Meet me in Cyberspace

Say you had a really bad day. You woke up late, a car splashed dirty water on you, you burnt your duck au orange and found out that your significant other was cheating on you with the CVS cashier. Don't you feel like escaping reality? Well, you can.

Meet Second Life, a virtual game that exists only on cyberspace. You interact with "real" people and you do all the things you'd do in the real world. And that includes business.

Second Life is like it's own cyber-country. It even has it's own currency (Linden dollars) which is bought with real money. According to Grace Patuwo's article Virtual World, real money on 'Second Life', transactions on Second Life totaled $567 million in U.S. dollars in 2009. Even YALE is getting onto the Second Life bandwagon and purchasing land. Maybe this cyberworld is the equivalent to what America was for Europe...? A free land of opportunities...?

Of course Second Life can't completely immerse you into virtual reality like you've seen in the Matrix, so it's not like you can really live there. Although...we might be able to experience something similar...

Augmented reality is a new fad that is taking place. Augmented reality lets you use real life elements and manipulate them digitally. Like the Matrix.

Have you seen the AR app Parrot? It's a flying (yes, FLYING) little machine that lets you have virtual battles with other friends. Just like you might see in Star Wars or something. Look at the video below:



Fascinating, isn't it? Maybe we should start implementing flying drones into stores as sales clerk assistants? So many business opportunities...

You Ain't Human - You're a Brand. Sell Yourself.

Ah, the power of commercialism... It's incredible how little by little adverts have come to dominate our purchasing choice. It's even come to the extent that now WE have become products ourselves. We market ourselves for everything nowadays. Jobs, love, friendship. What's next? Will we have to attach little tags specifying price and such?

Oh wait. We've already done that.

Even though marketing oneself through social media is wonderful and convenient I found Tom Peter's article The Brand Called You a bit insulting. Yes, I understand what he's saying and it makes complete sense considering this is the direction in which our society is heading towards...but...doesn't this sound a little too Brave New World-ish? Or maybe Wall-E is a better example. You know, that animated movie in which humans have become blobs of flesh who've completely surrendered themselves to commercial power?

Oh well. Never mind. Mr Peter probably had the best of intentions. I personally love all the advantages that social networking brings us. LinkedIn, Facebook, Smallworld...They're all awesome. I just don't like to be compared to an object.

But yeah...we can't ignore that Tom Peter has a point. We are products to be sold. Our skills should be listed on our self-created websites or blogs or twitter accounts like the tags on the back of your sweater indicating the percentage of wool and polyester used in its making.

If we aren't sweaters to be sold, then we are just wool on the back of a sheep. And you know what happens to sheep? They get eaten by wolves.

So I suggest you start looking at the 7 Secrets to Getting a Job Using Social Media.

You're a Brand. Sell yourself.

Flashmobs + Naked Men = ART

Did you know that flashmobs are an up and coming form of ART? Yeah, well, me neither.

Truthfully I absolutely LOVE Flashmobs. Especially the dancing ones. In Romania three dancers organized a flashmob event to conmemorate Micheal Jackson and put up a practice video on YouTube so people could learn the routine. After the original one in Stockholm, I think Romania really did a good job of bringing people together. My absolute favorite is the Japanese "Madonna" flashmob organized by Takahiro Ueno, who is a God amongst dancers.

Although...the gorgeous half naked men that Flashmobed in Rome in front of my favorite cafe one hot summer day might be competing for that 'favorites' title.....maybe that's why they are being called "art" with hundreds of Davids and Adonises re-illustrated live and in the flesh.........

But for more info on Flashmobs as an art form check out the article The Mob Rules from TIME magazine.

On a final note...I bring you naked men - in swimwear but whatever.



And for those who don't want to see naked (ok. half naked) men check out some wicked dancing moves! It gives breakdancing a whole new meaning.

Give me Feedback!!

There are some things in life that are just bare necessities, and one of those things (for those who care about wrinkles) are beauty products.

Now. I was big fan of Sally Hansen but that product does not exist in Italy. So one day, when my stock ran out, I sent an e-mail requesting either a shipment or to suggest where I could buy Sally Hansen.

Well...they never wrote back. And now I'm a devote customer of Nivea who, unlike Sally Hansen, actually got back to me.

And that is how customer loyalty goes nowadays. Just like Vicky Tamaru says in "Why Conversational Marketing Requires Fundamental Business Change" there should be conversations with your customers that are on-going and two-way in order to keep your customers satified. I mean, what is marketing about after all? If I remember correctly my Marketing classes always stressed that we should attend to the customers NEEDS in order to SATISFY their WANTS. And I wanted Sally Hansen, wasn't satisfied, so I found an alternative.

And about alternatives...Randall Stross in his article, "How Many Reviwers should be in the Kitchen" talked about Yelp and customers reviewing their products. I think it's great! Customers should interact with other customers and with their product or serivice. It's just like Cibando in Italy. You get reviews, a menu list for the restaurants and even discounts!

So on that note, thank you Microsoft for telling me why my computer was mulfunctioning last year and that it was actually a bug. Thank you Nivea for telling me where to buy your daytime moisturizing lotion. Thank you, Cibando for being such a great food guru.