Business in Virtual Worlds News Roundup – Nov 10-16 2008
Headlines about virtual worlds just from the past week.
It’s my 33rd birthday today, but that’s no excuse to fall behind. Straight to the point, let’s see what’s out there!
Past weeks:
- Nov 03-09 2008
- Oct 27 – Nov 02 2008
- Oct 20-26 2008
- Oct 13-19 2008
- Oct 6-12 2008
- Sept 29 – Oct 5 2008
- 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, 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…
KPG Ventures Announces KPG II Fund Dedicated to Seed-Stage, Consumer Internet Companies
Press Release: more money for startups. See portfolio.
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.
Machinima.com Gets $3.85M from MK Capital
Well, it looks like someone sees future mindshare being held by the technology.
Cyworld Leaving U.S. Market?
Korea’s monsterously huge and influential world never really caught on over this side of the pond. Go figure.
Virtual World Of Flying Insects To Help Stroke Patients Expand Their Range Of Movement
There are more medical applications announced every week. This is becoming a niche market of its own!
Virtual Reality to Aid CXOs
A great bit about VR decision-making tools for Chief (whatever) Officers.
Training and Education
University of Alabama building 3D virtual campus in Internet’s popular Second Life
Welcome UofA!
Schoolchildren create virtual world
Kids making worlds. Oh the possibilities!
Pulse Point Marketing Creates Virtual Presence for Two Universities and a Non-Profit Program
Press Release, but well written and with some interesting info about research projects.
Internet law class turns to virtual reality
Great story about a school without a real-world campus.
Government and Military
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.
Marketing
PICNIC ‘08, part five: Virtual things in a virtual world are so passé!
You pretty much have to be a complete marketing nerd to understand this one. Read only if the term “ARG” makes you tingle. Insightful stuff.
Second Life to Pay $10,000 for Improvement of Real Life
It’s a good publicity stunt, and it’s getting a lot of play in the press. Worth every penny.
Gaming
Millions of Us and SceneCaster Release Facebook Game
Fun mystery game. Try it if you’re curious. Great graphics and sound design, but the screen refreshes were… ungood.
Nerds Only
Vuzix announces widescreen virtual reality glasses
More glasses! These are becoming more and more common. Are they for specific use cases or can they be used for everything? Discussions worth having…
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.
Newbs Only
Second Life: is this the future of the academic conference?
Well, clearly we think so!
Living a Second Life, a fantasy world awash with sex and porn
In other news: they have sex and porn in the real world too! I’m serious, it’s like an epidemic! Keep your kids out of the real world!
Sociological Oddities
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.
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 am
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