With time goes on, the type of jewelry changed very fast. Fashion jewelry is becoming more and more popular. Gemstone jewelry and pearls jewelry are becoming just as popular. And pearls jewelry can be made into other jewelry such as shell pearl jewelry.
Modern pearls have become so functional-they don't only represent dignity and wealth any more, but now have a more romantic element. Now pearls are essential to create a romantic style of jewelry. They are being combined with romantic patterns like flowers, symbols of purity like platinum and representing long-lasting love stones like diamond. With pearls, the whole piece of jewelry becomes so much visual and refined. Here are some types of pearl jewelry with other gemstones.
Pearls with shell patterns
When people realize how important the nature has become, pearls jewelry with shell is become a new fashion item and are brought into jewelry. In a piece of jewelry with pearl and shell can express the elegance of pearl and the dignity of shell. pearl shell necklace and pearl shell earring is the most popular type in the market. pearls just add so much life and bring out the romance for the whole piece of jewelry.
Pearls with platinum
White oval shiny fresh water pearls match so well with platinum. Platinum has natural clean whiteness with shiny brightness, while smooth white pearls have feminine soft personality. In a necklace or bracelet, five or six white pearls are arranged separately on a fine platinum chain, which makes the whole set exquisite.
Pearls with diamonds
Diamonds are glittering and translucent with a sharp luster and white light. Opaque pearls seem transparent by its shininess and colorful overtones. Clear diamonds make lustrous pearls more mysterious. A combination of Tahiti black pearls and white diamonds not only gives a perfect color contrast, but also defines how perfect the diamond's brilliance and the pearl's elegance match together.
For more information welcome to visit http://www.aypearl.com/articles/218.html
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Drug Alcohol Test supporting drug testing needs of individuals and organizations introduced newer drug test products to better serve its customers.

Drug Alcohol Test which is a well recognized professionally managed business firm has introduced convenient and reliable newer drug testing products to better serve its customers.

To better serve its customers, DAT introduced a new advanced EZ Test Cup II which is convenient and helps to get accurate results. The EZ Test Cup II with hinged lid has new integrated test variants that offer better quality of results at the same price. The efficient design of the EZ Test Cup II makes testing easier at homes, offices, events etc. As home users apart from organizations and institutions constitute a major portion of customer base of DAT, the EZ Test Cup II with simplified procedures will benefit employees and individuals who feel comfortable in privacy of their homes and offices.

Some of the new drug testing products offered by DAT are CLIA waived tests. As CLIA regulates all laboratory testing systems in US and require extensive documentation, the laboratories have to work in compliance with CLIA. However, these newer drugs testing products from DAT which are CLIA waived does not require extensive documentation and can be performed easily.

Besides these newer products, DAT also offers integrated test kits and a selection of Nicotine test kits, Alcohol test kits, Pregnancy test kits, and Urine adulteration detection test kits which are of high quality, approved by FDA, and adhere to SAMHSA cutoff levels. A wide variety of Breathalyzers are also offered by DAT.

DAT has also expanded its range of oral drug tests and now includes oral drug tests in different test formats. The customers can now have a wide range of selection of oral drug tests which can be easily performed at workplaces, home, schools etc. As oral drug tests are easy to administer, tamper proof, less invasive, and provide quick results, they are most suitable for employee drug testing at workplaces and in schools.

The new drug testing kits are affordable for corporate customers, home users, employees, and schools etc.

For further details, please contact-
Drug Alcohol Test
412 Collingsworth Lane
Greenville, SC 29615
United States
Tel: 1-888-237-3445 (Toll Free)
Website: www.drugalcoholtest.com

About Drug Alcohol Test:
Drugalcoholtest.com offers products online ranging from test kits for drug abuse to alcohol tests to integrated tests for drug testing of employees, individuals, at schools, and home users for past several years. Drug Alcohol Test provides quick, accurate,
user-friendly, affordable, and quality drug testing products in several formats including blood, urine, and oral drug testing kits. It also provides laboratory confirmation services for further testing of specimens to confirm drug usage. Drug Alcohol Test is accredited by BBB.org and also provides free shipping for orders above $25. Drug Alcohol Test also offers improvised testing kits in popular methods of testing such as strips and cups making it easy to use their products.

http://www.drugalcoholtest.com/Marijuana-Drug-Testing-Cards-p-16133.html

The word cup Geman lost the chance of win the world cup.That is a pity!

