Article

According to Philip Linden of Second Life, "One of the unexpected results of Second Life is the emerging of an entirely new art form, which has been dubbed 'Digital Impressionism,' based on the visions of virtual world residents. These artists are re-defining what personal identity means, when expressed in a world where anybody can be anything, can do anything, and can create virtually anything. Their visualizations form the core of this exciting new art."

BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon

BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Click for SLurl

we felt and still feel that virtual worlds have a big potential, not only in terms of marketing, but a lot of work and development remains to be done. We are convinced that the combination of 3D environment, global communication in real time, the 3D wiki functionality and the creative element can lead to a fascinating experience.

However for a B2C company like ours some elements need to be developed further. An automobile is a rather complex product - at present it is not possible in sl to do a static and dynamic product presentation that you would expect from a company like ours.

From a pure marketing perspective the user base is not big enough yet, then there are the usual copyright issues that you're all aware of. So at this point in time we felt that stepping out from a marketing perspective is the right decision. We leared what we wanted to, we think we have defined the issues that need improvement and we will of course contnue to watch the development because we believe in the potential.

If sl develops further in the right direction, there is no reason why we wouldn't come back. Our strategic goal was a bit different, the goal was not to compete with the 'party islands. We wanted to learn how this virtual environment works and to see where possible future applications lie, [and] there is much more than marketing involved in the long run. ...a solution that would enable us to have something running on our own servers.

Click for Fullsize

BeateNetworks on StumbleUpon

BeateNetworks on Technorati

BeateNetworks on Digg

Gartner Site

Gartner analyst Steve Prentice said “Despite understandable concerns about investment during a time of growing business uncertainty, we believe that the internal deployment of virtual worlds offers most enterprise significant benefits in cost savings and improved productivity.”

beatenetworks

euroSLX Reported Growth

euroSLEX continued to ride on a path of strong growth: Registered users grew 33% to 1,650, and trading volume of these users grew at an even faster pace, up from 14.5 million Linden dollars in April 2008 to over 22 million Linden dollars in May (+53%).

"This puts the total amount traded since the start of our service to over 50 million Lindens" says Iliana Suppan, managing director of Virtual World Services GmbH, the company behind euroSLEX.

beatenetworks

beatenetworks

Click for article link.

Apple may be hatching plans to make shopping at the online Apple Store or iTunes a more immersive virtual experience, akin to wandering in the world of Second Life, a patent filing suggests.

The company has filed patent with the US Patent and Trademark office for an Enhanced Online Shopping Atmosphere, as originally noted by MacNN.

The patent basically describes an online shop in which different areas of what's available are depicted in a 3D space, in which customers can see goods for sale and, if they choose to do so, interact with other customers on the virtual shop floor.

There's other potential usages, the filing claims: "For example, if an author has been invited to participate in a live chat hosted by the Acme store, an icon of the book may appear in [a region] alerting customers (in all departments) that a special event is occurring."

The patent points out that a drawback of shopping online is that the "experience can feel sterile and isolating". The patent argues that shoppers looking at what's on offer in online stores are less likely to look around and window shop, so the creation of an immersive experience may help sell more goods.

beatenetworks