Forbes Magazine just launched a list of Europe's most bucolic places to live, mentioning cities as well as tranquil towns. All of these places have in common that they make living into an art.

The Forbes expert's top choice was Gaiole, Italy. Situated within the wine country of Chianti it is blessed with beautiful seasons and culinary treats.

Other rural picks were Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France, Burford, England and Deia, Mallorca. They all have in common that they are situated within commuting distance of major cities.

The internet is inundated with new technologies, online communities, and social networks. Even though these concepts may seem rudimentary to some, for others, such sites as MySpace, Facebook, and ourbania are still foggy. This Blog is for the latter type.

After logging into ourbania.com, you will notice a new "Markets" tab between "Projects" and "People". After much contemplation, we at ourbania.com thought it would be useful and informative to create a "Markets" page where we could focus on hot markets. On this page, you can learn more about featured markets and go straight to a list of Projects associated with a certain city or area.

November's marketplace is focussed on Dubai. We encourage you to add your own Projects from Dubai.

Our own Thomas Vogel (one of the founders of ourbania.com) has been invited by Inman News to participate in a session on January 8, 2009 to discuss how ourbania.com is going to change the future face of real estate networking.

Real Estate Connect NYC 2009 offers market insights, global innovations, and features keynote speakers from around the world. To learn more, check out their website at: http://www.inman.com/events/real-estate-connect-nyc-2009

Thanks Inman News for the invitation!

At Biennale Architecture 2008, the 11th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, MACE, a European research project, presents an impressive interactive installation. MACE links up the major European architectural archives, making their holdings accessible to the architecture and design communities. In the installation at Biennale Architecture, visitors may put cards on an interactive table to retrieve and visualize networks of different kinds of connections between the design and construction projects represented by the cards and documented in these repositories.

Not only were Americans celebrating the win of President Elect Barack Obama yesterday, but fans of another sort celebrated the launch of a very special building in Duisburg, Germany. The name of this intelligent and integrated building is coined inHaus2, which will function as the new home and testing center for the research and development of intelligent buildings. A planned 27 million Euro are to be invested through 2011 to support one goal: to carry out research which will mold the future of commercial real estate in an economically and environmentally sound manner.

Are you a member of Facebook? If so, be sure to join the new group "Real Estate Networking: ourbania". Here you can show your support for ourbania and gain even more contacts in the real estate sector! If you are not a member of Facebook, you can sign up for free.

Additionally, there is a Discussion Board on the Real Estate Networking: ourbania group. There you can discuss current real estate issues with members. Current discussion topic: Shanghai, China.

I hope to see you all soon on Facebook!

Rachel