New Media, Life and Work Online
The USC Network Culture Project recently challenged the residents of Second Life to imagine new ways that virtual worlds such as Second Life could be used to make a contribution to the public good. Draxtor Despres is filing a report in 3 parts.
Headlines about virtual worlds just from the past week.
This week was a bit of a struggle. I’m in the habit of cutting mercilessly when it comes to this list, eliminating repetition, false promises and irrelevance. Even so, there are two or three stories here that are staying in because of special circumstances. It’s eating me up inside… gah!
How to read this week: just read the headlines and descriptions, and that’s it. For whatever reason, this is is the week of the self-explanatory headline. Follow-up on the stuff that really strikes a chord, but otherwise just read this post and call yourself up-to-date.
Past weeks:
Disclaimer: As with everything on my blog, the opinions expressed here are mine and do not reflect on Clever Zebra, the vBusiness Expo, my friends, my family, Joy Division, Kings of Leon, etc etc etc… k here we go:
NICTA and VastPark Launch P2P Virtual Worlds Platform to Private Beta
Here’s a potential game-changer. Low cost, high resolution 3D spaces. Visit the P2P Closed Beta registration page here.
Stagnation in the enterprise virtual worlds space
When geeks rule the world, sometimes discussion of the tools replaces actually applying the tools themselves. This may be one of those times.
Metaplace Lands $6.7 Million in Funding
Good news for Raph Koster’s game-making-machine.
Large Hadron Collider’s ATLAS in Second Life
Hooray for 3D demos, and double-hooray for neat videos:
Second Life now offering Business Teleconferencing
This isn’t actually news at all since there have been “teaser stories” for months, but STILL no public demo available and competitors abound, so once again, judgment reserved. Anyhow. They get a link purely for this conceptual video that covers the kinds of things we talk about at the vBusiness Expo:
UD’s Second Life islands paradise for rafts of ideas
University of Delaware covers it’s Second Life entry.
Canada Post schools Second Life entrepreneurs
Canada Post recently launched Bright Idea Lab, which centres on virtual small business needs.
Metaversum Gets Gov Funding in Singapore
Singapore’s having a big week… see below under “Nerds Only”.
City of Birmingham establishes virtual island in Second Life
Getting to be a popular thing to do for many municipalities.
ČR has tourist office in Second Life
Oh speaking of which – the Czech Republic jumps on in.
Linden Lab CEO: No credit crunch in ‘Second Life’
This story keeps getting recycled into various publications. It’s in week 3 now, so it’s officially marketing hype.
Updated: Quick Stat: 7.5M+ Fairies Created for Disney Fairies
If anything, this is a story about how effective TV marketing is. After all, they did a massive ad campaign to achieve these numbers. As radio failed to kill books, and TV failed to kill radio, so too will the Internet fail to kill TV and virtual worlds fail to kill the Web. Each is merely an envelope for the next.
FlowPlay Wants You To Join ourWorld
BusinessWeek covers ourWorld – a browser-based hangout.
Reebok Partners with IGA, Football Superstars
Ads in games stuff.
Second Life in our backyard
Linden Lab is building servers locally in Singapore.
Leading Virtual World Community RCE Universe Becomes ‘mindhive’, New Professional Services Offered
Press Release. I got this in my email awhile ago but got a little busy and didn’t end up posting… anyhow. Good bunch of guys over at RCE/mindhive, and crowd-sourcing ideas is a model whose time has come. See also: Thinkbalm.
The Next HTTP Server?
An interesting teaser about the Open Metaverse Foundation‘s efforts.
Meet Mark Kingdon, Second Life’s governor
An intro to Linden Lab’s CEO. Everybody, meet Mark. Mark, everybody.
Virtual world poses real threat to kids on the Internet
Dangers lurking! Oh the lurking of the dangers! DANGERS! WWOOoooOOOooOOooOOHH!!
Muslim Virtual World Coming Soon
A virtual world that won’t be IP banned in the United Muslim Emirates.
Everybody is Stupid
Ok, that’s not the actual title, but … well you should see the commentary I deleted.
Headlines about virtual worlds just from the past week.
This week was about trimming the fat.
I decided to stop posting about the launching of every kid’s world. Frankly, there are so many now, I’ll only really bother with the occasional one that tells a wider story about the industry as a whole (see the Build-A-Bear article).
I’m also completely skipping articles that are misleading or purposefully manipulative (see… uh… the three articles I just deleted…).
Lastly, I’m still ducking rumors, announcements about “upcoming” projects that may or may not have serious funding, or upcoming soon-to-be-released software. If it’s not happening now, it isn’t affecting people, and I’m not worried about it.
This kind of meant I ended up with nothing for Nerds Only or Games. I could have posted the dozen or so articles about Obama in Burnout Paradise and other EA games, but… there’s no room for politics on this blog. We have work to do.
We’re left with some very quality stuff, however. Take some time going through the articles, even in categories you might normally skip. This week some are sleeping, and some are soaring.
Past weeks:
Disclaimer: As with everything on my blog, the opinions expressed here are mine and do not reflect on Clever Zebra, the vBusiness Expo, my friends, my family, the People Under the Stairs, Pennywise, etc etc etc… k here we go:
Quarterly virtual-world funding tops $148 million
Here are the raw stats, and their analysis. The above link goes to CNet’s elegant summary. New York Times took it and ran too. Everybody likes numbers!
PC-Based 3D Virtual Worlds to Reach 33 Million Users in 2013
Speaking of numbers… to be honest, I think this number is low but let’s go with it as a conservative estimate. More on this from TMC net.
