Headlines about virtual worlds just from the past week.
While there may seem to be a lot here, you’d be amazed how much I cut out. Most of the news about virtual worlds this week seemed to be repeats of news from the last two weeks. Oh, and Aimee Weber got trademark rights, which everyone is excited about because “the virtual world is really real!” or something…
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, my blip channel, any of the other “Jack of All Strange” stuff that I do, etc etc etc… k here we go:
Top Stories
PlayStation Home Beta Direct-Feed Footage
Despite there being no real news about Sony Home (apart from their 1.0 beta and first promo), the fact is that it’s almost… ALMOST… time for us to start paying real attention to them. After all, it is a world run by Sony, and one of the few available on the PS3 (millions of consoles sold). Here’s a 15 minute peek:
Virtual Worlds: It’s a Legal Jungle in There
Fantastic article covering specific instances of intellectual property litigation, pump-and-dump, insider trading, and tax issues. Well done all around.
PlaySpan Raises $16.8M in Series B
“PlaySpan, which provides publisher-sponsored virtual goods marketplaces, announced today that it had raised $16.8 million in a Series B round from Easton Capital Group, Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures, STIC and other undisclosed investors.”
Worlds.com Raises $481k in Private Placement
Wow, good for them! They were one of the very early forerunners, made some great deals with big stars, but they ended up making a lot of worlds nobody ever saw for some reason. Glad they’re making a comeback!
Twinity does it again, serving up some hot arcade action to its users. You know, the marketing department over at Twinity deserves some serious respect. They are making a seriously interesting place to visit! A quick glance at their news page will immediately give you a dozen reasons to log on. Other companies could learn a thing or two here.
Nerds Only
Scan Real-World 3D Objects Into Unreal
(scroll down to “Stop the presses”) MellaniuM’s hive of innovation continues to boggle the mind. Above is a highly detailed scan of a Chinese mask, created using the VIUSCAN (a hand-held device is capable of scanning objects as big as a car) from CREAFORM3D and imported into UNREAL. The potential applications are innumerable here.
A second life for virtual worlds?
ComputerWeekly notices that the hype died. They quote Steve Prentice’s comments from a few months ago about trend analysis, and contrast it with Jonathan Yarmis counterpoints. The whole thing is… inconclusive. Still, it’s the kind of things people like to read in their first year or two in virtual worlds, so I’ll include it. Interestingly enough, they use a screenshot of mine in this story… that’s me in the foreground making sure an early Metanomics session is running smoothly (at Colonia Nova I think). Kind of a neat surprise seeing it there.
The following blog post by Laura P. Thomas is reposted here with her permission.
While I, like many others, was a bit disappointed when Google launched Lively this summer, now that Goog is pulling the plug I think I’m even more disappointed. Feeling a bit like my first Lively avatar looks above.
Six months is hardly enough time to determine the true potential, and it’s rather sad to think that economic conditions might keep an organization like Google from giving new ideas adequate time to grow.
I had come to see it as sort of a “gateway” virtual world – something with the Google name that ran in a browser might be more palatable to many users who were not quite ready for a fully immersive 3D experience. But, once they became a bit more accustomed to communicating in 3D, they might start to crave the higher benefits of a world with presence.
That is why I was actively pitching ideas for its use on DellLounge and even recently talking to some in Dell’s eSupport team about leveraging it for customer service. Not as a replacement to existing methods for assisting customers, but as a less-stodgy option for a demographic that hates to pick up the phone yet still wants to connect with a real person.
Alas, it takes time to convince large organizations to try new things – more time than Lively was given. Sure there are other options like IMVU, who many noted was doing what Lively was trying to do way before them, and Vivaty which works in Facebook and AIM. But, neither can easily be dropped into place on your corporate web site, and quite frankly, don’t have the trusted name that Google has with mainstream Internet users.
But it still leaves a bit of taint and another hurdle to be faced by those of us who call ourselves metaverse evangelists.
Laura P. Thomas has worked in and around the Dell family for more than seven years, primarily in the areas of corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, branding and online communication. She is currently part of the Global Online group where she is responsible for the corporate content on Dell.com and community strategy for DellLounge.com.
Draxtor Despres: Faster Cures is a self-described action tank, focused on changing the culture of medical research. They recently entered Second Life, planning to use its potential to the fullest. Draxtor Despres found out what the future holds for patient-doctor relationships and so much more….
What I find especially timely about this latest report from Drax is that, if you look back over the past few months of Business in Virtual Worlds posts, the medical industry is regularly represented. We’re also seeing pretty regular non-profit presences. This story is representative of many dozens of others.
Headlines about virtual worlds just from the past week.
Blogger Shout-Out
I just want to give a belated blogger “shout-out” to AP Link who reposted Business in Virtual Worlds awhile back. If you’d like to do so, feel free and I’ll link you!
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, my blip channel, any of the other “Jack of All Strange” stuff that I do, etc etc etc… k here we go:
Top Stories
Google to shut down virtual world website
Google fails to figure out Lively, and gives up. Sad, but there’s an up side. I can hear the sound of a hundred small virtual-world companies rejoicing at the death of a dangerous competitor!
Deluded Companies Still Trying Second Life: Next Up, SAP
Silicon Alley Insider misunderstands SAP’s intentions with this experiment, and omits the dozens of examples of successful fast-prototyping already active. Noobs. At least they include the video overview of the SAP Future Retail Center:
Is There a Bull Market for Airlines in Second Life?
Air France-KLM has set up a special site in “Second Life” where investors can get the latest information on the airline company, including “interactive 3D stock market information”.
Wheaton Rants: I Told You So, Second Lifers
I can’t come down too hard on people predicting doom and gloom for Second Life as I’ve been guilty of it myself. The last one I wrote was, oh I don’t know, a year and a half ago. But I’ve since noticed something: Second Life is still there. It’s a mess, but it keeps on kickin’ kids. If your campaign fails, that’s your fault, not the world’s.
VastPark Expands Developer Program, Adds 5 Companies
VastPark is really ramping up! If you haven’t checked them out yet, this is well worth your time. Don’t worry: compared to Second Life, the learning curve is miniscule.
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, my blip channel, the occasional life coaching I do, etc etc etc… k here we go:
Business
IMVU Launches Music Service
IMVU takes their world and turns it into a 3D iTunes, minus the nasty DRM sludge.
iLemon and Music Mogul Connecting Music Industry to Virtual Worlds
Press Release: Some music industry types create a flash-based world. What you’ll actually be able to do is hard to determine, as this article is 95% hype jargon… you’ll be able to customize an avatar, and an apartment, and participate in an “American Idol” type contest of some kind…
P&G’s Virtual World
Not a lot of details, but in general this reflects Procter & Gamble’s intent to use virtual worlds as a means to prototype designs faster.
Linden Bulks up on Hires for Enterprise and Government
You know, if I didn’t know better I’d think that Linden Lab was starting to behave like… well… a business. Up until now they really haven’t, but this is looking promising.
transcript: X | Media | Lab on Orange Island
Podcast: Bruce Joy (VastPark), Christian Renaud (Technology Intelligence Group), John Hurliman (libOpenMetaverse), and David Levine (IBM) get together and get nerdcore over “what’s the future of virtual worlds”. It’s pretty good, but only serious virtual world nerds need apply here.
UK Couple to Divorce over Affair on Second Life
Another “phone-sex leads to divorce” story, but since it’s using a new gadget, it’s apparently news and we all have to do some thinking on “what it all means”. Everybody is carrying this story! In other news, apparently it’s a slow news week.
