The population of online communities such as <i>Second Life</i> and <i>Blue Mars</i> is now greater than that of the US and Europe combined.
With more and more of us streaming live video of ourselves online, the meaning of the word "privacy" is undergoing a change.
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/ 26 October 2007
It is interesting why so few of us use one of the breakthroughs of recent years: the ability to search the web from wherever we are with a cellphone. This ought to be hugely empowering. There are a number of reasons why this hasn’t happened and why it may be about to change.
It is curious how the globalisation of people is happening much faster than the globalisation of goods. While trade talks to cut subsidies on products have been immobilised for years, the global expansion of relationships between people via social websites is probably the fastest growth area on the planet.
Rupert Murdoch, watch your step. I am coming to get you. I have just launched my own global TV station from my cellphone and laptop. So far, the total audience at any one moment hasn’t risen above eight, but everyone has to start somewhere now that the creative revolution is offering everyone the opportunity to be a producer as well as a consumer.
This month’s state of the blogosphere survey by Technorati, the monitoring service, was greeted as if it were the online equivalent of the president’s State of the Nation address. But for all the undisputed influence of blogs, the figures also show that blogging is still very much a minority sport.
The arrival of the three dimensional web — in which participants have their own on-screen avatars — is dismissed by some as a nine month wonder that will fade away once the novelty has worn off. But that hasn’t stopped a fresh surge of development that is taking virtual worlds to wider audiences.
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/ 26 October 2006
Consumer spending is showing signs of faltering in some major economies — but no one has told the cellphone industry, which is now flying without wings. In the quarter ending September sales volume rose by 21% compared with a year ago, with ”smart” phones — which have music, video and other functions — rising by well over 50%.
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/ 19 October 2006
When two twenty-somethings posted a home-made video on <i>YouTube</i> last week they initially attracted more than 1,3-million views, but they didn’t earn a cent for their efforts. This didn’t matter to them because the two in question, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, owned the company and had just sold it to Google for $1,65-billion.
Well, the war is finally over: and the cellphone has emerged as the winner on two key fronts. For most buyers it will be the device of choice for playing music and taking photographs. I have been trying out some of the latest cellphones and there has been a big increase in the quality and quantity of the tracks they play.