An exclusive gaming industry community targeted
to, and designed for Professionals, Businesses
and Students in the sectors and industries
of Gaming, New Media and the Web, all closely
related with it's Business and Industry.
A Rich content driven service including articles,
contributed discussion, news, reviews, networking, downloads,
and debate.
We strive to cater for cultural influencers,
technology decision makers, early adopters and business leaders in the gaming industry.
A medium to share your or contribute your ideas,
experiences, questions and point of view or network
with other colleagues here at iVirtua Community.
Press Releases July 23, 2007 • Exclusive Community for Professionals, Businesses and Students in IT, Web and New Media Reports 300% Rise in Membership and Pioneers a Unique Folksonomy Based Web 2.0 Concept
A new concept in terms of online communities and social media, launched today is in its first phase as part of pioneering plans from the fast growing exclusive online community, iVirtua Community (iVirtua). iVirtua also reports a rapid expansion in terms of it's community and membership base.
July 23, 2007 -- A new concept in terms of online communities and social media, launched today is in its first phase as part of pioneering plans from the fast growing exclusive online community, iVirtua Community (iVirtua). iVirtua also reports a rapid expansion in terms of it's community and membership base.
This new concept will mean potential users are invited in to what is essentially a member led community environment, which is entirely user led and orientated, thus being a strong folksonomy. The user creates a profile and registers upon being invited by existing members of the community; from there they may contribute anything they deem appropriate, in the form of an article, question, debate, video or media text, essentially leading the direction of the community.
In addition, the user in question may professionally network and play a part in the "people aggregator" which is essentially, what could be called iVirtua's rudimentary social networking system. Any visitor to http://www.ivirtuaforums.com arrives at to a standard portal or hub, which is to access every piece of content on iVirtua free, and without registration. IVirtua also values a close-knit and warm, friendly community managed buy a non-invasive, reliable, and responsive "Community Team".
IVirtua this year had a presence at Internet World 2007, alongside @media 2007, and a team at London Hack Day 2007, whilst also being nominated for the New Statesman New Media Awards 2007, complemented by iVirtua's internet presences on LinkedIn, MySpace and Ustream.
IVirtua reported as of June 2007, a 350% rise in the trends of new visitors as opposed to returning visitors compared to the figures in May 2007, and many users accessing the content posted by members and using it as a resource base and starting point for research, evident in search terms and referring sites. IVirtua values its philosophy of allowing access too content and resources free, without registration - a rare occurrence in the age "Web 2.0". IVirtua now averages in excess of 550,000 unique page visitors per month, as of July 2007.
The site provides a unique exclusive online community targeted to, and designed for Professionals, Businesses and Students in the sectors and industries of Gaming, Creative New Media, Web, IT, and Computing, all closely related with it's Business and Industry, with articles, reviews, discussion, news, downloads, and debate. They also provide users the opportunity to Share news, views, reviews, ideas, experiences, and questions or indeed pose a debate. In dedicated areas of the site User's contributions are complemented with news aggregation technology, which selectively retrieves news stories through an dedicated web crawler, alongside tagging systems and member led discussion after an initial article is posted.
IVirtua, in the future has plans to expand it's current live webcast show, which superseded quickly the popular podcast - which just goes to show the pace at which development of this community is expanding. Plans also under consideration encompass providing a German or Dutch version of the site, with innovative language integration with current content and live human translation.
IVirtua was Founded in 2006 by Sam England (Executive Director) with support from Jamie Taylor (Director of Operations) who were both 16 at the time and who Currently they manage a close-knit team of 14 international and UK staff, with a Headquarters in the UK.
IVirtua Community membership is currently available for free at http://www.ivirtuaforums.com until the iVirtua Community goes invite only on August 1st 2007.
09 April 2007 • Fast emerging UK web site releases exclusive IT and new media business and industry community rapidly gaining 28,000 contributions and over 1000 members.
LONDON, UK • April 9, 2007 • iVirtua Community (UK)'s popularity has recently rocketed with the recent release of strong, unique features and a surge in activity due to excusive news stories storming past the 1000 member mark; with over 28,000 individual contributions.
