Top 10 Facebook Apps: Work

Social Network/Facebook/FB APPS
Found on: readwriteweb.com

Using an open application platform, developers now have the ability to access and use Facebook's user data and ever since it's launch back in May, nearly 1800 apps have made it's way onto the popular social network - eek!

I stumbled onto a great top 10 list of FB apps that are specifically designed for work. Josh Catone from readwriteweb.com put it together and fyi; this is just the first of five categories that Josh will be breaking down for us, so be sure to check back for more.

ReadWriteWeb post:

As part of Facebook Week here on Read/WriteWeb, I am going to be taking a look at the top applications on the Facebook platform. With nearly 1800 apps, the platform has been a runaway success for Facebook, and the most popular ten applications reach over 46 million users. I'm going to be breaking those 1800 apps down to the top 50 across 5 categories (10 in each). This is a completely subjective list, so not everyone will agree with our picks and I encourage you to debate them in the comments.

There are a lot of duplicates on the Facebook platform (i.e., there are at least 10 apps for cataloging books!), and some duplicates even share the same name. In that case, as with the rest of this list, I just chose the one that stood out to me as the best. Today's list deals with apps for work.

NEWS: Roam Un-Free

News/Social Networks/Second Life
Found on: msnbc.com

HiPiHi's 38-year-old CEO and founder, Xu Hui, has some ambitious goals; not only does he want his new virtual world, HiPiHi to be China's answer to Second Life, but through strategic partnerships with U.S., Japanese and other foreign firms, he plans to establish discrete virtual continents and then have them all linked to Second Life, creating a vast metaverse - the big question being: will China's government actually allow him to do it? I guess only time will tell.



MSNBC Post:

Zhao Gang surveys his nearly empty virtual world, and finds it to be good. Zhao is head of the tech team that built HiPiHi—China's answer to Second Life. With the virtual world's basic landscape complete, one of Zhao's jobs these days is to wander HiPiHi, schooling roughly 10,000 ethnic Chinese from the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore who have been specially invited into the test phase to help work out the kinks. The "residents," as they're called, roam, swim and fly around the new world. Zhao approaches two avatars for a chat. Face to face with the virtual world's Master Builder, they have an urgent question: "Can you tell us how to change our clothes?"

NEWS: FaceBook’s First Acquisition: Parakey

News/Social Networks/Facebook
Found on: techcrunch.com

Why would Facebook, currently the hottest property on the Web want to make Parakey, the "web operating system" created by Blake Ross their very first acquisition? Simple - Facebook is in the process of transitioning from being a Social Network into the first Social Operating System - right?

Techcrunch.com post:

Their first acquisition: Facebook has bought Parakey, the yet-to-launch “web operating system” created by Firefox co-founders Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt. The price isn’t being disclosed, but Facebook should be issuing a press release this afternoon.

Parakey was founded in 2005 and raised a seed round of financing from Sequoia Capital (although this was never confirmed). There is a good background story on Parakey, which will include both browser and client software, here.

NEWS: Justin.TV Network Launches: More Shows to Come

News/Social Networks/Videos
Found on: techcrunch.com

Using a process called "lifecasting" sites like Justine.TV and Ustream.tv are taking off and reality television just made a huge shift over to the web. Both platforms provide a network and a set of tools to create your very own live show using a webcam.

Techcrunch.com post:

24/7 reality online TV show Justin.tv has has turned into a bit of a mini-phenomenon since launching just two months ago.Their apartment was raided by the police, and they were later evicted by their landlord. They were on the Today Show. Justin has hung out with famous rappers. They’ve taken extravagant dares from their audience, and a crowd always surrounds Justin and his ubiquitous camera. Hundreds of adolescent viewers watched (sort of) as Justin had sex on the show, although users were left with a black screen and silence until the Justin.tv team started playing porn music. The site has been far more successful so far than the founders anticipated.

Damn twitter cat!

Social Networks/Web 2.o/twitter
Found on: twitter.com

Twitter cat has taken over twitter again - for the love of god already, someone get that damn cat out of the server room!



twitter post:

Whoops! We're either deploying new features or there was a slight network hiccup (an issue we're working through). Please click here in a few seconds and you'll be back to Twitterin' in no time!

