Business in Virtual Worlds – May 25 to June 7 2009
For the first time since last August, I missed a week on the news roundup. I didn’t even realize it until mid-week. Please accept my apologies!
Clever Zebra has been busier than ever (our work on OpenVCE being only one part) and until I’m 100% satisfied that everything is running better than anyone could possibly wish for and far ahead of schedule I’ll be just a blur in everyone’s peripheral vision.
Having said that, I did make a commitment to myself to keep this going lest I lose touch with what’s going on out there. Thus, a two-week edition!
Wait, did I really just use the word “lest” in a sentence?
Anyhow, I continue to operate under time constriction and now there’s two weeks of material to cover, so I probably missed something worth reading. If I did, please contact me or leave a comment!
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:
Report: VC Funding, Number of VC Execs Decline
Some data about 2008… well, it looks like data. I suspect I smell another hand-wringing “omg where iz teh hype” moment.
Shanda Q1 Earnings Spike, Even as ARPU Drops
More “seduction via numbers”. $162M in Q1 of 09.
$68M Invested in 13 Virtual Worlds-Related Companies in Q1 2009
More “seduction via numbers”.
Study: Reliance on Immersive Technologies On Rise
More “seduction via numbers”, this time with a super-sexy graph:
8D Taps Language Learners, Bots, Microtransactions
Nice overview of a language learning business founded last year.
Wipro launches “Innovation Centre” on Second Life
“[...] a replica of the actual lab that is situated at Wipro campus”
Perfect World Hit With Patent Infringement Lawsuit
They’re claiming that Perfect World “borrows too heavily from IQ’s patented process of creating a facial composite.”
Virtual world healthcare has real world benefits, Toronto researchers find
Another health care industry foray into virtual spaces.
The Future of Healthcare: 3 questions for Dave Taylor of Imperial College London
I’m at risk of over-posting about Imperial College London but it’s a good read.
Events
Study: Webinars Rule Digital Events Landscape
Things are coming along here…
ThinkBalm Leads Visualization Tours
Proof-of-concept tours regarding the enterprise case for entering virtual spaces. Hey Erica, funny we should end up touching base this week. This looks good! (A more in-depth look appears on the Linden Lab blog.)
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
Survey: Travel, Training Budgets Fall
Which, of course, is only good news for companies like ours.
Teachers Enroll in Second Life Webcasts
Pretty interesting stuff: “Called A Virtual World for Professional Learning, the session is the final in a series of webcasts and learning resources made available to teachers across Canada, by the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) and the award-winning Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning (ABEL) program, from Toronto’s York University.”
Case Study: CIGNA’s vielife Makes People Healthier in Real Life
Educating the world on the evils of high fat diets.
Students Prefer Real Classroom to Virtual World
Maybe obvious but worth mentioning.
Government and Military
Philippines Department of Tourism Creates Virtual Island on Second Life
Let’s just make it official: if you are a Tourism Department, you are required to have a virtual world presence.
Worlds.com v. NCsoft Lawsuit On Shaky Ground?
… well that’s the end of them then.
‘Virtual Life’: EU’s three year, 3.3 million euro 3D virtual world project
That’s a pretty big project, and one that has some extremely unique notions of how a virtual world should work. It seems to be flying under most people’s radars from the look of things. (WARNING: some NSFW and possibly offensive images.) Discover more about the project on the official site: FP7 VirtualLife.
Army To Build Virtual Support Group for Amputees
Great application for the technology, reaching exactly the group that needs it most.
Gaming
GameGround Secures $4.1M in Funding
The scheme? High-score distribution to various web 2.0 profiles.
EA Confirms BattleForge Sales Forced Freemium Move
Bottom line: the MMO and games market is becoming very saturated, but microtransaction models can save the day.
Other gaming quick hits:
- CoinStar To Offer Prepaid Game Cards
- CyKash Announces Prepaid Multi Game Card
- Scoreloop Games Now Live On App Store
- Virtual Fairground Brings ClubGalactik.com on the Field
- GMG Partners With Redbana For Virtual Currency Cards
Nerds Only
Shaspa grid is a home to a virtual home
A very unique virtual world server that operates with the simplicity of a home appliance.
Newbs Only
Kossacks in Second Life
Kind of a “Second Life for Newbs” from the Daily Kos.
Second Life lecture – another lesson for antiquated law firms
A short and funny “ORLY?”
Sociological Oddities
Adult Content Changes in Summary
A final summary of the changes in Second Life’s handling of adult content that we’re soooooo interested in. Now, we could have just said: “if you don’t like sex, avoid entering brothels” and be done with it ages ago… but that would have involved people taking responsibility for themselves and nobody wants that…
Linden Lab versus the griefers
A weather report on griefer activity.
The Dares + Free Realms = New Guinness World Record
For whatever reason the Guinness people seem to think this is the first concert given simultaneously in the real world and the virtual one. Whaaaaaat??? (Clearly the Guinness people just needed some press here…)
College Plans Virtual Graduation for Online Students
Isn’t this cute?
Did I miss an important story? Got feedback? Leave a comment below, or email me at
info [at] calebbooker.com
