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New social networking site makes surveillance fashionable > Last journey from scorching Nicosia to the beaches of Protaras gained international fame, or so my pals and I like to think, when it showed up on Bliin, one of a new generation of social networking sites that uses satellite positioning technology.

Users logged onto Bliin could watch us travel in real-time, the direction and even the speed at which the car was travelling. They could also view photos of the scenery taken with the mobile. Way too cool, man.

Users with Global Positioning System (GPS) enabled mobile phones log on using a small application loaded onto the handset. Your location can be viewed by other users with similar phones or through Bliin’s website where the positions are superimposed onto Google Maps. Files are geo-tagged using the longitude and latitude taken from the GPS receiver.

Launched in January this year, Bliin is an Amsterdam, Netherlands based company headed by CEOs Stef Kolman and Selene Kolman. The fledgling venture claims some 4,000 members, and was recently listed by CNNMoney.com as one of the best 20 ideas on the Internet.

Stef Kolman says members lacking a GPS receiver can still log onto the website and note their whereabouts, though other users aren’t able to see this in real time. “We call this idle mode, as opposed to the live visibility mode,” said Kolman. “We’re currently updating the site to incorporate extra features that will appeal to a broader base,” he said. “For instance, subscription membership and end-user licences and branded content, such as location-based advertising, though no irritating messages on your mobile phone.”

However, the standard feature set would remain free for users. “What’s really exciting is the ability to generate information about people on the move. We call this geodata. This information, which is collective, never individual, could then be applied to infrastructural decisions, say where’s the best location to place a bus stop or a billboard. “Another thing in the pipeline are search tags, where you type in a keyword for, let’s say, French cuisine, and people’s recommendations come up on your desktop or your mobile.”

Social networking sites, which allow users to share photos, videos and update friends on everything they do, have been around for some time but really took off two years ago. As usual with all things internet, the US is where it all began. Facebook, MySpace and HiFive are some of the most popular sites these days, with their numbers growing by the minute. In August 2006, MySpace reported 100 million users in total, with 250,000 new registrations a day.

And if you thought that social networking was the domain of nerds and good-for-nothing slouchers, think again. Recently a campaign on Facebook forced HSBC bank to reconsider its move to charge interest on its graduate overdraft accounts. The bank bowed to pressure after the National Union of Students organised a virtual protest on the website calling on students and graduates to boycott the bank.

Not everyone is comfortable with the idea of location-based networking. For example, the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre is looking at the possibility of the technology being abused. On its website, the organisation states: “This has significant implications in terms of grooming via mobile social networking sites with offenders potentially able to locate their victims in this way.”

But according to Alex Schleifer, CEO of internet agency Sideshow, whereas privacy is always a concern, most respectable social networking sites do enough to protect users. “At any rate, kids nowadays don’t have the same sort of attitude towards privacy. They’re not as cautious as, say, the previous generation. They’re OK with giving out information about themselves, what music they like and so on, and besides their profile is available only to the people they choose. The more information you share with your friends, the better off you are on the network.”

For Schleiffer, geo-tagging is the “next big step” for social networking. And he predicts it will become a big part of the boom in what is known as Web 2.0, which revolves around user-generated content. “Think about it. When a friend arrives at a place you’ve tagged, their mobile beeps letting them know you’ve been there. This is the sort of thing that will bring the technology into real life.”

And he sees huge business potential in the technology. “Right now, everyone’s trying to figure out how to use this is an advertising platform. With most youngsters spending their free time on the internet, it’s clear there’s a huge client base to tap into. We’re talking about the 16-25 age group, the untouchable generation if you will. They’re not watching television or reading magazines any more. They’re online all the time. Take the new Die Hard movie that’s coming out. You’ll be able to send a friend a Die Hard ‘gift’, a picture of a veering truck from the movie. The possibilities are endless.”

And while Cypriot entrepreneurs might take some time to get on board, the public has already caught on. “On the one hand you’ve got all these students abroad, making new contacts and getting familiar with what’s hot on the technology beat; on the other, there’s the Cypriot diaspora. Right now we’ve seen a few high-schools in Cyprus that have formed their own groups within social networking sites. There’s no real need to set up a bona fide ‘Cypriot’ site, since Facebook is a global activity, said Schleifer. “Kids under 20 are eating this stuff up. Everyone wants to be famous.” w00t!

In addition to bliin (www.bliin.com) check out these sites > www.trackut.com and www.kakiloc.com

An online resource described as, “the future of the internet” was yesterday unveiled to the world for the first time in Nicosia, Cyprus, with the promise that it is secure, accessible and usable.