NEWS: Europeans predominate in Second Life - study

News/Social Networks/Second Life
Found on: reuters.com

Before you log into Second Life again, you might want to consider brushing up on your German, because chances are you'll be speaking to one -- Guten Tag Avatar!

Reuters post:

Second Life was born in the United States, but 61 percent of its active residents are Europeans, a study by research firm comScore said on Friday.

The number of active German residents exceeds the number of active residents in the United States, although growth rates in the U.S. are the highest worldwide, said comScore, which
specializes in measuring various kinds of Internet usage.

More than 6 million user accounts have been created in Second Life, up from about 1 million at the end of 2006, but the number of active users is far lower.

NEWS: Digg.com User Revolt

Web Culture/YouTube/Videos/Digg
Found on: Youtube.com

HD-DVD crack code on Digg results in multiple users getting kicked off the site and banned - then all hell breaks loose.



Youtube Stats(as of this post):

Views: 214
Comments: 3
Favorited: 3 times

Bonus link:

Kevin Rose Speaks out

NEWS: 'Second Life' User Numbers Don't Quite Add Up

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Users
Found on: foxnews.com

Clay Shirky just completed a four-month study on the number of users in Second Life, based on his findings, Shirky claims that the actual number of regular users are less the 200,000 versus the 3.2 million Linden Lab reports to have...numbers don't quite add up?

FoxNews post:

How many people use "Second Life"? Not as many as you might think.

In December, New York University lecturer Clay Shirky launched a one-man Web crusade against the widespread misrepresentation of "Second Life"'s popularity, claiming most publications — including PC Magazine — were inadvertently overstating the number of users.

When reporters ask how many people are using "Second Life," the folks at Linden Lab typically respond with the number of "residents," and most reporters assume that "resident" means "unique user."

But as Shirky points out, a resident isn't a unique user. A single user can create multiple virtual residents. "Second Life"'s popularity is significantly smaller than the press claims, and though Linden Lab won't tell us how many people are really using the service, Shirky thinks he's finally gotten to the bottom of things.

NEWS: NBA Headquarters Unveiled in Second Life

Social Networks/Second Life/Sports
Found on: nba.com

With it's multiplayer games, retail stores and a variety of other features designed to draw repeat visitors, the NBA unveiled their Second Life "Headquarters" on Tuesday - anyone up for a game of HORSE?



NBA.com post:

The NBA announced the launch of NBA Headquarters, a new virtual destination featuring a variety of innovative and interactive NBA elements in Second Life, the popular 3D online world with nearly six million residents. The announcement was made by NBA Commissioner David Stern during a recent media event conducted in the NBA Headquarters.

The NBA’s 3D virtual destination, developed with The Electric Sheep Company, a leading creator of 3D virtual world content and solutions, will provide basketball fans and Second Life residents with access to comprehensive features including the T-Mobile Arena, broadband video of classic NBA games and highlights, and an opportunity to have their picture taken with the NBA’s championship trophy in the Toyota Larry O’Brien Trophy Room.

Additionally, in Second Life fans will be able to purchase NBA and WNBA jerseys and merchandise for their identity or avatars at the NBA Store, walk along a special path highlighting the 50 Greatest NBA Players and participate in a variety of basketball activities at the NBA Jam Session.

NEWS: Burnett, MySpace get political

Social Networks/Myspace/Politics
Found on: variety.com

Emmy-award winning television producer Mark Burnett has teamed up with Myspace to launch "Independent" a new hybrid online-reality-social network-television show.

A quick shout out to my boy Yau Man - hope you win!

Variety's post:

Mark Burnett Prods. is partnering with MySpace to discover the modern-day Mr. Smith.

The two entities are behind “Independent,” an online project targeted to become a full-fledged TV series built around a search to find the next great politician.

The show, timed to the 2008 elections, hasn’t yet been pitched to networks. It comes with a $1 million prize … and a catch: Winner must donate the money to a political cause or use it to run for office.

“This is the ‘American Idol’ of political action,” said Burnett development head Roy Bank. “We’ve been exploring for a while how to do something in and around what is going to be the topic on everyone’s tongues next year — the elections. We wanted it to be legit, and there’s no greater democracy in play right now for people in their 20s than MySpace.”

