Business in Virtual Worlds News - Apr 13-19 2009

This week’s Big Question:

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
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:

Children’s Virtual World Company Tribal Nova Gets $3 Million
Company out of Montreal here. Interesting things stirring in Canadian tech circles.

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.

IMVU Making At Least $1.7M Montly With User-Made Virtual Goods
More arguments to enter the virtual goods market.

Events

Fun Working Inworld
A good look at the practicalities of running your meetings in virtual spaces (as opposed to conference calls).

Fairtheworld Unveils Virtual World Software
A permanent 3D expo complete with booths. Are permanent installations the way to go for this kind of event?

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.

Training and Education

Professor to get technology award for work with Second Life
Ball State takes the plunge.

K-State Geologist, Collaborators Create Second Life Island
Press release on the high school education project.

Behind the Scenes of The NMC: The Largest Education Project in Second Life
The interesting part not mentioned here: they’re only targeting a niche market inside educational circles. Lots of room folks!

Government and Military

If you make machinima, you might be an outlaw…
I wonder if this promo is illegal?

Play Machinima Law — Stanford Conference Spot (2009) from manybits on Vimeo.

Worlds.com v NCSoft Suit Goin to Cali
Not much news apart from that, but for those of you watching this very very closely, here it is FWIW.

Marketing

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.

Nerds Only

Second Life’s economy is the envy of the real world
General stats about the Second Life economy, largely summing up the released numbers on the company blog. Tateru Nino critiques.

3Di Launches Browser-Based Viewer And Enterprise Platform For OpenSim
Hot stuff!

Newbs Only

Old fad may have chance at second life
Oh look, more IT geeks fail to comprehend Second Life. In other news, rocks can’t do math.

Sociological Oddities

How I became a virtual world believer
The struggle to take all of this seriously.

Armchair tea partiers protest on Second Life
Protests and Second Life.

Did I miss an important story? Got feedback? Leave a comment below, or email me at
info [at] calebbooker.com

Posted on April 19th, 2009 under business, hype, new media, news, platforms, press, virtual worlds. Tags: business, hype, new media, news, platforms, press, vitual worlds. RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback.

Caleb Booker