Participate in a Second Life Study on Social Issues in the U.S.

Marc and Vanessa are students from the University of Zurich in Switzerland. They are doing research in Second Life for their social and business psychology studies. They are interested in Second Life as a new way of collecting data and are conducting a survey about some social issues of the United States. Among all the participants they will draw three winners, who will win an iPod shuffle or 2x10 000 linden dollars. So seize the chance and get in touch with Marc or Vanessa via email (v.mcsorley@gmail.com or marc.schneider@access.uzh.ch) or Second Life (Sowi Korobase). They will then meet you inworld and explain all the details to you, it will take about 12 minutes. You can only participate if you are a second life resident currently living in the United States.

Paper Edition of the SLART Monograph Available

Based on the website SLART, a critical review of the visual arts in Second Life, Richard Minsky is now offering a paper edition of the SLART Monograph. Here's some information on the monograph. "This edition provides a permanent documentation of the art being created in Second Life as featured on the SLART website. It includes interviews with and full color images of work by many of the most significant innovators in SL art: Sasun Steinbeck, DanCoyote Antonelli, Bathsheba Dorn, Filthy Fluno, Adam Ramona, Seifert Surface, Sabine Stonebender, and Nomasha Syaka, as well as emerging SL artists.

The limited edition is produced by Richard Minsky, who resides in Second Life as ArtWorld Market. He is considered a leading expert on Second Life Art, and has been written up in artnet, Financial Times Deutschland, Die Zeit, and Artnet, among many others, was interviewed by Kurt Andersen on Public Radio International's Studio 360, and performed a 1½ hour tour of Second Life Art at Location One in New York City that was simulcast in Second Life.

Richard has been making limited edition and unique books for over 30 years and is the Founder of The Center for Book Arts in New York City. The Richard Minsky Archive is at Yale University. You can see his work at minsky.com.

In August, 2007 he presented a paper in the Business Track of the Second Life Community Conference in Chicago on "The Art World Market of Second Life." This is the first study of its kind, examining the differences and similarities between real life and Second Life art, including aesthetic, technical, legal and economic factors. This study is included in this SLART monograph. In time, the SLART website and Blog will disappear, along with Second Life as it now exists. Other 3D metaverse worlds will appear, the hardware will enable true 3D viewing, and it will become an even more immersive experience. But this book will remain as a record of the pioneering artists whose efforts have already inspired many derivative works. Hundreds of years from now this archival publication will be able to be read, without any electronic devices, the same we we now can read books from a thousand or more years ago.

SLARTTM monographs are printed in high resolution on a HP Indigo 5000 digital offset press, using some of the most durable inks available for color printing on archival paper."

Source: SLART

Brands in Second Life

The following Video was created by The Project Factory, a Second Life Agency. It's "[a] short compilation (using the cool joystick cam feature!) of some of the branded builds in Second Life (part of a 30minute longer video) - from the likes of Reuters, BMW, Sony BMG and Ericcson, BigPond, Reebok, Vodafone, IBM, ABC TV, Showtime, Pontiac, American Apparel, Virgin, Dell, NBC, Apple (unofficial), Sears, Circuit City and AOL."



Source: The Project Factory via YouTube

Banking Crisis (also) in Second Life!

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on the banking crisis in Second Life. "In the real world, banks are reeling from the subprime-mortgage mess. In the online game Second Life, a shutdown of the make-believe banking system is causing real-life havoc for thousands of people.

Yesterday, the San Francisco company that runs the popular fantasy game pulled the plug on about a dozen pretend financial institutions that were funded with actual money from some of the 12 million registered users of Second Life. Linden Lab said the move was triggered by complaints that some of the virtual banks had reneged on promises to pay high returns on customer deposits.

Second Life is an elaborate online world where players create new identities for themselves -- images called avatars. These avatars can own land, run businesses and build homes. And there's a link to the real economy: To buy things, players use credit cards or eBay Inc.'s alternative payment service PayPal to convert actual U.S. currency into "Linden dollars," which can be deposited using pretend ATMs into Second Life's virtual banks.

The banks of Second Life were operated by other players, who enticed deposits by offering interest rates. While some banks paid interest as promised, others used depositors' money for unsuccessful Second Life land and gambling deals. Under its new banking rules, Second Life says only chartered banks will be allowed -- though it isn't clear any real chartered banks will operate in the virtual play world.

The shutdown has caused a real-life bank run by Second Life depositors. Though some players managed to get their Linden dollars out, others are finding that they can no longer make withdrawals from the make-believe ATMs. As a result, they can't exchange their Linden-dollar deposits back into real dollars. Linden officials won't say how much money has been lost, but a run on another virtual bank in August may have cost Second Life depositors an estimated $750,000 in actual money.

Play Money to Real Money

"Everyone thinks that because you're losing play money, it excuses everything, but it's convertible to real money," says a Second Life player whose avatar is named UpMe Beam. On Sunday night, the female character was wandering topless through the virtual lobby of a Second Life bank called BCX Bank, where a sign said it was "not currently accepting deposits or paying interest."

In real life, UpMe Beam is a man who says that he is a certified public accountant who has audited banks. He wouldn't disclose his name, but says he has been unable to withdraw $5 he deposited in November to see how a Second Life bank works.

Steve Smith, who runs BCX bank under the avatar name Travis Ristow, yesterday said depositors -- who are owed a total of $20,000 -- will be able to get their money back next week. The bank, which had promised to pay depositors more than 200% in annual interest, is now allowing only small withdrawals.

"This won't affect us long term. It's just a short-term difficulty," said Mr. Smith, 40 years old, who also has significant land and real-estate interests in Second Life. He said he retired from the real-life mortgage business to devote his time exclusively to his Second Life enterprises.

"There is not a whole lot that is fake about this," says Robert Bloomfield, a professor at Cornell University's Johnson School of Management. Mr. Bloomfield's own Second Life avatar, named Beyers Sellers, hosts a pretend television show in the online game about virtual economics.

Continue reading here...

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Virtual Worlds Case Study: Santa Clara Island

The New Media Consortium (NMC) wrote a case study about the Santa Clara University's Information Commons and Library replica in Second Life. "The essential challenge posed by Santa Clara Island was to design and build a faithful replica of the Information Commons and Library of Santa Clara University — then in the early phases of construction, that could be used by students and faculty at Santa Clara University to explore innovative ideas for the interior spaces.

The entire process was timed so that it could inform the actual real-life development of those spaces — NBC Tech News did a feature story at the time illuminating that aspect of the project (see video below). To fulfill that part of the project’s goals, the Information Commons was designed to faithfully match the exterior of the building using blueprints and architectural renderings to guide the work.

As with most NMC projects, extensive reference photos also informed the details, which included capturing the Spanish-style architecture and the rich landscaping of the Santa Clara campus.

To capture the feel and character of this Franciscan institution, the mission church and parts of the old Santa Clara mission were recreated, as well as the campus art museum. The grounds were appointed with plants and landscape elements identical to the ones on campus.

The interior of the Information Commons and Library, however, was designed to allow experimentation with ideas for a reference desk, classroom and theater spaces, group study and reading areas, a store, a multi-purpose studio space, and a café."

Continue reading here...

Source: New Media Consortium

Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?

The USC Institute for Network Culture is hosting a Second Life event on the virtual rights of avatars. The following is taken from their press release:

MacArthur Series on Philanthropy and Virtual Worlds

The USC Institute for Network Culture and Global Kids present a discussion on Virtual Liberties: Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?

12:00p.m. PST on Monday, January 28, 2008

Please join the USC Institute for Network Culture and Global Kids for the first event in an upcoming series on philanthropy and virtual worlds.

The event, "Virtual Liberties: Do Avatars Dream of Civil Rights?" will be held on the USC Annenberg Island or on the Global Kids estate on Second Life at 12:00p.m. PST on Monday, January 28, 2008.

Jonathan F. Fanton, President of the MacArthur Foundation, will chair a discussion about the avatar civil liberties. Joining him will be Robin Harper, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development from Linden Lab, and Jack Balkin, professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School.

Prior to their remarks, Douglas Thomas, Professor at USC and Director of the Institute for Network Culture, and Barry Joseph, Director of Global Kids' Online Leadership Program, will give updates on and announce a dramatic series of programs as part of MacArthur's year exploring philanthropy in virtual worlds. Thomas and Joseph are MacArthur grantees.

Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister Cloned in Second Life

According to its recent press release, "[t]he Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden is opening a counterpart in the desert. But only in the virtual world, of course. The three-dimensional clone of the museum can be visited in Second Life®. The magnificent rooms of the museum are reproduced true to scale, and all 750 masterpieces in the exhibition are on display. The doors are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Visitors can view the art, chat with each other, access information about the works of art, participate in art education events, note their impressions in the guestbook or browse in the shop – all in real time.

No previous reproductive medium has so far succeeded in providing such an effective spatial impression of a museum visit in real time, even though the history of museums has always been intimately bound up with the history of reproductive media. For example, in 1753, shortly after August III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, had opened the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, the “Königliches Galeriewerk” was published, presenting the highlights of the collection in the form of large-format engravings. Over the centuries, new media have constantly been used, from photography to the CD-ROM. It is a logical step in the historical development of the media that we should now take on the challenge of experimenting with the possibilities presented by Web 2.0 technology, so as to provide a worldwide community with access to a 3-D virtual reproduction of the museum.

Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister is the first museum of international rank to have responded to the new challenges of the web by producing a genuine 1:1 clone of itself. This concept is therefore fundamentally different from the many purely fictitious museum creations on the web which have no counterpart in real life. In the year of the Documenta and the Biennale di Venezia, such phenomena raise crucial questions that touch on the identity and sense of purpose of museums in the 21st century. We regard the virtual presentation of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister as an experiment in which we do not yet know what the ‘residents’ in the artificial Internet world will make of this unique opportunity. The Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft at Dresden University of Technology will supervise the project under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Lutz M. Hagen."

Source: Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden
QuickTime VR Source: VR Mag

Second Life in the Class Room

Prof. Dr. Steven Hornik teaches Financial Accounting at the University of Central Florida using various Web 2.0 tools, including wikis, blogs, c-maps, Twitter, and - of course - Second Life. In Second Life, Prof. Dr. Hornik built various 3-D models and interactive tools to support and extend his real life lectures. Recently, he blogged about his students' opinions on the use of Second Life in the class room. "First, Second Life seemed to hard for the students (a topic discussed all over the blogosphere) and reinforced in the survey results that indicated 56% of the students who used Second Life found it Difficult or Very Difficult to use. The same percent (56%) indicated that had Second Life been “easier to use”, they would have used it more to learn the accounting concepts for the course."

Here are some of Prof. Dr. Hornik's students' statements from his blog:

"I thought that Dr. Hornik being available to answer questions was SO HELPFUL. Having him be able to answer questions immediately instead of through email, or waiting until class was such a relief."

"I think the 3-D Accounting Equation was the most valuable. It really REALLY helped me get some concepts down, and it was a good refresher throughout the course. I also really liked being able to discuss the class with others who I normally would never talk to in person."

"Being able to talk to other people who had the same questions as I do and be able to hear answers straight from the professor."

"The accounting model. Playing with the debits and credits and the expanded accounting model’s debits and credits was invaluable. The ability to reach Dr Hornik and communicate in a personal 3D world and not having to go to campus or un-personal email was fantastic."

"The most valuable part of Second Life was the ability to listen to lectures at my own pace. I actually retained more because I viewed them at times when I was alert, instead of having to sit through class after a long tiresome day."

"The notecards you placed all over the place were helpful to look at, especially prior to tests. I liked watching the lectures, underwater, for some reason. I think the turtles were pretty cool company."

"The lectures and conversing with the professor were definitely more valuable than if done via any other method. Being in SecondLife creates a more tangible feeling that what is being communicated. It’s honestly the next best thing from face to face."

Continue reading here.

Gartner's Generation V(irtual)

WorldsInMotion reported on the Gartner Group's latest research on the "Generation V" (Virtual). "The Gartner analyst group has released some research on what it calls "Generation V" (Generation Virtual), and says that in 10 years, the largest influence on all purchases will be the virtual experience associated with them. Gartner states that by 2015, more money will be spent on sales and marketing online than off, with this Generation V driving the trend.

Said Gartner analysts, "Generation V is the recognition that general behavior, attitudes and interests start to blend together in an online environment. The idea of Generation X (and later Generation Y) was conceived as a way to understand new generations that appeared not to have connections to the culture icons of the baby boomers. Marketers use the categories of baby boomers, Generation X and Generation Y to segment the population for targeting products and services with a focus on age."

However, Gartner notes that this generational divide breaks down as more tech-savvy baby boomers are going online at the same time and in some of the same spaces as their younger counterparts. "Customers will hop across segments at various times of life for various reasons and are likely to act like several generations at any given time," the analysts add.

Gartner principal analyst Adam Sarner explained, "For Generation V, the virtual environment provides many aspects of a level playing field, where age, gender, class and income of individuals are less important and less rewarded than competence, motivation and effort. For example, an 11-year old individual can be the leading "go to" person for advice on how to upgrade/hack a digital video recorder (DVR) for more recording space. An unpopular office worker can be a highly revered, accomplished 40th-level half-elf in World of Warcraft. The opportunity for reputation, prestige, influence and personal growth provides a powerful social draw for the masses to spend more time in a virtual world."

With the amount of time spent by all age groups online, Gartner recommends, "Companies will need to shift from collecting personal data about individual customers toward collecting more-complete and more-relevant data around online customer behavior and influence on others," Mr. Sarner said. "Companies will need new processes, new skills and a restructuring of how data is collected and used as they shift from demographic to psychographic insight. If companies follow a truly persona-centric approach, they can use the highly relevant information the persona leaves. Although the real person may never be known, far more intimate information of the persona's actions, personality, lifestyle habits and attitudes can be collected and exploited for business goals."

With that in mind, Garner concludes with some recommendations for marketers targeting Generation V:

Companies should organize their products and services around multiple online personas.
Sell to the persona, not the person. A persona will show you how it wants to be treated.
Create virtual environments as a way to orchestrate customer exploration toward purchases.
Shift Investment from known customers to unknown ones. Focus on the influencers within the meritocracy.
Develop and retain or outsource new skills to attract, connect, contribute and gain insight from Generation V and its virtual environment"

Source: WorldsInMotion

Second Life's Virtual Potential is Real

Ian Lamont, ComputerWorld's Senior Editor New Media, wrote on the potential of Second Life. "I've been a Second Lifer for a year. I've had many of the same problems, experienced some of the same fears, and have repeatedly slammed the relentless hype about the virtual world and the activities there.

But here's the thing: Despite the terrible user interface, the presence of strange avatars, questionable marketing campaigns, bizarre monuments to artistic vision, and the myriad other issues that have vexed people and companies trying to use Second Life, we have only just scratched the surface of this virtual world's potential. Put aside the problems and the hype for a moment, and consider some of the obvious strengths:

- The ability to simulate real-life objects in three dimensions.
- Letting users build 3-D models based on "blue-sky" concepts, ranging from "sandbox" experiments to giant building or product sims that let companies test their ideas without having to make major real-world investments in land, equipment and human resources.
- Structured activities in 3-D spaces, such as orientation islands and tours of museum sims.
- A shared, real-time space that can host widely distributed groups of people.
Interpersonal communication that incorporates body language and visual cues.
- A safe space that protects the privacy of users while letting them project real or ideal identities.

Many individuals and organizations place great value on technologies that provide these features. Three-dimensional modeling is a crucial tool for the architecture, aeronautics and automotive industries. The military has used 3-D simulators for tank crews since the 1980s, and now uses "America's Army," a 3-D game based on teamwork and missions-specific goals, for training and recruiting purposes.
Conference calls, Web conferencing and even videoconferences are firmly ingrained into corporate culture. It's not a stretch to imagine these activities expanding into Second Life or other virtual worlds, where new modes of cooperation and creativity can be realized.

The experimentation has already begun. Clearly, many of the experiments have failed, but there are some success stories. A few entrepreneurs have established money-making businesses in Second Life. Others have built wonderful buildings and simulations, and some larger organizations have reported successful training and customer engagement efforts.

Take Harvard University, which has offered for-credit classes in Second Life for more than a year. Instructor Rebecca Nesson told me that virtual worlds, when compared with earlier distance education technologies, are a "giant leap forward" in their ability to enable communication, class participation and certain types of simulated activities. More than 100 other schools and universities have also held classes or sessions in Second Life, and a few professors have even used gaming platforms -- Everquest, World of Warcraft and the like -- to teach teamwork and management skills.

What can we expect in the years to come? Certainly, we will see more failures and cringe-inducing experiments. But I expect the complaints about the Second Life client and connectivity problems to drop away as developers improve the building tools, infrastructure and user interface. In addition, more people are going to try out virtual worlds and decide they want to stay. That's not only because more game- and social networking-savvy Generation Yers are registering, but also because virtual world graphics will get really, really good, thanks to exponential advances in hardware and software technologies.

Forget the blocky shapes and blurry textures that now dominate Second Life. The virtual worlds of 2012 will look even better than the high-definition 3-D gaming environments currently offered by the PS3 and the XBox 360. The virtual worlds of 2017 will be photorealistic, and the simulations will be fantastic. Eventually, new tools, business models and enabling technologies will emerge within these worlds that are more efficient than processes in real life or the text-based Internet.

It may seem like a stretch to imagine these things now, but if we have learned anything from observing the evolution of software, hardware and networking over the past few decades, it is that mainstream applications of these technologies are seldom apparent early on. Virtual worlds are still in technological toddlerhood, but they will reach a level of mainstream maturity in the next five to 10 years.

Climate Change Conference in Second Life

Christopher Nickson, of DigitalTrends, reported on a virtual Climate Change Conference in Second Life. "The virtual world might be largely immune to climate change, but the real world isn’t. That was one of the implicit points made when minister from the Maldives, Malta and the UK hosted a virtual climate change press conference on Second Life.

More important, though, was the effect it’s had on islands around the globe.

"Twenty years ago the president of Maldives, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, warned assembled world leaders in the UN that climate change, if left unchecked, would mean the death of Maldives and many more like it," Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid, Maldives said at the conference, according to the BBC.

The virtual conference followed a live conference held in the Maldives, ahead of a larger summit in Bali next month.

By using Second Life, the minsters were able to reach a much wider range of the earth’s population to talk about the impact climate change is having on everyone/

"You are the front line of the battle against climate change. I think you can send not just very clear alarm, but also a very clear message to the international community," explained British Foreign Minister David Miliband."

Source: DigitalTrends

Top 5 Bestsellers on Second Life

Just browsed through Amazon.com and thought I'd present the list of Top 5 bestselling books on Second Life:

1. Creating Your World: The Official Guide to Advanced Content Creation for Second Life

Enrich your virtual existence by mastering the techniques and tactics the experts use to create jaw-dropping SL content—everything from buildings and vehicles to clothing, landscapes, and animations. This official, exclusive guide from a team of Second Life content-creation experts was written with the full support of Linden Lab and features in-depth instructions for creating beautiful content and putting it to work in-world.

2. Second Life: The Official Guide

Since "opening" in 2003, Second Life has become an explosive worldwide phenomenon, inhabited by over 5 million virtual residents by 2007. Hit the digital ground running with Second Life: The Official Guide, the ultimate travel reference to this exciting new "metaverse." Get all the information you'll need to create your avatar, navigate the landscape, and build your in-World business to produce real-world profits.

3. Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life: Making Money in the Metaverse

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life will give readers an in-depth look at businesses and other economic opportunities in Second Life, explain the business operations of each, and show readers how to identify, develop, launch, and profit from their own business.
Written by an award-winning author and Second Life expert with deep ties to the business community, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life begins with an overview of the virtual world and its flourishing economy as well as the challenges it presents to entrepreneurs. A virtual business basics chapter discusses important features of all successful Second Life businesses, including marketing and advertising avenues. The following chapters discuss how to plan, start, and successfully run such businesses as real estate, clothing and accessory creation, construction and landscaping, adult opportunites, music and video production, art creation, and building and running entertainment venues. More esoteric opportunities--machinima, news media and blogging, working for other content creators, currency speculation, and more--are also explored.

4. How to Do Everything with Second Life

Filled with hundreds of hands-on tutorials, tips, and techniques, this is the thorough, in-depth reference that every Second Life resident needs. Learn how to create a unique avatar and then explore, build, socialize--and even earn real money. Inside, you'll find exclusive coverage of all the menus, features, and utilities. Whether you're a newbie or an old hand, this book will help you get the most out of Second Life.

5. A Beginner's Guide to Second Life

Millions and millions of people from all over the world have discovered the new virtual universe of Second Life. There you can meet new people, make friends, conduct business, build empires, whatever your imagination can conjure. This easy to use Beginner's Guide takes you step-by-step through the process of going from embarrassingly unprepared "Newbie" to a seasoned resident in no time. Learn how to design an Avatar for your new appearance. You can look like anyone or anything you desire. Buy land, build a house, a fortress, or even an entire city. Buy and island. Create new products and services and sell them to other residents for Linden Dollars, which can be converted to real US dollars. This book shows you how, with step by step exercises, examples, loads of illustrations, everything you need to get started and having fun.

Facebook + Second Life = Second Friends

I read an interesting piece on the blog iAlja, covering the possibility to join the worlds of Facebook and Second Life. "If you are like me, you probably have some of your Second Life friends among your Facebook friends. And until recently, we had no good way of connecting the two worlds. But now we can; and there isn't just one, but two Facebook applications that can help you with that.

Second Friends
The first app (by release order) is called Second Friends and was developed by Art Fossett (I'm using the developer's SL names in both cases). The app lets you display your avatar name and picture and a list of your Facebook friends that are using Second Friends on your Facebook profile. To use the app you need to do two things: you need to add the app on Facebook, and you need to pick up a personal key at an in-world kiosk on Eduserv island (you can reset the app and get a new key anytime).

Second Life Link
The second app, Second Life Link, was developed by Fire Centaur and another developer. It enables you to display your Facebook using SL friends in a similar way to the Facebook's defalt friends' list. The setting up process is similar to the one you have to go through with Second Friends, although it has a few extra functions. You can start the process by either adding the app on Facebook or by touching the in-world terminal in English Village."

Read more about it here.

Source: iAlja

A Lense for Second Life Marketers

The Business Communicators of Second Life reported on Forrester's Social Technographics report. "Forrester's recently released its Social Technographics report examining participation of the U.S. online population in “social media,” such as reading or publishing blogs, offering online reviews or using social networking sites. Forrester groups people into six categories based on how they participate in today’s Read/Write web.

Social Technographics gives us some important clues to what our virtual world strategies need to look like.

Although I don’t agree with the “ladder” stratification Forrester uses, - which suggests a hierarchy of more or less significance to a social media activity (they are all equally important) - but the categories are extremely important indicators that marketers should examine and use as a framework for all social media strategies – virtual worlds included.

The heavy resident-created content and “early adopter” nature of Second Life may immediately suggest that the social technographics of Second Life residents is significantly weighted toward the “creators” at the very “top” of the Forrester hierarchy. Especially since the technical learning curve is so steep to just get functioning in Second Life, much less getting productive enough to create there.

But, don’t confuse technical savvy-ness, with the social networking behaviors of social technographics. Social technographics focuses on the various participative activities a person or “population” engages in.

Its true early SL residents rather obviously tend toward “creators” – they collectively, after all, built the SL environment. But, as the population is growing, the social technographics start to look more generalized.

Recent Second Life initiatives seem to make some pretty sweeping assumptions about the activities residents will find engaging. But without looking at all the potential activities different types of social media participants are likely to value, it is impossible to create a truly successful presence – or better yet, to offer interesting content across preferred behaviors to engage the largest possible audience.

Forrester’s study shows that social technographics tracks fairly reliably within generations. It is no surprise, for example that young millenials are heavy creators of social media content and that a large percentage of seniors are “inactives.”

I thought it a valuable exercise, though, to look at Forrester’s Social Technographics through the lens of age distribution in Second Life.

I graphed Forrester’s preferred activities percentages by generation; excluding ”Inactives” altogether since by definition they don’t participate in SL. The following shows the graphing results. Because Forrester specially notes that people engaged in social networking activities for entertainment purposes had a little different social technographics profile, I included them as a separate category." Continue reading here.

Source: Business Communicators of Second Life

Build your Own Virtual World: Metaplace Just Launched

Mercury News reported on yesterdays launch of Metaplace. "Raph Koster disappeared from Sony Online Entertainment in March, 2006. Up until then, the man behind titles such as Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online was the chief creative officre at the Sony division. But he’s resurfacing with a new startup today at the TechCrunch 40 conference in San Francisco. John Dunham, former vice president of operations at Sony Online Entertainment, is his co-founder.

“It’s virtual worlds for everyone,” he said in an interview yesterday."

According to the developer blog at Metaplace.com, their goals are as follows:

"We think there are all kinds of things on the Internet that would be improved if anyone could have a virtual place of their own. Right now, there aren't enough good games, for example, and they all seem to be about elves in tights or soldiers in battle armor. Metaplace allows more diversity. Right now, there are lots of people who want to use virtual worlds for research, or education, or business, but it's just too darn hard to get one going. Now you can create a world in just a few minutes and start tailoring it to your needs. Basically, we wanted to democratize the process of making online spaces of all sorts."

It's still in Alpha, but check it out at MetaPlace.com!

(Not) Convinced about Marketing on Second Life?

Eric Kintz (VP Marketing, Digital Photography and Entertainment for HP) wrote the following for his "Top 10 Reasons as to why I still need to be convinced about marketing on Second Life".

"I have been analyzing Second Life for months, but a great article in Brandweek titled “are marketers dying on Second Life?” prompted me to write this post.

Second Life is the Internet-based virtual world, which has been a center of attention for mainstream media after IBM, Dell, American Apparel, Adidas, Starwood Hotels, Nissan and many others developed a presence or bought islands. Developed by Linden Lab, a downloadable client program enables its users, "Residents", to interact with each other through avatars in a virtual society. Residents can explore, socialize, participate in group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another. Second Life has roughly 3M subscribers.

I really believe that Second Life is another example of a web 2.0 property that marketers should explore and understand. It opens up a window into the future of 3D web, but I still need to be convinced about broader marketing activities and here is why:


#1. The technology is still too complex
It takes an average user too long to feel comfortable navigating, teleporting or flying. See Steve Rubel’s take on the need for PC horsepower.


#2. The model is not yet scaleable
Second Life can only accommodate less than 100 people in one place at any point of time, not a very exciting statistic for a large brand


#3. The subscriber statistics are misleading
My colleague Scott Berg has an interesting statistic: if you take subscribers online at any given point of time and Second Life square mileage, Second Life’s density is 23,000 per square mile compared to 143,000 for Manhattan. Except for a few places, you will meet few people on a Second Life tour. Check out these pix on Valleywag.


#4. The model’s scaleability is further threatened by a corporate IT backlash
According to a recent survey by Sophos, 90.4 percent of IT pros want to block users from accessing Second Life and other similar sites; and 62 percent find it essential to block users from accessing from their corporate PCs. The reasons include increased IT security risks; burden to company bandwidth, and wasting valuable business time.


#5. The content is primarily adult oriented
None of the top 20 destinations is adult oriented in the web; most of them are on Second Life. Are you ready to take the risk of having one of your press events attacked by animated flying genitals?


#6. Brands are underestimating the investments required
Most brands have focused on the upfront cost (i.e buying land, web design and creative fees), but most have not taken into account the on-going investment into Second Life. Most indigenous businesses will have hosts and even the owner welcoming you to the island or store – most branded islands do not have any employees and operate on self service. Furthermore many indigenous businesses pay other residents to dance on their properties (a tradition in Second Life to boost your ranking) and I have not seen any brand operate that way.


#7. Brands are not staying true to the Second Life values
Second Life is about realizing your fantasies and being something different than you are in real life. Many avatars have a different gender than the subscriber or take animal forms. However most brands mimic their real life experiences and value proposition in Second Life. Brands have also disrupted the local economy by offering some of their goods and services, prompting a backlash by residents. 70% of Second Life residents are disappointed by the branded experiences.


#8. Second Life experiences are not integrated with the overall brand experience
New Second Life ventures by leading brands still feel too much to me like PR coups vs. being truly integrated into the broader set of the brand promise and experience. How many brands have a link from their online branded presence to their Second Life presence and seamlessly connect both?


#9. Potential revenues and profits are limited
If you combine the first 7 points, I cannot imagine that the revenue potential is anything by minimal. Valleywag has an interesting take on this, by sharing the example of Amsterdam - one of the most popular (adult) destinations - which is auctioned off for a mere $50,000.


#10. I barely have time for my first life"

Source: Eric Kintz, The Digital Mindset Blog

First Auction House Opens in Second Life

This press release just came in via openPR. "BidSL announced today that it will open its first auction house and auction venue in Second Life on Saturday, September 8th at 9:00am SLT. BidSL’s Second Life location features facilities to hold live, auctioneer hosted auctions and brings the ability for Second Life residents to auction off their own Second Life and real life items, creations, land, and services to other residents.

“We’re pleased to be able to bring the excitement of peer-to-peer online auctions into Second Life” said Jim Allen, spokesman for BidSL. “Second Life residents, who are familiar with traditional online auction services such as eBay, will find BidSL to work in much the same manner, but with the added fun of taking place in three dimensions.” “The three dimensional and voice enabled environment of Second Life also allows us the unique ability to have auctioneers run special live auctions along side the automated auctions that bidders located anywhere in the first life world can attend from the comfort of their own home”, said Allen.

Residents will find the process of listing or bidding on a BidSL peer-to-peer auction to be straight forward and logical. Anyone with something to sell/auction simply loads their item and item information into an available auction unit, and then other residents are able to touch the auction unit to place their bids. Thanks to the design of the auction units used at BidSL, once the automated auction has started the process of keeping track of bids, notifying bidders and seller of auction updates and delivery of the auctioned item is completely automatic. The script for the state of the art peer-to-peer auction units was developed specifically for BidSL by Ashley Petunia, known in Second Life for her M&S advertising vendors that are commonly seen being used to rent advertising space in clubs and malls in Second Life.

A companion website located at www.BidSL.com provides additional news and information regarding BidSL, its upcoming auctions, and a feedback and rating system to allow auction users to share information regarding completed transactions.

For further information, please contact:

Jim Allen
BidSL Second Life Manager
support@bidsl.com

BidSL is an auction services company involved in bringing peer-to-peer auction capabilities into the growing number of 3D virtual worlds."

Source: openPR.com

CALL FOR PAPERS: 27th Annual Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS

27th Annual Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference

Virtual Social Identity and Consumer Behavior

The 27th annual Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference will be held May 1-2, 2008 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The conference is sponsored by the Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP)

The theme of the conference is Virtual Social Identity and Consumer Behavior. We encourage participation from a broad range of academic researchers and practitioners in such fields as marketing and consumer psychology, computer science, sociology, economics, and communications.
The creation and expression of identity (or of multiple identities) in immersive environments is rapidly transforming consumer behavior – even though at this point in time many mainstream consumers have not even heard of this phenomenon! The largest social networking, Second Life, currently has over 6 million registered users worldwide, while the gaming-oriented site World of Warcraft has close to 9 million users.
Consumers enter CME’s in digital form, as avatars. A user can design his or her avatar by choosing facial features, body types, clothing styles – and even nonhuman forms. These digital representations are socializing with one another in real time, taking virtual university courses, participating in corporate training programs, sharing reactions to new products, and of course shopping.
To date more than 40 RL (real life) companies including GM, Dell, Sony, IBM and Wells Fargo are staking their claim to online real estate in computer-mediated environments (CME’s) such as Second Life, There.com and Entropia Universe. In April 2007 alone, residents of the online “world” Second Life spent approximately $10 million (in real money) on virtual land, products and services. Corporate America’s transition to the virtual world is an attempt to reach and entice the growing flood of consumers occupying these virtual worlds.
Clearly this expanding space will be pivotal in fueling new consumer trends over the next decade. In addition, the parallel growth in spending on advergaming continues to transfigure the online C2C world. Forecasts suggest that sales of branded messages embedded in videogames will reach $733 million by 2010. Eventually, these CME forums may rival traditional, marketer-sponsored E-commerce sites in terms of their influence on consumer decision-making and product adoption.
Despite this huge potential, we know very little about the best way to talk to consumers in these online environments. How will well-established research findings from the offline world transfer to CMEs? For example, can we be sure that our received wisdom regarding the impact of source credibility upon persuasion will readily apply to a situation where a “source” espousing adoption of a new product takes the form of an animated supermodel with exaggerated “attributes” or a bright green demon with fearsome horns?
These new online platforms generate many fascinating research questions for the advertising and consumer psychology community. Here are some:

Avatars, the Self, and Attitude Change

• What does the consumer’s choice of his or her own avatar tell us about self-concept and role identity – especially since visitors often create multiple avatars to “experiment” with different identities?
• How important is it for visitors to be able to customize the avatars they encounter in advertising so that they control the image that speaks to them about its products?
• How effective are avatars as sources of marketing communications?
• What physical dimensions influence the consumer decision-making process when shoppers encounter avatars that represent RL organizations? Should a company’s “spokes-avatar” be modeled after a real person (perhaps the viewer herself)? A celebrity? A fantasy figure?
• How will the explosion in consumer-generated marketing communications now being posted in CMEs (including YouTube, Second Life and elsewhere) influence the process of attitude change and strategic communications decisions?
• How does the phenomenon of “presence” (the term communications researchers use to refer to the level of immersion in a virtual social environment) relate to flow states and high involvement situations documented in consumer research?

Virtual Influence and Decision Making

• What are the implications for information diffusion as consumers increasingly turn to CMEs for information about new products or to read other consumers’ reviews of these products?
• Can consumer researchers construct and populate virtual laboratories that will allow them to simulate RL decision-making contexts and better understand how heuristics, contextual cues, information displays and other variables will impact consumer behavior both offline and online?
• Can avatars’ conversations with one another, either in pairs or in groups, be a valuable starting point for buzz-building and word-of-mouth marketing campaigns?
• How will the growth in CME participation affect social interaction patterns such as dating?
• To what extent do consumers in CMEs participate in risk-taking behavior, and what implications does this have for RL?
• What are the implications for adolescent socialization, or for the ability of children to distinguish reality-based cues from fantasy?
• What are the ethical implications of the increasingly common practice of misrepresentation whereby companies pay individuals to promote their products on websites while masquerading as “ordinary” surfers?

Virtual Culture and Economies

• What is the potential of online prediction markets (like The Hollywood Stock Exchange) to improve researchers’ and practitioners’ ability to forecast consumer trends?
• How will norms regarding social etiquette, cheating, and gift-giving transfer to CMEs?
• What are the implications for cross-cultural consumer behavior as CME residents increasingly are able to interact with fellow avatars (and companies) from around the world?
• How will the integration of avatars on other internet platforms influence consumer behavior on e-commerce websites?

Submissions
Submissions may be in one of two categories: 1) complete papers or 2) abstracts. Preference for acceptance will be given to papers that provide extensive integration of existing work and/or provide details of a relevant program of research that takes a psychological perspective. Authors of the best papers will be invited to prepare a manuscript for a book to be published by the Society for Consumer Psychology. Complete papers that will be published in the book must be submitted in camera-ready format within 30 days of presentation at the conference. Publication of full papers based upon submitted abstracts is contingent upon satisfactory review of the full paper.
Submissions must be received by December 15, 2007. Papers should be sent to Natalie Wood (nwood@sju.edu) electronically as an attached Word file. All papers will be blind-reviewed, so please submit your manuscript with authors’ names and contact information on a separate cover page. Please limit the manuscript to 30 pages double-spaced (excluding Exhibits) with 1” margins.

Hotel Information
The conference will be held at the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia (www.loewshotels.com). Conveniently located in the heart of downtown Philadelphia, the Loews Hotel is steps away from the historic district (Liberty Bell, National Constitution Center), shopping, restaurants and sports arenas. To make reservations, contact the Loews Philadelphia and identify yourself as an attendee of the Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference to receive the conference hotel rate of $189 per night. Reservations must be made by April 1st, 2008 to receive the conference rate.
For more information about The Society for Consumer Psychology or the Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference, please see our website at http://www.consumerpsych.org or contact one of the conference chairs:

Michael R. Solomon, Ph.D.
Department of Marketing
Haub School of Business
Saint Joseph’s University
5600 City Avenue
Philadelphia PA 19131
Tel: 610-660-3411
Fax: 610-660-3239
msolom01@sju.edu

Natalie T. Wood, Ph.D.
Department of Marketing
Haub School of Business
Saint Joseph’s University
5600 City Avenue
Philadelphia PA 19131
Tel: 610-660-3452
Fax: 610-660-3239
nwood@sju.edu

The Second Life Community Convention (SLCC '07)

The following review of the 3rd International Second Life Community Convention, at which also our Marc Fetscherin and Christoph Latteman presented their "An Explorative Study of User Acceptance", comes from TopTechNews.com.

"Panels at the Second Life Community Convention held this past weekend in Chicago addressed aspects of the Second Life virtual experience, such as entrepreneurship, teaching, art, music, or sex. The MacArthur Foundation, which has an initiative to explore "the role of philanthropy in virtual worlds," funded some programs at the show.

It might best be described as "Third Life." Real people, who have virtual alter egos in Second Life, get together in a real-life convention to celebrate their alternate existences. That was the setup behind the sold-out Second Life Community Convention held this past weekend in Chicago.

As the third such event of its kind, it attracted about 800 attendees and, of course, was streamed live into the actual, virtual Second Life. In other words, welcome to the mirror worlds of the early 21st Century.

Centered around the Chicago Hilton, the gathering focused on four main areas -- education, social events, business, and machinima. Machinima uses manipulated video game imagery and dubbed audio tracks to create stories that leave the video game plots far behind. Second Life machinima similarly co-opts the characters and landscapes of its environments.

Entrepreneurship, Teaching, Sex

There were plenty of subjects for discussion at the convention without making up new ones. Panels addressed aspects of the Second Life virtual experience, such as entrepreneurship, teaching, art, music, or sex. The Chicago Tribune reported that the cybersex discussion drew about 200 real people to the hotel's Boulevard Room, nearly all of whom claimed to have participated in virtual, carnal activities.

Booths sold figurines based on popular avatars, the Tribune said, as well as real lingerie designed from avatar-based lingerie. Lingerie was one choice of dress for the Saturday night masquerade ball sponsored by a Second Life virtual sex promoter, and there were musical performances by musicians best known by their online selves.

The real-world Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation, which has an initiative to explore "the role of philanthropy in virtual worlds," funded some programs at the convention. A new category that it announced is for "entrepreneurs and builders of new digital environments for informal learning," with prizes of $250,000 and $100,000 in actual dollars, not Second Life's Linden dollars.

"Virtual worlds," the foundation said in a statement, "are about much more than games" and are "already critical tools for business collaboration and social activities." It noted that a recent Walk for Hunger in Second Life had almost 400 participants.

'Geeks and Art-School Types'

The real people walking about in Second Life as avatars might be hard to characterize by their online selves. But the real-life people attending the convention, according to Carolina McCarthy on her CNet News blog, were "largely a mix of geeks and art-school types," most of whom were in their early- to mid-thirties. A few attendees even wore "flat-out business casual in dress pants and button-down suits," she noted.

McCarthy said she wasn't sure if people were mostly introducing themselves by their avatar names or the ones they use in "meatspace" -- otherwise known as the real world. The 800 attendees, in any case, were just a tiny sample of Second Life. Although the online world claims nine million residents, about 40,000 are reported to be in Second Life at any one time.

But the sample of Second Life residents convening at the Chicago Hilton hotel did not have a monopoly on imaginative lives spilling into real ones. The Tribune noted that a competing convention was taking place in another ballroom at the same hotel -- fans of an ESPN online fantasy football league."

Source: TopTechNews.com

Second Life Still Risky for Businesses

ZDNet Asia reported on a recent telephone interview with the Director of IBM.com, Maggie Blaney. "Second Life may be a "rich and creative environment" for companies to interact with customers, but the virtual world is still not suitable for conducting business transactions, says IBM executives.

Speaking to reporters via teleconference Thursday, to announce the expansion of its contact center in Second Life, Maggie Blaney, director of ibm.com, told reporters that Second Life is neither suitable nor secure enough for transactions with contractual agreements.

"Basically, Second Life is a public marketplace, and when we're talking about private, confidential or secure transactions, we need to make sure that those happen outside of a public marketplace, in a secure environment," Blaney said.

Paula Summa, worldwide general manager of ibm.com, illustrated Blaney's point using a scenario that IBM's contact center staff could encounter in the virtual world.

Citing the example of someone who wants to buy IBM hardware or software, or needs help to solve business problems, Summa said an IBM sales avatar could either help the client avatar or connect the client avatar to the appropriate IBM expert or resource, within or outside Second Life.

"[However], if the dialogue progresses to the point of sales, this would be handled by a more secure, traditional method, such as over the phone or via IBM's Web site," she added.

Making virtual contact
Launched in May, Big Blue's 3D online contact center in Second Life--dubbed virtual business center--has grown its staff strength to the current team of 44 sales representatives from around the world. Each sales person is represented by an avatar.

With the recent addition of about seven sales representations from the Asia-Pacific region, such as Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore, operation hours of IBM's virtual contact center has been extended to 24 hours a day, Mondays to Fridays.

The IBM sales avatars can now communicate with customer avatars in more languages, too. These include Bahasa Malaysia, Cantonese, Tagalog and Mandarin.

"We are very early in the life of 3D virtual worlds, and especially in leveraging those worlds to accomplish real business," said Foo Yan Nuen, IBM Singapore's country manager of ibm.com, noting concerns relating to system stability, availability and security, as well as avatar behavior in Second Life.

Foo added that while "there is no immediate business objective" in this initiative, the 3D online contact center is a key part of Big Blue's "experimentation to understand how to engage with clients in an immersive environment".

According to the company, 10,000 avatars have visited the IBM virtual business center since it opened in May.

Commercial businesses are not the only ones jumping on the Second Life bandwagon to reach out to customers. Governments worldwide are also eyeing opportunities in the virtual world.

Balaji Sadasivan, Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Information, Communications and the Arts, told participants at the State of Play V conference held here this week that a handful of government agencies in the island-state have established presence in Second Life. They include the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the Economic Development Board (EDB).

Earlier this year, IDA procured a small island in the virtual world, and partnered with Nanyang Polytechnic to "experiment hands-on experiential learning" in these online environments.

When contacted by ZDNet Asia, an IDA spokesperson declined to reveal more details of its stake in Second Life, while an EDB spokesperson said the agency is adopting a wait-and-see approach. STB did not respond at press time.

Singapore is not the first or only country to make a foray into Second Life. Several U.S. government agencies, such as NASA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. House of Representatives, also have stakes in the virtual world, which are used for education, collaboration and outreach, according to a report on a U.S. government Web site.

In Japan, lawmaker Kan Suzuki has set up an office in Second Life to reach out to voters, according to a recent BBC report."

Source: ZDNet Asia

Banking Crisis in Second Life -- Calls for Regulation

Wired.com just published an article on the recent banking crisis in Second Life. "The recent collapse of Ginko Financial, a "virtual investment bank" in Second Life, has spurred calls for more oversight, transparency and accountability, especially when it comes to business practices in the metaverse.

Last week, Ginko Financial -- an unregulated bank that promised investors astronomical returns (in excess of 40 percent) and was run by a faceless owner whose identity is still a mystery -- announced it would no longer exist as a financial entity.

The declared insolvency meant the bank would be unable to repay approximately 200,000,000 Lindens (U.S. $750,000) to Second Life residents who had invested their money with the bank over the course of its three and a half years of existence.

"You have to remember, there's not a lot of places to put your money in Second Life," said Benjamin Duranske, a lawyer who publishes Virtually Blind, a blog that chronicles virtual laws and legal issues that impact worlds like Second Life. "When you have disposable income and a bank that's promising a 60 percent return on deposits, that alluring -- especially if it works for a while."

Quickly following this news, a tidal wave of backlash took shape from thousands of angry Second Lifers in SL forums.

Yet in many ways, the undoing of Ginko and the collective loss of more than 750,000 very real U.S. dollars is only the latest event hammering home the fact that the lawlessness of the virtual land has its drawbacks. Indeed, after Linden Lab, the owner and operator of Second Life, invited the FBI to investigate casino activity, the company subsequently instituted a ban on all gambling earlier this month.

On Tuesday, Linden Lab itself issued a statement trying to clarify its stance on regulations and Second Life's virtual economy.

"Linden Lab does not intend to recreate or subvert real-world laws in any way," the statement says. "We caution our residents to be wary of anyone offering extremely high interest rates at no risk, either in the real world or in Second Life -- if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

The response was timely, considering Second Life currently has 20 to 30 banks that operate essentially the same way Ginko did. That fact, plus the large losses associated with Ginko, has led to a growing call for even more transparency and regulation among SL residents.

Duranske is at the forefront of the movement. An intellectual property lawyer who's taking time off from his practice to work on a book about virtual law, he was one of the first people to jump on the shady business dealings at Ginko Financial more than two months ago. Indeed, his blog has one of the most comprehensive accounts of Ginko's downfall.

Duranske claims he's personally talked with a few SL residents who have lost as much as $10,000 in the Ginko scheme, but estimates that the majority lost a more moderate amount--somewhere in the range of $50 to $100.

"A lot of people forget, Second Life is governed by U.S. law and the laws of California," Duranske explained. "It just so happens that these laws haven't been enforced."

But that's about to change. Duranske says because Ginko has received so much press lately, the bank, as well as others, will inevitably become an issue that Linden Lab will have to tackle. That either means self-regulation or more federal intervention.

He's hoping it won't come to the latter.

Robert Bloomfield, an accounting professor at Cornell University, is of the same mind. Bloomfield says the collapse of Ginko and the recent closing of casinos, among other incidents of alleged fraud, are shocks to participants in the Second Life financial sector.

That said, Bloomfield believes residents are already responding by creating a variety of oversight institutions of their own, including companies that insure against fraud and homegrown regulatory institutions like the Second Life Exchange Commission, which is modeling itself on the SEC.

"It will be very interesting to see which organizations survive (if any), and how they reduce the risk of fraud," he said in an e-mail.

Bloomfield admits he's getting in on the act on a personal level and has forged an ongoing agreement with two Second Life-based stock exchanges, the International Stock Exchange and the SL Capital Exchange (formerly AVIX) that will provide him with comprehensive data on trading histories for all listed firms.

He expects to publish analyses of that data in the near future and says such information could very well be another important step toward transparency.

In the end, Bloomflield says SL's financial and business sector can teach us a lot about the nature of regulation and oversight. Even with the unfortunate case of Ginko, he still believes the intervention of real-world regulation is remote.

"I am really hoping that RL (real life) regulation does not come to SL because right now SL has the chance to sort out what type of oversight and regulation it wants," Bloomfield said. "If the RL authorities or Linden Lab do start meddling with business affairs, it could ruin a golden opportunity for real innovation and creativity, a chance to recreate a world in a new image."

Source: Wired.com

Content Distribution Grows In Virtual Worlds

The Italy-based online publisher Robin Good wrote about the opportunities for content distribution in Virtual Communities. "Virtual [..] Worlds may represent a test bed for experimenting and prototyping new ways to communicate, market and distribute content online.

This is the fascinating proposition that content distribution analyst John Blossom offers while sharing his insight into the potential of virtual world realities like the one popularized by SecondLife.

Here is his full analysis:

The growth of game-like online communities is accelerating as virtual worlds like Second Life offer its members complete virtual lifestyles - including the ability to spend real-world dollars on both virtual and real goods and services.

The smell of real money is drawing strong interest from advertisers and media companies intent on not missing the next hot online trend.

But the real lesson of Second Life has a lot to do with the sorely neglected real world where publishers need to step up efforts to invent compelling new products that relate to digital natives.

The Web has been the home for many virtual world communities over the past decade, but with the advent of broadband access and speedy PCs virtual worlds have been booming. These 3-D online simulations filled with thousands of people moving about in attractive digital avatars draw in not only the gaming community but people looking for a whole virtual lifestyle and social network.

Second Life, the hottest of these virtual communities, has more than a million "inhabitants" and an economic system that offers more than play money for participants.

People can buy and sell real and virtual goods, services and real estate in the Second life economy, using "Linden Dollars" that members can buy - complete with their own currency exchange market data feeds.

Media companies have joined the bandwagon with kiosks to promote music and video downloads from real and virtual artists as well as news from a Reuters virtual news bureau reporting on happenings in Second Life.

In other words the view of cyberspace as a world unto itself is growing into a more multi-dimensional venue that provides many virtual equivalents of the physical world to satisfy its would-be residents.

Advertisers have been quick to pick up on this, building "islands" for their marketing campaigns that fit snugly into this fantasy world.

Instead of spending lavishly on ads and promotions to help people imagine that their products can fulfill a buyer's fantasies, why not reach them when they are already inside their fantasies?

This is context that gets way inside the psyches of consumers. But if Second Life is pointing us more towards the future of marketing online it's a future that looks pretty familiar in many ways.

Look at an interactive map of its terrain and it resembles a mashup view of Google Earth overlaid with attractions and services. The game itself, while enhanced with the depth of a global community of players and an "anything goes" approach to designing experiences, doesn't really cut new territory in presenting an online experience.

The most compelling aspect of the game - everyone is equally artificial and equally able to have an impact on others in their virtual social circles - is straight out of the world of online user-generated content, already enhanced with audio, video and animated graphics.

The real significance of Second Life is not the great virtual clothes and the instant online physique overhaul that it offers members but rather the idea that there is a tool that can act as a testbed for marketing and publishing in real-world communities for digital natives.

The experience of shopping in a local store, for example, hasn't progressed much in the online era: you walk in, look at things, buy them (or not) and then walk out. In the meantime simulated communities are offering a far wider range of experiences for digital natives that enhance both commerce and social networks in ways that most local real-world marketers have not even begun to think about - much less plan for.

The gap is not between other online outlets and Second Life but rather between Second Life and real life.

Think of Second Life-like online communities as a metaphor for what's possible right now in the real world - if publishers were up to the challenge.

What are some of the huge gaps that can be closed in the real world through Second Life-like services?"



Source: Robin Hood at MasterNewMedia.org

Virtual/Real Estate

CNNMoney.com published an interesting piece on a business application of Second Life: The virtual replica of a real $3.1 million mansion by Coldwell Banker. "Gone are the days of browsing through the newspaper in search of houses on the market. Now, most potential buyers look online and and view slide shows. But soon they'll be walking virtually through homes and even sneaking a look at what's in the refrigerator.

That's what Coldwell Banker is banking on. The real estate firm has created a brightly colored, three-dimensional reproduction of a $3.1 million property on Mercer Island, Wash. in Second Life.

This marks the first time that a real estate firm has used the virtual community to market an actual home for sale, according to a spokesman for Second Life. But it likely won't be the last.

"I think it's very innovative and could very well start a trend," said Brad Inman, founder of Inman News Service, which covers the real-estate industry.

Inman says this is the next step up from virtual video tours, which have been a very successful real estate marketing method. "Sellers are always looking for all sorts of clever ways to sell a property," he said.

The newly constructed house Mercer Island, currently listed for sale by one of Coldwell Banker's Seattle outposts, is attracting a lot of interest from prospective buyers within the virtual community, despite its hefty price tag.

Listed at $3,095,000, the 5,702 square-foot home was designed by architect Rick Jones and built by Western Construction. The gated property has a two-story great room with adjacent outdoor living space including a fireplace (see photo gallery). The lower level media theater opens into a gathering room and sports bar. The home also has a full wine cellar.

In real life, a house like this might normally attract the attention of 50 to 100 people, but since Wednesday 3,500 people have toured the home in Second Life, according to its broker, Suzanne Lane. Not all of them are prospective buyers of course -- in a virtual world it's easy for anyone who's curious to just stop by.

"I feel comfortable that it will sell within the next couple of months," she said, despite the fact that the Seattle real-estate market has cooled recently.

In Second Life, potential home owners can tour the Mercer Island house, check out each room and even the property's landscaping by using the avatar, or virtual alter ego. Avatars can even peek inside the fridge, open the stove and flick the lights on and off.

From within Second Life it's also possible to talk to the broker's avatar, Suzanne Ibanez, or other interested avatars touring the digs.

Different touch points in the house allow potential buyers to click through to Coldwell Banker's Web site, where they can request more information or even set up a real-life appointment with Lane.

Although it looks like a version of Grand Theft Auto, Second Life is not a game, it's more like a phenomenon. The virtual world, which is free for casual visitors, has about 440,000 regular visitors.

Soon, more and more of them just may be looking at real-estate."

Source: CNNMoney.com

Security Risks for Companies in Virtual Worlds

BusinessWeek just wrote about Gartner's view of potential security risks in virtual worlds. "Companies need to think about security and risk management before they get too excited about virtual worlds, according to analyst group Gartner.

The risks businesses face as a result of getting involved in virtual worlds can be significant, according to Gartner vice president Steve Prentice. These risks shouldn't be ignored, he said -- but neither should the potential opportunities and benefits that arise from using these new environments for corporate collaboration and communications.

Gartner said the issues facing corporations fall into five categories:

IT risks
According to the analyst, the IT risks of virtual worlds deal with the applications needed to run virtual worlds being downloaded to desktop systems. And while there are no indications these client applications represent a higher risk than other comparable applications, Gartner said that at this time, the high frequency of updates makes the control of a large application difficult.

Identity and access management
It's difficult -- if not impossible -- to ensure that any avatar is the real-life person it claims to be, according to Garter. This lack of verifiable identity control or access management is a "major deficiency" in public virtual worlds and is having a significant impact on the potential use of virtual worlds for internal collaboration purposes, the analyst house said. As a result companies should seriously evaluate the availability of private virtual-world environments, hosted internally and existing entirely inside the enterprise firewall.

Confidentiality
Discussions involving confidential and commercially sensitive information shouldn't take place inside Second Life or any other virtual world -- or in an open, internet-supported social-networking site, Gartner warned. But by moving to a private virtual world the issues of privacy, confidentiality and identity can be controlled. The analyst also says non-US organisations may wish to avoid virtual worlds that are subject to US jurisdiction because this may result in stored information being subject to legal scrutiny.

Brand and reputation
Uncontrolled virtual worlds represent an environment "fraught with danger" for enterprises that are sensitive to brand and reputation issues, the analyst said, so enterprises should exercise extreme caution in their virtual-world activities.

Productivity
Many senior executives view virtual worlds as a waste of time as well as computing and bandwidth resources. But while unconstrained use of virtual worlds for all staff is "probably inappropriate and unnecessary", enterprises should keep an open mind and evaluate trials carefully to avoid premature and inappropriate decisions, it said."

Source: BusinessWeek

FINALLY: Voice Chat!!!

Yesterday night, Linden Labs released its new main viewer (V1.18.1-2) with in-world voice chat capabilities! Read the PC Advisor's article on it:

"Voice capability, which has been in beta mode in Second Life, is now a permanent feature of the online world.

It allows avatars to communicate with each other and could be used for seminars and conferences.

Details of the voice function were revealed on the Second life blog. In the past few weeks over 45,000 Second Life members have downloaded and tested the beta Second Life Viewer, Voice First Look.

Voice is available through all regions of the game. It will be an optional feature and although part of the main interface, can be turned off from within the Preferences menu. Second Life citizens have complete control over how voice is used and can mute individual residents by right-clicking on their avatar and adjusting the Active Speakers.

New features of the In-World Voice Chat include a voice set-up wizard which enables residents to set up voice and adjust their mic volume. Push-to-Talk is part of the Voice feature which means residents’ mics are off by default. Speech gestures are also included in the Library to enhance the feature further.

Linden Lab, maker of Second Life also plans to develop and add further features to the voice capability of the game following its launch. It plans to add controls to enable moderators to control public speaking events and have power over when microphones are turned on and off. Additional features planned for the voice tool include the ability to leave voicemail messages and download MP3 recordings such as voice conferences during sessions."

Source: PC Advisor

Giorgio Armani To Open Virtual Store in Second Life

Fashion United reported about Giorgio Armani's plans to open a virtual store in Second Life. "Giorgio Armani will be expanding his emporium and open an online boutique on the 3-D virtual world Second Life. The store will allow viewers to purchase the brand's top 10 products virtually via Second Life currency, the Linden dollar, or in actuality. More significantly, coming in September, Armani will start selling all Emporio Armani products online in the U.S. as part of an ongoing strategy of expanding e-commerce.

"In the last seven years, I have seen mounting enthusiasm for online fashion shopping in the United States through the growing success we have had with our A|X Armani Exchange site," Armani told WWD. "Over this same period I have also observed the increasing sophistication of fashion consumers shopping online, which has encouraged me to develop this new site for my Emporio Armani lifestyle."

A soft unveiling of the Emporio Armani site is slated for Aug. 14, while the official launch will take place Sept. 7, to coincide with the Neiman Marcus Crystal Charity luncheon in Dallas.

Robert Triefus, Armani's executive vice president of worldwide communications, said that, for the first time, the designer will be interviewed online by the American public that day. "A major American portal will organize a live chat interview with Mr. Armani," said Triefus, declining to reveal the name of the Web site until the deal has been finalized.

The designer said there are only 10 Emporio Armani freestanding stores in the U.S. and that the Web site will enable consumers nationwide to shop the entire collection

Initially, only U.S. residents will be able to shop, but the company plans to expand the site to Europe next year and to Asia after that. "America is the most advanced country for e-commerce. It's only logical to launch there first," said Triefus."

Source: Fashion United

Is Second Life Empty?

The following is taken from the official Second Life Educators mailing list.

Stan Trevena (Director, Information and Technology Services, Modesto City Schools) wrote:

"Outside of events, Second Life is pretty empty almost all of the time everywhere. I've been on since the BETA, and it's always been that way, and I suspect it always will be. Imagine an area twice the size of San Francisco (Philip Rosedale's comparison, not mine), complete with businesses, neighborhoods, attractions and fully landscaped areas of countryside. Now take 20,000 - 30,000 people and sprinkle them about randomly (40k seems to be the current ceiling of concurrent users, and a current infrastructure limitation). The annual San Francisco marathon has over 15,000 runners, and they are just a big clump of runners trying to get down a single route through the City (from the air looking like a snake that just ate a rabbit). Running with the metaphor, doubling the size of the race puts you roughly at the concurrent user population of Second Life. It really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that there are not enough concurrent users to make Second Life look populated. At any given time you can scan the map and look for stacked green dots. Teleport in and check some of these locations and you will find avatars sitting in chairs, or doing other mindless things to earn L$. Other places where large groups gather are either gambling casinos (now shut down, so fewer avatars and a lot less L$ changing hands) or nightclubs of various leanings and fetishes. Events are the only thing in Second Life that pull significant numbers of people together into a single location (like the SF Marathon in RL).

People often say that virtual worlds like World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online far exceed the population of Second Life (WOW now boasts over 9 million paid subscriptions). And if you start playing a new MMO just after release, or right after a new expansion is released, you might say that they are even over populated. Many times you find yourself in competition with many other players to get quest items in certain areas, you are literally tripping over each other to kill that 10th vorpal rabbit for your quest. But that is where these other virtual worlds are deceiving to the average player. Like I said, populations in virtual worlds are event driven, or in the case of mainstream MMO's quest driven. A stark example of this is what happened to the original lands of Azeroth in World of Warcraft after the Burning Crusades expansion was released just after Christmas. Only a few weeks after it came out the old lands of Azeroth were more or less abandoned as everyone rushed into the new lands beyond the Dark Portal. And to this day the original lands are more or less deserted, even the once bustling Ironforge is only sparsely populated with alts power leveling to get into Burning Crusades.

Events are the key to success in Second Life. Events/Quests drive populations to various areas of MMO's giving the illusion of large populations, but break away from the center of the player level bell curve and you will find ghost towns and empty landscapes where once you fought over a place to stand. It's taken a long time for businesses to realize that people are not standing around in Second Life waiting to get into their virtual store fronts. They media hype over virtual businesses this past year is partly to blame. Some businesses are leaving Second Life bitter that they were misled into opening up a virtual storefronts after finding no customers banging down their door or ordering their real or virtual goods. The really smart businesses, like IBM, will look beyond a virtual brick and mortar location, they will target their efforts at customer driven events that are location independent. They will also find non-traditional activities that cannot be done in the real world to raise the involvement and information transfer between them and their customers (both current and potential).

For examples, look at the two clips from IBM from a series of videos I posted to our PacRimX blog last night:

http://pacificrimx.wordpress.com/2007/07/30/unique-second-life-videos

Look for "The Sentinel 2.0 Project" and the "IBM Brownfield Visualization" in the list of videos.

This is one reason why education works so well in Second Life. Classes and projects are event driven. You don't build a classroom, put up a sign, and wait for students to fill the room. You would be lucky if a new student were to stumble onto your lot, much less be interested in being in your classroom and attending your class (and the in-world search would do little to get them to your door). Now if you fill the classroom with interactive displays, streaming video, schedule times when students can meet with instructors, and every so often have a guest speaker that is an expert in their field, and you promoted your services like a university trying to attract paying students, you would likely fill that classroom (and then some, streaming video and chat logs on blogs, etc.). But even if you were successful with this venture, your classroom might only be filled several days a week for a few hours at a time. So what is success in Second Life?

I've stated it in the past, and I'll state it again here today. If Linden Lab does not figure this out, and quickly (the definition of success), they will take a serious hit to their persistent residents, and someone else will come along and take away their users. There are several on the horizon already who might pose a challenge in the not too distant future. Linden Lab has always been focused on businesses, shopping, and services (and the exchange of L$ and sales of new land). Far too many virtual architectural showpieces are paraded around the Internet and media to "wow" people with the cool "3D" factor. But as we are seeing with ventures like Starwood Hotels, all of that design work and flash can't bring people in if there's nothing there to come for (outside of the initial open house and dance party).

At the most basic level, if you are a business, would you get more exposure and positive customer involvement from an empty virtual storefront that only drew a real crowd at the grand opening, or from a sponsorship of a live concert, in-world conference/seminar, or even a Second Life marathon? Would you get more traction from a virtual 3D billboard in a vacant in-world neighborhood, or from a sponsorship and banners at a U2 or Police reunion concert in Second Life? And if the event were successful, streaming video would be broadcast out to the Internet (and live on for years and millions of hits on YouTube), and all the media and blogosphere stories would mention your company by name (and likely your URL/SLURL).

If anything, educators are way out in front of businesses in Second Life. We get how it works. The only problem is that Linden Lab can't build much of a business model on educators. We don't generate revenue streams, at least not beyond our discounted land and meager demand for L$. And this brings it all the way back to my other recommendation I dust off from time to time. Distribute the grids, license the servers, charge monthly fees for linking to the Linden L$ and object databases, and let a company like IBM (Google, or a yet to be named start-up) be
the glue and the search engine for jumping around the virtual universe (including non-SL grids). Give away free mini-grids to challenge MySpace and Facebook to hook in individuals who will eventually want (and pay for) more virtual space.

Coasting for any length of time in virtual worlds is as sure a way to die as a shark who stops swimming."


-----------------------------------------------------------------


Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D. (Associate Professor, Multimedia Program and Department of Communication, Co-Director, New Media Center, Bradley University) replied:


"Stan,
I agree with an awful lot of what you've written. I would offer a friendly amendment . . . about which I am NOT at all sure. Speculation/thinking....

I think that SL is also driven by three other forces: Creativity/ creation, human interaction, and activities.

First, creativity/creation: Many of the builds have been done by residents rather than big firms. Some residents do just build and build (perhaps trying to sell some; perhaps just trying to satisfy themselves). I don't think that this one scales at all... but it IS a draw for those to whom it appeals.

I think what might scale is the second piece: human interaction. And it might even scale for business. My thinking here is that it is just a HUGE mistake for any vendor (at any size or in any potential market) to plop down virtual stuff and automate the storefront. SL is a SOCIAL environment. Sure, we do not NEED a salesperson to help us. And sure, posting someone in a shop 24-7 to meet global needs of, perhaps, not much foot traffic, seems wasteful. BUT... given that
there are very few ways for non-creative types to make Ls . . seems like there is a potentially willing salesforce that could be organized at a relatively low cost. AND ... I would think that market forces would eventually advantage those business owners who provide interaction with their commerce. Even the Lindens have learned that SL works better if all the Lindens own and inhabit and place and are available now and then. Seems to me that the commerce side of things (be it news exchange, sales of SL stuff, promotion of SL or RL stuff) would be facilitated by human interaction/presence.

as for the third, activities, there's very damned little to do in SL. As you note.... edu. has a leg up cause we are generally in SL for events.... like classes. But for SL to prosper, there must be a more broad array of activities for residents. That's what keeps a quest-based game going... one always has something to do (get some goodies, move up a level, kill something, etc.). Not too many people want to sit around in a virtual world and JUST talk... though some do.... but better is actually doing SOMETHING and talking at the same time ... heck, we even "count" having our avatars dance as "doing something" that justifies time inworld.

I don't think that my comments disagree with yours. I hope you see these as a friendly amendment. You made excellent points that I learned from."

Source: Second Life Educators mailing list

Second Life of Sex and Pranks?

Forbes.com just published an article "Sex, Pranks and Reality", depicting the current dilemma around the use of Second Life.

"In April a helicopter crashed into a Nissan (nasdaq: NSANY - news - people ) building, starting a fire that left a couple of dead bodies. The explosion took place on Altima Island in Second Life, a Web fantasy world where users create customized, cartoonlike characters called avatars. The crash, whether an accident or an intentional prank, wasn't exactly an image-enhancing moment for a carmaker. Nissan's online reps cleaned up the virtual mess, coffins and all.

Marketers have flocked to Second Life since it went live in 2003. Coca-Cola (nyse: KO - news - people ), H&R Block (nyse: HRB - news - people ), IBM and Toyota (nyse: TM - news - people ) are among 80 companies that have set up a virtual presence there to capture eyeballs--Second Life boasts a population of 7.1 million registered users--and experiment with online branding. It's cheap: Linden Lab, the site's creator, charges $1,675 plus $295 a month to occupy an island. Visitors pay nothing.

But this leasehold doesn't fence out troublemakers. It turns out that avatars seem more interested in having sex and hatching pranks than spending time warming up to real-world brands. "There is nothing to do in Second Life except, pardon my bluntness, try to get laid," blogged David Churbuck, Web-marketing vice president for computer maker Lenovo. (Lenovo isn't represented on Second Life.)

Earlier this year an S&M sex parlor, opened by a naughty Second Life visitor, carried the NBC Universal name. Around the same time political bloggers caught "Bush '08"-tag-wearing vandals defacing former senator John Edwards' Second Life headquarters with excrement and covering his photo in blackface. And there is still a twittering among online gawkers about the flying penises that interrupted a virtual interview between a CNET reporter and Anshe Chung, the Second Life name for Ailin Graef, who buys and sells Second Life real estate on the site. Such antics are called "griefing" in Second Life parlance.

"If brands go into a space like this they have to go in with their eyes open about the hazards they might have to deal with," says Gregory Verdino, vice president of emerging channels at Digitas (nasdaq: DTAS - news - people ), an online agency.

Some marketers are disappointed that there aren't as many people cruising the site as they'd expected. The number of residents who logged in over a recent seven-day period is 360,000. At any given time it's more like 30,000. Starwood Hotels (nyse: HOT - news - people ) & Resorts considered hotel-design feedback from Second Lifers when it launched the virtual prototype of its Aloft chain last fall. (It's adding radios to guest-room showers at Second Lifers' suggestions.) Now focused on getting Aloft launched in the real world, Starwood plans to hand over its Second Life real estate to another user. "We need a compelling reason for people to stop by--that's hard to keep coming up with," says Brian McGuinness, an Aloft vice president.

American Apparel, the first retailer to set up a virtual store on the site, in June 2006, is all but shuttering its Second Life shop, which attracted more critics than shoppers. Not long after it opened, a group called the Second Life Liberation Army--its members are grumpy about commercialization on Second Life, among other things--shot American Apparel customers with virtual guns. Rasmus Schiönning, Web director for the company, says the retailer is disappointed by "insignificant" sales from the site.

The anything-goes nature of Second Life makes it unique, says Catherine Smith, Linden Lab's marketing director. "If you're worried about relinquishing a little control, then Second Life's probably not for you," she says. Indeed, mayhem like a helicopter crash doesn't scare Nissan. "This is a virtual world--it's the people who control what happens in it," shrugs Stephen Kerho, its North America director for interactive media.

Wells Fargo (nyse: WFC - news - people ) stopped using Linden Lab's clunky technology to run the financial company's virtual Stagecoach Island (from its own Web site) four months after setting it up in September 2005. It no longer has any connection with Second Life. Laughs Erik Hauser, creative director of Swivel Media, Wells Fargo's digital agency: "Going into Second Life now is the equivalent of running a field marketing program in Iraq.""

Source: Forbes.com

The Dawn of Second Life?

Paul Hemp, author of the Harvard Business Review article "Avatar-Based Marketing", started an open conversation at Harvard Business Online. "The tide of journalistic hype about real-world business opportunities in the virtual world Second Life is -- what a surprise -- turning. Wired has an article in the August 2007 issue that argues Madison Avenue is wasting millions of dollars getting clients to create virtual stores that rarely get a visitor. Time just labeled Second Life one of the “5 Worst Websites” because of its user-unfriendliness and called Fortune 500 forays into the world “a case of some CEOs trying too hard to be hip.” Earlier this month, Forbes catalogued examples of the vandalism and pranks that have beset real-world brands in Second Life.

Are these naysayers onto something? After all, American Apparel, the first real-world business to set up shop in Second Life, shuttered its store this month, saying its experiment was over for the moment. Starwood Hotels announced that it was closing a Second Life prototype hotel for its new “aloft” hotel chain and will turn the virtual real estate over to a real-world nonprofit organization.

But the current wave of skepticism misses some key points about the potential for marketing in online virtual worlds. As I noted in one of the first articles to explore the opportunities (and risks) of this new marketing channel, "Avatar-Based Marketing,” brand-building initiatives by real-world companies in virtual worlds must engage users, enhancing their experience by, say, offering a compelling game or helping to foster a social interest group. A mere presence in the world isn’t enough.

What’s more, marketers need to weigh the risks of relinquishing some control over a brand against the benefits of letting consumers play a role in the shaping of its identity -- with the strong brand affiliations such consumer participation can forge.

In the end, though, the criticism of Second Life (by publications that were singing its praises six months ago) is misguided. Granted, Second Life, with its occasional lawlessness and somewhat clunky technology, may not survive as a mainstream marketing venue. But other virtual worlds will emerge. More importantly, companies will end up creating (and governing) their own online 3D environments -- for example, standalone virtual shopping malls where users can meet with the avatars of real-world friends, try on virtual clothing, and make purchases of the real-world equivalent. It would be a grave mistake to dismiss the notion of marketing and selling in virtual worlds simply because of the shortcomings of Second Life.

What do you think? Is Second Life on the way out as a marketing vehicle? Do other 3D environments have more potential for ecommerce?"

Check out the following HBR IdeaCast interview "Marketing to Avatars" with Paul Hemp:



Source: Harvard Business Online

Linden Lab bans Gambling from Second Life

Thomas Claburn of InformationWeek reported on Linden Labs banning gambling from Second Life. "Second Life, the virtual world that rose to fame in large part because of the freedom it offered its residents, has once again found that it necessary to curtail the activities of subscribers to accommodate the law.

On Wednesday, Robin Harper, VP of community and support, writing under the Second Life surname "Linden," announced a new policy to restrict gambling in Second Life to accommodate "conflicting gambling regulations around the world."

The new policy bans wagering on games of chance or games that rely on the outcome of real-life organized sporting events if they provide a payout in Linden Dollars, Second Life's currency, or any real-world currency or thing of value.

"As you review this new policy, please remember that Resident compliance with real world laws has always been an integral part of our Terms of Service," said Harper in a blog post.

The abrupt ban left casino owners like Anthony Smith, of Brighton, England, scrambling to figure out what's next. Smith, who goes by the name "Anthonymark Alcott" in Second Life, ran a business called Casino World on a full server -- known in Second Life jargon as a sim. He said he'd invested about $3,800 in the business, plus 12 to 14 hours per day every day since founding the business in February.

"I do not know if I trust Linden Lab anymore to work with," he said. "The way they do business is not good. They change their policy and advise if you don't comply immediately, you get all your assets frozen, or even worse, dissolved. Any other company in the world who treated their clients like this would not last long."

Earlier this year, Linden Lab invited law enforcement officials to visit casinos in Second Life in the hope of receiving some guidance from authorities about the legality of virtual gambling. A company spokesperson couldn't immediately say whether those visits played a role in shaping the new gambling policy.

The spokesperson said that Linden Lab was looking "to broaden the acceptability of the platform globally."

This is not the first time that real-world laws have prompted Linden Lab to take action in Second Life. In May, for example, company officials banned a man and a woman from the virtual world after a reporter from a German television station provided evidence of in-game sexual activity depicting a child avatar.

In fact, Second Life is a lot less free than many of its residents believe. Some of the misperception about the virtual world's freedom may be due to Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale's past characterization of Second Life land as being "owned, controlled, and built by the people who are there." Such ownership and control isn't enough to stop Linden Lab from seizing virtual assets for what it claims is a Terms of Service violation, as Second Life resident Marc Bragg found out last year. Bragg is suing Linden Lab to recover about $8,000 worth of virtual assets that Linden Lab confiscated for what it deems to be a game exploit.

As for the gambling restrictions, some Second Life residents welcome the new rules.

Benjamin Duranske, a writer and an intellectual property attorney, praised the decision on his blog Virtually Blind. "It feels, to me, like Linden Lab grew up a lot here," he said. "For the first time in a long while, a potentially controversial policy statement has obviously been at least vetted, and probably written, by the legal department. Frankly, it reads better than a fair number of laws I've had to parse. So at the risk of alienating a lot of readers, I'm going to say well done.""

