In an effort to help merge multimedia and social networking, Interscope recording artist will.i.am is partnering with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM). The company will make will.i.am’s Dipdive online community and content available wirelessly on the BlackBerry with hopes that the venture will broaden RIM’s reach beyond the business-focused market.

“Probably the two hottest trends in wireless are social networking… and the other one is the multimedia, which is principally portable music,” commented RIM co-CEO Jim Balsille.

Dipdive.com attempts to merge multimedia and social networking into one experience by bringing the fan in direct contact with the artist.

The popularity of user-generated content from fans has spiked in recent years and created opportunites for fans to be active in the creative process. Fan-created video content has been applied to recent artist campaigns for such UMG artist projects as Fall Out Boy and Rooney.

Dipdive.com, a social networking site which partners politics-heavy blogging and music video content, was created by the Black Eyed Peas front-man in support of presidential candidate, Barack Obama. He went on to use the site as a platform to premier his video “Yes We Can,” which featured fellow UMG artist Common among others reciting quotes from an Obama speech. The YouTube version of the video went on to become wildly popular, amassing over five million hits.

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