I am reading a very thought provoking book called Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. The book answers 2 important questions that can be extremely useful both in someone’s business as well as personal life.
1) Why do some ideas thrive while others die?
2) How do we improve the chances of worthy ideas?

As we move closer to the launch of Fitspott.com and continue our growth of 3Dwalkthroughs.com, many of the ideas and concepts in the book will be put to use almost immediately.

The main concepts of the book are easily absorbed as the book utilizes really good examples to drive home its points. I would highly suggest this book to anyone that is launching a new business, looking to improve an existing business or to anyone presenting an idea that needs to be remembered.

3Dwalkthroughs.com just recently came across a pretty interesting French company called Yoowalk. Yoowalk is a no-download virtual world which lets you browse the web, connect with friends, and design your own space in a live 3D environment.

After registering on the site I was able to go in and personalize my avatar. Once I saved my avatars settings I did a little exploring. Yoowalk wiil essentially allow anyone to build a virtual version of their website using their do it yourself tools. That functionality is not availble yet as they are still in their beta stage.

Features of Yoowalk

Walk around the web
Yoowalk is a virtual representation of the world wide web. It is composed of categorized villages of 3D websites called walksites that you browse with a personalized avatar. Simply walk your avatar along the streets to explore the coolest versions of your favorite websites.

Interact with live web traffic
Once in Yoowalk, you will not only see other avatars browsing the web, but will be able to interact with them in real-time. Feel free to follow a crowd, ask for shopping advice, or publicly debate your opinion in the streets.

Congregate with friends
With the Yoowalk Messenger, you are able to chat, locate, and browse the web with your friends. You can also sign into additional Instant Messengers and invite these friends to meet you in Yoowalk. Because Yoowalk is free and requires no download, they can join you with a simple mouse click.

Personalize your own interactive room
Design and decorate your own 3D space with furniture, accessories, interactive applications, and your favorite web content. You can also upload personal music and photos to share with your friends. When you’re done, invite them over to hang out and laugh at the latest pics from your crazy weekend.

Build a 3D version of your website
Site owners, editors, and bloggers! Want to create or tranform your website into an interactive 3D walksite? As a webmaster in Yoowalk, you will be able to build your community and interact live with your audience. To find out more, go to the Publishers section.

Source: Yoowalk website

3Dwalkthroughs.com just recently finished a project for the new condo development project 38 High Rock, in Saratoga Springs, New York. We understand that the sales office located in downtown Saratoga will be opening very soon.

The project involved the creation of multiple 3D Renderings and a Custom 3D Walkthrough. Apparently the Walkthrough is already being looped non-stop on a big plasma TV facing the street. Our source on the ground is telling us the 3D presentation is grabbing a lot of peoples attention.

Important note to developers: If your project is focused on a local market, looping a 3D presentation in a highly trafficked area can be a very effective way of attracting ripe potential buyers.

Members of 3Dwalkthroughs.com spent the day walking outside the area of the Montreal Jazz Festival and was very impressed with the surrounding neighborhoods. The architecture was very similar to what we experienced when we visited London last summer. Even though many of the restaurants and outdoor cafe’s were outside of the area sponsored by the Festival, many had live Jazz musicians.

As you can see from the montage of pictures above, there were very cool brownstone apartments interspersed with spacious loft buildings. The entire downtown area was also surrounded by a bike/rollerblading/running path.

During the day we dusted off our rollerblades and did a little exploring. The highlighted off the awkward skate was finding a converted Formula 1 track that is now the home of hundreds of bikers and rollerbladers. It is totally smooth so the risk of getting hurt was somewhat diminished. The danger returned however when we tried to skate back…the moral here is it is safer to walk in Montreal if you are not a good rollerblader.

3Dwalkthroughs.com is lucky to have booked a trip to Montreal during the first few days of their annual Jazz Festival. Based on the crowd during the day when we arrived, we were not expecting what we experienced when we went back at night.

The streets were flooded with people listening to music on one of the many stages that had live jazz musicians doing their thing. All the streets surrounding the festival were closed and there were many activities available for kids as well as adults.

Here are some of the features of the festival taken directly from the Montreal Jazz Festival’s Website- 3,000 artists from 30 countries

- More than 650 concerts, including 450 free outdoor performances

- Close to 2.5 million peaceful festivalgoers, including 34% of tourists and excursionists

- 400 accredited journalists

- 10 free outdoor stages

- 10 concert halls

The attached picture was taken from on top of a landing and was focused on the crowd surrounding the main stage. One thing we noticed was that as crowded as the Festival area was, the vibe was very peaceful even though you were allowed to drink on the street…and drink we did.

