Nokia Italia

Having posted about a couple of "hot off the press" sites, here is one that is rather less new, and that managed to slip past my less-than-perfect radar: Nokia Italia. It's been open since mid-November and has been put together to support Nokia Trends Lab. Rather than finely craft a post of infinite subtlety, with poise and humour, I think I will take freely from the Nokia website.

Visit the island and join interactive games, listen to web radio or participate by creating your own multimedia content. When arriving on the island you will immediately notice the big stage. Here you can visit performances of Nokia Trends Lab artists. In the “My Radio” area you can listen to 10 web radio stations, bringing to you the sounds of Nokia Trends Lab in an atmosphere of a real event. Artists have the opportunity to enter information and add pictures or anything useful to get to know the residents of Second Life. As a visitor you can participate too: take pictures, shoot videos and record sounds! The best multimedia content will be selected and used as an integral part of The Milan Experiment.

Well that's what the website says. I don't know what The Milan Experiment might be, but it sounds a bit scary. My experience of the site is a bit less gung-ho, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that some of these features are yet to come. What I did notice was:

• Music listening stations
• Video viewing stations
• Options to vote for your favourites
• Open mic spot
  
• The "My Radio" area has a number of poses you can adopt, to match the music being played.

The look and feel is a continuation of that found on the website, although the surrounding desert island theme seems a little at odds with it. The Trends Lab seems to have been dropped in, rather than blending with the environment. Still, I like what Nokia are trying to do here, though they need to increase the frequency of events. If the website is correct, there has been only one actual event - and that was at the time of launch. Here are the piccies I took: