An interesting post on the Second Life blog tonight called Lights on at the Lab In which ginsu asks, is anyone doing it better, in reference to the problems that Second Life has, and asks if anyone has any better examples of corporate transparency, who finds the best balance between saying too much and too little?

Press Dispensary Sets Up First UK PR Bureau in Second Life Press Dispensary (http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk), the UK-based specialist press release services company, is the first European agency to set up a permanent bureau in Second Life (SL) and one of a mere handful of PR agencies world-wide to embrace public relations in the rapidly expanding 3D virtual world, which now has 9.9m users.

Nanotechnology and Second Life Nanotechnology Island has launched in Second Life with the goal to establish a place for the Nano Science and Technology communities to come together and to bring key ideas and research into public discussion.

Nanoscience and technology like virtual worlds are frequently cited as “disruptive” technologies. These fields should evolve in relationships between scientists, engineers, policymakers and regulators in a global setting with the opportunity for public debate and engagement.

Herman Miller Fights Trademark Infringement in Second Life with “Get Real” Campaign Virtual World News alerted me to this story: Herman Miller (who makes the best, albeit most expensive, chairs in the world) is fighting knock-offs in Second Life by giving away the real thing. Well, the virtual real thing. But not a knockoff. You get the idea.

The Tao of SL Volunteers - in Words and Video Fat avatars with spikey green hair, red lipstick, and Linux t-shirts look like trouble

Sunday, I visited Mia Linden’s office hour to try to learn what policies - if any - cover removal of Second Life citizens from the “Second Life Mentors” group. The Mentors act as volunteer labor for Linden Lab, helping explain some of the fine points of the metaverse to new players. This presumably cuts support costs for the Lab, and it is no surprise that game gods such as Mia frequently sport “I <3 volunteers” tags. Good free labor must be hard to find.

div.mvp_embed_400 { width: 400px; background: white; padding: 10px; margin: 0px auto; } div.mvp_embed_400 div.mvp_item_title { font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; color: black; } div.mvp_embed_400 div.mvp_item_title a { text-decoration: underline; } div.mvp_embed_400 div.mvp_item_details { color: #666; border-bottom: 4px solid #FF6E00; font-size: 100%; } div.mvp_embed_400 div.mvp_item_details a { color: black; text-decoration: none }

Tao of Volunteers

Posted to Technology Videos by eubeenhadd on October 08, 2007

Click to Play | View Details

Second Life: Virtual Worlds and the Enterprise When you raise the topic of Second Life (SL) in a conversation, you usually get one of two reactions: 1) Dismissal as “just another game”, “people should get their first life together first”, or 2) Rapt attention as questions start pouring out, and opportunities and risks are explored.

How should enterprises look at Second Life and, more generally, at Virtual Worlds? Is the topic still too early or too distracting from “real business”? Or is SL actually close to the tipping point where, like so many technologies before, it will flip into the mainstream with unanticipated results?

Added:

Herman Miller Combats Knockoffs in Second Life with Freebies Furniture designer and manufacturer Herman Miller announced that it would be entering Second Life with help from Rivers Run Red. In the real world, Herman Miller has taken aim at knockoff products with its “Get Real” campaign, and it will be bringing the same principle to the virtual world. It will be offering a collection of 15 pieces for L$300-L$850, or approximately U.S. $1.40 to $3.50, but users that have bought knockoffs in the past will get the new pieces for free.

INTERDEPENDENTLY YOURS (MELTING POT OR DIASPORIC DIVIDE?) It was about two years into our project that we noticed the increasing internationalization of Second Life. It seems a lifetime since then—with the registered user base was a little over a 100,000 and the U.S. was over 75% of the base. Today the registered user base is perilously close to 10 million and of that, the U.S. percentage is roughly 20%. Germany is on the ascent in second place and Brazil, ever the early adopter of new technology trends, is a close third.

Clear Ink Releases Open Source Measurement Tool for Second Life Clear Ink, the agency most recently famous for hosting Newt Gingrich at its Second Life Capitol Hill, has announced the release of Slogbase, an open source tool for measuring and analyzing traffic in Second Life. The Slogbase beacon identifies incoming avatars, notifies them that they’re being monitored, and then transmits the usage data to a Slogbase server via Second Life’s Linden Script Language.

JTB to Open Japan Travel Guide on Second Life JTB Corp. said Tuesday it will launch an online travel guide in Second Life, a Web-based three-dimensional virtual world, on Monday for foreign tourists to Japan.

Popularity: 1%