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Relay for Life in Second Life: teams being formed

February 19, 2009 by 2 Comments

A yearly highlight in Second Life is the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. The 2007 and 2008 events were big successes, with more than 55 million Linden Dollars (approximately 200 thousand US dollars).

relay_2009

Teams have started forming and if any Australian or New Zealand teams are forming, do let us know and we’ll promote your fundraising efforts. The team registration form can be found here.

The Australian Relay for Life is a superb community event for a lot of towns and cities. The Second Life version achieves that same community vibe and it’s an opportunity to remember those lost to cancer, to support those currently fighting cancer and to help find more effective treatments for cancers.

Thanks to SL Entrepreneur Magazine for the heads-up.

Filed Under: General News, Health, Non-Profit, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Linden Lab’s enterprise momentum

February 12, 2009 by Leave a Comment

In one of the more illuminating posts on the Official Linden Blog in recent months, Linden Lab’s Director of Enterprise Marketing, Amanda van Nuys (SL: Amanda Linden), has outlined the potential uses of Second Life for business.

virtual_meeting

There’s nothing groundbreaking in the information, but it’s worth regurgitating some of her points to illustrate virtual worlds and enterprise in a wider context.

Ok, I admit it. When I first joined Linden Lab to head up Enterprise Marketing three months ago, I wasn’t 100% convinced that working in virtual worlds really works.

A refreshingly honest take and one that most people would identify with, when introduced to virtual worlds for the first time. There’s a fundamental skepticism that I come across on a daily basis – one that’s hard to combat, even with facts around virtual worlds usage and their advantages for business.

The virtual medium is extremely powerful and the ‘sense of presence’ is real—and that’s the magic ingredient that makes a meeting truly productive.

For those who inhabit virtual worlds, this is also self-evident, but it’s another aspect that’s difficult to illustrate to the business skeptic. The recent increase in awareness of virtual meetings as cost-savers may actually be the factor that overcomes the initial wariness so that the power of the solution comes through.

Ok, I’m the Marketing gal who drinks my own Kool-Aid—true. But, I’m also a believer, and if you’re not already—you will be, too. Just try it and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Of course, Linden Lab touting the power of virtual world meetings is a little like a hamburger chain espousing the health benefits of their burgers. That said, the growing evidence around the efficacy of virtual worlds for enterprise supports their case, although it continually needs to be communicated in disciplined business terms. It’s been stated repeatedly that the current economic climate may actually be beneficial for virtual worlds and the enterprise. That may be true, but only disciplined ROI arguments will fully overcome the intrinsic skepticism entrenched in the minds of most business leaders.

Filed Under: Business, General News, Virtual Worlds

LOCUS

February 7, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Over on the Official Linden Blog, the latest instalment in their Stories from Second Life series features LOCUS, a collection of architectural designs in one area, with a core emphasis on art installations and featured artists.

locus

It seems a liitle strange though, that nowhere is a SLURL provided for LOCUS in the story (here’s one for you).

I had a brief catch-up in-world with LOCUS’ DB Bailey, who was unaware of the Linden Lab story (which also seems strange). Robin Linden also states in the story that LOCUS has plans to move to its own island – DB Bailey’s response to that is: “no we plan to stay here next to our friends at CETUS.

It’s certainly a worthy project to feature – the attention to detail and level of creativity with the builds is superb. We’re hoping to catch up with DB Bailey again in coming weeks to discuss the LOCUS project further.

Check it out in-world

Filed Under: Art, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

2009: the year the ATO wakes up?