IVirtua has exciting and innovative proposals to create from what is already a vibrant and close-knit community, an invite only, excusive community targeted to, and designed for and providing
"everything in one place" in an almost "virtual world" sense for professionals, businesses and students Professionals, Businesses and Students in the sectors and industries of Gaming, Creative New Media, Web, IT, and Computing, all closely related with it"s Business and Industry. With expansion of existing services, to include a comprehensive "Approved Download Directory" which will aim to provide a "Trusted Source" for downloads. iVirtua's articles and reviews will provide high quality critical reviews of the latest developments in the industry in terms of hardware and software; in tandem with a learning and tutorials section which will aim at the student and expert aspect of iVirtua's niche audience, which will, when complete, form a rich and detailed catalogue of courses covering HTML and Web design, programming and scripting, tutorials, GCSE and A level guidance, and computing tutorials, in a virtual learning environment.
IVirtua will strive to provide a rich feature base according to user's demands, being designed with it's demanding target audience in mind. iVirtua has a strong track record of listening closely to it's community users; and taking on board and recognizing every single suggestion put to it to date; ensuring every feature is both needed and viable, whilst keeping clutter and unneeded features out of the way for our professional audience, with high expectations. Andy McNair, a member of the iVirtua Editorial Team, claims that the "iVirtua's strong discussion and debate is still the utmost best feature of the site, with in depth political, technological and industry topics being created and contributed to on a daily basis." truly reflecting the excusive, yet open nature of iVirtua Community. iVirtua's editorial team continue to publish many excusive news stories, frequently becoming the first to report events meaning large spikes in activity on the site, with stories such as the Vista - iPod corruption, Spymac Leapfrog release, UK LAN Centre analysis, excusive analytical apple articles, the Microsoft Zune and IT Business stories. Additional features adding to the rich iVirtua "Experience", include dedicated private messaging systems, and Custom VIOP conferencing suites and LiveChat conferencing.
The invite only aspect to iVirtua will further push exclusivity keep unwanted contributions and make for a close, friendly community. Each user will gain 10 invites (to be confirmed), and the network is expected to expand rapidly in the industry.
The recent clean, refreshing re design is expected to appeal to the target audience, and creates a strong, stable but clean feel; mush like the community's ethos it's self. Jay Taylor, Director of Operations comments, "iVirtua strives to produce clean and relevant contributions, in a very open but moderated community; which is a unique aspect to the iVirtua Community"
IVirtua has also invested in a strong, unique and easy to use networking system in which valuable in terms business links, B2B, industry networking and also more casual use enabling the optional submitting of networking information such as skills, interests, locations and even age and names, This could even pose as a system to find freelancers for a programming job, to find business partners, or even personal relationships; as any skill, interest, age, or even favorite music genres submitted are individually searchable making for a simple, fast and efficient networking system; which is bespoke designed for the nature of the iVirtua Community. Sam England, Executive Director iVirtua claimed it was a "unique system invaluable to many users of iVirtua, and was the primary reason for many of it's members being there". Salim Rahman, head developer at iVirtua Community (UK), commented, "The bespoke solution used in iVirtua networking is a very attractive feature, and is certainly a strong point in the iVirtua Community Experience".
IVirtua currently boasts a dedicated editorial and growing staff team; from Europe, and India; along with the Untied States. In the near future, iVirtua expects to expand in to the growing and vibrant Indian IT market with their Exclusive Community Ethos. Sam England, Executive Director at iVirtua also commented that "The recent interest from Indian and Bangladeshi IT professionals has proven a prospect iVirtua is excited to take up, welcoming many Indian and Bangladeshi staff on board, a long with valued contributors bringing together a what is to be a friendly global community. Plans to attend tradeshows and consumer expos, markedly a presence at the upcoming Internet World Event 2007, will see yet another boost in iVirtua's Public Relations; with a marketing drive expected as of the second quarter, 2007.
iVirtua club premium, an additional development expected for 2007 release, will include free 10GB hosting and integrated 10GB email solution for valued members or at a nominal subscription free and free software through business partners such as Sun microssystems and Microsoft.
