Usage of the term meme within mainstream media has increased significantly since we first started tracking it via google alerts over the last 12 months. As with all new terms making their way into the lingua franca of business its interpretation and application varies widely.

Memeticist and author Susan Blackmore recently gave an interesting talk at TED titled Memes and Temes. She defined memes as that which is immitated or information which is copied from person to person.

The first half of Susans talk provides a useful introduction to the concept of memes while the second half provides a conversation starter on memes, genes and temes. Runtime is 20 minutes and recommended viewing in full.

The sixth annual D:All Things Digital Conference was held at the Four Seasons Resort Aviara in Carlsbad, CA this week. Our pick of this years sessions was co-host Kara Swisher interviewing Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook. Part one covers Facebooks past and present. Part two discusses digital identity and what steps Facebook is taking to address privacy issues. Video highlights of all other D6 interviews are available for viewing on the D6 Highlights page.

On the non-profit side we have spoken with representatives from charities about how they might better harness the power of the Web. One of those is Paul Lynch and his committee who organise the annual GOAL charity ball in Paris. This year they are using a wiki to organise the event rather than email. Ronan and Paul have revamped www.goal-ball.org enabling people to pay for tickets online, specify meal choices and pick tables. A group has also been setup on Facebook (GOAL Ball Paris) for attendees to join in the conversation.

Each of the above projects are good illustrations of the transition now taking place in social computing. The beneficial use of second generation Web tools is now moving from early adopters to mainstream users.

Debra Aho Williamson shared Comscore KPI data for each of above looking at unique visitors worldwide, US social network advertising spend and time spent on site. The growth and importance of social network platforms continues apace. With proof-of-concepts now firmly in place all eyes are on next generation platforms soon to come to market.

Some of the hybrids we are tracking from the social network and virtual worlds space show promising early signs. As development continues apace within this space each of these next generation platforms will take digital identity and attention streams to a whole new level. All of which will provide the foundations necessary for the Meta Age to become a reality.

Rivers Run Red CEO Justin Boddington recently remarked that 60% of the queries they have received of late related to internal communication projects. Organisations cannot be something on the outside they are not already on the inside as many early entrants to Second Life have learned. With two of the Metaverse Development Company founders who brought many of the early entrants into Second Life awakening to this fact that is a very good thing.

PA Consulting and The Sunday Times recently teamed up to host a conference titled Getting Real About Business in Second Life. Claus Nehmzow of PA Consulting moderated a panel with Randy Sisks of Cisco, Pascal Spelier of ABN Amro and Dominic Rushe of The Sunday Times. The event was recorded and is viewable in four parts. Runtime for each video is under 10 minutes.

Part one and two provide business presentations from each of the panel on their experiences in Second Life todate. Part three covers the following topics from the Q&A - virtual worlds v video conferencing, partnering through Second Life, communication methods and integrate channels. Part four covers the following topics from the Q&A - entry costs, focus groups, confidential meetings, recruitment and the future of virtual worlds.

Over the next five years most businesses will have a virtual world presence just as they have a website today. As the above example demonstrates some of the more forward looking organisations are already experimenting with early virtual world offerings. While only at the very beginning of the beginning of our transition to a Meta Age virtual worlds represent a unique facilitation role for organisations of all sizes and sectors. Interesting times indeed.

One of our mantras here at Mobil Avenue is that social computing is not about the technology but rather what people actually do with the technology. A great example of this is the Open Architecture Challenge. It was conceived by Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architect for Humanity, and supported by AMD’s 50X15 initative.

Three community partners were selected from 108 applicants across three continents. For-profit non-profit initiatives on sites in Napo Province (Ecuador), Sanfe Bagar, Achham (Nepal) and Nairobi (Kenya) will give their respective communities the opportunity to help themselves.

Entrants to the challenge are not required to hold any formal qualifications and are invited to develop a design for one, two or all three sites. Closing date for entries is Febuary 29th with funds of up to $250k being made available for the chosen designs. All entries will be made available in the public domain at the end of the challenge to share all concept designs for use elsewhere.

One of the entrants is Studio Wikitecture who over the last year have been using virtual world Second Life as a platform to explore the concept of open source architecture. Theory Shaw SL / Ryan Schultz RL and Keystone Bouchard SL / Jon Brouchoud RL are harnessing the collective intelligence of 40+ “architects” from around the world utilising technology developed in collaboration with i3Dnow. Hat tip to Roland Legrand for bringing this wonderful initiative to our attention.

It was good to see The Gamer Disposition by John Seely Brown & Douglas Thomas, Making Alternate Reality the New Business Reality by Jane McGonigal, The Metaverse : TV of the future? by Miklos Sarvary, Giving Avatars Emotive control by Judith Donath and Happy Metadata trails by Jan Chipchase making this years list.

All are recommended reading and food for thought as we enter the Meta Age. For those interested in linking the above ideas together I recommend listening to this podcast. Adam Pasick interviewed Mitch Kapor at Davos last week and touched on many of the above themes.

Charlie Rose chatted with Ken Auletta about Google and emerging technology this week. Runtime is 38 minutes and recommended viewing. The conversation centers around Ken’s recent New Yorker piece titled The Search Party. During the interview Ken mentioned in passing Charlie’s interview with Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page back on July 26th 2001. Over Google’s first three years of operation it grew 20% month-on-month purely by word-of-mouth.

Six and a half years after bringing Eric Schmidt onboard as CEO Google are well on their way to becoming the first $100bn media company. Wireless is the business driver which will take them there. Key to enabling this is the arrival of handset devices which will deliver a remote control for life. Having been fortunate enough to use the N95 and iPhone over the last 6 months we are not there yet but we are getting there. Interesting times indeed.

The second was Getting Real Work Done in Virtual Worlds by Erica Driver and Paul Jackson. It predicts that within five years, the 3-D Internet will be as important for work as the Web is today. Information and knowledge management professionals should begin to investigate and experiment with virtual worlds. Both reports provide useful reference points as to what lies ahead.

BBC recently ran an excellent three-part series titled Visions of the Future. Futurist Dr Michio Kaku hosted the series and explores the cutting edge science of today, tomorrow, and beyond. Part one is titled The Intelligence Revolution and looks at what will happen when ubiquitous computing converges with the Internet.

In this century, we are going to make the historic transition from the ‘Age of Discovery’ to the ‘Age of Mastery’, a period in which we will move from being passive observers of nature to its active choreographers.

Ronan and I both share Michio’s worldview that humankind is at the beginning of the beginning of a major transition. Runtime of part one is 50 minutes. For those interested part two titled The Biotech Revolution and part three titled The Quantum Revolution are also recommended viewing.