Co-founder and CEO Artases Oikonomidis says that Cafe4tune is on the verge of a new revolution in social networking and in the world of social engagement.

“With the integrated tools available on Cafe4tune – specifically the interaction between video, audio and text – each and every consumer and business user can improve their level of engagement with the world around them. As the site expands, our goal is to give visitors the ability to find almost everything that would interest them available in 3D, interactive environments.”

Cafe4tune provides individuals and organizations with the following:

A global social network – current members are on the network in 35 countries

A 3D environment to interact in a virtual world

Appeal to both organizations and individual members. Individuals, organizations and special interest groups can represent themselves in a 3D environment, allowing users to move from a virtual world to a social network.

Cafés – Individuals or member organizations can join cafes, otherwise known as groups, which are organized by interest, theme, topic, or business.

Communication options – For example, while at a café, users can choose to communicate with other members in the more traditional 2D environment using either live chat or text messaging, or with the assistance of 3D video and audio tools built into the network, take online social networking and connection-building to a new level.

A wide range of resources for entertainment and thematic communication – Cafe4tune features the ability for users to play multi-player games such as poker, chess and many of today’s popular games, all allowing direct video and audio chat between or among the players.

Integrated web audio and live video streaming functionality for every user

The ability for users to set and manage their own privacy levels right upon the very first activation

A low-cost, high impact way for businesses, organizations, special interest groups and individuals to create 3D environments or “virtual premises” to showcase and sell products and Cafe4tune can demonstrate use cases across a variety of industries:

Galleries and artists can show their work.

Live broadcasts of Broadway shows in a 3D theatre environment

Businesses can promote their brands in 3D environments

Universities can conduct tours for prospective applicants

Exhibition halls, sporting arenas and event venues can be shown to meeting planners and attendees.

Special interest groups can set up a virtual environment for communication on a certain topic, need or cause.

Ability to create forums and polls for real-time user feedback

Users can listen to business meetings, conventions or live concerts according to their taste and preferences.

Cafe4tune’s search functionality allows each user to find broadcasts by genre and theme, and live-streams can be recorded and watched later.

The museum in Amsterdam is not furnished as the secret annex was cleared of its contents after those in hiding were arrested. After the war, it was Otto Frank’s wish that the rooms should  remain empty. The online hiding place allows visitors to see and learn more about various objects not on view. The virtual rooms were furnished using reference photographs that were taken in 1999 when the front part of the house and the secret annex were temporarily re-furnished.

The microsite is full of richly descriptive video clips, telling the story of Anne Frank through diary excerpts and archived witness reports. The English voice-overs are by Tamsin Greig and Ellie Kendrick, both of whom were involved in the 2009 BBC series “The Diary of Anne Frank”. Atmospheric music was kindly provided by Mark Isham, the American Grammy and Emmy Award-winning composer perhaps best known for his work on ‘Crash’ and ‘A River Runs Through It’.

To spread the story of Anne Frank through social media channels, there is also a Facebook application. Selected quotes from Anne’s diary can be posted to your profile weekly or monthly, spreading her words of inspiration.

The Secret Annex Online is Web Pick of the Week on Commarts, and was Site of the Day on FWA (Favourite Website Awards). More info can be found via the press release on RealWire.

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Remember, that’s that virtual world that got a TON of hype back in 2005/6. It was on the cover of magazines. On CNN and other TV shows. It looked like it was going to be THE new thing of the decade.

What happened?

Well, a few things.

1. Corporations figured out that they’d need to spend a lot of money to build an island in Second Life (Microsoft spent somewhere around $100,000 if I remember right back then) but soon they figured out that each island could only hold 100 people. Not a good ROI.

2. It had game dynamics. Games are fun for a while, but eventually people get bored of playing games. That’s what happened. People who were very excited and evangelistic about Second Life eventually moved on.

3. It lost its “new and shiny” patina. That’s most of why the press forgot about it. We only pay attention to new and cool stuff. Heck, just look at Techcrunch. Do you read about older technologies there? No.

Anyway, one thing happened that I find very interesting: it continued to grow in users, time spent on the site, and dollars spent in it.

On Friday I sat down with Mark to find out why.

First, the users remained very evangelistic. Second, corporations like IBM found other uses for its islands and kept investing (they now use these islands for training and replacements of expensive conferences). Third, the technology has been steadily improving. Fourth, the company has found new ways to bring new users in and make the experience easier to get into.