LANCES BAY, JAMAICA – MAY 12, 2010 – Karen and Coleman Hookaylo always dreamed of retiring to Jamaica and opening their own vacation resort … and now they are living that dream.

The couple has opened Le Mer luxury villas in Lances Bay, Jamaica, which sits between Montego Bay and Negril. These private villas, located just steps from the ocean, offers spacious rooms and beautiful views.

“I always knew that I wanted to retire and find a way to share my beautiful homeland with others,” said Karen, who was born and raised in Jamaica. “Then when Coleman and I, who were both attorneys in Hilton Head, South Carolina, retired three years ago – we thought ‘Why not now?”

So the Hookaylos purchased the land Le Mer now sits on and went to work turning its run-down buildings and overgrown landscaping into their vision of a tranquil vacation getaway.

The site now boasts simply-styled, Caribbean-themed villas with their own kitchens and living areas.

“To see this land transformed from where it was to where it is now has been truly exciting,” Karen said. “Now visitors can come together on the unique balcony or relax under the cabana and read in the shade. They can explore sea caves, snorkel in the clear blue water, or relax in our pool.”

“Le Mer truly is the realization of a dream and we feel so lucky to be here right now,” Karen said.

Each villa at Le Mer comes with the following accommodations – two bedrooms with king beds, two bedrooms with two queen beds, a living room, a dining room and a full kitchen.

Rates range from $280 per night to $1750 per week for the entire 4 bedroom villa.

“We know our rates are low compared to some of the other villas in Jamaica, but our location is very unique and focuses on “rest and relaxation”. We love the simplicity of it, it is not a fast paced tourist resort, just beautiful serenity by the water” says Karen.

For more information about Le Mer luxury villas in Lances Bay, Jamaica, please visit http://lemerluxuryvillas.com.

Not Every Photo needs editing and restoration on it, you can check for the quality of the image and it can help you discover a completely unique view of your image. Any photo may be damaged, bad lighting conditions or bad scan. You can remove any object, make yourself slim, drawing effects, pencil effects and make your photo sharper then ever.

Kent, England, March, 25, 2010 – UKWritingExperts.co.uk offering wide variety of research papers including university essays, custom assignments, dissertation samples, thesis and term papers at most affordable prices.

UKWritingExperts.co.uk is recognized as 100% plagiarism free work service, with a 15 years of experience in the industry and customer satisfaction by assisting the educational careers.

“Unlike other companies we never try to keep our customers under a deceptive impression. Our writing processes are vividly clear and very well defined with effective and efficient quality assurance department. Every single essay of our customer is passed through proper quality assurance department where writing experts with professional degrees and extensive work experience check every line of the essay just to ensure the quality of the essay. After checking the paper they forward it to the delivery department from where it gets delivered to the customers” Said CEO UKWriting Experts

UKWritingExperts.co.uk is a single-ownership, single-site term paper business that has thousands of satisfied clients.

UKWritingExperts.co.uk believes in hiring the best essay writers available, writers are highly professionals and have written thousands of term papers, essays, assignments. Their customer services is excellent, clients can access to their writers, can write to customer service at any time with their questions, and they are satisfied that they receive 100% original work, done exactly the way they ask.

UKWritingExperts.co.uk improved the website version more user friendly. UKWritingExperts.co.uk has added a live chat to its array of customer service offerings. Live representative’s staffs the lines during all of the same hours the business has always offered live support (7 AM to 11 PM).

UKWritingExperts.co.uk making hard efforts to remain the industry leader in writing university essays, research papers , custom essays, term papers, dissertations, and Ph.D theses for years to come.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

UKWritingExperts.co.uk
Nexus Corporation
Tel: 023 355 2686
Email: register@ukwritingexperts.co.uk
URL: www.ukwritingexperts.co.uk

Merry Christmas!
Xlinksoft Studio gives you a really super-value gift for holidays. Buy our popular products and get the  highest discount (50% price off).  

Christmas page: Merry Christmas

For windows:

Xlinksoft Video Converter Platinum       off 40%

Xlinksoft  Blackberry Video Converter       off 45%

Xlinksoft iPhone  video  Converter          off 45%   

Xlinksoft PSP video  Converter         off 45%   

Xlinksoft ipod Converter                 off 45%

My Call Home is the latest product from Redeye Telecom which is interconnected with top global carriers including Cable & Wireless. My Call Home do not believe in asking customers to enter pin numbers or forcing customers to buy extra sim cards to make calls, instead we offer a CLI based service so that customers can simply register their mobile number or landline, and then make their calls.

