Claudia Lucero started Urban Cheese Craft in 2009, here’s what she has to say about herself.

Hi. I’m a cheesemaker paying off student loans while spreading the joy of cheese making with my shop Urban Cheesecraft. I hope you enjoy this simple but super rewarding skill as much as I do.

Hey, you’ve got to love her honesty, right? And with intentions so pure and a true love of cheese I bet the $25 or so you spend on these Kits will be the best money you’ve spent all year!

IFTT is an internet tool. You know what they do these tools: they make things easier. If you attend scholar conferences on Facebook and Twitter you might have heard a formula like “industrialisation of the self-publicity” to name the way the content management systems and forms are pushing us to reveal info about ourselves almost without thinking about it.

Well IFTT is pushing the logic to the next level. If Facebook is the industrialisation of self-communication, IFFT enters its post-industrial, late capitalism phase. Basically IFFT allows anyone to easily build chains of commands that will link together actions on the web. It acts pretty much like a meta social network. For example if you save an image on your Fffound account, IFTTT will help you have an automatic tweet status saying something like “I just found out this picture from XXX and I like it + link”.

Obviously it goes against the whole “conversational” paradigm and the idea that the most valuable social media optimisation comes from human engagement in discussions. But if you want to fill in your Tumblr page with content effortlessly, it might be a good idea and it will save you some time. The possibilities aren’t endless but they’re enough to be quite fascinating.

More than a year ago, Christian Van Vuuren, an account manager for outdoor company JCDecaux, found himself admitted to hospital with a hole in his lung. Further tests revealed he had a form of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, and was promptly placed in isolation in a Sydney hospital.

"I'm not just 'sick', I'm actually sick"

He spent 187 days there, an amount of time that would send the majority of us to the edge of insanity. To pass the time, Christian created parody rap music videos which went viral in no time, and in a matter of weeks he found him with thousands of fans on Facebook and hits on YouTube. It allowed him to stay connected with the outside world, for his audience to see life through his eyes and more importantly, to be entertained by his rhymes. He also parodied TV shows such as MTV cribs, and sometimes people tuned in because of just how bizarre his experience was and the content that came out of it.

Once he was released from hospital and the buzz died down, he found himself with an interesting dilemma. He could go back to ‘regular’ work, or try to use his new found public persona to continue down the path of content creation. Choosing the latter, he has teamed up with his brother, who doubles as a director, and has worked on a number of projects that keep the fully sick rapper persona close enough for people to remember (for the time being anyway).

Christian’s strategy differs from other YouTube stars, in that his rise to fame was inherently different. The driver of much of the involvement of people in his content was due to his unusual situation. Now his health is back to normal, his raps alone would no longer draw the audiences he was used to. He has since gone into branded content, working on campaigns for MTV, LG and most recently this flashback to his original genre in this campaign for a cough syrup brand.

Christian certainly has the motivation to succeed working tirelessly on a number of projects, and so far he’s continued to maintain his image as someone who was given a unique opportunity and is now making the most of it for the foreseeable future.  As long as his content maintains his subtle self-deprecation and continues to be catchy and memorable, he will represent an attractive prospect for brands. The continuing quality of his content will play a key role along with how he positions himself as a brand ambassador. He certainly deserves recognition for the way he has capitalised on what was probably one of the most difficult chapters in his life by turning it into a positive one and emerging from the experience as a fine example of a young Australian entrepreneur.

Follow the Fully Sick Rapper on Twitter

We all know that online video sharing has propelled some unlikely figures to fame, and in some cases this is turned into business success. Few young people have capitalized on this better than 24-year-old Natalie Tran.

Natalie has been active as a video blogger for the past four years, with her username communitychannel rising to become the 22^nd most subscribed channel on YouTube, and most subscribed Australian channel of all time.  She creates much of the content herself addressing a range of topics and observations many youth can relate to.  Her upbeat, quirky and comedic style has seen her build a sustained and loyal band of followers around the world. In addition to this, she looks to have utilized readily available and cheap editing suite software which aligns well with her style of content.

What is remarkable about her is how she has used her success on YouTube and developed this to create new ways to make money while all the time maintaining her on-screen persona, which is still reflected in her ever-growing page view count. She has set herself up as a some-time contributing tech journalist, public speaker and presenter at events, as well as booking increasingly regular appearances on Australian Television.  Most recently she’s become a sponsored traveller, and is currently on a global odyssey sponsored by Lonely Planet, which has already seen over 290,000 people sign-up to follow her travels and “likes” on Facebook.

What is remarkable about Natalie’s growth is that she has avoided being a brand spokesperson, or engaged in paid product placement. She recognizes that her audience are switched on and are wiser than most. In order to maintain interest, she has kept her place as a content creator housed on sites that generate considerable ad revenue. In 2010 her income from YouTube alone was over AUD$100,000, and as her mainstream profile continues to develop there seems to be no stopping her crossing over to a broad offline audience to boost her profile and continue to exploit business opportunities that come from it.

Natsumi Hayashi's "levitating" self-portraits breathe fresh air into the blogosphere.

She calls her blog Yowa Yowa Camera Woman Diary– which literally translates to ” a feeble woman’s camera diary”. The online journal features Natsumi Hayashi’s self-portraits as she looks serenely trapped in a moment, “levitating” across city streets, an open field, a train station, a telephone booth, among many other quirky locations. I think the impact she has made through this series of photos would be anything but weak.

