The Network - SL Places

Second Life Yields New Artform

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:15:15 -0700

Article

Digital art is a burgeoning area that is starting to emerge in Second Life, but one which has not received much press attention. There are indications that this is starting to change as demonstrated by a new report from MarketWatch.

The article discusses the emerging artform and a specific social network designed to help spread this new artform:

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."

Check out some art in Second Life:

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Long%20Beach/98/151/22

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Simuality/31/202/35

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BMW Leaving Second Life

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:38:16 -0700

Click for SLurl

BMW announced today that they will be leaving Second Life. They have had a presence in Second Life for nearly two years, and were an early enthusiast about the potential for Second Life and virtual worlds. Their reasoning for leaving is that the platform itself is not yet ready for complex B2C scenarios.

According to Munich Express, who made the announcement to a group this morning:

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.

Munich Express went on to say:

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.

Photo from the conference:

Click for Fullsize

What all this points to is that SL is probably not going to be the enterprise 2.0 solution, but rather OpenSim will develop as the enterprise class solution. Linden Lab cannot continue to expect that B2B and roleplay can co-exist on the platform without some architectural changes made, however the train has already left the OpenSim station and for Linden Lab the window of opportunity is closing... fast.

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Gibson Guitar Island in SL

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:10:43 -0700

Click Here to Teleport

The well known guitar company Gibson has opened its own new island in Second Life. It claims to be the first major music manufacturer to do so. As such it should be interesting to see if companies such as Fender follow Gibson's lead.

The positive aspect of this is that the island will feature music related events and activities. The island launch featured an exclusive live performance by Bob Welch formerly of Fleetwood Mac. More concerts on the island are planned. The island itself is shaped like a Gibson Les Paul guitar, and features humbucker mountains, theatres, mini-theatres, and guitar-related objects.

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Second Life Fifth Birthday Farewell

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:32:22 -0700

The Second Life Fifth Birthday Celebration is over. A group of the artists got together and did a final farewell:

Click Here for Full Size Image

SL5B: Giant Shoes

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:52:54 -0700

Click for Teleport

Okay, this one is filed under "cute" and "fun." One of the SL5B exhibits are a set of gigantic shoes. These things are really made for giants, if giants existed in SL, although I have to wonder what would happen if these things had bling enabled.

Anyway, it's a fun exhibit.

SL5B Report

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:36:29 -0700

The Second Life Fifth Birthday event (SL5B) is now in its third day. If you have not taken the time to visit the exhibitions, I highly recommend that you do. The sheer volume and quality of the exhibitions is breathtaking, and this truly represents the creative positive side of Second Life.

This morning I attended a demonstration of the Toxian City exhibit, where they had a couple of "monsters" attacking a city and RPG'ers defending against the monsters. All in all, this represents a new way of thinking about SL. Here are a couple of pictures from the event:

One of the "monsters"

One of the "defenders"

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Gartner: Virtual Worlds a Solution for Training

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:38:01 -0700

Gartner Site

Gartner has issued a new report on virtual worlds which touts their value in the area of training and education. While it's difficult to disagree with this assessment, one could argue that Gartner is late to the party on this one. In essence though it seems that Gartner is beginning to recognize that Enterprise 2.0 will be different from Web 2.0, and virtual worlds are one of the tools that will be a part of the Enterprise 2.0 solution kit.

As for education, there has been a robust community in Second Life around the area of training and education, and we see no reason to believe that there will be anything other than growth in this area. In our own dealings, we have organizations such as the TUV Saarland that have had an in world presence for quite some time, we've attended lectures and presentations from corporations such as Cisco and Sun, and we have provided free live and free self-paced tutorials in world for nearly two years. The only thing that might be missing from the education platform in SL are perhaps an improved set of tools for instructors and students to use in world, but that is not a show stopper, and is being improved all the time.

In any event, it's a positive development that Gartner is recognizing the importance and viability of virtual worlds in the area of training and education:

Gartner analyst Steve Prentice said â€œDespite 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.â€

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BeateNetworks SL5B Exhibit

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:33:10 -0700

We are proud to announce that we will have two exhibits at the Second Life Fifth Birthday event. The first exhibit opened today, and features a collection of custom artwork. We recently opened a gallery called Studio 72 in Second Life, and we will feature works from the galley at the SL5B event. The gallery exhibit will be on display for two weeks starting today. Works cannot be purchased at the SL5B exhibit, however, if you should be interested in purchasing something, we will make them available.

