• web.alive (recent AVAYA acquisition)
• Vastpark (wow, they’ve come a long way!)
• OLIVE (nice one guys, way to survive!)
• Teleplace (workspace, used to be named QWAQ)

This is just great to see. Not only are these four solid platforms completely worthy of the business, but it’s also a great response to the doom and gloom prophesy that so many were indulging in a few months ago. Welcome to the new workspace guys, it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Further reading:

Thanks for the links Joe.

• Google Maps goes 3D – In-browser 3D is the holy grail of virtual spaces, always has been.
• Second Life users are angry at Linden Lab – In other news, spring came this year and summer could be next…
• OpenSim is becoming a serious contender – We always hoped it would, but did we expect it?
• ASSEMB’LIVE releases devkit – It’s getting even more awesome every day, worth a look. video
• web.alive releases a content development kit – looks like AVAYA is going ahead with development.
• Wonderland is alive and kicking – Project Wonderland became Open Wonderland, and they’re some shocking good.
• IMVU is a monster – $40 million coming in for 2010, and they’re hiring.
• Worlds.com and NCSoft lawsuit settled – … and I hope they got next to nothing the lousy thieves…
• Blue Mars hasn’t closed yet – I already own a copy of Final Fantasy XIII so I’m good, thanks.
• Apple is planning a virtual world store – After the idiotic iPad, I’ve zero sense of anticipation here…
• Second Life bigger than ever – Any speculation on my part as to why will result in a boring, boring debate… consumer PCs are generally fast enough now, that’s why.
• ProtonMedia, On24, and InXpo are all still doing big business
• Dozens of new government and private sector projects launched over the last few months for procedural training, prototyping, therapy, education, conferencing, etc…

Now you know.

Laura P Thomas, Social Media Strategist, Dell

Events are a great way to create word of mouth marketing, but taking them to a worldwide audience is expensive. Using immersive virtual world technologies you can expand your local event to a global audience without breaking the budget.

Today at 2pm Pacific Virtual Worlds Keynote will be host to Laura Pevehouse Thomas, strategist for social media at Dell. Profiled as one of five “social media mavens” in the March 2009 issue of Austin Woman Magazine, she’s worked in and around the Dell family for nine years, primarily in the areas of corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, branding and online communication.

Laura has earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Louisiana State University. Before joining Dell Financial Services in 2000, she worked at the Texas Workforce Commission and PepsiCo Food Systems Worldwide.

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To join us in Second Life:

1. Go to SecondLife.com, create an account, and install the software.
2. Log in through the Second Life software using your user name.
3. Click here to be teleported to our studio before 2pm Pacific.

Ernie C Young, Head Coach, SalesTeam East LLC

Want to know how to leverage Second Life to get new clients? Today’s guest is sales guru Ernie Young presenting: “Moving From Contact to Client in Second Life – Finding a Sales Process to Gain and Keep Customers for Life”. If you’ve ever had an interest in getting new clients, do not miss this rare opportunity to hear a true expert speak on the topic!

Today at 2pm Pacific Virtual Worlds Keynote will be host to the Head Coach of SalesTeam East, Ernie Young. He started his selling career by opening his own business at 12 years old and operating it door to door throughout his teenage years before leaving for college. Over the past 35 years, Mr. Young accumulated vast experience and accomplishment in professional sales, sales training, and management. He has consistently led his sales teams to record-setting company performances in both large and small business organizations, and has been repeatedly awarded recognition for his personal career sales performance and for the sales levels achieved by the sales professionals under his management.

His teaching of and adherence to the “3 Factors of Sales Success” formula typifies his ability to clearly impart an understanding of selling as both an art and a science. Mr. Young is certified by Integrity Systems, Inc. as a sales coach, trainer, and facilitator. SalesTeam East LLC is licensed by SalesTeam USA to deliver sales training programs utilizing its tool kits, including SalesMap©.

