A new virtual world launches Monday and will stagger the release of passcodes in order to deal with the mad rush of people who want to wander around a slightly better version of Google Earth in order to pick up coupons and look at shoes….or that’s the impression given by the screen shots and videos of Near. The 3D shopping mall, er, world, was developed by NearGlobal and has Rivers Run Red as its creative partner.
Rivers’ prexy Justin Bovington, recently commenting on the launch of Second Life Enterprise, said that 3D content needs to be more relevant: “”It has be less Xstreet, more Wall Street. It has to reflect relevance, rather than drowning us all in deluge of content: clothing, furniture and avatars.”
At least with Near he got rid of the latter – the new ‘virtual world’ will bypass some of the concurrency issues by bypassing avatars altogether. And I suppose that the clothing and furniture and stuff is being developed by Rivers….whether it’s a deluge or not remains to be seen. So maybe Justin wasn’t actually thinking of Second Life so much as he was laying the groundwork for the new 3D mall.
Near promises to “radically broaden the appeal of virtual worlds” according to an interview/press release on 3DTLC. In another corner of the metaverse, Twinity, which pretty much tried to do the same thing only with Berlin and WITH avatars, is now offering a relocation service for those of you exiled to Berlin:
The idea is to acquaint future Berlin residents with the city’s layout and some of its features. Berlin, along with London and Singapore, are the first cities to be recreated using the Twinity software. From a home or office computer, future residents of Berlin can “download a free guide, meet at a personal guided tour and get an idea of the layout of the city, the distances involved and the amenities in the new location before they arrive.”
Now, Near may be early to the game of mirroring London but it won’t be the last. The makers of Grand Theft Auto are in the process of creating a procedurally generated MMO based on all of England (let alone London) with an anticipated launch date over the coming year or so. With every square inch of the UK mapped out and with the game designers behind GTA managing the project towards maximizing entertainment, Near had better do more than get rid of the crowds.
Pick up your CD of Near on the streets of London starting tomorrow, or download (download??? yeah – it’s not browser-based) starting tomorrow, or catch the video now.
Relevance is to each viewser.
Context is part of the toolbox for the designer.
This project appears to me as yet another repeated cycle.
Maybe they will “value add relevance” beyond what I find at twinity.
best to them.
c3
Looks like Twinity without avatars, good luck but I’ll most likely be not joining Near.
I think I’ve been caught by the Google camera car at least twice now. Being in the UK is increasingly like living in a fishbowl. Shoutout for the Second London folk too who, as I found out yesterday, are in many of the virtual world platforms. Finally, a lot of people find avatars creepy so maybe this will appeal. Forsaking virtual for RL goods is a tough call though.
Your comment on the quote I made about Enterprise usage:
Dusan’s comment: “Rivers’ prexy Justin Bovington, recently commenting on the launch of Second Life Enterprise, said that 3D content needs to be more relevant: It has be less Xstreet, more Wall Street. It has to reflect relevance, rather than drowning us all in deluge of content: clothing, furniture and avatars.”
As you very well know, this comment is in direct relation to the fact that Second Life is awash with great content.
The mistake is thinking that companies will buy solely into ‘Second Life Enterprise’ because it has user-generated content in abundance. The reality, for Enterprise to buy into using virtual worlds for prolonged business use, the Enterprise sector will need to see a ‘Marketplace’ of application and solutions that address their own unique and sector specific business challenges. This will be the tipping-point.
The issue here is about managing expectations; as Enterprise Developers we have to move beyond just creating ‘prim builds’ if we want to remain competitive. Each one of us should be looking for a way to specialise and therefore add a level of differentiation. E.G. Pharma Training, Graduate Onboarding, Financial Planning, Facilities Training, Data Visualisation (we call this at RRR the ‘Living Landscape’.) etc.
I have cited our very own Immersive Workspaces as an example of a complete solution for collaboration, or the Planogram application we’ve developed for the FMCG sector for product/retail planning.
A link to various niche developments we’re/have created for SLE:
http://immersivespaces.com/medias/videos/
Also a link to our SLE landing page, including the content, applications and solutions available under the Immersive Workspaces umbrella:
http://immersivespaces.com/about/enterprise/
Enterprise usage is not the same as a ‘presence on the Second Life grid’. The bottom line, justification of their buy-in will come directly by the tools they buy or commission to be developed. It will also come about by the Developers depth of offer, scalability and the relevance of their experience.