Twitter of the Week - Swimming with the fishes?

Social Networks/Web Culture/Twitter
Found on: twitter.com

Admiral Ackbar is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, he's basically a giant talking squid. Ackbar (that's what his friends call him.) also happens to be one of my favorite twitters that I follow, but since he hasn't made a new post in almost a month now, I'm thinking he's probably dead and swimming with the fishes somewhere - bummer.

Ackbar's last post:

Picking up distress signal from inside a strange nebula. Taking in the fleet.

Some other memorable posts:

Just received transmission from an old friend. I can get a free Y-wing if I signup for a few free trials and get six friends to do the same.

The Imperials have just delivered a large wooden horse to our shipyard. What a great gift. Moving it into the base now.

Random Flickr Slideshow 4

Social Networks/Flickr/Photos
Found on: Flickr

Embedded Flickr Slideshow 4 (photos of random people, rockstars and things - fun.)



I leached these great photos from Delineated's Flickr set

Twitter mashup spotlight of the week.

Social Networks/Website/Twitter
Found on: twittervision.com

This week's Twitter mashup spotlight is called Twittervision:

It's a real-time geographic visualization of posts to Twitter and boy is it ever addictive.

Like Twittervision? Follow David Troy the mastermind behind the mashup.

NEWS: MySpace offers news recommendations

News/Social Networks/Myspace
Found: hosted.ap.org

Last week Myspace jumped into the "News Service Business" and with it's non-Digg like features (the rating system is based on a scale of 1 through 5) I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised but Newsvine is still my favorite site for news-aggregation and Mike Davidson is still my hero!



Hosted AP post:

The popular online hangout MySpace entered the news business Thursday with a feature that lets its users determine what items other members see.

MySpace News brings to a much larger audience the user-recommendation capabilities already available through Digg and Time Warner Inc.'s Netscape. It also marks the site's further inroads into becoming an Internet portal akin to Yahoo Inc. and others.

YouTube Offering 50/50 Revenue Split with Users Next Week?

News/Social Networks/YouTube/Videos
Found on: Mashable.com

Mashable.com is reporting that YouTube may offer a revenue-sharing model for their users as early as next week -- basically, offering a 50/50 revenue split similar to the one that their rival Revver.com offers.

Mashable post:

YouTube may offer a revenue-sharing model for their users, taking an important step in that direction as soon as next week.

The option to insert a video ad before or after an uploaded clip, with an offering to split the ad revenue 50-50 with users, is said to be in the works. With the issues surrounding pirated videos on the site as well as many advertisers not being able to ensure the type of content that their campaigns will be shown alongside, it’s no wonder that an ad revenue-sharing model has yet to be installed.

NEWS: Groundbreaking Internet Drama to Air on UK's Top Social Network

News/Social Networks/Web Culture/Videos
Found on: sys-con.com

The team that brought us the world's most popular interactive drama: Lonelygirl15 is teaming up with Bebo.com to launch a spin-off called "Lonelygirl15 presents... KateModern," this should prove to be a really smart move on Bebo's part.

sys-con.com post:

Lonelygirl15 was launched last summer and the program has since been viewed over 50 million times. Bebo was founded in 2005 and has over 31 million users worldwide who spend an average of 29 minutes on Bebo each day.

Following the massive success of Lonelygirl15, "Lonelygirl15 presents... KateModern" will expand from the original storyline to that of a teenage university student in London and her struggle to balance her complex social life with the dark forces that shadow her. Containing all of the best loved elements of Lonelygirl15, "Lonelygirl15 presents... KateModern" will leverage the high involvement of its fan base, enabling them to post messages for the show's characters, exchange plot ideas with each other and upload their own videos to the characters' profile pages.

NEWS: MySpace Store Looks Promising?

News/Social Networks/Myspace
Found on: mashable.com

Mashable.com is reporting that the long anticipated Myspace store may actually come to fruition.

On a side note, I noticed that Peter made his post around 1:30 AM this morning - god, I wish I had that kind of stamina again.

Mashable post:

Another good sign for MySpace-eBay and Bebo-eBay - a report being released on Tuesday from iProspect once again shows that web users make buying decisions based on information gleaned from social sites: 1 in 3 Internet users say they made purchase decisions based on information from social networks and sites.