Source: InformationWeek

Current List of Universities in Second Life

It is very difficult to assess if a University or College is on SL or not. According to Rolig Loons SLED entry "Do NOT trust the simteach wiki, do not trust what comes up on Search for "college" or "university." Both are incomplete and, worse yet, misleading. The list keeps changing, too, and is complicated by the fact that some institutions are represented by a sub-unit (a college or a department), or by more than one sub-unit (a college and a library). Also,some SL institutions have no RL counterpart, but that's not always easy to
determine."

Chris Collins from University of Cincinnati responses "this is the list of accredited colleges and universities that were found from April 15 to May 26, 2007, using the SimTeach.com wiki as a starting point, and adding all candidates found through the in-world search tool. All the caveats that Rolig mentioned certainly apply.."

Here we go....current list of Universities in SL:

• Aarhus Business College
  
• Audiocourses Music Production School
  
• Australian Film TV and Radio School
  
• Ball State University
  
• Beach College
  
• Bradley University
  
• Bromley College of Further and Higher Education
  
• Buena Vista University
  
• Central Piedmont Community College
  
• Columbia College Chicago
  
• University of Houston - College of Architecture
  
• Harvard University
  
• Indiana University
  
• INSEAD - The Business School for the World
  
• University of Toulon, Ingemedia institut
  
• Ithaca College - Roy H Park School of Communication
  
• Leeds College of Art and Design
  
• Lehigh Carbon Community College
  
• Loyalist College
  
• Minneapolis College of Art and Design
  
• Mohawk College
  
• Monroe College
  
• Montana State University
  
• Murray State University
  
• Nanyang Polytechnic
  
• Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology
  
• New York University - McGhee Division
  
• Northern Illinois University
  
• Ohio University
  
• Otis College of Art and Design
  
• Pellissippi State Technical Community College
  
• Pennsylvania State University
  
• San Diego State University
  
• Savannah College of Art & Design
  
• Stanford University
  
• Texas State University - San Marcos
  
• Towson University
  
• University of Alaska Fairbanks
  
• University of Aveiro
  
• University of Cincinnati
  
• University of Hawaii
  
• University of Minnesota
  
• University of Oregon
  
• University of Paisley
  
• University of Portsmouth
  
• University of Southern California
  
• University of Southern Queensland
  
• University of Southern Denmark
  
• University of Surrey
  
• University of Texas at Dallas
  
• Vassar College
  
• University of Milan
  
• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
  
• RMIT University
  
• University of Hertfordshire
  
• Sprott-Shaw Community College
  
• Abo Akademi University
  
• Brown University
  
• Nova Southeastern University
  
• University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
  
• Rotterdam University
  
• McMaster University Library
  
• University of Minnesota - Duluth
  
• Woodbury University
  
• University College - Dublin
  
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  
• University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
  
• University of the District of Columbia - Criminal Justice Program
  
• London College of Communication
  
• College of New Jersey
  
• South Central College
  

Collaborative Art Performances in Second Life

The following is taken from Olga Wunderlich's blog. After the infamous Pizza SLut performance, Olga Wunderlich -- who interviews people involved with art, and art related politics in Second Life -- talked to Great Escape at his place in Stone Pike. She recently posted the condensed interview on her blog. Here, they discuss some of the lines between 'griefing' and performance, public and private space in SL and artistic practice in virtual worlds.

"Great Escape is an artist both in SL and in RL. He is one of the early members of the SL performance group Second Front. The group focuses on collaborative performances in Second Life. And, I met Great Escape, who likes to be called GE, after I watched the Pizza Slut Performance on May 24 2007, or better saying, after I took part in it. The idea of the performance was basically to deliver pizza to people who like to order one, and then to make a party out of it, offering free pizza to everybody around. Performers would wear pizza as coats, or wear pizzas on their head, others would drive delivery vans. When I arrived to the home base of Second Front, Gazira Babeli, another member of Second Front, immediately asked me to join the performance and drive an UPS van, which was redecorated as a pizza delivery van. It was much fun to do that, but also made me vulnerable and put me on display, in such ways that in the two hot spots where the group got in trouble: at the SL Stock Exchange and at Cloud Lounge, I was not able to take pictures, as first, I was teleported in late and second, I was banned immediately after arrival. The issue of being banned as a performance artist thus also became an important point in our discussion." Continue reading here.

Source: Olga Wunderlich

Join the American Cancer Society's "SL Relay for Life"

To spread the word: "Rivers of Venus has once again been honoured by being asked to play host to a Relay For Life Charity Auction. This is a General Auction with everything from clothing to furniture up for auction, and many items from such top designers as Madisons Creations, Rebel Hope, Lucian Overlord and Alyssa Bijoux have been donated!! There will be a donation jar into which you can donate whatever you like with all proceeds going to help fund Cancer Research.

DJ Max will be your entertainment of the evening playing everything from Rock to Pop and everything in between, he will also be taking your requests throughout the event!

Teegan Cushing of Icyeehott Photography, one of the greatest Photography companies within SL for Weddings, Portfolios, Couples Photography, Advertising etc, will be cohosting the event and also displaying some of her fantastic photography throughout Rivers of Venus and the Venus Gardens.

I hope to see you there, 23rd july 7pm slt, wallets and hearts open ready to donate!!"

Source: Second Life Relay for Life

Businesses Explore Alternatives to Second Life

The LA Times recently wrote a critical article on business in Second Life. "SECOND LIFE — a three-dimensional online society where publicity is cheap and the demographic is edgy and certainly computer-savvy — should be a marketer's paradise.

But it turns out that plugging products is as problematic in the virtual world as it is anywhere else.

At http://www.secondlife.com — where the cost is $6 a month for premium citizenship — shopping, at least for real-world products, isn't a main activity. Four years after Second Life debuted, some marketers are second-guessing the money and time they've put into it.

"There's not a compelling reason to stay," said Brian McGuinness, vice president of Aloft, a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. that is closing its Second Life shop and donating its virtual land to the nonprofit social-networking group TakingITGlobal.

Linden Lab, the San Francisco firm that created Second Life, sells companies and people pieces of the landscape where they can build stores, conference halls and gardens. Individuals create avatars, or virtual representations of themselves, that travel around this online society, exploring and schmoozing with other avatars. Land developed by users, rather than real-world companies, is among the most popular places in Second Life.

But the sites of many of the companies remaining in Second Life are empty. During a recent in-world visit, Best Buy Co.'s Geek Squad Island was devoid of visitors and the virtual staff that was supposed to be online.

The schedule of events on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s site was blank, and the green landscape of Dell Island was deserted. Signs posted on the window of the empty American Apparel store said it had closed up shop.

McGuinness said Starwood's venture into Second Life did accomplish something. Feedback from denizens gave Aloft ideas for its physical hotels.

The suggestions included putting radios in showers and painting the lobbies in earth tones rather than primary colors. But now that the design initiative is over, he said, it's difficult to attract people to the virtual hotel to help build the real-world brand.

For some advertisers, the problem is that Second Life is a fantasyland, and the representations of the people who play in it don't have human needs. Food and drink aren't necessary, teleporting is the easiest way to get around and clothing is optional. In fact, the human form itself is optional.

Avatars can play games, build beach huts, dress up like furry animals, flirt with strangers — sometimes all at once.

Their interests seem to tend toward the risque. Ian Schafer, chief executive of online marketing firm Deep Focus, which advises clients about entering virtual worlds, said he recently toured Second Life. He started at the Aloft hotel and found it empty. He moved on to casinos, brothels and strip clubs, and they were packed. Schafer said he found in his research that "one of the most frequently purchased items in Second Life is genitalia."

Another problem for some is that Second Life doesn't have enough active residents.

On its website, Second Life says the number of total residents is more than 8 million. But that counts people who signed in once and never returned, as well as multiple avatars for individual residents. Even at peak times, only about 30,000 to 40,000 users are logged on, said Brian Haven, an analyst with Forrester Research.

"You're talking about a much smaller audience than advertisers are used to reaching," Haven said.

Some in the audience don't want to be reached. After marketers began entering Second Life, an avatar named Urizenus Sklar — in the real world, University of Toronto philosophy professor Peter Ludlow — wrote in the public-relations blog Strumpette that the community was "being invaded by an army of old world meat-space corporations."

He and other residents accused companies of lacking creativity by setting up traditional-looking stores that didn't fit in. His column was reproduced in the Second Life Herald.

Nissan Motor Co., a subject of such protests, has since transformed its presence in Second Life from a car vending machine to an "automotive amusement park," where avatars can test gravity-defying vehicles and ride hamster balls. Sun Micro has made its participation more interactive and fanciful, Chief Gaming Officer Chris Melissinos said.

Ludlow isn't impressed. He said most firms were more interested in the publicity they received from their ties with Second Life than in the digital world itself. "It was a way to brand themselves as being leading-edge," he said.

Angry avatars have taken virtual action. Reebok weathered a nuclear bomb attack and customers were shot outside the American Apparel store. Avatars are creating fantasy knockoffs of brand-name products too.

Some buying and selling does go on in Second Life. An avatar can acquire currency — called Linden dollars — by earning it or buying it with U.S. dollars. (The exchange rate is 268 Lindens to $1.) With a stack of Linden dollars, an avatar can spice up his or her look or while away the time in a casino.

Only a few other virtual worlds allow avatars to create and sell content as Second Life does. But users are flocking to the other worlds, in part because some don't require people to download software to take up residence.

Others just want to access a larger community than Second Life offers. Between May and June, the population of active avatars declined 2.5%, and the volume of U.S. money exchanged within the world fell from a high of $7.3 million in March to $6.8 million in June.

Companies are following them. IBM Corp., which has an extensive presence in Second Life, is expanding into the other environments, including There, which features a digital version of the popular TV show "Laguna Beach," and Entropia Universe, which pits users against one another in a sci-fi civilization.

Consulting firms that were set up to bring brands into Second Life are busy helping clients explore other worlds.

One such agency, Millions of Us, recently announced that it had formed a partnership with Gaia Online, a site popular with teenagers, and CEO Reuben Steiger said it would be unveiling more soon. Millions of Us had previously worked only with Second Life.

"It's not about whether Second Life is good or bad," Steiger said. "It's just that there are a lot of alternatives."


Source: LA Times

Canada Seeks Digital Cops to Catch Digital Thieves

According to PHYSORG.com, "[...] police in Canada are turning to an unusual candidate pool for crime fighters: the virtual world of Second Life.

"Policing has to reflect society, and as technology becomes more pervasive in society, we have to make sure that officers we hire are familiar with the technology," said Inspector Kevin McQuiggin, head of the Vancouver Police Department's technology crimes unit.

"Anyone we meet online, by virtue of being on Second Life, likely has an interest in cutting-edge technology or is comfortable with technology ... and could make an excellent candidate," he told AFP.

Second Life, created by Linden Lab in 2003, is one of the most popular digital virtual worlds on the World Wide Web, with more than eight million users worldwide.

Hoping to attract technology-savvy candidates to their unit, the Vancouver cops created online personas or avatars with the help of local university students, and held their first recruiting session on Second Life in June.

A second session is planned by year-end, said McQuiggin, whose team is responsible for computer forensics, investigating harassment by text messages, child porn cases, financial crime, decrypting cell-phone calls of organized crime rings and so on.

Last year, the unit was involved in 18 out of 19 homicides in Vancouver on Canada's Pacific Coast, scanning computers, cell phones and handheld e-mail devices.

In most ways, the Vancouver Police Department's June online session mirrored a real-life recruiting session: explaining the force's selection process, training and job opportunities, he said.

However, the veteran cops found themselves in a virtual world surrounded by 30 avatars with spiked hair, wings and mercenary accouterments.

McQuiggin said recruiters should try to ignore some of the outlandish costumes worn in Second Life. One man reportedly attended another virtual job fair as a female avatar named Dragon while another appeared as a teddy bear.

"The interactivity in Second Life is really neat," McQuiggin said.

But the avatars can be tricky to maneuver. One job-seeker told the daily Globe and Mail he accidentally presented a recruiter with a beer online, instead of a resume.

And unintentionally sending your avatar hurtling into a wall could spoil that crucial first impression. Of course, with the virtual environment being new to employers too, most are understanding of such gaffes.

According to reports, a growing number of organizations are turning to virtual online communities to find employees for real-life positions, because of their global reach.

In May, TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications held its first virtual job fair, attracting hundreds of applicants.

Hewlett-Packard, Verizon and Microsoft are also purportedly experimenting with online hiring.

After its first virtual session, the Vancouver Police Department received three applications from Second Life users, including one from Italy, McQuiggin said.

"He had planned to vacation in Canada and decided he'd like to meet with us next week," he said.

Candidates must still be vetted and interviewed the old-fashioned way, he said.

"We weren't looking to establish a police station or conduct investigations on Second Life," McQuiggin said."

Source: PHYSORG.com

The Retail Sector in Second Life

Kzero reported on their updated timeline of retail brands entering Second Life. "Interest appears to be growing lately from the retail sector in Second Life. This poses an interesting question for these types of companies. How should they use a virtual environment to promote and position their products?

Simply having virtual versions of their real world products is a short-term strategy with a limited upside. Better initiatives in this sector should focus on attemping to create a link between real world and virtual world activity, using the 3D environment to bring residents closer to their brand experience."

Source: Kzero

The Wimbledon 2007 Build on IBM Island

Ian Hughes of Eightbar wrote yesterday about the Wimbledon 2007 build on IBM Island. "Well the event is nearly over, a mammoth 2 weeks in one place in Second Life on IBM 7 for Wimbledon Slawn tennis (props to veejay for the slawn word :-))
It made sense to capture the build in video, though it will be foreever burned in my memory.
We have had approximately 200 visitors a day and I have talked to most of them. On so many varied subjects from “what is wimbledon?” “What does IBM do?” to “how does the script work?” and “do you do builds for other people?”

This has been a tremendous success, with the customers through on the tours liking what we have done and showing an innovative side. The fantastic feedback from people in SL. Even more answers to interesting questions that emerge for me when I am explaining what we do. Finally the fact that build that the team have done works as a tremendous vehicle for showing what IBM does at Wimbledon.

This time last year there was a lot of suspicion around “playing games” but that build last year acted as a springboard for IBM’s involvement in the metaverse. This years build we have taken some more risks and tried some new ideas, out in public. Which is the way things should be done IMHO.

So well done Laronzo Fitzgerald, Andy Remblai, Judge Hocho and Pipe Hesse for a fine build.
Special thanks to Elliejane Roberts for extending the work she does in RL at the venue into SL to explain IBM and the sports events team to visitors.

Thankyou to all the people who have visited, chatted and told other people about what we have been up to."



Source: Eighbar

Social Commerce

E-consultancy wrote about Web 2.0 buzzwords and social commerce. "Social commerce helps underscore two important centres of gravity that marketing professionals should orbit themselves around.

It's easy to get cynical about 'Web 2.0', which is the most over-used buzzword of the moment and one that is ambiguously defined. Definitions for most buzzwords are elusive, if not evolutionary. Consider some of these ‘new marketing’ terms:

• viral
  
• long tail
  
• folksonomy
  
• crowdsourcing
  
• prosumerism
  
• P2P marketing
  
• C2C marketing
  
• social media
  
• social computing
  
• social networking
  
• social shopping
  
• citizen marketing
  
• open-source marketing
  
• user-generated content
  
• word-of-mouth marketing
  
• customer-created content
  
• consumer-generated media
  

Notwithstanding the ambiguity of these terms - or the authoritative positions from Wikipedia contributors - the productive purpose of evolving definitions is to illuminate important marketing principles and strategies. Even the words themselves shed light on what marketers should think about and do, such as ‘Listenomics’ and ‘C2C Marketing.’

Some terms more than others capture important characteristics of today's customer and marketing opportunities.

Word-of-mouth, for example, is a term that may have some authoritative foundation with the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (in full disclosure, to which I'm a board member). WOMMA defines word-of-mouth as 'The act of consumers providing information to other consumers'. They define word-of-mouth marketing as 'Giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place'.

That's helpful because it reminds marketers that the purpose of word-of-mouth marketing is to create a reason for customers to talk about your products.
There's another term I'd like to help define, or at least evolve, and that is 'social commerce'.

Social commerce is not a new term. Its brothers and sisters include social media, social networking and social shopping. I don't know or care which sibling was born first. Each has a slightly different meaning, but they all share that prefix in common. However, social commerce, more than the others, helps underscore two important centres of gravity that chief marketing officers and marketing professionals should orbit themselves around.

The term ‘social’ reminds us that these new marketing strategies are about customer-to-customer interactions. Said another way, it's not about us! The beating heart in the definition of ‘social’ is a connection that motivates customers to participate, contribute and create experiences. And the output of these interactions is the relevance, credibility and authority that the next customer is yearning for, or else they'll run away from traditional marketing.

When marketers develop a social strategy, they should consider the depth and degree of ‘socialness,’ which determines the level of participation. Freedom of expression, opportunities for relevant connections and utility of an interactive experience will accelerate usage and content.

Examples of these experiences include users connecting on a MySpace page, interacting with users and brands in Second Life and sharing and reading customer reviews. Conceptually, you can grade the social connection opportunity on a scale of 1-10. The more interesting and useful the interaction, the more often users will participate.

Social is the key motivation that drives user-generated content, customer-created content and consumer-generated media (pick your term). And these are digital marketing assets that we as marketers want to use to let our customers speak for our product (word-of-mouth marketing).

This leads us to the second part of this term: ‘commerce'.

Social commerce is an appropriate term for the strategy of connecting customers to customers online, and leveraging those connections for commercial purpose. Why? Commerce broadly reminds us of both our objective and methods for extracting value from this new strategy. We're not after social networking, media, computing or shopping. Nor do any of these suffixes remind us that measurement is important.

These new marketing terms listed at the top of this article can confuse us into non-productive strategies. But commerce reminds us that the CFO sits around the corner. We should remember that chief marketing officer is a high turnover job lest he or she prove the impact of their strategies.

Measurement and operational rigour cannot be forgotten or blinded by hype. Commerce, in my humble opinion, reminds us that any social strategy must fit into the business and be for the business. It should be measurable and optimised. Otherwise the strategy is as short lived as some of these terms will be.

Clients ask us if they should start a blog, an RSS feed, a MySpace page or get a Second Life character. As with anything, it depends. However, ‘commerce’ reminds us that any social strategy should aim to meet the customer somewhere along the purchase path. Does your blog help customers in awareness, consideration or purchase decision? How many prospects and customers will actually see your blog? As there are degrees of socialness, there are degrees to its commerce. Put another way, there are degrees of proximity of user-generated content to the customer purchase process, its salience to their needs, its reach and its measurability of impact.

At a recent US tradeshow for online commerce, four panelists pointed to ratings and reviews as one of the top priorities of Web 2.0 strategies because of its impact on purchase behaviour and measurability. While some have called this social shopping, it falls short and shallow of a broader strategy.

As a former retailer at Dell.com, I'd suggest online businesses are not interested in driving shopping, but rather traffic, conversion, average order value, loyalty, satisfaction and competitive differentiation. Social commerce allows us to have a broader perspective of evolving our marketing strategy, by leveraging our brand advocates and the content they create as digital marketing assets.

In the end, if you're still cynical about defining a term like this, forget the term and remember these two simple principles:

1. The online customer wants to control, connect and contribute. Our goal should be to let them do just that and connect ourselves to our advocates.
   
2. Ensure this strategy makes an impact to your profit and loss in the biggest and broadest way possible. To me, that's ‘social commerce.’"
   

Source: E-consultancy.com

Virtual Meeting Rooms by Crowne Plaza

Times Online reported about Crowne Plaza's recent efforts to provide virtual meeting rooms in Second Life. "Crowne Plaza has extended its Place to Meet meetings concept to the virtual world Second Life, the online three-dimensional graphical world where people live out alternative lives as avatars, which may or may not bear any resemblance to their real-world personas.

Around 8 million people have signed up to Second Life since launch and become residents. A quarter of these participate on a regular basis. Second Life has its own currency, the Linden dollar, which can be used to run virtual businesses and which can be exchanged for real hard currency. Residents can buy and sell land within Second Life and create their own buildings and islands.

The hotel group has created The Place to Meet Island with the idea of allowing residents and businesses within the online community the ability to get together in secure meeting rooms. The island features three meeting rooms with features such as streaming audio, video, presentation and image viewing and includes details that are present in the chain’s real-word counterparts, such as Herman Miller chairs.

The company said: “Crowne Plaza continually seeks to extend its premier meetings services to new communities - no matter where they are. The brand is pleased to join the Second Life community and to offer residents the same meeting opportunities that it offers at Crowne Plaza hotels around the world.“

A virtual Crowne meetings director is available on the island every weekday to from 6am to 2pm Pacific Daylight Time (1pm to 9pm GMT) to provide tours of the island and to help meeting attendees. Visitors can book the rooms for up to eight hours free of charge.

Starwood Hotels was the first hotel company to embrace Second Life when it opened the first property in its new aloft chain there. The company used residents’ reactions to its hotel to guide how it designed its hotels in the real world."

Source: Times Online

Second Life + Google Earth = Second Earth

Wade Roush at TechnologyReview wrote about how "[t]he World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an environment combining elements of Second Life and Google Earth.

A thunderhead towers at knee level, throwing tiny lightning bolts at my shoes. I'm standing--rather, my avatar is standing--astride a giant map [SLurl ] of the continental United States, and southern Illinois, at my feet, is evidently getting a good April shower.

The weather is nicer on the East Coast: I can see pillowy cumulus clouds floating over Boston and New York, a few virtual meters away. I turn around and look west toward Nevada. There isn't a raindrop in sight, of course; the region's eight-year drought is expected to go on indefinitely, thanks to global warming. But I notice something odd, and I walk over to investigate.

The red polka dots over Phoenix and Los Angeles indicate a hot day, as I would expect. But the dot over the North Las Vegas airport is deep-freeze blue. That can't be right. My house is only 30 kilometers from the airport, and I've had the air conditioner running all day.

"Any clue why this dot is blue?" I ask the avatar operating the weather map's controls. The character's name, inside the virtual world called Second Life , is Zazen Manbi; he has a pleasant face and well-kept chestnut hair, and the oval spectacles perched on his nose give him a look that's half academic, half John Lennon. The man controlling Manbi is
Jeffrey Corbin, a research assistant in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Denver .

"Let me check something," Manbi/Corbin responds. "I can reset the map--sometimes it gets stuck." He presses a button, and fresh data rushes in from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's network of airport weather stations. The clouds over the East shift slightly. Los Angeles goes orange, meaning it's cooled off a bit. But there's still a spot of indigo over Vegas." Continue reading here.