That being said, I would also like to expand on this idea. I would like to propose that the name Second Life is now without clear definition. We’re in danger of falling between the cracks, especially as Linden Lab appears to have changed so much in the last 18 months.
‘Second Life’ has split, in my opinion, into three distinctive areas:
We call this the 3E’s, which was part of the ‘Second Wave’ strategy RRR coined back in late 2007.
ENTERTAINMENT – EDUCATION – ENTERPRISE
ENTERTAINMENT – A space developed and created by user (residences) who own land, create content and develop peer-to-peer business models e.g. house builders, fashion designers, event organisers etc. It’s also the world of artistic expressionists, social interaction and cultural experimentation.
EDUCATION – Regions and campuses developed and defined for learning, expression and collaboration. Either open spaces, or closed off regions on the Second Life Grid’, or from Q4 2009 on the ‘Second Life Enterprise’.
ENTERPRISE – A B2B environment: A closed off region, or ‘business user’ only accessible areas; designed for collaboration, training or application driven business solutions. These spaces are defined by the ‘Second Life Grid’, or from Q1 2010 ‘Second Life Enterprise’ for proprietary and secure access. (Q4 2010: the start of a B2B2C model of companies engaging users either directly in their own spaces, or reaching out to the Education and Entertainment e.g. collaborative projects, focus groups, product testing etc.).
Therefore, with the advent of ‘Second Life Enterprise’, could it be time to expand of that suffix usage? :
Second Life.com – the umbrella brand or platform.
Second Life Entertainment
Second Life Education
Second Life Enterprise
What drives me crazy? When I speak to journalists and they talk about Second Life, it’s as if it all ‘ended’ back in 2007. They literally fall off their chairs when we show them the Linden Lab released facts and figures! It gets even more comical when they try to draw a direct comparison between Twitter as the “new” Second Life! At least Second Life has always had a business model; Twitter is still trying to figure that one out.
This is very much just an idea, but one I feel could address the current communication confusion. One just has to look at the recent BBC article, or how a broader spectrum of journalists reports on ‘Second Life’. They ‘report’ on Second Life as if it was ‘stuck in amber’, a time freeze of 2006/2007. I’m sure like me, this drives you crazy.
The reality as we all know, the world of Second Life has got better, bigger and more expressive. It will get even Bigger in 2010, it’s not just a ‘one size fits all world’; it’s now many experiences, designed and built on a platform. I think the work being done by Linden Lab is starting to address these issues; we’re seeing a stronger positioning, a clearer communication strategy and the appointment of a strong managerial team. The advent of Enterprise usage will also mean more revenue, therefore more resources for the development of the platform. This is a win-win for us all.
Justin Bovington
Rivers Run Red
skype: rrr-justinbovington
SL: Justin RiversRunRed
Okay now I have the ‘Enterprise’ comment out of the way, let me get into NEAR LONDON:
What attracted RRR to NEAR London?
A statement for you:
There is only one Second Life: bigger and better than anything else out there.
Why then do so many try companies try to copy it? They generally fail, as they miss the point of what made Second Life so successful.
Arguably, the reason for the success of SL is the formulae of ‘People+(Time+Expression)’.
This ultimately creates incubation, community and experimentation. This firm foundation is the bases of SL’s continuing success story; it’s allowed the platform to start building a base in business (SLE) use… and beyond into a future of other areas.
You cannot expect the critical mass of people and content to happen in an instance. Hence why so many fail, as the VC backers are hungry for their returns, they don’t give it the right amount of cooking time. In the case of Linden Lab, it’s a period of development set at Gas Mark 10 years.
During the last, almost 7 years, RRR have been involved with virtual worlds, the vast majority of business plans/platforms put under our noses, have been developed as short-term proposition. With the ultimate plan for a ‘buy out of their company’ within the first 18 months, normally citing a major player like Google as the acquisition target partner. Or they’re under pressure from their VC backers to get some revenue, and fast! Call me old fashioned, but I like companies that build and create something, developing a mid-long term view of their company’s evolution.
So why are we now looking at NEAR LONDON?
We met the NEAR LONDON team in early 2008. At that time, NEAR LONDON was an embryo of a platform, it needed time to grow and develop. So we told them to come back *if* it added real value to the market.
We told them, not to bother if it was just another ‘Second Life wannabe’ or was just another Tween virtual world in an already over crowded market.
What we’ve found with NEAR LONDON is something different. It’s something new.
It’s not apologies for what it is, this is a space that is all about London: Culture – Shopping – Meeting and hanging out with your Facebook friends – getting access to exclusive offers – experiencing content and media etc. All in a casual form.
