What are the problems regarding virtual worlds on the web? People are getting crazy about virtual worlds. Everybody have every prospect of success being a part of one of the massive social communities (MySpace, Second Life, Facebook, etc.). In virtual worlds nobody knows whether you nerd or smart, ’cause you seem to be clever and pretty cool. It’s really easy to sweet-talk and give baloney to everybody one mixes with.

What are virtual worlds? “A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. This habitation usually is represented in the form of two or three-dimensional graphical representations of humanoids (or other graphical or text-based avatars). Some, but not all, virtual worlds allow for multiple users.” (wikipedia)

On the one part, we see the growth of the Internet, and can’t turn a deaf ear to this process of convergence. Folks got into the habit of hacking and talking, watching and uploading their fave videos, partaking in discussions on blogs, forums, etc. On the other hand, we don’t have to forget in what way the internet may have a bad and good influence on humankind.

Virtual Worlds are around the web. You’re already probably a member of Second Life, Active Worlds, Kaneva, vSide, Entropia, Novoking, Ogoglio, etc., and the list can be extended. Such Worlds, let you visit and chat in incredible 3D worlds that are built by other users. Visitors to these online worlds can build themselves digital bodies, move into digital rooms, make friends and hang out with them in three-dimensional play spaces, shop online, explore unique virtual worlds.

According to the 2007 Influence Forum, ICANN CEO Paul Twomey told that virtual worlds are the future of global commerce, advertising, thereby suggesting the world of tomorrow is virtual one. I reckon it’s in our hands to change the world to better and decide the outcome of the world.

According to Stuart Dredge, there are 20 trends defining virtual worlds in 2007 which he compiled after the conference. The blogger supposes his ideas to be subjective but interesting:

• There’s a problem with communication. As a semi-outsider, one thing I noticed is that a lot of virtual worlds people are good at talking to other people within the industry, but struggle more to explain their worlds in language that normal consumers would understand. There’s still a bit too much jargon, and high-falutin’ language that makes virtual worlds sound eminently geeky.
• Is it an online game or a virtual world, or both? One of the most interesting trends highlighted at the conference was the blurring of the boundaries between virtual worlds and online games.
• Advertising is another wild card. Everyone knows that brands are doing Stuff And Things in Second Life and rival worlds, but that’s more branding / marketing than pure advertising.
• Media streaming is more common, but strangely low-profile. Maybe this was the result of this bunch of speakers at this particular conference, but there wasn’t much talk last week about the challenges and opportunities of streaming music and video into virtual worlds.

By the way, players hope to connect their separate domains to form a 3-D Internet, writes Erica Naone talking about Virtual Worlds. Currently users (namely geeks) hang out in 3-D virtual worlds feeling lack of chance to move freely from one world to another. Virtual Worlds should join hands and combine resources to give users what they really need.

“To make the virtual-world experience as rich as possible, developers need to find ways to consistently render objects…” adopting 3-D web standards “someone who has built a car in MTV’s Virtual Pimp My Ride might want to take it into Linden Lab’s Second Life to show it off. In order for the car to remain the same in both worlds, its underlying programming must make sense to both systems.” (via)

All the same we can’t exclude the fact that 3-D Internet may be very dangerous. Virtual crackbrains will never be the same again if they fall into virtual world and couldn’t find a way-out of there. In philosophy we can come across a term “duality”, the state or quality of being two or in two parts. For example, a gamer can’t switch over to a call or fire alarm, therefore he can’t distinguish reality and virtual world.

Take part in our poll “Virtual World for You Is”

Technorati Tags: virtual worlds, second life, videos, movies, media, streaming tv, web television, shows, games, Active Worlds, Kaneva, vSide, Entropia, Novoking, Ogoglio, research, digital media, 3-d reality, myspace, facebook

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It won’t be an exaggeration to say that individuality plays a very important role nowadays. It is important to understand that everyone of us is a personality and there are no identical people. Luckily there are many ways and opportunities for us to show our individuality in many spheres. Our mobile phones also help us to do it. Original ringtones help us to show our tastes in music and they even can say something important about us to people around.

Today the choice of sources where you can get content for your mobile phone is really very wide. All you need is to make the choice and enjoy the benefits of rich entertainment content as music, wallpapers, games and much more.

Thumbplay is a leading online source of mobile entertainment content. The company aggregates, promotes and delivers mobile content directly to members via Thumbplay.com. At the site you can find a large selection of ringtones, wallpapers, games and text-based services.

The list of ringtones available is really impressive: Pop, Rap, R&B, Rock, Country, Latin, Film-TV Quotes, Classical and much more. The list of ringtones is constantly updated so you can find there the latest musical novelties as Clumsy by Fergie, Don’t Stop The Music by Rihanna, I Get Money by 50 Cent and many others. At Thumbplay.com you can search for a certain ringtone by different search tools. What is more you can listen to the song or composition to be absolutely sure that this is the one you want.

