Virtual Worlds and Australia 2007 Part 1

It’s not an understatement to say that it’s been a hell of a year for virtual worlds in the Australian context. So I thought it was worth doing a bit of a retrospective to put in context how much has occurred. Second Life has been our focus the past year but there’s been some other exciting developments.

January 2007
– we started off the year asking if 2007 would be Second Life’s year in Australia;
– Linden Lab announced they were going open source;
– we asserted a need for addiction services for the small proportion of Second Life users who may have some problems;
– ABC began the construction of their Second Life presence;

– the deluge of mainstream media coverage of Second Life continued, something that caught us a little by surprise.

February 2007

– we started to cover the metrics around the number of Australians using Second Life;
– the ABC sought input from residents for its upcoming development;

– we interviewed Logan Linden (Chris Collins);
– Project Outback was touted as a potential Second Life competitor;

March 2007

– we interviewed in-world counsellors, Wellman and Wellman.
– Telstra launched their Second Life presence.
– in the weeks after the Telstra launch, we reported on the significant influx of new Australian residents in Second Life.

– Australian-owned Second Life Cable Network launched.
– ABC launched their island presence, coinciding with a Four Corners documentary on Second Life.
– our own in-world presence launched.
– we profiled Gary Hazlitt

April 2007

– the Chebi Mosque transfixed us.
– we covered the gambling ban put in place by Linden Lab.
– VastPark caught our attention for the first time.
– we questioned the long-term viability of Linden Lab’s centralised server model for Second Life.

– we interviewed the Australian owner of the World Stock Exchange, Luke Connell. This has been one of our most viewed stories and caused a significant reaction at the time as you can see from the story’s comments.
– the number of active Australian users of Second Life reached 8000.

May 2007

– we asked whether Australian-based Second Life servers were on the horizon (oh the naivete!)
– personal boundaries in a virtual world were discussed.
– TMJ must have been in a philosophical mood during May as we also asked whether loneliness rather than community was the norm in Second Life.
– our monthly population update forecast an active Australian Second Life population of close to ten thousand.

– we published a story on Linden Lab’s crackdown on ageplay in Second Life. This has been our most viewed story ever and still receives enormous numbers of views each day – mainly from people typing terms like ‘child pornography’ into search engines.
– ABC Island had some problems. We were one of the only media outlets to not claim the problems were griefing – even ABC News ran the griefing line initially.
– we profiled Gizzy Electricteeth from IBM.
– the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) made its debut in Second Life.

June 2007

– our coverage of ageplay and pedophilia implications in Second Life continued.
– Windlight functionality started appearing in the Second Life viewer application.
– Anshe Chung and the World Stock Exchange defined their relationship.
– we briefly toured music-focused virtual world The Music Lounge (now called vSide).

– we completed a roundup of US Presidential Candidates and their presences in Second Life.
– Australia’s active Second Life population was stable at ten thousand.
– our inaugural traffic index of Australian activities in Second Life was published.
– we profiled the Second Life Cable Network (SLCN) team.
– the Australian Women’s Weekly jumped on the mainstream media bandwagon, giving readers a glimpse of Second Life.

Part 2 of the 2007 roundup can be found here.