Let me take you through the highlights, as we see them at RRR.
1) When is enough really enough? – I’m fed up of hearing about the ‘Interoperability’ of avatars’, I think we’re discussing it because IBM were banging-the-drum Interoperability very loudly for a long time; Interoperability within a framework of IBM related products and services
. It also suits OpenSim, as they want LL to free up their client base so they can ‘tempt’ them over to an alternative platform.
I personally don’t think this will ever happen.
I wonder if the issue here of ‘Interoperability’ is more about ‘social networking fatigue’? Having read a lot of forums/blogs, it boils down to people not wanting to re-establish a new identity; they just don’t have the time, energy or desire to recreate their experiences again.
NEAR LONDON doesn’t ask you to recreate or establish a new social networking presence.
You login via your FACEBOOK account, which is a community of 350million people, with 4 million people listing London as their Hometown.
Your peer group is your FRIEND LIST, so you instantly have an established community. You don’t have to spend time creating an Avatar; it’s based on you, your friends and peer group.
This greatly reduces the learning curve:
A CASUAL VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE: LESS WORLD OF WARCRAFT, MORE BEJEWELLED.
Easy to use, and even links and seamlessly updates within your Facebook web presence.
Interaction directly happens within your Facebook web home page. You could call this 3DFacebook.
2) Shopping, Shopping, Shopping – At launch, NEAR LONDON will have an accuracy level of down to 10cm of the REAL LONDON.
They also have deals in place with the West End Shopping Association, which means they have the majority of the 100′s of retailers and players in London’s West End as an ‘offical’ relationship.
This is a shopping area with annual revenues of £4billion. Making it the biggest, largest and most profitable space in Europe.
The vast majority of the ‘windows’ in NEAR LONDON are linked directly to real offers and web presences. All updated, all real.
The past efforts in this area, a lot of them in Second Life, have been done on the sly. They’ve had no official deals or buy-in from the brands or retailers. It felt like a ‘fan’ site, not a serious attempt to create a commercial driven experience.
NEAR LONDON will be bringing in major brands, music and film content and immersive interactive experiences. A lot of these deals are in place, in the coming months, it will be populated with current London film releases, music launches, product launches and other related content.
3) A shard of light – less avatar, more environment. The star of NEAR LONDON is LONDON. You have access to the living immersive experiences that define London: music, culture, shopping.
On a global level, you can step into NEAR LONDON and experience it without the need to travel. With the NEAR franchise potentially growing: New York, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin… we’ll really be able to travel without moving.
You’re not restricted by the population limitation of avatar-based worlds, The sheer number of people within the space is measured in the 1000’s (soon 10,000’s) not Max-40-People.
Safety and security is a major issue in a virtual world. Especially when dealing with real life brands and content owners. NEAR LONDON has created a casual experience, linked to your interaction coming directly from your FACEBOOK approved friends list. This means it’s safe and secure. You know whom you’re dealing with.
Dusan, this is not about creating furniture/avatars/clothing. We like it because it feels more like the 3D web or 3D Facebook. It’s not just trying to be another Second Life.
This is not just another ‘virtual world’.
This really does feel like a logical progression from a web site.
We’re excited about NEAR LONDON we feel they have something different. Something we know from talking with ad agencies, content owners and media partners they feel very comfortable about committing content and budgets.
Again, this is not Second Life. This is not a competitor.
It’s something different.
It’s in BETA, just launching today.
Let’s see what happens. I think it compliments the market,
It’s potentially adding real value and is a lot of casual fun.
This could be a mainstream experience.
Time will tell. Let’s all give it time to develop.
Justin Bovington – River Run Red.
skype: rrr-justinbovington
I’m sure you will find people would rather be an avatar than a shard of light, I’m not trying to be derogatory, its just my opinion. I can’t see hanging out with a bunch of other shards of light in a virtual world, I’d almost rather just be an invisible observer in that case. Just my opinion, but I’ll check it out and hopefully I am wrong.
Thats alot of effort for some coupons…;)
time again will tell.
And a problem with Second Life, has been that it’s NEVER had a specific identity. Only what the loudest “blogger press” writer created for it for their agenda of the moment.
If it was a “true” media platform, like the WWW, that would be fine, but it never was built/set up to be one, thus all Linden activities “over” the “community or buyers or users or viewsers” whatever you want to call us, them, were always single purpose based and clearly for Linden Lab’s needs/desires of the moment.