(Second) Life, Business and Toxic Immersion

Check out Daniele Montemale's (University of Copenhagen) slides on "Second Life: a real new world - life, business and toxic immersion":



Source: Daniele Montemale

Companies in Second Life

According to the Second Life Business Communicators Wiki, the following brands operate a presence in Second Life:

• Accenture (Italy)
  
• AccuWeather: Weather HUD
  
• ABN AMRO: ABN AMBR 238, 15, 22 (pg)
  
• Adidas: Adidas 104, 183, 55 (pg)
  
• AMD: AMD Dev Central 124,151,31(pg)
  
• American Apparel: Lerappa 138, 92, 24 (mature)
  
• AOL Pointe: AOL Pointe 128, 128, 0 (pg)
  
• Autodesk: Autodesk 128, 125, 54 (mature)
  
• BMW
  
  
  
  1. BMW New World 195, 66, 23 (pg)
     
  2. BMW (Efficient Dynamics) BMW New World 2 (pg)
     
  
  
• Calvin Klein, IN2U fragrance promotion: Avalon 21, 146, 25 (pg)
  
• Circuit City: IBM 10 136, 38, 22 (pg)
  
• Cisco Systems
  
  
  
  1. Cisco Systems 128, 127, 30 (mature)
     
  2. The Connected Home: The Connected Home (mature)
     
  
  
• Coca-Cola: Vending Machine Competition
  
• Coldwell Banker
  
• Comcast: Comcast 17, 231, 23
  
• Congrex
  
• Dell Computer, Main Island: Dell Island 43, 162, 24 (mature)
  
• Fox Atomic
  
• H&R Block: HR Block 113,48,37 (pg)
  
• Head Resourcing, Scotland
  
• IBM
  
  
  
  1. IBM Business Center: IBM Business Center 128, 128, 0 (mature)
     
  2. IBM Sandbox: IBM 121, 154, 33 (pg)
     
  3. IBM 1 Virtual Universities Community. Theater I: IBM 1 128, 128, 23 (mature)
     
  4. IBM 2: IBM 2 128, 128, 22 (mature)
     
  5. IBM 3: IBM 3 243, 105, 23 (mature)
     
  6. IBM4 IBM05 / Recruitment Project: IBM 4 130, 183, 22 (mature)
     
  7. IBM 6: IBM 6 128, 126, 22 (mature)
     
  8. IBM 7 Greater IBM Connection: (pg)
     
  9. IBM 8 SOA Hub: IBM 8 104, 106, 23 (mature)
     
  10. IBM 9: IBM 9 128, 129 22 (mature)
      
  11. IBM 10 Theater M, Circuit City: IBM 10 139, 42, 22 (pg)
      
  
  
• ING, Our Virtual Holland: Virtual Holland 119, 133,22 (pg)
  
• Intel
  
  
  
  1. Intel Ignites OCC Intel Ignites OCC 128, 128, 0 (mature)
     
  2. Intel Software Network
     
  
  
• iVillage: Sheep Island 42, 150, 25 (mature)
  
• Jean Paul Gaultier: Caricavatars 147, 170, 27 (mature)
  
• Kelly Services: Kelly Services 128, 128, 0
  
• Kraft Foods: Phil's Supermarket 108, 96, 28 (pg)
  
• Lacoste: Launching mid may
  
• Major League Baseball: Baseball 214, 129, 27 (mature)
  
• Mazda Motor Europe: Nagara Island
  
• Mercedes-Benz: Mercedes Island 128, 128,0 (pg)
  
• Microsoft Visual Studio Island: Microsoft Visual Studio Island 128, 128, 0 (pg)
  
• MovieTickets: MovieTickets 128,80,23 (pg)
  
• NBA: NBA Jam Session 128, 128, 0 (pg)
  
• Nissan
  
  
  
  1. Nissan 19, 129, 26 (pg)
     
  2. Altima Island: Nissan Altima Island 122, 180, 28 (pg)
     
  
  
• One Manchester Launching Soon
  
• PA Consulting: PA Consulting 116, 119, 27 (pg)
  
• Packaging & Converting Essentials: Sede di Marte 217,50,38 (mature)
  
• Philips Design
  
• Pontiac Main Island: Pontiac 179, 96, 24 (pg)
  
• Reebok: Reebok 111, 100, 97 (pg)
  
• Reuters: Reuters 127, 98, 25 (mature)
  
• Samsung: Softbank Slim Japan 128,8,25 (pg)
  
• SAP Network: Silicon Island 208, 45, 28 (pg)
  
• Saxo: Saxo Bank 154, 190, 54 (mature)
  
• Sears: IBM 10 95, 32, 23 (pg)
  
• Sony|BMG: Media Island 108, 111, 21 (mature)
  
• Sony Ericsson: Sony Ericsson 94, 151, 27 (mature)
  
• Sprint: Sprint Center 175, 141, 41 (pg)
  
• STA Travel: STA Travel 11, 126, 30 (mature)
  
• Starwood Hotels: Aloft Island 68, 69, 27 (mature)
  
• Sun Microsystems: Sun Pavilion 182, 144,55 (mature)
  
• Sundance Channel: Sundance Channel 49, 177, 38
  
• TAM: Airline Brazil: opening soon
  
• Telstra Big Pond: The Pond 127, 135, 41 (pg)
  
• TELUS: Shinda 187, 72, 22 (pg)
  
• Thompson NetG: Thompson 182, 123, 35 (pg)
  
• TMP Worldwide
  
• Toyota: Scion City 44, 40, 23 (pg)
  
• UGS: UGS Innovation Connection 168, 157, 22
  
• Unitrin Direct Auto Insurance Burns 145,71,67 (pg)
  
• Vivox
  
• Vodafone: Vodafone Island 128, 128,0 (mature)
  
• Wirecard Bank AG (Germany): Wirecard, 128, 128, 0 (pg)
  

Source: Second Life Business Communicators Wiki

Collusion of Virtual and Real Worlds

Wade Roush published a very interesting article about the possible collusion of virtual and real worlds in Technology Review (July/August 2007) published by the MIT :

"Second Earth: The World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an environment combining elements of Second Life and Google Earth."

http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/

Seven Point Plan for Marketing in Second Life

Nic Mitham of Kzero presented the following Seven Point Plan for Marketing in Second Life at the Mondi Virtuali conference in Turin (Italy), June 2007.



Source: Kzero

Teamwork Training Simulation in Second Life

Delta L created a training simulation to reveal team compatibility problems in advance, helping team members to learn by working together on a task.

"How many times have you seen a project hit a brick wall of teams’ inability to work together: from mild cases of overblown ego and tug-of-war to vicious in-fighting? Some folks think these problems can be fixed with just a little bit of extra of communication and explanation. Dr. Alex Heiphetz, President of Delta L sees it differently. “Building a team from people who likes working with each other is obviously the best scenario,” says Dr. Heiphetz. “If it is unavailable, serious teamwork training is in order.”

These concepts were the foundation of Delta L designing Teamwork Tester available now in Second Life on the Education Island. The simulation is based on the following ideas:

• Observing a group of people performing a simple task that requires group effort, provides data allowing to draw conclusions on their teamwork abilities and attitudes (that is you will find if it’s a group of quarreling individuals or a team)

• Observations are important, but metrics is what validates conclusions. While subjects are working on the team task, each step is recorded and processed

• At the end of the session you receive measurable results of the performance of the team as a whole, as well as metrics of a variety of characteristics of individual members. The results are saved in the database and are accessible via the web for review, analysis and comparison of different teams / team compositions

“Few months ago business looked at Second Life platform from a mostly public relations or marketing point of view,” added Heiphetz. “Our work proves that it is a viable business training and educational tool.”"

Source: Delta L via Newswire

Social Media Requires Clear Strategy

The following is taken from Melcrum Publishing's press release on their latest survey of professional communicators.

"Less than a third of professional communicators surveyed feel confident about using social media as part of an integrated communication strategy, according to Melcrum's new report How to use social media to engage employees. Yet despite the lack of strategy understanding revealed by the global study, many are going ahead with setting up tools inside their organizations -- some 60% of organizations will have some form of social media in place by the end of 2007.

The new report combines key findings from a global study into social media and corporate communication, with case-study examples and expert advice on how to develop a social media strategy, launch new tools -- such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networks -- and monitor their progress.

Potential pitfalls

The potential pitfalls of launching social media tools without an understanding of the best way to use them is covered in the "Strategy" chapter of the new report. Ross Chestney, head of communication services at BT -- where he has overseen the introduction of blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networking -- comments that: "There are an awful lot of people who are very excited about this technology, but still have no real idea what it's about."

In the same chapter, Philippe Borremans, IBM's new media lead in Europe, talks about the strategic mission for social media at IBM and urges practitioners to develop a different mindset and strategy when it comes to introducing new tools: "Your social media strategy must look unlike a traditional communication strategy. It's not an enforced strategy -- full of campaigns and 'push' models.

"The first step in building a social media strategy is to recognize that it's not for every company or every employee," says Borremans, "I can't claim this is a natural fit for every company. It all stems from understanding what kind of company and culture you are working in. But for us, it's the right way to go."

Strategy issues to consider

Based on the experiences of organizations such as BT, IBM, American Electric Power (AEP) and Nortel, the report identifies 10 issues that communicators should consider when developing a social media strategy, including:

* Assess your organization's cultural readiness. * Think about the business purpose of the tools. * Be experimental and involve employees. * Clarify what employees can and can't do. * Take a hands-off approach to marketing the tools. Key findings from global survey

In addition to advice on strategy, the report shares key findings that shed light on what communicators expect to gain from using social media inside the organization, and which tools they feel are most relevant to them.

According to the 2,100 corporate communicators who responded to the global survey, the top perceived benefits for implementing social media tools are:

1. Improved employee engagement (71%).
2. Improved internal collaboration (59%).
3. Improved internal community development (51%).
4. Improved two-way dialogue with senior executives (42%).

Engaging employees

A chapter is devoted to each of the tools considered most relevant to internal communicators: blogs, podcasts, RSS, online video, wikis, social networking and virtual worlds and the 3-D web.

Each chapter shares key findings from the global survey together with advice on how to introduce the tools and case-study examples of how they are being put to use to engage employees in organizations such as BT, IBM, Unilever, The World Bank, Scottish & Newcastle, Microsoft and Nortel.

The report ends with a chapter on measurement, which shares advice from practitioners and experts on how to monitor the progress and outcomes of social media tools.

Notes for editors:

The survey was completed by 2,112 professional communicators (VPs, directors and managers) working in internal and corporate communication. Responses came from 41% in Europe, 32% in North America and 16% in Asia- Pacific. Of these respondents, the financial services sector accounted for 13%, professional services 15%, government and public administration 12% and technology 10%.

How to use social media to engage employees forms part of Melcrum's ongoing research into trends and best practice in corporate communication and was published in May 2007. For more information, please e-mail Daniel.gregory@melcrum.com

Melcrum is a research and training business with offices in London, Chicago and Sydney. Founded in 1996 by Robin Crumby and Victoria Mellor, Melcrum has customers in over 90 countries. Through its global networks, Melcrum connects more than 25,000 professional communicators in sharing what works.

Definition of social media

For the purpose of this survey, social media was defined as: The online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives with each other. A few prominent examples of social-media applications are Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), YouTube (video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), Digg (news sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and Miniclip (game sharing). These sites typically use technologies such as blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis and vlogs to allow users to interact."

Source: Melcrum Publishing Ltd. via PRNewswire

Foundation With Real Money Ventures Into Virtual World

Stephanie Strom (BlueRidgeNow.com) wrote about the recent Second Life exploration by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

"For the first time, one of the nation’s largest foundations is venturing into virtual worlds to play host to activities and discussions and explore the role that philanthropy might play there.

The foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, is sponsoring events in Second Life, the online world.

The goals are to gain insight into how virtual worlds are used by young people, to introduce the foundation to an audience that may have little exposure to institutional philanthropy and to take part in and stimulate discussions about the real-world issues that it seeks to address.

“This is not just some fad or something new and interesting that we’ve grabbed onto,” said Jonathan Fanton, MacArthur’s president. “Serious conversations take place there, people are deeply engaged, and that led us to think that maybe a major foundation ought to have a presence in the virtual world as well.”

Second Life says it has more than seven million members, about one-third of them Americans. Each member uses a virtual self, known as an avatar, to navigate the virtual world.

The MacArthur foundation, perhaps best known for the so-called genius grants it hands out each year, has given the Center on Public Diplomacy of the University of Southern California $550,000 to stage events in Second Life, including discussions of how foundations can address issues like migration and education.

In one such event today, Mr. Fanton, whose avatar in Second Life is known as Jonathan MacFound, is going to discuss the role of philanthropy in virtual worlds with Philip Rosedale, the founder and chief executive of Linden Labs, the company that produces Second Life.

In an interview, Mr. Fanton said MacArthur planned to eventually open an office in a virtual world and make grants through it that will become actual grants in the real world. “We’re still figuring out how to do that,” he said. “All of this is a learning experience.”

Mr. Rosedale said making grants in the virtual world offered a way for foundations to explore concepts and develop programs before rolling them out. “You can start things very cheaply in Second Life, play with them and let them germinate, and then put more behind them if and when they take off,” he said.

Charities and other nonprofit groups are also beginning to migrate into the so-called metaverse, seeking ways of attracting new donors and hoping to educate a broader audience about the issues they address.

Adventure Ecology, a British group, staged a virtual flood in Second Life to show what global warming might bring, and a psychiatry professor at the University of California, Davis, created a way for his students to experience in Second Life what a person with schizophrenic hallucinations experiences.

“It’s a wonderful awareness-building tool,” said Beth Kanter, a nonprofit consultant. “You can walk someone through an experience there or sit down with them to discuss the work you’re doing in a way that you can’t in the real world or on the Web.”

The American Cancer Society has had success in raising real money with virtual walkathons in Second Life. Randal Moss, the society’s manager of innovation-based strategies and futurist, established an avatar in Second Life in 2004 — “It looks pretty much like me, maybe a little bit more muscular, with a little better haircut,” he said — and quickly noted that another avatar, named Jade Lily, was holding a silent auction to raise money for a charity.

His avatar, R. C. Mars, talked to Jade Lily and persuaded her to head a virtual Relay for Life, as the cancer society’s walkathons are known. A few hundred avatars did that walk in 2005, raising $5,000. This year’s walk has raised $82,000 at a cost of $4,200 — and it will not take place until the end of next month.

The benefits go beyond dollars. “We benefit by increasing brand awareness,” Mr. Moss said. “We’ve opened an office in Second Life, and through that, we will provide health information, link back to our Web site and provide space for community-based support groups to meet.”

More than 30 nonprofits have opened offices in a virtual business incubator in Second Life called the Nonprofit Commons that is operated by TechSoup, a group that helps other nonprofits with technology."

Source: BlueRidgeNow.com

A Job Interview You Don't Have to Show Up to

Anjali Athavaley from Wall Street Journal Online just wrote about the recruiting opportunities in Second Life. "It's now possible to meet with recruiters without actually showing up for a job interview.

Some employers are experimenting with Second Life, the online virtual community owned by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, to screen prospective hires. The program allows job seekers to create a computer-generated image to represent themselves -- known as an "avatar" -- and communicate with executives of prospective employers as though they were instant-messaging.

A number of big companies put the new medium to a test last month, when recruitment-advertising firm TMP Worldwide Advertising & Communications LLC hosted a virtual job fair with employers such as Hewlett-Packard Co., Microsoft Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and Sodexho Alliance SA, a food and facilities-management services company. TMP says it will hostanother virtual job fair in August.

The use of Second Life for recruiting marks yet another way that employers are incorporating popular Web sites into their talent searches. Employers have already set up pages for prospective hires on Facebook, the popular social-networking site, and have posted recruitment videos on Google Inc.'s YouTube, the video-sharing site. Some companies troll for prospective job candidates on News Corp.'s MySpace social-networking site.

But on Second Life, job seekers who are less tech-savvy are finding they can wind up shooting themselves in their virtual feet. When they start, some people have a hard time designing and controlling their avatars. Stephan Dowler, 37, a chef in Frederick, Md., went through an online training course offered by TMP before the recruitment event.

"I spent six hours working on the character and figuring out how to get around," says Mr. Dowler, who applied for a job as an executive chef at Sodexho.

He named his avatar Estephan Dollinger. "I gave him a big nose and brown eyes like me," he says. But he couldn't figure out how to dress the avatar in a suit for the interview, so Estephan showed up wearing jeans and a pullover."

Continue reading here.

Second Life: Not Just a Collaboration Tool

Today, ZDNet Asia interviewed the CTO of Linden Labs, Cory Ondrejka. "Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, is looking to to scale its network to cope with the virtual world's average growth of between 20 and 40 percent a month, says the company's CTO Cory Ondrejka.

And because some 72 percent of Second Life residents are located outside the United States, Linden Lab is exploring the possibility of hosting servers in foreign markets to ensure latency will not be an issue for its users.

Catch this ZDNet Asia interview with Ondrejka, to find out how enterprises in Asia can benefit from setting up presence in Second Life.

This clip was recorded during the imbX 2007 exhibition and conference, held in Singapore from Jun. 19 to Jun. 22 this year."



Source: ZDNet Asia

Free Community Development Land Grants (for UK Organisations)

The Education UK island free community development space programme offers the opportunity to apply for one of three plots of land in Second Life to support or enhance community development, social inclusion, regeneration or the democratic process for one academic year.

Applications are invited from UK organisations or groups [England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland] whose work in community participation, development, engagement etc can be extended or enhanced by using the simulation and creativity tools available within Second Life.

These could also include local, or regional community organisations, such as resident associations, environmental groups, or maybe groups building communities of practice or support around areas such as safer communities, tackling racism, promoting community integration, sexual health, mental health etc. We are keen to see some innovative ideas.

Partnership applications and/or local authority led projects are fine as they may fit in with the local authority e-Government agenda.

In addition to the free land grant, the programme will also offer successful organisations:


* A one off startup grant of $10,000 Linden Dollars.

* A dedicated and password protected audio channel.

* Access to other island facilities.

* Access to a community of support for the duration of their project.

* A hosted project weblog.

Applicants are asked to submit a completed application form, along with a delivery schedule / plan by Monday 2nd July 2007.

Further information available here.

Call for Papers: Academic Exchange Quarterly

Call for Papers: Academic Exchange Quarterly, Winter 2007
Topic: Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia
Feature Editor: Dr. Chareen Snelson, Educational Technology, Boise
State University
More Information: http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/5multi.htm

The winter 2007 edition of Academic Exchange Quarterly will contain a
selection of articles on the topic of "Educational Multimedia and
Hypermedia." Academic Exchange Quarterly is a double-blind peer
reviewed print journal featuring articles from multiple academic areas.
The readership is approximately 24,000 for the print edition. Articles
are also available electronically through databases such as Expanded
Academic, Expanded Academic International, and Infotrac OneFile.

Focus of the upcoming section on educational multimedia and
hypermedia:

*Articles describing how educators and/or researchers are using
-Video conferencing
-PowerPoint in new and innovative ways
-online photo/video/sound archives
-digital storytelling
-virtual 3D worlds
-multimedia games or simulations
-mobile technologies (e.g. cell phones or portable digital assistants
with cameras, portable music or video players)
-multimedia to support new directions in research or data collection
-multimedia used as assessments for learning

*Articles that consider the theoretical, ethical, and budgetary impact
of multimedia technologies in all of its emerging forms.

*Preference will be given to newer forms of multimedia technology, but
all innovative uses will be considered. In addition, experiments need
not be wholly successful to be of interest -- when well-analyzed,
unexpected results can add to our knowledge as well.

Who May Submit:
Submissions are welcome from teachers, professors, librarians,
trainers, administrators, and graduate students who actively use
multimedia for instructional or research purposes, or who are in the
process of adopting it. Please identify your submission with keyword:
MULTIMEDIA

Submission deadline:
any time until the end of August 2007; see details for other deadline
options like early, regular, and short.

Submission Procedure:
http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/rufen1.htm
or
http://www.higher-ed.org/AEQ/rufen1.htm

Call for Papers: Virtual Sport as New Media

Call for Papers
Virtual Sport as New Media
Special Issue of Sociology of Sport Journal
Guest Editor: David J. Leonard

Daily, sports fans throughout the globe visit various sports websites, participate in fantasy sports, celebrate and criticize teams, players, and sporting cultures on blogs, in discussion groups, and list serves, and enjoy immense pleasure in playing sports video games. Each of these media, to varying degrees, embodies what has come to be known as new media, a catch-all phrases that includes everything from the Internet to the Blogosphere to video games, virtual reality, and other examples in which media technologies are defined by increased accessibility, fluidity, and interactivity. In 1998, David Rowe found that Yahoo UK and Irish Search engines offered 4,271 categories and 14,591 sites devoted to sport. As of 2007, a U.S. Google search landed 822,000,000 sports websites, yet yielded few scholarly inquiries of sports and new media, especially in regards to race, gender, sexuality, and nation. Moreover, when much of the video game industry faced losses in sales in 2005, sports games remained strong within the industry, accounting for more than thirty percent of all video games sales. In total, sports video games represent a $1 billion industry, a fact that demonstrates the economic power and cultural significance of sports video games. Yet, to date, the literature within sports sociology, amongst commentators and scholars of global sports culture, has with few exceptions remained relatively silent to the cultural, political, sociological, economic, and overall significance of new media within a globalized sports culture. While there are countless examples and evidence of the increasing significance of new media within global sporting cultures, the academic community continues to lag behind in terms of analysis and critical interrogation. This special issue attempts to bridge the gap between old media, and new, reflecting on the ways in which new media cultures infect and affect fans, teams, sporting cultures. Possible topics include but are not limited to:
sports video games; sporting blogs; the Internet and global sports culture; white masculinity and virtual sports culture; fantasy sports; sports discussion groups; ESPN.com and virtual sports media; virtual sport as minstrelsy; the intersections of race, nation, sexuality, gender, and class with sports and new media; race, gender and fantasy sports leagues; analysis of the cultural affects of Youtube, Myspace, or Google video on sporting cultures; sports talk radio and podcasting/the Internet (particularly as they relate to race and gender); virtual sports culture and Diaspora: Sports as imagined community; links between racism, sexism and other institutions of domination and virtual sporting cultures, and, virtual sports culture as racial/ gendered performance.
This issue will consider textual, empirical (data-based), case study, and/or theory-based papers grounded in sociological theory and related to virtual sports culture, but is especially interested in papers that are empirically-based and those that critically engage the links between virtual sport and race, gender, sexuality, nation or globalization, as well as papers that push analysis into realms of comparison (beyond the U.S.). Authors should follow the ?Instructions to contributors? found in every issue of the Sociology of Sport Journal. Essays should be roughly 6,000 words, excluding endnotes and reference list.

Questions should be sent to Dr. David J. Leonard, djl@wsu.edu. All submissions are due by March 1, 2008 and should be submitted on line to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hk_ssj

Call for Papers: Controversial Images

CALL FOR PAPERS: CONTROVERSIAL IMAGES

For a special issue of Popular Communication: International Journal of Media and Culture, 2009, edited by Sharon Lockyer and Feona Attwood.

Controversial images are increasingly central to media which are
concerned with scandal, titillation and horror, and in a culture where images and image making is so important. Controversial images circulate in a wide range of different media forms from films, TV programmes, newspapers, and advertisements, to internet sites, video games, and music videos. In recent years there have been a number of instances where controversial images have become the primary focus of public fascination and debate. These include the paparazzi shots of Princess Diana's fatal accident, images from Abu Ghraib, the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons and footage of the execution of Saddam Hussein. More generally, images of sex, scandal, destruction and abuse function as the emblem for some of the major social and cultural concerns of our times.

This special issue seeks to address the significance of controversial
Images and their subsequent public debates, and reflect on what they can tell us about the production, content and reception processes of contemporary media.

Proposals are welcomed on, but not limited to, the following topics and areas:

Shock sites
Extreme porn
Religious controversies
Atrocity images
War reporting
Body horror
Invasion of privacy issues
Media representation of sensitive subjects
Censorship and regulation

Proposals with an international focus are particularly welcome, as are those which focus on controversial images in various different countries.

Proposals of 200-250 words, accompanied by a biographical note of 100 words should be sent by Tuesday 31st July 2007 to Feona Attwood, f.attwood@shu.ac.uk.

The deadline for submission of drafts will be March 2008 and June 2008 for finished drafts.


Popular Communication: International Journal of Media and Culture

The journal provides a forum for the scholarly investigation, analysis, and dialogue on communication symbols, forms, phenomena, and strategic systems of symbols within the context of contemporary popular culture across the globe. Popular Communication publishes articles on all aspects of popular communication, examining different media such as television, film, new media, print media, radio, music, and dance; the study of texts, events, artifacts, spectacles, audiences, technologies, and industries; and phenomena and practices, including, but not limited to, fan, youth and subcultures, questions of representation, digitalization, cultural globalization, spectator sports, sexuality, advertising, and consumer culture. The journal welcomes diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives within the tradition of media, communication, and cultural studies as well as interdisciplinary research in and across related disciplines.

Editors:
Cornel Sandvoss (University of Surrey, UNITED KINGDOM)
C. Lee Harrington (Miami University, USA)
Jonathan Gray (Fordham University, USA)

Upcoming Conferences/Events on Second Life

Don't miss the following conferences/events on Second Life:

Avatar-based Marketing - What Is the Future for Real-Life Companies Marketing to Second Life Avatars?
June 23, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (SLT)
Berkman (114,70)

Virtual Goods Summit 2007
June 22
Stanford University

Second Life Community Convention (SLCC07)
August 24-26
Chicago, IL (USA)

Second Life Conference
September 16-18
Berlin (Germany)

Virtual Worlds 2007
October 10-11
San Jose, CA (USA)

A Video Comp of Major Brands in Second Life

The ProjectFactory created "[a] short compilation (using the cool joystick cam feature!) of some of the branded builds in Second Life (part of a 30minute longer video) - from the likes of Reuters, BMW, Sony BMG and Ericcson, BigPond, Reebok, Vodafone, IBM, ABC TV, Showtime, Pontiac, American Apparel, Virgin, Dell, NBC, Apple, Sears, Circuit City and AOL." Enjoy!



Source: YouTube
Music, filming and editing by Gary Hayes

Distance Learning at San José State University

This movie describes San José State University School of Library & Information Science's efforts using Second Life to augment its distance learning offerings.



Source: YouTube

Update: McKinsey Virtual Venture Competition

We reported almost one month ago on the launch of the McKinsey & Company Virtual Venture Competition. "The Virtual Venture Competition is your chance to turn your innovative ideas into successful business operations in Second Life. For the first time your business plan will not be assessed by a jury, but proven by real customers, make real turnover, and present your results to a real audience!

Now, there's a movie available on YouTube. It takes you on a 1 minute and 14 seconds long tour over the two VVC islands in Second Life. The Orientation and Infocenter islands both feature cool architecture and highly informative and helpful content for all virtual entrepreneurs. If you’d like to take a closer look, you can always grab a jet-ski and tour the islands on your own."



