Red Hat ships open source MySpace++ clone May 31, 2006
Cory Doctorow: Red Hat has developed a new MySpace like site called Mugshot — but it”s open source. I saw a short demo of Mugshot this morning at the Red Hat Summit in Nashville and it was pretty hot; they nicked the best stuff out of all the social networking sites and put them together in an open codebase.
The Mugshot client application is built with a special cross-platform code library developed in C with GLib and GObject. For network communication, Mugshot uses the open XMPP protocol also used by Jabber and Google Talk. The current version of Mugshot is built with Loudmouth, a GLib-based XMPP implementation developed by Imendio. The Linux version of the Mugshot client user interface is built with GTK and uses GConf for storing configuration data, which means it is closely aligned with the GNOME desktop environment. The Linux version uses D-Bus for interprocess communication, and will provide Firefox integration.
Link (Thanks, Segphault!)
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Unusual flavors of ice cream in Japan
David Pescovitz: 
At my local ice creamery, I was somewhat shocked that they had avocado ice cream as a special flavor on the menu. (I was more shocked when my niece ordered a scoop and loved it!) That”s nothing compared to the flavors available in Japan. Today”s Mainichi Daily News features a delightful photo gallery called “The Wackiest World of Japanese Ice Cream.” Seen here is soy sauce ice cream. The photos were taken at the Cup Ice Museum in Ice Cream City at Namjatown theme park.
Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)
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RISD Works
Just across the river from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), a store called RISD Works sells a wide range of products all designed by RISD alums. The collection includes big names (who you may be surprised to learn went to RISD) like literary installation artist Jenny Holzer, the creators of the Family Guy, and Michael Cousins who co-founded Cousins Design, the award-winning team who designed the Dixie Cup dispenser. You’ll also find younger, more off-the-radar (but similarly talented) designers, such as Jonathan Glatt, a jewelry designer who makes elegant, quirky jewelry using industrial materials, and Yuki Murata, whose “Smush” tumbler bears subtle finger-shaped imprints. (See Smush, a bracelet by Glatt, and Cousin’s garlic press after the jump.) The boutique emphasizes designers’ backgrounds with printed bios that come with purchases and a complete archive of risd works artists’ bios can be found on their site. Some items are also for sale on their site.
TAGS: Design, Products, RISD, Shopping, Travel,
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Dog as doormat
Muddle by Hannah Greely.
Via artkrush.
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Invisible maze
Jeppe Hein“s Invisible Maze installation is just what its title says: invisible.
The promised maze is there but it only materialises as we move around in it. Visitors are equipped with digital headphones operated by infrared rays that cause them to vibrate every time they bump into one of the maze”s virtual walls. Thus, the exhibition is perceived as a both minimalist and a spectacular playground. The maze structure spans six different variants, all of them referring to labyrinths from our common cultural history. From the medieval labyrinth in Chartres to Stanley Kubrick“s fateful dead end from the film The Shining to Pac-Man. The maze changes from day to day, inviting visitors to make repeat visits.
Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen will present Jeppe Hein: Invisible Maze 10 June - 27 August 2006.
The exhibition represents a further development of the exhibition Invisible Labyrinth which attracted 50,000 visitors during its two-month run at the Centre George Pompidou in Paris last year.
Via Art Daily. Thanks Joshua.
Other work by Jeppe Hein: Distance.
More sound-based spatial installations: audio space + audiotag + audio graffiti, Mapamp, Sonic city, sound mapping, Aura, Akitsugu Maebayashi”s audio work, Audio Viscera, electrical walks, aetherspace, etc.
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Puma x Cubanbee RS 100 Contest Winner
Congratulations Leslie Siemer! Leslie was the winner picked out of the hundreds of entries we received in our recent Puma x Cubanbee RS 100 contest and will be receiving all three of the new styles soon. For the rest of you wanting to add some of that summery weave to your wardrobe, the shoes officially debuted at Barney’s, ALIFE, and Classic Kicks last week and you can pick them up there. Thanks to all the entrants for playing!
