Mobil Avenue

July was an active month within the social computing space. Microsoft kicked things off by acquiring Powerset for $100m. Founded in October 2006 and having raised $12.5m in venture funding the San Francisco based search and natural language company are early semantic web practictioners. Apple launched its much awaited iPhone 3G with 1m units sold over its opening weekend. If you have yet to get hands on with the device we recommend watching its 30 minute guided tour video.

Google went public with Lively, one of its virtual world projects. The browser based offering joins Meez Nation and a number of other browser based virtual world offerings currently within the marketplace. IBM and Linden Lab announced the launch of their Open Grid Public Beta project. Interoperability within virtual worlds is something both companies have been working on in partnership for sometime.

Each of the above were discussed with analysts looking to understand how the third wave is taking shape. While public listed companies were mere observers of the second wave they are now positioning themselves to be active participants within the third wave. Making this transition from user centric to user driven is one of the great challenges many organisations face as we enter the Meta Age. Interesting times indeed.

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.