Source: McKinsey

Outsourcing 2.0 -- into the Virtual World

Steve Ranger over at Silicon.com wrote an interesting piece on Second Life as the outsourcing's next frontier. "When PA Consulting wanted to build an extra wing for its offices, it hired the best man for the job.

Unusually, perhaps, it turned out that the best man for the job was an enormous rabbit, and one which wanted to be paid in an electronic currency that didn't exist a few years ago.

But then again, the office extension PA wanted was a virtual one, built in the rapidly growing Second Life online world.

As well as finding a rabbit to build the extra wing for its Second Life HQ, PA Consulting also found in-world 'residents' willing to work as greeters in its office in exchange for the in-world currency, Linden dollars.

"We've outsourced first-level support to the global labour pool," explained Claus Nehmzow, member of PA Consulting's management team.

But far from being a kooky one-off, a number of companies are looking at how virtual worlds can help them improve the way they create and manage teams in their own businesses - as well as providing a new market.

Depo Consulting is using its Second Life office not just as a showcase but as a means of improving the management of its team - some members of which it has never met in the real world or even spoken to on the telephone.

Peter Dunkley, director of Depo, which develops Second Life buildings for its clients, said: "The most compelling differences between this and existing remote working is the ability to work as a team - and to manage that team."

Dunkley argues that working through a Second Life virtual office means it is easier to hire workers, either long-term or for specific tasks, from anywhere in the world - and most importantly manage them.

"For the individual team member you have the benefit of working from home whilst still enjoying relationships with co-workers and - critically - with the organisation itself," he said.

For example, meetings in Second Life are more productive than conference calls, he said, because all the participants have to be engaged. Unlike on a conference call you can't get away with doing email or making coffee at the same time as listening in.

Virtual worlds offer the ability to provide development capability in new ways, using more flexible and advanced methodologies - and at lower cost than traditional offshore development can deliver, he said.

But this doesn't mean the end of traditional outsourcing, of course - in fact, there's no reason why established outsourcers can't use the same benefits to manage their dispersed teams.

Dunkley suggests the first thing that companies interested in virtual worlds should do is get in there and look around.

"Critically, don't restrict it to your IT strategists as you'll benefit from a broad range of explorers," he suggests.

Setting up an office is a good first project to work on, so long as it isn't left to gather virtual dust but has a purpose - such as being a venue for team meetings or recruitment and interviews (particularly effective when looking for IT staff, according to Dunkley). Building the office can be a huge learning experience in terms of how projects work within a virtual environment, he suggests.

But don't leap in with anything too sensitive, such as projects involving personal data of customers.

As Dunkley points out, it's wise to not get too enthusiastic too quickly: "Your compliance department are likely to start spinning like tops if you start having critical meetings with your corporate finance advisors about a hot new deal in your new virtual office located between a beach club and a casino."

Source: Silicon.com

Playboy Island Opens in Second Life

CNNMoney.com just reported on Playboy Island's opening in Second Life. "Playboy Enterprises, Inc. slipped into the virtual world known as Second Life Tuesday with the launch of Playboy Island.

The adult entertainment company said it is offering Second Life residents a taste of the Playboy lifestyle on a rabbit head-shaped island, which houses a retail store and will feature events and social opportunities.

The virtual Playboy store includes merchandise from PlayboyStore.com and ShoptheBunny.com, and is staffed by female avatar employees wearing Playboy-branded apparel or Playboy Bunny costumes. Playboy-branded apparel can be purchased in the virtual store for real-world wear or Second Life avatars.

"Just as Playboy is expanding its brand in the real world with the Playboy Club in Las Vegas and retail stores across the globe, entering Second Life is a great way for Playboy to leverage its brand in the virtual world in a fun and innovative setting, " Jeremy Westin, executive vice president at Playboy Media Group, said in a statement.

A Playboy Island launch party scheduled for June 12-13 will feature musical performances over the course of two days and is open to all Second Life residents.

Although the company has seen a slowdown in its print and TV business, it has seen healthy increases in sales from "new" media, such as mobile and online services. Last month, Playboy reported a better-than-expected first quarter profit, helped by strength in its licensing brand business.

Playboy is the first men's lifestyle brand to have a presence in Second Life, the company said."

Source: CNNMoney.com

Content vs. People Dilemma: The 1-800 Flowers Solution

The Second Life News Network (SLNN) reported on the current content vs. people dilemma in Second Life with regards to 1-800 Flowers Island. "1-800-Flowers.com provides an interesting new perspective on engaging Second Life residents. Although the actual building that houses the virtual flower shop is underwhelming in presentation, this company has championed the idea of business open communication environment by manning their store with a round-the-clock customer service and support help. Barbie Lilliehook, the avatar of Barbara Porter, Director of Customer Applications, is able to provide answers for the Second Life initiative as well as any customer support one might need from the Web-based gift purchasing system. In light of this new people vs. content dilemma, perhaps it is worth re-assessing whether a brilliantly-executed build is more important than having the actual company commitment of opening an honest conversation channel with Second Life residents and Internet users at large. "We're gathering feedback from residents right now to see how we can provide more enjoyment for them, and we'll take it from there," Lillihook explains."

Source: Second Life News Network

Second Life Brands Analysis

Kzero just published a study on brands in Second Life. "How many major brands are in Second Life? That’s a question I get asked a lot. The answer, 85 as at the end of May 2007.

That’s 85 companies or organisations (according to the research completed by K Zero) that can be classified as having high awareness globally, in their country of origin or in their respective sector that have an on-going presence in Second Life.

Of interest is where these brands came from. Entrance in 2006 was almost exclusively from the US. However, Western Europe stepped forward strongly from Jan 2007 and with this came the uplift in virtual marketing from countries such as the UK, Germany and Italy, assisting the growth seen in the last three months, cuminating in 17 major brands/organisations entering in May.

Almost half of the total brands in SL are American. And, if you then included the academic establishments in SL, this percentage would be even higher. This chart hides some interesting factors, when you then consider the resident profile. For example, Second Life is very popular in Spain, and registered accounts from this country account for 7.5% (end of May) of total Western European registrations. However, there are no major brands from Spain currently in Second Life. The same can be said for France, albeit to a slightly lesser degree. What’s interesting about France is the number of political events/campaigns that have taken place in SL rather than brand-driven initiatives.

And what about sectors? This reveals more interesting findings. Brand entrance into SL was heavily ‘global brand and US-based’ from Aug 2006 to Jan 2007. What’s happened with the surge in Western European registrations has been an increase in European B2B companies and Tier Two organisations (from across the world)."

Source: Kzero

Study about User Acceptance of Virtual Worlds

Our report assesses the user acceptance of Virtual Worlds, specifically Second Life. By means of a survey with almost 250 respondents this report provides first empirical results of the user acceptance of Second Life. The data has been gathered during spring 2007. Our results show that 90% of respondents have less than a year experience, 70% access Second Life from home and 54% with a desktop. There are 67% of respondents who are not afraid of giving personal information. Almost 60% are very likely to buy virtual goods from Second Life, and 42% are willing to use their credit card to purchase on Second Life. About 70% perceive Second Life improves collaboration and communication, and more than 60% perceive that it improves cooperation between people. 56% of respondents perceive Second life as easy to use. Finally, our results indicate that people are using Second Life not to change their identity, but rather to explore and visit new places and meet people.
If users accept Virtual Worlds as a new way and channel to communicate, collaborate, and cooperation and if institutions arrive to provide value to users, Virtual Worlds might become then next generation platform for Internet users. However, in order to become mainstream, Virtual Worlds like Second Life have many challenges to overcome and where user acceptance is probably the most important one.

If you want to read the report, please visit this website here or mail to mfetscherin@rollins.edu.

Alcatel-Lucent brings AmericasCup into Second Life

This just in via PR NewsWire: "As the official New Media Provider of the 32nd America's Cup, Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced it has expanded into the virtual realm with the opening of Port AmericasCupAnywhere on Second Life(R), the 3D virtual world phenomena entirely built and owned by its residents. Coinciding with the final round of sailing competition beginning today in Valencia, Spain, the announcement follows Alcatel-Lucent's launch earlier this spring of AmericasCupAnywhere, a unique suite of new media services which enable sailing fans globally to enjoy all of the sailing action whenever and wherever they want via the Internet and mobile devices.

At Port AmericasCupAnywhere, Second Life residents can watch live animated coverage of the sailing competition and access daily archives of racing action. Providing an exciting new venue for Second Life residents to learn about the technology and tactics of America's Cup racing, Port AmericasCupAnywhere is also hosting a virtual regatta for the Second Life sailing community, allowing residents to take the helm of an America's Cup class boat in virtual fleet and match racing.

Linking the real and virtual worlds, Port AmericasCupAnywhere also includes demonstrations of Alcatel-Lucent's enhanced portfolio of AmericasCupAnywhere new media services which are providing video and 3D animation and gaming coverage of the 32nd America's Cup for sailing enthusiasts from more than 150 countries during the 2007 regattas.

"Leveraging a sports event like the America's Cup that has a history of innovation has provided Alcatel-Lucent a unique world stage to demonstrate the power of convergent applications and services to reshape the delivery of information and content," said Marc Rouanne, President of Alcatel-Lucent's convergence activities. "Alcatel-Lucent's role as the Official New Media Provider has not only allowed us to showcase innovative new media services but to further build our understanding of the end-user experience and how content enablement translates into new business models and value chains. This real- world expertise ideally positions Alcatel-Lucent to help our customers take advantage of exciting new business opportunities as the industry moves toward a truly converged communications environment."

Source: PR NewsWire

Pennsylvania court: SL Terms-of-Service are not legally binding

The MMORPG blog reported on the case of Marc Bragg vs. Philip Rosedale (Linden Lab). "When Marc Bragg discovered a way to buy virtual land in Second Life at a cheaper cost than usual, he invested heavily in it to the tune of thousands of dollars only to find out one day that Second Life's administrators have cancelled his account. He didn't take it well.

Bragg responded by filing a lawsuit which cites Second Life's terms of service as unfair and "one-sided." To make matters worse for Second Life parent company Linden Labs, Chief Executive Officer Philip Rosedale was named the defendant. Linden Labs filed a motion to take Rosedale's name off the list but it was denied by Judge Eduardo Robreno last May 30.

As it stands, Robreno and the Pennsylvania court where Bragg filed the suit rules that the terms of service that Second Life mandates to its citizens are not legally binding, therefore Linden Labs does not have the right to cancel accounts of violators. Judge Robreno wrote:

Linden presents the TOS on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. In effect, the TOS provide Linden with a variety of one-sided remedies to resolve disputes, while forcing its customers to arbitrate any disputes with Linden.

A motion was filed by the Linden legal team to dismiss the case and have Bragg arbitrate with the company outside of court but the motion was also denied by Robreno. We'll update you on developments regarding this case as soon as news is forthcoming."

Source: MMORPG blog

Brand Entry Timeline for the Automotive Industry

Just yesterday I blogged about Kzero's brand entry timeline for the financial industry. Today, Kzero published an updated brand entry timeline for the automotive industry in Second Life. The latest additions were Renault and Mercedes-Benz.

Here are Kzero's comments on the brand entry timeline for the automotive industry: "[...] Just as consumers can be put into technology adoption categories such as innovators, early adopters etc, so can brands and companies.

On this theme, I’ve started to look at brand entry timelines for companies entering Second Life. It’s fair to say that category by category there are brands that are innovators in terms of new marketing platforms and of course brands that lag a little.

So, which category do I choose first? Clearly no surprises to select automobiles, a sweet-spot sector for metaverse applications. The graph below shows the timing of the car manufacturers who have set-up to date in Second Life.

Kudos to Toyota for launching the Scion initiative ‘back in the old days’. The heavy weighting of North American residents, awareness and brand momentum is the driving (ahem) force explaining why Nissan and then Pontiac followed Toyota into Second Life, coupled of course with the fact that all three are innovative marketers.

But, is there a ‘Me too’ strategy occurring here? After all, it didn’t take long for Mercedes Benz to follow BMW into SL. To a degree, possibly. However, it’s fair to say that the Second Life strategy implemented by Mercedes was superior (to date) to BMW, so even though they came in after BMW, they have created a far more interaction experience.

So, ‘Me too’ is good in this instance for metaverses. One reason why it is good is down to learning and application. Metaverses are new spaces with no rules. Companies can learn a great deal from studying the strategies (and tactics) of companies in their categories who have entered SL and then improve on or in some cases distance themselves from the initiatives deployed in-world. That’s the beauty of virtual worlds in there current state - it’s a state of flux and real-time learning."

Source: Kzero

Financial Services in Second Life

KZero posted a "brand entry timeline for financial services companies". According to the blog, "[t]here’s been a recent rush of Financial Services organisations setting up in Second Life. Here’s the entry timeline. US companies led the charge initially, but Europe is now paving the way.

Learn more about the strategies deployed by ABN Amro, Visa and Saxo Bank.

Financial Services companies wishing to explore ways of maximising virtual world opportunties can request the Finance case study, ‘High Interest Rates‘, here."

Source: KZero

The Top 25 Brand Sites: Global Brand Dwell Statistics

Another measure I found while looking for traffic or popularity of real-life brand sites in Second Life was the Global Brand Dwell Statistics by The Project Factory. It is updated every Monday and can be found here. This week's edition had Telstra BigPond (Australian broadband provider) leading by far over GM's Pontiac and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company).

Here are some words on the methodology employed by The Project Factory: "Reporting dwell statistics in Second Life as a measure of engagement Traffic is a number allocated to each parcel which is based on the amount of residents who visited, and the time spent on that parcel out of their total time in world that day. Every user gets a set number of traffic points to give out during the 24 hours between midnight and midnight. The user's points are then evenly divided between those parcels. So, if I was online for 1 hour and spent 20 minutes on resident A's parcel and 40 minutes on resident B's parcel, resident A would get 33% of my points and resident B would get 66%. Alternately, if I only spent 5 minutes online and spent all of it on resident A's land, they would receive all of my points."

Traffic Measures for Sites in Second Life

The measures of Residents visiting sites run by real-world companies (referred to as "Mixed Reality Sites") and sites run by pure Second Life companies (referred to as "Native Reality Site") are updated every Monday by Tateru Nino on the Mixed Reality Headcount section of the New World Notes blog.

With regards to the methodology, Tateru reports "Mixed reality sites in this headcount are selected for their prominence, either from publicity or real world name recognition. Sites with consistent low traffic (500 or less weekly) will be dropped in future Headcounts for other sites.

We collect data three times per day for each site, one sample at peak concurrency (10am-1pm SLT), one at minimum concurrency and one mid-evening, Second Life Time. For each sample we count the number of people at the site at the time. We average those samples across the week, and then assume that average to hold constant, with each visitor spending a half hour on-site. This methodology does not necessarily include one-time events that generate high traffic missed by our sampling, which we'll make note of whenever possible. Headcounts do not factor in returning visitors, so assume that the total number of unique Residents are significantly less than the estimated total visits.

We're able to cover multi-sim sites a lot better with this method, so you'll see those higher in the rankings than the previous metrics we were using."

For up-to-date measures, visit the Mixed Reality Headcount section of the New World Notes blog here.

Microsoft's Island in Second Life

As posted by Kzero, "Microsoft now has their own dedicated island. The island, Visual Studio Island is themed around the software application of the same name. This application is an integrated development platform for programmers who design standalone and web-based apps. But that’s enough about that.

The launch of the island centred around a treasure hunt (for eggs) and those lucky enough to find them and crack some codes were given free virtual land.

The island itself is squarely aimed at Visual Studio developers and also has a sandbox area next to the main building. The building itself is a relatively straightforward affair although there’s a series of logic-based puzzles with entry to a special VIP room as the prize.

Microsoft also has a microsite to promote their SL activity. Here’s the link. Furthermore, some outward promotion is used to promote their ‘Defy All Challenges‘ campaign - their communications effort to promote Visual Studio."

Source: Kzero

Sky News launched in Second Life

As posted on eightbar, "[t]oday marked the launch of Sky News in Second Life. They have worked with River Run Red and keyed into a live event and live simulcast. The event happened this morning with a packed sime of people appearing live on Sky News. The event felt like another watershed. We still had to deal with the guests who were being broadcast in Second Life saying the usual “I cant deal with my first life” initial reaction. However as we have all come to realize we very much have an adoption of “Joke, Threat, Obvious”. Three phases that people tend to go through, all at a different pace.

Tim Guest was live explaining some of it towards the end. It was interesting to have a live feed of the sky audio with Adam Boulton, though I am not sure he realized we were 100% live in SL during the breaks. Very interesting about certain guests he has interviewed :-)

The one guest who had a chance of getting it was politician Ed Miliband. He had taken some of this onboard and made some sensible contributions. Mariella Frostrop clearly has not been briefed as she made the assumption that you only live a fantasy life in Second Life rather than those of us who use it as an extention, just like a blog.

I am not going to make any comments about the other guest. As she characterized any online person as an unemployed male who did not do housework not have anything better to do not have any children. The irony being Andy Remblai and I both had our respective babies on our laps watching, and last time I checked we had jobs and this just happens to be part of it.

The other cool part of the event was having both 3 Lindens there, a first for some of the guests to meet one. We also though had 3 eightbars, as Algernon Spackler was there too.
This little youtube shows the sky news centre before the launch and the actual event."



Source: eightbar

First Credit Card and Corporate Financial Services

ZDNet Asia reported on First Meta, which "[...] will become the first virtual bank to provide credit card and corporate financial services in Second Life, where current banks are mostly small and offer only deposit services, said First Meta CEO Douglas Abrams.

"We're treading on new ground and one of the early Singapore-based business entrants to open in Second Life," Abrams said in an interview with ZDNet Asia, explaining that the company's initial idea was to provide financial services for games that thrive on virtual communities. Abrams is also the founder of Expara, which provides leadership consulting and training services, and the founding partner of Parallax Capital Management, a funds management company based in Singapore.

"I saw an article which talked about people who were trading game currencies like Simleons [used in The Sims Online], on eBay in exchange for real-world currencies… So, virtual currencies can actually be consumed like real money," he said, adding that he then spotted the business opportunity which spawned First Meta. "Many would agree that banking [in the physical world] is one of the most profitable businesses you can be in."

The startup decided to focus solely on Second Life because of the latter's phenomenal growth and increasing popularity, where the virtual world now boasts a population of over 6.6 million residents who exchange millions of virtual dollars each month. [...]

According to Abrams, First Meta will issue credit cards to Second Life residents and offer commercial banking services to merchants and property developers in the virtual world. [...]

"As long as people make purchases and charge on our credit cards, we'll make money," Abrams said. "Our profits are collected in Linden, and we'll convert them into real-world currencies whenever we need to." Continue here.

A Virtual Business Park

Newswire reported on a virtual business park created by New Business Horizons, "[...] a new company formed to educate and assist other businesses in marketing their goods and services within the Second Life virtual world. The company was launched by London-based Alan Haymes in 2007, and will open its virtual Blue Horizon Business Park within the Second Life at noon on Saturday, May 12, 2007. [...]

Alan Haymes, co-founder and chief executive of New Business Horizons, explains that firms operating on the Blue Horizon Business Park can cut the far greater cost of commissioning a private site from an expensive design studio, while also avoiding the time consuming and costly learning curve of going it alone.

“By bringing companies together, the development costs are reduced to around 10% of what it can cost to go solo,” says Mr Haymes. “A company could spend more than £40,000 ($80,000) having an online replica of its head office built by a design firm, but we can do it for a fraction of that cost.”

The Blue Horizon Business Park has been designed by Haymes’s partner, Serge Veillet from Valenkov Studios, a 3D and interactive media designer with over 15 years experience. “Companies occupying the Blue Horizon Business Park will have fully furnished offices, and can use the conference centre for demonstrations, product launches and PowerPoint presentations,” says Mr Haymes, whose in-world avatar is ‘Doctor Hickman’.

“Full-time staff provide concierge and maintenance support within the virtual business park 24 hours a day, and a marketer advises companies on how to best use their Second Life presence to increase profits in the real world. We have also built social areas including a club, beach and park where clients can meet each other, share experiences and build relationships.”

He adds: “The Second Life software is free as a download from secondlife.com. So, with a broadband connection, users can host virtual staff or customer meetings. There are no video conferencing costs, and the meeting is accessible from anywhere in the world.” [...]

Several firms have already taken out office space in the Blue Horizon Business Park, the Second Life location of which is Blue Horizon/128/128/47.

These include the US law firm, Plachta Law Office, which believes Second Life’s anonymity will encourage residents to approach it ‘in-world’ for initial consultations on legal matters, while ‘real world’ clients from around the country will be saved the expense of traveling to physical meetings. London-based Phoenix Film and Television, another resident of the Blue Horizon Business Park, will promote its corporate video service and sell its DVD range via website links."

Continue reading here.

McKinsey Launched Virtual Venture Competition

McKinsey & Company, Inc. just launched their Virtual Venture Competition on May 22. "Be part of the first truly global business-building contest ever held in the virtual world! The Virtual Venture Competition is your chance to turn your innovative ideas into successful business operations in Second Life.

For the first time your business plan will not be assessed by a jury, but proven by real customers, make real turnover, and present your results to a real audience!

Team up with other young talents from around the world. Use your creativity to attract seed capital for your virtual ventures and realize your potential as a virtual entrepreneur. Bring your ideas to life! Explore competition…

Attitude Towards Brands in Second Life

Market Truths recently published a report on "Real Life Brands in Second Life", which can be purchased here. The Business Communicators of Second Life posted an interesting analysis of the report: "49% of SL residents think the presence of real life brands is positive; and about a third have a neutral attitude.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing of those findings is that residents were asked to name and react to up to ten brands they have encountered in SL. Of the 21 brands ultimately named (unaided), four do not actually have an official SL presence. They are, however, still getting positive brand impact from their “unofficial” (or perceived) presence.

[Update: 158 brands were ultimatly named in the unaided awarness question. The 21 named in the report reflects mentiones by 3% or more of the participants, and who had no affliation with the companies named.]

The 35-page report goes on to examine the perception of individual SL initiatives by major brands, and how each has helped or harmed the perception of that brand in real life. One brand, who has no official SL presence, garnered a negative RL brand perception due to its perceived SL presence.

[Update: Microsoft, who has no public SL presence, had the greatest proportion of negative mentions, however overall, they gained a more positive than negative perception as a result their SL presence.]

Overall, the Reuters' SL presence comes out on top with residents – both in SL and RL.

Real Life Brands in Second Life directly contradicts conventional wisdom that SL residents are against RL brands coming into SL. In fact, residents see some real benefits to corporate presences, such as credibility for SL and more resources for infrastructure; even while they harbor fears brands will harm small content creators and put upward pressure on land prices.

When asked what activities residents would like to engage in with their favorite brands (whether currently in SL or not) co-creating products and customizing products were among the top three of the eleven preferred activities."

Text Source: Business Communicators of Second Life / Market Truths
Graph Source: Kzero

Brand Recall in Second Life

The following insights into Reperes' recent study on "the perception of the brands in Second Life" comes from the Kzero blog. "[...] [c]ontributing to the research were 1,085 avatars interviewed between 13 - 18 March 2007.

Coming out on top is Adidas with 69% awareness from the study. No surprises here as the virtual Adidas store is an obvious interpretation of a first step into SL and is frequently referenced in the media.

BMW bests Mercedes Benz which I feel is slightly surprising and also of interest because the Mercedes island is a much better consumer venue than BMW.

The Starwood Hotels Aloft concept scores weakly. I think this is due to the fact that this island was from ‘the early days’ (2006) and therefore the newer residents missed the coverage. Shame, because it’s a great place.

What surprised me the most was PA Consulting. They came bottom in this research which is odd because they push their venue hard with good events and initiatives such as their demo second island."

Source: Kzero / Reperes

Santa Clara University Now In-World

According to recent article in Santa Clara University's newspaper, "[...] the Santa Clara campus will expand into the online world of bits and bytes and claim a spot in the Internet game called "Second Life."

Over 100 universities already have campuses in this virtual world of five million residents, according to Michael Ballen, an instructional technology resource specialist at Santa Clara, who is heading the project and sees the future of the communications technology in environments like "Second Life."

"This is going to supersede the Internet," said Ballen. "If you want a pair of pants, you're going to go to the virtual Gap, try on a pair and order it right there."

Ballen received a one-year grant from the Technology Steering Committee for the project. Part of the grant paid for an island within the "Second Life" game world, which cost $980 to purchase after an educational discount and $150 per month in maintenance. "It's like rent," said Ballen.

Real money commonly changes hands in "Second Life." One dollar buys you around 180 Linden dollars from the Linden Company. You can spend your virtual money on clothes, accessories, furniture, homes and other items for your in-game "avatar," or you can make, and even sell, your own.

Ballen hired the nonprofit New Media Consortium to design and program the virtual university, which they expect to complete over the summer and open in the fall.