My Call Home is a prepaid telecom service that allows you to call anywhere in the world using any phone that you choose.

My Call Home uses the latest technology solutions to divert your call to its destination providing you with the most cost effective route and best quality for your call.

For example, you can call Europe, Asia, Australia and USA from 1p per minute using My Call Home but with other service providers it may cost you much more.

The My Call Home service gives you

It’s a high quality, low cost telecommunications service which will save money on your international telephone calls. You can make calls at anytime during the day at one low cost universal rate. Our service has no hidden charges. Our rates are competitive.

All you need to do is register with My Call Home and you can use the service from your fixed line, mobile or a payphone. You don't have to cancel your landline or your mobile phone provider to benefit from our service. It's easy to sign up, manage and, most importantly, use our service. You can pay through our secure payment process, allowing you to budget your telephone costs and view your call details instantaneously on the account section of  My Call Home website.

You can opt to pay by all major Credit or Debit cards. Once your account is open, you can either top up your account online or by calling customer services.

You have the choice of using the best service provider for your calling needs - so you can still use your BT line for local or free inclusive minutes and choose to use  My Call Home for your international calling requirements.

Cheap International calls from UK mobile

Bestmobilesaver.com is a service that lets you make cheap international calls from your mobile. No need for a computer.

To call someone directly, first you send their number to Bestmobilesaver.com. They will then generate a local Bestmobilesaver.com number which you can dial from your phone and pay a cheaper rate for calling internationally.

The rates start from less than a penny – see them at www.bestmobilesaver.com.

When calling with Bestmobilesaver.com you do still have to pay your main provider (o2, Orange etc) for the minutes you use. However they will only be charged at local rate, or bundled as part of your FREE minutes depending on you mobile package.

Bestmobilesaver.com really is good if you have a big free minutes bundle from your mobile provider and you have lots of friends abroad. When last compared, you can save as much as £1.482 per minute compared to your home provider.

Cheap International calls from UK mobile

Bestmobilesaver.com is a service that lets
you make cheap international calls from your mobile. No need for a computer. 

To call someone directly, first you send
their number to Bestmobilesaver.com. They will then generate a local
Bestmobilesaver.com number which you can dial from your phone and pay a cheaper
rate for calling internationally. 

The rates start from less than a penny –
see them at www.bestmobilesaver.com. 

When calling with Bestmobilesaver.com you do
still have to pay your main provider (o2, Orange etc) for the minutes you use.
However they will only be charged at local rate, or bundled as part of your
FREE minutes depending on you mobile package. 

Bestmobilesaver.com really is good if you
have a big free minutes bundle from your mobile provider and you have lots of
friends abroad. When last compared, you can save as much as £1.482 per minute compared
to your home provider.

Muutamia paikkoja vapaana. http://www.adulta.fi/koulutus/koulutusesite.php?id=1531

Jyrki

I am
pleased to inform all members about the launch of our new start-up, Globalvations (www.globalvations.com), a vertical search engine on
innovations. Globalvations is a service that will support and promote
innovations and entrepreneurship. It will also be the primary source for
entrepreneurs, investors, VCs, researchers and anyone wishing to stay updated
on innovations worldwide. Please check out the following links:

http://www.seekingmedia.com.au/news.php?newsid=722&g=1

http://www.startuparabia.com/

http://www.killerappcompany.com/search.php

http://www.zinza.com/search/search+engine

http://www.altsearchengines.com/2009/07/14/search-for-global-innovations-with-globalvations-com/

http://globalvations.com/press_releases/MGM_SC_Press_Release_071009_b.pdf

We look forward to reading
your feedback.

Yours sincerely,

Malik Laibi

Managing Director

Globalvations

ICT-Werstas, Mar 3, Tampere, FINLAND - in Finnish:
http://www.hermia.fi/palvelut/ictwerstas/

8:30-9:00     Aamukahvit ja rekisteröityminen
9:00-9:05    Tervetuloa, Petri Räsänen, Teknologiakeskus Hermia

9:10–9:35    Onko iPhone myös b2b-työkalu?