Models Look “shinier” than the London I remember from the 90′s
best
c3
I think I will stick to clipping my RL shopper in the supermarket for the coupons.
Once again I’m seeing this fantastic and irrelevant wall o’ text from RRR and just finding it incredibly tone deaf and wearisome. We all know Justin didn’t preface his remarks with admiration for the richness of SL content whatsoever. He seems to have only one goal, which is to prevent competition to his own selected content makers in these shuttered worlds.
I HATE BEING PIGEON-HOLED INTO ENTERTAINMENT DAMMIT.
Prokofy,
I’m not sure who you are, or why you feel you can be so liberally detrimental across blogs.
Having read Justin’s entry I’m impressed that he is offering such great insight. He is opening up the conversation, offering an informed opinion. This guy has seen it, done it and continues to do it. As an SL Developer he’s been a tremendous sideline encouragement and supporter. He’s working and helping a lot of other SL developers, directly and indirectly. As for your statement about a “Shuttered World”, you’re delusional and conspiratorial. Anyone can develop and be competitive. You just have to want to do it, and get out there and do it. Linden Lab don’t control the flow of work. Linden Lab don’t create any sales leads, all the work created comes from the efforts of the SL Developers. The SL developers list is just that, a list.
I just find your comments rich, especially as you run and operate a “land rental business” in Second Life. You stand on your own sideline bashing everyone and anyone. When the facts are clear that you’re a commercial driven entity, hiding in the guise of “concerned observer”. How much are you generating in revenue? I was told you make in excess of $50,000?! Perhaps your Griefer friends should report that to the IRS?
Michael
Dusanwriter Readers:
I don’t want to post my name, or even add weight to the lunatic rantings of Prok. But I think this is a dramatic example of the old and new era of communication.
For those of you who don’t know, Prok is a long time forum troll. She’s been banned from Second Life on numerous occasions, banned from most forums, seeks to divide opinion and uses her blog as a covert marketing tool for her in-world land rental business. She was even banned and asked not to attend the real life SLCC events.
I have met her at the SLCC in New York, she is rude and has ‘waged a war’ on me for a number of years. Mainly as she just ‘didn’t like little old me’.
Prok, you can state an opinion that you don’t like something. In this case Prok, you don’t like the way Linden Lab run their SL Developer scheme. Or how they’ve chosen the commissioning of content for the Second Life Enterprise product. We hear you, you’ve made your point. Now what is your point?
Linden Lab is a business, this is not some democratic State funded organization. Linden Lab is under new management. The problem seems to be you don’t like change; you’ve lost the option of being able to speed dial Linden’s like Robin Harper. Which I personally believe, is the main problem here. You always felt you had a “voice” within Linden Lab.
anon.
NO. the problem is the lack of scrutiny of corporations in our culture.
The social problem of our “online culture” is examplified by the “anon” ease of which the “entitled” feel they can blather on with no “real” responsability for their words or actions. This problem is further added to by the false memes of “meta tech” and “virtuality” that have their importance lessened and true affects newted by such blatherings of the ignorant- who are not quite experienced enough to see how large systems work, and who are rewarded for being a cog.
And they “like” it.
think about it.;)
I used to have respect for Justin. Now I do not. I’ve been gaspingly horrified at how he has slammed the content of Second Life as inferior. But what’s worse is the supine suck-ups I see all around him and the Lindens, letting him and them get away with this outrageous sequestering of the formerly free market.
The people on the GSP are long-time sycophants — and P.S. — they *paid* to be on the list. As I endlessly have to explain to people like you: it’s not about being “jealous” or somehow not being able to figure out the path to, um, “excellence”. It’s about criticizing the sort of insiderism and monopolies that in RL would spark protest — and should in SL as well.
This constant nattering about LL “not being a democracy” and having to be a hard-nosed business just lets us know where you want your bread buttered. Any company making this much of a foundation of the Metaverse sets the tone. We went to all this trouble to “free” the Internet from the U.S. government which was supposed to make it “more free,” eh? And put it into the hands of IETF which is really run by IBM and nutters from SL foisting half-baked interoperability schemes on the uninvolved and uninitiated. By contrast, a government with oversight and checks and balances looks better. And in this field, corporations have huge influence and power and behave like governments, even when relatively small like LL. So it’s more than fine to speak of them as executive powers and to demand ACCOUNTABILITY from them.
