Artesia Spotlight: April 20th, 2009

Artesia Spotlight is a bi-weekly review of key news in the fields of social media, user communities and virtual worlds. If you want to be the first to read the news, you can subscribe to receive Artesia Spotlight by e-mail on this page.

Case Study Spotlight

Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics retailer in the US, is a great example of how social technology can be used inside a company to foster an adaptable internal culture. Over 155,000 Best Buy employees have at their disposal several internal tools, which enable them to connect with their coworkers, work more efficiently, and empower them to share knowledge and innovation. For an overview of Best Buy's internal social tools, see their video The Company as Wiki.

Report Spotlight

Microsoft has released a new report about Internet usage in Europe, which estimates that "Internet consumption will outstrip traditional TV in June 2010". The report also shows that northern European countries still show a faster adoption of PCs and the Internet than southern Europe, but on the whole there are still more broadband Internet connections in Europe than in the USA. For more findings, see the full report Europe Logs On.

Virtual worlds Spotlight

According to Steve Prentice, Gartner research Fellow, we are now seeing the maturation of virtual world technologies. Prentice also believes that we are now starting to understand where virtual worlds work and where they don't. Also, the current economic situation is driving companies to evaluate virtual world technologies as a cost effective business tools. For more information, see Gartner's latest video about Virtual Worlds & The Enterprise. Perhaps that also explains why Linden Lab, the makers of Second Life, are seeing new growth in usage numbers and user transactions. 

Other news

• There are now over one million social networks on Ning, the online platform which allows people to create their own social networks. 
• Facebook is still growing at an impressive rate. It now has over 200 million active users and has just become the number 1 social networking site in Europe.
• Facebook has created a new public page called Facebook Marketing Solutions, which provides Facebook brand marketing tips and case studies.