Is it that bad that as much as I was rooting for the Red Sox to win the series last night, I was equally as invested in them taking the title so I could sleep easier on my free bed!

I’m not quite sure how to handle this new found culture of winning in Boston with the Red Sox, Patriots and potentially even the Celtics becoming dominant teams in their sports. After all, we are the town that is supposed to find a way to lose?

How does this relate to Boston Web 2.0 Perhaps some of the attitude that you find on the field in Boston will rub-off into the board room. Being successful is sometimes as much attitude as it is aptitude. The Red Sox have always had a deep talent pool from which to draw but now the difference is an attitude that they can pull through no matter what. That is - they start with the idea that they will win and then set out to achieve it. The Boston technology scene has a lot of talent and a large number of start-ups in the area that should learn from this lesson.

As for the bed…I will be at Jordan’s soon to cash in on my own little World Series trophy.

Download mp3 albums
download mp3 music
taylor swift mp3

uriah heep mp3
queen mp3
free boney m mp3

system of a down mp3
bryan adams mp3
mariah carey mp3



hannah montana mp3
dj bobo mp3
tose proeski mp3
enrique iglesias mp3
fall out boy mp3
tatu mp3
simple plan mp3
maroon 5 mp3
westlife mp3
modern talking mp3 free
2pac mp3
foo fighters mp3
cat stevens mp3
soulja boy mp3
green day mp3
nightwish mp3
falsetto mp3
radiohead mp3
backstreet boys mp3
james blunt mp3

I was reading a recent top article on Boston.com about the plans for the City of Boston and Emerson College to bring the hub into the Second Life universe and it made me think about how far will these virtual world technologies will take us and where will real world Boston fit in?

Here is a test. In your minds eye, quickly create a picture of the typical Second Life daily user looks like in real life? Does a creepy basement in their parents house come to mind…do you think something seedy? That may be the picture that you have now but with many major companies and thought leaders looking to virtual world technologies as “the new, new media” that picture may morph quickly into a picture of yourself in the future.

Boston city officials are, according to the article, hoping that the novelty of Second Life will inspire people to take a more active part in civic life, help virtually imagine how they can improve the city and maybe even interact with the city offices in the future. They plan on building out parts of the city in Second Life as part of a joint project with Emerson College students who will handle the virtual construction. This is all part of a course that Emerson is offering called Hub2 that will be taught by Emerson professor Eric Gordon, who will run the course for Emerson students, and Harvard’s Gene Koo, who will teach the “open class” for non-students.

Other examples of brands and city governments experimental efforts in the virtual world;

• Sweden recently opened the first virtual embassy in Second Life. It’s is more or a visitor center, I do not think you can apply for a visa there and for Swede’s looking to renew your visa…I do not think this counts as “leaving the country” to renew your current visa.
• The Vancouver Police Department has begun recruiting for Police on Second Life
• Second Life developer Second Promotion and other teams have started building out virtual versions of major European cities including Salzburg, Munich, Manchester and Amsterdam
• Manpower and several other recruiters have opened islands to start virtual recruiting for real world jobs
• A company called Unisfair has launched to help real business run virtual tradeshows and corporate events for fortune 500 companies

As for the local virtual scene? The Boston world already has a decent footing the building of the virtual sphere. Active Worlds, hidden up in Newburyport, MA, is one of the grand-daddy’s of the space is that was started in 1995 and launched in 1997. They have quietly built out their own virtual world as well offering a license their technology for commercial or educational use. You can also include MMORPG (not sure if I can ever get that acronym right) game providers like Westwood-based Turbine who recently released The Lord of Rings Online which looks incredible but I refuse to get sucked in (I’m just too busy and I know it will kill hours of my time).

