ReadWriteWeb

When mobile augmented reality experiences started popping up on smartphones in the last year, the majority of the apps helped people find businesses and other points-of-interest. Now as the social Web becomes increasingly mobile, the data it provides is more likely to contain location information. Foursquare and Gowalla are obvious examples of the growing social location trend, but even Twitter and YouTube can now link tweets and videos to a specific location. Today I had the opportunity to chat with Chetan Damani, CEO of acrossair, makers of several AR apps for the iPhone, about the trends his company is seeing in mobile AR.

The experience of shopping and buying items has always been a social one, but online we largely browse and purchase items by ourselves while parked at of our computer monitors. The online shopping experience may soon get far more social as online retail behemoth Amazon has added connectivity to Facebook in order to provide product suggestions based on likes and favorites pulled from the social graph.

As an early adopter of an unknown service called "The Facebook" back in 2004, it is impressive to see the growth and change that has come to the site. When many of the earliest members joined, a university email address from a select list of institutions was required to sign up. Eventually, nearly every college was opened up, then came high-schools and after that - everyone. Today marks another significant milestone in the history of the Web's most popular social network as Facebook has passed the 500 million user mark.

This blog was founded in 2003 on the philosophy of a read/write Web - a Web in which people can create content as easily as they consume it. This trend eventually came to be known as Web 2.0 - although others preferred Social Web - and was popularized by activities like blogging and social networking.

It would be easy to say that the 'social' element is still the primary part of today's Web, since the popular products of this era enable you to say what's on your mind (Facebook), what's happening (Twitter), or where you are (Foursquare). All of these are mostly social activities. But more significantly, these and other products output data that will increasingly be used to build personalized services for you.

From time to time, we look at how Enterprise 2.0 practices are reaching into companies.

A recent post by Michael Idinopulos demonstrates how the premises for finding Enterprise 2.0 champions is often flawed. Too often the search is for the right personality. Instead, the focus of the search should really be for the people who are "exchanging knowledge, information, and ideas across large parts of the organization."

Today, Pope Benedict XVI announced that priests and church leaders should be actively using digital tools, including the social web, to communicate with laypersons, particularly young people.

The occasion was the 44th annual World Communications Day, traditionally a time for the Vatican to project an annual message from the church to its people and the rest of the world. This year's message stood in sharp contrast to the missive he delivered in 2009, when the Holy See stated that mass media - including online information sources - acted as a "poison" that numbed morality and sensitivity. "'It recounts, repeats and amplifies evil," he said, "making us accustomed to horrendous acts, desensitizing us and, in some ways, poisoning us." So, why the about-face?

January is half over but there's still plenty of events to catch. In the next two weeks, London, San Francisco and Amsterdam will be home to a variety of tech-related seminars and conferences. Keep up to date with ReadWriteWeb's weekly events guide by downloading the entire calendar in iCal format or importing it into your Google Calendar. You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry.

Know of an event taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.

We've been in a globe-trotting mood for the past two weeks here at the ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, adding new conferences and seminars in London and Australia. As always, you can download the entire event calendar in iCal format or import it into your Google Calendar. You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. We publish it every weekend, as good a time as any to review your conference plans. This events guide is a weekly feature here on ReadWriteWeb.

Know of an event taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.

Welcome to the first ReadWriteWeb Event Guide of 2010. There's a new seminar in London later this month that we've added to this week's list. As always, you can download the entire event calendar in iCal format or import it into your Google Calendar. You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. We publish it every weekend, as good a time as any to review your conference plans. This events guide is a weekly feature here on ReadWriteWeb.

Know of an event taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us.

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