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Journalism in Second life: research underway

August 17, 2008 by 1 Comment

In the past week i had the pleasure of spending an hour with Annabelle Boyd Jones, an Honours research student from the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney.

Her research is on the role of journalism and governance in Second Life. To my knowledge this is an unexplored research area and should provide for some fascinating results. I’m pleased to have been what will hopefully be one of many research subjects. The Fourth Estate role of journalism in virtual worlds is at an early but influential stage. Research like Annabelle’s will help to encapsulate the progress so far and the challenges to come.

Kudos to the University of Sydney in driving communications research in arenas like virtual worlds.

If you’d like to put your view forward on this topic, head to Annabelle’s blog.

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

Joseph Jaffe to early Second Life marketers: fail

August 16, 2008 by 2 Comments

Joseph Jaffe runs a marketing company called crayon and in the lead up to a visit to Australia Marketing Magazine have completed an interview with Jaffe on his thoughts about Second Life as a platform.

He’s fairly scathing on some of the earlier marketing efforts in Second Life, something older Second Life residents would agree heartily with. He equates SL with a new continent and that those early pioneer marketers squandered a great opportunity.

Here’s the interview in full:

Thanks to Mal Burns for the heads-up.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , ,

Von Johin’s public relations bid for ‘stardom’

August 13, 2008 by 10 Comments

Today we received a breathless press release announcing a ‘world first’. The release in full then some commentary afterward:

PRESS RELEASE
Virtual Reality Becomes Reality for Second Life Musician

Foresthill, CA – For the first time in history, a virtual avatar has received a real worldwide recording contract. Second Life (SL) blues musician Von Johin has been signed to an artist contract with California based Reality Entertainment, Warren Croyle, CEO of Reality Entertainment, announced today. “Never before has a virtual character been signed to a worldwide recording contract. Von Johin is legendary in the virtual community Second Life for his heart pounding live shows,” says Croyle. Second Life resident Pud Puchkina, who in real life is director of operations for the east coast division of Reality Entertainment and Second Life resident Kateyes Wingtips, the virtual representative for Reality Entertainment have been scouting the growing number of live performers in SL for several months and handling the daunting task of choosing the Avatar that fits the ethos of Reality Entertainment – a multimedia, virtual music label, book publisher and film company. Puchkina stated, “It was a hard decision, but Von Johin is the real deal, he is original and plays from his heart. Just the man and his guitar, with just these two instruments and a virtual appeal like no other, he brings crowds to their feet daily.” Reality Entertainment plans to release Von Johin’s debut album exclusively on iTunes and then to all digital download outlets worldwide.

About Reality Entertainment:

www.reality-entertainment.com

Reality Entertainment (RE) is a diverse multimedia company that specializes in music, books and film. Known for #1 musical acts such as Marcy Playground and KC and the Sunshine Band, RE also is known for #1 best selling books on Amazon.com as well as nationally successful films such as The Extraordinary Voyages of Jules Verne.

About Von Johin:

Blues musician, guitarist and vocalist, Von Johin hails from Nashville, TN and grew up playing juke joints across the Midwest. An ardent follower of the blues greats, Von Johin delivers his powerful shows every week in the clubs and dance halls of Second Life. Once you hear Von Johin you never forget him because he is a unique performer who resonates deeply with his audience providing compelling and hypnotizing performances.

About Second Life:

http://secondlife.com

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. Each Resident participates in a virtual environment via their “Avatar” or second life persona. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has experienced explosive growth and today is inhabited by millions of residents from around the globe. Recently, live performances have become a viral phenomenon in Second Life with real life musicians performing to audiences within the SL global community.

Ok – there are two obvious flaws with the press release. First, there’s absolutely no way of verifying that this is the first avatar to have music ‘published’ worldwide. Second, any individual can now publish their music worldwide on iTunes using services like TuneCore for the princely sum of US $9.99 per year.

Expecting hyperbole from PR people is par for course, but this is an outright case of trying to get the lead spot in a race where the race already over. Applying 20th century concepts (worldwide recording contract) to the metaverse is bordering on farcical. It’ll be fascinating to see if the mainstream media pick this release up.

All that said, no comment is made on Von Johin’s ability as a musician. Avatar music performance in Second Life is one of it’s most interesting activities and here’s to continued growth in that area.

Update: Wired and New World Notes have picked up the story with no hint of understanding that everyone can buy their own ‘world record deal’.

