Summary
Founded in March 2004 by Erik Wachtmeister, 50, the son of a Swedish ambassador to the United States, this exclusive assembly aims to become the world's "leading global social-networking community." In order to join, one has to be invited. But in order to be invited, at least five existing members have to recommend you. But belonging to this ritzy fraternity has its advantages. To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the company, a party was staged in St. Tropez attended by Paris and Nicky Hiltion, Ivan Trump and Sarah Marshall. A Small World isn't for social climbers or celebrity wannabes (although one imagines some among the 75,000-plus members must have snuck in through a back door. "This is an Internet community," says Wachtmeister, "designed for those who already have strong connections with one another."
Stockholm-born Niklas Zennström is the co-founder of the Skype internet telephony company, which was recently sold to E-bay in a multi-billion dollar deal. Skype allows members to make phone calls over the Internet anywhere in the world for free. Needless to say, this service is much-beloved by expatriates everywhere and is probably hated by conventional phone companies. At this writing, Skype has 54 million members in 225 countries. And they are adding approximately 150,000 users a day. "Our vision for Skype has always been to build the world's largest communications business and revolutionize the ease with which people can communicate through the Internet," says Zennström, who founded Skype in 2003 together with his Danish partner Janus Friis. This Nordic duo has an amazing track record when it comes to rocking the corporate boat. These are the same two gents who previously launched KaZaA, the world's most downloaded Internet software to date with more than 370 million downloads. KaZaA, of course, is the music downloading system that gave giant record companies a massive anxiety attack. Zennström/ Friis will not have trouble finding investors if they get any more bright ideas.A full-length spoof of Star Trek made by a group of Finnish students and distributed over the Internet for free has been downloaded over 3 million times. This makes "Star Wreck: In the Pirkinnning" Finland's most watched film, according to Reuters. The nobudget film has therefore exceeded the previous record for a Finnish film which was set by The Unknown Soldier, released in 1955. According to the film's website, Finland's first full-length science fiction adventure starts "with Captain James B. Pirk of the starship Kickstart shipwrecked on the 21st century Earth with his crew. Originally from the distant future, Pirk and his crew traveled back in time to save the Earth from hostile aliens, but lost their ship and became stranded. Pirk's daily routine consists mainly of stuffing his face at the local fast food restaurant, and he is finding it difficult to convince the ladies he is, in fact, an intergalactic space hero from the future."See the full content of this document
Extract
Tidbits
Webmaster for the jet-set
Do you go yachting with princes and media kings? Do you hang out with movie stars at Cannes or go boarhunting in Bavaria? If you move in the rarefied circles of the international jet set, your probably already know several people who are members of the A Small World on-line community. If not, well, you are probably out of luck, since it isn't open to the public.Founded in March 2004 by Erik Wachtmeister, 50, the son of a Swedish ambassador to the ...See the full content of this document
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