February 5, 2009 by 2 Comments

In recent weeks over on Terra Nova, Julian Dibbell has raised the issue again of taxation and virtual worlds. It’s worth a read purely to gain some insight into the complexity of the issue. As Dibbell states, it’s a lot more than the concept of taxing the sale of virtual goods, although that’s likely to be the driving force of any actions by governments.

linden-exchange

On the Australian front, back in October 2006 the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age reported on advice from the Australian Tax Office (ATO), which was:

People trading in virtual worlds should consider very carefully whether they are conducting a business or a hobby

Since then, there’s been no real change in approach from the ATO – I’m not aware of any campaign to enforce taxation on earnings in virtual worlds. One assumption would be that enforcement is so fraught with difficulties that it remains in the ‘too-hard’ basket, and rightly so. Even in the two or so years since the ATO made that comment, there are even more complicating factors, not least of which is the continued growth in virtual world platforms. Imagine trying to audit a virtual world entrepreneur who makes money in Second Life that he /she partly cashes out in US dollars whilst keeping the bulk in-world in Linden Dollars. If they then operate their business on an OpenSim grid with a different virtual currency, you can imagine the compliance nightmares for the entrepreneur, let alone the ability of the ATO to make any sense of the whole operation.

That said, in a real-world environment of shrinking tax revenues and the growing focus by the US Government on the issue, it’s hard to imagine the ATO are going to continue to sit on their hands for another year. A sensible start would be an inquiry into the challenges of virtual taxation, with the opportunity for virtual world users to provide submissions on a way forward. It would be potentially disastrous if a heavy-handed approach eventuated, that impacted on the multitude of small business people operating successfully in worlds like Second Life now.

The hobby/business continuum has always been a grey area – the only sensible approach for those operating business in virtual worlds is to assume they have a business, not a hobby. With that approach, whenever regulation does eventuate the transparency is already established. Increased regulation seems an inevitability – it’s how that regulation is implemented that will need to be watched closely.

What are your thoughts – can you see the ATO getting more active in the area or is the cost of ensuring compliance too great for the potential returns?

Filed Under: Australian News, Business, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

Companies and 3D Virtual Worlds: one detailed analysis

February 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment

stavros There’s an ever-growing pile of books on virtual worlds available, ranging from tour guides to detailed ethnography.

One publication that slipped under the radar for me at least (it was published in May 2008) is Companies and Virtual 3D Worlds – Analysis of Business Model at the Example of Second Life. Written by Stavros Pechlivanidis, a Managing Consultant and IT Specialist for IBM Global Services, this book is actually a Masters Thesis for Pechlivanidis’ MBA studies, and it shows. I mean that in a positive way, in that it’s apparent a lot of research has gone into the final product. That said, this isn’t a book for the faint hearted and is probably only suited to people working in business who are taking an in-depth look at the applicability of virtual worlds for their enterprise. Publisher VDM Verlag kindly provided me a review copy, so read on for my thoughts below.

What has impressed me with this book is the strategic view it takes. There’s plenty of information on the macro environmental factors impacting virtual worlds (political, social, economic and technological), including some great evaluation of these factors:

Other aspects covered include virtual world industry segmentation and their individual success factor, and a business model overview for virtual worlds. This leads directly into the guts of the thesis: analysing the different business models within Second Life. Everything from Anshe Chung to currency exchanges are examined in the context of the research literature on business models more broadly. Three broad categories are cited: C-Business (creative business models), I-Business (interconnectedness between real world and virtual world or between different virtual worlds as a way of doing business) and V-Business (virtual business occurring solely in a virtual world). It provides Pechlivanidis a springboard from which to analyse the strategic opportunities for business across all three spheres.

Overall, this is an extremely comprehensive book that is aimed squarely at business. It’s breadth and rigour make it a desirable reference source as business shows more interest in virtual worlds. It stands out for its provision of new information rather than just summarising information found elsewhere, which isn’t unexpected given its academic underpinnings.

You can buy the book from our bookstore by clicking here or if you’d prefer we not get a (very small) cut, the direct Amazon link is here.

Filed Under: Business, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Growth predicted in virtual events for enterprise

February 1, 2009 by 6 Comments

on24 A survey released a couple of weeks back by virtual event solutions provider, ON24, shows again the momentum in virtual worlds for enterprise. ON24 surveyed ten thousand or so enterprise executives – no details are provided on the survey sample demographics or method. We’ve contacted ON24 to clarify that and will update this story with any response they provide.