We-r-you.com is said to be a, “a major new networking interface that introduces convergent core modelling technology.” Stephen van Zutphen, CEO of we-r-you.com, described the resource as an “intelligent secure network that enables advanced social and business interaction, anywhere, anytime data access”.

He added that the interface “re-orients software from a computer to a person centric focus and bridges the gap from desktop computing to internet-based computing to make computing easier, more powerful, secure and elegant.” Van Zutphen further explained: “Think of ‘r’ as a brain that exists on the internet network, and because it exists as the principal nodal core, all information is accessed on from that ‘r’ core.”

According to the CEO, we-r-you.com is a place where a wealth of online technologies converge to create an online resource. Focused on, but not exclusively dedicated to, social networking, it is said effectively to blend facilities such as those offered by all of the most popular portals on the web but does so in a convergent one-stop shop format that means a smoother surfing experience.

Andreas Georgiou, a member of the ‘r’ team, spoke more about what the launch will mean for users. “People love to network as can be seen by the popularity of the many different brands of media sharing, social networking and chat-oriented sites on the web,” he said. “What we have done is create a combination of all of the above functions plus a lot more that is more effective and efficient. Our next-generation interface is about to re-invent how people use the internet by offering tangible powers that will have a real, positive impact on the daily lives of our members.

“We take the advantages of a portal, the fun of social networking and the practicality of modern productivity solutions and recreate them in one defining interface. It’s a meeting place where users, through a simple log in, can enjoy unparalleled access to social tools such as photo albums and music/video libraries, integrated communications via SMS, instant messaging, e-mail and VoIP, along with practical tools such as calendars, contact lists and project management devices.”

Georgiou cited the online file storage feature as an example of one of the many benefits of we-r-you.com. To have ready access to their files, today’s users often carry laptops or portable memory devices. ‘R’ removes the need to carry files around at all, by simply uploading them to the internet.

“The security and privacy of the interface is unparalleled and offers a massive amount of storage space to the user,” he said. “It is the perfect way to keep your data safe, accessible and usable.”

Benjamin Kanarek is Vice President of Strategy and Creative Marketing and he explained why Cyprus was chosen for the worldwide launch. “Cypriots are keen users of social networking and also readily adopt new technologies. Plus, from Cyprus, take-up will expand rapidly across the world’s urban centres and we expect the snowball effect to be phenomenal.”

Van Zutphen described we-r-you as just the start. “Great things are coming of which ‘r’ is just a small part. Very soon we’ll be revealing to the world more of the power of ‘r’, a concept and technology that will revolutionise the way we interact with the world around us.”

Related Links > http://www.we-r-you.com

Kyriakos Ioannou of Cyprus yesterday took the bronze medal in the high jump at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan.

The 23-year-old from Limassol cleared 2.35m, arguably the greatest ever performance by a Cypriot track and field athlete. His bronze is the first medal of any colour by a Cypriot athlete at a global championship.

Bahamian Donald Thomas completed his remarkable rise to the top of international athletics when he clinched the gold medal, equalling his personal best by clearing 2.35 metres at his first attempt and, despite failing three times at 2.37m, it proved good enough to win gold at his first global championships.

A former basketball player, who favours basketball shoes over the more traditional spikes, Thomas made a phenomenal start to his high jump career 18 months ago when he jumped 2.20m indoors without having had any training in five years.

Russian Yaroslav Rybakov grabbed his third world championship silver after taking two attempts to clear 2.35m.

Ioannou, who is 1.93m tall, matched that feat but his two failures at earlier heights meant Cyprus’ first medal of the championships was a bronze.

All three men produced personal bests in the final, with 2.35m also being the world-leading jump this year.

Speaking to Greek television after the competition, Ioannou thanked God, “who helped me to win this medal for Cyprus”.

He said that he wasn’t expecting to do that well just before the start of the final. “I was suffering from certain physical problems and didn’t think that my body could function at 100 per cent. But once we got under way, everything changed though, and I found that I was able to clear each height that I attempted and nearly cleared 2.37m at the end.”

When asked what the bronze medal meant to him, Ioannou said that, “words cannot describe how I am feeling right now and I believe that there’s a bright future ahead for me.”

Related Links > http://osaka2007.iaaf.org/news/kind=2/newsid=41098.html

As computers take over our lives, they are also beginning to make an impact on the way we socialise. Social networking sites on the internet are among the fastest growing sites and are increasingly popular too.

