aims to become the ultimate portal and social web for the Madeira region. The Madeira region represents a small part of the world and is literally strongly bounded. As a consequence, the social interactions of its inhabitants in the physical world are more restricted than in other parts of the world, which actually offers a potential for creating special interactions. Visitors of ‘Madeira Life’ will not just interact with a virtual world, but with the real world of Madeira. The project integrates mobility, location-awareness, and physical connections in the real world with social web and communication services for both cultural and commercial activities in the region.
This project is a three-year collaboration of Lab:USE with ZON Madeira, Madeira Tecnopolo, and Carnegie Mellon University, funded through the +Conhecimento program of the regional government.

The Madeira region has a rather special position in this respect: it represents a relatively small part of the physical world and is literally very strongly bounded. The consequence of this is that the social interactions of its inhabitants in the physical world are more restricted than they are in other parts of the world. While this is perhaps problematic for some, it also offers a strong potential for creating a very special online interface to this bounded part of the world. In analogy with the popular online environment ‘Second Life,’ this new interface to Madeira can be called ‘Madeira Life.’ In contrast to Second Life, however, people who visit Madeira Life will not interact with a virtual world, but with the real world of Madeira.