Google Australia’s blog highlights how the terrible fires in the country are permeating every walk of life.

Quite simply, they’ve built a Flash Map, which contains the latest up-to-date information about fire locations and their status from the Country Fire Authority.

Although nothing good can be said about this ongoing tragedy, Google’s reaction is an example of how offline can support online in a more humanised sense, away from ad-campaigns and ideas of marketing ROI. Equally, Google’s power online means that it’s making information more accessible to those who need it, as well as taking the strain away from other websites that are close to collapsing under massive volumes of traffic.

With an increase of recent catastophes, wars and events all being mapped through the internet, it genuinely seems to me that the internet really can call itself a global community… It will be interesting to see which direction this takes in the near future.

In case anyone missed it, Google have released their new Earth offering, Google Ocean.

Included in the 5.0 version, it allows users to “swim” around the seven seas, without even getting wet or eaten by sharks.

Nice.

PRESS RELEASE: London, UK,  January 2009

35 of the UK’s leading SMEs from the digital industry head to Austin, Texas on the Digital Mission to South by South West Interactive (SXSWi) from 12-18 March 2009, one of the world’s leading conferences for emerging media. Established in 1994, the conference provides an opportunity for the Digital Mission companies to attend hundreds of conference sessions and networking events.

The Digital Mission is organised by digital networking community, Chinwag, on behalf of UKTI (UK Trade & Investment). Combined with the SXSWi, the Digital Mission provides delegates the opportunity to exhibit at SXSWi. A unique ‘Nuts and Bolts’ masterclass will help British companies understand how to establish and develop their business in the USA, taking guidance from a panel of American and British experts, whilst the “Great British Breakfast” provides a UK-focused networking event for 300 delegates during the conference.

Building on the success of the Digital Mission to New York in September 2008 - also organised by Chinwag for the UKTI – this second trip to Texas will assist firms to develop new business channels, partnerships, investment and provide a detailed knowledge of the US market.

Companies were invited to apply for the Digital Mission. The 35 successful delegates were selected from over 100 entries by an advisory board of industry experts drawn from including Mike Butcher, TechCrunch UK Editor, Herb Kim, Codeworks CEO and Sarbjit Bakhshi, Head of Information & Technology Group, UKTI.

More information about each company can be seen on the Digital Mission website:
http://www.chinwag.com/digitalmission/sxsw09-companies

For more information, please visit: http://www.digital-mission.org

Source: Sam Michel’s Chinwag blog

It seems that cybercriminals are operating more and more now, especially in the ever-increasing social-media areas. LinkedIn is the latest victim, following the events we’ve seen on Twitter this week.

Celebrities were once unknowingly at the centre of this, as fake profiles on the site promised naughty pictures and videos – but surprise, surprise, any offer of nude pictures of Paris Hilton and Christina Aguilera linked straight to sites brimming with malware.

Trend Micro, the security experts, spotted the fake profiles earlier this week. But it was Sophos who spoke out, saying that it was a “a shame that LinkedIn aren’t keeping a closer eye on obviously bogus profiles being created on their site.”

Even though the UK Government has a pretty poor grasp on digital fundamentals, this doesn’t seem to have hindered our boys in blue.

The UK police has just dipped its toe properly into 2.0 applications, with the Home Office creating an interactive map for users to see how bad the crime is where they live. The Met even has it’s own private map!

I could comment on how the money could have been used to employ more officers to help prevent crimes in the first place, but I won’t, because it’s a good sign when you see organisations that are notoriously slow to use media like this, actually building and using it in a decent way. (Although the Home Office map design isn’t too hot.)

I’m still trying to find a UK force on Twitter though… Despite Downing St being online. The Americans have embraced this already, with smaller forces such as Franklin, MA and Scottsdale, AZ twittering away with the NYPD and equally impressive forces. Cyber criminals beware!

I stumbled across a cool site today: This Moment.

It’s a website for saving and sharing the moments of your life – It’s pretty cool, sort of like a personal 2.0 timeline.

Because it’s quite new – some of it still in development - they’re offering beta keys to anyone who mails them. Get going!

… Am loving the design thats gone into Amazons new platform, windowshop.

Not entirely convinced it’ll boost sales, but it’s an awesome example of 2.0 at it’s finest.

If you haven’t already seen it, go there NOW!