Across the radar – 24 June 2008

cross-posted from my Second Life blog

Cory reckons that VW kids are doing alright

SL co-creator Cory Ondrejka, now senior vice president of digital strategies at EMI Music, reckons that VWs like SL are ‘proving’ themselves.

"Virtual worlds are already entering the boardroom in Vermont, said Ondrejka, where the nations first "virtual corporation" law was approved earlier this month. Until now, U.S. law required most corporations to hold board meetings with all members in attendance. Under a new Vermont law, board meetings may be conducted "virtually" through the use of video conferencing or Internet chat rooms."

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After trades in excess of 70 million Linden Dollars in the first half of 2008, euroSLEX announces plans to expand beyond Europe, and also beyond Second Life. As part of this growth strategy, the service is renamed from "euroSLEX" to "VirWoX" (for "Virtual World Exchange") according to a press release.

The service is operated by Virtual World Services GmbH, a real-world company registered in Austria with the mission to bring a new level of professionalism and trust to Second Life, apparently.

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Metanomics, allegedly the web’s premier program about the business and policy of virtual worlds, begins an exciting second season on Monday, June 23rd at Noon PST on SLCN.TV.

For the kick-off program Metanomics host Robert Bloomfield (Beyers Sellers in Second Life) features USC’s Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge, with guests Douglas Thomas (Doctor Ludovico In Second Life), Associate Professor at the USC School of Communication, and Rik Panganiban (Rik Riel in Second Life) from Global Kids.

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From the "Have your avatar call my avatar" Department

Computerworld reports: "Many think it’s just a matter of time before being "in-world" becomes as important for business as having a Web site and standard teleconferencing equipment is."

A great comment from an anonymous commenter:

Let me see if I’ve got this straight.

People create cartoon characters to represent themselves. Said characters "live" on some web site. But, instead of being just for recreation, these "beings" represent you as you conduct real-world business. And if you don’t join in, you’ll be left behind as a dinosaur.

And Computerworld are also asking ‘leaders’ (that’s you and me, I guess) to join them in a virtual webinar.

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Three steps to encourage corporate investment in virtual worlds

Computing SA (that’s ‘South Africa’, not ‘South Australia’) has an interesting article on Gartner research.

"Despite understandable concerns about investment during a time of growing business uncertainty, we believe that the internal deployment of virtual worlds offers most enterprises significant benefits in cost savings and improved productivity," says Steve Prentice, vice-president and Gartner fellow.

Gartner recommends a three-step, incremental approach to virtual-world investment in which costs are constrained and benefits are clearly measurable to help gain the funding and approvals needed.

Stage 1: Virtual worlds as training environments

Stage 2: Project-based avatar-enhanced collaboration

Stage 3: Non-specific social collaboration

Useful article if you haven’t read the original Gartner report.

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IMVU reckons it’s onto a winner with 3D avatars

According to a press release:

IMVU, the free online destination where young adults meet new people in 3D, announced today the world’s largest catalog of virtual goods with over 1.5 million items. IMVU also announced its achievement of reaching 20 million registered users, primarily through viral growth.

Founded in 2004, IMVU Inc. (www.imvu.com) is an online destination where young adults meet new people in 3D. Still in public beta, the company has already reached major milestones, including 20 million registered users, 100,000 registered developers and $1 million in revenue each month.

Yar boo sucks, then!

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think3 to give 3D edge to VTU students

An Italian software company is giving away CAD software to engineering graduates at an India uni.

Why is this important to us? Because 3D modelling will be very important when SL starts to become a major test bed of 3D products, that’s why.

Says the article:

Simply put: If an automobile engineer has conceptualised a car, he can modify the design using CAD solutions any number of times without having to start from the beginning every time he thinks of improvising on the concept. The students, in turn, would shift from the traditional engineering tools of paper and drafter to latest software applications.

Now, if that engineer then decides to test his/her creation in SL, eliciting feedback from users on issues such as visual design, ergonomic layout of cockpit, etc., … get my point?

Mark my words: the importing of hi-res 3D models (via whatever software is chosen) into SL will become a key element to SL’s future. If Linden Lab don’t allow it, or are too slow to implement it properly, LL could find a very important development and engineering community heading off to a product that can (built, perhaps, by Microsoft or IBM or similar).

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Gary Does Melbourne: has he no Seoul?

Gary Hayes ("we are not worthy!") is down in Melbourne town on 25th of June to, as he says, help Underbelly meet the virtual world. With a talk entitled "The Sex, the Violence and the Dirty Money: The Truth about Social Virtual Worlds" you can be sure that the man whose brains could light a city for a month will have plenty to make you think!

His talk in Seoul at the Digital Content Session at the Trilateral KANZ Broadband Summit on 19 June 2008 is now online. He looked at Australian successes of the collision of animation, online games, film, mobile, broadba
nd web and social media applications and the potential for co-development and cross-training between NZ, Korea and Australia.

There’s a slideshare embed, too.

"An nyoung" indeed.

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George Carlin dies; Twittersphere implodes in grief

You get that.

Never found him funny, myself. Must be a North American thing. Mind you, I found the late Bill Hicks hysterically funny!

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Virtual Private Equity is a step closer to reality

Actually nothing to do with SL, but a fascinating article on fund management and equity holdings.

VPEs: The equity you hold when you’re not holding any equity (only other Aussies would get that joke, sorry)

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Courtesy of the rather fetching site geeksugar: If you can’t get enough of Second Life or Sims-like games where you’re challenged to create an avatar and personality that succeeds in a virtual world, AND you also happen to be obsessed with one day running your own beauty product factory and company, then I’ve got the ultimate niche video game for you: Beauty Factory.

Says one commenter:

"i would totally play this! i am always making marketing and product suggestions to my fav cosmetic company — the homies at maybeline!"

I’ll get Penny and Isabella onto this in the morning.

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