Newsweek’s article on Second Life struck me so profoundly that I got myself an avatar in the virtual universe the moment I got home. My navigation through the 3D universe still clumsy, I accidentally bumped into a “man” who took it just as seriously as if I’d pushed him over in person. The emotions were incredibly real, and I was amazed at how easy it was to get sucked in.

Like Harry Potter, sushi, Facebook, and other wildfire-like phenomena that suddenly attract the masses, Second Life is something you have to experience for yourself to understand the appeal (or lack thereof, depending on your taste for virtual existence).

It turns out that “a recent Dutch study found that 57 percent of Second Lifers spend more than 18 hours a week there, and 33 percent spend more than 30 hours a week.” But that’s not all. Gartner Research center estimates that “by 2011, four of every five people who use the Internet will actively participate in Second Life or some similar medium.”

Clearly, Second Life is huge - as is its potential for connecting people, companies, and ideas. When Harvard uses it to teach classes, you know it’s not just a fad.

So now that we’re blogging over there on Svanemøllevej, don’t be surprised if we soon come to a computer near you as a virtual Eye for Image cafe in Second Life! Will you be ready to join as the virtual you and swap some First Life time for a world where you can fly, travel the world in seconds, and alter your appearance as often as you like?

A friend of mine who is a web and graphic designer occasionally sends me amazing links.

The latest, and one I thought I would share with you, is the site of UK design consultancy Checkland Kindleysides.

It’s Flash-heavy but is still beautifully functional. The loading between sections is playful and rather soothing, and the overall design is a triumph of simplicity.

As a copywriter, I really admire their economic use of text. Everything is kept short and sweet. In this way the text serves simply to underscore the visual brilliance of the site.

I know, I know. . . we expect this kind of thing from creative agencies, but that shouldn’t stop the rest of us picking up a few lessons!

This morning while gulping down my coffee, this article in Politiken grabbed my attention.

Copenhagen University asked 232 Danes to evaluate 16 people’s personalities based solely on the way they pronounced the text from a Danish tv ad. The 16 people came from eight countries, with a man and woman from each.

The outcome of the evaluation is that many Danes get irritated when they hear Danish spoken with an accent. It seems they get really irritated if Danish is spoken with a Middle Eastern accent.

If you happen to speak Danish with a Germanic clang then you’re not doing too badly as you’re seen as being independent, ambitious, effective, interesting, reliable, gifted, and pleasant. But if you speak Danish with a Middle Eastern accent then you’re considered incompetent, indifferent, stupid, unreliable, unpleasant and irritating.

That’s a harsh call considering that all 16 people speak excellent Danish and are university educated.  

Lighten up people! Isn’t there supposed to be unity in diversity?

Apparently the Danish army has evacuated around 200 Iraqis who it feared may have been targeted for the part they played in assisting the troops.

With the troops poised to withdraw next month, fears were growing that reprisal attacks were likely.

So now these Iraqis will presumably have the chance to build new lives for themselves here in Denmark.

While this is good news in itself, the part of the story that caught my eye was the quote from the officer who reports that “of course, we want to take care of our employees”.

To my mind, this is indicative of the Danish corporate culture as a whole. Staff are generally looked after very well here, at least in my experience.

I think back to the impersonal way I was treated at several large companies back home in the UK. I left those companies because I felt like I was little more than an insignificant cog in a very large wheel.

Speaking personally, my quality of life is far higher here.

Go Danmark!

It’s always exciting to find a new tool that gets you out of your creative rut and helps you see things a bit differently.

For me, the tool du jour is Thinkmap’s VisualThesaurus.com. Sure, I’ve used Thesaurus.com and Dictionary.com for years, and can’t complain - I generally find what I’m looking for. But I’m not often inspired.

With VisualThesaurus.com, you’re inspired - and educated, and entertained. It uses a dynamic technology to map words that are related to one another. So they happily bounce to their rightful place on the screen, let you move them around and find out what they mean - and discover completely new directions for creative concepts.

Every day, I get a new “word of the day” from VisualThesaurus. I’ve signed up for these before but have always found them pretty stiff and formal. VisualThesaurus, however, defines words with fun examples and anecdotes. So you never get a definition full of yet more words you don’t understand.

So the tool is great fun, but I’m finding that the best thing VisualThesaurus.com may be its website. They’ve got blogs. They’ve got articles. Tips, tricks, and advice. Something new every day for marketing and communications people.

And most importantly, they are an outstanding example of how brands can expand, engage their audience, and give the sense of being THE hub for the latest and most useful knowledge. Something we can all learn from.

(If you’re curious about VisualThesaurus.com, you can download a free trial on their site.)

That ‘About’ page on your website is important. Why? Because people like people. To put it as simply as I can, people want to know who they’re dealing with.

People want to put names to faces, they want to connect. It’s why social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook exist. We’re all just big gossips deep down!