But he admitted that they had been pretty quiet and avoided doing more PR work until just recently.

Why is that changing this week? You’ll see why tomorrow morning at about 11 a.m. on building43.

But to tease a bit, I find that their new direction, the first part of which you’ll see tomorrow in the video I did with Mark, is interesting and represents a new life for Second Life and its host Linden Labs.

To wrap this up, have you used Second Life lately? Even if you haven’t, see you on building43 tomorrow morning for more.

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One such person apparently Tweeted herself out of a nice job at Cisco with this tweet:

Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

You know where this is going, don’t you?

So, Cisco–being a TECH COMPANY–has people that use, you know, the web! One such employee, Timmy Levad a channel partner for Cisco, saw the tweet and sent back a reply which I’m sure sent shivers down the spine of the potential new recruit:

@theconnor then apparently set her account to private, closed the window shades, and hid under the bed–hoping it would all just go away. No news yet on whether she still got the job, but you can keep track of the saga here.

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Wonderful. Kudos to any company that wants its customers’ feedback and offers a participatory approach. So, here’s my feedback…

Microsoft added a LOT of whizbang features to its maps.live.com maps (3D, lots of photos, and such) but they didn’t focus on the basics.

First off, you need a redesign. Google is kicking your ass on simplicity. Microsoft’s UIs always seem to get more clutter. Your team should hire Ev Williams to come and give his talk that he just gave at LeWeb3. Get rid of stuff, don’t add it.

2. Mobile. Make it killer and do whatever it takes to get it on the iPhone.

3. Show examples of how to do great searches. Google does, you don’t (at least not before you get into a search box). Google is easier to use because of it.

4. Make it work for what people use maps for. Today I picked up Patrick at his school. I forgot how to get there. Patrick said “just search Google Maps for Petaluma Jr. High.” When I saw this note I tried the same on Microsoft’s system. Hint: Google worked, Microsoft didn’t.

5. Speed. Google is always faster everytime I try it. That doesn’t give me confidence that Microsoft is working on the right things.

6. When I search for “Mavericks, Half Moon Bay, CA” Google finds me a result, Microsoft doesn’t.

7. Split all the different views into different URLs. Have a page where I can select between them. If I wasn’t a former MSFTie I’d have no clue what the difference between “Aerial” and “Bird’s Eye View” is.

8. I still have no clue what “collections” are. “Saved Locations” explains what they are much better.

9. Don’t be pedantic. When I asked it to give me directions to PodTech’s offices it tried to correct my zip code from 94304 to 94304-1216. Google wasn’t annoying like that.

10. Microsoft’s maps look cooler (they show mountain terrain, etc) but are harder to read, particularly on laptop screens in bright sunlight. I find I actually switch to Google for this reason. Most of the time I really don’t need terrain, or pretty pictures, but just want a simplistic, easy to see in bright sunlight, map.

11. DO continue to kick Microsoft’s behind with Traffic data (I’m sure there’s other data you could overlay on the map the way you do with accident data, right?)

12. Redesign your directions results. Google got nine items in the same space that you only got six. I often look up maps on my laptop and that DOES make a difference!

13. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. My Location. That’s the best feature on ANY software I’ve used this year. I was showing it to Patrick today and it made him go “wow.” Not available on iPhone, but only on Google’s Mobile Maps version. This was a MAGICAL feature over in Europe!

14. You don’t understand the magic of the word “link.” I can always figure out Google Maps and how to embed it into my blog. It’s tough for me to figure out how to link to a Microsoft Map. Yeah, I’m an idiot so you might write that off as idiotic behavior but, remember, I worked the Microsoft customer support lines so I know there are other idiots out there like me. Some of them even blog. Every blog brings you traffic, even if the only reader that blog has is mom and dad. Call it a f***ing permalink and call it a day, will you please?

15. I’m surprised no one has used their photo trucks to put little pictures next to driving directions. Instead on both maps I get “turn right onto SR-92.” Why don’t you put a little picture of what the sign looks like? I’d love it if you said “you’ll see a sign that looks like this right before you need to turn right.”

16. Amazing that NEITHER Google or Microsoft have a link that says “using GPS.” I’d love to have a page that explains all about how GPS works, which models are the coolest to use with these mapping systems, and what I need to get and how I need to hook it up. This could even be a profit center. If Microsoft linked over to Amazon’s store they’d get a kickback for each GPS sold.

