This week we have started to plan for PodCamp Ireland 2008 which will take place on Saturday 27 September 2008.

However if you can not wait that long to connect with colleagues about social media in a virtual world, then head on over to the website for 3Dcamp, a non-conference focusing on virtual worlds (Second Life, the Metaverse), mirror worlds (Google Earth and Virtual Earth), mapping mashups, GPS, Location based Services (LBSs), haptics (eg. Wiimote hacks), 3D modelling (Blender, Sketchup) and all things 3D.

And if you don’t understand what all these terms are (I certainly don’t), then it’s a good reason to attend 3Dcamp!

Here are the details:

DATE: Saturday 24th May 2008

VENUE: Engineering Research Building, University of Limerick

TIME: 10am start, 5pm finish

SPEAKERS: Go here for the curriculum and line up of speakers

REGISTER: Register to attend 3Dcamp online

What’s interesting about the registration process too is that 3Dcamp are integrating social media into their registration page asking for the following information:

• Your Twitter username: For notices and discussion on 3Dcamp
• Your Jaiku username: For notices and discussion on 3Dcamp

In addition, you’ll be asked where you are travelling from so that they can calculate the carbon-offset calculation and plan carpooling.

So if you are interested in learning more about virtual worlds, 3D modelling, mirror worlds and mashups and what benefit they can bring your business, head on down to Limerick for 3Dcamp later this month.

Remember, like all non-conferences, it’s FREE to attend.

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One of the professional associatons I enjoy being a member of for their great content and workshops is the Irish Internet Association.

They host an annual conference, and this year it is taking place on the 15 May 2008 at Croke Park in Dublin.

The theme of Congress 2008 is “Beyond Websites: Business Uses of Social Networking and New Media”. The IIA National Congress 2008 will include sessions on the impact that social networking has had on business, successful integration of social networking into organisations’ business models and why it a key strategy and should be part of the marketing and communications mix in business..

Speakers will include leading industry professionals from Bebo, Dell, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Microsoft, IGOpeople.com and Worldwide Cycles.

A new feature of the IIA National Congress 2008 will be Web Strategy Clinics where you will have a chance to book a one-on-one 30 minute slot with an industry expert who will be able to give you specific guidance for your online strategy.

Full details, profile of past delegates, programme outline, breakout session topics and online booking are all available at the IIA National Congress 2008 website.

Any attendee from outside the Dublin city and county area can benefit from a 20% discount. Further discounts are available for group bookings of 5 and over and charities - just email events@iia.ie to receive your discount voucher.

Let me know if you plan to attend and perhaps we can connect at lunch time or for a drink after the event.

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Are you looking for a current understanding of the scale of social media across the globe? Well look no further than the extensive study undertaken in March 2008 by Universal McCann - Power To The People - Wave3.

The research covers input from 17,000 internet users across 29 countries and was undertaken to understand the rise in consumer generated content and how people are using social media.

It is certainly the most extensive global report I have seen on the subject of social media adoption.

Key notes from the Power To The People - Wave 3 report include the following statistics:

• 83% of people are watching online video, an increase from 62% at the time of the last study in June 2007
• 78% of people are reading blogs, an increase from 66% in the previous study
• 57% of internet users are members of social networks
• RSS consumption has increased to 39% from 15%
• 48% of the people surveyed listen to podcasts.

There are also some interesting differences about social media adoption across geographies:

• Blogging - China leads the way with 70% of internet users writing a blog (that’s 42 million bloggers versus 26 million people in the US), followed closely by the Philippines at 66% and Mexico at 60%
• Social networking - the Philippines leads the way with 83% of the people surveyed being a member of a social network, followed by 76% in Hungary and Poland alike.

Unfortunately there is no specific data for Ireland - I guess we are such a tiny dot on the social media landscape and as we have discussed here previously we are still behind the curve in the adoption of social media of business blogging an podcasting, though increasingly more people are a member of social networks from Linkedin to Facebook, from Bebo to MySpace.

You can access the Universal McCann Power To The People - Wave3 social media report online.

A word of warning - the file is over 25MB.

Thanks to Theresa Houlihan of Universal McCann for sharing the report with me.

I do recommend that you check out the Universal McCann where you can access other reports including their Anytime Anyplace report that covers mobile phones and portable technology.

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Have you ever wondered what the commentators to your business blog sound or look like?

Well you don’t have to wonder any more if you use Wordpress.org as Seesmic, the video conversation site founded by Loic Le Meur has recently released a plug in for your Wordpress.org blog so that your community and followers of your business blog can leave video comments.

I’m about to update my blog and will certainly be checking out the plug in for video comments which you can access at the Seesmic Wiki.

I’m wondering if that will mean I can no longer blog in my PJ’s if I’m going to leave video comments on other peoples blogs!

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I’m noticing more and more people migrating to Twitter in the recent months - it’s one of the microblogging applications where you can post a comment of just 140 characters or less.

If you missed our recent podcast on Twitter you can access it here.

You can follow me on Twitter here.

I’ve found Twitter a great tool to quickly get a summary of what people in my network are up to, a terrific source of tips and tricks and I’ve also used it for research to ask questions.

Donna Papacosta is also using Twitter to help her create her wonderful Trafcom podcast. She recently she sent a Tweet to her network recently about the importance of creating shownotes for your podcast and her most recent show includes their comments and thoughts (if you are a newbie podcast producer, it’s definately worth a listen).

However it’s sometimes difficult to follow the thread of the conversation on Twitter or to quickly research on Twitter. That’s where these great new platforms come into use:

1. Tweetscan - a real time search engine for Tweets
2. Quotably - where you can follow the conversation online on one page - just type in the persons Twitter ID to see what they have been writing about recently - as an example you can see my Tweets here
   
3. Twitter on Alltop - the news aggregation site Alltop which I wrote about recently has the Tweets of some of the most prolific users of Twitters listed
4. Twitter Summize - probably my favourite tool for researching on Twitter as you can search under key words, search for  Tweets from a user, search for Tweets to a user, search for Tweets referencing a user and even translate the Tweets into a number of languages.

Next to Google Alerts, and Wikipedia, I’m finding Twitter a great resource for online research. What online research tools do you prefer? How have you been using Twitter?

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