Top-10 Economic predictions for 2008 – Courtesy Global Insights – itsReal

Top-10 Economic Predictions for 2008….

From APLINK – Whilst China is mentioned sadly Global Insights is of the mindset that the economy is driven by the US, who agree’s with this, if you disagree

– Let me know why… add your comments below ?….is there room for a virtual economy ?

The U.S. economy is now in the danger zone. GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2007 (0.0%) and first half of 2008 (0.8% in the first quarter and 1.8% in the second quarter) is expected to be very weak. This will make the United States extremely vulnerable to another shock. Furthermore, it is unlikely that the rest of the world will be able to shrug off the expected sharp deceleration in spending by American households. Global Insight currently predicts that world growth will be 3.3% in 2008, compared with 3.7% this year. With the potential for housing crunches in some European economies and a post-Olympics slowdown (or even bust) in China, the risks for the global economy are now overwhelmingly on the downside.

see all Top-10 Economic Predictions for 2008

From APLINK – Whilst China is mentioned sadly Global Insights is of the mindset that the economy is driven by the US, who agree’s with this, if you disagree

– Let me know why… add your comments below ?….is there room for a virtual economy ?

 

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CGAT 08 The Annual International Conference & Symposium on Computer Games & Allied Technology

Conference Update:

The evidently expanding Global & Asian Gaming industry defines the need for the Computer Games & Allied Technology 08 conference at Singapore. The conference provides a platform for the international gaming community experts to discuss and deliberate with their Eastern counterparts on the state-of-the-art, new research results, perspectives of future developments, and innovative applications relevant to games development and related areas. The conference shall strive to shed light on the inherent sociological and design differences between the East and the West while exploring the challenges faced by the Asian Gaming industry. The conference also provides an opportunity to the international and regional Gaming studios, Game production companies and Allied technology and service providers to showcase their technology, products and services at the concurrent industry symposium.

More Details click below:

Call for Papers – CGAMES.com.sg

clipped from cgames.com.sg Computer Games; Animation, Multimedia, IPTV, Edutainment and Security International Conference and Symposium on 28th-30th April 2008 KNOW THE LATEST RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY & BUSINESS TRENDS AT TECHNICAL SESSIONS Authors should submit a complete paper in English of up to 8 A4 pages, using the submission procedure indicated below. The program committee will review all papers and the contact author of each paper will be notified of the result, by email. Each paper should clearly indicate the nature of its technical/scientific contribution, and the problems, domains or environments to which it is applicable. Authors must also indicate the conference track to which the paper is submitted. The paper must be carefully checked for correct grammar and spelling. SUBMISSION OF PAPERS

1st christmas Invitation and they say they will make it Snow – itsReal

Salesforce.com always quick of the mark…

Salesforce xmas party in singapore..

…another Social Network launches, unashamedly purely for Business Targeting – itsReal

Hoover’s launches social network

OAS_RICH(‘Middle1’);

Austin, Texas—Hoover’s, a Dun & Bradstreet company, and Visible Path Corp., a company that helps organizations build corporate networks, on Thursday announced the official debut of Hoover’s Connect, a social network for business. The network has been available in beta on Hoover’s Web site since May. It combines Hoover’s business information with Visible Path’s relationship management technology to help business users understand who at other companies they should be targeting for relationship building and gives them a way to reach those people. —Carol Krol

Story posted: November 8, 2007 – 1:53 pm EDT

First Meta – Aileen Sim – Singapore’s own Succesful Female Entrepreneur in Virtual World’s – itsReal

“…the rise of social networking. Virtual worlds are the ultimate social networking tools, allowing for rich, interactive and immersive communication and experiences. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have grown tremendously popular and I believe that they will spill over into virtual worlds.” comments Aileen Sim of First Meta, Singapore

Read more at SGentrepreneurs

Let’s have a Conversation – Conversational Marketing – itsReal

Spending on social media and “conversational marketing” – albeit still in their nascent stage – will surpass traditional marketing spend by the end of 2012, according to a study conducted by TWI Surveys, Inc., the New Communications Review writes.

The survey of 260 senior PR and marcomms professionals was conducted on behalf of the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) and Joseph Jaffe for his book Join the Conversation.

Although social-media adoption has just begun – 70% of respondents are spending 2.5% or less of their communications budgets on conversational marketing – those surveyed foresee significant adoption and spending within five years: Some 81% of survey respondents said they will spend at least as much on conversational marketing as traditional marketing by 2012.

