The Watch – virtual worlds in the news

1. Edmonton Journal (Canada) – City leads Second Life in virtual world. “Here’s a surefire way for Daryl Katz to get the arena he wants. Join Second Life. Edmontonians, including Katz, may soon be able to revisualize the city the way they see fit when Edmonton goes virtual later this summer in Second Life. In the 3-D virtual world of Second Life, users create avatars that interact with each other just like they would in real life. They clock in hours at work, catch up over coffee, go shopping, and even buy land, which they can build up to their exact specifications. Last week, Edmonton’s chief information officer Chris Moore announced via Twitter that the city is partnering with local media design company Christie Communications and Second Life maker Linden Lab to bring Edmonton into Second Life.”

2. Ars Technica (USA) – Sociologists invade World of Warcraft, see humanity’s future. “In their continued quest to plumb the mysterious depths of human interactions, some sociologists have stopped watching people—and started watching their avatars. And the US government is paying them to do it. While playing World of Warcraft and traipsing through Second Life might not sound like traditional academic disciplines, they are increasingly important for research into virtual communities. This burgeoning subdiscipline even has its own publication, the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research. What gets studied? Gold farming, “goon culture,” griefing, entrepreneurial activity, intimacy, even “The Visual Language of Virtual BDSM Photographs in Second Life,” which appeared in the most recent issue of the journal.”

3. nextgov (USA) – Virtual Worlds — Virtually? “Today I’m covering the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds conference here in Washington. Sure, it’s being held just a few miles away from Nextgov’s offices, but I decided to try attending the conference about virtual worlds virtually. I had high expectations for this experience — after all, isn’t Second Life, one of the more widely used platforms for virtual interaction, cool?”

4. ZDNet Asia (Singapore) – Second Life can find niche in virtual events. “Virtual world pioneer Second Life can leverage its 3D environment to explore niche markets such as virtual event hosting in the face of competition from specialty virtual worlds, said a Forrester analyst. In an e-mail interview, TJ Keitt, analyst at Forrester research, said Linden Lab’s Second Life will not disappear anytime soon. However, it is facing stiff competition from specialty virtual worlds such as Disney-owned Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel, as well as business-targeted virtual worlds Teleplace and ProtonMedia. Keitt believes Second Life will be able to find its niche as an avenue for virtual events. Virtual event hosting is an emerging market which was spurred on by the recession’s effect on business travel, and is currently led by On24 and InXpo.”

5. Virtual Worlds News (USA) – Virtual World Web Reaches 25,000 Virtual Worlds. “This week Utherverse announced that the 25,000th virtual world had been created for its Virtual World Web platform. The Virtual World Web is a network of independent, user-created virtual worlds developed using standard platform tools and content libraries provided by Utherverse. CEO Brian Shuster says that the Virtual World Web was designed with replacing the traditional (or “flat”) Web in mind and is well on its way to doing so. Shuster compared the current state of the Virtual World Web to the state of the Web in roughly 1994 or 1995, when online commerce was in its infancy and most sites were run for the Webmaster’s entertainment. He believes that the “Worldmasters” building out the Virtual World Web are at the same point, despite the platform launching only last September. He attributes the network’s accelerated rate of growth to Utherverse’s toolset and massive library of objects, textures, and regions. Both were developed over the course of five years. ”

6. Tech News World (USA) – Where Have All the Avatars Gone? “Many have already written eulogies for the virtual worlds. Dead, they claim; the avatar is dead in the corporate realm. But the truth reads like the “Star Trek” script for the “The Trouble with Tribbles” episode: just because you don’t see them, doesn’t mean they are not breeding like mad in a closed grain bin. Without doubt, many corporations are indeed tribbling their avatar action. “The ease with which entities can close off public access in Second Life makes it difficult to know exactly what might be going on behind closed boardroom doors with regards to their presence in Second Life or other virtual worlds,” Shenlei Winkler, CEO of The Fashion Research Institute, told TechNewsWorld. Winkler is also author of Shengri La Spirit: A Designer’s Perspective of the Making of OpenSim on content licensing for virtual goods, virtualization of enterprise in immersive workspaces, OpenSim enterprise application development, and user immersion in virtual worlds. A successful designer, her real-life apparel designs have now reached more than US$70 million in sales . Her couture work has appeared on stage, movie screens and in Second Life.”

7. New York Times (USA) – Club Penguin Misses Goals, Giving Disney a Half-Price Deal. “Club Penguin, the subscription-based online community acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2007, has failed to meet profit targets that were tied to $350 million in payouts to the Web site’s creators. Disney’s purchase of Club Penguin was valued at $700 million, with half of the total paid up front and half coming in two payments based on unspecified growth thresholds. Disney disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last May that Club Penguin had missed the first target. On Wednesday, the company confirmed that the Web site did not meet the second one.”

8. VentureBeat (USA) – Rocktropia virtual world for music lovers debuts. “If you can’t get enough rock and roll in your life, you might want to go live in Rocktropia. That’s the new virtual world for rock music lovers that is debuting today. It’s a world where you dress up like a rock star, immerse yourself in rock lore, explore a rock-inspired landscape, and go listen to live events. Building a virtual world in the age of social networks such as Facebook may seem antiquated. But Jon Jacobs, creator of Rocktropia, believes that virtual worlds will become popular again once the Facebook crowd moves on to something new. “I think that high-end 3D virtual environments will be the next step,” said Jacobs. “Our platform has all of the features of a social network. It has immersive storytelling, and is an entertaining game.”

9. Hypergrid Business (Hong Kong) – How open are virtual worlds? “There are three ways in which a particular platform or service can be considered to be “open.” One is whether it runs on multiple systems, or is locked into a system from one particular vendor. For example, Apple’s Leonard operating system only runs on Apple computers. The Windows operating systems, by comparison, can be installed just about anywhere. The Wii Sports game only runs on the Nintendo Wii. Microsoft Word can run — sometimes with emulators — on pretty much any machine out there.”

10. VentureBeat (USA) – Woozworld raises $3M to expand virtual world for tweens. “Woozworld has raised $3 million in a first round of funding for a tween-focused virtual world. The Montreal-based company is spinning off from parent Tribal Nova so that it can concentrate on building a world for tweens, a age group which embraces kids aged 9 to 14. Investors included Canadian venture firms Inovia Capital and ID Capital. Woozworld already has 350,000 members and a million user-generated virtual places after launching in December. The product lets tweens build worlds where they can engage with their peers, design their own spaces, set up activities, and manage a business. Previously, Tribal Nova was focused on developing a virtual world for children dubbed Kid Studio.”