Update: ON24 have responded with the following: “The survey sample included 10,000 decision makers of corporate events and marketing within the Fortune 2500 segment in North America. The sample included all industries.”

ON24 provide four key results from their survey on trends in meeting attendance:

42% expect participation in physical trade shows to be down by as much as 50%
64% expect to have fewer physical sales kick off seminars – or none at all
60% expect training, management and other internal events to be down 20 – 50%
A full 76% said their company has already begun using virtual events (53%) or plans to begin using them (23%) to supplement some of their physical events in 2009

The promising findings in regard to views on virtual meetings were:

While 61% said they would miss seeing people in person, less than half felt they would miss traveling to other locations (34%), enjoying the social activities (36%) or seeing speakers in person (20%). Respondents found several aspects of virtual participation to be particularly appealing:

75% appreciated that there is no travel required
64% liked that they can attend the virtual sessions on their own time schedules
58% found it useful to be able to “forward” to their colleagues virtual sessions that they thought would be of interest to them

More than one third of respondents cited the social networking benefits of virtual events, including the ability to see a list of all attendees in advance (35%); to contact other attendees online throughout the event (40%) and to get information on people (32%) and companies (34%) they meet electronically.

Essentially, the argument is that the economic difficulties business faces at present will make virtual events more desirable from a cost viewpoint. This is a very valid argument, but one that needs to be made in combination with a well-integrated virtual meeting solution. Those are already hitting the marketplace, so perhaps virtual worlds for enterprise will continue to defy the economic trends in the real world.

Locally, Ross Dawson’s Future Exploration Network is running its Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum again this year. I had the pleasure of facilitating a small-group discussion on virtual worlds and business last year and I’m looking forward to doing something similar again this year by facilitating a 20-minute mini-workshop.

Thanks to VW News for the heads-up on the ON24 survey.

Filed Under: Business, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Virtual Worlds: 2009 industry forecast

January 23, 2009 by Leave a Comment

US-based Virtual Worlds Management have released their Virtual Worlds Management Industry Forecast 2009 . It features commentary from more than 60 executives across the virtual worlds industry, including Australia’s Santosh Kulkarni (NICTA), Danny Stefanic (ExitReality), Bruce Joy (VastPark), and Bob Quodling (Mycosm).

vw-forecast-2009

Condensing a report of this size into a few paragraphs is always fraught with difficulty, but the main messages standing out for me were:

1. There’s not surprisingly very different estimates put forward on the level of growth this year, given the current economic circumstances;

2. There’s significant confidence that advertising models are evolving that make virtual worlds competitive with social networks like Facebook, particularly given the growth in virtual goods on those platforms;

3. Web-driven worlds are seen as having the most momentum for 2009;

4. Enterprise use of virtual worlds remains unclear, with a split between those who believe the economic climate provides opportunities to demonstrate cost savings versus those who believe any IT expenditure will be under significant scrutiny.

From the Aussie contingent, one of the more amusing comments came from VastPark’s Bruce Joy:

3D on the Web will continue to be a bit disappointing, but will become far more commonplace through Unity and Flash based engines like Papervision. This suggests 2010 may be the watershed year where 3D on the Web goes mainstream. That’s when we all become rock stars and live large, right?

Mycosm’s Bob Quodling claims “Wireless mobile will be the biggest play” – is that as opposed to ‘Wired Mobile’?

Danny Stefanic from ExitReality sees much clearer ROI cases coming forward for business, whilst Santosh Kulkarni from NICTA cites the developments in interoperability between worlds a key issue.

If you’re interested in some comprehensive thoughts from the virtual worlds industry itself, then have a read of the full report. We’d love to hear your thoughts – is the report a realistic assessment of 2009 prospects, a group of insular assertions from an industry desperate to gain mainstream relevance, or something else altogether?

Filed Under: Australian News, Business, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , , , ,

Second Life: a monopolistic marketplace?

