The Metaverse

Semper International Adopts Lively for Hiring and Collaboration

Virtual Worlds News: Semper International Adopts Lively for Hiring and Collaboration.

"To me, it actually makes more sense than using Second Life as a hiring tool. If the point is to find an avatar-based environment for interviews, something simple and Web-based seems, well, simpler than a richer environment that requires a download. The lack of integrated voice in Lively, though, could present problems"

I think this highlights something that is often not realised by proponents of one or another virtual world platform: what is an appropriate level of "virtual" for one application might be less-so for another.

In this case, Lively is probably a better choice: it's simple, browser-based, and offers a good experience in small groups (it's utterly lousy in larger groups - you think a Second Life sim with 30 people in it is bad, try going to a lively room with 10).

Forget creating SEO bots in SL

A good piece of digging by Wildefire Walcott is summarized on Massively - it appears that avatars without payment info on file are not being included in the new Linden Lab search system.

What this means is that you can't create hordes of bots which include your business in their "picks" simply to add to your ranking in the in-world search system. Of course, you could create avatars and then add payment info on file by making a small purchase, but over a large number of avatars that would start to be an expensive.

I regard this as a good thing. The more holes in the system which allow people to game it, the harder it is to have a search system which actually works for consumers.

10 Reasons marketers hate Second Life

Jaffe Juice: Top 10 Reasons why Marketers hate Second Life (but really just hate themselves)

"Ahead of tomorrow's Virtual Thirst finale, I thought I would write a different kind of post...which isn't directly in favor or against Second Life per se; nor is an endorsement for or against Virtual Worlds; but rather an analogy using SL as a metaphor for change and emerging media and juxtaposing it against the mainstream marketing mentality. So here are my top 10 reasons why some (not all) marketers either don't get Second Life or don't want to get it."

To which I'd add "because marketers mostly don't get social media." In particular, note this bit:

"Your brand is not my friend -  Friendship is earned; conversation is permission-based...I could go on. Bottom line is that brands that just show up (often as party-crashers) to someone else's party had better be the life of the party or they will be tossed out on their asses. Without taking the time to listen and learn; to partner with the "locals", brands become nothing more than clumsy buffoons. Working with your customers as partners is quickly becoming a mandatory in this day and age..."

Those marketers who are currently wetting themselves over Facebook ads should probably take note...

Technorati Tags: Second Life, Facebook, Marketing

Aimee trademarks herself

In what I think is a first, Aimee Weber has trademarked her avatar. Given that her avatar isn't just her own representation, but the representation of her company (Aimee Weber Studio) in the same way that "Ronald McDonald" is a representation of shitty fast food, it's a completely understandable move.

Anshe Chung on non-profits

The L$10 controversy

How much is an object worth in Second Life? If you're Anshe Chung, L$10. And that's making a great number of content creators pretty angry.

IBM Saves Second Life

IBM is doing some really interesting work tying together a web site with Second Life for, of all people, Kingfisher:

"More importantly, IBM is blending a traditional website - DIY Shopper - with a virtual world.  Specifically, they have designed DIY Shopper to integrate with Second Life so that a shopper’s avatar is able to view materials available in store on his/her virtual house.  Let me write that again.  Products from the real world will be available in a digital, 3D format so that customers can see what they look like prior to purchase."

This sounds like a really interesting project, which makes some great use of SL as an engine for representation of 3D virtual objects.

Technorati Tags:
Second Life, IBM

SL business sues for copyright infringement

Reuters/Second Life » SL business sues for copyright infringement

SECOND LIFE, July 3 (Reuters) - Second Life entrepreneur Kevin Alderman filed a copyright infringement lawsuit on Tuesday against Second Life resident Volkov Catteneo, and Alderman’s lawyer said he plans to subpoena Linden Lab to force it to disclose Catteneo’s real-world identity.Alderman (Second Life name: Stroker Serpentine) runs the adult-content company Eros LLC. One of the company’s most popular products is the SexGen bed, virtual furniture that contains more than 150 sex animations and retails for L$12,000 (US$45.11).

This will be the first of many such cases, as metaversal businesses start making enough money to justify spending some of it on lawyers. The offending party seems to have little idea of what's going on, and probably thought it was all just a game:

Catteneo, who declined to provide his real name, said he doesn’t fear the subpoena. “I’m not some kind of noob,” Catteneo said. “My name isn’t on [Linden Lab’s] file. I don’t even have a permanent address [in real life] either.”

No, silly boy, but you presumably have a PayPal account or other method of getting your Linden dollars out into the real world. And that means your ass is in deep trouble.

Jerry Paffendorf leaving ESC

The Other Here » Blog Archive » Last Post:

Somewhat sadly last Friday was also my last day as an Electric Sheep employee. The only reason I say “somewhat”, since I’ve been with ESC from pretty much the start and loved it, is that I’ve been moving in my own direction within Electric Sheep for some time now, mostly working on Sheep Labs projects and getting frustrated with a lot of other things as I wanted to break out in a different direction, which isn’t healthy for anyone. So this is my goodbye post on this blog. I leave in love.