17. Google Maps remember my default location. Microsoft Maps don’t seem to remember anything.

18. Google has more viewing area horizontally. For some reason my eye likes that.

Well, that’s enough. I’m not sure why I like Google Maps more, but they keep being my default and nothing I saw on this little jaunt tonight made me question that decision. I have never needed 3D imagery to get around, preferring the simple approach (although those features are impressive).

What do you think? What would you work on if you were on the Microsoft Mapping team? I haven’t even attempted to look up anything international, either. But Google was very accurate in Paris and London and told me instantly where I was thanks to its My Location feature. That really is the killer feature for me and it’s one that now gets me to use my Nokia N95 to look at maps instead of my iPhone (the iPhone is better for viewing and navigating around maps, though, but that one feature has proven much more important to me than anything else in the mapping experience).

Anyway, good luck!

Oh, and has anyone built a map mashup yet for Facebook? I’d love to see where all my friends are located around the world.

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 Apparently, research carried out by eBay also shows that almost half of shoppers who have bought online now prefer the virtual high street to the real one, with Amazon expected to be the top online destination.

I was reminded of such consumer behaviour and online spending when I saw this truck this afternoon on the M4 at junction 10 just outside Reading.

It’s the first time I’ve seen the eBay logo and branding used this way in the UK. I’m not suggesting it’s eBay themselves doing this, incidentally: clearly not, looking at how the logo is being used in this example.

Note to readers who drive on the right (wrong) side of the road – no, I wasn’t driving and snapping at the same time. The steering wheel in my car is on the right (right) side It was my wife who took the pic.

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Various reports call the physical space the “Beijing Cyber Recreation District” and the “China Recreation District,” while a press release seems to identify it as the “China Virtual Economy District.”  Blame it on the product’s unfinished state, or on poor translations, but you get the idea.

What really matters is the scale of this undertaking.  Christopher Sherman describes it as “quite simply . . . the largest virtual worlds effort that we know of and certainly the largest supported by a government.”  In addition to the Chinese government, a mobile operator and bank are involved, and corporations from all over the world are expected to join.

It remains to be seen how successful everything will be, though.  There’s little doubt that the project will be complete by the scheduled launch in June of 2008 – China’s productivity can’t be underestimated.  Yet, as crappy cars and recalled food and toys have demonstrated, the finished goods aren’t always of the highest quality.

Also, there’s the matter of the cultural divide that has hurt Google in China, and a language barrier that, as mentioned earlier, made a press release related to the District rather difficult to read.

Nonetheless, I’ll direct a hat tip to Wagner James Au, and note that I’m very interested in seeing the District go online.

Retailer Brookstone has created a 3-dimensional store with features similar to Second Life along with items that users can purchase. "The 3-D brings that fun part of shopping back. When you go into a physical store, there is that sort of energy around ‘what am I going to find?’ and there’s always that discovery process," Greg Sweeney, a vice-president at Brookstone, said.

The 3-D store creates the look and feel of a real store. Users can go through the aisles and look at products with a mouse and keyboard. Product details can be found by stopping in front of an item. "We think it really appeals to a younger audience for us, a demographic probably 25-40 because of the almost gaming nature of it," Sweeney said.

Sweeney said that shoppers who are familiar with a virtual world will find the experience similar. For new users he said it will take some getting used to.

Brookstone will continue to offer its products in a traditional way, but the virtual store provides another option. "It really helps the evolution of the Internet shopping experience," Sweeney told Reuters.

To the merchant it looks like any other credit card payment, but the funds actually come out of the customer’s PayPal account. It offers a lot of convenience for customers. Your information is stored with your PayPal account so you won’t have to fill out a new form with every purchase. That’s a feature that Google Checkout has had over PayPal – without requiring a download.
How it Works

Mashable’s Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins was a beta tester and described how it works (I found myself wanting a video showing me, but after a search on YouTube and PayPal’s web site, I settled on a written description):

1. Install the PayPal software which includes a PayPal icon on your desktop.
2. Click the icon when you want to buy something online and you get a randomly generated credit card number that is connected to your PayPal account.
3. Your shipping and billing information is stored with your account so you don’t have to fill it out for each online merchant you visit.

No word on if you can earn points, percentages, or other rewards on purchases. And there have been some problems mentioned, like how difficult it is to remove unauthorized charges from merchants. It sounds like there are still some issues to work out on the customer service end.

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