Caleb Booker

Business in Virtual Worlds News Roundup – Sept 29 – Oct 5 2008

Headlines about virtual worlds just from the past week.

Lots more video, which is good because it was a bit of a slow news week. The videos are, unfortunately, just on someone’s server rather than on a streaming service like YouTube or Blip.tv, and while that might not normally be a problem they are in the Mac-unfriendly WMV format, so I’ve made sure to include download links.

Past weeks:

• Sept 22-28 2008
• Sept 15-21 2008
• Sept 8-14 2008
• Sept 1-7 2008
• Aug 25-31 2008
• Aug 18-24 2008
• Aug 11-17 2008

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, crazy politicians, plar, etc etc etc… k here we go:

Business

Reuben Steiger’s State of the Industry Address
Reuben Steiger, CEO and Founder of Millions of Us, gives an overview of the current state industry. Worth a look. Download here, or stream it below:

The Virtual World Exchange: Quarterly Results Q3/2008
I like the Virtual World Exchange. Theirs is really the story of building something out of nothing. I’m not recommending a “buy” option here, just saying.

Taatu Announces $2.6M+ in Funding
Taatu is one of those worlds I’ve been watching for awhile now. They have a truly innovative marketing team, and have been building a seriously dedicated following among teens and young adults. This is a very smart investment on the part of BAMS Angels Fund – the company has shown it can not only handle itself but manage worldwide expansion.

Oddcast Offering Brands a Virtual Environment
Conceptually this makes sense, but we have a graphical challenge here. Something needs to be done about that. There’s an offhand comparison to Webflock… I’ll let you be the judge.

Hip Venture Company Creates HipChicas.com
In v-worlds, there’s no such thing as going TOO niche.

Tootsville Launches a New Virtual World for Children and Tweens
Competing head-on with Disney’s ToonTown and ClubPenguin is gutsy, but this demographic is starting to feel a little saturated.

Second Life beats real life for collaboration
TechRarar is suddenly buying in wholeheartedly. Not sure what prompted it.

Nokia, City of Oulu Join realXtend Supporters
This is a big deal – realXtend is a very promising platform, but I wasn’t sure how much they had in the way of funding support. Hopefully this means more developments in short order.

Training and Education

Virtual World Offers New Locale For Problem Solving
Some research from Penn State.

Government and Military

GeoSim on Building a Virtual Philadelphia
A quick once-over on the municipal project Virtual Philadelphia.

Woogi World and eGuardian Launch “Every Kid Votes”
Entrenching behavior in soon-to-be voters.

The Chartered Institute of Taxation Returns to Second Life ®
Oh yeah, that’s right, Linden Lab ® wants me to put these things all over: ®. Hmm. Doubt I’ll bother ®.

Marketing

A&E: Altered ‘State’ in Muncie and cyberspace
Indianapolis Business Journal covers Ball State University Museum of Art’’s build.

Coca-Cola Re-Ups In Second Life With Nestea Marketing Deal
Coca-Cola does something non-interactive in Second Life… no comment needed.

10VOX Entertainment Announces Two New Toy and Virtual World Properties for Kids
Press release, more of the same.

Gaming

Virtual world meets reality with Citroen GT
Included this largely as a reminder of gaming’s influence on marketing and design.

Nerds Only

Academy Award ® winning Producer Jon Landau Keynote Interview with Corey Bridges Now Online
Corey Bridges is CEO of Multiverse, a very big platform that has made some very big promises. Download here, or stream it below:

Erica Driver’s VW Expo Keynote Interview With IBM’s Colin J. Parris, Ph.D.
I missed this one last week. Worth a look, some interesting and innovative stuff here. Download here, or stream it below:

Vollee Enables Nokia N96 for Second Life Mobile
Another look at SL on cellphones.

3Di Releases World’s First OpenSim Based 3D Virtual World Server Software Today: “3Di OpenSim” Standard
Press release. Last month sometime I linked an announcement of an open-source browser-based interface for Second Life. Same company, now with a well-packaged OpenSim-based world. Go geek all over it.

The Second Life of Philip Rosedale
More Philip for fanboys.

Newbs Only

Working in a virtual world – How the office commute could become a thing of the past
I’m moving these “general overview” articles to “Newbs Only”. Great article, don’t get me wrong, but enough validating the technology already. We know it’s valid. Moving on.

Living in a virtual world
Eilif Trondsen gives the Ottawa Business Journal a little head’s up on virtual worlds.

Sociological Oddities

Phat Cat’s, A Virtual Jazz Club, To Be Sold on eBay
I’m looking forward to the day when entire cities are sold on eBay, but I’ll settle for just a jazz club for now.