It's all a matter of jumping at the right time to create that perfect shot, according to her blog

While her photos make it seem as if she’s always floating mid-air, she cites the concept of being “down-to-earth” as inspiration for these images. She feels that she is constantly under great stress due to a conventional society, and this led to the idea of breaking away from the gravity which held her back. “I feel as though I am not tied to many things and able to be my true self,” she says.

When she’s not busy “hovering” through Japanese streets, Natsumi works as an assistant for artist Hisaji Hara whom, according to her, has also been a big source of inspiration. “His pictures look like drawings, and this fuels my intuition.”

In Natsumi's case, choosing the right background is a big factor in coming up with truly amazing photos!

Now, how does she take all these amazing photos? Natsumi dishes out some tips on her blog on creating your own “levitation” photos, but she adds that she has been also been asking her friends to press the shutter for her in various situations, although shooting is also possible with a self-timer as well. She had invested all her savings in purchasing a camera and other equipment so she could start with this project last year.

Her goal, apart from continuing to post these self-portraits, would be to showcase them via exhibits and photobooks.  She has found the response to her blog rather overwhelming, as different people from various cultural backgrounds continue to be mesmerized by her images. She thinks this may be a sign that most many people today might feel the same way as she does, and that they yearn to break free from certain conventions of their own societies.

The way she expresses her insights, as well as her way of taking her own photos, are as exquisite as the effortlessly pure expression on her face as she glides through cityscapes. I cannot wait to see her photos on a bigger stage.

All images courtesy of Yowa Yowa Camera Woman Diary

Growing up amidst opportunity and convenience within the Internet age, the Gen Y are inspired by new business ideas brought about by easy access to information and advanced technologies. The changing face of the digital landscape has also paved the way for new voices to be heard through a convenient and highly accessible portal.Young entrepreneurs are coming to the forefront as they see these innovations as potential forces not only in driving profits, but in changing perceptions as well.

Today’s Techtastics are among the 14 kinds of youth entrepreneurs featured in Culture Vulture, our new quarterly trends series that offers a global snapshot of current and emerging cultural trends, bringing fresh insights from around the world to inspire and ignite new strategies for brands.

The first edition of Culture Vulture seeks to explore and understand the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Gen Y and how the youth’s innovative ideas can help stimulate game-changing strategies for brands that aspire to become more enterprising in their outlook.

Download our FREE Culture Vulture iPad app from iTunes for an overview on the global growth of entrepreneurship as well as the different behaviors that embody youth entrepreneurs worldwide, along with tips for nurturing “entrepreneurial” attitudes for brands.

Don’t have an iPad? Then download the interactive PDF . Also check out all of our 14 videos showcasing the different types of youth entrepreneurs around the world.

Interested to know more? Visit the Culture Vulture page or email culturevulture@mindshareworld.com.

Villa is a pop-up contemporary art store. It has many different young artists work aimed at both the wealthy collector and to me (not so wealthy).

Villa has been created by gallery owner Jonas Kleerup together with design bureau Kurppa Hosk and architects Boys Don’t Cry and they really want this years Christmas present to be art. They have a brand new website where you can buy art without ever visiting the store, very handy for any international buyers wanting to pick up some Swedish art from two of my favourites: Makonde Linde and Christian Saldert. Villa is at Jakobs Torg 3, just by the Opera House, best to check their site for opening times.

How can you become a ninja for free? This quintessential question isn’t asked by a young padawan on his way to his first LSD super trip. In fact, it is the title of a book, the first one from the team behind French web magazine Brain.

Staffer Josselin Bordat teamed up with illustrator Laurent Ribet to adapt the tumblr of the same title. Now, what is this all about? Well, what you’ll find out in these 80 pages is that we know much less what we thought we did about our fellow humans. They captured a list of unexpected Google Search requests that the Google Instant innovation has only made more visible than before. It’s all about getting superpowers,  ”suicide people”, watch free sex between young animals, get to know which celebrities are dwarves, and a lot more of what some might call “serendipity”, except that I don’t know what value you can get out of this information really, except that a good, reassuring laugh – geeking perversity looks like a wild spread sport!

http://www.brain-magazine.com/articles/boutique/

http://devenirunninjagratuitement.tumblr.com/

Knowledge comes out a huge corpus of data, and a systematic way to look at it. And somehow, some knowledge comes out of Supercut.org.

Supercut offers the fascinating experience of putting one after the other a series of video scenes that have something in common – pretty much any common point, for that matter. From all the “Fuck” in Entourage S08E03 to all the “Um” from a Rebecca Black’s Youtube interview, the feelings you might get out of a session on Supercut are mixed:

1.There’s always too much of ____ (fill the blank space) in videos.

2.Any video can be reduced to a specific detail that somehow contains enough information to give you an idea of the whole (yeah that’s also modern poetry theory chapter one).

3. Lol and… cut!

Swedish Hassbeens recently made a short film of their acclaimed collection performance, which showcased their Spring/Summer 2012 shoe and accessories collection.

The film was choreographed by Maria “Decida” Wahlgren and the music composed by Jocke Åhlund. You can see it here.