NEWS: Keep track of your friends with The Coop

News/Social Networks/Firefox
Found on: labs.mozilla.com

A set of new tools could make Firefox the next Myspace?

I'm not quite sure about that but what I do know is these new social-centric tools could mean some serious trouble for Flock - the net's best social web browser currently out.



Mozilla Lab's post:

Just a few years ago, one of the most popular uses of the internet was to send jokes, cute pictures, and news stories to friends and family (social networks) via email. Fast forward to today, and you’ll find that not a lot has changed except the medium. Now one of the most common uses of instant messenger services and social networking sites is to send people links to jokes, cute pictures and interesting news stories.

This behavior isn’t at all surprising - it’s friends sharing experiences, the very backbone of social interactions and friendships. It’s also unsurprising that most “Web 2.0″ services have a feature that makes it easy for you to build a social network so that you can share things more easily, or subscribe to a friend’s activity as a way of keeping in touch.

2000 Leon Beyer Riesling Comtes d'Eguishem

Social Networks/Corkd/Wine
Found on: corkd.com

The 2000 Leon Beyer Riesling sounds pretty serious and pretty amazing.

Desertvino's review:

If you've never tried a dry Alsatian Riesling, this may come as a shock. This is a serious, earthy white wine that will not only pair with traditianal foods for white wines, but will also stand up to just about any food you would pair with Pinot Noir. Not for sipping as an aperitif. Rich golden color, Nose of minerals, earth and white fruit. Taste is dry, rich and earthy. Little petrol, but minerals and earth dominate carried on a strong backbone of white fruit and crisp acidity. This wine was marvelous with mushrooms, carp ravioli with asparagus and even with blutwurst. Complex and just outstanding.

• Average Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
• Winery: Leon Beyer
• Vintage: 2000
• Varietal: Riesling
• Country: France
  
• Region: Alsace
• Price: $40.00 USD
  
• Description: Dry,Grand Cru Alsatian Riesling from Eichberg vineyard
• Created by: desertvino

MySpace competition? The world is big enough

News/Social Networks/Website
Found on: latimes.com

MySpace continues to dominate in North America but overseas it's a different story - Social Networks like the Friendster, Bebo and Google's Orkut are thriving.

LA Times post:

The online social networking site was on track to become the Internet's next big phenomenon a few years ago until an upstart called MySpace eclipsed it in popularity and media attention. But being spurned by America's fickle teenagers doesn't mean the budding social networking site went into hibernation or shrank to cater to a few true believers. While MySpace may continue to dominate in North America (more than half of its 100-million-plus accounts come from the United States), Friendster, Google's Orkut and other general-use social networking sites are thriving overseas.

In the Philippines, for instance, Friendster is used by an estimated 87% of the country's 8 million Internet users. About 70% of Friendster's 40-million-person user base comes from Southeast Asia.

NEWS: Second Life Sex Business Sells On eBay For $50,000

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Sex
Found on: informationweek.com

Virtual sex sells but who's buying? Apparently some guy named nedstede2769 form the Netherlands and he is shelling out some big bucks for it, over $50,000 US dollars -- isn't that like a 500 billion Linden dollars or something?!?



InformationWeek post:

One of the landmark businesses on Second Life, Amsterdam, sold on eBay Monday for $50,000 to a buyer located, appropriately enough, in the Netherlands, said the developer of the popular adult-oriented business.

Amsterdam's developer, Kevin Alderman of Tampa, Fla., put the site up for sale on eBay last week, and it sold at 6:34 a.m. PDT, according to the eBay listing. The buyer didn't bid; he just paid the asking price.

We weren't able to find out who the buyer is; he goes by nedstede2769 on eBay, where his 3-year-old account has no feedback. Alderman said he didn't want to give the buyer's name without checking first.

NEWS: Hacking John McCain

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Politics
Found on: newsvine.com

Presidential candidate John McCain announced today on his Myspace page that he had reversed his position on gay marriage and is now in support of it, particularly marriages between passionate females.

