Mike Butcher

Mobango, a site for publishing and sharing user-generated content for mobile phones claims it has experienced a 41% monthly growth in the amount of content being downloaded through its mobile portal across Europe, North America and Asia. This uptake has resulted, in part, from a 26% compounded monthly growth rate in the number of people using this function, says the firm.

Over half of Second Life users are watching less TV since becoming memebers of the virtual world, according to a new report. But clearly TV advertisers had better get moving into this new world, because the report from market intelligence house GMI found that just over half (56%) of users think Second Life is a good promotional vehicle. Only 16 percent say they would not be more likely to buy or use a brand that is represented in the Internet-based virtual world

In addition twenty-four percent of respondents claim they go to Second Life to escape real life, which they are ‘not satisfied’ with, while 64 percent present themselves differently. Additional findings include:

* 45 percent give themselves a more attractive body

* 37 percent make themselves younger

* 23 percent give themselves a different nationality

* 55 percent watch less television since becoming active in Second Life

* 22 percent have more Second Life friends than real-life friends

* 29 percent feel Second Life interferes with their real-world social life

Here’s me (far left) moderating the Chinwag Live: PR UnSpun event on Tuesday. The panel and audience Q&A was the best I’ve witnessed yet. I look forward to the “Dark Side of Social Media” event I’ll chair on 19 June (details to be announced).

As per using the wisdom of the crowds, if anyone knows of a great place to have a breakfast meeting in London which also has free WiFi, then email me on mike at mbites dot com, thanks!

Moblog.co.uk has relaunched its site with a new redesign and launched a moblog for mobile operator 3’s X-Series handset range.

Co-founder Alfie Dennen says: “The new homepage is geared towards being more inviting to new users, whilst also being a much more easy way to discover new things happening on the site. One of the new elements is something we call “busyness”, which calls those posts which have the most comment activity to the front page.”Featured moblogs are also more prominent now, making it easier to see what competitions and interesting images and video are being posted by bands, charities and other organisations moblogging.

A new tag cloud, displays interesting posts and discovers what tags are common throughout the site. The site’s navigation is now always visible at the top of the page, with the addition of the new ‘featured’ and ‘highlights’ links. Some enhancements have also been made to the search page, improving search results overall.

Moblog recently announced a deal to license its technology to Channel for the for Big Art Mob.

FYI: As I said here, from now on mbites.com will become my personal blog (stuff about me, what I’m doing what I’m thinking out loud etc) while tbites.com will be where I write in a more professional manner about tech startups, Web 2.0 and social media. End transmission…

I’m currently writing an article about Twitter for New Media Age magazine. Given how much coverage they have had so far it feels a little daunting and I’m not sure I’ll uncover much that’s new (although I’ll try, of course!). If you feel you are in a position to contribute to this, perhaps by commenting or passing me any inside information, then email me. For the record, I protect my sources (and have been for about 19 years now).

Put this button on your blog in a show of support for BBC Reporter Alan Johnston who was abducted in Gaza on the 12th of March.

I’m helping to create the content for the NMK Forum 07 conference on June 13th (Vecosys.com is a media partner, and you can book here). Now, I’m going to make a totally outlandish claim for this event now, which is this: this conference will be unlike any new media / digital / web conference you have ever been to. Why am I sticking my neck out you ask yourselves?

Well, here are 10 Reasons To Come To NMK Forum

First: Great keynote speakers and panels. We have managed to great some very well known names involved:

Jason Calacanis needs almost no introduction. He is an internet entrepreneur from the old days who ran Silicon Alley Reporter magazine in New York, then went on to found and later sell Weblogs Inc (publisher of Engadget.com) to AOL for a reputed $25m. Since then Jason has relaunched Netscape.com as a competitor to Digg and is now “Entrepreneur in Action” at Sequoia Capital in LA. Recently he started the CalacanistCast video/audio podcast. Jason is an amazing speaker and an often controversial voice. He is well worth coming along to hear.

Dan Gillmor is the director of the Center for Citizen Media, a project affiliated with Harvard University. He currently works with Backfence.com and is the author of We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People (2004; O’Reilly Media). He is also a former technology journalist with The San Hose Mercury News. Dan literally wrote the book on social media and will be a fascinating speaker on where it’s headed next.

Nic Brisbourne is a partner with venture capitalists Esprit Capital Partners. Why are we getting Nic to speaker at an NMK event you ask? Well Nic also runs the respected Equity Kicker blog where he has been giving a venture capitalist’s eye-view of were digital media is heading. It’s rare to see VCs so free with their thinking and Nic will be giving us his view about the web business models currently setting the world alight – or not as the case may be.

