| 2006ANTHONY “TONY” PUCCI is currently in charge of communications and operations in the Joint Operations Command of AFRICOM at Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa. He recently graduated with honors from the French Desert Commando School. On a break from his normal duties he was able to go to Tanzania and Mt. Kilimanjaro. • Philip Neustrom
Occupation: Executive director of Wiki Spot, a nonprofit, member-supported online effort that helps communities establish wiki projects – collaborative web sites that allow viewers to add and edit content.
The Davis Wide Web: In 2004, then-undergraduates Philip Neustrom '06 and Mike Ivanov ’06 started a Web site dedicated to all things Davis. They had moved to town knowing little about the place and wanted to document the fun aspects, big and small, that they discovered. “Whatever was going to come [of the site] we thought we’d at least have a record of things we found interesting at one point in out lives,” said Neustrom. That record became Davis Wiki, now a popular online information source said to be the first English-language community wiki Web site.
By the people, for the people: According to Neustrom, he and Ivanov could not have predicted the success the site has had during the past four years. One in six people in Davis visits the thousands of pages featured on Davis Wiki on a day-to-day basis looking for anything from Thai food restaurants to city Council candidates to local ghost stories to lost pets. He believes it’s success if due to its transparency and its fostering of honest discussions.
Procrastination going career: When he was a freshman, Neustrom says he was planning on graduate school, but maintaining the Davis Wiki “took over” his free time and became a constructive way to put off studying. Coding, programming and computers in general had been of great interest to him since childhood. Now, the Davis Wiki has opened a career path for Neustrom. Venture capitalists and others seeking to create their own town’s wiki have approached Neustrom, leading to his creation of Wiki Spot (wikispot.org), an online resource to help other communities establish wikis.
This site is about open, community discussion where anyone can write anything. It’s the first of its kind and it’s a daring thing.”
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| 2008MATT MARSHALL was named the player of the year by NCGA Golf magazine in their winter 2009 edition. Last year he won the NCGA Amateur and the Santa Clara Country tournaments. • RYAN ROYSTER was named one of “30 under 30” young leaders by the Sacramento Observer newspaper. Last June, Royster, who served as the baseball team’s captain in 2008, signed with the Seattle Mariners, and he is currently writing a book called Identity Crisis, which will be a social analysis of the black experience. • DAVID WAGNER recently left for a 27-month Peace Corps assignment in Panama to work on a community environmental conservation project. |
