In an article on TechConfidential, and re-posted on several other spots (and now here), founder Ben Campbell reports "raising capital from a loose affiliation of more than 100 angel investors through Naples, Fla., venture capital firm Signature Capital LLC" in the amount of $13M!

Chelmsford’s Ourstage.com, which came out of beta last September, recently announced a music distribution partnership with AOL. The site runs monthly contests to discover the best in new music from up-and-coming bands and has a 3,851 Compete ranking.

Boston has a new face of online gaming and virtual worlds and I should have included in my recent article about Second Life. Hiawatha Bray’s article posted on Boston.com today provided more information about the much anticipated game by Curt Schilling’s online game company 38studios, formerly known as Green Monster Games (Maynard, MA). Apparently, it will be a MMORPG ala World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings.

The company is comprised of 3 main principles from multiple industries including Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, New York Times best-selling fantasy author (and Leominster native!) R. A. Salvatore, and video game industry leader Brett Close.

The main issue that I see from the article is the expected release date of the game - 2010! That’s an eternity in the online world. The company is planning on releasing additional products outside of the game but to think that far in advance the creators may need to be more than just visionary’s, they’ll have to be fortune tellers.

The company plans on releasing some early concept art at the show. I’ll keep an eye on 38pitches blog and the Gamebunny blog who is promising and update from the Comic-Con in San Diego show soon.

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Technorati tags: online games, virtual worlds, wow, world of warcraft, 38studios, curt schilling, boston web 2.0, boston, maynard, web 2.0, gamers, spawn

I just can’t resist…cause this is a post that you just can’t touch.  The folks at TechCrunch have announced a new panel of experts to speak at the upcoming TechCrunch20.  Guess who is on the panel?….MC Hammer.

Can’t Blog This

My, my, my, my,
Ajax Hits me oh so Hard,
Makes me say <a href=”"oh My God” >,
Thank you, for blessing me,
With time to write and a Wordpress type,
It feels good…when I know you know Co.,
As a super-dope start-up from the valley and the s-fro,
and I blog as such,
cause this is a blog that you just can’t touch…

…Cant’ Blog this.

I’ve heard a rumor that next week they will announce Arsenio Hall as the show MC.   Raise the roof…woof, woof, woof.

Feel free to finish the lyrics for the “Can’t Blog This” song or enjoy the original I’ve embedded below.

All kidding aside…the panel experts are starting to look interesting including Caterina Fake who is best known as the co-founder of Flickr, a photo-sharing service that was acquired by Yahoo (according to the TechCrunch post). 

paidContent is reporting that Watertown, MA based Cymfony, a market research and intelligence business founded in 1996, is being sold to UK based research giant Taylor Nelson Sofres for an undisclosed amount.  The company has spent the past few years positioning itself in the web 2.0 world or, as they put it ”at the intersection of consumer-generated and traditional media” providing media monitoring covering both traditional and new media for the business market.