Jyri Engeström is co-founder of jaiku.com, currently being touted as the “European” competitor to Twitter. A veteran of the Helsinki mobile scene he is also a founder of the Aula Network, a nonprofit to advance the vision of a creative society. His blog at zengestrom.com will tell you more, but his vision of the social mobile web will be fascinating to hear at the conference itself.

The panels themselves will be big, with lots of expert voices up there to challenge each other and be challenged by the delegates. This is going to be a ‘two-way’ debate, not the ‘gospel from on high’ so come ready to ask and pose lots of questions!

Second: Wi-Fi and Power! I’ve been to too many events where the Wi-Fi is either not working or, when you ask about it, the event organisers look at you as if you’ve just asked for a pint of Yak’s milk. We’ll attempt – please God! – to make the Wi-Fi the best and fastest you’ve ever had at an event. And what’s a new media conference these days without somewhere to plug in the laptop and re-charge the mobile? We’ll be rolling out the extension leads and plugs, which leads me to…

Third: A “Blogger’s Bullpen”. Do you blog? Do you plan to come to the conference? Then we’ll have special places for you to sit and blog you heart out.

Fourth: A great venue in an eighteenth century restored church in the heart of London’s digerati-filled Clerkenwell, with its myriad of bars and clubs nearby.

Fifth: Lots and lots of opportunity to network and meet your peers both during the day and at the evening party. We’ve even decided on circular tables because there will be more room for delegates (more room for your laptop, notebooks, cameras, camcorders etc) and it’s easier to meet new people. We have literally built this conference around networking, discussion and debate, so even if – heaven forbid – you don’t get excited by the panels, you’ll love the networking.

Sixth: A live back-channel: Too many conference seem to either have no online backchannel (like a chat room or IRC channel) where people can debate the issues being discussed on stage or, when they have one, it’s all unofficial and rather frowned upon by the organisers. NMK Forum will have an official backchannel, live during the panels and we have even set up a Twitter presence as well. If you can think of any other ways we can increase the level of digital interaction, then let me know – we’re up for it.

Seventh: Widgets! Ok, so not strictly speaking a Widget, but if you put the NMK Forum logo on your blog you get an easy 5% discount on your qualifying admission ticket price!

Eighth: Discounts & freebies: Apart from the 5% discount for the above, sponsor Jiglu.com is offering all delegates free MailSpaces software worth £200 a pop. (The first 50 people to book will get 5 licences each).

Ninth: A South By South West festival atmosphere: NMK organisers want to hear from individuals and companies that want to promote their activities. In many cases there are affordable sponsor packages they can take, but we are trying to work out how individuals, small firms or startups can have a presence too. Ideas welcome – please contact NMK’s PR & Product Manager Rebecca Fitzgerald (email: Rebecca.Fitzgerald(@)NMK.co.uk Tel: +44 20 7915 5412) about having a presence at the conference. There is also more information here.

Tenth: A showcase of startups and “projects”. This is still in formation, but basically we’ll be giving a handful of organisations (startups, technologists, or just interesting “projects”) the opportunity to give a 2 minute presentation of their work. This is not a dumb “pitch for venture capital money” but an attempt to showcase interesting projects which could disrupt the digital media arena in the future. Contact me if you think you are the next Last.FM or Skype.

Eleventh: Er, that’s it. What are you waiting for? GO BOOK A TICKET

I’m organising a panel discussion provisionally titled “The Dark Side Of Social Media”. This is going to be about how Social Media (MySpace, YouTube etc etc) has a ‘bad’ side, and it is not quite the new media nirvana some make it out to be. The Kathy Sierra incident is just once recent, extreme example.

For instance consider these issues surrounding social media which remain unresolved:

• Child safety remains an issue

• Anonymity can promote bullying and a distopian environment

• The ability to “game” social media (Asking people for Diggs, begging for Myspace links for a crap pop band etc) means the currency of social media is falling

• Identity theft – Anyone can create be anyone’s MySpace page

• Privacy – if you expose yourself to the world via blogs/twitter, doesn’t the world bite back? What about Government invasion?

• Google – gradually it will know everything about us and our relationships – does this ‘hard wire’ out reputations? Your mistakes, your accusations are always there to haunt you, and worse still, they don’t date. Are Life Streams and Life Caching really a good idea?

• Brands and their reputations in the social media space – are they playing with fire?

• Online campaigning, lobbying and hi-jacking of political websites – how it can backfire

If you have some thoughts on these matters or are gagging to be on the panel (more later on who it’s for) then get in touch (see mbites.com/contact) and I’ll have a think.

Meanwhile, if you have a more positive outlook than me, check this out:

“Goodness 2.0: How can wikis, blogs, social networks, virtual worlds and other web 2.0 tools create new and innovative ways for charitable and campaigning organisations to work internally, to communicate and to engage?”