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Seventeen weeks ago, on January 19th, I started my first ever internship, at a company called XOLO.TV.

My college’s internship period officially did not start for another three weeks, but that did not bother me, I wanted the experience and I was not afraid of investing my free days in order to get that experience.

Now, seventeen weeks later, I have about seven weeks more experience than most of my co-students and am leaving XOLO.TV with a whole treasure-chest filled to the brim with new knowledge, good stories and new contacts.

It is said that all good things must come to an end, no matter if you want them to or not and In a way I am sad that my internship is over, for I will surely miss the guys (and gals) from XOLO.TV.

Without trying to come off as being too emotional, I think it is safe to say that I did not only find (business) contacts at XOLO.TV, but rather friends.

The past months, starting with the, by now, famous, New Year’s Party, Video Vortex, the actual start of my internship, Paaspop and The Next Web 2008 it has been a fun-filled ride for sure.

GabeB, GabeMac, Marc, Paul, Stephan, Tatjana, Walter, Wiendelt - you guys rock and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this internship experience as great as it was.

Alright so, The Next Web is all about, no pun intended: the next web, which, basically, comes down to web 2.0 technology.

One of the presentations during the conference highlighted some features of web 3.0 (and, incidentally: web 4.0) and while most of them where rather far-away, one technology stuck with me: Natural Language Search.

Imagine my luck, when I found someone who worked with said technology: Marcel Smit works for Q-Go, a profitable natural language search company with a huge client base (in excess of fifty million) and very useful technology.

They say that one should keep the best for the last and while I am not sure if this is the best interview of all, it certainly was the one I enjoyed taping the most. Why? Because I love the possibilities this technology brings:

Click on the image to see the interview, it is roughly 20 megs in size.

During the third edition of the The Next Web conference, I had the good luck of meeting two recruits, Stefan Silke and Rachid El Matili, from The White Door recruitement agency.

Now, before you skip this video, let me tell you that any (cliche) prejudices you might have are totally ungrounded, at least, as far as these two guys go. Both Stefan and Rachid seem like the kind of people you want to work with when you are looking for a job, but please, see for yourself:

Click on the image to see the showcase, it is roughly 8 megs in size.

Click on the image to see the showcase, it is roughly 12 megs in size.

Kristoffer Lawson, CEO of SCRED, a financial management application, took the time to answer some questions about his likes and dislikes as far as the web is concerned:

Click on the image to see the showcase, it is roughly 6 megs in size.

On a personal note: I tried SCRED and it is a great way of managing expenses in a low-profile way. Give it a try!

Martin Källström from Twingly sat down with me during the conference to provide some insight into the things that Twingly does and how it prevents (or at least: hopes to prevent) spam from taking over the system:

Click on the image to see the showcase, it is roughly 8 megs in size.

Multi-touch is one of the hottest technologies currently available. The technology can be seen in iPhones, iPod Touch devices and the Microsoft Surface computing system … oh, and in the Social Contemporary Center for the Arts Amsteredam

Peter Distol was so kind as to explain how the technology works and also elaborate on the potential uses:

Click on the image to see the showcase, it is roughly 17 megs in size.

And, as an extra treat, here is a short clip showcasing the actual multi-touch technology, dubbed with a very special quote:

Click on the image to see the showcase, it is roughly 2 megs in size.

Every now and then, a group of people conceives a product that just kicks butt. A couple of decades ago, it was the machine that slices bread, then came the iPhone and now, it is E.

Project E is the future of social networking, as far as postmachina is concerned.

In the following clip, Renato Valdés Olmos quickly explains what E is and how it can be used:

Click on the image to see the showcase, it is roughly 8 megs in size.

Leonieke Verhoog is a team-lead of the “Digitaal” project within Dutch broadcasting organization VPRO and she, too, took the time to answer some questions on her likes and dislikes as far as web 2.0 is concerned.

Leonieke seems to know the scene very well, something you can tell by very passionate way of answering my questions, definitely worth watching.

Click on the image to see the interview, it is roughly 15 megs in size.

Simone Brummelhuis is the director of IENS.nl, a Dutch restaurant guide. Besides that, she is also spearheading a pan-European initiative to get more women involved in the world of technology.

I interviewed Simone about the roles and importance of females in the web world and got some pretty interesting answers that are definitely worth watching, no matter if you are male or female.

Click on the image to see the interview, it is roughly 37 megs in size.

Eef Grob, another employee from VPRO answered some questions on how the web (2.0) enables her to get some great information, but also, at times, overloads her with more information than she can handle.

Click on the image to see the interview, it is roughly 7 megs in size.