It boggles the mind how venal the California ethics-free company is — such that we have to hear lectures from wannabee fanboys about how they’re not a democracy — when what is meant by *wanting* them to be a democracy is to be held to standards of accountability and transparency that corporations *ought* to be held to regardless of their private status. Standards like putting out RFPs and bidding out jobs openly instead of handing them to outsiders. Standards like company ethics and staff codes of conduct that are known and adhered to. The control of speech is simply a scandal.
You gotta love this, um, brave soul here who is anonymously trolling *me*. I don’t buy the notion of “troll” as it is merely a label that power-holders wield to try to discredit persistent critics who find their power illegitimate. I have never been “banned from Second Life” or any world. Being suspended for 3 days because you swore in PG or 7 days because you told the old hags of the FIC-dominated forum where to put it isn’t being “banned” but merely suspended. I am actually not banned any longer from the blogs or forums, the Lindens quietly got rid of this unfair ban more than a year ago.
As for being “banned from SLCC,” nothing of the sort occurred. A thin-skinned organizer who was critized by me and others for his very poor performance in managing the event — who was later forced to step down — decided to hysterically call for my “banning” — but of course everyone from Scoble to the Los Angeles Times objected to this kind of outrageous shunning and witch-hunting behaviour from the provincial early-adapter geeks in SL. Honestly, SL is a laughingstock for the way they lurch from tolerance of child rape simulation to censorship of critics of their insider favouries — all in a day.
Finally, Michael, you yourself are delusional and not aware of the facts. You clearly haven’t been following the issue of the shopping sites. There is no reason in hell that the Lindens have to bar content creators from selling to big business — it’s a grotesque protectionaist move without any technical basis whatsoever. The idea that only a select list chosen by LL who essentially pay to be on that list can decide who gets to sell to big business isn’t even the way China is run these days, or Russia.
Justin’s actions are completely indefensible. And that will become more clear as time goes on and people realize that you cannot let these companies dominate the market — and those that side with them will be the losers as their reputation with the public will suffer. There is always a cost to not being a good corporate citizen.
Prok,
You’re reply has irked me, maybe it’s my days of being in TV journalism. I do have to follow this up.
I have followed the issues, I’m just not following your issues.
The truth here is that you’re throwing around high brow prophecies around irrelevant issues. How can you compare how Linden Lab run Second Life to a Russia Communist State and China’s repressive regime?! You’re trivializing human rights and greater issues around ethics. How right of right-wing are you? It’s an amazing leap of “faith”. It’s a rant in the realms of the numerous crazy New York bag ladies, or the late night callers into a WXPR News Radio Shock Jock You’re even accusing IBM employees of being child molesters. Are you nuts?! IBM will not stand for that kind of accusations. You even blog slanderous speculative accusations against a lot of people, the worst of which is focused on Linden Lab employees. Why are you risking provoking the hand that feeds you?
I spent a few minutes checking your sources. I don’t like how Justin spoke about content creators in July 2008. I do though find judging someone on one article, which is being reported in a certain way, a little unfair. The quotes he made were in context of the article’s thread, which is how Google, IMVU, There, Sony Home have/had chosen to work in the development of content. These companies chose a different path of development. It doesn’t matter if I think this is right or wrong. It’s a choice, simple as that. He never made any reference to Second Life being full of “substandard” content. This is totally wrong of you. What he did say was that brands had an issue with counterfeit virtual goods being sold for a personal profit. Also the “questionable” sexual objects being created and allowed into PG areas etc. Again, something that brands don’t like. This is a pollution issue, it’s also something that even Linden Lab have had to finally address at the end of 2009. This was why they had to create Zindra, this is a decent and logical decision. Not everyone in Second Life wants to have sex in their faces all the time. It was certainly an issue in 2008, it was also why other companies chose another way for content to be created. The world of hindsight is an easy world, now as we start 2010. We all know that the public-facing-Second-Life is a world of peer-to-peer objects and businesses. Which is thriving and growing. This is a world that is foreign shore for real life brands. Again, this is in hindsight.
This is also related to IP issues, this is not from corporate commercial pressure, but DMCA infringements being served by the likes of Stroker. Who as a long term resident is mighty pissed with the lack of action against *gasp* pollution, counterfeit goods… The residences of Second Life in 2010 are becoming brands, they want the same rules, protection as the real world *gasp*. Prok, This is not a “free market” there is way too much money involved now.
