In a previous post I praised Deki Wiki, the awesome wiki application platform from Mindtouch, which we use for an Intranet here at the Alumnae Association. Now I have put my money where my mouth is and developed a web site of my own with Deki Wiki (Deki is Japanese for "smart" and Wiki is Hawiian for "fast" ). The site is called "You Know You Are From..." and is located at youknowyouarefrom.wik.is.
It is a wiki which celebrates the uniqueness of the different corners of the world or at least the United States of America, for now until additional countries are added.
In an age of franchises, fast food chains, big box mega stores, media conglomerates, look-alike shopping malls and the general omnipresent sameness there is still a lot that makes us stand apart from the rest of the crowd. The stuff that makes places special. Things like food, names, accents, pronunciations, attitudes, jokes, stores, restaurants, personalities and one of a kind landmarks. Unfortunately many of these things only continue to exist in our memories, so the purpose of the site is to gather those memories and observations in a web based collective scrap book.
Take a look at the Maryland and Boston pages as examples. If you are from either of these places some of those items may have made you nostalgic or laugh out loud. If you are from somewhere else, you have similar memories or knowledge of unique characteristics of your hometown, city, state or even country.
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