Foursquare is one of the first out of the gate. Founded in early 2009, it’s already taking New York City by storm. The mobile application lets users share their locations through “checking-in” at local venues, from bars to supermarkets. Besides the user review capability, users are attracted to the application because it allows them to gather points every time they check-in somewhere.

Businesses are excited about using it to draw more customers. For example, a registered pub can offer a free burger for every 10^th check-in. “If a user is at your bar/restaurant, we’ll tell them what they have to do to unlock a free snack or discounted drink,” reads foursquare’s website. “If they happen to be across the street from your venue, we’ll let them know that your business gives special treatment to foursquare users and that they should swing by for a visit.”

Savvy businessmen will also find the data collection useful. “Foursquare can tell you how many times a customer has been to your venue or the frequency of their visits.”

Sound too good to be true? Some critics think so. One common complaint is that apps like foursquare only attract the hip urban crowd. This has some truth. It might not gather a following with Mom ‘n Pop’s General Store in Small Town, Midwest.

But young tech companies shouldn’t be let down too easily. Tristan Walker of foursquare recently said in an interview with the Washington Post that the company is still experimenting and “would like to understand a bit more” about how businesses can utilize the application. Not to mention that foursquare entered a charity-marketing partnership with Pepsi in early December, which not only illustrates foursquare’s appeal but also its open-ended utility.

Plus, the idea behind foursquare wouldn’t die if the company were to bite the dust. Other rising Locamedias are incorporating the game-based approach. There is Gowalla, which is strikingly similar to foursquare in almost every respect. Then there is Noticings, a foursquare-like app that uses photographs instead of check-ins. And one must also not forget about loopt, started in 2005 as a friend geotracker. Its CEO recently said that, “It’s probably a safe assumption that we’ll add some gaming elements.”

The main concern of Locamedia providers, a hot topic for critics, is the loss of privacy. Do you really want everyone to always know where you are? And do you want your phone alerting you every block about how to get a free drink? The fact that the Locamedia providers have very vague privacy controls doesn’t help.

The answer to Locamedia privacy might come from something we already use. Facebook has been at the forefront of social media privacy laws for some time now. Nonetheless, it’s quite clear that people trust Facebook more than they do most other online services. And now Facebook is adding location-aware status updates that would function like a “check-in” on foursquare. There have even been blog calls for Facebook to acquire one of the new game-based Locamedias.

So, if you think game-based Locamedia is going to be short-lived, think again. The utility for consumers and businesses is too good to pass up, and if we’ve learned anything about privacy on the Internet we know that life, err… the Internet, finds a way.

Fuller’s show still contains all the visuals. Five nobody artists / musicians / models are forced to cohabitate in a Californian mansion with one obsession: making it big in Hollywood. The fact that they can’t stand each other might be beside the point. Except for one big difference: You, the viewer, are the consultant, manager, critic, and potential replacement. You too inhabit the new reality equation. Don’t like one of the contestant’s hairdos? Facebook them with a better style. Want to see the handsome guitarist make it big? Publicize his upcoming show on Twitter. Think you can make a better actor than the contestant from Chicago? Audition for his spot on Myspace.

Remember the “Rage Against the X-Factor” phenomenon from 2009? No longer an issue. Fuller says the next frontier is the video world of “authentic real-time interaction. “If I Can Dream experiments with technology to provide for the first time a complete open-door opportunity that allows the viewer to experience reality in a way never before attempted. This is the dawning of a new age.”

In other words, get ready for the FUBU of reality vision.

We’re talking 24/7 online broadcasting and commenting. Myspace, for example, will provide the show’s primary social media base with a customized page for the show and each of its contestants. Fans, wannabees, company sponsors—an entire peanut gallery of participants—share and interact. Hulu, the online video broadcaster known for its infamous “Anywhere, Anytime” slogan, will launch a 30-minute weekly highlight wrap-up. It’s also free to anyone with an Internet connection.

The relatively cheap and open-ended exposure has caught the attention of some big brand companies who are providing innovation approaches to their marketing know-how. Ford Motor Company, for example, has shed its prehistoric marketing department reputation by refueling its Fiesta with more pedal power. Ford had one hundred participants drive the Fiesta with a follow-up blogging session in what is known as the “Fiesta Movement”. This savvy project resulted in generating a 37% share of Gen-Yers gaining familiarity with the Fiesta, according to a Ford sponsored survey. Pretty good, considering the car isn’t even slated for the sales floor until the summer of 2010. Not too shabby for a company that was on the chopping block less than a year ago.

“[If I Can Dream] is a natural role for Fiesta to play,” said Connie Fontaine, Ford brand content and alliances manager. “Fiesta’s substantial role will allow customers to interact with the vehicle firsthand and experience the technologies and features before the vehicle goes on sale… and will provide viewers a different look at the cast members through amazing technology and the Fiesta.”

