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Business in Virtual Worlds News Roundup – Feb 16-22

Caleb Booker — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 05:05:35 +0000

Headlines about virtual worlds just from the last week. See the archive page for past weeks.

Either I’m unusually cynical because of this head cold or this is hype week. Good hype, bad hype, fretting that the hype is over, hyping hype as an indicator of… anything. Weird week really.

On the positive side, I get to link two of the best virtual world bloggers out there: Tateru Nino and Jenn Hienrichs. I don’t generally get the opportunity to do so but they both happened to post stuff that falls within the scope of these roundups.

/me waves.

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:

Events

Students graduate in the virtual world
“When your graduating class is scattered around the globe an awards ceremony can present difficulties…” This was an awards ceremony specifically for BP executives. More details from The Drum.

3DXplorer® Webinars in the FCVW virtual facilities
A series of webinars is being held by the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds (FCVW) at the Government Center in 3DXPlorer. (FCVW is sponsored by National Defense University.)

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. Here’s the contact page.

Training and Education

NoviCraft: virtual world team building
Metaverse Journal interviews TeamingStream’s CEO, Petri Ahokangas, about NoviCraft; the corporate team-building world. A video overview is available on the TeamingStream website.

‘Second Life’ revolutionizes classroom experience
I always get a little thrill whenever I see ‘Second Life’ in quotes. Fun story about taking correspondence courses in SL.

Virtual Worlds: New frontiers for expression
University of Nevada’s student paper gives an overview of the “Virtual Worlds and Interpretive Communities: Opportunities for Global Dialogue” event. Mostly about “blurring lines”, which is what academic opium is made of.

Real-Life Teaching in a Virtual World
General overview by Campus Overview, complete with … comments below.

Second Life used as way of teaching
Towson University takes a crack at Second Life. Not a bad article, and also wins a special award: worst Second Life screnshot ever.

Government and Military

AFCEA on Second Life
Just a quick mention of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association’s presence in Second Life.

Virtual Philadelphia on CBS3
This is VERY impressive! Gigabytes of graphics, integrated webcam technology, integrated e-commerce tools, and more than a few amazing surprises. Download it and check it out for yourself.

Is one Oldham not enough?
Oldham County builds a presence in Second Life, and goes the extra (often forgotten!) step of planning a series of community events.

Virtual Cocos Island
Costa Rica tourism board does a fantastic job building a place worth visiting.

Marketing

10% Of Build-A-Bear Store Customers Influenced By Virtual World
How much would a 10% sales increase mean to you?

Online Shopping in the Future Likely to Look Something Like Second Life
A Kansas State University marketing professor posits that shopping for real goods in 3D beats e-commerce websites. Sadly, no successful examples of this proving true are indicated and the logic is a bit confusing… something about how the horrible marketing job many brands have received in Second Life proves the point. Hmm… ScienceDaily took another crack at the material, see if their slightly altered version of the press release adds up better for you.

Gaming

Ganz Opposing Webcarzz Trademark Registration
This can’t be the last time we hear about this kind of conflict.

Upper Deck targets today’s kids with online card collecting world
Funny little note at the end about spending less than $10K on PR. Cheap! But hey, they plan on using Facebook so…

Nerds Only

NASA MMO To Run On Unreal 3; Information in Place and Big Stage Also On Board
The story covers all of the collaborators involved, so if that’s important to you there it is. One thing isn’t mentioned: the Unreal 3 engine is responsible for some of the most unbelievable eye-popping real time rendered graphics we’ve seen in the last few years. Here’s a screenie of BioShock to give you an idea:

Newbs Only

Help wanted: public service avatars
I’d reference this for recruiting or government but something about the style… I think it was this part: “Search. Click. You’re there.” Ah, the newbs category then…

Turn Life’s Lemons into Virtual Lemonade
You know what? DON’T READ THIS. It’s more of that hype that Forbes says doesn’t exist. You don’t want to read a non-existent article do you?