"Santa Clara Island" features three digital replicas of campus buildings: the de Saisset Museum, Mission Church and a completed version of the library currently under construction.

"We're going to put student-produced art in the museum. We'll have some in the library, too," said Ballen.

"The opportunity for students to create their own content is really exciting," said Karen Kienzle, assistant director at de Saisset, who wants to partner with the art department to create a new venue for student art and involvement." Continue reading here.

Maledives -- Not Sweden -- Opens First Virtual Embassy

The Middle East Times just released an article on the Maledives being the first country to open a virtual embassy in Second Life. "The Maldives thus pips Sweden to the post; the Scandinavian country had hoped to be first off the block when it opens its own virtual embassy May 30.

The embassy will be located in the "Diplomatic Quarter" of Second Life, and visitors will be able to talk to a virtual diplomat about visas, trade, and other issues.

An official from the Maldives mission in Geneva will actually create its own 'avatar,' or computer-generated character, to deal with visitors 'face-to-face.'

"Just like a video game, it will be very interactive," Marc Limon of the Maldives mission said.

Second Life, created by San Francisco technology company Linden Lab, has attracted several real-world companies, including car manufacturers and sports clothing makers, which created 3-D stores.

Officials from the Indian Ocean archipelago said that a presence on Second Life could boost the Maldives' international profile.

Second Life opens up "new avenues for diplomatic representation and negotiation, especially for small and developing countries that have limited diplomatic outreach in the 'real' world," the Maldives mission said in a statement.

Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid said that the virtual embassy "offers another channel for us to provide information on the country, to offer our viewpoint on issues of international concern, and to interact with our partners in the international community."

Source: Middle East Times

Voice Won't Come For Another Few Months

Sad news everyone -- Linden Lab just announced, that voice won't become to Second Life's main grid for another few months :-( The following statement comes from a company spoekesman and was posted by Mitch Wagner of InformationWeek here.

Linden Lab spokesman: "Linden Lab's plan is to continue to develop additional voice features on the beta grid for a few weeks still." At that point, it may choose to go into beta2 phase, releasing a "First Look viewer" that will allow users to optionally try out voice on the main area of the service, called the "main grid" in Second Life jargon. While the First Look viewer is available, Second Life users would be able to continue to use the regular client software, which is not voice-enabled.

During beta2, voice will only be available on some parts of the main grid, with more regions added over time "until the entire grid is 'lit up' for voice." Second Life's third-party content providers -- known as "land owners" in Second Life -- may choose to disable voice in the areas they control.

Linden Lab has been saying for a while now that voice was due to roll out tomorrow. They said that most recently as five days ago, when we interviewed company CTO Cory Ondrejka. He said the May 23 date is a "target" and voice would be available then "if everything comes right."

Source: InformationWeek

Business Models in Second Life

Bill Nissim published an article business models in Second Life, which can be found as a reprint on Damek Tretiak's blog here. The following is taken from Bill's article:

"Many successful companies have made the transition from the Real World (RL) to a three-dimensional realm called Second Life (SL) – a virtual world steeped in commercialism. The rationale behind these “transitions” is vast and ranges from attracting press coverage to brand engagement with potential clients. Whatever the desired outcome and whether by design or happenstance, millions of dollars are spent daily in Linden Lab’s environment.

For example, IBM will invest $10 million this year and acquire over a dozen “Islands” to showcase different offerings, as reported by Reuters (November 9, 2006). Big Blue terms this effort as “V business” (similar to E Business in the 1990’s) and is already working with over 20 clients on current projects. The many benefits to utilizing this environment may include virtual conferences, training, sales meetings, and presenting concepts that are not attainable on the Internet or in real life (i.e. manipulation of 3D models). Taken together, SL is truly a unique and cutting-edge business platform.

As of this writing, there are 4.9 million registered users and a daily spend of $1.7M in SL. Since reliable consumer data and statistics are limited, one can only imagine the type of daily transactions that are occurring for a variety of goods and services. These may range from clothing, vehicles, pre-fabricated buildings, land purchases, and scripted tools. With respect to practical B2B endeavors, RL firms hire architects, builders, marketing consultants, employees, and technicians to perform specialized activities which turn an obscure landscape into a spectacular and functional creation.

So, what business model works best when transitioning to a virtual world? The short answer is - it’s situational and depends on the desired outcome. The following article will explore a variety of firms (first-hand in SL), identify similar attributes, and categorize them according to the value delivered. The outcome of this assessment will yield a sampling of business models “in play” and payoff from venturing into this environment. The “payoff” is defined as the tangible and intangible benefits derived from such an investment. To these firms, SL is a sand box of sorts and their models may evolve and adjust over time through continued discovery.

A good place to start this discussion requires an understanding of a business model design, coupled with the perceived benefits.

Business Model Defined:
Wikipedia encyclopedia defines a business model, whether virtual or real world, as…

"A business model is a conceptual tool that contains a big set of elements and their relationships and allows expressing the business logic of a specific firm. It is a description of the value a company offers to one or several segments of customers and of the architecture of the firm and its network of partners for creating, marketing, and delivering this value and relationship capital, to generate profitable and sustainable revenue streams.” Osterwalder, Pigneur and Tucci (2005)

Joan Magretta, Senior Institute Associate at Harvard Business School, provides a no-nonsense definition in her 2002 article “Why Business Models Matter” (HBR R0205F). “Business models are, at heart, stories that explain how enterprises work,” states Magretta, and continues with“…It answers certain questions: Who is the customer? How do we make money? What underlying economic logic explains how we can deliver value to customers at an appropriate cost? Business models describe, as a system, how the pieces of a business fit together.”

In 2004, Osterwalder synthesized various business models into a single concept based on common attributes. He suggests that nine related building blocks constitute a business model template. They include:

1. value propositions
2. target customer segments
3. distribution channels
4. customer relationships
5. value configurations
6. core capabilities
7. partner network
8. cost structure
9. revenue model

For sake of simplicity and to fit the context of this article, this list will be reduced to three key constituents: value propositions, targeted customer segments, and customer relationships. Armed with these metrics, we now have a basis of evaluation for a virtual world business model.

Perceived Benefits
Plays well in the Press:
In a 2006 SL Business Magazine interview, Sibley Verbeck (CEO Electric Sheep), states “transitioning to a virtual world could be the hot, new thing, create buzz on the web (or blogs), part of an ad campaign, or just PR generation.” According to Verbeck, “creating buzz is very important – headlines are written on companies that are doing novel things! Since this world is still new and evolving, the ability to truly appreciate the value of a presence is undetermined at this point.” Verbeck concludes with “It’s clear that many firms have followed this path to both acknowledge and affirm the importance of being in-world.”

In addition to a business model, the equally valuable question that must be posed: “What are the benefits to transitioning into this environment?” Four broad categories were developed to capture the business rationale for such a transition and include:

1. Press Coverage
2. New Brand Channel
3. Consumer Feedback
4. Brand Engagement

Press Coverage will be briefly discussed in a “side bar” notation and not included in this evaluation.

Business Model & Perceived Benefits Converge:
The following firms will be categorized into three groups. Those who seek a “New Brand Channel,” firms that utilize SL for “Consumer Feedback,” and the third group that addresses “Brand Engagement”. With each category, the consumer moves from a Casual (niche) to Preferred use (micro) and ultimately, to the deepest realm of Committed use (Nano). Within each category, the apparent value proposition, targeted segments, and type of customer relationships will help to define the abbreviated business model. Let’s start with a “New Brand Channel.”

New Brand Channel:
This type of enterprise closely mirrors the real world establishment in terms of form, fit, and function. Examples of organizations that use this model to extend their brand into a virtual world include Circuit City, Sears, Reebok, PA Consulting, and a host of other B2B & B2C firms. By establishing a presence in SL, they have created a conduit with a new channel to market.

Business Model:

- Value proposition = Virtual shopping, testing products, consulting
- Targeted segments: New and existing consumers
- Customer relationship: Casual

Payoff:

- Extends brand into new setting
- Tests viability of virtual shopping and services
- Track purchases, collects data on shopping experience for future store layout/design, and conduit for new relationships

Consumers in this realm view an interaction with one of the above listed firms as an affirmation of the brand. In the above mentioned B2C venues, shoppers explore and discover on their own the many products or services in this familiar environment (store or gallery setting). For example, Sears and Circuit City have several floors chock full of scripted items which portray real products (like iPods, refrigerators, and kitchen cabinets). With Toyota’s Scion City, current and future motorists are given the opportunity to buy a Scion ($300L) and take a “test drive” around the island. The key criteria of casual use means once the visitor tests a product, they possess little incentive to engage the brand in the future.

In addition to a predominately self-service experience, a recent development has come on the scene - Nokia “hires” employee’s to stand by a kiosk and answer questions regarding cell phones. The avatar is clothed in Nokia blue and white garb to match the brand identity. The idea of employing brand ambassadors in shopping venues can enhance the experience and possibly lead to further investigation outside SL!

What about B2B? PA Consulting, a UK-based firm, utilizes this environment to engage RL businesses on the use of SL for brand awareness or internal business process. PA believes they have developed insight into “best use” of virtual environments for a number of industries and are uniquely positioned to drive innovation within these two areas new financial retailers and transport industry.

During a recent interview with Marco Tippmer from PA Consulting, he stated “we are targeting national, international, and public organizations that desire to innovate and explore new emerging technologies, gain or maintain a competitive edge, or simply to realize cost savings. PA routinely has status meetings about project progress with clients in SL as well as conferences and discussions.”

According to Tippmer, “PA also utilizes greeters because we realized that the human element in SL is critical to the success of a virtual presence. SL is a social environment and the key element for our successful presence in SL is the ability to interact with representatives of PA.”

Consumer Feedback:
A firm which is actively using SL to incite specific customer feedback is Aloft Hotels (W Brand). In September 2006, Aloft was the first hotel company to launch a hospitality brand in SL. They opened its first hotel with a virtual concert (Ben Folds) and much fanfare. They constructed a hotel which included a lobby, food concessions, pool area, and an actual hotel room. They also placed laptop computers in the lobby for guests to provide feedback on their experience.

At present, the hotel on Aloft Island is covered by a box and under construction – the sign on the property reads “we are currently renovating the hotel thanks to the feedback we’ve received from our SL visitors.” Here Aloft has solicited (free market research) the views of thousands of users and integrated that data to build upon their hotel experiment. Before Aloft pours concrete or hangs a single curtain in RL, they will have a better assessment of what their guests really want out of a cutting edge, high-utility hotel.

Business Model:

- Value proposition = Consumer-centric experience
- Targeted segments: Current and future business travelers
- Customer relationship: Preferred users - collaborative and sense of ownership

Payoff:

- Focus group research (free)
- Controlled setting
- Credible information – no payment made and driven by consumer initiative

Consumers in this realm gravitate to this model for two reasons – they’re invited to take a “peak behind the curtain” of a new hotel design concept and secondly, are able to voice their opinion on what really matters to them. This powerful combination meets the needs of both parties. On the business side, Aloft can experiment with novel concepts (innovate) at a minimal expense. For the consumer, they gain a sense of involvement (buy-in) and will develop a preference for this offering, virtual or otherwise. With the ground breaking of the first RL Aloft hotel expected in 2008, these participants have inadvertently joined Aloft’s journey. In essence, if you were part of the design, you’ll want to experience it in real life!

Brand Engagement:
Probably the most powerful use of SL comes in the form of scripting – the ability for the user to engage a product or service through direct interaction. Consider Dell City. Once you get past the high-tech design, giant computer tour, or people-mover monorail system, you have the opportunity to enter the Dell factory and actually witness the construction of your very own laptop or desktop computer.

Sitting comfortably in an ergonomically designed chair and facing a drafting board, you interact with the screen and select components that will ultimately complete your Dell computer system. After each click, the selected computer component “rezzes” in front of you and loads into the computer frame. During this process, you actually witness the construction of your own system in real time and 3D! Once complete, you are whisked off to Dell’s RL website to complete the transaction. During this experience, Dell has moved to the next level of brand engagement – from 2-D web-based format to 3-D entertainment.

Business Model:

- Value proposition = First-person engagement
- Targeted segments: Techies and progressive computer users
- Customer relationship: Committed user = “Brand Patriots”

Payoff:

- Engage consumers in a way (virtual experience) not readily attainable elsewhere
- Turn purchasing a Dell system into a fun and memorable experience
- Users will most likely advocate this venue via word-of-mouth

Consumers in Dell City have progressed beyond casual use (testing products or shopping) or providing feedback. Both of these types of engagements are certainly valuable in their own right, but Dell’s venues moves beyond that and requires consumers to actively make choices.

This “consumer behavior-based model” provides Dell with extremely valuable data – all aspects of the decision-making process can be codified! This process would equate to having the consumer’s describe (verbalize) how they make choices based on the selections. Dell has the ability to monitor transaction completion rates and barriers to progression. In addition, the technology exists to literately track the movements of consumers throughout the visit.

This data, if actually collected and used, would allow Dell to better configure the experience and conduct a value-gap analysis. This simply means eliminating areas or experiences not utilized, capitalizing and enhancing high traffic areas, and experimenting with new options and innovations. Through continual learning and discovery, Dell could further increase their value proposition, broaden their segment, and ultimately turn visitors into Brand Patriots!

Conclusion:
This article explored business model “archetypes” used by firms that are transitioning to a virtual world called Second Life® (SL). The intent was to draw broad business model categories and limit the discussion to three constituents: value propositions, targeted customer segments, and customer relationships. In addition to defining a business model, the equally valuable question that was posed: “What are the benefits to transitioning into this environment?” Three segments were developed to capture the business rationale for such a transition and include: new brand channel, consumer feedback, and brand engagement. The outcome of this assessment yielded a sampling of business models “in play” and the anticipated payoff from venturing into this digital realm.

A “Virtual World” environment as a business platform possesses huge potential for the future. This topic will be discussed in great depth next week at the first Virtual World Conference in New York. As noted on the virtualworlds2007.com web site,

“Virtual Worlds Conference 2007 is the leading event for Fortune 500 businesses seeking to understand and maximize marketing and business strategies within virtual worlds. VW07 gives you an inside look at the Virtual Worlds activities of MTV, Disney, AOL, Pontiac, Nickelodeon, Leo Burnett, Sundance Channel, GSD&M, IBM and other major brands.”

The central point of this article and a VW07 panel discussion session focuses on this very question – “Virtual Worlds Road Map - where is it all going?” Although one can assess what major firms are doing, the question of which business model works best remains subjective and open to interpretation. Until such time that comprehensive consumer data or reliable research exists, the question of a preferred model remains aloof."

Source: Virtual World Transition: What SL Business Model Works Best? By Bill Nissim. Online Reprint can be found here.

Report on Business in Second Life

Check out the new report on "Business in Second Life: an introduction" by Mandy Salomon, Senior Researcher (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia) in cooperation with Smart Internet Technology Ltd. The following is taken from the executive summary: "Due to its unique range of creative, experimental and commercial possibilities, the online persistent virtual world Second Life is attracting significant interest from business and service industry sectors throughout the world. Big name brands such as IBM, Dell, ING, Philips Electronics, Telstra, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation have entered this immersive environment.

Though return-on-investment is not readily measured, canny early adopters are realising the potential in understanding how virtual worlds work, particularly in regard to social networks and peer-to-peer exchange. For this reason, active engagement with residents, one which goes beyond merely establishing a shop front, is advocated.

Second Life is emerging as test bed for new ideas, where real world prototypes can be released at low cost, with direct feedback from users significantly enriching the design process and leading to innovative or unexpected results. The process is enhanced by the nature of its residents who, typically, are techno-savvy, playful and demonstrate a high receptivity to new ideas.

Many residents are classified as user-producers, which is why the lead innovation models come not from real world companies hoping to import their services but from the in-world eco-system where virtual start-ups have sprung up to support residents. The demand for virtual products and services, underpinned by a digital rights management arrangement where creators of in-world content retain their IP, has spawned new businesses in the area of content creation, retail, conference and event hosting, land development, media services and financial services.

While virtual businesses can be profitable, few are significantly so, as they deal in Linden currency which amounts to mere micro-payments (L$275 = approx US$1). However in-world service providers deserve close attention as their methods shed light on ways in which social networks and peer-to-peer exchange drives trade. This points the way ahead for real world businesses seeking to monetise services in today’s ‘pull-driven’ consumer environment. Virtual-to-virtual business methods may well lead the thinking in devising business models for future 3D web-based services, particularly as add-ons to the ‘mirror worlds’ of Google Earth and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth emerge."

Source: Salomon, Mandy. Business in Second Life: an introduction. Report available for download here.

On The Objectives of Marketing in a Virtual World

Having just seen T-Online placed 5th and as the ONLY real-life brand among Second Life's 20 most popular places (see my post below), I came to wonder: What makes a place popular in Second Life?

First off, my assumptions (A):

A1: Popularity is Measured by Traffic
According to Linden Lab, popularity is "measured by traffic".

A2: Traffic is Measured by the Time that People Spend at a Place
According to Linden Lab, traffic is measured by "the amount of time people spend there".

From my first observations, I came up with the following propositions (P):

P1: Free give-aways increase the popularity of a place.
Free give-aways can be e.g. fashion accessories or Linden Dollar.

P2: A social setting increases the popularity of a place.
Typical social settings are bars, beach-bars, clubs, etc.

P3: A real-life geo-spatial commonality increases the popularity of a place.
Such commonality can be created through the communication of a preferred language (e.g. French), or the resemblance of a real-life space (e.g. Rome).

Assuming my propositions above (P1-P3) are true, the following assumption (A3) would actually close my circle of thoughts:
A3: The Time That People Spend at a Place Positively Influences the Attitude towards a Place's Brand.

But, isn't it rather a matter of quality time, than quantity time? Isn't it active involvement and interaction with a brand/product that actually influence the attitude? Or what are the objectives of Marketing in a virtual world, such as Second Life?

T-Online Only Real-Life Brand Among 20 Most Popular Places in Second Life

While enjoying my Sunday evening in Second Life, I realized that the T-Online Beach -- the beach-bar island of Deutsche Telekom -- is ranked number 5 among Second Life's 20 most popular places (excluding mature content)! In addition, T-Online is the only real-life brand among all 20 most popular places!

Using the Second Life Viewer, you can browse a list of the 20 currently most popular places in Second Life, either in- or excluding mature content. Popularity is measured by Linden Lab as "traffic, the amount of time people spend there". As this measure is not anymore precisely defined, I wouldn't care too much about the quoted number of "traffic". What matters though, is that T-Online, a real-life company, made it among the most popular places.

Here's the current (2007-05-20 12:30 PM PDT) in-world list of the 20 most popular places in Second Life (excluding mature content):
1. Money Island (133889)
2. Phat Cat's Jazzy Blue Lounge (130661)
3. Carribbean Breezes Jazz Club (96851)
4. ILHA Brasil (90966)
5. T-Online Beach (79292)
6. Tjice's Largest Dance Island (73878)
7. Skye Club Oceania Play (68106)
8. Apfelland (66337)
9. La Isla (65627)
10. France Pittoresque (60122)
11. Earn $100-275 on Scandium (52164)
12. Parioli Rome Italy (50630)
13. Gaia, Accueil Francophone (49964)
14. Blackhearts Cafe (49658)
15. B-Dazzled Designs (47481)
16. Status-Goiania-Bougainville (46768)
17. Butterfly Island (44960)
18. Gurl 6 Hair (44212)
19. Made Men (42858)
20. SL Fashion Cafe (42154)

Way to go, T-Online!!!

Towards a Second Life 2.0

Jon Collins, the Service Director of Freeform Dynamics, posted some interesting thoughts on the next wave in Virtual Environments development: towards a Second Life 2.0. "[...] Let's consider one specific limitation of virtual environments, be they gaming worlds or otherwise. When I first experienced World of Warcraft I discovered that there was a social element attached; the in-game equivalent of multi-channel instant messaging is rife, between both individuals and groups. Having spent more time in the game I realised that for many, WoW was a social networking environment that happened to have a game attached. I might not play as much as I used to but I still venture in occasionally, as much to find out how people are as to slay any dragons. I would imagine—though I've never spent long enough to find out—the same could be applied to Second Life.

What lacks from all these virtual social networks is any cross-linkage. There can be no following of a meme from Guild Wars to WoW, for example, or transfer of rights from Eve to Second Life. The demand is there: an April Fool that described an interoperability standard between the environments received a massive number of hits. However, the reality is largely that what happens in the game, stays in the game. Similarly, the limited APIs currently allow only the most limited of cross-platform integrations. There are mechanisms to output feeds to sites such as Thottbot for example, but the traffic can only ever be one way. Many in-game groups have their own Web sites but, at the moment, never the twain shall meet.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out just how much more pervasive virtual worlds might be if integrated with social networking tools such as Twitter or MSN Messenger. Conversely, of course, there are undoubtedly some advances to be made in terms of bringing some of the capabilities of such tools into the Web 2.0 realm. There are plenty of companies exploring the use of 3D as part of how they serve up information to their customers: is it really such a leap of faith to imagine choosing an aeroplane seat by being presented with a Second Life representation of a plane, that links one's avatar to one's booking reference? Or indeed, taking a virtual tour of a new build development, or just being shown directions? Meanwhile, just when will it be that a rate of exchange is agreed between environments, such that virtual gold can be passed from one virtual world to another?" Continue reading the full post here.

Does Second Life Mean a New World for CRM?

Barney Beal, the News Director of SearchCRM.com, just wrote about the new world of CRM -- in light of Second Life. "Real companies are increasingly setting up shop in virtual worlds, and it could have some real repercussions -- and benefits -- for the practice of CRM.
The point was made crystal clear this week when IBM opened a business center in Second Life, the virtual reality community created and maintained by Linden Labs, where people assume online identities and interact with one another. IBM is by no means the first company to set up shop in the virtual world. Companies like Adidas and Sun Microsystems have opened up virtual storefronts, and Reuters even has a one-man press office covering developments there. And Thursday night, a Microsoft video posted on YouTube promoted the opening of a Visual Studio "island" in the community.

However, IBM is taking it a bit further.

"What makes it different is IBM is going to make the commitment to staff the sales reception area and also have on-call reps within the sales center," Maggie Blayney, IBM's director of global Web strategy, said. "We're combining the 3-D virtual experience, our 2-D Web site and real IBM people to conduct business. That's what makes this unique."

The center will have six areas: reception, a sales center, a technical support library, an innovation center, a client briefing center and a conference center. IBM is staffing the business center with 40 IBM employees who have volunteered to answer questions in the reception area. Another set of IBM sales representatives will be on call via instant messaging to answer more detailed questions from within Second Life.

Don't expect IBM to suddenly begin closing major deals from within Second Life, however.

"The problem with Second Life if you're selling consulting is the sales cycle is long," said Paul Greenberg, president of The 56 Group LLC and a founder of BPT Partners, a CRM consultancy and CRM training group respectively. "Where Second Life has some value is as a lab where you go and do your demo. It's far more interesting than WebEx or an online PowerPoint."

The announcement also serves as a great PR move, Greenberg added. It all comes with a lot of numbers and buzzwords. The combination of 3-D virtual worlds with 2-D Web sites is the next step after Web 2.0 or 5-D, according to Blayney. But IBM acknowledged that this first step is a learning experience for the company.

"Our ubergoal is to learn," Blayney said. "Our first iteration of this is really to provide sales functions in a 3-D, virtual space. We just think this medium has incredible potential. We feel that 3-D virtual spaces and experiences can make it easier to connect with the right people or information -- to have the dialogues with clients, stronger relationships, and the business will follow."

Other companies that have set up shop in Second Life are selling virtual clothing accessories or simply marketing to people within the virtual world. Companies should consider what might ultimately become another channel for customers to contact them.

"While all this social networking stuff is hip and cool, I think the cool factor is waning and waning quickly, and organizations are realizing the real value is in the enterprise," said Liz Roche, managing partner with Stamford, Conn.-based Customers Inc. "If the enterprise is about profitability, this is a high-margin way to get much closer to your target audience. It's kind of like inbound marketing. People are in this world, they're going to come to you. It's a very specific self-selecting segment."

And while many organizations may dread the thought of the addition of another contact channel while they're already struggling with phone, email and chat as it is, there is real potential for operating customer service in Second Life, both Roche and Greenberg agreed, probably a better bet than sales.

"As a place where customer service can be done for complex service problems, it's a real possibility," Greenberg said. "IBM is putting $30 million into that practice for a reason. IBM isn't stupid about this stuff. It's had its missteps but generally IBM makes their choices well."

While unveiling the new center, IBM was understandably bullish on the concept. According to a recent Gartner study, by the end of 2011, 80% of active Internet users and Fortune 500 enterprises will have use virtual 3-D worlds if not necessarily in Second Life. Second Life itself currently has more than 6 million registered users, among them 4,000 IBM employees.