Simply put, contestants are going to be driving Fiestas in the show and talking about it with viewers in their blogs. Cheap, effective, and interactive.

Pepsi is another sponsor. They’re aiming for direct sales of their bubbly, but they’re also on to something new with their “Refresh Project”. The project will allow viewers to submit and discuss ideas of how to improve (refresh) their world on the refresheverything.com blog. Viewers will vote on the best ideas, then Pepsi will provide the winners with a grant to make the idea into reality. The complimenting possibilities for If I Can Dream and the Refresh Project seem limitless, as viewers would most likely be familiar and interact with both. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the show contestants taking part in Pepsi funded projects on air.

We’re seeing a new way of media marketing through the authentication of reality vision by direct audience participation. Much like online movements past, this new style of reality vision shows signs of becoming a living and evolving organism of opportunity. If the show is a hit like its American Idol cousin, it will be reasonable to expect a major push into the social media marketing world by the blue chips and their participation through company sponsored social media “movements” and “projects.”

The down side? It might lead to the demise of much-loved shows like Jersey Shore—very popular with New Jersey’s state government.

I ecourage you to read the above linked story. It is a sad day for ducks ‘n flags. While I’m sure we can recover in time, the magnitude of this event will be felt for the rest of our existence.

Good luck and godspeed.

After a speech in Milan Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi fell to the floor while mingling with supporters in the crowd. He rose with a bloody face and a brand new model of the Duomo Cathedral of Milan in hand.

“I can’t believe it!” said one onlooker, “our favorite monument just came out of his face!”

He was rushed to his car by his assistants and taken to a nearby hospital. Doctors have reported that he is suffering from a broken nose and two broken teeth.

“It’s not so bad actually,” said Mr Berlusconi’s personal physician, Dr Alberto Zangrillo, “I’ve seen much worse facial injuries from actual in-hospital births.”

The model cathedral has been placed at Mr. Berlusconi’s bedside.

The Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, has said that Mr. Berlusconi “will make a wonderful father” and has publically labeled the birth as a miracle.

“I’ve visited the Prime Minister in the hospital,” he said, “and I am confident the newborn model will be in a good environment to grow to be as big as the actual church.”

Behold! Leonid M. Chernovetsky!

The history of politicians in the modern era reads like a roster of the spiritually crippled: dwarfs, twinkies, eunuchs constitutionally incapable of resisting the lures of vice, mediocrity, and acquiescence to the status quo. The impotence of these demagogic half-men is a ubiquitous blight on public life in this century. Those rare specimens who attempt to stand against the tide are almost invariably hammered down by the riffraff. And yet, above the curs there today towers a man. Behold the honorable mayor of Kiev, Ukraine, сэр Chernovetsky.

Leonid Chernovetsky, known affably to many as “Lenny Cosmos” due to his otherworldly demeanor, is credited with such triumphs of conscience as:

• Championing animal rights: He fired a zoo director for failing to find a mate for an elephant.
• Flouting conventions of attire: He once held a news conference in a Speedo.
• Supporting global artistic appreciation: He fervently pushed for the construction of a statue in Africa honoring the famous Ukrainian poet, Taras Shevchenko.
• Promoting nonviolence: He offered to sell his kisses in a lottery.
• Brightening the world with music: He is known for interrupting meetings to warble Soviet ballads. “Who sings better than me? Nobody, besides God.”
• Upholding the rights of the mentally ill: He stands proud in the face of diagnoses of mental illness and accusations of drug and alcohol abuse. “They are judging me today and want me to spend the rest of my life behind the bars of a psychiatric hospital. Look at my body, at how I express my thoughts. I am absolutely healthy. I think logically and philosophically.”
• Promoting public health: He generously volunteered the secret to his full head of hair: rubbing it aggressively with a towel after his daily shower.

Yet, despite his noble gestures, the Ukrainian Parliament wants to see this fine man ousted from office. And, all too predictably, his rivals play his heroic individuality to their advantage, claiming his “eccentric” behavior makes Ukraine look “ridiculous.”

It is time to stand up for a 21st century leader we deserve. Let us fight the base character assassins and rally behind Lenny to the end of the Cosmos.

http://reinventingthesacred.ning.com/video/video/show?id=1986926%3AVideo%3A33

I’d sing you a song
if I had a nice voice
but it makes children cry
so I have little choice.

I’d paint you a picture
of my love with pastel
but I have little talent;
there’s no way you could tell.

So I’ll do what I’m good at
for crying out loud
and pummel you in canoodles
except you’re on the other side of the fucking planet.

hah.

Guilty as charged.

So you could imagine how happy I was when I saw the BBC News report that the UK population of Red Squirrel is rising after a deep dip due to the global squirrel pandemic “Squirrel Pox”.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7573535.stm

Yay squirrels!@#