Kokemuksia iPhone-palveluista ja niiden mahdollisuuksista. Pekka Markkula, johtaja, TeliaSonera Mobility Services

9:35–10:00    Se suuri ero - miten parhaat iPhone-sovellukset eroavat muista mobiiliohjelmistoista?

Miten iPhone eroaa muista puhelimista, ja miten nämä erot vaikuttavat siihen, millaisia sovelluksia laitteelle tehdään (ja kannattaa tehdä). Marko Karppinen, MK&C

10:00–10:30    Paneeli

Pekka Markkula, TeliaSonera Mobility Services
Marko Karppinen, MK&C
Tomi Terentjeff, Gemilo
KooPee Hiltunen, Neogames

17 leading
web firms have signed for the first time a European agreement to
improve the safety of under 18s who use social networking sites. These
include Arto, Bebo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Giovani.it, Google/YouTube,
Hyves, Microsoft Europe, Myspace, Nasza-klaza.pl, Netlog, One.lt,
Skyrock, StudiVZ, Sulake/Habbo Hotel, Yahoo!Europe, and Zap.lu

PRESS RELEASE 

eEemeli is an annual quality competition arranged by the Association of Finnish eLearning Centre with its partners. Jury is composed with experts of e-learning, pedagogy and education in companies and in public sector. Head of the jury this year is D.Sc., MP Jyrki J. Kasvi.

The theme of the main category of 2009 is “The Best eLearning Solution”.

This year, a new category is introduced: Young Growth Company –category aims at fostering businesses of young companies.

Read more: www.eoppimiskeskus.fi

The future use of internet requires new defined terminology. Adequate
terminology is required to technically develop new types of internet
services and to introduce new features for users.

Future internet services are also known by the term “Web 2.0” which
refers to internet features based on interactivity, tailored
environments, user communities and social networking. A mix of fuzzy
terms originating from different languages is not a good basis for
making new internet features known to users.

A terminology project has been initiated by the Finnish Communications
Regulatory Authority to investigate and define the most essential terms
currently related to the future internet. The project is open for all
entrepreneurs and other people interested in this area. The project
starts in late 2008 and is intended to provide a glossary with relevant
terms in Finnish, Swedish and English by the end of year 2009.

There will be two official announcement meetings on October 8, 2008. The first one will be held in Tampere at the MindTrek Conference
(Rosendahl site, cabinet 9) at 9:30, and the second one in Helsinki at
the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (Itämerenkatu 3A) at
14:00.

Detailed information can be obtained via Mrs. Satu Närvä by email satu.narva(at)ficora.fi or by phone (09) 6966 866.

Please let the terminology team know about the terms you think should
be clarified and defined and tell about your interest to take part in
the project. Special knowledge concerning the use of terms and their
meaning is needed during the project. Please send your feedback to the
Finnish Terminology Center TSK by email tsk(at)tsk.fi under the subject
"Web2".

Some examples of terms could be: pitkä häntä, virtuaalihyödyke,
käyttäjäsisältö, kollektiivinen sisällöntuotanto, kollektiivinen
älykkyys, jaettu sisältö, sosiaalinen media, Wiki, ennakointipörssi,
avoin kehittäminen, www-alustainen ohjelmointi, RSS-syöte, weblog,
blogosfääri, mashup, podcast, folksonomia, asiasanapilvi, widgetit ...

Welcome!

Thomas Baltscheffsky,
Director

SANASTOKESKUS TSK,
Terminologicentralen TSK
p. +358 9 2709 1060, faksi +358 9 608 859
Albertinkatu 23 A 12, 00120 HELSINKI
http://www.tsk.fi/

The work group behind this terminology project is composed of members
from the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, TeliaSonera
Finland Oyj, Elisa Oyj, FiCom ry, Finnet-liitto ry, Nokia Oyj and the
Finnish Terminology Center TSK.