"The industry is recognizing that 3-D is the next big thing," Blayney said. "It's already started. Web 3-D is following Web 2.0. The question is, is it the next year or two or is it five or six?"

Source: SearchCRM.com

Why are Companies in Second Life?

57 Miles (Nick Wilson) wrote the following interesting post at Metaversed. "There seems to be an inexhaustible stream of companies entering the 3D user created world of Second Life of late. Not a day goes by without news of one firm or another taking the plunge and launching a virtual presence in a space fraught with all of the confusion, dilemma and blundering, blind panic of the scrabble for dot coms in the early days the world wide web. It's 1997 all over again, but this time it's in 3D. There are most likely many reasons why companies are falling over themselves in the rush to set up shop in Second Life, but in a recent conversation with friends I managed to formulate a small list of what I believe are the most common reasons for companies to go virtual.

1. GMOOT - Get Me One of Those!
We've all seen it, and most of us have even done it. Gone out and bought something, or done something just because everyone else is. PR blogger Steve Rubel calls this GMOOT, or Get Me One Of Those!
It's not an unreasonable reaction. When you're competitors are all jumping on the bandwagon, it takes balls to not follow suit as the fear of losing out, or being wrong can be overwhelming. It is unfortunate though. As I've noted before, half arsed efforts seem to do more harm than good.

2. Virtual Placeholders
Though I'm no fan of the tendency to simply replicate the company headquarters and hope people will come and click an ad that opens the firms website in a 2D browser, I can see why this is so common. Apart from perhaps showing a frightening lack of imagination, it may well be the simplest way to establish a virtual presence, even a crap one, and then figure out what to do with it later. Though much of this stuff just seems obvious to me, it certainly isn't for many, and hey, I could be wrong right? We know that virtual worlds are important, and many, including me believe they're the future of the Internet, but winning formulas just haven't been established yet. (and nor will they be, but that's another story :)

3. Virtual Investment
One of the smartest reasons companies get involved in Second Life for is what I've recently come to think of as virtual investment. Investment in the community, the medium and the vision of virtual worlds. These companies, a good example of which would be IBM, are not expecting to reap immediate reward, they're simply investing in a three dimensional future we've not quite worked out yet. They're establishing their credentials, building reputation and garnering goodwill amongst the community in the knowlege that this effort will stand them in good stead as the Metaverse evolves.

4. Real World Press Coverage
Naturally I have no proof of this, but it does seem to me that many of the half baked press releases I routinely discard about launches in Second Life have little to do with virtual worlds and a lot to do with jumping on a press bandwagon and milking media attention. Right now, almost any company making a move, or even just talking about making a move into Second Life is news, and unimaginative marketers are taking advantage of that fact.

5. Reaching the Unreachable
No. 5 here is almost a bonus point. Though I often hear people say that Second Life is a good place to reach a media and tech savvy audience that's very difficult to market too using more traditional interruption advertising, I don't quite buy it. What I see are some companies trying traditional advertising methods in Second Life, and no doubt scratching their heads and wondering whey they're even less effective than in real life. Really, if you want to reach this crowd, you're going to have to work doubly hard and be doubly creative."

6. Rally Point for Employees
As a comment to the post above, Prato added "[f]or larger companies, especially those that are spread out geographically, I can see SL property serving as a sort of "rally point" for employees. Perhaps eventually, offering virtual SL land on their estates rent free will end up being a fringe benefit that some hip companies will offer. I think before this can really take hold Linden needs to find a way to get more people into a small space."

Source: Metaversed

Social Circles in Second Life

Wagner James Au over at New World Notes reported on a survey he prepared last month. "For my Boston Cyberarts talk last month, I cobbled together an anecdotal survey of Second Life's main social circles, among active Residents, and wanted to share it with my NWN readers, as well. I came up with something like this, were it translated into a Venn-ish diagram, with the overlaps suggesting relative levels of affiliation. (Forgive the rough graphics, for I am a Photoshop noob.)

"Anecdotal", of course, is an upscale way of saying "rough guess", and while we wait for academically rigorous studies of SL to get published, take this as an early, opinionated first step at trying to categorize the circles of community and culture in Second Life. A further breakdown after the break. Commentary and criticism much appreciated-- and encouraged.

Note that I say "active" users, defined here as Residents who spend at least several hours in-world on a weekly basis. I further define the categories here by activity, i.e., the type of interaction each Resident engages in most. (In other words, for example, a social gamer can also be a part-time capitalist, and vice versa.) These categories overlap for obvious reasons, too, with fashion designers selling to social gamers, innovators creating games and scripted devices for the roleplayers, and so on-- hence the Venn-like bleeding.

Hopefully the terms are self-explanatory, but to unpack them further:

- Social gamers, 40%: Residents who frequent nightclubs, dance and party circuits, casual gaming sites, casinos, sex havens, and other areas where social intercourse or casual gaming is central. As I mentioned at the Cyberarts talk, the fact that the activity tends toward casual and sexual does not mean that it's superficial or crass-- it can yield deeply felt associations, and work as quite a conversation starter.

- Fashionistas, 20%: I've come come to believe SL fashion is such a strong and pervasive industry and culture that it deserves its own category: not only the designers and consumers, but the modeling industry, and any business or setting where customizing avatar appearance in itself is primary. They support a vast culture of avatar presentation that transcends social gaming or role playing (below) or any of the other segments. But here, I defer to Iris.

- Role Players, 20%: This would include the participants in mini-RPGs like City of Lost Angels, and discrete, highly defined subcultures like the Furries and Goreans.

- Capitalists, 10%: As the name suggests, this would include the current 34,000 business-focused Residents who are reporting a positive cash flow.

- Innovators, 10%: The builders and scripters, the Web-to-SL transformers. Included in this group would be the sandbox denizens, landless creators who turn the free build area into their living portfolio, or an end in itself: junior innovators.

Another important qualification: since I'm monolingual, this is really just my take on the Second Life community where English is the primary tongue, and this is becoming a greater limitation on a broad analysis. English-speaking national representation is less than 40% total Resident make-up; US only 29%. To be sure, English is still the universal default, but barring drastic improvement of a universal translator (which I greatly hope for), it's almost certain that SL culture will further Balkanize, if it isn't doing so already."

Source: New World Notes

IBM's First Sales Center in Second Life

As reported by Computerworld, "IBM has opened a virtual business centre at Second Life that will be staffed by IBM sales representatives from around the world.

Clients who want to buy hardware, software or services, or get help solving a business problem, can meet with a sales rep in the new IBM Business Centre, which can be accessed here.

"The IBM sales avatar [in Second Life] can work with the client avatar up to the point of signing contracts and the passing of money or credit information. That would be handled through a link to IBM's website or by phone," IBM says in a press release.

"We seek to engage with clients in the way they prefer to engage," says Lee Dierdorff, vice president of web strategy and enablement for IBM. "This may be over the web, this may be over the telephone, and now it may be over a 3-D virtual world."

IBM sales reps will staff the virtual centre during business hours in their respective countries and will be able to speak the following languages: English, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and French. Asian languages will be supported later this year.

Visitors will be able to access a technical-support library that includes guides known as IBM Redbooks and an IT research publication called Systems Journal. The IBM presence in Second Life also will include an innovation centre and conference centre where IBM partners and others can collaborate."

Source: Computerworld

First German Bank in Second Life

PR Newswire reported on the first German bank in Second Life: the Wirecard Bank AG. "[Wirecard] is the seventh bank from the real "brick & mortar" world to be represented in the virtual universe of Linden Lab.

Wirecard Bank AG now is the first German financial service provider to open a branch of its own in the 3D online world Second Life. In the virtual world, specially trained Wirecard Bank service personnel are available to assist customers. Customer advisers are represented by avatars in the branches, answering questions on the products and services of the Wirecard Bank. In addition, access to Wirecard's payment services is available via Second Life. Interactive entertainment campaigns serve to round off the offer of Wirecard Bank AG on an island of its own in Second Life.

In the process, Wirecard AG does not perceive its commitment to Second Life as an isolated step but pursues a strategic overall concept. For instance, in the booming market of online games, the payment and financial service provider is also positioning itself in Entropia Universe by MindArk PE AB, a virtual world consisting of more than 580,000 members with an annual trading volume of over 360 million U.S. dollars. Not only is it possible to acquire virtual objects or properties within Entropia Universe; in the near future it will also be possible to visit a further virtual branch office of the Wirecard Bank online.

"The intelligent link between technology and banking services is an objective that has been pursued by Wirecard Bank AG from the outset. To reinforce this strategic positioning on the market, the commitment to Second Life represents a logical step as far as we are concerned", says Burkhard Ley, Chief Financial Officer of the Wirecard AG and Wirecard Bank AG, in explaining how the virtual branch came to be opened."

Source: PR Newswire

Random House Opens Book Club in Second Life

NewsMediaAge (NMA) reported on Random House's plans to open a book club in Second Life. "The company has developed a special area in the virtual reality world in which it will hold book-related events and a bookshop.

Among the first events will be a launch party for Tim Guest's book Second Lives, which explores the phenomenon of virtual worlds.

"The Book Group is the first of a series of initiatives planned to engage with Second Life communities, creating opportunities for them to access and interact with our content and to meet our authors," said Ros Lawler, digital marketing and publicity manager of Random House."

Source: NewsMediaAge

Updates on Microsoft, Kraft Foods, and Starwood Hotels

InformationWeek's Mitch Wagner posted an interesting update on Microsoft, Kraft Foods, and Starwood Hotels (planned) sites in Second Life. "Looks like Microsoft will announce its arrival into Second Life tomorrow. Kraft Foods entered the world earlier this week with a virtual supermarket. And Starwood Hotels, which made a big splash last year by prototyping one of its upcoming hotels in-world, is back with the final product.

I expect to know more about all three of these things over the next couple of days, and I'll pass the word here when I do. But here's what I know now

Microsoft: The Microsoft presence in Second Life is apparently being orchestrated by Millions of Us, on of two major consultancies that help big real-world companies get into Second Life. The launch is 6 pm PDT Thursday. To find out about it, join the group "Visual Studio" in Second Life -- my keen journalistic instincts tell me that means that Millions isn't working for all of Microsoft, but rather solely for the Visual Studio group.

Kraft: Phil's Supermarket in Second Life is a project being done by Kraft in conjunction with celebrity foodie Phil Limpert. He's food editor for the NBC Today Show, runs the Supermarket Guru Web site, and does a weekly broadcast about food on Sirius Radio.

The supermarket is a reproduction of a real-world food emporium. They'll be holding discussion groups, lectures, have food experts available in-world to answer questions, and they'll even have in-world cooking contests for would-be celebrity chefs, Limpert said. Kraft is doing it to build brand awareness.

Starwood: The hotel chain put up a prototype of its upcoming aloft luxury hotel in Second Life last year, and asked users -- known in Second Life jargon as "residents" -- for ideas on changes to the design. Later, they took down the virtual hotel. Now they're back. They're going to leave the hotel in place, a little while so we can all admire it, and then tear it down and donate the server space -- known in Second Life jargon as "land" -- to whoever comes up with the best idea for what to do with it; they're holding a contest for ideas now.

When you talk to experts about possible business uses for virtual worlds, this is precisely one of the things they talk about: Collaborating on, and discussing, some three-dimensional thing being designed for the real world, such as a building or a car. So it'll be interesting to see how one of the most visible examples of that kind of 3-D collaboration worked out."

Source: InformationWeek

Virtual Trip: Travel in Second Life

Samantha Gross, of Associated Press, wrote the following story about her travel in Second Life. "The tour was a whirlwind: dancing at a beachside disco in Spain surrounded by scantily clad women, grabbing a seat at a lively pub in Dublin, flying in a small aircraft above a lush, tropical forest. Time elapsed? Less than two hours. With no tickets required, no money spent and no need to leave your seat, touring in the virtual world of "Second Life" holds a certain appeal for travelers willing to delve deep into the Internet to find their escape.

Visitors need only download a free program, then log in. With the help of elaborate 3-D locales designed and built by the world's residents, tourists can watch their online embodiments - known as their avatars - lounge at the beach, dine at a romantic restaurant, or go out dancing at a crowded nightclub.

Like in the real world, it's easy to get lost. Longtime inhabitants of "Second Life" are creating automated tours, opening virtual travel agencies and even publishing travel guidebooks modeled after those seen in the hands of confused tourists.

Of course, there are some glaring differences between your average Frommer's guide and "The Unofficial Tourists' Guide to Second Life," published in April by St. Martin's Press." Continue here.

Private Orientation Islands to Flatten the Steep Learning Curve

Reuters reported on Linden Lab's plans "to revamp the way it processes new residents by offering users their choice of several privately-owned orientation islands, in an attempt to flatten Second Life’s notoriously steep learning curve.

A list of alternate starting points and privately developed orientations is scheduled to be available for new users within the next month, said Ryan Downe, director of product development at Linden Lab.

“Years down the road, if Linden Lab is still the primary supplier of OI’s [Orientation Islands], we have failed,” he said.

The move comes as Linden Lab is increasingly ceding control over Second Life’s infrastructure, making the software client open-source and laying the groundwork to open-source Second Life servers as well. Customized orientation islands may bolster Linden Lab’s ability to convert culture-shocked and inexperienced users into regular visitors.

The virtual world’s current retention rate is only about 12 percent, according to Linden Lab estimates." Continue reading here.

Voice by May 23rd!

Just a short note: On their official Blog, Linden Lab announced the integration of voice into the standard viewer, to be released on May 23rd! I believe this is going to be a huge step for fascinating applications in Second Life.

Mixed Reality Business-to-Business Communication

InformationWeek's Mitch Wagner wrote an interesting article on the use of Second Life (SL) at Cisco Systems, Inc. After an interview with Cisco's Chief Architect of Networked Virtual Environments, Christian Renaud, Mitch concluded that "[t]he conversation really turned my head around. Until now, I've been thinking about SL as a consumer form of entertainment and communications -- mainly entertainment -- sort of like instant messaging was 10 years ago. Now, I see that real-world business discussions are happening in Second Life today.

Cisco has a few hundred employees in Second Life. They have several sims that they use for user-group meetings and meetings among their own international staff. They do customer education and training in Second Life, get feedback from customers on products, and do presentations using PowerPoint, video, and streaming audio. They hold events that combine people in the real world with avatars in Second Life -- a type of event that Second Lifers call "mixed reality."

The real value of Second Life for Cisco is the opportunity for spontaneous customer interaction, said Christian Renaud, chief architect of networked virtual environments for Cisco. "It's like a birds-of-a-feather session that goes on 'round the clock," he said. He routinely encounters customers in Second Life who want to talk to him about their needs and what they want Cisco to do. "I bump into customers and partners multiple times a day in Second Life. In 11 years at Cisco, walking through the parking lot in San Jose, I never get people come up to me and say, 'I'm a Cisco customer, have a second?'"

Renaud confirms what I've seen for myself, and learned talking to other real-life businesses in Second Life. Second Life is a social networking tool, like blogging or Web discussion forums. It's a way for people to come together and talk. It's a way for companies to come together and talk with their business partners and customers."

Source: InformationWeek

Sixty-One Percent Europeans

According to Reuters, "Virtual reality world Second Life was born in the United States, but 61 percent of its active residents are Europeans, a study by research firm comScore said on Friday.

The number of active German residents exceeds the number of active residents in the United States, although growth rates in the U.S. are the highest worldwide, said comScore, which specializes in measuring various kinds of Internet usage.

Created by Linden Lab in San Francisco, Second Life is a virtual world where users create characters known as avatars, buy property and interact with other players. The world also has its own virtual currency, which can be exchanged for U.S. dollars.

More than 6 million user accounts have been created in Second Life, up from about 1 million at the end of 2006, but the number of active users is far lower.

The comScore study said users totaled 1.3 million in March, up 46 percent from January. More than 60 percent of users were male.

Germany had 209,000 active residents in Second Life, or 16 percent, compared with 207,000 from the United States, 104,000 from France and 72,000 from Britain.

The study, based on a research panel of more than 2 million computer users, excluded public computers such as those in Internet cafes.

Linden Lab's own March statistics showed 26.8 percent of active residents were from the United States, 13.5 percent from Germany, 8.2 percent from France and 6.7 percent from Britain.

"It is little wonder that bricks and mortar businesses are seeing Second Life as a virtual-world way of accessing a global, real-world customer base," comScore's Europe head, Bob Ivins, said in a statement."

Source: Reuters

The Future will be More Real -- But Tax Free

As reported by CNET News.com, "In the next several months, Second Life avatars may find their long-awaited voice, said Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab, publisher of the virtual world.

Many Second Life members have long desired to bring voice to their text-based avatars. And last month, Second Life launched a small beta trial with integrated voice.

Rosedale said during a keynote speech at Gartner Symposium ITxpo here that he hopes to see voice officially launched in Second Life within the next several months.

"There are a lot of problems with telephony when doing conference calls. You can't tell who's talking if there's more than one person. But in the virtual world, voice solves it," said Rosedale, noting that avatars with three-dimensional voice integration will likely accelerate using Second Life for holding virtual conference meetings.

Other plans in the works for Second Life include adding the ability to scan users' photos onto their avatars and bringing more realism into the virtual world through detail-oriented design, such as the way a butterfly flitters across a computer screen, Rosedale said.

"The graphics in Second Life are good, but not perfect," he said. He estimated that in five years the interface will reflect a greater degree of realism. "When you look through a computer screen, everything will look real, like you're looking through window glass."

In another move to mimic real life, Second Life is gearing up to keep its grid constantly operating, Rosedale said. The goal is to prevent downtime in the virtual world. Time, after all, is money--even in a virtual world.

The site currently comes down every two weeks for approximately five to six hours, allowing Linden Lab to make updates to simulators, as well as additions and improvements to its network. Over the next several months, a new "simulator" code will be rolled out to the grid without requiring extended downtime. Second Life residents will be offered the choice to bypass certain updates of the viewer software, whereas they currently are required to download the software before logging on to the grid.

Despite some recent speculation on the matter, Rosedale said he's not worried about taxation entering Second Life. He compared Second Life to other developments on the Internet, such as online auctions. Tax authorities, for example, have left eBay transactions alone, he noted.

The aim is for Second Life to have minimal interference from outside authorities, including Linden Lab, Rosedale said. But that has been more challenging to maintain in recent quarters as the size of the virtual world has grown, he added.

"We have been tested in our ability to not govern," Rosedale said. "We like to step in if needed, then take our hands off the wheel and let the community self-govern.""

Source: CNET News.com

Top 8 Corporate Sites in Second Life

Computerworld just published the following list of their top 8 corporate sites in Second Life:

1. IBM
[...] With as many as 230 employees actively involved, and almost two dozen islands (some public, some private), IBM is intent on showcasing more than just its products and services -- it has even invested $100 million in real U.S. dollars for companies to showcase their ideas. For example, there's a Circuit City store on one island where you can "test out" camcorders and HDTV sets.

2. Pontiac
[...] Its red logo is found on carpeted halls and sprawling multilevel glass buildings. There's a dealership where you can take recent models out for a test drive, such as the Pontiac Solstice GXP. A car garage lets you customize vehicles to your liking, including the paint job and styling.

3. Sun Microsystems
[...] The Second Life teleport blurb for Sun Microsystems says the company has a "100% focus on network computing." When I visited, this popular destination was brimming with client/server-related chat sessions: two jet-pack-wearing visitors were talking about cell phones and Java, and several people gathered around a product demo that shows the cooling effects of Sun servers in a data center.

4. Dell
[...] Dell Island is mostly a portal for advancing the company brand, although there are a few sights worth seeing: a re-creation of one of the company's commercials (the one with the giant purple gorilla), a factory modeled after a real Dell facility, a PC museum and Michael Dell's college dorm room.

5. Reuters
[...] Reuters' concrete-and-sidewalk location in Second Life has a decidedly business feel, with tall downtown skyscrapers and lush fountains. Yet, it does attract curious Second Lifers who want to discuss the hot topics of the day. [...] A Reuters News Center device, available for free, feeds you the news of the day on a handheld reader.

6. Cisco Systems
[...] IT pros definitely fawn all over Cisco Systems. This well-populated island showcases its products in a cleanly designed "connected home" of the future -- although it's a little heavy on marketing. There are routers, streaming media devices and VoIP phones scattered all about the two-level dwelling.

7. H&R Block
[...] Despite the stuffy decor, there is an interesting point-of-sale angle. For $100 Linden (the currency in Second Life, which is about $70 in U.S. currency), you can buy the new Tango online tax preparation software. No discount, though -- that was the same price offered on the H&R Block site until a "limited-time offer" was instituted.

8. Best Buy Geek Squad
[...] Real-world employees keep regular hours from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. and will chat about any topic. I asked about video card support for DX10 games and which USB keydrives work for ReadyBoost, and an agent knew the answers immediately. According to Diana Garrett, a Geek Squad spokeswoman (and my tour guide), employees will consult for free until a customer needs to buy a product -- for that, they have to call or e-mail.

Source: Computerworld

NBA Launched Truly Interactive Headquarter in Second Life

According to iTNews, "Unlike many corporate areas in the virtual world, the NBA Headquarters incorporates capabilities designed to keep fans coming back, including real-time 3-D diagrams of games as they're played..

The NBA launches NBA Headquarters, a Second Life area with games, interactivity, and community features designed to provide basketball fans with a place to get together and get involved.

NBA's area can potentially bring Second Life basketball fans back for repeat business. That's a contrast to many of the other corporate areas in Second Life, which are sterile places where visitors might come once, but never return. NBA Headquarters, by contrast, has multiplayer games and a variety of other features designed to draw repeat visitors.

The professional basketball organisation is trying to recruit fans who are already in Second Life, as well as generate new fans, NBA commissioner David Stern said. NBA Headquarters in Second Life is part of the NBA's strategic drive to embrace new media, including Yahoo, Facebook, wireless communications, and online video including YouTube." Continue ...

Goldsmiths Art Degree Show in Second Life

BBC News reported "Goldsmiths students have created digital versions of their art work which their Second Life characters will present in their online world. The virtual degree show will take place in an online replica of the venue used for the real show.

Course tutor Matt Ward said Second Life allowed students to show their work in a different type of virtual space. "This expands the reach of their degree show and allows them to present themselves to a far larger audience, in ways that can only improve and enhance their work.," said Mr Ward.

Second Life enables its users to interact socially and is already a virtual home to big businesses such as Adidas, IBM and Reuters.

Virtual profile

Student Emily O 'Dwyer, whose Second Life character (or avatar) is Lilly Losangeles said: "We were aware of the importance and power of virtual networking and feel that having a Second Life profile will soon become a necessary requirement. "The class were all in favour of utilising the most up to date methods of digital communication in order to make our degree show as accessible as possible. Now it doesn't matter where you are in the world, you can still see our show, and even meet us at our event."

The students will host their show in a to-scale version of the real Truman Brewery on Brick Lane - where the degree show will be held in real life - on 6 June. And those who have a Second Life presence can visit the event entitled Annotations from 18 May. The real life exhibition runs from 1 to 4 June."

Source: BBC News

Sun Microsystems' 3-D Environment for Enterprise Collaboration

As reported by Tom Sanders of IT Week, "Sun Microsystems has developed a prototype 3-D environment that essentially mimics Second Life, but turns it into an enterprise collaboration tool. Sun's MPK20 virtual world allows for collaboration between employees in different locations. Each employee is represented by an avatar that walks around in a virtual environment, communicating using internet telephony.

Plans for future updates include the ability to share applications in the virtual environment, and to link whiteboards in physical meeting rooms with the virtual space to show up in both online and offline worlds.

The application at first glance has some similarities to Second Life. But Nicole Yankelovich, a principal investigator with Sun Labs, argued that it only overlaps in the social element. "This brings the social element of Second Life into the workplace," she said. Current collaboration tools do not enable this degree of informal interaction, Yankelovich argued, thereby preventing remote workers from building relationships with their colleagues.

Users of MPK20 can walk up to each other and start a conversation, just like they can before a meeting in the real world. They can also walk up to two conversing avatars and join the conversation or just listen. The name MPK20 identifies the virtual world as the 20th building at Sun's corporate campus in Menlo Park, California. The campus has 19 physical buildings.

Sun demonstrated a first version of the virtual world last Thursday at an open day at its Sun Labs research arm. MPK20 uses Sun's Project Darkstar, a marketing initiative that bundles servers and software to allow companies to build a scalable infrastructure for 3D environments. The project also uses Sun's Project Wonderland, which provides developer tools for building 3-D worlds.

MPK20 has some similarities with Project Looking Glass, an open source initiative which aims to develop a 3-D desktop for computers. Sun suggested that future 3D environments could function as the actual desktop, where users launch applications by walking their avatar to a special room or area."

For a video demonstration of MPK20, visit the Silicon Valley Sleuth blog here.

Source: IT Week