Second Life

10 questions for virtual world evangelists (Microsoft's) Zain Naboulsi, and (G-Squared's) Kyle Gomboy

Microsoft Subnet — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:44:32 -0400

Welcome to a new regular feature of this blog … "10 questions for … " where we talk to interesting people in the Microsoft world through a series of 10 questions (more or less, but who's counting?) Think of this as a cross between James Lipton (Actor's Studio) and Robert Scoble (Scobleizer). For the inaugural entry in the series, Microsoft Subnet interviewed two of the people responsible for Microsoft's presence in Second Life and other virtual worlds.

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Technology that you should know

Chip Wenz — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:30:32 -0400

I got to go to a concert last week (if you get a chance to see the Warped Tour…do it the bands are great) and I was fairly amazed at the level of technology that was being displayed not only by the venue, but all of the bands that I got to see. I seemed like sometime during the set someone in the band would mention that you could visit them on MySpace or some other website so that you could see the rest of their tour dates, or listen to a song off of their new album…isn’t technology great!

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Second Life celebrates five years of virtual life

Keith Shaw — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:33:47 -0400

A colleague is planning to attend a birthday party this weekend with 20 5-year-olds at a bowling alley – that sounds more exciting than the Second Life 5th-birthday party, scheduled to begin on Tuesday, June 23, and running through July 7. Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world, is creating a series of roundtable discussions, parties and exhibits that show off the world and showcase creative projects built by residents. Events include discussions around the evolution of Second Life's culture, the role of virtual worlds in business, and opportunities for education, art, philanthropy and health care, a press release states. Linden Lab Founder Philip Rosedale and newly appointed CEO Mark Kingdon will give opening keynote addresses, and Mitch Kapor (founder of Lotus) will offer closing remarks. A schedule of events is listed here. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that this world has lasted this long, considering all of the hype that happened last year and then the backlash once all these businesses opened up shop in the world and then discovered that people were only going to the "adult" or gambling areas. Virtual worlds may eventually be useful for businesses, but probably not in the format that Second Life residents or others had hoped.

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John Chambers Q&A in Second Life and yet another video game from Cisco

Cisco Subnet — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:25:07 -0400

Cisco announced that its Cisco Live hub in Second Life is now open and ready for avatar business -- or rather avatar play. As part of this Second Life launch, Cisco is challenging all comers to try their hands at a new Cisco game. The Virtual Worlds blog says ( -- and this is not satire ...

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Microsoft MVPs gathering; Microsoft in Second Life and Microsoft NASCAR won't go

Microsoft Subnet — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:18:47 -0400

From the random stuff file ... Microsoft is hosting a shindig for 1,800 of its Most Valuable Professionals in Seattle this week. Microsoft has awarded the MVP designation to 4,000 professionals worldwide.

MVPs are individuals that do not work for Microsoft but who answer questions and otherwise support Microsoft technology. MVPs also tend to get first looks at Microsoft products and to influence feature sets of upcoming products.

Several Microsoft Subnet bloggers have earned their MVP designations in 2008 including MOM MVP Kerrie Meyler. (Her new book is also our April book giveaway.)

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Cisco's naked launch party for the ASR 1000 router

Cisco Subnet — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:52:24 -0500

"It was an interesting situation, talking about the power of the Quantum Flow Processor to people without their clothes on," Doug Webster, director of service-provider marketing is quoted as saying in today's IDG News Serivce story. Webster was talking about Cisco big launch of its ASR 1000 router, an event in which Cisco left no marketing stone unturned, apparently. The event was accompanied by a Facebook group, a product demonstration in Second Life, as well as the Santa, Easter Bunny and Cupid video teasers we mentioned last month.

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Cisco opens virtual hospital in Second Life

Cisco Subnet — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:58:19 -0500

If you've always fancied yourself as a doctor but chose networking as a career instead, don't worry, you can wonder around the virtual wards of the Palomar Pomerado Health hospital to your heart's content, courtesy of Cisco and Second Life. The hospital is a virtual representation of the bricks-and-mortar facility - the $811 million Palomar West Medical Campus due to open in San Diego in 2011.

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RE: Does Al-Qaeda need a Second Life?

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:38:33 -0500

Ugh.. where to start? "...created by Linden Research" -Linden Lab, not research, or labs. "whose virtual store was bombed and invaded by armed avatars who shot and injured several virtual customers." - In Second Life, you can only be harmed in zones that allow it, neither land did. When you 'die', all it does is teleport you back to where you first rezed or have set a home location. -No architecture or people were hurt. I don't mean to make this look like anything less than griefing, but objects in SL CAN NOT be modified without the owner's approval. "With many known online discussion forums and websites now infiltrated by government snoops, the terrorists may look to virtual worlds as a place to meet up and share information. And maybe swap funds, too."

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Cisco: Let them eat virtual cake (and other Cisco goodies at CES 2008)

Cisco Subnet — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:45:16 -0500

The consumer electronics buyer is the new CIO and Cisco is hoping to place its brand in the consumer psyche by making a big splash at next week's Consumer Electronics Show. As well as launching a raft of Scientific-Atlanta- and Linksys-developed gear to highlight what Cisco dubbs "visual networking", Cisco will also be celebrating the first birthday of its Cisco Campus on Second Life.

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IP Configuration on firewall for Second Life

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 07:20:56 -0500

Hi, i need to know the IP for Second Life, to configure the FireWall on my company network.

Cisco seeks a Gartner of the virtual worlds

Cisco Subnet — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:33:51 -0400

Cisco's chief virtual avatar is expected to launch a virtual worlds tracking organization that will help businesses measure how successful their virtual worlds are.

In his blog earlier this week, Christian Renaud, chief architect of Network Virtual Environments for the Cisco Technology Center, called for a market index that captures and analyzes the key metrics of the virtual worlds - a Gartner for the virtual world.

Later, TechCrunch reported that Renaud is expected to launch the Metaverse Market Index (MMI) at Virtual Worlds Fall next week.

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Cisco opens virtual trade show for channel partners

Cisco Subnet — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:32:26 -0400

Adding another element to its Web 2.0 strategy, Cisco launched a Second Life-like virtual world for its global channel partners.

The Cisco Industry Solutions Partner Network (ISPN) is loosely based on the animated look and feel of Second Life and related sites, channel partners don't need to pick an avatar, download a desktop application or trade in Linden Dollars, according to a story in Computerworld.

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Cisco to demonstrate the 'serious' side of the virtual phenomena

Cisco Subnet — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:50:50 -0400

Further demonstrating its interest in the virtual world, Cisco is collaborating with Giunti Labs, a European vendor of e-learning, and the newly formed Serious Games Institute of the U.K.'s Coventry University to show off the "serious" applications that could be conducted in virtual realms such as SecondLife.

At the TechnoCentre at Conventry University Park, taking place on Sept. 13 - 14, the organizations will demonstrate how technology could be used for communication and collaboration, education and training, scenario planning, and for research, according to Giunti Labs.

Second Life to get HBO treatment

Layer 8 — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:58:17 -0400

It's not just TV, it's Second Life TV on HBO. The cable movie giant announced today it picked up the documentary "My Second Life: The Video Diaries of Molotov Alva."

According to Variety, the film was shot entirely in the popular virtual universe Second Life. Reuters reports that HBO paid six-figures for the rights to Alva.

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Get a First Life (Part III)

Miles Baska — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 13:15:05 -0400

I have stated earlier that I don't "get it" -- why are real companies rushing into 2L with real dollars? It's just a game, right? I think they missed the first Web 2.0 wave -- they arrived late to the MySpace and YouTube party -- and they don't want to miss out on "The Next Big Thing". But look at the numbers, quoting Wired Magazine:

According to Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, the number of avatars created by distinct individuals was closer to 4 million. Of those, only about 1 million had logged on in the previous 30 days (the standard measure of Internet traffic), and barely a third of that total had bothered to drop by in the previous week. Most of those who did were from Europe or Asia, leaving a little more than 100,000 Americans per week to be targeted by US marketers.

