Desde la semana pasada MySpace.es con sede central en Madrid busca un/a Account Manager, Sales Director, un/a manager Advertising Sales y un/a respondable Administration para Barcelona.

Era de esperar que de una forma o otra empezaran a abrir mercado desde aqui, tal como lo ha hecho Yahoo.es abriendo oficinas comerciales en Barcelona.

Para nosotros de Barcelona want(ed) MySpace representa una satisfacción mínima. Es mejor que nada, ya que nos hubiera gustado tener la sede central de uno de los 2 más importantes webs sociales en Barcelona.

A ver cuando arrancan los de Dailymotion que habian anunciado abrir la sede central de su site en castellano en Barcelona.

Bueno, no tan “easy”, no con apagones que duran 3 días. El único efecto positivo ha sido recordarnos a todos el grado de dependencia del subministro ininterrumpido que padecemos en todos los ámbitos de nuestras vidas y la fragilidad de nuestra forma de vida.

Pero mi último mensaje antes de irme de vaccaciones no va del apagón, sino la desapareción del espacio público debido al turismo de masa. Recordémos que el alcalde de Barcelona piensa que esta ciudad todavía no haya llegado a su capacidad máxima para recibir turistas.

Tristemente cierto… para construir un hotel chic siempre se encuentra un sitio o se lo quita al mar. El caso más reciente en la nueva remodelación del skyline barcelones: el hotel que se está construyendo en estos momentos al final de la Barceloneta, empresas participantes: FCC, COMSA, OHL y Sacresa para la obra del llamado Hotel Vela diseñado por Ricardo Boffil.

Se calcula que esté terminado en 2009, al final su altura será de 88 metros en vez de los 160m inicialmente planteados. Tendrá una superficie de 42.000 metros cuadrados para el hotel, 25.500 para oficinas y 4.500 para usos recreativos y culturales. El hotel estará gestionado por el grupo Starwood, propietario de las cadenas Sheraton y Westin.

¿Porqué no preguntamos al alcalde, cómo se va a recomensar a la gente por la perdida de espacio público? Y al señor Bofill (tallerbcn@bofill.com), ¿qué entiende por espacio de uso recreativo y cultural (¿shopping malls y multi-cines?) , y qué van a ser exactamente los impactos ecológicos de un hotel a la orilla del mar?

¡Una vela para el próximo apagón habrá!

¡Feliz verano!

Fast Company has published its verdict on its 30 “Fastest Cities” of 2007 divided into 9 categories. Barcelona is among them, in the category of “Cultural Centres”, together with Miami and Dakar (Senegal).

Out of 30 Fast Cities, only 5 are European.

To my surprise (and ignorance) Tallinn, the capital of Estonia is among the hottest 3 in the “Urban innovators” category. In the description it says: 58% of the city’s population use internet with the cheapest fares in Europe, which makes it the most connected European city! That’s something we can ONLY DREAM of…

Then there is Berlin as one of the 3 most “Global Villages“; it says:

“Talent from all over the world, drawn by reasonable rents, acres of studio space, and a rebellious, daring spirit, is fueling a red-hot design, fashion, and architecture scene, while world-class research centers spin off technology startups”. We can only DREAM OF RESONABLE RENTS, can’t we…

Then there is Stockholm, one of the greenst fastest cities on the planet, being Europe’s least polluted mayor city. Well, we have Bicing and the sea brise to blow away CO2 car emmissions… the rest of the public transport (infrastructure) sucks!

And of course, my all-time favorite London, the European start-up hub, with the LSE that guarantees that start ups get feeded well.

And than there is the culture centre category: and there is Barcelona. Well, at least we are in any category. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that “culture” is less important than any other. But take a look at the text and you see what I mean - if you know how I think about certain thing, which you actually should, reading my posts in our blog

So it says:

Paris and Milan may still get more ink, but Barcelona is the style capital of the European continent. Behind the twin towers of Richard Rogers’s Hesperia Hotel and Jean Nouvel’s Agbar high-rise, the congested district of Eixample is recovering its public spaces, with plans for a park with playgrounds, magnolia trees, benches, and statues within 200 meters of every resident by 2010.

Go to Juan Freire’s blog and read his sharp analysis on the Fast City list, its concept and its errors.

El próximo lunes, 2 de julio 07, se celebrará el 1er aniversario de Mobile Monday Barcelona . El tema de la noche será la Mobile Web 2.0 y habrá invitados de primer rango, como Ajit Jaoka. más info

and I tell you who you are… I just came across a really interesting study by Danah Boyd, a female US social scientist, especialized on social networks. He has just published a first essay on “Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace“. She comes to the conclusion (in an what he says is not an academic article) that the “good” white kids with higher education are leaving MySpace and migrate to Facebook whereas the non-white, freaky, geeky kids, with parents who did not go to college are on MySpace.

It’s interesting to see how the virtual world reflects the real world: the digital divide is going on even in the age of the digital natives.

Let’s hope that Woody Allen’s new film will bring more international film productions to Barcelona and not only more tourists. Just by the way, our recently elected mayor said that Barcelona has not reached its maximum potential in terms of touristic development. For me it’s hard to believe, with 280 hotels and more to come and an annual 5 million foreignes visiting our common ground of just 100 square kilometers.

Anyway, the good news is that Woody is still looking for extras for his film. Rol, a local casting agency has been commissioned to look for the right people for the shootings in Barcelona. You find more info here.

Good news ! Things have started moving in Barcelona and lately the web 2.0 starts up in Barcelona. The first good news is that YAHOO! is expanding the BCN location and is about to open up a new commercial department in order to increase the online advertising share of YAHOO! in Spain and optimize their customer service. The second great news is SCLIPO: the German entrepreneur Gregory Grimmy (ex Sillicon Valley technology consultant) and his team have set up the first social network for video-based knowledge sharing among users. Have a look, it’s great, you find incredibly good video-based tutorial and virtually everything. I had the chance to see Gregory at an infonomia event about Internet TV and his project looks VERY promising; check out the interview with him in “if…” no.53

And then, finally international internet projects like Daily Motion are settling down here. The Paris-based company is a video-based community, just like YouTube but with a better interface.

I think with that kind of news, we’ve already overcome the whole MySpace’s issue… Did anybody go to their Secret Show in Madrid?

Happy Sònar, everybody!

Al final habrá un “happy end” entre Barcelona want(ed) MySpace y MS en Madrid…?

De hecho, hasta el día de hoy ningun representante oficial de MySpace Europe o Spain se ha puesto en contacto con nosotros. No obstante, parece ser que los que curran en MS Madrid sí que son un poco más enrollados y accesibles. Hoy hablé con Borja, director de contenidos en MS Madrid y seguidor de nuestra campaña desde el primer post!

Claro, el kick-off de todo esto será en Madrid, el día 11 de junio con un secret show

Todos los que quieren estar en el primer concierto secreto, es fácil: enviad un “ser amigo” desde vuestro myspace a secret shows, impremir vuestro perfil y llevaros una copia al concierto. A ver cuando los Secret Shows caen a Barcelona…