A few members of 3Dwalkthroughs.com are currently in Montreal, Canada, for the beginning of Montreal’s famous Jazz Festival. We decided to make the trip this year for 3 main reasons:

1) A few meetings regarding potential new 3D Walkthrough projects
2) The Jazz Festival
3) Promotion of Fitspott

This week we are actively starting to roll out some the initial marketing efforts of Fitspott and thought it would be a good idea to visit Canada as they are one of our main target markets after the United States. We have also been adding many ideas to our phase 2 folder which will get started immediately after our Phase 1 launch is complete and fully tested.

Canada has a huge fitness movement and would not require many adjustments to what we have already planned for the United States market. We have stopped by a few of the downtown health clubs and the response has been extremely positive… …especially after we described some of the features of Fitspott.

Stay tuned over the next few days as we report on some of the impresive architecture of this developing city along with other feedback we receive on Fitspott.

3Dwalkthroughs.com came across a story out of Paris about car maker Renault, and the interesting upgrade they made to their website. As part of their website upgrade they launched “Renault Universe”, the first completely 3D automotive website: www.univers.renault.fr

Renault Universe is a 3D virtual showroom that will allow people to view available automobiles in great detail before visiting a dealership.

Launched on June 17, Renault Universe enables users to browse a virtual 3D world promoting the brand and its products. The virtual universe comprises several areas: a showroom with a specific visual and sound environment for each model, an area on vehicle finance, and areas devoted to special events, Renault Used Cars and the dealer network.

Users will appreciate the extensive range and the variety of products as they browse through the vehicles. For example, in the Clio universe, they can use the discovery function to switch between Clio, Clio Estate, and Clio Campus. After rotating the vehicle 360°, visitors can watch a demo of functionalities, storage compartments, and a broad selection of accessories. All the technical information about the vehicles can be found in a separate section: versions, trim levels, engine types, and prices. Current promotional offers will be on the site as well. Users can also click to watch videos, including the latest Renault commercials.

Source: The AutoChannel.com

Let’s see how many other automobile companies follow suit. With over 12 million users on Renault’s website every year, their upgraded website will be a good case study for the rest of the industry.

3Dwalkthroughs.com just came across a brief post on the Scotsman.com news website about and Indian company that predicts they will have mobile phones with holographic screens, capable of showing and capturing 3D images, on the market by 2010.

The company, Infosys has patented the handsets and said the phones will be able to receive 3D movies and pictures. Using a mathematical process the technology is said to turn ordinary photos into 3D holograms.

Source: Scotsman.com News

Once this technology is launched and perfected we assume it will also be integrated into 3D mobile games as well. We have come across a lot of articles recently discussing various companies that are focused on the evolving mobile gaming market.

Every day 3Dwalkthroughs.com scours the internet doing research for the various projects we are involved with. In addition to searching for specific information we also visit a few select sites to help give us inspiration when we get into a “brain rut”.

I must say one of the most fascinating sites we visit often is Yanko Design. Almost every day we find something on the site that makes us say “how cool is that?”. If you are even mildly interested in innovative new technology and product design, it is worth subscribing to the Yanko Design site feed.

About Yanko Design
Yanko Design is a web magazine dedicated to introducing the best modern international design, covering from industrial design, concepts, technology, interior design, architecture, exhibition and fashion. It’s about the cutting edge and the classic, the new and the rediscovered. It’s all about the best.

Yankodesign.com reaches a rapidly expanding audience of approximately 360,000+ unique users, viewing 2 million pageviews each month with 8,000+ total daily newsletter subscribers making it the world’s most popular & influential online design magazine.

Image and Text Source:Yanko Design Website

A couple weeks ago, 3Dwalkthroughs.com posted a story about a company called 3Dgolfcourse that is using their technology in combination with Virtual Earth to model golf courses in 3D.

I just came across a YouTube video of one of their works. The 3D animation is of Torey Pines golf course in La Jolla, California. This was the recent home of the US Open. For those of you that do not read the news, this was one of the most fiercely battled US open tournaments in history. The winner was of course Tiger Woods but not by much.

To see the entire presentation including the 3D Walkthrough you can go here >>>

You can definitely see how viewing a course before actually visiting the location can be a huge advantage as players can better plan their strategies.