Greetings from Picnic, a crossmediaweek that took place last week in Amsterdam!
The third Picnic was dedicated to the collaborative creativity, popular theme in today's content industry.
First day's keynote was We think: the power of mass creativity,  by Charles Leadbeater. Leadbeater referred to the Youtube cineasts and carage Kubricks as pebble throwers. These pebbles create only small ripples on the media surfaces but they have a growing importance in numbers. A big pile of pebbles can mount up to a large boulder.
Leadbeater pointed out that collaborative creativity requires a degree of hierarchy. The motives for anyone to join a structured community are diversity, shared sense of purpose, individual pay off and an opportunity to work with other people.
The most visible of this year's green theme was Dutch Postcode lottery competition for the best green idea or product. Out of the four finalists the jury awarded a half a million euros to a product from Evocative Design in New York. Greensulate is a building insulation panel which is made of agricultural bi-products. This is then combined with cellulose from fungi to grow your own building material! Sounds terrific.

The sheep market by Aaron Koblin

Koplin presented his project where, with the aid of Amazonin task distributor, thousands of people drew images of a sheep for a fee of a few eurosents. The sheep were then grouped into data representing patterns.
Koblin also showed a demo of New York Talk Exchange. This program shows, in real time, all telecoms traffic in and out of Manhattan. One easily predictable item was the red hot peaks of SMS traffic during New Years Eve!
According to Koblin, these data visualisations help us to see important nodule points from which to design new ways  of human interaction.  
Next autumn Wesertgaasfabriek, the old gas works will act again as the picnic grounds. But well before that, actually, next week, we will meet at Mindtrek, in Tampere! See you here!

Operation Hurricane is nominated for EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards in the category for Interactive Television. The team will meet all other 22 EUROPRIX nominee teams at the EUROPRIX Top Talent Festival in Graz November 27-29. The highlight of the festival is the EUROPRIX Awards Gala.

Operation Hurricane is an interactive television series and a web community about agents, agent mysteries and of course agent gadgets. The children series utilizes both television and web, where children can create own agents and solve weekly mysteries. As a reward for the participation, small games are unlocked for the children to play. The web community has more than 100 000 registrated users, which is a lot in a country with 5 million inhabitants.

Operation Hurricane is produced by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE.

Read more
Operation Hurricane
EUROPRIX nominees
EUROPRIX Top Talent Festival

NOKIA UBIMEDIA AWARDS DEADLINE FRIDAY 12.9. OTHER MINDTREK AWARDS AND MINDTREK STARTUP LAUNCHPAD DEADLINES EXTENDED

• The deadline for MindTrek Grand Prix and WSA Finland competition has been extended to Tuesday September 23rd 4 pm. These competitions are for products made in Finland only.
• The international Nokia Ubimedia MindTrek Award deadline is not extended; the deadline is Friday September 12th.
• The deadline for Wireless Tampere Award and My Tampere Video Contest is September 26th, as originally announced.
• The new deadline for the MindTrek Startup Launchpad is September 19th, which is also the last day to register for the MindTrek Conference.

Please find more details at:
Startup Launchpad: http://www.mindtrek.org/conference/startup-launchpad

Competition: http://mindtrek.org/competition

Hi Everyone

If you are planning to attend the CTIA in San Francisco, please let me know. I have a Finnish journalist, Raija Rapo, that is looking at covering Finnish companies that are attending CTIA in some of her press articles.

Maria Pienaar

FinNode

maria.pienaar@finpro.fi

World's First Truly Multilingual Social Network Provides Instant Global Audience and Distribution Channel for Independent Musicians; Users Can Communicate in Nearly 50 Languages From Within a Single Account

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - August 26, 2008) - XIHA Life, the world's first truly multilingual social network, publicly launched today in the U.S., allowing millions of exchange students, expatriates, and multilingual and multicultural users living outside their home countries to build global neighborhoods that let them communicate in nearly 50 languages -- all from within a single account. XIHA Life also announced today XIHA Music, its global distribution channel that provides independent musicians with an instant global audience.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey, more than 37 million immigrants now live in the U.S., and one in five people over age five speaks a language other than English. And, added to this are the millions of native English speakers who learn additional languages and have non-English speaking friends and colleagues. Unlike other social networks that make users choose one language for all communications, XIHA Life users can easily read and write in multiple languages, allowing them to connect with family, friends, and colleagues anywhere in the world in the most appropriate language.

"The global phenomenon of social networking has actually been hampered by the monolingual vision of other social networking sites," says Jani Penttinen, co-founder and CTO at XIHA Life. "Forcing users to choose just one language limits the number and types of communities they can participate in, or forces them to maintain multiple discrete accounts. In XIHA Life, users can communicate in as many languages as they want, centralizing all their connections. With XIHA Life, different languages are no longer an impediment to a global community."