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Thousands of new products are released every year and millions of dollars are spent advertising products to consumers like you. Wize.com makes finding the right product easier and faster by gathering all the information and opinions on internet and making sense of it for you.

The best way to judge a product is to find out from real people how they feel about it. Wize.com gives you not only expert reviews, but also all the user opinions in one place. As product reviews and opinions are collected, a single score between 1 and 100 called WizeRank is produced.

The search process is simplified by dividing the products into various categories like Audio, Computers, Digital Cameras, Monitors or Laptops. A number of subcategories in the largest categories such as Software are available to make finding information even easier.

On the top of each category you can find a product with the highest WizeRank and get easy access to the reviews and opinions about it. You can also use the system of filters by prices and brands to find the most appropriate product. The whole number of offered reviews is really huge: more than 1,5 millions.

Now you don’t have to spend hours searching all over the internet looking for information and reviews before you make a decision.

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We continue to interview video & web TV communities on the web. This time we interviewed Thomas Rigler, a filmmaker producing and developing programming for television and new media, who co-founded the Internet Television Community GoGooroo.com. Not long ago we reviewed this user-generated online guide and now amuseline visitors have an opportunity to get to know more.

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your service?! Why did you name the service “goGOOROO”?

What’s completely missing in the marketplace is a quality user-guide that takes visitors by the hand, determines their needs, offers tailor-made selections and walks them to the destinations of their choice. An Internet video manual if you will, an interactive filter to distill thousands of global broadband channels and millions of YouTube videos down to the listings that actually matter.

Creating this discovery engine benefits both users and manufacturers: Viewers receive a tool to search and discover without frustration, the industry gains the link that connects content providers with ALL platforms, an essential element in the industry-wide and decade-long effort to bridge the divide between PC and TV/set top box environments in the living room.

We named goGOOROO as a word play between the ‘Guru’ who takes the uninitiated by the hand and ‘go’es out into the world = goGOOROO.

2. What makes goGOOROO stand out among all the like services available?

There’s no dedicated destination on the web that creates order from the chaos of American, European, or even global video offerings — a one-stop broadband channel guide is desperately needed.

GoGOOROO is a guide, an index and a community all wrapped into one destination. Unlike traditional program guides, goGOOROO puts the users in the driver’s seat. Similar to the free Internet Encyclopedia Wikipedia, GoGOOROO is a user-generated online guide and every visitor can submit, review and rate channels and videos alongside the GoGOOROO team. This ensure that the catalog grows on a daily basis.

3. What’s your university-level education? Degree maybe?

The founders:

Randolf Hillebrand / University of Cologne with a master in history, political science and German language
Thomas Rigler / Iniversity of Performing Arts, Vienna/Film and Television, Directors program

4. Are you specializing in a particular area of video technology, tools, software?

We’re pretty inclusive but currently focus on flash video players in the broadband & new media space.

5. Can you tell me about your hobbies and interests?

No time for hobbies yet.

6. How much time do you put into this service on a daily basis?

A small team of flexible freelancers keeps the engines running, with lots of hands-on support from the founders.

7. What do you do full time? Your day job?

GoGOOROO is a considerable time commitment that was born out of a professional need to organize an ocean of available broadband video channels.

Other businesses by the goGOOROO founders:

Randolf Hillebrand:
In 2002, Randolf founded brandbuero, a full service online consulting agency for the publishing industry. Since then, brandbuero’s media department has successfully advised its clients in the publishing world on new media content, business strategies and online-marketing. www.brandbuero.de

Today brandbuero’s high profile clients include newspapers and magazines like Handelsblatt, DIE ZEIT, Vanity Fair, WirtschaftsWoche, Karriere, VDI Nachrichten and New Investor. Brandbuero’s experienced editorial staff delivers articles, newsletters and new media content and is in charge of administering many of their clients’ websites.

In 2005, Randolf Hillebrand moved to Los Angeles to open brandbuero LA to research Internet trends for the publishing industry and to create marketing strategies for his clients in the publishing world.

Thomas Rigler:
Thomas develops and produces both narrative and non-fiction projects for production companies, TV networks, non-profits and ad agencies, often across all platforms. Calling on his expertise in these fields, he also consults for companies in the U.S. and Europe.

He is a member of the directors branch at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and serves on the board of directors at the International Documentary Association where he heads the web committee. He currently oversees the re-launch of the IDA’s documentary.org as a groundbreaking video driven online community, scheduled to go live December 2007. Thomas also participates as an industry mentor at the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab, collaborating on next generation new media prototypes.

In 2005-2006, Thomas executive produced the launch of The Vine, one of the first multi-channel broadband players operated by a TV network and headed the development and production teams responsible for E!’s multiple broadband, mobile feeds and video on demand programming. rigler.tv

8. How much further has web TV and online video gone?

The Internet is exploding with video content and giving birth to entirely new models of distribution.
YouTube and MySpace have become household names by fostering rapidly growing online communities of video sharing enthusiasts. Niche portals like Revver, Veoh, Vimeo and Break.com are attracting viewers in numbers competing with traditional TV networks.