Update 2: Von Johin has contacted us to emphasise that he is the first avatar to sign a record deal and given there’s no contrary evidence we accept that he is indeed the first. We also accept that the record deal may involve activities that offer more than services like TuneCore do. The main point was the hyperbole in the press release and the reality of cheap digital music delivery methods available to anyone wanting to utilise them. Of course, the purpose of record deals are to increase sales, so we look forward to seeing increased sales of music by avatars in Second Life.

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

Kzero: 7 Point Plan for Marketing in Virtual Worlds

August 12, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Kzero have released an updated version of their 7 Point Plan for marketing in virtual worlds. It’s a free publication that can be ordered here.

There’s certainly a plethora of white papers, discussion papers and case studies around now – the only thing left is the holy grail of a true ROI case for investment in virtual worlds.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: ,

Google Lively’s creator scores keynote at VW London

August 1, 2008 by Leave a Comment

As mentioned previously, we’re a media partner for the Virtual Worlds London conference. They’ve just announced that the creator of Google’s Lively, Niniane Wang, will be a keynote speaker.

A new session called FastPitch has been introduced, which allows companies to showcase their virtual worlds-related service or product. You will need to provide a submission beforehand and the best will get the stage for their pitch.

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

Clever Zebra release two virtual worlds white papers

July 30, 2008 by Leave a Comment

To coincide with their latest vBusiness Expo, Clever Zebra have released two white papers – available at no cost.

The first is The Essential 7 Point Quick Start for Meetings Professionals, the other is Going Virtual: A Three Point Success Plan for Business.

To get copies, click on the incorrectly titled ‘Download your copy now’ links at this page – you’ll then need to enter your name and email address and then wait a day or so to be emailed the documents. That said, I did get my copies within an hour or so.

The documents themselves are aimed squarely at businesses not yet fully engaged with virtual worlds, and in that context these are quite useful and simple to read. For the more informed there are some contentious statements made. An example:

A Virtual World does not have rules, quests, or any kind of narrative associated with it.
World of Warcraft is not a Virtual World.

That’s one narrow view of virtual worlds – albeit one that will appeal to larger businesses who will have a natural aversion to gaming-based scenarios. Credit where credit’s due though, Clever Zebra don’t beat about the bush about Second Life’s stability issues:

Second Life is notoriously unstable, and regularly crashes, or limps along with limited
inworld services as the system experiences peak loads.

Overall, these two documents are worthy additions to the growing free body of knowledge for business in virtual worlds.

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

Introducing: Metaverse Health

July 29, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I’m really pleased to introduce a new sister site to The Metaverse Journal: Metaverse Health. It’s a completed site now but expect further enhancements in coming weeks.

In the time we’ve been covering virtual worlds, health is one of the key areas that pops up time and time again as both a key opportunity and pivotal challenge. Whether it be the power of thought-controlled avatars for those with profound physical disabilities, the spectre of virtual world addiction or sex education for teenagers, there’s no shortage of stories to bring you.

As always, comments and feedback welcome. Also, if health and virtual worlds is a passion and you’d like to write about it, contact us to discuss your ideas further.

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

The impact of brands on virtual worlds

July 26, 2008 by 1 Comment

Second Life blogger Dusan Writer has written a detailed article on the impact he believes brands have had on virtual worlds and the trend toward smaller virtual worlds.

His tone is best summed up by this paragraph:

And this social media stuff has been a drag too. Best we could do for the poor suffering brands was to come up with the idea of “viral” – which really means “something short, like a commercial, only we’ll get consumers to pass it around rather than pay for media placement”. Because look, everyone’s ignoring your banner ads on youTube, and if you get involved with Facebook widgets you might end up next door to some rocker chick posting half-naked pictures of herself and joining the “I Slept with Someone On Facebook” group, and that’s can’t be so hot for brand equity right?

The section showing different worlds and their alleged immersive elements is worth a look alone.
What say you?

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: ,

Age demographics and virtual worlds

July 24, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Metrics gurus Kzero have released a new breakdown of the age variances by type of virtual world frequented.

There’s no big surprises but the figures do further emphasise the power of the pre-teen and teen market for social virtual worlds.

Thanks to Pavig Lok for the heads-up.

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

Call for chapters: book on ethics in virtual worlds

July 22, 2008 by 2 Comments

Got a hankering to write a scholarly article on an ethics and virtual worlds-related issue?

Then check this out. There’s nothing like a book credit on your CV.

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

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