New York Time Magazine takes a look at the close to $2 billion industry that has huge implications as to what defines, income, wealth, property, and eventually a nation state.

Read the fascinating article about gold farming here.

I was performing some of my duties for a candidate I'm working for (go Dodd!) and came across the below comment on a MySpace page.  It seems that Jim Gilmore has decided to use video games for good.  If you create a personal fundraising page you are entered in a chance to win a Wii.

Now, the greater question I have is how did the Gilmore campaign get a hold of a Wii?  Did he have an over zealous staffer stand in line like Edwards?

Thanks for the add! Be sure to create a MyGilmore fundraising page for a chance to win a Nintendo Wii!

See the comment below:

The status quo in friending people on MySpace goes as follows, friend them (no matter who it is) to pad your numbers (metrics not substance matters), then if you get caught, de-friend them.  And so it goes another cycle of people you shouldn't friend on MySpace.

Today we look at an enterprising individual who has created a page to focus people on voting for none of the Presidential candidates.  Well at least 8 actual Presidential candidates agree with them:

Ron Paul (along with a bunch of supporters), Mike Gravel (also bringing a bunch of his supporters), Dennis Kucinich, Sam Brownback, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Mitt Romey, and John McCain.

You can find the site here.

Senator Dodd's tech team was profiled today in the Hartford Courant.  Brett proudly serves as a member of the team and was part of the article.  We won't go into the details of the article, as there are some issues with the facts, quotes, and conclusions.  You know, nothing major....

Find the article here.

Josh Levy put together a five part documentary looking at social and political activism in Second Life.  Pretty interesting stuff and definitely worth watching.

Check it out here.

It was reported earlier on the friending on MySpace by various presidential candidates.  Earlier we covered obvious porn posters and a joke pedophile profile.

Today's edition covers two recall profiles that were created recently.  The first:
Senator Boxer
the next
Senator Feinstein

Where this gets funny is after a MyDD post linking to Senator Boxer some of the Democratic candidates quickly dropped that profile as a friend.  However, they left their support to recall Senator Feinstein.  What'd she do to you that Sen. Boxer hasn't?

How MySpace will be used this cycle is still up in the air but due diligence of your friends matters.  It's great to have 30,000 friends, but not when 29,000 are fake porn profiles or Republicans working against your fellow Democrats.

A Syracuse new organization ran a story about Second Life and the politics taking place in there.  The reaction and comments from the reporters is priceless as they clearly don't get what Second Life is and occurs there.  The people they interviewed were also pretty lacking in knowledge.

Find the video here.

I was browsing friends in MySpace for the candidate I currently work for and every so often I come across rather shady folks who'd like to be our friend.  So, when this occurs I click on the page and check out who else has "friended" them.  I've declined various "adult pages" including Larry Flynt (no idea if it was official) and some porn stars (at least I assume they were).

Here's two that we denied but it's always interesting to see who else accepts their invitation.

Example 1: Now this is obviously an adult site ad, but look at the top friends.  Something about it makes me giggle.

Example 2: A mock site about how MySpace is full of politicians, predators, and politician/predators.  Seems a lot of the presidential candidates want to get in on this fun time.

I'm sure there are some that have slipped by me as I've gone over the thousands of friend requests and we'll see how long it takes before some of the friends are deleted.

The impact of who your "friends are" at this point remains unknown.  MySpace's measure of impact in the electoral process is still up in the air (other than the media stories it generates as to who has the most friends, or who took over what page).  As a channel to reach out to the masses you're limited to comments and bulletins, and 1on1 emails.  The typical media choices such as video and pics exist.  The two way communication is limited except for some fun mashup opportunities with other existing online programs.  Group interaction is poor and consists of bulletins and comments.

The power of MySpace is the ability to place widgets on other members pages and turn their corner of the internets into your personal billboard in an attempt to reach out to and convert others you might have not otherwise connected with.  The endorsement by friends adds a level of authenticity that might be able to break through an otherwise unreachable individual.

Overall MySpace and other networks like Facebook are fledgling tools in the political medium and we'll see if a magic formula is discovered that can finally merge the online community efforts and real world results.

Update: MyDD later in the day posted to the Predator MySpace page.  Obama soonn after pulled their friend status.  Both profiles as of today have been removed from MySpace.

Another week and some more fun MySpace political news.  I came across this on Sunday while looking over some of the candidate pages.  Some pro-gun MySpace fans have taken over a fansite for Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and posted the below comment:

"hijacked by those who see through the left/right paradigm... "

In protest some griefers (proper term for this?) have decided to post their protest to this proposed bill and instead have posted numerous Ron Paul for President posters and also some great music.

This comes a week after the Obama MySpace dust-up and the earlier posting to McCain's MySpace page after they didn't give credit to someone.

You can find the page here.

The 5B Consulting website has launched.  You can find it at 5B Consulting.  I would like to thank Anobleworld for it's help putting the site together.

You can find out more information about 5B Consulting and the services we provides at this site.