The quantity of video available on the Internet has grown tremendously. As a result, finding useful and desirable content has become increasingly difficult. If there’s exponentially more available than before, how can we find anything worthwhile?

10. What is your favorite video search engine/video sharing web-site? Why?

Best video sharing sites — they’re all listed on goGOOROO.
We try to stay away from favoring any of them but share our enthusiasm for the niche phenomenon — in this new environment, everyone is a tv broadcaster!!

If we had to, here are some good examples of what’s possible:

Vimeo
http://www.vimeo.com/

SuperDeluxe
http://www.superdeluxe.com/

Revver
http://one.revver.com

VBS
http://www.vbs.tv/

New York Times Video
http://video.on.nytimes.com/

Revision 3
http://revision3.com/

Jaman
http://www.jaman.com/

Triggerstreet
http://www.triggerstreet.com/gyrobase/index

It’s Your Show
http://www.iystv.com/

11. Do you have any parting words?

Welcome to the super-niche.
Follow the Gooroo and come back often.

Check out more at: blog.gogooroo.com

Thanks to Thomas Rigler for the provided answers!

Technorati Tags: gogooroo, streaming video, web tv, internet communities, revver, user-generated content, interviews, video sharing, rigler.tv, online guide, pc, video tools, software, brandbuero.de, vimeo, vbs, jaman

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Keep on posting latest fresh news regarding intricate online video and web TV stories, reviews and articles that make our life regular, interesting and informative. By way of news I’ll make you a real video geek and open your eyes on popular internet TV & video niches. There’s been a lot of news over the last week:

MySpace Bullshits on “User”-Created Movie. “For a movie being billed as the first user-generated feature film, “users” have little to do with the production of Faintheart. The lead roles will be played by professional actors, while the script was already written and was first developed by the independent production company Slingshot Studios.

Opinions on Hulu.com. Hulu.com, a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., launched with many episodes of hit NBC and Fox shows and a small sampling of movies, all with one-quarter the commercial minutes of regular TV, writes latimes.com. Hulu is easier on the viewer than television-like Web services such as Joost and Veoh because it works in any Web browser without any software downloads.

• “I really am impressed that NBC and Fox have been aggressive enough to permit this super-distribution of their copyrighted content,” said analyst Phil Leigh of Inside Digital Media. “I had assumed the networks would be slow to adapt.”

• According to dmwmedia, HULU also has something YouTube lacks: With so much television-based content, expect no shortage of references to the site, constantly reminding you it’s there.

Metacafe Launches ”Director’s Cut” Channel. Metacafe launches its new “Director’s Cut” channel. Now live at Metacafe, the channel showcases short videos made for the interactive Internet medium that honor the art of storytelling and the craft of filmmaking. Adobe Systems is the current sponsor of “Director’s Cut” and provides information about Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium software.

TV Worldwide Launched Internet TV Channel VON TV. Worldwide showcased the channel during webcast coverage of the Fall VON Show in Boston, October 29 - November 1 including extensive coverage of the show’s Video on the Net conference. The new VON TV channel will host live and taped webcasts, archived event footage and other IP industry video programming.

Men also avid players of casual video games: study. Men are just as likely as women to play casual video games, but they’re less likely to admit it, according to an industry report that shatters a widely held industry belief that such games appeal mainly to women.

Sony Predicts Larger Game Loss in Second Half of Year. Sony, which originally predicted a 50 million yen loss for Q3 and Q4, has now upped that figure to over 100 billion yen. Sony remains optimistic about the year however, predicting an overall profit for fiscal 2007 with TV, computer and digital camera sales recouping the losses suffered from the PlayStation division.

Reel Life: 5 Stories Hollywood Fudged in the Movies. They say art imitates life, but sometimes the facts get screwed up. And in Hollywood, truth inevitably takes a back seat to drama. Here are a few examples.

Top Ten (10) Military Movies of All Time. The first place share Full Metal Jacket, Tora Tora Tora, Master and Commander, A Bridge Too Far and Letters from Iwo Jima. Most of the winners are the old, so to say classical movies.

NBC v. Apple. The fun continues in the public debate between NBC and Apple. More revenues? NBC wanted to experiment with a $2.99 show for one series instead of $1.99. NBC’s new HULU project (free but with ads) will demonstrate its value in practice. NBC Universal also wants iTunes to stiffen anti-piracy provisions so computer users would not have easy access to illegal downloads.

• “I think there is a general perception in the industry that we need to get tough with Apple and break the lock they have on the consumer market,” Castle said. “I think what’s happening is that there is a general gestalt of ‘Apple is a pain in the (butt) so let’s help some other companies out. Let’s do something to build up a retailer other than Apple.”

Technorati Tags: online video, web tv, apple, nbc, metacafe, video sharing, streaming video, internet channels, myspace, digital media, military movies, hulu, youtube

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