Sounds too good to be true - you're right, it's not. This now infamously delicious prank or what some are calling "the immaculate hack" was the handy work of Mike Davidson, CEO and co-creator of Seattle-based online news media company, Newsvine.com.

Newsvine post:

If you visit John McCain's MySpace page (as of 9am PST Tuesday morning), you will notice an interesting announcement from him. He's apparently reversed his position on gay marriage as well as revealed a bias towards attractive lesbians.

Why would a presidential candidate make such an important announcement on his MySpace page?

The answer? He wouldn't.

But I would.

You see, John McCain's people commandeered my world-renowned MySpace design template and did a few things wrong:

1. They did not credit me for the template, even though the template explicitly requested credit.
2. They used my own unmodified imagery, specifically for the "Contacting John McCain" table.
3. As if #2 wasn't bad enough, the McCain crew is actually pulling their image directly from my server on each page load. So every time someone visits the McCain MySpace page, my bandwidth is being used to deliver part of the page! Bad McCain!

NEWS: GDC 2007: Phil Harrison, Sony, Unveil 'Home'

News/Social Networks/Sony/Games
Found on: 1up.com

Sony's set to muscle in on Second Life and their market share with their forthcoming online social media metaverse called, "Home", should be available as a free download for the PlayStation 3 in autumn 2007.



1UP post:

Last week's reports on Sony's potential 'Home' service either generated even more hype for Phil Harrison's Game Developer Conference keynote or stole the thunder from Sony's big unveiling. Maybe it did both, and considering what Sony showed with 'Home' -- that may not be a bad thing.

Home is officially being branded as a "3D user community for PlayStation 3" by Sony, but it's also being called an "innovative user community title," effectively blurring the line between "service" and "game." The two-pronged approach to marketing this product may show some confusion as to what home is. That's a question Sony won't be able to answer until this Fall, when PlayStation 3 owners will get their hands on the final free download (the experience enters beta next month).

BONUS YOUTUBE VIDEO --> PLAYSTATION 3 HOME

NEWS: Taking Out A Second Mortgage In Second Life

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Real Estate
Found on: webpronews.com

Are you in the market for a new home? A new virtual home? Coldwell Banker, one of the nation's largest real estate brokerage firms has over 500 "inworld" homes with styles ranging from modern to southwestern colonial and if you're a little tight on "lindens" (second life currency) right now, no problem, you can take out a virtual mortgage to finance it and they'll even throw in a complete set of virtual furniture as a closing gift - now you know.

Webpronews post:

Buying a home is usually the single largest investment that the average individual will make over the span of their life. Careful thought and planning are exercised when determining how much of a mortgage to take on, how large of a home to purchase, and what realtor to use.

Indeed, home ownership is not something to be entered into lightly. Buying a home in Second Life, however, can be as simple as a point-and-click transaction, and Coldwell Banker has decided that it wants to be the real estate company to meet the needs of the virtual world’s potential homeowners.

NEWS: Most-Searched-For Brand In 2006?

News/Social Networks/Myspace
Found on: publications.mediapost.com

Just when you think Myspace is losing some of it's luster, look who's brand is still on top and reigning supreme.

Market Daily post:

THE SOCIAL NETWORKING HUB MYSPACE was the brand most searched for in 2006, based on a 52-week average of industry search terms (excluding porn) among all U.S. Web sites, according to competitive intelligence monitoring service Hitwise.

Here's the complete list of Top 10 Searched for Brand Terms* (with spellings as reported by Hitwise):

1. myspace
2. ebay
3. yahoo
4. mapquest
5. craigslist
6. walmart
7. google
8. target
9. match.com
10. bank of america

NEWS: MySpace News is for real

News/Social Networks/Myspace
Found on: wired.com

Wired.com is reporting that Myspace "NEWS" site is a done deal and it's just a matter of time before Myspace starts slugging it out with the likes of Digg, Newsvine, Reddit and other Social news sites.



Wired post:

A leaked document from MySpace's parent company, Fox Interactive Media, confirms the existence of its rumored Digg-style news aggregation portal.

The leaked sales document outlines the structure and taxonomy of the forthcoming site, and includes screenshots of the site, but gives no details about when the portal will launch.

