When worlds collide

Continuing the (vague) theme of when real world meets digital world, here are a couple of my favourite things on the subject.

The first is an article I came across a few weeks back about the emerging battle between the 'real-life' socialites (as charted by socialiterank.com) and the 'digital' celebs of MySpace. It's a good read, includes a great definition of digital fame courtesy of the New York Post ('if you have your own Wikipedia entry, been downloaded more than 50,000 times on YouTube.com, crucified on three gossip sites, and boast more than 10,000 MySpace acquaintances, then you've made it onto the virtual A-list') and has links to the 'top' digital celebrities like Mahir Cagri and geriatric1927.

A few months I ago a saw a piece in the New Scientist describing the rise of crime in the cyberworld and how it's spilling out into real life. That's old news now, but since then the story's developed: if there's crime, there are criminals and criminals need to be tried...so now you can hire a lawyer trained in the real world at Harvard Law School to practise in the virtual one. Weird.