Two (free) papers have been published that I think are useful for those who work in the virtual community field.

First, from the Association of Virtual Worlds, The Blue Book: A Consumer’s Guide to Virtual Worlds. It’s basically a directory of social networks and virtual worlds, including some that are in development.

Next, Wave 3 of a report from Universal McCann on Social Media.

Some highlights:

• China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42 million bloggers, more than the US and Western Europe combined.
• While blog readership in the U.S. has decreased by 2% since September 2006, globally it has increased by 23%, with a 57% increase in the Philippines.
• Brazil leads in terms of frequency of reading blogs. 52% read them daily, compared to 23% in the U.S.
• Percentage-wise, South Korea is the top country for starting blogs, and Mexico is number 5 (and the U.S. is way the heck down on the list).
• 56% of Brazilians manage their social networking profiles daily, and France is at the bottom of the list for creating profiles.
• BRIC markets lead in adoption of RSS, all 50% plus adoption (BRIC = Brazil, Russia, India, China)

Tags: association of virtual worlds, blogging, bric, profiles, report, social networks, universal mccann, virtual worlds