Sociological Oddities

Keeping the Faith: Cyberfaith unable to replace real thing
Well… now you know.

Getting used to Internet may kill the ability of independent thinking, the Russian Church warns
Ok, ok, I’m logging off now, I swear…

Research Shows Worldwide MMOGs Not Very Cosmopolitan
Hype warning. “A group of researchers recently took a look at social habits inside the MMOG Everquest II” and basically discovered people there hang out with people who live near them in real life. (Ars Technica has more of the details.)

There’s an attempt to generalize this to all MMOs and make some kind of statement about who we are as people, but there are three little facts selectively omitted here:

Hardcore MMOG guilds need to use voice all the time – which means they need to be able to understand each other really well to function as a unit.
Hardcore MMOG guilds play for hours and hours at a time, often several days a week. You’d better all be in the same timezone.
Everquest II has had 400,000 players, ever. That’s not active, mind, that’s in the history of the game. This is a microscopic number by MMOG standards, which not only skews the sample but means that those who do play it have to be pretty hardcore (see previous points).

Other random numbers are tossed around, some seemingly disproving and then proving the point, culminating in some kind of internationalization effort of Habbo’s that didn’t work out well in Japan: “So it was a total catastrophe. The Japanese closed their doors and wouldn’t let anyone in without a Japanese name.”

Ask any Otaku. That’s Japan. I mean, “gaijin” is an insult over there… and that’s hardly news.

That’s hype week.

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

Virtual Worlds for Business Forum

Caleb Booker — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:20:07 +0000

Shameless plug alert! It’s been an unusually hectic week so I haven’t put much up on the blog, and now that I am, it’s about something we’re doing at Clever Zebra. I know, I know, crass commercialism wins again.

But you’ll like this.

It turns out that the Virtual Worlds for Business ebook is really, really hot. With almost no real publicity we’ve seen hundreds of downloads (approaching thousands now!) and countless people browsing the book online. The concept of the book, a constantly updated series of overviews of all the major technologies of interest to business with several case studies, turns out to be something people really needed.

We plan to keep this thing current and useful. That’s where you come in.

Tell us what you want, and we’ll make it happen! Visit the Virtual Worlds for Business Forum for:

A simple, accessible way to get answers, and discuss enterprise virtual world topics.
No kids worlds, games (with a little grey area for serious games of course) or 2D social apps to get in the way.
With content viewable accessible to both members and non members alike.

Tell us a little about yourself and join in a serious discussion on virtual worlds. See you there!

Spark on CBC Radio

Caleb Booker — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:16:57 +0000

Alright, I’m a very bad Canadian. I’m only just now discovering this incredible series. So sue me. Well… ok don’t sue me even though I’ve created this almost-logo above from some image snatched randomly on Google Image search, thus committing many an old-media faux-pas.

Spark is a radio show / podcast from the CBC, hosted by Nora Young (pictured above), and I’ve been listening to them compulsively all day. Who knew that there was anything this cool out there? So far I’ve heard about telecommuting technology, immersion, internet memes, fonts, net neutrality, and how text is transformed in the digital age. I’m finding I know a lot about what they’re talking about, but always learn something I might never have known.

The best part: when an interview is really good but too long for broadcast, it’s made available on the website separately.

Check out Spark on the CBC website.

Meanwhile: dear Spark. Please make a logo available. Yes, I know, you’re a radio show… irony irony blah blah blah…

[UPDATE] – Just a few hours later, and producer Dan Misener from Spark has already scoped out this blog entry and responded to my request for a logo:

Hmm. I like mine better, but then again, I’m partial to the Futura font. Maybe this 70s/80s funk feel logo is really fitting for a cutting-edge technology show, considering how well technology seems to be dissolving our sense of history as something from “long ago”.

That was FAST though, and how cool is it that the show is so intimately interactive like this? It may seem trite, but I just have to say it: I love the Internet!