This multilingual approach has created the first truly global audience for the world's diverse musicians. Existing music-focused social networks force musicians to communicate with fans in just one language. With XIHA Life, they can connect in the language their fans understand, increasing promotional opportunities and fan loyalty.

"There are three key benefits of XIHA Music," explained Penttinen. "Musicians with a global audience now have a way to communicate with their entire fan base. Popular regional musicians have an opportunity to connect with a global audience. And, music lovers everywhere can discover exciting new musicians and bands and engage with them directly."

XIHA Life

XIHA Life offers homepages, blogging and photo sharing tools, as well as versatile ways to integrate content with other social media websites. Users can simultaneously select as many languages as they know or want to learn, and the XIHA Life technology recognizes and filters the languages, so users automatically see only the content they understand, making the experience much more relevant and valuable. XIHA Life is successfully monetizing its social network through its popular digital content store, which offers fun products, including more than 1,000 Windows and Mac games.

XIHA Life launched internationally in October 2007, and visitors come from all over the world, with the largest communities of users in China, Brazil, France, U.S. and Spain. More than 500,000 unique visitors spend time at XIHA Life each month. At the current 20% growth rate, monthly XIHA user traffic is expected to reach 1 million by the end of 2008.

XIHA Music

XIHA Music offers musicians and bands a free account with unlimited storage for music and photos. An editable profile can also link to a musician's or band's other profile sites. XIHA Life's growing international audience is typically eager to connect with people from other countries and learn about other cultures and music, providing independent bands a way to obtain international attention.

XIHA Music's library includes artists from all over the world, and the music is freely sharable in profiles and blogs. When shared music is played on the site's music player, the band and song names are displayed, along with a link to the band's profile and an option to add the song to the listener's playlist, which continues to promote the band and makes it easy for songs to find new audiences and for quality songs to spread virally and rapidly. Users can search for music based on genre, geographical location, language and other parameters, so they can easily find Japanese rock bands singing in English or German folk bands singing in Turkish.

About XIHA Ltd

XIHA Life -- www.xihalife.com -- is developed and operated by XIHA Ltd, a Helsinki, Finland-based company founded in 2007. Co-founder and CTO Jani Penttinen has 15 years of experience in the gaming industry, including companies such as Remedy Entertainment and Electronic Arts. He has previously founded two startups in the U.S. and one in China. The name XIHA comes from Chinese and means 'fun' and 'happy' -- a name invented by the company's other founder Xiaowen "Wen" Sun, a Chinese entrepreneur who currently lives in Finland. For more information, visit http://corp.xihalife.com/.

Media Contact:

Denise Vardakas
The Conversation Group
1-650-483-5083
denise(at)theconversationgroup.com

The Association of Finnish eLearning Centre, an independent national association that promotes sharing of knowledge,
best practices and quality in eLearning, has established EduFinland island in Second Life (SLurl: EduFinland/84/140/25).

More information on the association's website, and:

Kim Holmberg,
kim [at] edufinland.fi, puh. +358 45 675 4444
Isto Huvila,
isto.huvila [at] istohuvila.fi, puh. +358 40 572 6259
Titi Tamminen,
Suomen eOppimiskeskus ry, titi.tamminen [at]
eoppimiskeskus.fi +358 40 869 6306.

***

In Finnish:

SECOND LIFEEN ON PERUSTETTU SUOMALAISTEN TOIMIJOIDEN YHTEINEN EDUFINLAND-SAARI

Second Lifeen on perustettu suomalaisten toimijoiden yhteinen
EduFinland-saari (SLurl: EduFinland/84/140/25). Suomen eOppimiskeskus perusti saaren yhteistyökumppaniensa kanssa. Saaren toimijat tarjoavat tilaisuuden tutustua virtuaalimaailmaan opastetusti.

Nyt saarella on meneillään vilkasta rakennustoimintaa. Opetus-, tutkimustoiminta ja muu toiminta saarella käynnistyy varsinaisesti vasta syksyllä. EduFinland-alueelta suomalaiset oppilaitokset ja yleishyödylliset organisaatiot voivat hankkia maata opetus- ja tutkimustarkoitukseen.