‘Jane has added you as a friend on Facebook,’ read the subject line in my email inbox. “Facebook? Does anyone know what that is?” I asked. Judging from the looks I received, I would say it’s something so big I should be stoned to death for not knowing.

However, after five minutes of research, it was obvious that this was yet another of the many social networking websites that have taken the world by storm, adding a new take to socialising, from the comfort of your own home, office, car… Millions of people, of all ages, from all over the world are connecting, mingling and entertaining each other through the internet.

You may be more familiar with MySpace than Facebook but if you’re not, don’t worry. Blogsters, may have you feeling like a 20th century laggard if you aren’t already part of their in-crowd but let’s face it, with this 21st century socialising manner, you’re either in, and use more than one social networking website, or you’re out, and don’t use them at all.

And funnily enough, even though millions are hooked on various SNWs, it’s still considered something of a minority hobby. The first SNW was Classmates.com, which began in 1995. Others followed, including SixDegrees.com (1997), Circle of Friends, which was utilised on a number of regional UK sites between 1999 and 2001 and flourished with the advent of a website called Friendster in 2002.

So, how come these sharing and friend-making websites have not had half the mainstream success today’s blogs have? Paul Boutin, a writer for online Slate magazine has a theory. “YouTube and MySpace are runaway hits because they combine two attributes rarely found together in tech products: they’re easy to use and they don’t tell you what to do.”

Although YouTube isn’t considered social networking, it is one of the most successful websites, claiming over 100 million plays a day and an additional 65,000 new video clips being uploaded everyday. It was expected to pass CNN and it has. The Washington Post reported last year that MySpace pulls more monthly visitors than Amazon and is closing in on AOL and eBay. Today, MySpace has passed the 50 million mark, apparently, there are well over 100 million accounts. It is the sixth most popular English-language website in the world and third in the US.

However, since YouTube’s inception and release to the public was in July 2005, it hasn’t taken them long to reach the same milestone it took MySpace four years to reach. In its first 16 months, MySpace’s number of visitors crept at a snail’s pace to just five million. On the other hand, YouTube’s viewer numbers soared to 25 million in the same time period.

“The guys behind YouTube hit the sweet spot,” Boutin continues. “Most importantly, they made it head-slapping easy to publish and play video clips by handling the tricky parts automatically.” As for MySpace and Facebook? “I created my profile page in less than five minutes,” says one of the users. “I even inserted a little auto-play jingle. But if you want to upload an MP3 of your favourite band and have that play, don’t be surprised if they already have their own MySpace page, making it so much quicker and easier to copy to your page.”

In Cyprus, there are two major social networking websites: Hi5 and Tagged. I have been invited to both numerous times but declined after realising one thing that bothered me and that’s the lack of privacy. “This is one of the reasons many people are steering away from this type of website,” said a company webmaster. “They hate the idea of having their personal pictures and information all over the internet, even if they did make it one-button easy.”

Sites like Facebook allow users to mark their pages as private, semi-private or open. However, new information is indicating that even if you mark your page to be visible only by friends, anyone using searches based on religion, sexual orientation or relationship status can find you. Indeed, after clicking onto Hi5, I didn’t even have to sign up, I decided to search for women in Cyprus, who, let’s face it, are not as keen as men are to post pics on websites, and nearly choked when the number of members came up in the corner of the screen. There are close to 7,000 women and 10,000 men with posted pictures and other personal information on the website. I was able to view all of them, all their pictures and learn about who they are and what they like to do.

One of the users, explains the fascination: “A lot of people say it’s either fun or a brilliant way to connect with friends around the world but I disagree and I’m honest. These types of websites, especially the ones used in Cyprus, are all about meeting new people, usually of the opposite sex, getting feedback from them, admiring each others’ photos and wanting to meet up. But it’s the excitement that some people may not have in their lives.”

Clicking on some of the profiles, it’s amazing how much work, time and loyalty goes into them. Some have coloured their pages, others have designed screen size pictures of themselves and their friends as backgrounds and even post explicit photographs of themselves.

Social networking websites are a great innovation, offering the opportunity to interact with an extraordinary universe of new people. Even for the entrepreneurs, mixFm in Cyprus has a website on MySpace, it is a great way to market yourself and get through to a wider audience.

However, here’s a little true story you may want to think about before signing up: There was a student at a university who used a chat room to post some facts about the size of his penis. It was harmless fun. But what a surprise when he went for his first job interview, nicely dressed in a smart suit and armed with a good CV and got rejected. He was later told by a friendly alumnus on the search committee that the HR person had looked him up on the internet and found the boasting posting! No matter how funny you want to be, once it’s posted, it’s on the internet for the world to see!

