media interview: Twinity makes Singapore Asian Hub – itsReal

As reported in Today Newspaper, Lead Technology story page 54, May 9 2008 – Metaversum the creators of a new virtual world called Twinity – plan to make Singapore its’ Asian Regional Hub

Dr Mirko Caspar – co founder & cmo, Metaversum talks to Hedirman Supian of the Today Newspaper

Text Version: Today Online

PDF Version: Today Online

Secret Location – Secret Plans – Virtual Delivery – itsReal

Last evening at 2100hrs a secret meeting took place in a secret location in Second Life.

Invitation – Mix Business with Imagination at the Big-Bit Islands Launch – itsReal

Big-Bit Launches Big-Bit Islands in the Virtual World Second Life an Entertainment, Live Performance, Attractions and Business Services hub to drive Big-Bit’s Business Strategy for 2008 – event starts at 9pm SL time February 9th 2008

Sydney Australia. February 07, 2008 — Big-Bit Australia Pty Ltd, a leading virtual worlds full service solutions provider today announced the exciting launch of Big-Bit Islands in the Virtual World Second Life. Entertainment, live performances, attractions and business services and the Big-Bit team will be on hand to guide you through the evening’s event. The event starts at 9pm SL time February 9th 2008

Image: Event Arena Big-Bit Island

Bit-Bit is a leading Virtual Worlds full service solutions provider that offers strategic advice, construction, marketing and events services to companies seeking to establish footholds in virtual worlds such as Second Life and other newly emerging worlds. Comprising a talented International team of virtual world veterans, Big-Bit has in-house building and programming expertise to execute scripting for complex projects in virtual worlds.

What SL Residents can expect ?

• Big-bit Islands Grand Opening Saturday February 9th – 2008
• Dance with our very own funky DJ – Estrelle Fauna
• A Treasure hunt for those seeking to enhance their inworld wardrobe and nab a mystery prize or two
• Grand Prize 10,000$L
• Fireworks will adorn the Big-Bit Islands skyline to welcome in a new era of services & entertainment

Visit PrimAdonna: http://slurl.com/secondlife/PrimAdonna/169/248/27

What RL People can expect ?

• Considering launching in Second Life? The Big-Bit Team will be on hand to discuss your options
• Previous projects will be highlighted on the Big Bit Island as testament to Big-Bit’s expertise in inworld development
• Bring your Business to Big-Bit Island and let Big-Bit’s imagination work for you

Visit Big-Bit Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Big%20Bit/163/115/27

PrimAdonna Island, part of the Big-Bit island group is home to PrimAdonna designs by Big-Bit’s Jana Gillespie also known in Second Life as Estrelle Fauna. Specialising in fashion, content creation and design, PrimAdonna offers unique style careful attention to detail and great versatility. The PrimAdonna shop offers a variety of women’s clothing from casual to formal and corporate wear for both men and women including shoes. PrimAdonna Island and shop have been magnificently rebuilt and announces it’s reopening.

Image: PrimAdonna on Big-Bit Islands

Big-Bit offers companies an innovative way for getting products launched in Virtual Worlds. For more information please contact Jana Gillespie, Big Bit Australia Pty Ltd, details below.

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About Big-Bit Australia
Big-Bit understands that the single most important ingredient that drives humanity is the need to communicate. Without communications we would not be able to achieve even the simplest of tasks. We partner with clients to create the opportunities for them to engage with their communities in the virtual space in ways that are only limited by their desire to drive business and our imagination. In doing so, we commence on a journey with our clients that is destined to take a business into new dimensions of communication, understanding and connectivity.

For more information please contact:

Andrew Peters
The Pacific West Communications
Cell: +65-9451-9012
Email: andrew@thepacificwest.com

Jana Gillespie
Director
Big-Bit Australia Pty Ltd
Cell: +61-412-582-233
Email: jana@big-bit.net

What is a Digital Native? Are you one?

Nope, I’m not a Digital Native. A Digital Native, by our definition, is someone who is both born after about 1980 and who uses digital technologies in certain advanced ways. I think I might qualify as a Digital Settler, someone who has used these technologies in extensive ways from the start, but who knew a world before so many things went digital. I think that many, though not all, of our children in developed economies like the United States and Europe are Digital Natives. There’s enough to the idea of a generational gap, though, between Digital Natives and their parents who are at best Digital Immigrants, though, that the trend is worth exploring in depth.

More on the books theme (the book is definitely not dead!), but one that’s not done: I’m writing a book right now about Digital Natives, called Born Digital, along with my good friend and colleague, Prof. Dr. Urs Gasser of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. We’re arguing that there is an emerging population of Digital Natives around the world – who together could form a global culture joined by digital networks and how they use them. While there are things to worry about in terms of how our kids are using these technologies (their privacy, safety, information overload, and so forth), there is much to celebrate and to build upon. The future of many societies around the world depend in part on how we can come to understand this global phenomenon and do something about it.