Wipro’s presence in SL
Well, the actual title was “Virtual world” but that’s a bit generic, don’t you think? Anyhow, great overview of Wipro’s model campus of its offshore software development centre (ODC) for American and European customers.
Stonfield InWorld and Sofinco Announce eCommerce Effort in Second Life
Not to be confused with last week’s story on Boulanger and IBM’s “VirtualEShopping”.
Online Therapy Institute launched
Press Release. Well that’s it then: next week if there are this many medical field related stories again, I’ll have to create a “Medical” category. These guys are on board!
Build-A-Bear Q3 Earnings Call: Virtual World Provides Added Customer Value in Economic Slump
That’s right, virtual worlds fight recessions!
Darwin’s Famous Journey Is Recreated in Second Life
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, the University of Cincinnati has recreated the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin conducted some of his famous research, in Second Life.
First Paramedic Course To Use Second Life
Eek, they said “first”! Anyhow, good stuff from Medical News Today, worth reading!
Are you being serviced?
Uh… I guess “being serviced” means something different around here than it does in Australia. Anyhow. You may find this article confusing at first if you’re not familiar with what they mean by “workflow language”, but this is VERY much worth working through! Lots of large organizations (private, educational and governmental) involved, a seven-year budget of $120 million, and some serious ROI predicted.
Virtual world advertising: A wasteful expense, or a bargain for marketers?
The original title was… wildly misleading. Good call guys. Finding ROI on marketing efforts has always been extremely difficult, and truth be told there are very few marketers out there who “get it” yet. It’s understandable that there’s some confusion, and I think Cyndy Aleo-Carreira did a fair job being even-handed here despite the temptation.
James Bond Promo in Twinity
You know, I get these emails from Twinity too but I’ve been remiss about including them. Still, this way I get to link both them and MindBlizzard at the same time! Hi VeeJay!
New kids worlds, new features in kids worlds, more worlds based on toys and more toys based on worlds… etc… nothing I didn’t say in August of last year.
SEGA announced some stuff that will look completely different by the time it gets to North America… slow week I guess.
Virtual sex in virtual worlds
Mail & Guardian Online discover that people “meet” in “virtual worlds” and… this is so old I’m even getting sick of the “excessive quotes” gag…
Professor wins award for work with Second Life
The first line really cracked me up. I thought the author was referring to the audience.
Monogram Virtua Convention Center Hosts Second Bi-Annual Erotica Expo in the Virtual World
Press Release. I’ve placed this under “Sociological Oddities” purely because of North America’s peculiar squeamishness with regards to sex, but truth be told this is a business reference. Here we learn A) how virtual spaces can enhance, and are becoming essential for, any expo, and B) one of the world’s biggest industries is taking it seriously.
Police protect students from inside ‘virtual world’
Another bit about West Yorkshire Police’s virtual world safety campaign.
Alum’s film brings real camera to virtual world
Documentary follows three people inside and out of Second Life. Entitled “Life 2.0″ it shouldn’t be confused with the Dobb’s events.
Second Life Dropouts Return To Real World
We dig up people who weren’t happy with Second Life. The piece kind of reeks of fail – Linden Lab’s seeming hatred of those stupid users who want things to “work”, and users who can’t get a foothold in an environment that’s constantly disintegrating under their feet. It takes a lot of time and patience to work out ROI in this kind of space, and if this article illustrates anything, it’s that LL sure don’t make that easy.
NOTE: I’m not actually affiliated with SLBA, but it’s always good to see business owners communicating so I’m be posting here. If you have a business event in a virtual world, do drop me a line!
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Press Release
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The SL Business Association announces its October event. The event will take place on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 10am SLT. All our welcome to join us as Marc Montague of BDMM Design Group speaks to us. We’ll focus the discussion on the land and prefab markets within Second Life ™. We’ll also touch on the RL and SL economies and their effect of the SL business today. The event will take place at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dombersnark/192/73/40. SL Business Association is an open-enrollment group. All are welcome to join to continue to receive updates on events and SL Business Association activities.
About the SL Business Association
SL Business Association is a group for business people of SL to come collaborate, network, and learn from each other. We have seen quite a few groups of this kind in SL, but most have failed to meet the expectations of its members. SLBA is dedicated to providing the business men and women a group to help them accomplish more with their Second Life business pursuits.
About BDMM Design Group
BDMM Design, a company opened to create engaging, successful and beautiful environments for plots or entire SIMs, was established in November 2006 by the two avatars Bjorn Delphin and Marc Montague. The initials of these two virtual designers built the name BDMM. The role of Bjorn is to create interior design structures which give the customer a cozy feel and the business a clear definition. Marc is the designer for exterior and interiors and can deliver a complete SIM design for SL and RL companies. BDMM Design thinks further than most architectural designer companies in Second Life, though. BDMM design is Second Life based, but not solely fixed in Second Life, we can be found in HiPiHi, There, Central Grid, Twinity and Google Lively. We deliver for RL companies, as well as for mega SL companies, a business and operations proposal plan to ensure that not only the SIM is designed to fulfill the best potential of the company’s investment, but also to ensure that the operation of the SIM is successful.
Best,
Darcy Earnshaw
SL Business Association President
We are hoping to stimulate some discussion on the potential of using the MellaniuM application for “Industrial Archaeology” in Cultural Heritage. It has been suggested to us personally by Prof. Bob Stone of Birmingham University that virtual replicas of the remarkable inventions as developed at the advent of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain at the start of the 18th century would clearly enhance the cultural landscape. Technological marvels such as the first iron bridge or steam-driven beam pumping engines would lend themselves ideally to the importation of CAD models into the UNREAL platform.
Can’t beat Millanium for the cutting-edge stuff. See the full post here. (Thanks Joe!)