Giant List Of Web 2.0 Company Name Generators

Caleb Booker — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:23:34 +0000

This is what happens when geeks rule the earth. Every company name ends up sounding like “Cyclofab” or “Ambertect” or “Nfish” or “random sylables go here”. Ah well, who am I to talk… I love the name “Clever Zebra“.

Try any one of these and you’ll have a company name that will make people stand up and say: “I don’t get it! Brilliant!”

Frighteningly enough, the very first click I did on the very first tool spit out “Oonder”. Freaky.

Enjoy. Oh, and you now owe me for all your future wild success because I helped name your company. Just email me, I’ll tell you where to send the check.

We Are The Strange – The Entire Film

Caleb Booker — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:28:20 +0000

Original version of the animated feature film “We are the Strange” 88 minutes : Presented in Str8nime

Get the 2 DVD set here!
http://www.filmbaby.com/films/1961
or here
http://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Strange-M-dot/dp/B000V6LT8U

All other language versions here
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1BD10C7B6DA3385E

Accolades and awards:
Sundance Film Festival Official Selection 2007
Golden Prize “Most Groundbreaking Film” Fantasia Film Festival Montreal 2007
Silver Prize “Best Animated Film” Fantasia Film Festival Montreal 2007
“Best Feature Film” HDFEST 2007
Director Selected “25 new faces of independent film” Filmmaker Magazine 2007

M dot Strange Film SkooL
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=16E6B479232C7529

Talk to other weirdo’s at the We are The Strange forum
http://wearethestrange.aceboard.com

Get involved with my next film here!
http://www.indiegogo.com/project/view/111

http://www.wearethestrange.com

==================

This looks great streamed through your Opera browser on the Wii!

Anyhow I’ve blogged about this one about a billion times now, but at long last here it is for you to watch, for free, for fun. If you feel like making your own cool “We Are The Strange” themed video, he’s made a ton of media and assets available for you to do so.

Buy a DVD. I think you’ll agree that there is nothing, absolutely NOTHING like this anywhere else! There is nothing stranger.

If you have watched this film in its entirety, your brain has now melted. Welcome to the New Media.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of “The Magus”

Caleb Booker — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 01:01:12 +0000

I was recently directed to “The Magus” by John Fowles. It’s a book that you’ll either love or hate, but its significance isn’t in its merit as a work of fiction. Many people on the outer rim of new media’s entertainment circles look to this book as the genesis of a new kind of theater. I’ll dive into this a little more in other writings, but for now let’s focus on the book’s take on things.

While the book calls it the “meta-theater” at one point and the “godgame” at another, the purpose is simply to destroy a person’s sense of what is real and what is not. On a certain level this can be fascinating as you unravel the web of lies and deceit in the quest to find something real or some purpose to it all.

This is accomplished via a variety of interactions with people pretending to be someone acting as someone who is pretending to be someone else. Every time you think you’ve discovered the “real” person, you’re in fact looking at a carefully crafted fictional character concealing yet another invented character. The hope is that you become emotionally attached to one or more of them, at which point they betray you, regain your trust, and betray you again.

Etcetera.

The twists and turns in the book are such that you will not be able to put the book down until you are finished. In part this is because every time you think you know where the story is going it veers off wildly in a new direction, compelling you to seek out the ending.

Unfortunately, the author felt that since the point of the whole thing is to leave a person with no sense of what anything means, he leaves the book up in the air in order to give the reader a proper sense of eternal bewilderment. Picture Romeo and Juliet, but with the curtain falling as Romeo discovers Juliet unconscious and is in the process of deciding to kill himself… but you never find out if he does, or what happens to Juliet.

Oh how droll. How avant-garde. How … completely disrespectful of your readers.

But I digress… the good, the bad, and the ugly of “The Magus” by John Fowles follows.

*SPOILER WARNING* – Do not read any further if you’d like to avoid having details of the book revealed.

The Good

If you’re a fan of literature and classic works of art you’ll love this book. Everything from paintings to mythology to sculpture to music is referenced here. You’ll be in classic fanboy heaven.