Next week we will add an educational exhibit to the SL5B festivities, and will provide more information at that time. To get to the art exhibit, click this the following SLurl:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL5B%20Rebake/144/194/23

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Forming Product Focus Group in Second Life

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:14:00 -0700

I am forming a focus group to review a web based product which will be integrated into Second Life. If you are interested in participating in a focus group, which will meet inside Second Life, please send me an IM in world (Allison Selene) or go to the contact page by clicking here and using the web form to send me an email.

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SL Health Growth Measurement: euroSLEX Reports Robust Growth

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:03:40 -0700

euroSLX Reported Growth

euroSLEX is the European Second Life Electronic Exchange and is growing in popularity as a method for businesses and residents based in Europe to exchange Lindens for Euros, British Pounds, and Swiss Francs. (Americans are out of luck, dollars are not accepted). In any case, it is reporting "robust" growth, which is seen on the graph to the left. It attributes this growth to a 33% growth in registered users. Unlike Linden Lab user stats, this stat would seem to be highly reliable given that it is dealing with currency exchange. euroSLX reports they have 1650 registered users at the time of this publication.

Why is this important? Basically it is one barometer into the health of Second Life. If currency exchanges in SL are growing, then cash flow is growing. Of course that is only one part of the puzzle, but it would seem to run counter to the "sky is falling Second Life is doomed" mantra that has been popular since SL fell out of favor with the mainstream press.

In any event, we'll continue to monitor and report on various measurements of the health of SL. Here's some of the euroSLEX details:

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.

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In World Event: Mother's Day special sales!

nospam@example.com (Alice) — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:12:14 -0700

10 L each new heart-shaped present box! Special sale offer! 10 L each flower! one flower ensemble for free! full permission flowers and flower deco for your gardening fun and to make beautiful presents and Impress your virtual mom! 15 different textured heart-shaped present boxes await you in the Alli&Ali Designs mainstore. Builders versions with full permissions for sale! Scripted box-shaped present boxes are available too! Join the Alli&Ali group for the weekly design news and goodies. If you have any questions, please contact Alice (Alice Klinger in world).

Click here for a link to the in world location.

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Forming Product Focus Group in Second Life

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Tue, 06 May 2008 10:14:00 -0700

Apple in Second Life? Maybe.

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:51:14 -0700

Click for article link.

There are many tech companies with a presence inside Second Life. Sun, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, etc. However one prominent tech company by the name of Apple has yet to make an official presence in Second Life. This has been a point of interest for many folks for some time, given that Second Life uses Quicktime as its media layer, that there is an official OSX client, and that Mac users make up a large percentage of designers who produce content for Second Life.

In any event, the latest buzz is that Apple may or may not be planning a move towards the immersive web, and that such a move may or may not be inside Second Life. It seems that a patent filed by Apple in September of 2006 is causing all the buzz. I'm not sure what to make of it, but as we all know, Apple is always silent about future product/service plans, and if they do end up creating a presence in Second Life, I think it is likely to be made with great fanfare and with an attempt to add something unique to the experience. But unless and until Steve Jobs actually makes an announcement about this topic, mark it firmly under the category of Rumors.

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.

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Second Life Non-Profits Respond to the Daily Show

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:27:12 -0700

Click for full article

Last week we had a posting which includes a video of the Daily Show segment that takes on Second Life. The video is amusing, but has hit a nerve with the non-profits who are lampooned in the Daily Show segment. So they have responded with a video of their own, and it is light hearted but also sheds some light on some of the issues they are taking on by using SL as platform. Here's their response to Jon Stewart:

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Event: Treasure Hunt and Trivia

nospam@example.com (Allison) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:26:33 -0800

Click the photo for a teleport to the event.

Wonderland Beach is featuring a progressive treasure hunt trivia game this month. Each day new items are hidden on the sim, and new clues are added. The game is one part treasure hunt and one part trivia solving. The idea is to make it a fun experience and to learn some facts along the way. The prizes are all new items made by Alice Klinger, so no recycled freebie stuff is used. The location of the hunt and full rules can be found by clicking here.

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