Among other findings of the study:

• Two-thirds of respondents plan to increase their spending on coversational marketing in the next 12 months.
• 57% say they think that in five years they will be spending more on conversational marketing than traditional marketing
• Nearly 24% say they think conversational marketing spend will equal traditional marketing spend in five years

More at Marketing Charts

Your Guide to Virtual Worlds – itsReal

Awesome report by:

Mark Glaser, of MEDIASHIFT

Second Life avatars

From time to time, I’ll give an overview of one broad MediaShift topic, annotated with online resources and plenty of tips. The idea is to help you understand the topic, learn the jargon, and take action. I’ve already covered blogs, social networking, widgets and various other topics. This week I’ll look at the growing phenomenon of virtual worlds.

Background and History

Virtual worlds are online three-dimensional spaces where you can interact with other people, collect items and build structures, and communicate via a virtual representative of yourself called an avatar. These worlds have been influenced by various science fiction writers such as William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, along with the movie, “The Matrix.”

Virtual worlds differ from massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs) because they don’t offer battles against monsters or have an overriding mission for players. For example, a resident of the virtual world Second Life might spend time in that space accumulating virtual land, rather than striving to complete quests or conquer levels as one would in many popular MMOGs such as World of Warcraft.

The origin of virtual worlds goes back to early games such as Maze War, which was developed in the early ’70s at NASA. The game included eyeballs as avatars, there were maps showing the levels, and it was one of the first games played on networked computers, and eventually over a precursor to the Internet.

Habitat scene

In 1986, LucasFilm Games developed Habitat, a more two-dimensional environment that included humanoid avatars, and people could access the game through online service Quantum Link on their Commodore 64 computers. Developers Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer, who maintain a blog about their experience with Habitat, say they let Habitat residents generally set their own rules governing the world — as long as they couldn’t hack into the system. In a research paper about their lessons from Habitat, the developers wrote:

READ MORE AT MEDIASHIFT 

Rescuing search in ‘Second Life’ – A need for certain – itsReal

On every occassion that APLINK has heard Cory Onedrejka of Linden Labs speak he allows appealed for someone who could create an effective search engine…maybe his wish has come true withou the need for Lind Labs investment.

I was in a Second Life Store the other day and whilst it was cool having my avatar stroll the mega mall and see what was on offer, I was really there to get a new look for myself. Besides Second life’s need to achieve a universal search engine, site owners also need a search function (or should there be Avatar SalesPeople) within their own spaces to help avatars find what they need, as like the real world, time is money inworld. Maybe my client Recruit.net could come up with a search solution- itsReal

With at least a couple hundred thousand users, hundreds of stores, endless commerce and millions of objects, virtual world Second Life is begging for a top-notch search tool.

Yet search is one of the systems most in need of help in Second Life. The latest evidence is the recent selection of a team working on such a system as a finalist in the Second Life business plan contest.

High Impact

What’s new:

More than three years after its launch, Second Life is still suffering from a subpar search engine–and other virtual worlds have the same limited tools.

Bottom line:

Now significant attempts are being made by third parties to come up with better search systems for virtual worlds.

Rescuing search in ‘Second Life’

“There’s a lot to be desired in the current (Second Life) search, quite a lot,” said Tony Walsh, the editor of Clickable Culture, a blog about virtual worlds and other online cultures. “We need a Google for Second Life, something that works quickly and produces intelligent results.”

Some might wonder how important search needs to be in a virtual world. But as the number of Second Life stores, places and objects explodes, it is becoming crucial that users be able to find what they need without trying keyword after keyword. And while that dynamic is more true today than ever, many people believe the search system has been insufficient for years.

Read More: C|Net News.com

FACEBOOK Applications, Community Development & Advertising

Facebook has some true marketing potential for some companies. The question is which companies, and what’s the right way to use Facebook?Several recent posts have contested Facebook’s value as a marketing vehicle for companies, including the Buzz Bin post, “Beware of Facebook Frenzy.” In many ways, these posts are realistic reactions to contemporary media and A-List bloggers positioning Facebook as the social media panacea.

Facebook is not right for every company. But it does offer some companies a great way to market themselves. It always comes down to the community. Is the company’s target community on Facebook? If so, then perhaps Facebook is the right place. Here’s a look at some of the methods a company can use.

We look at three forms of marketing on Facebook: Applications, community development and advertising.

Read more at: Now is Gone