But to get back to my point, I’ve seen some great ‘About’ pages recently. Companies that have obviously gone to the trouble to think a little bit outside the box.

I find the best ones are those which really emphasise the company’s human side. Take Pownce for instance, the newest information sharing and networking site on the block. With a little bit of thought (and humour) they have created something which, while achieving its aim of conveying background and context, also serves up a big dollop of personality.

The feeling I’m left with after looking at their ‘About’ page is : ‘They’re just ordinary folk like me!’

Now, not every company can take such a personal approach. But even the big boys could take a leaf out of the Pownce book.

My advice? Be direct, be a little light-hearted (if you dare!) and don’t be afraid to use pictures. Show your customers who you are. When you meet, it’s one less obstacle to break down.

Once again in the Danish media, the issue of the purity of the Danish language has been brought up.

Brian Mikkelsen, Denmark’s Minister of Culture, commented in yesterday’s Børsen that he wanted to protect the Danish language from being invaded by English words.  In many ways, I agree.  

If we want to make ourselves understood properly, we need clear, accurate language. Using a foreign word is often confusing. You can’t assume that other people know what you mean by it, and, besides, it’s not ‘cool’ to use a word just because it seems trendy. 

In many business situations, I hear English buzzwords thrown into Danish discussions – and sometimes people even switch from one language to another. This often confuses me, as the meaning behind the English buzzword doesn’t often work in a Danish context.

Wouldn’t it be better to use a Danish word that had just the right meaning? Buzzwords are mostly empty and, by the time they’ve reached Denmark, they’re probably outdated in English-speaking countries anyway!

You also have to be extremely proficient, actually near perfect, in both Danish and English to really pull this off. Through Danish in all its purity, you can express some extremely lucid ideas in a way that is quite special. This can’t simply be recreated in English without an intimate knowledge of the language. And maybe it can’t be recreated at all.

So, I say, wise words, Mr. Mikkelsen. Whether you speak Danish or English, keep it pure and perfect!

As the social media revolution gathers pace, how are you keeping track of the upheavals in communication?

What steps are you taking to ensure that your marketing department is moving with the times, and not relying on the same old techniques to generate new leads and connect with potential customers?

Many people now talk of the fragmented marketplace - the long tail. But in many ways the opposite is true. As a new generation of networked and net-savvy consumers arrive in the marketplace, it is tempting for companies to worry that it is nigh on impossible to reach mass audiences in the same way as before.

While that may be true to an extent, reaching your audience is simply a matter of understanding them - their reading habits, the nature of their media consumption. Did you know TV viewing figures are dropping drastically? The same is true of newspaper readership. Advertising revenue is moving online because that is where the consumers are - particularly those in the 18-34 age bracket.

These are uncertain times. We are at a generational intersection - every day the young shape the future of business and media a little bit more; and every day the preceding generation cede a little bit more territory.

But this isn’t the end of the world as we know it. For companies everywhere, it’s simply a matter of adjusting, and approaching this brave new world with an open mind.

Books like The New Influencers will help. As will Robert Scoble’s Naked Conversations.

I know I can sound a little evangelical at times, but big things are happening right now. Are you in the loop?

Here at Eye for Image Towers we’re all looking forward to the launch of our brand new website.

The existing one is functional but rather simplistic and a little unwieldy. The new site, which we hope to go live with next month, will not only be a lot more attractive it will also enable us to engage with our customers and readers a lot more.

As well as a more streamlined and better integrated area for our popular Wordspin portal, this blog will also benefit from enhanced functionality. For example, we’re currently working on putting together a list of other sites that you might find interesting - known in the blogging world as a blogroll.

Definitely making that list will be hovedpaabloggen.

But what about you guys? Can any of you recommend any business or communications sites we should be checking out?

I must admit I’m quite fond of cursing, though I try and avoid using the ‘f-word’ during business meetings.

Danes, though, seem to positively relish a spot of profanity, particularly the Anglo-Saxon variety. And they’re not shy about swearing during formal occasions either.

Even the textbooks they use in my Danish lessons are full of English swearwords. Personally, I find this a little strange. While it’s fascinating to me how Danish has adopted words from other languages - just yesterday I learnt that the Danes use the word ‘budget’, albeit pronounced in a quasi-French way - it also strikes me that blithely adopting the worst words of another language is not the wisest course of action.

I’ll sign off with one example. I have heard many Danes use a particularly unsavoury word when talking about black people. Apparently it was even used on a prime-time TV programme recently.

Now, I know the vast majority of these people are not racist, but they are nevertheless unwittingly perpetuating an extremely negative stereotype.

I know there are many ongoing debates about the future of the Danish language with some fearing its dilution as ever more English words enter common usage.

All languages evolve, and Danish is no different. Still, there are several words I would like to see Denmark throw off.