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June 2010
The Archives
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06.27.10Unfinished Business: Second Life and Where NextYou get used to certain things: the route you take to get to work or what you do on a Monday night, which you've somehow ear-marked for laundry or pasta but never a movie or roast chicken. Now, it's not that you don't mix things up a little - one Saturday you head into a gallery maybe or decide to check out some new restaurant at the other end of town, and sometimes by heading off the beaten path you find yourself taking pottery classes one summer, although by the time winter sets in again the pottery wheel is off in ...
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06.24.10Mark Kingdon Leaves Linden Lab: Philip Steps in (Updated)Mark Kingdon has departed Linden Lab and Philip Rosedale has returned to take on the role of interim CEO, according to an official release by the company. Linden Lab®, creator of 3D virtual world Second Life®, announced today that company founder Philip Rosedale has been named interim CEO, and CFO Bob Komin has assumed the additional role of COO. Linden Lab also announced that Mark Kingdon is stepping down as CEO. "On behalf of the board, I thank Mark for all of his contributions during his tenure with Linden Lab which include growing our user base and revenue, increasing ...
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06.24.10On White Steeds They Ride: Cory and Philip’s Streamy VisionWe've seen a shift in the axis of the metaverse. With the launch of OnLive, "rich experiences" have reclaimed their place on the Web landscape after being pronounced dead by folks like Raph Koster. The conventional wisdom was that virtual worlds were over - MMOs and richly detailed worlds would sort of fade away, while clicking your mouse in Farmville would become the preoccupying pasttime of millions. Now, I hardly think that the reported decline in social gaming on Facebook suggests we'll tip back to World of Warcraft, but there's enough room on the technology landscape for both: immersive experiences with ...
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06.23.10Mesh In, Wisdom Out: How Second Life May Inform the Next Generation of 3D Content[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="The terror of mesh?"][/caption] Concerns over a wave of content creators arriving in virtual worlds with a bag of mesh objects created in programs like the (free) Blender or the (incredibly expensive) Maya seems to cause jitters amongst the current content creators who have created businesses within Second Life. We discussed this a bit on today's Metanomics (video and transcript will be up tomorrow) and I concluded by saying that while the ability to IMPORT objects (including content that exists elsewhere) might seem like the main shift in dynamic, I actually think it's what Second Life will EXPORT ...
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06.22.10Mesh Imports in Second Life ImminentTomorrow, I'll be hosting a discussion of 3D content development during a Metanomics Master Class, and with any luck Linden Lab will do what it seems to do with some regularity: make a big announcement right before the show. (They don't do this intentionally, it just seems to happen that way). In this case, rumors are that the Lab is about to lift the NDA on the work to-date on mesh imports. In fact, they sort of lifted the NDA already, only to clamp it down again after something like 15 minutes. Someone at a senior level decided they weren't ...
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06.21.10Linden Lab Lock Step, Out of SynchRight. So, you need a story for the investors, media and assorted chattering classes about your 'restructuring'. Telling them that your new viewer was a disaster, you search is broken, and your concurrency is flat or falling hardly makes good television (or blogs or radio or whatever). Throwing in some buzzwords like "no download" and "social media" makes sense - the media follows the same memes around the Web in never-ending circles until someone throws them some new chum, which is why Time will running a cover story sometime soon on how we'll be playing games with our toothbrushes (a ...
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06.17.10Prospect ParkThe first expenditure of the (Prospect Park) commissioners was to hire a topographical engineer, which specialist was Egbert L. Viele, the original Chief Engineer for Central Park. Viele examined the premises and composed a written report, in which he indicated his conviction that "the primary object of the park [is] as a rural resort, where the people of all classes, escaping from the glare, and glitter, and turmoil of the city, might find relief for the mind, and physical recreation." The city grinds down its dwellers, he says: "while on the other hand nature in its beauty and variety never palls ...
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06.16.10IdeaCity Event in Second Life: Spirituality, Space and MediaIdeaCity is the "Ted Talks of Canada". Held once a year, it brings together global thought leaders to explore a range of themes and topics. You can attend IdeaCity in Second Life. The first day was today and there are two days left in the event. Visit the Metanomics Web site for more details on how to attend. This year, in addition to selling $4,000/per person tickets to the live event, you can also attend virtually in Second Life. At 2,000 Lindens per day, not a bad deal, in spite the collapse of the Linden currency (hey, why cash it out ...
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06.07.10Metanomics Mixed Reality Event: New Market DynamicsAvatars for sale, gold-farming in WoW (World of Warcraft), purchase of virtual islands, leasing of towns, recruiting avatar employees, VW (virtual world) stock exchanges and banks, exchanging WoW gold to USD – it’s just some of the new designations for commercial agencies and business which have emerged in the wake of the development of virtual worlds. But what are the characteristics of these emerging economies? A reminder that these and other topics will be explored tomorrow on a special mixed reality Metanomics tomorrow, Tuesday June 8th at 11:00 am PST/SLT. This event, hosted by Robert Bloomfield, will comprise a panel discussion between Robin ...
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06.04.10Startled Cat: Launch of Immersive Storytelling StudioStories wanted. People who have a need for stories. People who like stories. People who wish they were in a story. OK, everyone is wanted! So come on down....my company has just launch a joint venture, Startled Cat, and I can't help doing a little self-promotional spinning around and waving my arms to get your attention. Startled Cat is the perfect fit with the broader work we do at Remedy in brand strategy and social, mobile and immersive media. By launching Startled Cat, we've got ourselves a studio focused on the evolving and specific discipline of immersive story and its use to ...
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