Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas by Seth Godin:

The communication channels are changing. More and more, face to face communication is being replaced by computer mediated communication. Using mediated communication, the non-verbal communication cues that are available in face to face communication are not. PASION is a European project where mediated communication is augmented. In this paper we present the Shared Virtual Environment (SVE), the framework to be used for the development of two types of applications (social gaming and collaborative work) where augmentation will be studied. The first version of SVE has been used for the development of the first version of a pervasive game for treasure hunting, Bluenet.

Summary Developer platform for social games

Description From their site: The SGN Developer Platform provides an API for social games that allows developers to plug their games into the SGN Gaming Hub and gain the benefits of mass distribution across our network, up-to-date statistics for all users, and greater user loyalty.

API Home Page http://developers.socialgn.com/
The Social Gaming NetworkSGN offers games and a social gaming platform for developers that uniquely leverage people’s social connections -what we call a gaming graph- transforming a typical gaming experience into one that is more relevant, more engaging, more competitive, and ultimately more enjoyable for the player.

Capture the flag: mixed-reality social gaming with smart phones

The author developed a mobile, mixed-reality version of capture the flag, a popular genre of computer game. Our CTF game is novel in three ways. First, the smart phone is the main interface. Using the smart phone, players physically role-play virtual characters who try to capture enemy flags by traversing different landscapes. This approach creates a direct, real-time linkage between the real and virtual worlds. Second, players can move freely in the real world over a wide area while maintaining seamless real-time networked contact with other players in both the real and virtual worlds. Third, CTF explores novel tangible aspects of human physical movement and perception, both in the real-world playing environment and in interaction with the virtual world.

REFERENCES

1 PASION project, http://www.ist-pasion.com/, last visited 2nd March, 2007.
2 Thurlow, C., Lengel, L., Tomic, A., Computer Mediated Communication. Social Interaction and the Internet, Ed. Sage Pubns, 2004.
3 Walther, J., B., Loh, T., Granka, L.,. Let me count the ways: The interchange of Verbal and Nonverbal Cues in Computer-Mediated and Face-to-Face Affinity. Journal of language and social psychology, 24(1): 36–65, 2005.
4 FUGA project, http://project.hkkk.fi/fuga, last visited 2nd March, 2007.
5 IPergG project, http://iperg.sics.se, last visited 2nd March, 2007.
6 Wasserman, S., Faust, K., Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. New York and Cambridge, ENG: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
7 Margaret E. Morris, Social Networks as Health Feedback Displays, IEEE Internet Computing, v.9 n.5, p.29-37, September 2005 [doi>10.1109/MIC.2005.109]

Facebook fans are not satisfied by just registering with their true names and identities. People are creating accounts with false identities, with famous names of stars, actors, and the story that vibrated the law courts: in the name of a prince.

A Moroccan computer engineer, age 26, Fouad Mortada was sentenced 3 years in prison with paying a fee of 10 000 dirham for accusing him using a false identity and stealing the prince Moulay Rachid’s name and faking data about him. What has began as a joke resulted in law court.

Investigations were held to check whether Fouad has any relationship with terrorist groups aiming to harm the prince. However this whole case has been a shock for Fouad, his family and all his friends…with all Facebook users who supported him and found him innocent of this accuse.

Thousands of people have signed a petition to help Fouad. Facts of the trials are updated on his website: www.helpfouad.com and on a group assigned for him on Facebook titled: “Help Fouad Mourtada - Aidez Fouad Mourtada” with 2,269 members, and increasing everyday with the spread of this case.

If Fouad has made a crime and was sentenced to 3 years in jail for such a reason, how many people are to be captured for the use of famous stars’ names and presidential identities like Sarkozy, Bush, and the missing Ben Laden? In countries like USA, France…and all countries that defend personal rights and respect of human rights haven’t yet encountered such a problem and made a scene of such cases, how come Morocco goes through this…!

Facebook.com Fans site

Amy Winehouse in house wine + The Beginning of the end.