In addition, Second Life recently acquired Waltham-based Windward Mark Interactive to help enhance their 3D capabilities. The team from Windmark will join the also recently created Linden Software Development office in Cambridge, MA. [ Update: Thanks to Pathfinder Linden for pointing out that the recruitng party I had linked to here was for a party in the UK next week!...my bad! the Boston event was awhile back. ]

The interesting story on Second Life, outside of the local scene of course, is the debate over how “active” the popular online destination really is anyway and if it con be considered a viable marketing program. Second Life has captured almost 8 Million registrations in the pas 4 years but only, according to the debate, (a.) 40 - 50,000 active users or (b.) 500,000 active users. Just so you know (and would like to quote either of these in a meeting to make yourself feel cool), these are referring to 2 different numbers and the point is really moot anyway. The lower number is quote from the a Forrester analyst posted in recent L.A. Times article and is referring to a “peak usage” number or the number of users who are logged in at any give time. The later is an “active weekly user” number as reported by a recent GigaOm article where “active” is defined as users who have logged in the past 7 days. The number that I would like to investigate is user engagement or what avatars are actively involved in on a regular basis.

Marketers for the past year or 2 have been clamoring to build out a presence in this and other popular online worlds with very mixed results ( also read the release on Second Life customer satisfaction ) However, it is probably too soon to really use this platform as a viable line item in your overall marketing plan because the “world” is just not that large anyway. If you can think of some clever gimmick (like a virtual version of your city!) you can get good press and awareness externally for your message but do not expect the Second Life minions to embrace you or your product because you “care” about their world. You may even end up on the wrong end of the Second Life Liberation Army if you are not careful (I’ve tried to join with no success but the SLA is more hype/humor than reality anyway). Do they issue invites like Pownce?

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Technorati tags: Second Life, Boston, Boston Web 2.0, Blog, Blogs, Linden Labs, Avatar, Virtual Worlds, Emerson, Active Worlds, Marketing, Online Worlds, Interactive, Jobs, Social Media, web 2.0, Turbine, Lord of the Rings

Does the camera really add 10-pounds?

Mass High Tech published an article this week about the day-job that included my picture, which would normally be great - but look at the size of that head!…I believe it has it’s own gravitational pull.

I guess I should get off the start-up diet and setup an account with Cambridge based fitness site Traineo.

Read The Article:
Video editing moves online for users to share

I am so pissed - now I have another show to watch on television.  I am already overloaded with the amount of pop-culture that I can consume in a given moment but now I have to watch the Adult Swim show Aqua Teen Hunger Force.  That’s right, I am falling for the either insanely stupid or insanely genius PR stunt that just nearly shut down the city of Boston.  

If you have not heard yet.  There has been a potential “bomb scare” around the city of Boston where up-to 10 suspicious packages were found in various places around the city.  The bomb-squad was called into to investigate and the packages were found to have the image of a crude cartoon character from the Aqua Teen show - The Mooninites.  Except for the negative consequences for those involved, the show could not write a better script that some of the local news coverage that I am watching right now.

I have several key questions that I would like answered…

1. How come I have not watched this silly show before

2. Who is feeling more stupid now

a.  The Marketing Department at Turner Broadcasting Network

b.  The person who reported the first “suspicious package”

c. both?

3. Why did I not think of this stunt?…I guess I could say, “its good that I did not” because there may be some potential jail time for this tom foolery.

According to Turner Broadcasting:

The ‘packages’ in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim’s animated television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.

I just love and hate it all at the same time…but now I will have to watch a few episodes to see if the Moon Does Rule. 

A Bit of Common Sense - And Reality People

I will say, in this groups defense,  that this is not the first stunt of it’s kind nor will it be the last.  The marketing team probably did not intend to have this happen.  How many of us have seen the Andre the Giant stickers (or any of 100 other stickers like it) around everywhere?  There was probably an effort out there to get a n underground movement of “what is that” and/or to get bloggers to take pictures and post them on Flickr and on their blogs.  After all - the billboard for this has been up at Logan for weeks and I’ve heard on the news that theses packages were there as well. 

That is why I ask the question again - who feels more stupid now, the marketing group at the show or the people that reported it…and then the other people that kept reporting it?