From such viral hits as I Can Has Cheezburger to helpful tools like Walk Score, hundreds of startup companies have their roots in Seattle’s thriving entrepreneurial community. This Q&A is the first in a series of interviews with Seattle-area startups.

Mark Briggs, CEO of Serra Media

When was Serra Media founded?

Officially in 2007, but the company didn’t start doing business until January 2009.

How and why did Serra Media get started?

It grew out of a side project while I was working at The (Tacoma) News Tribune. A friend of mine, who had started a couple tech companies in Seattle, and I came up with an interesting idea and decided to build a prototype. After showing it to several prospective companies and receiving positive feedback, we decided to launch the company to market the idea.

What does Serra Media do?

We power Web sites and provide mobile solutions to build community for hyperlocal news, information and shopping and help companies capture local advertising dollars shifting from traditional print publications.

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Imagine a newspaper that talks–yes, imagine a newspaper that talks to you!
Or imagine a grocery store suggesting what to cook for dinner using only products on sale. Or being part of a radio show without calling in. Or taking part in a presidential campaign by adding an electronic presidential button to your Twitter avatar.  These scenarios are all taking place today in Latin America. How? The short answer: Twitter.

Twitter has become a useful tool in Latin America in areas such as media, retail, and politics. For example, Diario Uno, a newspaper in Mendoza, Argentina, is known as the newspaper that “talks” because it interacts directly with its audience through Twitter.  “Our Twitter followers’ response in seeing that a newspaper reply to them has been enriching and has created a special loyalty to our newspaper,” said Nacho Castro, the person who is in charge of Tweeting for Diario Uno.

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“Don’t steal my plants from my farm.” “Have you watered your farm today?”  These daily greetings about farming are getting popular in most offices in Taiwan recently. For many Taiwanese, the hot flash game called “Happy Farm” is their motivation for Facebook usage.

“Happy Farm” features social networking and gaming. Each user owns a virtual farm for cultivation. Users have to check their farms, and water and weed from time to time. Friends on Facebook are able to steal plants and send gifts, which are the most interactive and fun parts of the game. Furthermore, it’s easy to play and kills employee boredom in the office. As a result, the game’s popularity has grown amazingly. Several similar games were also developed to attract users.

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The recession may be hurting the pocketbooks of people and businesses, but a new study shows that few companies that currently spend money on social media plan to cut back next year. The 2009 Tribalization of Business Study by Deloitte, Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications Research reveals that 94 percent of the 400 companies surveyed intend to maintain or increase investment in their communities.

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Not that long ago, media companies were easy to define. A media company could be a movie studio, television network, newspaper or magazine publisher, radio station or really any company that controlled a means of distributing content. But technology has brought about an enormous shift that many companies don’t yet recognize. Most companies are now enormously invested in media as a part of their everyday business, but few of them realize it.

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September 22nd saw the arrival of Halo 3: ODST, a game that builds on the story of Halo 3 in new and interesting ways.  Unlike the first three games in the franchise, Halo 3: ODST does not feature Master Chief as its main protagonist.  That cybernetically enhanced super soldier instead gives way to “The Rookie”, a silent new recruit to the ranks of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, those folks who literally drop into the fight from ships in planetary orbit.  They’re “the best of the best,” of course, but they lack the accoutrements that Halo players are used to using – they have no damage-absorbing and renewable shield, they cannot dual wield weapons, and they cannot run as fast or jump as far.  If they take damage they’ll need to find a health pack in order to heal.  In other words, the ODST soldiers are more mundane than good ol’ Master Chief, more normal.

In the world of video games, especially in the worlds depicted in first person shooters like Halo, normal is actually pretty exceptional. Read more…

A new addiction treatment program unlike any other in the country opened recently outside Redmond. This new program, reSTART, aims to heal a malady created by the digital age: Internet addiction. Though similar centers exist in Asia and online, reSTART is the first of its kind in the United States. Patients pay $14,500 to live at Heavensfield Retreat Center for 45 days. They participate in individual and group counseling, outdoor activities, life coaching and a variety of other programs.

So how do you distinguish between healthy Internet use and an addiction? According to an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry by Jerald Block, a Portland psychiatrist who specializes in this field, symptoms of Internet addiction include excessive use; feelings of anger or discomfort when away from a computer or portable device; the urge to increasingly buy better software or technology or to expand usage; and negative impact on quality of life; including sleep deprivation, poor performance at work or in school and lying about how much time one spends online. Internet addiction generally falls into three categories: gaming, sexual content and email or text messaging.

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