Napster was the killer-app which made peer-to-peer music sharing software a household name. This was before it went legit and "sold out" to the music industry, of course. Then came along Kazaa, and it did the same for video files. The founders of Kazaa then moved on and created
Skype, an IP Telephony company based in Luxembourg. Skype's latest marketing ploy... er, technique is downloadable online avatars [
Link]. Users can create their own avatar "in their own image", and load them onto their personal Skype (for a small fees, of course). Now, since Skype has a major presence in London, it panders to British muticulturalism, and allows customers to create very 'diverse' avatars (or weemees), with all manner of headgear (cowboy hats, santa caps, turbans, veils, tiaras), tops (school uniforms, leather jackets, even cross-dressing) and lifestyles (sports, pets, musical instruments, even angel wings). I tried my hand at a self-portrait, but couldn't settle on just one:
