Second Life woos corporations – too little, too late?

Just recently in the news, Linden Labs (the creators of Second Life) and IBM have announced that they will allow corporations to run isolated portions of the Second Life universe on their own administrated servers to cater their business needs.

I used to work at a company that was exploring the business uses of Second Life. Sad to say the subject has been so dead over here in Europe that this all seems a lot like something that should have been ready during the hype 2 years ago.

Not to mention, this whole setup sounds all to familiar to the way in which ActiveWorlds works; and a lot of good it did that.
For years, Linden Labs has argued that its sole hosting of the Second Life universe was a unique selling point, something that made it more secure, more reliable than its competitors.

Sorry Linden Labs, you really have lost me.
I’m ready to jump aboard the OpenSim, Croquet and Multiverse projects!

See: NY Times Article “Second Life: Tamed for Corporate Consumption”.

Notes from NextNight Second Life – Part 2

Part 2 of my notes from the Second Life symposium from February 27th, 2007.

Bas van Ulden – ABN Amro bank

ABN Amro, the Dutch international bank, was one of the first Dutch high profile companies to have a presence in Second Life. Over the last few months they have often been used as an example how to do things right and wrong in Second Life.

As leader of the team involved in getting ABN Amro in Second Life, Bas van Ulden was the perfect person to share inside information on what the bank had learned from their activities in Second Life.

Notes from NextNight Second Life – Part 1

Part 1 of my notes from the Second Life symposium from February 27th, 2007.

Barend Raaff – DNB Media

Barend Raaff is managing partner of the multimedia company DNBmedia.

As an introduction to the symposium, Barend wanted to share his vision of Second Life and the category of virtual worlds as a whole.

One of the most important things to remember is that like the television, the telephone and the internet, virtual worlds are nothing more than a new form of media: a new medium through which we can communicate with each other.

As with the introduction of every new medium, it takes time for us to truly grasp the unique value and benefits of a new medium; let alone to use it to its full potential.

Next Night 2.0: Second Life – Hit of Hype?

I’ve just come back from an interesting symposium on Second Life.

The symposium, titled “Next Night 2.0: Second Life – Hit of Hype?“, was organised by the Dutch new media organisation Generation Next.

Speakers were Barend Raaf (DNB Media) , Bas van Ulden (ABN Amro bank), Dobre Burgh ([Lost in] the magic forest) and David de Nood (EPN).

Although much of their stories were much along the same lines as what I have discovered about Second Life and 3d virtual worlds, i found that most were on the ball. They also gave me some great sound bytes and succinct descriptions and terminologies that could turn out to be very handy.

Main plus of the evening though, was Bas van Ulden’s story on how the ABN Amro project began and what they have learnt so far from experimenting with virtual worlds as a corporate communications platform. Some great pointers, a couple of eye-openers and an engaging enthousiastic speaker to boot.
Great job Bas!

Next post: my notes from this event.

Yet Another Second Life Blog?

Second Life is really getting a huge amount of media attention these days: it’s on the news and in the papers practically every day. Companies are scrambling over each other to get involved and make a killing.

But what is really going on?
Is Second Life the true future of the internet?

I’ve started this blog because I want to give my two cents on this new medium and how I feel it fits into the scope new media.

Yes, there will be copy-pastes from news feeds and the like; but never without my personal point of view on the matter.

Who knows, I might open your eyes to something.

Stay Tuned!