hard times for me To cut the story (since writing this post took some time and things happened meanwhile) I got my working permission after several months. Now I’m waiting for Swiss entrance visa and until the end of October I should start on my new job in Zurich. Currently I’m looking for a temporary flat in Zurich where I could reside for couple months before I find real place to live and bring my wife to Zurich too.

As it is in real life, some stories are at the beginning, and some are at the end. While writing this post, I’m spending last days in youngculture. It was great experience and pleasure, before all, for me to work with some of the most advanced developers in Belgrade in very high-quality working environment. I met friends for the whole life here and my two years in Belgrade will stay clearly positive experience. However, youngculture headquarters is based in Zurich, and people that I worked with regularly travel to Switzerland, so I presume I won’t miss them too much I’m ready for beer or two whenever you call!!!!

The year has passed so fast that I almost did not notice it. Just heard “whuush” sound somewhere around birthday. I had no time to devote to the things I like as blogging and out-of-work internet existence, but I hope that next year will change that. I planned to reorganize this domain and blog so I could efficiently present what I’m working on and things I like. I hope as well that starting new job will give me the chance to reconsider some priorities in life and bring some fresh air as well.