Check out the video below of YBand’s stellar performance at the semi-finals of the Fortune Battle of the Corporate Bands last Saturday, the 23rd.

Our guys came in a notable second, but from what we hear it was a pretty close call! You represented us well and made us proud!

Also congratulations to The Consumer Republic and good luck to them at the U.S. final!

YDreams Virtual Grafiti is being used as an alternative media to activate and promote the Guaraná Antartica Street Festival (GAS), an event created for lovers of action sports, street art and music. The line up, which includes artists like Bad Religion and Pitty to name a few, will take place next September 6 th at Chácara do Jockey in São Paulo, Brazil.

The Graffiti gives event-goers the opportunity to paint, draw and interact with a digital wall, promoting a unique experience between the brand and campaign concept.

Before moving onto the street festival, the Virtual Graffiti will be on exhibition for experimentation at Morumbi Shopping Center in São Paulo till September 4th. The entire campaign was created by DM9DDB in partnership with B/Ferraz, the company responsible for organizing the event.

Tomorrow, Saturday the 23rd, the YBand will rock for a place on the American final of the Fortune Battle of the Corporate Bands 2008 edition. Those of us unable to attend London for the European semi-final, wish the band the best of luck! If anyone wants to stop by: The University of London Union - ULU, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY, starts at 6.pm.

SXSW Interactive 2009 is already gearing up and we’ve got some YDreamers applying for panels. Though not as widely popular as its Music counterpart, SXSW Interactive is one of the most conceited interactive media festivals around. From March 13 to 17, Austin will be buzzing with media entrepreneurs, curious geeks, technology evangelists and any other interactive aficionado variants you’d care to make. We’d really appreciate it if you’d give us a hand by voting for our panels.

Marta Vieira has two submissions for the Mobile / Wireless category. Since her early days at the company, as an Account Manager for our Entertainment division, Marta has amassed a profuse knowledge on location-based systems and gaming, both panels propose to put some perspective into current state-of-the-art and future trends.

Ivan Franco, our Research & Development Director, is set for the New Technology / Next Generation category, where he sets to share his expertise in new interfaces, DIY concepts and his own musicianship (check out Ivan’s blog for more info).

More info and voting links below:

Inches vs Miles – What Makes Location-Based Games Fun? (Marta Vieira)

Is accurate location what makes a location-based game “real”? Or can we broaden the concept of location until it fits our idea of what a fun game design would be? In this panel experts will discuss location-based gaming, its present and possible evolution.

(click to vote)

Location-Based Applications – Dead on Arrival? (Marta Vieira)

Location based applications have long been hailed as the wireless industry’s “next killer app”. But will they disappear before they’re ever big? In this panel the experts will discuss if location is likely to emerge as a powerful genre or be used as a feature boost for applications.

(click to vote)


New Interfaces for Performance (Ivan Franco)

Realtime computation allowed new media artists to develop interactive performances but typical computer interfaces don’t offer appropriate interaction models for these contexts. In the DIY generation artists learned new techniques to build their own instruments. Novel interfaces have surfaced and this presentation is a reflection on New Interfaces for Performance.

(click to vote)

Thought I’d a round-up on interesting things recently posted by YDreamers on our internal mail forums.

Intellectual property has been a hot issue this week, as it becomes more and more relevant to YDreams’ strategy, starting with William Patry’s announcement that he was going to shut down his excellent blog about Copyright issues. IBM’s thorough IP strategy (as this example well illustrates) was also on the discussion table.

With a couple of upcoming YDreams projects related with interactive urban furniture and environments, we couldn’t help noticing REACTIVATE!!, a really interesting looking exhibition, dealing with the concept of Instant Urbanism. (via we make money not art)

We don’t do robots, but that doesn’t mean we don’t find them cool.

Data visualization is such an interesting area, especially when working with interfaces and information design, with results that go from annoying garble to stunning functionality. Take a look at this article about the ‘most interesting modern approaches to data visualization‘, some really great trends here.

To round things off, a well-polished (and funny) look at the ‘Unfulfilled Promises of Virtual Reality‘, all the way up to Augmented Reality.