Business in Virtual Worlds News – Apr 20-26 2009
This week’s Big Question:
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
- 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:
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Top Stories
New partnerships and collaborations:
- Visual Purple And BTS Partner To Transition Computer-Based Training For Virtual Worlds
- SceneCaster Partners With Mental Images For 3D In The Cloud
- PlaySpan Acquires SpareChange Micropayment Service
- ExitReality Gets Educational With Moodle And Blackboard
- Oracle to Buy Sun
Qwaq Simplifies Virtual Work With Forums 2.0, Announces Navy And Chevron As Customers
Nice to see Qwaq expanding, they’ve definitely earned the success.
Immersive Education adds realXtend as an officially supported platform
This is big. realXtend is like Second Life, but with the popular COLLADA 3D format support and many other features. This puts them up there with Sun’s Wonderland and OpenCroquet/Cobalt. Also this week: Reactiongrid partners with realXtend.
Viximo Repositions As Content Provider With New CEO And $5M In Funding
A full company tear-down and rebuild to focus on selling virtual goods to other companies.
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.
Training and Education
Second Life: Buckeyes enjoy the virtual sights and sounds of campus
Ohio State enters SL. Nice screenshots at the article.
SSU is on an Island on Second Life
Shawnee State enters SL.
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.
Students Bolster Learning With New Virtual Dental School
University of Maryland Dental School enters SL. A big step for a school founded in 1840! Video overview:
Government and Military
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.
Marketing
“Angels & Demons” Promotion in Twinity
You have to hand it to Metaversum: they have this film promotion process really streamlined.
Gaming
Software That Guards Virtual Playgrounds
Keeping the creeps away from the kids everywhere.
Nerds Only
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.
Sociological Oddities
AT&T Maps Your Family With Virtual Earth
Spy on your kids! Well, it’s better than a sub-dermal microchip.
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
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