Here's a convenient little app from LinkedIn - it watches Twitter and catches tweets referencing keywords associated with your profile (companies, schools, etc.)

Company Buzz is an application that allows you to see what people are saying about companies and topics you care about. Company Buzz uses information from your profile such as companies and schools to find relevant discussions on twitter. Company buzz also shows you how frequently your company or topic has been mentioned and the top words associated with your company and the topic. You may add new topics and customize existing topics with new search terms to get just the results you are interested in.

(Marginally) more info here.

The folks at Yahoo - who own Flickr - have asked a few of their Flickr users for permission to turn their kitty photos into emoticons for the Yahoo Messenger.

Here's a link to some of the results: Yahoo Messenger blog

Here's a reaction from one of the photographers (I have reason to know she's thrilled):

Tunie is Famous!! "Talk to the Paw" Emoticat™ Icon released today!

This is an interesting twist on CGM - pull consumer-generated media from your user base (it helps if your user base is photographers :-) rather than waiting for it to be pushed to you, and meet the consumer half-way (in this case by providing illustration talent). Wonder if they did this with any other classes of photo, or is it just cat pix?
Apparently this is to support a chat environment called Emoticats - more here.

Here's where to get the Yahoo chat client.

Sanrio are in beta with the new "Hello Kitty Online"
I've signed up for an account, and will post more when I get a chance to get in there and poke around. So far it looks like a standard advergame sort of thing.

More screenshots:



Here's the developer's tag:

Burda:ic GmbH markets and distributes so-called Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) throughout Europe such as 'Ragnarok Online' and establishes interactive gamer communities like www.alaplaya.eu. Hubert Burda Media views gaming as a key medium for young target groups. www.burda-ic.com

Link Warning - obnoxiously cheerful music that you can't turn off.

Excellent - and funny - piece by Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow on the real problem with Social Networks: You pretty much have to talk to everyone who asks you.

Quote:

It's socially awkward to refuse to add someone to your friends list -- but removing someone from your friend-list is practically a declaration of war. The least-awkward way to get back to a friends list with nothing but friends on it is to reboot: create a new identity on a new system and send out some invites (of course, chances are at least one of those invites will go to someone who'll groan and wonder why we're dumb enough to think that we're pals).

Infoweek piece

The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication has posted a series of articles focusing on social media topics.

Warning: if you're allergic to Academic Journalese, proceed no further.


Sample abstract:

Mobile Social Networks and Social Practice: A Case Study of Dodgeball

Lee Humphreys

Dodgeball is a mobile social network system that seeks to facilitate social coordination among friends in urban public spaces. This study reports on the norms of Dodgeball use, proposing that exchanging messages through Dodgeball can lead to social molecularization, whereby active members experience and move through the city in a collective manner.

Link

IBM and Linden Labs (creators of Second Life) are collaborating on a technology that will allow users to move their avatars between different virtual worlds. Clearly some sort of language spec will have to be agreed upon. What's not clear is how a character finely crafted and tuned to the social environment in one world will translate into another. For example, if you've got a lot invested as a warrior in WoW, how does your persona come across in the decidely unwarlike SL? Do people now start crafting more generic personae?

Quote:

A virtual character, or avatar, for all the virtual worlds in which people play is the goal of a joint project between IBM and Linden Lab. The computer giant and the creator of Second Life are working on universal avatars that can travel between worlds. The project aims to open up virtual worlds by introducing open tools that work with any online environment. The companies hope to boost interest in virtual worlds as well as make them easier to navigate.

Usability News - Universal Avatars bestride Worlds

BBC News article

Omnicom's DAS (parent division of TracyLocke and N-GEN) announces acquisition of a stake in the Virtual Worlds agency Millions Of Us.

MoU operates largely in Second Life, with activity in teen world Gaia Online and avatar widget site Zwinky as well.

Quote:

"We are entering an era known as the 'Avatar Age' in which people connect face to face online. Because people today trust the recommendations of friends much more than advertising, companies can now seize the opportunity to support online communities and connect more deeply with their customers through social networks rather than through traditional online advertising," said Reuben Steiger, CEO, Millions of Us. "This financing will allow us to make necessary investments and attract the talent to continue along our rapid growth curve."

Read the Press Release

UPDATE: More info in this AdWeek article.