MySpace > “Choosing a site is difficult. But once it came down to it, I chose MySpace,” says another user. Much like all the other social networking sites, MySpace is a bit different due to the fact that most of the members have music as a common ‘hobby’. “It’s one of the reasons there are so many celebrities putting up profiles of themselves, especially bands”. This is how Kate Moss and Pete Doherty are reportedly trying to launch a musical career. The pages are either maintained by themselves or their record companies and any news about upcoming songs, shows and releases are uploaded.

“It’s one of the newest advertising methods, millions are using,” says an owner of a t-shop. “It’s a community and there are hundreds on-line, who probably would never look up my website.” Typing in the name of the shop on the Google search engine, the shop’s  MySpace website came up first. (www.myspace.com)

Facebook > All 23 million members of Facebook are able to look up the names of fellow facebookers and give them an interwebular nudge, something not so new, you can do it on MSN, which is called a ‘poke’ on Facebook. Britain and the media went mad a few weeks ago when it was reported Prince William posted his profile on the net. Soon enough a Facebook group was created called I Poked Prince William. If, however, Prince William poked his pokees back, they could look at his full profile for a week and he theirs.

“There are other groups including Enough of the Poking, Let’s Just Have Sex, which has over 150,000 members,” said Peter Torrington, based in London. “But it’s much safer than MySpace because it’s just about keeping in touch with your friends on-line; you have more control over who can find you.” It’s a souped-up, free version of Friends Reunited. When you join up, you first create a profile, pictures, titbits about your personal life, a status function that sends out a one-line alert to all of your friends telling them what you’re up to and a public ‘wall,’ a place that all are free to view the comments you write on it. (www.facebook.com)

Hi5 > Not as popular as the two mentioned above but Cypriots of all ages seem to love it. Just like the rest, it has everything from forums, groups, chat rooms, photo albums, music and videos. Launched in 2003, its feature set is standard but allows you to design your profile just as you like but everyone can view it. “I’ve hooked up with loads of friends on Hi5 just because there are so many people based in Cyprus on there,” said a user. (www.hi5.com)

Tagged > ‘You’ve been tagged by Maria’. This is normally how people are invited to join. This was my first contact with social networking as my friend insisted I join. “I was addicted, you could say,” I was explained. “I would check my e-mail everyday, two or three times a day but it’s just fun.” My friend does admit though that it is simpler than MySpace and Facebook and there are more Middle Eastern people logging on compared to the others. (www.tagged.com)

Second Life > This is one website that is indeed quite different from the rest and is said to be taking the internet by storm, promising to change your view of reality, make you a millionaire and give you powerful tools to realise your full potential. Upon joining Second Life, you create your digital persona or avatar. This little person can be personalised just as you see fit, letting you chose everything from the size of your nose to the colour of your nails. There are six million users and everything looks like the ‘real world’ with clubs, shops, universities, offices and theatres; you are surrounded by other people, in avatar form, who are experiencing the same things at the same time. You can sit down and have a coffee and a chat, using your keyboard or your voice, go out or discuss politics. It is a world built for and by an international population of adults with an average age of 33 and limited only by the boundaries of your imagination. (www.secondlife.com)

Starbucks Coffee Company and its European joint venture partner, Greek company Marinopoulos Holding SARL, opened the first Starbucks store in Romania in April.

The coffee shop is located in Plaza Romania one of Bucharest’s premiere shopping malls, on Timisoara Boulevard.

“Bucharest is an ideal location for Starbucks entry into Central and Eastern Europe,” said Martin Coles, President of Starbucks Coffee International.

Starbucks has extended its relationship with its Greek joint venture partner, Marinopoulos Holding, to create Marinopoulos Coffee Company III SRL, which will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the business in Romania.

Since 2002 Marinopoulos has partnered with Starbucks in several other markets. It operates 52 retail locations in Greece, 26 in Switzerland, 11 in Austria and 7 in Cyprus, with intensive expansion plans for the region.

Starbucks is the leading retailer, roaster and brand of specialty coffee in the world, with more than 9.260 retail locations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim.

The Marinopoulos Group operates world-class brands like Carrefour, Marks & Spencer, The Beauty Shop/Sephora, FNAC and Dia in Greece and recently refurbished all the Chris Cash and Carry stores it purchased two years ago. Two new Carrefour stores are being planned for Nicosia.