Business in Virtual Worlds News – Mar 23-29 2009
This week’s Big Question:
Are the Worlds.com lawsuits corporate suicide?
(Answer in the comments!)
Massive amounts of news for Training, Education and Events this week, and very little elsewhere with a few notable exceptions. By an interesting coincidence this weekend was the “Virtual Worlds – Best Practices in Education” conference, which people are really enjoying.
Important links:
- Archive page of past weeks of Business in Virtual Worlds News
- Connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, Blip.fm, or in Second Life as Onder Skall
- Suggest stories at info [at] calebbooker.com
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
New partnerships and collaborations:
HeroEngine Gets Massive Concurrency Update
How many users at once are we talking about? 100,000.
Mozilla, Google, And Khronos Collaborating On Standard For No-Plugin, 3D On The Web
With this number of heavy hitters in play here we might actually see something a little more successful than VRML.
Virtual world to help disabled build self esteem
Baylor College of Medicine in Houston takes recent discoveries in the use of virtual worlds in health care and applies them to a new therapy.
Three Melons Gets $600k For Unity MMO And Social Sports Game
A bit modest for that kind of project but hey, maybe they’ve leveraged something free.
Multiverse Showing Off Two Worlds To Launch This Summer And Titanic
Ah there we go, actual commercial applications visible to the public! I’ve been wondering how long they were going to go without doing this.
Events
Just a side-note here about the vBusiness Expo: I had been hoping to make a major announcement this week, but we decided to change a few things around and we’re not quite ready yet. Ultimately this will all make the expo more accessible and easier to attend, but at the moment you’ll have to wait. Sorry!
Travel Industry Seeks Socially Responsible Second Life
Press Release. “The UK corporate travel industry is this week to be told that physical meetings and conferences may not always be best…”
Want to Hold a Virtual Event of Your Own?
Clever Zebra offers event support and white-label services for anyone interested in a branded gathering in a virtual space. Everything from venue setup and hosting to VIP orientation to speaker coordination.
Fundraising Conference Takes on a ‘Second Life’
Grizzard Communications Group holds a session in Second Life that gets transmitted to the real-world event Winning Strategies in Challenging Times.
‘Libraries of the Future’ debate at the Bodleian Library
Libraries have really come into their own in virtual spaces. This is worth a look.
Why Virtual Worlds Video Should Never Exceed 5mins
Preach it brother!
Training and Education
MMU to deliver film and media degree through Second Life
“Manchester Metropolitan University is set to deliver an entire module of its BA (Hons) Film and Media course through Second Life.”
Bangor medics set to sharpen skills in virtual world
More from the health care industry.
MBA Students Learn Power Systems in Second Life
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Iowa State University, and Wright State University collaborate to expose business managers and executives to Power Systems.
Hanjamaru Combines Language Education With MMORPG
Other than LanguageLab I don’t see to many doing this, despite it being an obvious match. Expect a rush of these soon, I think.
Writing center adds Second Life for online tutoring for students
More non-University based education efforts in virtual spaces.
Virtual Worlds worst practices in education: A practical example
It’s funny because it isn’t me.
Virtual learning: More than a Second Life
Training Zone covers virtual world training.
Government and Military
Linden Lab’s collective copyright conundrum
The bizarre legal issues that could only ever come up in virtual spaces.
Panopticon
I just had to link them for this quote: “The essential irony of virtual worlds is that populations seeking to build new lives away from the public eye are moving into an environment that is subject to constant surveillance.”
Marketing
Virtual Currency System In Development At Facebook
Well of course it is!
Gaming
Tough task: Designing a game about your ‘first time’
Well, it’s an interesting concept for a contest isn’t it!
Over One Million Gold Farmers In China, 70% In World of Warcraft
Neat stat. What do we do about it?
Nerds Only
Gaikai Bringing 3D MMOs To The Browser
The concept: all of the software runs on someone else’s computer, the video is streamed to your desktop, and your keystrokes are captured and sent back as if you’re on the other machine itself. I’d love to see how much something like that costs, let alone how they manage latency!
Avatar Reality Releases SDK For Blue Mars
Ah here we are, actual developments from Blue Mars! We’ve been hearing rumors about this world for awhile that made it sound like something between Entropia and SL, but there hasn’t been anything anyone can actually do with it until now. See the articles for the fancy features that lie in wait inside the SDK.
Genkii Sparkle Virtual World
iPhone owners rejoice! SL is on your phone!
Newbs Only
Creating a “Second Life”
Second Life is introduced to the Ozarks. Complete with really cheezy tv newscast.
Sociological Oddities
Draxtor Despres reports on the Gaza protests in Second Life:
Did I miss an important story? Got feedback? Leave a comment below, or email me at
info [at] calebbooker.com
