Jeep has launched a new mini site called Patriot Adventure, which encourages players to navigate their way through the film “The Way Beyond Trail”. Decisions made during the adventure determine the story. The site is reasonably well crafted to capitalise on the social networking factor with lots of opportunities to invite your friends to help you.

Jeep are also running a write your own Marvel comic participation campaign that will allow readers to help write a 28 page comic.

 Read more... (105 words, 2 images, estimated 25 secs reading time)

Mytoons which is in private beta is a new Youtube type of video sharing service specialised in animations.

It has the usual social media functions, such as most viewed, top rated, most discussed and most recent etc, and I am sure Tagging will come soon.

Perspective: Whether the market can sustain a dedicated Toon network as opposed to part of the Youtube network. However, if they manage to create conversations and discussions amongst the animation community then I believe there is a place for a niche category like animations.

A new study by Pew Internet has found that over 55% of teens are members of social networks such as Myspace, Facebook, Xanga, etc.

Of those members, half of them visit the sites daily or twice a day to stay in touch with their network of friends. The same number uses these sites to make new friends.

View the report here  Read more... (114 words, estimated 27 secs reading time)

Facebook , the social networking site that was based around the US yearly college photo books has entered into a partnership with cable tv operator Comcast

Facebook’s 16 million users can make consumer generated videos, and then share them via ziddio.com (which is part of Comcast). Then between Facebook and comcast, they will select some clips to create 10 episodes called the Facebook Diaires. These episodes will be broadcast on Facebook, Ziddio and within the Comcast Video-on-demand.  Read more... (139 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)

Otxt is a new service that has launched offering a free widget that users can place on their Myspace, Blog or Social Network and allow visitors to send you a text message without exposing your actual mobile number.

Otxt seems to only service US mobile carriers.

Perspective: It’s hard to see how Otxt will make money from this service, or whether it will promote Spam txt messages, but the simplicity of the service will appeal. More and more startups are building a business around these type of widgets, in particular the ones feeding the Myspace juggernaut.  Read more... (99 words, 1 image, estimated 24 secs reading time)

I recently came across this Business Week article aptly called Crowdsourcing.

The article is focused on guidelines for managing consumer generated media.
The 4 guidelines are :-

1. Be Focused

Frontiering agrees that any campaign where brands are asking for consumer participation should have clear participation guidelines. Consider a consumer friendly creative brief to point them in the right direction.  Read more... (262 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

Canadian startup EQO has launched an interesting service hoping to help transport the Myspace service on the road.

It runs as a widget than you can place on your space, and people can browse to your space on their phones to leave you messages. You can have your EQO space setup to express your current mood, where you are, or to post notices.  Read more... (167 words, 1 image, estimated 40 secs reading time)

Recruiting the right people has always been a challenge, and yet the power of online expression in the form of blogs, forums and the like are providing greater insight into the potential of new recruits.

This article in Netimperative shows that more and more companies are looking at bloggers to fill positions in new media.

The article says …
“Sam Michel, Managing Director of Chinwag, said: “Specialist recruitment websites, social networks, community forums and blogs, are replacing the traditional channels as they get to the heart of the communities sought by employers. ”  Read more... (122 words, estimated 29 secs reading time)

Here’s another great community tool, that could be classed as using the digitl world and making it analog again.

The tool is called Human Clock and like this picture shows the current time with a range of pictures which are a refreshing change from the ordinary digital numbers.

Perspective: A simple idea, that is founded on tapping social networks to deliver the clock pictures, and despite Google Ads on the site, there is an absence of advertised products in the human clock images. So come on brands, could someone create a version called Product Clock.com showing clocks made out of Mars Bars, Beer Cans, or even Boxes of flour?  Read more... (113 words, 1 image, estimated 27 secs reading time)

Adage has issued their 2006 Fact Pack which is worth a read.

Some interesting facts :-
35% of marketers will spend to develop in-house blogs
70% of media & communications companies said they were going to include blogs and social networks into their future marketing efforts
RSS is small but gathering momentum, surprisingly 78% of RSS feed users are male

But you’ll have to wait for next years report to get some formal data on Consumer Generated Media, which I predict will continue is enormous growth.  Read more... (90 words, estimated 22 secs reading time)