TAGS: Contests, Puma, Sneakers, Tattoo,
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Chocolat 15-18
The humidor is the first sign that Montréal-based Chocolat 15-18 takes itself very seriously. So seriously, that they named the company after the temperature maintained by the humidor, an ideal 15º-18º Celsius (59º-64º Fahrenheit).
Inside the humidor are simple but elegant boxes that contain three flights of chocolate. Each flight contains four handmade chocolates of increasing intensity. They are all single-origin and meant to be eaten consecutively: Grenada (60% cocoa), Sao Tomé (70% cocoa), St. Domingo (67% cocoa) and Tanzania (73% cocoa). A little contrived, perhaps. A little pompous, perhaps. But there’s no arguing with the results: Your tongue will thank you for the journey.
The man behind the chocolate is Christophe Morel, who won Canada’s Chocolate Grand Prix in 2003.
Currently available only in Montréal at a few select locations.
TAGS: Canada, Chocolate, Montreal,
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Marketing to avatars
clickable culture informs of an article in Harvard business review about Avatars-based marketing.
The strong involvement of Second Life (and other virtual worlds)’s residents with their virtual environment (from personalized avatars to virtual businesses, scheduled celebrity book signings, etc.) constitutes a dream marketing venue. Commerce is already an integral part of the game. Residents spend—in Linden dollars—the equivalent of $5 million a month on transactions for in-world products and services. Introducing real-world brands is just a logical step.
Whom do marketing efforts target? The members who gave their credit card numbers to register for the game—or their avatars? If the real-world human controls the real-world wallet, the avatar represents a different “shadow” consumer, one able to influence its creator’s purchase of real-world products and conceivably make its own real-world purchases in the virtual world.
The real-world marketing potential of online worlds is suggested by the virtual commerce that already takes place within them. In Second Life, you find avatar-run businesses such as virtual clothing and real estate brokering, but also detective agencies, which keep an eye on virtual infidelity; a notary public, who guarantees the legitimacy of avatar contracts; sex shops, which sell not only racy paraphernalia but also computer code that allows two avatars to enter into a passionate embrace, etc.
Lessig in Second Life
The line between virtual and real worlds is blurring in other ways. In Second Life, the BBC recently broadcast a segment of its Newsnight program from within the world. Lawrence Lessig gave a speech to a full house and signed virtual copies of his latest book. A proliferation of “Impeach Bush” signs—that were installed by an avatar on tiny plots of land he had purchased, blocking many people’s views—created an uproar.
Furthermore, many residents import real-world company logos as props or decorations. Coke machines are common. Evian was advertised at the concession stand of a recent U2 tribute concert. An iPod store sells virtual players loaded with tunes audible when your avatar wears one of the devices.
The combination of virtual-world commerce and the growing overlap of virtual worlds and the real world suggests opportunities for creative real-world marketers. So far, there have been a few interesting brand-building experiments. In the Sims Online, McDonald’s installed fast-food kiosks, complete with employees working at the counter and able to serve up (free) burgers and fries to residents who made their selections from a clickable menu. Intel incorporated its logo into the screens of virtual computers that, when purchased by Sims Online residents, helped them improve their game skills. In There, Levi Strauss promoted a new style of jeans by offering virtual versions for sale to avatars, pricing them at a premium to the generic virtual jeans that avatars otherwise could purchase. Nike sold virtual shoes that allowed wearers to run faster than other avatars.
Habbo Hotel
Organizations have also sponsored branded events in virtual worlds. Kellogg’s sponsored a competition, in Habbo Hotel, in which residents were asked to decorate their personal rooms in various Pop-Tart–related themes. In a noncommercial sponsorship, the American Cancer Society staged its Relay for Life event in Second Life. Resident avatars walked a virtual course, lighted virtual luminaries, and raised virtual cash, which was converted into more than $5,000 in real cash and donated to the organization.