Targeted at people living outside their home country, XIHA Life allows efficient communication and content sharing across cultures and language barriers.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- XIHA Life (http://www.xihalife.com/), a new social network targeted at multilingual people living outside their home country, introduced new features at the Web 2.0 Expo. For the first time, social network users can select multiple languages to communicate and share content with, enabling multicultural communities to form across the globe.

"Online social networking is obviously proven to be much more than a fad, a global phenomenon bringing people together and creating new type of media and communication networks", says Jani Penttinen, the Co-Founder and CTO at XIHA. "However, after going through all the leading services, we discovered a serious flaw which is common to all of them. As users typically can only select one primary language, user communities are formed around a single language. In XIHA Life, users can simultaneously select as many languages as they know or want to learn. Our technology platform recognizes and filters the languages, so that the user generated content is displayed based on the language preferences."

XIHA Life features include user homepages, blogging and photo sharing tools, as well as versatile ways to integrate content with other social media websites. To counter the industry-wide problem of monetizing social networks, XIHA Life has a popular digital content store with fun products relevant to the users. The web service is localized to over 20 languages, and the company's target is to expand to a 100 languages during 2008. XIHA Life visitors come from all over the world, the biggest countries being United States, China, Brazil, France and Spain.

XIHA Ltd
http://corp.xihalife.com/

XIHA Life is developed and operated by XIHA Ltd, a Helsinki, Finland based startup company founded in 2007. Co-Founder and CTO Jani Penttinen has 15 years of experience in game industry, including companies such as Remedy Entertainment and Electronic Arts. He has previously founded two startups in the U.S. and one in China. The name XIHA comes from Chinese and means 'fun' and 'happy' - a name invented by the company's other founder Xiaowen "Wen" Sun, a Chinese entrepreneur who currently lives in Finland.

Press contact information

Juhani Polkko
VP Business Development
E-mail juhani@xihalife.com
Tel. +358 40 543 0825

SoPlay is a new research initiative currently looking for more industry partners to join the consortium. Carried out by Games Research Lab in the University of Tampere, SoPlay will analyse and identify the criteria for successful social playability (an element that is apparent in the design of succesful social games, as well as in social media services such as Flickr or Facebook). SoPlay will build models of directions where playability and social media will evolve in the future, and use the results from research to develop design guidelines and evaluation criteria that are useful for both industry and the scientific community. For more information, contact professor Frans Mäyrä, frans.mayra@uta.fi / 050 336 7650 / www.uta.fi/hyper .

04.04.2008

Habbo, the largest virtual world for teenagers, today unveiled the results of its second Global Habbo Youth Survey.
Examining the interests, values, attitudes, online habits of a global
audience, the survey reveals teens' current media usage, consumption
behavior and brand preferences in order to better understand what
compels youth around the world.

For the study, Habbo surveyed 58,486 teens between the ages 11 and
18 from 31 countries, and identified five clearly defined behavioral
segments amongst the respondents. With each group representing
approximately one-fifth of the total teens surveyed, the five groups
were categorized and described as the following:

• Achievers: Ambitious, strong minded and materialistic. They value
  material success and whilst having lots of friends do not consider
  other people's feelings as much as other segments
• Rebels: Value gathering lots of experiences in life and
  enjoy a fast-paced lifestyle. Like Achievers they want to become "rich
  and famous", but they are not willing to compromise on having fun in
  order to achieve this goal
• Traditionals: Value having an ordinary life and see
  themselves as honest, polite and obedient. They are keen to help others but are less ambitious and pleasure seeking compared to other segments
• Creatives: Share many of the same positive traits as
  Traditionals, but with a focus on creativity. They place value in
  getting a good education and being influential in life, but they are
  also active, social and have an interest in travelling
• Loners: More introverted and less likely than other segments
  to identify with any specific personality traits. They rarely see
  themselves as active or self-assured, but are more open minded in their
  attitudes compared to Traditionals or Achievers

A major focus of the survey was how teens communicate today. 76
per cent of teens globally use the internet to Instant Message friends.
Overall, Instant Messaging is the most popular communication tool in
most of the countries. Though 72 per cent of teens still hold active
email accounts, the majority of communication with peers is no longer
conducted over email. The survey revealed that email is generally
reserved by teens more for non-personal needs such as school or work,
or correspondence with family members.