MySpace News will automatically collect news items from various news sites and blogs. MySpace users will then be able to discuss and rate each story on the site, and the stories will change position on the page based on popularity. The portal is rumored to launch during the second quarter of 2007.

NEWS: Wanted poster on MySpace

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Police
Found on: smh.com.au

Talk about your virtual Dragnet - some web smart cop in Arkansas created a Myspace profile page for a serial bank robber in hopes to enlist the millions of other Myspace members to help the Arkansas Police Dept. track down the guy pictured in the image below.

SMH post:

Police have have created a MySpace account for a serial bank robber hoping to enlist the millions who use the popular social networking site as a cyber posse to help track down the fugitive.

The MySpace profile - Do You Know Me??? - is the work of Sgt. Jarrard Copeland from the Fort Smith police department in Arkansas.

The suspect, a man estimated to be about 60, is linked to four bank robberies across the US state.

NEWS: EA Targets Women With New Venture

News/Web Culture/Online Games
Found on: wired.com

Calling all female gamers - here's your oppurtunity to get some street cred with your geeky guy friends: EA just announced a partnership with iVillage to provide content just for the ladies.

Wired.com post:

The so-called "elusive female gamer" is a much sought-after demographic in gaming, but EA is hoping its new alliance with iVillage will help bridge the gender gaming gap. EA's successful casual games portal, Pogo.com, will be the exclusive supplier of gaming content to iVillage's 16 million members. That is a heck of a lot of Word Whomp.

iVillage offers content geared specifically toward women readers, including beauty tips, information on pregnancy and parenting, and fashion. It will host monthly game nights and offer free two-week Pogo passes to members.

NEWS: Andreessen's Ning.com takes on MySpace

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Ning
Found on: news.com

I had a dream the other night that I got a phone call from my Granny; she was bragging to me about how she just put together a new "Myspace" in a just few minutes and that I needed to step up my game and before I could say anything in my defense she abruptly ended the conversation by dropping a "holla back youngin!" and hung up on me.

Alright, so I made all of that up, but if Marc Andreessen has his way there would be millions of little mini Myspaces and "Ning.com" would be leading the way.

Ning is a web based company that Andreessen is backing, he and the other investors hope that the new set of tools that they just launched will make creating your very own Myspace so easy, you guessed it -- your Granny could do it - holla!



News.com post:

In Marc Andreessen's vision of the future, MySpace is going to face stiff competition from a million mini-MySpaces.

One of the cofounders of Netscape and a symbol of the technology revolution of a decade ago is now backing a company called Ning, which launched a set of new tools on Tuesday designed to help even the most tech-challenged person build a social-networking site.

"(Ning) is essentially MySpace version 2," Andreessen said last week, adding that he is placing a bet that social-networking sites will follow a similar development as that of Internet service providers of the 1990s.

NEWS: A winning business plan for 'Second Life'

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Business
Found on: news.com

Minnesota-based research company, Market Truths took home first place honors in the first-ever business plan contest in Second Life.

Cnet News.com post:

The honors, announced Monday, went to Minnesota-based Market Truths, which devised a market research and analysis system to help real-world companies figure out what works and what doesn't in the burgeoning virtual world.

The contest's judges rewarded the Market Truths submission because the team has conducted similar market research in the real world for years, and because it appeared to have the best profit potential of the four finalists.

"I was really impressed by the quality of (all) the ideas we received," said Susan Wu, a contest judge and a venture capitalist from Charles River Ventures. "Each one of these businesses could turn into a viable ongoing enterprise, not only in terms of Second Life, but as a service that stands across multiple virtual worlds."

NEWS: New Portal to Second Life: Your Phone

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Mobile
Found on: technologyreview.com

Looks like Second Life's "metaverse" just got a litte bigger. Comverse, makers of the mobile software that allows Second Life users to connect to the "grid" using a mobile phone and communicate to other residents via text messages - scary.

Technology Review post:

With new software for mobile phones, citizens of the burgeoning online universe Second Life will never have to leave their cozy virtual world, even when they're away from their computers. The new software is a program that lets cellular users with Java-based, Internet-capable phones log in to Second Life remotely, see who else is "in-world," and communicate with them via text messaging.