Apart from that, as stated above, it really is a page-turner and one of the most unique things I’ve read in ages. It’s an emotional roller-coaster ride, altering between moments of tension, relief, betrayal, boredom, sadism, and outrage. You will experience something here.

The Bad

I’m using sub-headings to keep this organized.

The Characters – There are two likeable characters. They come into the book right near the end. One, a landlord, is glossed over quickly. The other, a disheveled but bright young lady, is around just long enough for us to really want to get to know her better. Then she’s simply cut out of the narrative.

That’s it. There are no other decent people in this book. The protagonist is a self-absorbed snob you spent a good 100-150 pages hating before he even takes his little trip and does anything interesting. His great love is a total flake. His other great love is a sociopath, as is pretty much everyone else. None of them die. They all really, really need to.

The Plot Holes – There are two big ones, and they’re severe.

The protagonist would have, in the real world, lost his mind. He would have developed several neuroses, if not a total psychotic breakdown. He most certainly would never, ever have trusted anyone ever again. Instead he’s just slightly more honest, and his persecution complex changes form slightly.
There’s a difference between “irony” and “contradiction”. It’s revealed that the people behind all of this live by two rules of life: never lie, and do as little harm as possible. Meanwhile they lie compulsively, even when it isn’t necessary, and inflict massive emotional trauma on someone that was “coming along” just fine when things were still fun.

The Ending – As mentioned above, there’s no ending. Romeo eternally contemplating suicide, the climax reached, will they make it? You’ll never know. And that’s the point. In the real world, things don’t end like that. In the real world the story continues, always and inevitably until we die. By ending at the point he did he establishes that they have created “unreality”.

Well, except that it’s artificial. The characters haven’t created unreality, the author has. In fact, this book I’m holding in my hands is so fake has absolutely nothing to do with our world at all. Wow. Useless.

Sociopathy As Enlightenment – If the propagators of all of this drama believed they were doing something “important”, they’d be concerned about the protagonist’s growth. They don’t appear to be. In fact, they pretty much forget all about him at the end. If they don’t actually care about him, then they did all of this for their own amusement. They tortured him for fun, and they’ll do it again. This is referred to as “intelligence”.

Miscellaneous Contrivances – There’s the scene where they say he can judge them, but then they make it impossible for him to actually pass judgment. It’s mentioned later, and the contradiction ignored. There’s his basic negative comparison near the end of people in England being different from Greece, but most young people go through that when they spend a few months in a foreign land… and yet we’re somehow meant to see this as a result of his experiences. It goes on and on… things that are supposed to have meaning that absolutely don’t, when you think about it.

The Ugly

The book is written in the first person, giving rise to two big problems. The first and most obvious is that we see everything through the main character’s eyes, and he’s an irritating little twerp. This kills subtext as well, making it impossible to just look at what’s happening and draw our own conclusions. “They were mad, I could tell,” rather than “he grimaced and shot me a dangerous look”. I’m not saying things didn’t get described (oh HOW they were described; the book is 650 pages long), I’m just saying that we’re constantly given the protagonist’s take on every little nuance.

If you can put up with that, then there’s the other hurdle: the literary references. Everything, everything, everything is related to some kind of literature or classic work of art. I don’t know what it is about “cultured” people that makes them think we want to hear them draw comparisons between the classics and everything else. If you’re one of them, let me give you a little object lesson:

Let’s say I saw a woman throw a lance with some skill. If I was the author of this book I might say: “She was as Artemis, a huntress of singular skill.”

Equally, I might say: “She was just like Princess Leia, beautiful but deadly with a blaster.”

Some people say that people who get dressed up and go to science fiction conventions need to get a life, but I just dare you to hang out with a “cultural sophisticate” for an afternoon some day. These people make fanboys look positively disinterested. Imagine Star Wars references in every other paragraph. For an entire book. That’s what it’s like to read this book for those of us who think of Homer as a fat stupid man from Springfield.

