Exclusive Community for Professionals, Businesses and Students in IT, Web and New Media Reports 300% Rise in Membership and Pioneers a Unique Folksono

(Bluehost) July 23, 2007 -- A new concept in terms of online communities and social media, launched today is in its first phase as part of pioneering plans from the fast growing exclusive online community, iVirtua Community (iVirtua). iVirtua also reports a rapid expansion in terms of it's community and membership base.

This new concept will mean potential users are invited in to what is essentially a member led community environment, which is entirely user led and orientated, thus being a strong folksonomy. The user creates a profile and registers upon being invited by existing members of the community; from there they may contribute anything they deem appropriate, in the form of an article, question, debate, video or media text, essentially leading the direction of the community.

In addition, the user in question may professionally network and play a part in the "people aggregator" which is essentially, what could be called iVirtua's rudimentary social networking system. Any visitor to http://www.ivirtuaforums.com arrives at to a standard portal or hub, which is to access every piece of content on iVirtua free, and without registration. IVirtua also values a close-knit and warm, friendly community managed buy a non-invasive, reliable, and responsive "Community Team".

IVirtua this year had a presence at Internet World 2007, alongside @media 2007, and a team at London Hack Day 2007, whilst also being nominated for the New Statesman New Media Awards 2007, complemented by iVirtua's internet presences on LinkedIn, MySpace and Ustream.

IVirtua reported as of June 2007, a 350% rise in the trends of new visitors as opposed to returning visitors compared to the figures in May 2007, and many users accessing the content posted by members and using it as a resource base and starting point for research, evident in search terms and referring sites. IVirtua values its philosophy of allowing access too content and resources free, without registration - a rare occurrence in the age "Web 2.0". IVirtua now averages in excess of 550,000 unique page visitors per month, as of July 2007.

The site provides a unique exclusive online community targeted to, and designed for Professionals, Businesses and Students in the sectors and industries of Gaming, Creative New Media, Web, IT, and Computing, all closely related with it's Business and Industry, with articles, reviews, discussion, news, downloads, and debate. They also provide users the opportunity to Share news, views, reviews, ideas, experiences, and questions or indeed pose a debate. In dedicated areas of the site User's contributions are complemented with news aggregation technology, which selectively retrieves news stories through an dedicated web crawler, alongside tagging systems and member led discussion after an initial article is posted.

IVirtua, in the future has plans to expand it's current live webcast show, which superseded quickly the popular podcast - which just goes to show the pace at which development of this community is expanding. Plans also under consideration encompass providing a German or Dutch version of the site, with innovative language integration with current content and live human translation.

IVirtua was Founded in 2006 by Sam England (Executive Director) with support from Jamie Taylor (Director of Operations) who were both 16 at the time and who Currently they manage a close-knit team of 14 international and UK staff, with a Headquarters in the UK.

IVirtua Community membership is currently available for free at http://www.ivirtuaforums.com until the iVirtua Community goes invite only on August 1st 2007.

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