Are lawsuits ever a superior option to engaging with your customer base?
(Answer in the comments!)
For whatever reason the issues of “interoperability” re-emerged this week, which is as “Nerds Only” as you get really. There have also been many, many articles this week about Linden Lab attempting to regulate adult content. I haven’t linked any of them… it’s already old news, and honestly, who really cares?
Important links:
Archive page of past weeks of Business in Virtual Worlds News
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:
Help Trinity! My daughter Trinity is gathering donations for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Counting her offline pledge sheet she’s is over 70% of the way to her goal and just needs a couple hundred more to put her over the top. Please donate anything you can – every little bit helps!
Google Bringing 3D To The Browser (Again)
This functions as a browser plugin, see demo below. Apparently they killed Lively because they thought they were barking up the wrong tree, not because of any lack of faith in virtual spaces. Either that or there is no clear company strategy on the issue and they can’t make up their minds.
Events
BIZZin3D Meet Up
On May 31st in Berlin people will gather to “meet, talk & discuss about business opportunities in 3D Internet & Virtual Worlds”. No idea why this is being done in Berlin rather than the virtual world, but I suppose that’s their prerogative. Discussion of trends and expert analysts will be featured, and they will avoid Powerpoint presentations in favor of moderated panels.
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.
OCAD’s Second Life
Ontario College of Art and Design’s (OCAD) Integrated Media students enter Second Life. Article is very… ah… well they call Second Life a “computer game”. But it’s otherwise well written. Torontoist covers it too.
Taser International vs Linden Lab: Crack Den crackdown
Taser International sues a long list of defendants over various virtual goods bearing the Taser name (but not replicating the functionality), and other virtual goods simply using the word “Taser” in the name but in no way resembling any Taser products. Apparently the lawsuit is quite clumsily assembled and includes lots of fun pornography, but that’s not the point. The point is that this is yet another case where someone is suing potential customers instead of engaging with them. Dumb.
Virtual worlds and web ‘merging’
Mark Kingdon introduces the basic concepts of interoperability, which personally I think is a bit of a red herring in the quest for mass acceptance or the next quantum shift in virtual worlds… but hey, have fun with that guys. Intel tossed in their two cents on the interoperability issue this week too.
Newbs Only
It’s a Virtual World
One business-minded writer’s sojourn into the virtual world for the first time.
Even with adult content regulated, Second Life is dead in ed
Wow. We’ve officially progressed beyond the era of ignorance and into some kind of bizarre pathology. With the constant, unending buy-in from educational sectors into virtual spaces (see every single past week for months), how anyone could possibly make this argument is beyond me. Something is seriously screwed up over at ZDNet; I haven’t read anything there that made any sense in ages.
Did I miss an important story? Got feedback? Leave a comment below, or email me at info [at] calebbooker.com
This year my daughter Trinity has decided to participate in Jump Rope for Heart with her school. She is hoping to Raise $500.00 by April 30th! We know that times are tough but, if you are able, Trinity would really appreciate your support. Every little bit helps!
You can help Trinity be a heart hero and support the Heart and Stroke Foundation and reach her personal fundraising goal by sponsoring her online.
Visit Trinity’s personal donation page where you can make a secure online credit card donation. By sponsoring her online, you will receive an automatic tax receipt.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation leads the way in protecting the health of millions at risk of heart disease and stroke. One in three deaths in Canada are due to heart disease and stroke. They need our help!
This is the fourth entry in a series dedicated to answering two questions:
Why are virtual worlds a good alternative to existing technologies?
How can one best get a Return On Investment (ROI) from virtual world ventures?
There is now an archive page for past entries. Feel free to explore the topics that appear there and email me if you feel that there is a topic that needs to be covered.
When people ask what businesses are doing in virtual worlds they want a quick answer. The only short answer one could honestly offer is that enterprise uses virtual worlds to create experiences, but that encompasses such a wide variety of specific applications it sounds like a cliché before it even has a chance to become a meme in the first place.
The other problem is that people want an answer that fits into what they already know. These experiences we’re talking about really don’t resemble anything like most existing training tools, marketing tools, or communication tools. It’s no wonder those who haven’t experienced the benefits first hand have a hard time wrapping their heads around it. In fact, it’s perfectly reasonable to struggle.
In the end, the only thing one can do is invite someone to experience the benefits of virtual spaces first hand. At Clever Zebra we do that through meetings and events, but I wanted to make a special mention today of the unique efforts at The FutureWork Institute. Their challenge is to communicate the issues of diversity in the workplace in some kind of meaningful and impactful way. See the video below for an overview of how they’ve leveraged Second Life to do just that very effectively.
A website wouldn’t have really done the trick here, as it would have been impossible for people to turn to each other and comment or ask questions as they went along. This beats a standard training seminar as it’s self-paced, memorable, and fully interactive. Even the most elaborate real-world experience wouldn’t have been able to create a room that swapped out furniture and decor.
Now, I’m not a training expert so I’m certain there are several points of interest about this that I’m missing, but you get the picture. Using a virtual environment companies can run employees from all over the world through diversity training together without spending a penny on airfare. Honestly I can’t think of any other way of doing it that makes any sense in the face of this solution.
Again, this entire post is off the top of my head. If I’ve missed something or if you’ve written something that can expand on these points, feel free to add a link in the comments.
Why has Google stopped short of taking 3D content into true interactivity? (ie: virtual worlds)
(Answer in the comments!)
Things behind the scenes at CZ have been pretty intense this past week and I just didn’t have the time to blog, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to miss a week here!
Important links:
Archive page of past weeks of Business in Virtual Worlds News
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:
SHASPA Launches Home Energy Organizer On OpenSim
Mixing real-world sensors with virtual world representations, one can easily track and control heat, air quality, and energy use in every room of the home.
Sky News And Second Life
So… their previous work with RRR wasn’t producing results, and they’ve moved into the more expensive RRR solution so that… what are they accomplishing here? All I know is that searching for “Sky News” now only results in a “Sky News Friends” group of 57 people, most of whom haven’t logged into Second Life this year or last. I’m presuming this is a symptom of moving away from the public, making their content harder to access. This is… a good move? Even the machinima is useless in shedding light on what the hard benefits are here.
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.
Guardian Sponsors ‘Second Life’ Film Festival
Sponsorship in front of targeted audiences is Marketing 101 really, but what takes this to the next level is the participatory element. UPDATE: this turns out to actually be from 2006, and just popped up in the reader as new for some reason.
Gaming
Nothing of real note other than how much money there is in virtual goods. I did discover a cool free, open-source fast-paced first person shooter that runs on pretty much everything this week. Check out Nexuiz.
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:
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.
Sulake Bringing Bobba To Mobiles
The “Habbo-killer” hits mobile devices. Are parents really buying kids cellphones and subscription packages that support online play?
What is Second Life?
Examiner.com introduces Second Life to its readership using the metaphor of a garden. The machinima is quite nice.
Second Life finding new life
A fun overview of the very stupid press Second Life has been getting. Interesting statistic: “The number of “active users” at Second Life has grown 25 percent since September of last year, while the amount of time and money spent in the virtual world has climbed by similar percentages.” If this wasn’t proof that Valleywag jumped the shark some time ago I don’t know what is, and CNET continues the compulsive nose-picking expedition.