Companies have also created entirely branded virtual worlds—”adverworlds.” Wells Fargo bank recently launched Stagecoach Island to educate teens about money matters through games and social activities. In a similar vein, DaimlerChrysler has a site for preteens called Mokitown to educate players—called “mokis,” short for mobile kids—about road and traffic safety through a shared social experience.
Mokitown
Patrice Varni says the 2003 campaign in which residents of There outfitted themselves in Levi’s virtual jeans was an interesting experiment but one she had hoped would yield more data. Technology is improving, though, and she can envision placements in which users could, by making an in-world purchase of an appealing style of jeans, effect a real-world online purchase.
In the meantime, there may be little to lose from experimenting. Massive Incorporated, which sells real-world advertising in a network of computer games, recently signed a deal to place ads in the online virtual world Entropia Universe. In Second Life, marketers can simply become residents and have their avatars try out marketing initiatives for free—something a number of companies are already doing, according to David Fleck, from Linden Lab. “People think they need to create a partnership with us, but all they have to do is join, go and buy a chunk of land, and then do what they want to do,†says Fleck.
Screenshot from Massive Incorporated website
For starters, avatars are certainly useful subjects for market research. “Marketing depends on soliciting people’s dreams,†says Henry Jenkins. “And here those dreams are on overt display.” For instance, a company could track how inhabitants of a virtual world interact with a particular type of product, noting choices they make about product features, wardrobe mix, or even virtual vacation destinations. It could then use those choices to create profiles of potential customer segments.
UPDATE: One Second Life denizen has created three ad spots to stimulate demand for the Nylon 35mm, the Nyloid Super Color 1000, and the Nylonic VHS Camcorder. (more in unmediated)
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Redfin To Change the Rules of Real Estate Sales
Seattle based Redfin is making two major announcements today.
First, they’ve closed an $8 million Series B round of financing, from Vulcan Capital, BEV Capital and Madrona Venture Group. This follows a (roughly) $1m Series A round in January 2006. New CEO Glenn Kelman, the founder of Plumtree, joined the company in September 2005.
Second, Redfin is expanding their service out of the Seattle area to include the bay area in California (and will be expanding to Los Angeles, San Diego and nationwide soon).
They have an intruiging and aggressive business model. Instead of providing useful real estate information to consumers and then pointing them to real estate professionals like competitors Trulia and Zillow, Redfin is doing their best to completely remove real estate agents and brokers from at least half of a home sale.
Redfin combines MLS listing information (homes for sale) with historical sales data (homes already sold) into a single map. If you find a home you like and want to place an offer, Redfin will represent you in the buying process (they have a call center with licensed real estate professioinals to guide you). Here’s the good part: They reimburse you 2/3 of the buy-side real estate fee directly on closing. The average amount reimbursed to the buyer is $11,402 (and that is based on relatively low Seattle home prices).
Redfin is also testing a seller-representation model, called “Direct for Sellers”, that will handle all aspects of a sale for a flat fee (currently $1,350). On a $500,000 home sale, this saves the seller $13,650.
Everything isn’t rosy for Redfin, though. They’ve been operating in Seattle for a number of years and have numerous war stories to tell about threats, stalkings and other disturbing behavior towards their employees and some customers from, apparently, angry real estate professionals. Hopefully things won’t get out of hand as they continue to disrupt this stubbornly inefficient market.
I haven’t met the Redfin team yet, but am looking forward to seeing them tonight at the TechCrunch Seattle party that I am co-producing with them, Farecast and Triphub.
Screenshot (showing $106,000 refund on a $5.3 million San Francisco house):
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Apple G4 converted to roadside mailbox
Cory Doctorow: 
A Flickr user caught a pic of this Apple G4 tower that”s been converted to a roadside mailbox in Auckland, NZ — great use for an old, iconic tower! Link (Thanks, Dustin!)
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