Before his long career in professional sales, Mr. Young served 10 years on active duty as a U.S. Naval Officer after which he continued to serve for 10 more years on a part time basis in the U.S. Naval Reserve. During his military career, he developed seasoned management skills, managing and training organizations of hundreds of military personnel. He holds a Bachelors of Science in Management from the U.S. Naval Academy and the rank of Commander, U.S. Naval Reserve.

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To join us in Second Life:

1. Go to SecondLife.com, create an account, and install the software.
2. Log in through the Second Life software using your user name.
3. Click here to be teleported to our studio before 2pm Pacific.

My apologies to those who were looking forward to today’s session. Laura has graciously promised to present on April 5th, and we have another guest lined up for next week that I’m sure you’re going to love.

Lady Gaga Telephone (Pomplamoose cover)

See also Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) – Beyonce. Hipsters are just loving this stuff. Ironic takes on popular songs make people feel so good about how very clever and “above it all” they are. Please remember to wear an expression that encapsulates focused disinterest or you’ll spoil it.

From a technological point of view, however, the above video represents how cheap and easy media has become to produce. Two people accomplish here what used to take dozens, using equipment that used to carry a prohibitive cost. A sign of the times, to be sure.

The issue I take is when people talk about us being able to do something fundamentally new here. Cheaper and faster, sure, but this isn’t actually anything new. The fact is that the same “hipster appeal” media can be produced without even using electricity:

Ukranian Polka Band playing “Hot N Cold”

Ok, sure, they’re not true hipsters because they sniggered before they started but it’s counter-balanced by the retro instrumentation. The point is that 20-somethings always consider themselves innovators by default, but pretty much always try to accomplish the exact same thing no matter what decade we’re in.

There’s a difference between new technology and true innovation.

While pop sociology isn’t what I’m primarily interested in, it’s necessary to point out that technological progress is having a ripple effect through the world of business at the moment. First websites, then email, then cell phones, and now smartphones have forced themselves into our daily lives whether we want them to or not.

Those seeking a competitive advantage often ask: “What are the kids into these days?” Many execs still feel scorched from missing the big scores of the dot-com bubble days, and want to know what’s being hyped as the next big thing before it gets forced down their throats.

This works itself out in both positive and negative ways: we sometimes find faster and cheaper ways of being productive, but we also occasionally spend time and money on things that are irrelevant. The real magic happens when we apply a little innovation.

Spinning Flax Into Gold

Take Twitter, for instance. When it first launched it was a waste of time. 90% of the content was completely useless, and only appealed to voyeur celebrity stalkers or friends who were enjoying a new way to chat. Since we were all so paranoid about missing the “next big thing”, however, massive resources were dumped into supporting the platform.

So many people had put their reputations on the line promoting Twitter that, with their backs up against the wall, they were forced to innovate. (Cue defensive technophiles rushing to the comments to tell me how unbelievably useful Twitter was even before it was released etc etc etc… guys, have a quiet moment of honesty with yourselves.) Eventually people figured out how to make it productive, shoehorning in social networking opportunities, hash-tag protocols for live on-location news updates, and quick polling for instant feedback.

The fact is that there was nothing inherently wonderful about Twitter. It was later innovation that turned it into a useful tool.

Here’s another great example: MySpace. Once the darling of the interwebs, everybody just had to be on it. Of course, then people realized that Facebook has a better interface, LinkedIn a more focused network, and custom made websites more flexibility. MySpace started to die.

How did it survive? Innovation. That MP3 player plugin, combined with some good deals with record companies, turned MySpace into one of the easiest and fastest ways for bands to promote themselves to an audience that might never listen to them otherwise. The built-in e-commerce system was a nice touch as well.

Virtual environments have the same issues. They can be a waste of time, or with a little applied innovation, the pivotal tool your business uses to create a serious competitive advantage.

The latest gadget will not save your company. Only innovation will.

Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.

One of the biggest challenges I have always faced in my efforts to broaden the appeal of virtual environments is the perception that they’re just toys. The public’s thinking is often that gaming is not a business application, and so by extension virtual worlds are just a game that isn’t all that much fun.

The effort has been to help people see that a virtual environment has nothing at all to do with gaming, and is often a very practical solution to real world problems. Slowly this understanding is growing.

I would be remiss, however, if I didn’t acknowledge that the fun factor of virtual environments does play a part. I got involved with Second Life because I’m a gamer, despite it not actually being a game. The intuitive connection exists.

While my primary outreach strategy is currently the Virtual Worlds Keynote series, I’m beginning to realize that I need to start using gaming as a framework in my future planning. Gaming strategies lead to much better ROI than traditional project management. If I can find a way to leverage existing human instincts, rather than my current policy of educating people to overcome what their instincts are telling them, I’ll get further, faster.

The seeds of some new ideas are starting to germinate… but I’d love to hear your ideas, if you’re willing to offer them. I’ll give a +1 Vorpal Sword to the best one.

Virtual Worlds Keynote
Military Amputee Peer Support

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One of the great things about the Internet is that it connects people who, in the past, have had a hard time keeping in touch. In researching the phenomena of medical amputees rehabilitating and re-integrating into their home communities, it has been shown that peer support is a real key to the process.

This is where virtual world technology has stepped in as a perfect fit. The geographic boundaries are broken down, issues are addressed like body identification and self expression, and training scenarios for everyday things like going to a grocery store are properly simulated.

Doug Thompson and Remedy Communications seem to have approached the project right, taking as much feedback as possible not just from clinicians but also from the program participants. This has become a great support system with full web integration and social networking technologies, and is being rolled out for military veteran amputees and their families.

One thing that Doug mentioned during the presentation was that they discovered a need for this system with veterans from conflicts as far back as Vietnam. It’s good to know that there is continued support for those who have given so much.

What got me off topic today was our book club. We’re currently reading one of my favorite novels: “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” by Cory Doctorow. (Read it for free here.)

It got me thinking about something called “the singularity” again. This is a term first coined by Ray Kurzweil to describe the point in the near future when the pace technological innovation becomes, for all intents and purposes, infinite. Here’s a short video describing one aspect of the phenomenon:

THE IMMORTALISTS – a short film by Jason Silva

Immortality is within our grasp. Yes, for real. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Sadly, there’s a catch. Even when humanity is smart, we’re still horrible at dealing with each other. Sooner or later someone will decide that what the world really needs is a good apocalypse.

After all, in an age where the pace of technological innovation is infinite, you’ll have about three dozen cheap and easy ways to end all human life listed on six dozen popular blogs.

It could be that this phenomena of knowing that anyone could end it all at any moment might be the new way people come to live with death. For a time, mankind won’t be fearing their own deaths, but rather the end of all civilization.

What will finally end it, of course, will be those who try to prevent the end from coming. As organizations are formed to lock down the “dangerous” information or censor “dangerous” people, there will be a backlash from people objecting to being controlled. The schism between the opposing points of view will rise until eventually it produces someone who can’t stand an eternity of humanity being controlled in this way.

So they’ll end it for all of us.

When people make guesses as to how the world might end, they usually point at natural phenomena or ecological disaster. I’m putting $50 on the singularity. Any takers?

Doug Thompson, CEO of Remedy Communications

I’ve long been a fan of the work Virtual Ability Inc. (VAI) has done creating one of Second Life’s most flawless and in-depth orientation experiences. They’ve firmly established themselves as innovators in the field and so, when I find out about projects they’ve been a part of, I pay attention.

This is why I took notice when Doug Thompson mentioned in conversation that Remedy Communications had worked with them on a project funded by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC). (There was a full press release about the project, linked here.)

For virtual environment geeks, this is a nice look at a use of the “behind-the-firewall” solution Linden Lab provides. For everyone else, however, this is a good look at why virtual environments are meaningful in the first place and how they can make all the difference to those using them.

Join us today at 2pm PST (10pm GMT) in Second Life for this latest session of Virtual Worlds Keynote. Question and answer period will immediately follow this quick 10-15 minute presentation.

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To join us in Second Life, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Go to SecondLife.com, create an account, and install the software.
2. Log in through the Second Life software using your user name.
3. Click here to be teleported to our studio before 2pm Pacific.