An email posted on the Blogoscoped blog from Rolan Yang of New Jersey, “A while back, an associate of mine aquired a mirror of the entire Orkut website.” He plugged the information into a data mapper to map out the relationships between Orkut members within the US.

Research shows that the gay and lesbian market is worth cultivating, no matter what your product or service. Despite the cultural changes during the past fifty years the gay and lesbian market is still relatively untapped. According to GLINN (the Gay/Lesbian International News Network) from 1996-1998 the annual value of the gay and lesbian market was 514 billion dollars. Online research conducted by Community Marketing Inc. in San Francisco from 2001-2003 showed that gay and lesbian travel accounted for 54.1 billion in annual spending in the United States alone. This research also concluded that approximately 76% of gay and lesbian household incomes are above the national average of $40,000 per year.

Derek has worked on community features for Netscape, Nike, and Sony, along with creating the community sites, {fray}, Kvetch!, and SF Stories. Christine Perfetti, a consultant at User Interface Engineering, recently talked with Derek about his experience. Here is what he had to say about creating effective online communities:

Eric Raymond and Bruce Perens respond to the SCO Group: Mr. McBride, in your “Open Letter to the Open Source Community” your offer to negotiate with us comes at the end of a farrago of falsehoods, half-truths, evasions, slanders, and misrepresentations. You must do better than this. We will not attempt to erect a compromise with you on a foundation of dishonesty.

This is a peer review of Inf-inet.com by Julian Tandy, webmaster: Nissan Rally Raid Team.

Oh dear! The Inf-Inet site failed my first and most critical site test – download time. The site may be fine for a US broadband audience but for us slow poke modem bound Europeans it is to slow to load.

Swift 3D is the most versatile tool for creating web-ready 3D animations for use with Macromedia Flash. Through the combination of an easy-to-use interface, the industry standard vector exporter and a full ray tracing rendering engine, Swift 3D enables 3D novices and veterans alike to quickly create high-quality 3D animations. Swift 3D exports to both raster and vector file formats including Macromedia Flash (SWF), AI, EPS, JPEG, BMP and more, making it the ultimate tool for publishing your 3D designs wherever you want.

All sorts of people give speeches, not only politicians and executives of international conglomerates. Virtually every major life event involves some sort of speech. For example, toasts are offered at weddings, eulogies at funerals, roasts at retirement, anniversary, and company gatherings, and presentations at a variety of events. Everyone makes a speech sometime — which is why it is consistently ranked as the #1 fear.

1. People will revisit your web site to participate on your discussion board or chat room. They will meet other people with similar interests and your web site will become a hang out were they can chat.

Developing a sense of community among visitors is now essential for ecommerce success. Community-that sense of belonging to a particular interest group or market niche-fosters the credibility a site needs to get repeat visits…and sales.

Don’t Believe the FUD … or the Hype

While Microsoft spreads fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) over free software, the advocates often oversell community software on pure enthusiasm; there are truths on both sides. You can’t blame the geeks who laboured years without recognition, budgets or marketing: By their ideas alone, whole governments are now choosing their work over wares honed by the world’s richest vendors! Between the FUD and the hype, there are community alternatives for most business needs, but there are also rough edges.

Ever wonder why magazines and newspapers always feature letters to the editor? Have you noticed most radio stations air phone calls from listeners? And what about those person-on-the-street interviews that TV news programs like to feature?

Lets face it. Marketing is a challenge. You wouldn’t be reading this article if promoting your business online was just an easy walk in the park under a warm afternoon sun. The reality of it is that marketing could be called a walk in the park, but the sky is filled with nasty looking storm clouds. While there are millions of “marketing methods,” only a few work. Of those few, one of the least known is the concept of seeking customers where they congregate. And customers congregate at Community Websites.

An online community could be a chat room, e-mail discussion list, discussion forum or other technologies that allow groups of people to communicate at your web site. When you have a popular online community it will increase your traffic and sales. Below are ten ways to attract people to participate in your online community.