"According to the Global Habbo Youth Survey, the most popular global websites amongst teens are YouTube and MySpace," said Emmi Kuusikko,
Director of User and Market Insight for Sulake, Habbo's parent company
"Of those surveyed, 50 percent responded that they forward humorous
links and videos to their friends, while 30 percent regularly upload
content, confirming the notion that teenagers have an active online
presence."

"Perhaps surprisingly social networks appear as relatively low
online priorities for young people, as 40 per cent of teens do not view
social networks as an important part of their online experience on a
global basis. This is due to the English-language bias of most social
networks but considering Habbo's global success this also suggests that
the localisation of sites is important for teens communicating online.
In countries where social networks are considered popular though they
have become a regular communication channel between friends."

Habbo has worked in partnership with leading brands that enter the
virtual world to engage creatively with teens online. The survey showed
that brand familiarity clearly affects teens' choices as consumers,
with 74 percent saying that familiar brands guide their purchasing
decisions. Reinforcing the brand familiarity findings, global
well-known brands, such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Nokia ranked high
for both boys and girls. Gender differences are more visible for
example in clothing brands. According to the results, boys favor Nike,
Adidas and Billabong as their top clothing brands, whereas girls
preferred Hennes and Mauritz, Nike and Roxy.

A report of the Global Habbo Youth Survey 2008 is available to
buy as a hard copy book of 250 pages. For inquiries and orders, please
contact: marketinsight@sulake.com

Further survey results on different topics will be published in the
sulake.com blog in the following weeks. The first blog concerns mobile
phone usage among youth, you can read it here.

About the research

The research was
conducted within the virtual world, Habbo, and the total number of
respondents (after data cleaning) was 58, 486. The research was
conducted between October and November 2007. 31 countries were surveyed
and statistical weighting was employed to give all participating
countries an equal weight in the global results. The results of the
research are available on request.

www.sulake.com

EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards will acknowledge the tremendous evolution of digital media in both business and entertainment by presenting awards in 9 categories and the Inscape Special Award. Remember, the early entry deadline is June 30, 2008, so enter today and win trips to the EUROPRIX Multimedia Festival in November in Graz, Austria.

www.europrix.org

MindTrek brings together researchers and practitioners from diverse disciplines
that are involved in the development of media ­ from sociology,
economy, to technology. The organizing committee invites you to submit
original high quality papers addressing the special theme and the
topics, for presentation at the conference and inclusion in the
proceedings.

The submitted papers will be selected for the following streams of the conference:

- Social media
- Gaming
- Ubiquitous and ambient media

Feel
free to suggest workshops which are co-organized with the MindTrek
2008. Workshop proposals should include organizing committee, 1 page
description of the theme of the workshop, short CV of organizers,
duration, proceedings publisher, and schedule.

Important Dates

31st May 2008: submission of position papers (abstract, 1000 words) and workshops
16th June 2008: review statements
29th August 2008: camera ready papers from authors (5 pages)
7th-9th October 2008: conference

Conference Themes

1. Social Media

- business models, service models, and policies
- questions related to identity, motivation and values
- blogs, wikis, and collaboration designs in practice
- user-created content and social networks

2. Ubiquitous and ambient media

- ubiquitous and ambient services, devices, and environments
- business models, service models, and policies
- context aware, sensing, and interfaces for ubiquitous computation
- ergonomics, human-computer interaction designs, and product prototypes
- software, hardware and middleware frameworks
- digital television, digital film production, and new media systems
- pervasive and ubiquitous games
- ambient intelligence applications and services
- artistic works related to ubiquitous computation
- entertainment and experiences
? new human-computer interaction models

3. Games

- Theoretical and analytical contributions to the study of games and play
- Novel approaches to the design research of games
- Discussions of gaming technologies from user- or player-centred perspectives
- Studies of social play and role-play
- Analyses of online, mobile, casual and cross-media gaming
- Research into user-created game content
- Studies of pervasive games

Position
paper submissions will be peer-reviewed as abstracts, and full versions
of papers will be published both in conference proceedings and online
by an international scholarly organization. Future edited versions of
selected papers will be considered for special issues in journals, or
as book chapters. Further possibilities for publication are currently
under assessment.

More information:
www.mindtrek.org/cfp

Please, use this application to deliver news about business, markets, innovations, products, services, etc. for the Sombiz network.

While testing this new News application, I announce that now we have a logo. (Not big news for the industry, but it feels good to have a visual identity - and branding helps you to promote your message and achieve your goals, too...)