Business in Virtual Worlds News – mid Feb 2010
I think I’ll have to start doing these general “Stuff You May Have Missed” news roundups on a regular basis again. There’s just too much good stuff out there!
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
Interview with Mark Kingdon, CEO, Second Life
Talking about Second Life as a business tool:
ProtonMedia Upgrades ProtoSphere
Includes 250 person auditoriums, single-port firewall traversal, and a healthy bundle of gadgets.
The Bottom Line on Second Life 2.0
My attempt at being both succinct and in-depth at the same time about the new viewer upgrade.
Events
UPCOMING: Monday, March 1st at 2pm Pacific – Anders Grondstedt, President of The Gronstedt Group, as he tells us how Schneider Electric and IBM have found a strategic planning solution in Second Life. Attend the live event here.
Virtual Fashion Offers Opportunities for Designers
Using virtual environments to launch fashion products.
Why We Sold Our Real Building and Went Totally Virtual
Presentation on the transition into using virtual environments as training and collaboration tools.
Real World Expos in Virtual Spaces
How sales were impacted by having a virtual component to a real world expo.
Training and Education
Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference – March 12-13
The “big show” in education. Don’t miss it!
Problem-based learning in Second Life: new resource
University of Derby and Aston University releases “Best Practices in Virtual Worlds Teaching: A guide to using problem-based learning in Second Life”, download it here.
Government and Military
Second Life at Work
The Department of Agriculture seeks to use Second Life as a meetings and collaboration tool.
Gaming
Child’s Play Goes Virtual: CBSNews.com Visits Engage Expo Floor
See video below on CNN’s coverage of the Engage! toy fair:
Advertisers are disappointed with Sony’s virtual world as an ad platform
… because it sucks. Sorry Sony.
Health
Imagine Solutions: Transforming health care through a patient-focused delivery system
The Mayo Clinic looks at SL.
Virtual Poster Session = Green Travel
Pharma covers a global pharmaceutical firm conducting a virtual poster session in ProtoSphere.
Second Lives Clinic: demonstrating autologous stem cell transplant in Crohn’s disease
Take THAT Crohn’s disease!
Nerds
Scientific Research in Virtual Worlds
Detailing efforts in Sociology, Psychology, and Engineering. Lots of cool stuff here.
Newbs
Is ‘Virtual World’ replacing reality?
Everybody panic!!!
Misc.
Virtual worlds pose compliance risks
A fantastic breakdown of the issues surrounding communication, behavior and archiving risks in virtual worlds.
Why sales of virtual goods are soaring.
Forbes takes a look at virtual goods.
Linden Lab boss: sex isn’t the key to Second Life
PC Pro is embarrassed into thinking before typing. Kudos to Linden Lab for responding to this kind of thing; a good change in policy.