Comverse, the wireless multimedia networking company that developed the software, demonstrated it this week for wireless carriers at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, Spain. Attendees using Comverse's phones could see and manipulate avatars who appeared in Comverse's virtual 3GSM booth inside Second Life. Using simple commands, they could direct the avatar to walk around the booth, identify other avatars, and send them greetings via SMS, MMS, or instant messaging. And in a twist typical of today's virtual environments, people logged in to Second Life over traditional PC connections could walk into the virtual Comverse booth and pick up virtual phones that connected them directly to fellow members logged in from their real phones at the real booth.

NEWS: Facebook and Comcast's Ziddio Partner to Create User-Generated TV

News/Social Networks/Facebook
Found on: prnewswire.com

Facebook inked a deal last week with Comcast's video site, Ziddio.com to enable Facebook users to create and share videos. Facebook is hoping to drive up usage by giving users the chance to have their videos included in a new television series which will appear on Comcast's On Demand menu.

PR NEWS post:

Facebook, the Internet's leading social utility, and Ziddio.com, a national multiplatform user-generated video site recently launched by Comcast Interactive Media, today announced a partnership that will allow Facebook users to create and share user-generated videos and give them the chance to become part of a new television series titled "Facebook Diaries."

Beginning in March, the companies will kickoff a program that includes contests asking users to submit short video segments about their lives. Throughout the contests, Facebook users will be encouraged to upload, view, share and rate the videos. Selected videos will be featured prominently online on Facebook and Ziddio.com and on television including Comcast's ON DEMAND service.

NEWS: MySpace's China entry may fall to local partner

News/Social Network/Myspace/Geoffrey Fowler
Found on: post-gazette.com

With over a 137 million internet users, China would be a perfect match for Myspace but is there enough room in an already overcrowded sector and will Fox Corp have enough endurance to jump over all the political hurdles set forth by the Chinese government?

Post Gazette's post:

As News Corp.'s social-networking Web site MySpace tries to steer its way into China's challenging Internet market, it may find that it has to let someone else do the driving.

MySpace has been in talks with a former Microsoft Corp. executive named Luo Chuan, who until December ran the U.S. software giant's MSN online services operation in China. The 38-year-old has started his own company, and says he is in negotiations to team up with MySpace, along with additional partners including International Data Group's Chinese venture arm and China Broadband Capital Partners LP, the investment company of former China Netcom Group Corp. Chief Executive Edward Tian.

NEWS: Sweden to open first virtual embassy in Second Life

News/Social Networks/Second Life
Found on: reuters.com

The Kingdom of Sweden is a Nordic country in Scandinavia. It is bordered by Norway in the west, Finland in the northeast, the Skagerrak Strait and the Kattegat Strait in the southwest...uh, okay whatever, here's my point: I just went to Wikipedia and ran a search for "Sweden" to get this info but in a couple of weeks, you'll be able to go to Sweden's virtual embassy called the "House of Sweden" in Second Life and get answers to questions on all aspects of Sweden.

Reuters post:

Sweden plans to be the first country to open an embassy in popular virtual world Second Life.

"It will have answers to questions on all aspects of Sweden," Olle Wastberg, general director of the Swedish Institute, an organization which promotes the country's image abroad, said on Tuesday.

The embassy will be called House of Sweden and modeled on the country's new embassy in Washington. It will open in a couple of weeks.

NEWS: MySpace confirms upcoming launch of Mexican version

News/Social Networking/Myspace/Caroline McCarthy
Found on: news.com

With a soft-launch already rocking on the web, News Corp has just confirmed that it has launched a Mexican version of Myspace -- Viva La Myspace!

Cnet News post:

MySpace.com has confirmed rumors that it will be launching a Spanish-language version of the popular social-networking service for Mexican users.

Word of "MySpace Mexico" began to spread on Tuesday when information about the site leaked to entertainment news site Billboard.com.

Travis Katz, head of international media for News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, of which MySpace is a subsidiary, on Wednesday confirmed the development of the site to CNET News.com. According to Katz, the site has been "soft-launched," meaning that a preliminary version is live but that MySpace doesn't inform anyone of it and does not direct any traffic there.

"It's really a testing phase for us, not something we're pushing out," Katz said. "That phase normally lasts about two weeks, and then we move into what we call our beta launch."