January 22, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Today, Linden Lab announced that they’ve acquired two third-party, web-based marketplaces, Xstreet SL and OnRez. On the face of it, such an acquisition is likely to appeal to current Second Life residents and provide a more intuitive virtual goods purchasing option for new users when they register. What caught my eye however, was this statement:

As we go forward towards a single, unified Second Life marketplace, we are excited to build on the work that you, along with Xstreet SL and OnRez teams, have done.

Is a single, unified marketplace a totally desirable thing? It’s not usually and it’s hard to get excited about the prospect of a lack of competition. Other competitors may pop up, but the likely dominance of the now Linden Lab driven marketplace is going to make alternatives difficult.

With the burgeoning interest in virtual goods, Linden Lab’s move makes good business sense. That doesn’t mean it will benefit the wider populace of Second Life beyond simplicity and arguably greater security. It’ll be fascinating to see if this development increases what is already a healthy virtual goods throughput, and if so, whether prices are impacted adversely by the lack of larger, organised competition.

Filed Under: Business, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With:

Therapy and the metaverse

January 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Mark Kizelshteyn (SL: Chronos Laval) is a virtual world researcher and one of two principals at virtual worlds developer Popcha!. As part of his recent university studies he completed a paper called Therapy and The Metaverse: Second Life and The Changing Conditions of Therapy For Convalescent and Chronically Ill Users, which will be published in Washington University’s Undergraduate Research Digest – you can download the full article here.

popcha

Kizelshteyn will be discussing his work in Second Life on January 22nd between 1 and 2 pm SLT / PST (8am Friday 23rd January AEDST), with John Lester (Pathfinder Linden) launching proceedings. The venue will Popcha! headquarters. If you’d like to attend you’ll need to RSVP to Chronos Laval in Second Life. The paper itself is a useful overview of what virtual worlds like Second Life offer in regards to engagement, a sense of community and the ability to experience presence in ways that may not be feasible in real-life for people with chronic illnesses. The case study in the article (Amy the DJ) is well encapsulated and illustrates the power of the interaction in Second Life really well.

There’s no dearth of health research going on and even broad articles like this illustrate the depth of work going on. With virtual world development businesses realising the potential in the market, there’s also a growing realisation whilst that rigour in approach to development for health presences needs to mirror the discipline applied to health endeavours themselves.

Filed Under: General News, Health, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: ,

Forterra release paper on enterprise virtual worlds

January 16, 2009 by 1 Comment

Virtual world developer for enterprise and government, Forterra, have released a white paper titled Recipe for Success with Enterprise Virtual Worlds.

forterra-whitepaper

Aside from an overview of the potential of virtual worlds in business, the cost comparisons may catch the eye of some enterprises looking at cost-cutting measures.

Additionally, an interesting case study is provided on Accenture and its initial use of Forterra’s OLIVE platform to determine the utility of the approach for its own business. The short story is that Accenture are working on a wider business case for virtual world utilisation as a money-saving proposition – in their case primarily for training and meetings.

If you’ve not heard of Accenture then you won’t be aware of what a behemoth they are in the worldwide business sphere. As a management consulting company they have more than 186 thousand employees with a revenue of over US$23 billion. If widespread adoption were to occur in a business that size, it alone would create some significant momentum in the virtual world sphere. Add to that the impact Accenture have in their consulting role – if they end up advocating enterprise virtual worlds as a legitimate business strategy, then even the more optimistic forecasts to date on adoption of the technology may start to look conservative.

You can download the full paper here – by pitching their product mid-field between teleconferencing and videoconferencing, Forterra has started to make inroads with companies of the scale of Accenture and assisted in the eventual development of a cohesive ROI case. That can only assist the wider virtual world industry in demonstrating its potential. It’s ironic that the ecomonic downturn may be the thing that helps overcome the intrinsic cynicism of business toward virtual worlds as it becomes apparent they may actually assist in business costs.

What’s your view? Is Accenture’s momentum in the area a sign of further significant growth on the horizon or just a behemoth of a company testing the waters to keep abreast of developments?

Filed Under: Business, General News, Virtual Worlds Tagged With: , ,

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