About iVirtua
Founded in March 2006 by Sam England, iVirtua Community has seen many changes in the audience it has attracted; but is fast becoming the newest edition to strong, contemporary, non, -web 2.0 sites, which Executive Director Sam England believes is the future of the internet in terms of the professional and student, or business audiences, separate from the social networking sites or "Web 2.0" sites which have overshadowed such sites in the past two years; as it becomes more and more recognized amongst Professionals, Businesses and Students in the sectors and industries of Gaming, Creative New Media, Web, IT, and Computing, all closely related with it"s Business and Industry.
05 November 2006 • iVirtua Updates Online Community Aimed at Gaming and Creative Sectors of Business
iVirtua is pleased to announce the latest update to its online community designed for media, gaming and creative businesses, new features include a dedicated articles and reviews section, an easy to use gallery, drag and drop file storage, customisable calendar and over thirty ways to subscribe to iVirtua, including del.icio.us, Windows Mobile and RSS2PDF.
iVirtua was founded in March of 2006; primarily by Sam England (16) at the time; based in the UK, with high aspirations.
New Features
iVirtua has made vast improvements to it's community focusing on what customer really wanted, The community team spent a lot of time discussing what could be improved and what customers wanted to see in iVirtua. Community Manager Jakob Rauschenbach said "A lot of our customers not only wanted to come to iVirtua to read and discus the latest business news but also a place to relax and have fun, this is why we've introduced our Games Arcade as well as the ability to play online games such as Battlefield and Counter Strike on our own dedicated server with customers from the community. Customers also wanted a place were they could read articles and reviews and this is another feature iVirtua has announced. We hope all these features new and updated will keep our customers coming back as well as introducing new customers".
These new features include an articles and reviews section, over thirty ways to subscribe to iVirtua, Instant syndication from large sites including gamespot and Microsoft giving the customer all the information they want in one place, file storage, gallery, loyalty points (giving customers access to more features!), Live Chat, A games arcade (over 200+ games), the ability to play computer games online*, better online security, bugs fixed, inclusion of AJAX features and Search Engine Optimization (for better search engine rankings).
The community is now run from it's own dedicated server from the London Meridian Gate Redbus Interhouse located in the Docklands area of London, this dedicated server allows our customers to access the community from around the world without any problems**.
iVirtua is a powered by integrated collection of web applications and scripts that are developed in-house which together create the iVirtua WOS. We hope this creates an easy to use, rich and immersive community experience. More information about the iVirtua WOS (Web Operating System) can be found at:
http://www.ivirtuaforums.com/wos.php
Looking Ahead
Jay Taylor (iVirtua Public and Customer Relations) said "The new features which iVirtua offers will allow us to increase our overall percentage of customers as well as allowing customers to aggregate, share and read the latest articles, reviews and discussions without having to turn on their computer. We hope that this will encourage customers to use iVirtua as their main source of information concerning media, gaming and creative business news".
This update will allow iVirtua to stay ahead of competition in what is becoming a competitive market to provide customers with the content they want. Features such as the in built Plusmo aggregator will allow users to quickly access content from their mobile phone which is all part of iVirtua's plan to make the community accessible not just from a computer. Sam England (Development and Community) said "With the advent on mobile browsing iVirtua needs to set itself apart as a contender, we also have plans to make the community accessible on both the Nintendo Wii and PLAYSTATION 3, which will both have opera browsers built in".
iVirtua employee's some of the finest writers from inside the gaming, media and creative industry world this means that our members get exclusive articles and reviews as well as world exclusive news relating to the creative business sector. This is another reason why our customers use us over other communities.
iVirtua will soon be releasing a Podcast on the topics covered by the iVirtua Community, and also they are going to release a learning environment with HTML, Computing and Media courses all costing 99p.
Testimonials
"Looking at your site, it looks very nice, certainly well made. Nice clean look." Asif, MacTV Creator (iVirtua Customer)
"I'm looking forward to see a lot of good discussion" Patrick Buckner, CEO, Austure Network Inc. (iVirtua Customer)
"I just found my dream site..." TheOne (iVirtua Customer)
"I really love your site, it seems so fresh and vibrant." Josh (iVirtua Customer)
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