The Punchline

Read this book if you want to learn more about the premise behind the “meta-theater” or “godgame”, that elusive art-form that is secretly alive and well in the modern age. Just remember that this is the first word on the art-form, not the last! Taken at face value it’s a horrid thing to do to a person. Taken with some slight adjustments to the intent and premise, however, and it becomes an enjoyable and positive thing for everyone. If there was a book about this type of play, “The Magus” would merely be a mention in the introduction.

Hitler, DiVAS, and Second Life’s Invasion Of Reality

Caleb Booker — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:02:28 +0000

Time for a video roundup.

First up: Hitler Explains Second Life.

That was courtesy of Magrathean I believe. Good guys.

Next, DiVAS – Episode #3.

Lastly, Georgia Tech. & Ludwig Maximillian U. bring us some mixed reality goodness in two videos that, together, I’m calling “Second Life’s Invasion Of Reality“.

Oh so cool.

DiVAS – Episode 2 Totally Rocks It

Caleb Booker — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:51:22 +0000

Phaylen Fairchild just rocked this one. My sincere congrats, and I hope to see LOTS more of these!

Nine And A Half Minutes With Sean Bedlam

Caleb Booker — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 03:55:59 +0000

WARNING: Offensive language, strong political opinions, etc etc blah blah blah…

Why am I posting a bunch of potentially offensive videos from a guy making political statements I don’t completely agree with and I’m not interested in discussing?

Sean Bedlam is what new media is all about.

He does two extremely taboo things in his videos: he swears (taboo because science has shown that some sounds emitted by human vocal chords, called “swears”, hurt people somehow), and he states a strong political opinion (taboo because, obviously, you shouldn’t… uh… opine…).

Let’s face it: we’ve allowed censorship to run amok in the mainstream media. When I can turn on the TV any day of the week and watch hours of back-to-back beatings and murder on CSI but we’re still talking about Janet Jackson’s 2004 Superbowl nipple, we have a problem. I’m not saying I’m a plug-my-fingers-in-my-ears-and-chant-”censorship is wrong” kind of guy, but when we ban sex (something we all like in our lives) from TV, but are cool with broadcasting violence (which we really DON’T want in our lives) perhaps we all could use a big kung-fu kick to our sensibilities. People haven’t felt like they can say what’s on their minds for ages.

(Oh, and yes I censor comments on my blog whenever they tick me off. Yeah, ironic, I’m a hypocrite, get over it.)

Looking back through the past bunch of decades we’ve dealt with this problem in a variety of interesting ways. In the 60′s people actively rejected social norms and called it “being a hippie”. By the 80′s people saw that wasn’t necessarily a long-term plan for them and instead tried to buy into the dream that television was selling them. Somehow this resulted in massive commercialization and shows with detectives that drove sportscars but still couldn’t afford a decent razor. This was followed by the 90′s, Generation X, and a bunch of people with an uneasy feeling that while everything probably made sense, they weren’t in on the joke.

Now we have the new media. Blogs, podcasts, message boards, virtual worlds, and yes, free video for all. Sean’s videos are a great example of what happens when the media is finally divorced of “institution”. People say what’s on their minds, at long last, and we’ve discovered that things don’t make sense and never did.

So, now what? Are we any less neurotic? Are we any more free? Has any of this changed a damn thing?

My gut tells me that while it’s all fascinating, the change in Who We Are (in big-concept caps) hasn’t happened quite yet. Let’s give it another decade. Even with all of the analytical tools and instant delivery of ideas across the globe that we have at our disposal, only hindsight remains 20/20.

–

Oh, and about what Sean’s actually said in these clips… hell, it would take about four dozen blog posts to cover it. I gotta go do some stuff though… so… you write ‘em.

TAGGED!