The original article from July 2008:
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/21100/page2/
The article you based your biased blog on:
http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2008/07/second-life-ima.html
What I find amazing, is that you talk about the Alphaville Herald, on numerous occasions as the lowest of the low. I would go as far as saying they’re your Nemesis. But you feel you can use their biased article as the ‘truth”, just because it suits you at that moment? This is like NEWSPEAK selective editing, just insert the words that make your story sound like you want it to be, how you want people to overreact and storm the doors of LL’s HQ in SF. Prok, as Alphaville Herald blog states, everything they say is “Always Fairly Unbalanced”. Congratulations Prok, you’ve delivered on their mission statement.
Prok, you’re wrong. Very wrong. It’s time someone called you out. You’re a bully and have got away with this kinda behavior for ages. In recent months, you’ve become more and more unhinged.
Linden Lab have over 40+ Gold Solution Providers, I don’t see this as a select group. They also have IBM and other massive companies. This is an open group, as I said before, if companies are interested in applying just apply. It’s not a closed shop. If you have the desire and experience you can be part of it. Linden Lab have made it open, if it was closed, this would mean LL totally controlling the creation of content. This is not the case. Linden Lab do not generate the sales leads, the SL developers do that themselves. There is no sales support. As for a preferred Illumanti based RFP process? This is totally conspiratorial and in the realms of paranoia.
Dominance? This is a total joke. This is not about RRR or even the other developers. Linden Lab have the dominance. This is not about “your world of land rental” in public space of Second Life. This is about Enterprise solution sales. Do you even understand what this means? This is not about procurement officers wasting a morning sifting through 1000′s of chairs. I agree with what a lot of people are saying, this is not just RRR’s thoughts, for real Second Life Enterprise success it has to have solutions and applications. The content is there already, it has to offer the market more. Prokofy, The real facts here, Linden Lab have actually given away most of the “content” already, it’s given away as part of the Second Life Enterprise server. It comes bundled and part of the base offer. Did you know that? They bundle buildings, avatars, furniture and much more. This is because the real relationship will come from the development of applications and solutions, plus the ability of developers to offer valued added services: consultancy, implementation, strategy etc.
The big mistake? Linden Lab should not have called their Enterprise solution “Second Life Enterprise”.
This is totally misleading, it’s a communication nightmare. The stand alone, behind the firewall solution is a separate division, product and offering. Linden Lab should have made it clearer that this is different, so that people like yourself, would not have made 2+2=5. Sorry Prok, I don’t think this is fully your fault, as the way this is being handled is open to conjecture and it’s playing to your inner demons and fears.
Even questioning Linden Lab’s Standards and company ethics and staff codes of conduct is nothing short of abhorrent. It slaps of the desperation of a cornered coward. I just don’t understand why Linden Lab haven’t taken action against your personal attacks, accusations and continued detrimental actions against *their* company and employees. OR maybe they just cannot be bothered, it’s what you may really want. Attention. Maybe nothing more than that, you crave Attention. These blogs give you notoriety. Which is a game all of it’s own.
Michael.
btw– sara horowitz
freelancers union brooklyn.
just profiled on News Report…PBS.
the push back to this corporate “inventory management of people as cogs”
c3
It reminds me of the old Canal+/Cryo project called Deuxieme Monde which was a very very (too) realy project in 1995 and which ws centered on the cities. Well the video looks nice, and I wish I could test it. But I am on a mac, and I asked Santa Claus for a window 7 system to install for 2010 !!
@Justin A lot of you say sounds ok to me, i think we should not feel threatened by competition and I agree with you about the suffix that would better describe the user practices. Dont think it is a pigeon-hole or a drawer. This woud just help to give a new push to SL especially with medias keeping saying nothing is happening since 2007. And we all know this is a lie !!
It inspires me a post last night you’ll find on http://makemyworlds.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-second-life-ready-to-change-name.html
[...] PressReleasePoint, Dusan Writer (mostly discussing Near), and, of course, on the ExpatFinder.com [...]
Wait…how do they get my FB password?
I’m supposed to log into something I’ve installed from a CD that was handed to me on a London street and give them my Facebook password?
Erm..don’t think so.
Alex
[...] avatars pop up in Google and on further reflection is a better way of thinking about projects like Near London, which didn’t set OUT to be an expressive domain but is an informational one that is tied to [...]
cmuWID gbxikrfnrnor, [url=http://jsyolhsoxlto.com/]jsyolhsoxlto[/url], [link=http://jgkuwctyiskh.com/]jgkuwctyiskh[/link], http://iyefsxujatrz.com/
how is Near anything other than a poor ripoff of google earth + the road captured pictures from google maps used to trigger google ads? The buildings aren’t even textured other than the windows being (what looks like) google maps pictures…