The New York Times is reporting that Vivaty, a start-up based in Menlo Park, Calif., is creating 3-D virtual chat rooms that people can add to the Web pages and social networking profiles.

The company has been quietly working on its technology for three years and will begin a private test period on Facebook this week in advance of a wider introduction this summer.

“We want to take all your content on the Web and move it to a more visually immersive, immediate experience,” said Keith McCurdy, chief executive at Vivaty and a former vice president at the big game maker Electronic Arts.

Similar online services like Second Life and games like World of Warcraft have existed for years. But they are not accessible through a Web browser. Instead they require users to install large and cumbersome programs and have plenty of Internet bandwidth for a satisfyingly immediate experience.

The entrepreneurs and investors behind other “live Web” companies say that the intermittent socializing on most Web sites ignores the primal human instinct that once drove people to the town square and now brings them into real-world social groups.

Does the world need another blog from a multi-national corporation hoping to sell us something? No, is the answer. Unless it’s funny or in some way unexpected, then the answer is maybe.

Chinese Democracy When? from Dr. Pepper, a blog that encourages Axl Rose to release his opus, Chinese Democracy, is both unexpected and funny.

According to the press release, everyone in America, except estranged GNR guitarists Slash and Buckethead, will receive a free can of Dr Pepper if the album ships some time — anytime! — in 2008.

Here’s the clincher…Dr. Pepper neatly ties the promotion to a brand truth.

“It took a little patience to perfect Dr Pepper’s special mix of 23 ingredients, which our fans have come to know and love,” said Jaxie Alt, director of marketing for Dr Pepper. “So we completely understand and empathize with Axl’s quest for perfection — for something more than the average album. We know once it’s released, people will refer to it as “Dr Pepper for the ears” because it will be such a refreshing blend of rich, bold sounds — an instant classic.”

Where does the Google crew get all its brain power? Sure they come in with superior cognitive skills, but how does Google nourish that collective intelligence? According to their former head chef, they do it with carefully selected and prepared foods.

Chef Charlie Ayers told The Sydney Morning Herald his mission was to seduce an unruly gaggle of brilliant but wayward computer engineers into wanting to stay at the office.

It began in 1998, when Page and Brin started Google in a friend’s garage near Stanford University in California. A few months later, they recruited Ayers. “They said: ‘We are not going to charge for food here, ever.’

“I said: ‘That’s crazy.’ They explained my job was to create this ambience, to build this captivated audience where people wanted to come in super-early and stay super-late.

“They interviewed me above a bicycle shop. They thought they were going to go global. I thought ‘Good luck.’ The way they were playing with children’s toys, riding around on scooters, I had no idea they were doing any work.”

In Ayers’ new book, Eat Yourself Smart, he shares his recipes, enabling the average person to eat like a Google engineer. Sadly, finding a company that supports its workers in this fashion is not quite as easy.

Scion Speak is a cool new way for hardcore Scion enthusiasts to go online and trick up their own custom Scion logo using templates created by a noted graffiti artist. The idea is that the car and now the logo is a natural extension of the owner’s personality and who better to mix it up than the owner/enthusiast.

Toyota likes to think of its quirky, boxy Scion as a 21st-century chariot of the soul — not just an affordable car, but also a unique expression of the young, hip person who Toyota hopes is driving it.

Now Toyota’s Scion enthusiasts will have even more “me time”: a marketing campaign with an underground vibe that is intended to show just how much their chosen transportation reflects their personality.

With an eye to the social networking ethos that has made Facebook and MySpace wildly popular, Toyota will let Scion owners design their own personal “coat of arms” online, a piece of owner-generated art that is meant to reflect their job, hobbies and — um, O.K. — karma.

To get into the mindset of Scion owners, graffiti artist Tristan Eaton met with owners over six months to come up with the various designs for the personalized logos.

The Scion Speak campaign is aimed not at future Scion owners but at current ones…, “to reduce Scion’s investment on conquering new customers and increasing the passion for the brand among its core fan base.”

[Via New York Times]

ISO50 - The Visual Work of Scott Hansen is an impressive blog offering connected to the designer’s online store. The print above can be secured for $15.00, making the prices as retro as the wildlife prints.

[via Josh Spear]

BFG’s very own “Rock and Roll Photographer” Derek Slaton picked up an award from Pixish at SXSW with this awesome rock shot of Riverboat Gamblers frontman Mike Wiebe crowd surfing in Houston. One of the Pixish judges, Kevin Meredith, a photographer from Brighton, U.K. has this to say about Slaton’s energetic rock shot:

“I love the energy in the shot, so much movement but the performer is perfectly frozen in time. Also top marks for the little rock hand sign being thrown in the right of the frame.”

Rock On!

Justin of Semi Precious Weapons.

