This has just gone around our facebook wall at Millions of Us. Powerful prose indeed. Worth sharing with the world.

Sometimes we need to be reminded of where all this fun with the web really started. 60 years. wow.

The team over here at Millions of Us put together the following tutorial video to help people navigate the new gossip mobile game and heads up display.

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Today we are launching Phase II of Gossip Girl in Second Life: The Gossip mobile! The Gossip mobile is a heads up display (a kind of in-world information pop-up) which allows you to see the style, coolness rating and status of the people around you. More to the point, you can see what people are saying about others. I have to admit, after spending less than thirty seconds with the device at the recent Electrolux party I was completely hooked on using it.

The really cool thing here is, when I ran into someone at the party I didn’t know, and they had tons of style and cool points, I knew this was someone who was respected as a maven. Someone to keep an eye on and listen to carefully. Of course Celebrity already had what appeared to be max ratings across the board. No surprise there.
Now, if only I could see what people were saying about me!

Get your mobile device here.
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Hi, I’m a Chris’ random blog post. You may remember me from such blogs as “Gone Global…” and “Reuters: Scion 2008 Lineup Revealed in Chicago & Second Life”.

Alright, so what’s today’s random post going to be about? In my voracious appetite to consume all things social media I sometimes come across things that surprise me about the power of social media. Today’s example is a blog post about our job opening for a VP of Production. Obviously, the blog is all about job positions, but how cool is it that we made it to the point that our jobs get posted alongside Omidyar Network postings. Who by the way, are one of the principle investors in Linden Lab. Small world.

So how did Paul, the author of above blog, get our post? Probably via LinkedIn. It’s really interesting to see how connections develop within this social network. I think there are basically two methods people use. The first is the close network method. The basic logic runs like this: I’m only going to connect with people which I have very close relationships who I trust highly. These people than become highly valuable when your trying to connect to one of their contacts, because you know that if they recommend you, chances are high their recommendation will be followed. In other words,¬† f your trying to sell something, looks for these type of connectors.

The second type are the broad connectors. Those people who will try to create connections as promiscuous as possible. These people are going to be very useful when it comes to selling a service via their contact list, but they will be very valuable if you are trying to tell people about a VP Production job you are trying to fill. Which brings us back to where we started: Small world.
PS: Feel free to connect with me via LinkedIn

PPS: Bonus points to those who guess which type of connector I am.

Hammer loves to rock out to Asia’s classic tune “Heat of the Moment.” But c’mon, who doesn’t? This is your chance to be a rock star!

Come to Millions of Us’ Globe Theater on the Millions of Us region and jam on stage during the screening of the Hammer & Coop Music Video (we provide the instruments with animations). Our photographers will be on hand to capture your glory—and will upload your videos to YouTube for your chance to win real life 80’s “super packs,” complete with vintage Asia vinyl. Everyone who posts even a single image will get a glossy image of H&C.

WHEN:
Hammer & Coop Music Video

Thursday, March 15, 2007 5:00 PM SLT

WHERE:
Globe Theatre, Millions of Us Sim

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Millions%20of%20Us/157/134/23/

HOW (RSVP):
Join the Group “Hammer & Coop” in Second Life or IM Event Manager Anthony Millionsofus. Email events@millionsofus.com for more information or special press access. Space is limited!

WIN:
—-Winners of the contest will be those with the most comments and the highest rated videos on YouTube (url TBA). Instruments and animations will be provided. No rock star experience necessary. Contest ends one week from date of event.

—-Get your own autographed photo of Hammer & Coop star Jim Turtledove in the mail! Email pictures of the event to pics@sluniverse.com with ‚Äúhammerandcoopsl‚Äù in the subject line.

Rock on!

Hammer & Coop are at it again! Come out and watch episodes 3 and 4 of the Hammer & Coop series in a social setting with other Hammer & Coop fans. While you are here, stay for the Ninja Fighting Contest, Hammer style!
As you can see in the attached images, I’m not so hot at this whole fighting thing. Hopefully you can do better than me.
Screening and contest start at 5:00 PST Thursday March 8th at the following location in Second Life.

I’m a big fan of The Colbert Report. Maybe it’s because of the style of humor that Stephen uses to poke fun at pundits, the media, and the establishment in general. Or maybe it’s because he supports the Ontario Hockey League, albeit rooting for an American team. Anyway, I don’t feel to bad borrowing a line from Colbert¬† “Who is talking about me now…”

Actually, in this case it’s really about “In what language are they talking…”, in my daily surfing of the web. Which means my spare time between midnight and one AM. I came across the following Russian blog post. Now, I don’t read Russian, but I can use Altavista’s Babel Fish to pretend that I can as well as the next guy. The article appears to be about the growing spending by Fortune 500 and Global companies to bring their brands and products into Second Life. Correct me if I’m wrong of course. In one particularly amusing translation mistake, I assume, they mention our clients Scion are selling their virtual cars for 300 dollars. I hope that’s a translation mistake, as the actual cost is L$300 or about one US dollar.

Now why does some random blog posting about Second Life in Russian matter? Because, according to Linden Lab’s latest numbers Russian subscribers make up¬† 0.11% of the resident population or about 4000 people. This is for a product that is only available in English and, let’s face it, has a fairly difficult user interface. So despite rather daunting odds, it appears to be confirmed that Second Life has indeed gone global. So that really leaves only one question in my mind: Why are the 400 residents from Barbados, surrounded by beautiful sand beaches, beach front bars, sail boats and yachts, diving getaways, and etc.., logging in?

Looks like Reuters (also picked up by Yahoo! and CNN) covered Scion’s ‘08 model lineup release this morning “Toyota launched a redesigned Scion xB and a new model called the xD in Second Life — an online community with 1.2 million “residents” — and at the Chicago Auto Show on Thursday, holding simultaneous press conferences in both the real and virtual worlds.”

I’m personally excited about the new xB and xD. Unsurprisingly, I love the styling of the new xB. It’s still has that iconic Scion boxy look, but now with a little bit more aggressiveness to it.

However, what I found most exciting about Scion’s support of Second Life is the potential that Second Life residents can influence potentially not only on Scion but Toyota. From the Yahoo article:

But Toyota Motor North America president Jim Press last year said he is not worried about Scion sales, calling the brand the automaker’s “incubator.”

If Toyota see’s Scion as an incubator and Scion see’s Second Life as a way to “connect with the trendsetters”, it only stands to reason that we all have an ability to influence not only where Scion goes but also Toyota with their product development. How exciting is that!?

Edit: Added link to CNN

Edmunds (via edmunds.com) is reporting some interesting news about Scion.

From the article: “The Scion xD, a compact sedan, is slated to replace the outgoing xA and is expected to hit showrooms in spring 2007. In an unusual part of the Scion reveal, the automaker will also stage a simultaneous press conference in Scion City, in the virtual world “Second Life,” to introduce the computer-simulated versions of the ‘08 models. The Scion unveilings will take place February 8. “