And why do those 100,000 Americans bother to come back to 2L? Again, from the article:

On a random day in June, the most popular location was Money Island (where Linden dollars, the official currency, are given away gratis), with a score of 136,000. Sexy Beach, one of several regions that offer virtual sex shops, dancing, and no-strings hookups, came in at 133,000. The Sears store on IBM's Innovation Island had a traffic score of 281; Coke's Virtual Thirst pavilion, a mere 27.

It wasn't Micro$oft's Encarta that put a CD-ROM in your computer -- it was Virtual Valerie and Penthouse's Photo Shoot, so perhaps 2L will overcome technical issues (it's not scaling well) and become TNBT. It's lonely when you're the first one to the party, and many corporate players are investing heavily to come early. IBM, the NBA, Coca-Cola -- they all want to be there if it happens. But I'm getting one of those Dick Cheney "gut feelings" about this one...

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Cisco travels deeper into the virtual world

Cisco Subnet — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:38:33 -0400

Just as Cisco launches its Virtual World Blog comes added speculation that it is preparing to acquire some companies to boost its virtual efforts. The ReBang blog has been speculating since Cisco pocketed WebEx that the network giant would acquire Qwaq, provider of "virtual spaces for real work". Imagine virtual workspaces married with WebEx's on-demand collaboration services.

ReBang writes:

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Get a First Life (Part II)

Miles Baska — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:57:47 -0400

Linden Labs developed Second Life as a game, but it's gone nuts. Neurotics build sandcastles in the sky, psychotics move into them, and shrinks collect the rent. Check this post from Technolgy Review:

There's a long line of avatars waiting to use the automatic-teller machines for Ginko Financial, a virtual bank in the online game Second Life. For more than a week, account holders have been demanding their money back in what some folks are calling a bank run. Set off by high interest rates and a recent ban on in-game gambling, the bank run could ultimately have a major effect on the game's economy. The theft of approximately $12,000 from the Second Life World Stock Exchange doesn't help matters either.

It's not that long ago that a 2L worm was able to steal an avatar's resources, yet millions of people are drawn into 2L and they are spending real money there. IBM has invested $1M (alleged) creating a presence in 2L. When does a game stop being a game?

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Get a First Life

Miles Baska — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:27:06 -0400

It's summer, so I guess there's just not enough going on to keep the press busy. After all, they've been riding the Lindsey Lohan horse for nearly two weeks now. So what are they talking about today... They are worried about Second Life, created by Linden Labs. There are about 8.5M Second Life users. From LL's web site:

Linden Lab was founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a revolutionary new form of shared experience, where individuals jointly inhabit a 3D landscape and build the world around them. Today this experience, known as Second Life, has a rapidly growing population of Residents from 100 countries around the globe, who are creating and inhabiting a virtual world of their own design.

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RE: IBM tells employees to behave in Second Life

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:27:12 -0400

The "so called" masters are using this to gather data on "real" people, not for their benefit, but for their demise. Have you ever heard of S.E.A.S? Sounds like the same thing! Re: IBM tells employees to behave in Second Life.

Comcast Gets a Life

Greg Royal — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 21:03:52 -0400

Russell Shaw at ZDNet is reporting that Comcast has a brand new Second Life Theme Park. It is called Comcastic Island:

there will also be an entertainment center featuring Second Life and real world music and bands, an expo center and café featuring virtual cuisine, and Comcastic Labs which promises additional “speed themed experiences” for visitors. Many of the attractions will feature Comcast products and services.

It is no surprise that Comcast has moved into the Linden Life given that they want to be seen as the progressive coax purveyor. Also punters can suck all their Comcast bandwidth building their own virtual worlds....