Margaret Moser, the moderator of this afternoon’s panel on 16 Magazine and the birth of music journalism, started out the discussion by showing off a collection of the publications going back to their first issue in the early ’50s. The covers went from showing Elvis and James Dean to The Beatles in the ’60s to family bands in the ’70s and the boy bands of the ’90s. At either end of the table sat two people who appeared in the magazine over the years: Susan Cowsill of The Cowsills and Taylor Hanson of Hanson.

Having these two former child stars on the panel allowed the discussion to get into the populatiry of magazines like 16, which disbanded in 2001. Hanson summed it up well when he said, “Ultimately, people want to know you and want to connect with you.” As corny as these magazines can seem from the standpoint of serious journalism, they did tap into something people want from bands. And that’s access.

Jaan Uhelszki, who used to write for Creem, was another of today’s panelists. She spoke about the access given back in the early ’70s when Creem’s writers would spend a few weeks on tour with a band. There would be the opportunity to really get to know them just like in the movie Almost Famous, she said. But the line between journalist and band access changed in the ’80s along with “the corporatization of music,” she added.

This didn’t really come up in the panel but the idea of access to bands has shifted with the Web and sites such as YouTube or MySpace where you can become “friends” with a band and be part of their community. People still have that same desire to get close to bands they’re into and find ways to relate to them. Although they might not be asked about their favorite color anymore, there are other ways to relate by seeing how they live, work and play.

Danny Fields was also a panelist today and offered much insight and anecdotes on the old 16 Magazine and its famed longtime editor Gloria Stavers. Cowsill called her “a force of nature.” Although the panel made clear her impact on the magazine, its audience and bubblegum pop music, I’m not sure they had enough time to really build a case for how all of this blazed the trails for more serious music magazines to later come about.

Since the first chord was struck in the late eighties SXSW has attracted plenty of eager musicians to Austin, many who drive great distances in less than reliable vehicles, to play an unpaid showcase or an after party in the hope of scoring some much desired media buzz or that oft heard about, but rarely seen animal, the cool label deal that comes with a promised dash of “creative control.”

I interviewed Brandon Phillips, lead vocalist and guitarist for Kansas City’s rock powerhouse Architects, and he pointed me to one the observations from his band’s MySpace blog about their experience here that really summed up what SXSW is like for any band who braves Austin’s crazy streets for music’s version of “March Madness.”

Austin, TX during SXSW is a lot like the Greyhound station in Hollywood- lots of fresh young kids wearing their dreams all over their faces mixing with people who have been carrying pictures of their old dreams in their wallets ever since their dreams were strangled [by the] people whose job it is to pick the best dreams and strangle them.

Even with that harsh but true sentiment in mind, bands like Architects (who played a blazing show at a party above Emo’s at midnight) pour into Texas by the van load and push their amps and carry their guitar cases up and down 6th Street, Red River, Trinity, Congress and every other street and alley that might be within earshot of someone who might want to hear them play.

While many bands have come in from across the USA there are plane loads of international acts at SXSW and many of these bands have been packaged together to represent for the home country in force. One such show is the Japan Nite extravaganza at Elysium on Red River.

2008 marks the 11th year for Japan Nite at SXSW (Japan Nite is also a tour hitting major markets) and from the turnout it is obviously one of the more popular showcases. It’s a great chance to hurl the ringer and check out bands that U.S. audiences may not have heard of due to the lack of coverage by the music press of bands who do not sing in English (this is beginning to change as the web has opened the line for many international acts to American ears).

The three cheerful ladies in the power trio Sodopp from Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan took the capacity crowd by storm with their high voltage set of gleefully distorted power pop. I walked out a fan with my ears ringing.

Once again at SXSW, the topic of online music has surfaced as R.E.M. announced they’re bringing a new album to the Web. They’re not following the Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails formula, but a week ahead of the release of Accelerate, they’ll be streaming it on iLike. Users of the service will be able to embed the album in their profiles on Facebook, MySpace or Bebo.

Michael Stipe of R.E.M., who played a SXSW showcase at Stubb’s last night, talked to Billboard.com about how music consumption is changing:

He also noted that the way people embrace music “has certainly changed in the last 5 or 10 years. I think you can either go with it or sit back and watch it happen, and I would rather be out on the field than in the bleachers.”

Last night while R.E.M. was playing Stubb’s, I was interviewing glam band Semi Precious Weapons a few blocks away at The Viper Room’s showcase. Our interview ended on a similar sentiment to Stipe’s. Semi Precious Weapons has made their first album available on their Web site for free.

“We’re really aware of the ways people are getting music nowadays…We want to relate to the people we play music for and one of the ways you can do that nowadays is by presenting the music to them in a way they’re used to,” said guitarist Aaron Lee Tasjan.

Frontman Justin Tranter, who’s known for his wild performances, jumped in and said, “For us, our live show is where we feel at home, so our thought was give the music away for free and hopefully that’ll make four times as many people have it which will bring four times as people to our show.”

The band was recently signed by Razor and Tie, who will be re-releasing their debut album in stores with a DVD featuring live performance footage, a documentary and music videos.