Caleb Booker — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:21:23 +0000

So I’m flying along, minding my own business, when *POW* I get smacked by Gwyneth Llewelyn‘s tag. Now I have to write eight things about myself, and tag another eight people to do the same. It’s like one of those horrible chain letters I generally hit “reply” to with a bunch of angry comments. I’ll start it with: “Chain letters are one thing, but you actually expect me to participate in an old worn-out blogmeme? Why you…”

Except… well… it’s Gwyn. In Second Life’s blogosphere she’s like everybody’s awesome cool aunt that you wish you had more time to hang out with. Seriously, are YOU gonna be the guy to tell off your cool Aunt Gwyn? No, I didn’t think so. Guess I’m screwed.

THA RULEZ for the “Eight Random Facts Blogmeme”:

Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Hooboy… alright, let’s give this a shot. Why the hell am I feeling nervous? Weird. Anyhow. Here:

1. I tend to become completely obsessed with things until I feel like I understand them “enough”. I studied world religions, both ancient and recent, for years. I used to be a code-monkey. A games geek. Customer service expert. Journalism nerd. Virtual Worlds Guru. I studied film for ages. I could go on. This is not to be confused with “flighty”, although it can seem that way. Everything is fascinating.

2. I think guilt is a plague. It’s a useless albatross of a thing that has never helped anyone. You did what you did. If you don’t like that you did it, don’t do it again. Time spent in regret is time wasted. If you hurt me I don’t care how you feel about it, just don’t do it again.

3. Journalism is still interesting to me, but I have to face facts: I like making things move. Inspiring people to make things move is not not not the same thing.

4. Remember point #1? It has lead me down almost every strange path you can think of. Name the oddity. You probably don’t have it in you to weird me out.

5. I’ve been able to say that this has been the best year of my life for several years now. Of course, I’ve been a miserable SOB for a good portion of my life. Depressed as a child, needy in my teens, dark in my early twenties, and I clawed my way up to moody in my late twenties. I hid it well most of the time; most people had no idea. Life is completely kick-ass of late, mostly because I decided I’d rather just be happy.

By the way, it’s not that I was particularly hard done by. I just had a habit of feeling miserable. It’s addictive, you know.

6. When I was a kid we used to make these elastic-band guns that got pretty elaborate. You put a nail in one end, attach a clothespin to the other end, and then take the metal part out of a wooden clothespin and put a thick elastic through it. Loop the elastic around the nail, and clip the metal bit into the clothespin. You have to have GOOD clothespins for these that hold it really tight so that the elastic can be stretched far.

Once I pointed one at my sister as a joke and right at that moment the clothespin holding the elastic broke off and went flying at her. Boy did I ever get in trouble.

7. I am filled with stories I want to tell but am currently unable to express. They’re beating against the insides of me waiting for release. Moments of joy, horror, rage, numbness, hilarity, and humility… they’re so clear and crystallized in my thinking. I am studying up on writing fiction to let them out.

8. Technology, and how it affects people, has been a point of fascination for me since I can remember. My earliest memory of it…

I remember standing on the street in front of our house. It was overcast, maybe early afternoon. There were no cars. I felt the asphalt under my shoes, and looked down the street. It stretched on until there was a hill and I couldn’t see any further.

In my mind’s eye I continued the line that was connected to my feet, and saw it pass the park, my friend’s house, my school. Uninterrupted, the path continued to where we bought groceries, but even further to the library and the zoo and to Gradma’s house in St. Catharines.

I was connected to all of these places… and I started to think that maybe the road connected me to other places too. Maybe this road connects to roads in cities so far away that they don’t speak my language, and kids don’t watch TV, and they don’t have snow in the winter.

I remember getting down on one knee and touching the rough asphalt with my fingertips, and thinking that maybe somewhere really far away someone else was doing the same thing and thinking about someone like me.

For me, that was the beginning.

———————

I’m going to pick on Jenn Hienrichs to tag, but I’m not going to propagate the evil meme further than that. Why did I pick on Jenn? No reason… just been looking for an excuse to link her. Looking forward to seeing what Tara5 Oh comes up with too.