What happens when billions of new digital natives get $100 web-enabled laptops?

It’s great, great news. The notion behind One Laptop Per Child – of giving a basic, networked machine to the next billion Digital Natives, in parts of the world that are developing rapidly – will be a big kick-start to the next phase of global transformation wrought by new information technologies and how we use them.

The key, though, is not just to put interconnected hardware in the hands of young people, wherever they may be. It’s just as essential that we focus on literacy of various kinds – the training that goes along with learning how to navigate this information environment. That’s not just an issue for developing countries, either. We have major digital divides of the literacy sort right here in the United States and in the wealthiest parts of Europe (I am typing this from a research center high on a hilltop in Switzerland). Check out the work of Eszter Hargittai of Northwestern University and you’ll get the picture.

Read more at COMPETE

Disabled People get a Second Life – itsReal

SL can be a Social network for those confined to thier homes due to the disabilities offering them a new life a Second Life

clipped from www.reuters.com Disabled could think their way around Second Life TOKYO (Reuters) – People with severe paralysis could find new opportunities from shopping to doing business or making new friends in the virtual world of Second Life by just thinking about it, if experiments being conducted by a Japanese university bear fruit.

Google Maps Gets Wiki With It – itsReal

source: mashable.com

Google maps has updated its My Maps tool to incorporate some wiki-like functionality. Collaborative mapping, if you will. For those custom maps that you make for yourself, you can know get all your friends to help you. Similar to a shared Google document, you can invite friends with an access link to the map. They’ll then be able to edit the map. They’ll need to use the gmail address that you sent it to, so this private sharing function is limited to Google users. There is a public map editing tool, however, which launches your map for all to see, and all to edit.

Do maps need wikis, though? Considering the amount of love geeks out there have for their maps, mapping tools, map mashups, geo-tagging, and real time activity shown on a map, of course maps need wikis. It’s only natural. Everything is being wikified these days. Music collaboration, slide show collaboration, website collaboration, office work collaboration, podcasting collaboration, book collaboration… and now maps too. Try it on for size with Google’s new terrain layer.

Spurned Google rolls out its Facebook killer – Maybe – itsReal

Google will offer internet developers an open system (OpenSocial) to create applications across websites, a move that could challenge the features behind the explosive popularity of social network Facebook.

Google’s OpenSocial system gives developers standardised tools to build applications and embed them in many sites, eliminating the need for small startups or even one-person shops to customise their programs for each site.

It also has the potential to lure developers mostly allied with Facebook by allowing their applications to find a home on many other websites.

“This is about making the web more social, how do you have your friends go along with you to any site on the web?” said Joe Kraus, Google director of product management, in an interview.

Google said it had initially signed on about a dozen partners, including social network LinkedIn for business professionals, its own Orkut network and Friendster.

Developers who are testing the program include key companies behind Facebook applications, such as music recommendation service iLike and Slide, which created the “Top Friends” ranking application.

Industry blogs have speculated for nearly a month that Google aimed to unleash a major challenge to Facebook, whose decision to open its site to developers in May helped it grow to more than 48 million users.

Facebook, which secured an investment from Microsoft last week that values it at $US15 billion, is due to announce its own new advertising strategy on November 6.

Google had also been interested in a partnership with Facebook as it competes more closely with Microsoft for drawing web audiences and advertisers.

Developers briefed on OpenSocial said it will help them seek the widest distribution possible for their applications, some of which are already used by millions of people on social networks.

“For months we’ve been approached by other websites that want us to build iLike widgets for them and we’ve been unable to build it for them,” said iLike Chief Executive Ali Partovi. “The benefit OpenSocial offers us is we can essentially … syndicate what we do to other social networks.”

SMH Reuters

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

MySpace.com tops the rankings of top US social-networking sites with 58.6 million visitors in September

MySpace.com continues to sit comfortably atop the rankings of top US social-networking sites  with 58.6 million unique visitors in September, according to a custom list of top US social networking sites and blogs compiled by Nielsen Online. Google’s Blogger remains the top blog site with nearly 29.6 million visitors.

In a distant second place among social-networking sites, Facebook increased the number of visitors to 18.1 million, growing some 133% year over year. MySpace visitors increased 24% year over year.

The top 3 social networks’ number of visitors decreased slightly from August, whereas those ranked 3rd through 6th increased visitor numbers from the previous month. (Compare with August data.)

Among blog sites, Blogger increased its visitors a significant 50% from the year-earlier period, with second-place Six Apart Type Pad also growing – 46% – to nearly 11 million visitors in Sept.

The most significant year-over-year growth, however, came from third-place WordPress, which increased unique visitor some 290%, from a mere 2.7 million in Sept. ‘06 to more than 10.4 million this September.

More at: MarketingCharts