Metanomics - Business and Policy in the Metaverse - Virtual Worlds are Serious Business

Ben Duranske's Mom is Beaming...But Wait for the Letters

Robert Bloomfield — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:07:16 -0700

Ben Duranske, our legal correspondent, has hit the big time, landing an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal .

I am sure his mother is very proud! But I will be interested to see the aftermath of this article. "Read more" for my three main points.

1. What will the 'letters to the editor' look like? Ben starts off his article talking about the Ginko banking collapse, so I figure half of the readers will get about that far, say "I knew Second Life finance was full of sleaze," and stop there. Of course, reading only one-quarter of an article never kept anyone from writing a letter to the editor, so I suspect we will see some of those. Or maybe just a letter noting that banks are collapsing *everywhere*, not just the real world.

2. The latter part of the article gets to the main point--people should take virtual worlds seriously. The "money" quote, clearly written for the Wall Street Journal audience:

The financial marketplace, of course, hasn't missed this opportunity – $345 million was invested in 39 virtual world-related companies in the first half of 2008.

We will have to wait and see whether readers of the WSJ will view this as a sufficiently large sum to capture their attention--especially given the prior attention the media has given to the fantasy elements of virtual worlds, which Ben coyly skirts.

3. Finally, we all know how the media piles on to a story. I expect that editors of other papers may well start looking for people to write about similar topics--or simply go straight to Ben.

Congrats, Ben! When you get on The Colbert Report, be sure to put in a good word for me.

METANOMICS The Imagination Age

Lynn Cullens — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:24:33 -0700

Start: 07/21/2008 - 12:00

End: 07/21/2008 - 13:00

Timezone: Etc/GMT-7

At Noon on Monday, July 21, 2008 Rita J. King and Joshua S. Fouts of Dancing Ink Productions join Metanomics to discuss the roles virtual worlds can play in global diplomacy and business. Find out about governmental uses of virtual worlds, the evolution of IBM’s thriving virtual community, and one of Dancing Ink’s newest projects, “Understanding Islam Through Virtual Worlds.”

A fictional currency becoming the gold standard and other tales about business models

Roland Legrand — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:10:45 -0700

Virtual worlds are all around us these days. Google launched its Lively virtual environment (yes, Metanomics has a room there), Metanomics will cover the Rocketon world and there was the Linden Lab-IBM interoperability announcement. Avatars were teleported from the Second Life Preview Grid into a virtual world running on an OpenSim server.

While M Linden (CEO Mark Kingdon of Linden Lab) did not focus on interoperability in his recent letter to the residents, avatar Zero Linden (vice-president Joe Miller of Linden Lab) unveiled some of the ambitions of his company regarding interoperability and the metaverse in a Reuters' interview. In the story it is said that:

The Linden Dollar, with a years-long reputation of solid financial backing, may be positioned to become the gold standard of virtual currencies.

A great ambition for the Linden dollar, which for the Linden Lab officials and the Terms of Service is just a product feature and a fictional currency.

The Reuters' story is fascinating reading. The revenue model of Linden Lab is primarily based on the managing of "virtual land" (CPU time) and it seems the company is doing rather well. So why incite the residents to travel elsewhere and break down the walls around Second Life? One of the very important features of Second Life is its economy, the fact that it are the residents who create the content and who can own intellectual property rights.

Interoperability can have consequences for residents and for Linden Lab.

Issues for the residents: Avatar Prokofy Neva explains on Second Thoughts why the residents should be extremely worried about these developments. Their creations could very well end up in other parts of the Metaverse, where no intellectual property rights are enforced, where there is even no functioning virtual economy, so Prokofy Neva fears.

Prokofy Neva is very outspoken and direct in his critique, but I met quite a few other residents which have the same questions for Linden Lab: what will the impact of interoperability be on their revenues, how will intellectual rights be protected etc. Of course there are the "real life courts", but the effort and expense for going to court may be too much for many residents.

On this site, Professor Robert Bloomfield has yet another question: does Linden Lab allow the export of content to virtual environments not controlled by them? This is far from obvious, reading the Terms of Service.

Legal scholar Benjamin Tyson Duranske says in his book Virtual Law there is "significant unlicensed use of in-world content creators' copyrighted works by other virtual world users."
(copyright being just part of the much larger concept of intellectual property rights).

Maybe the discussion regarding the unlicensed sharing of music, which leads to tough questions about the possibility/impossibility to enforce copyrights and about the business models of the music industry, will be repeated for virtual worlds creations.
Consequences for Linden Lab : If Linden Lab now has success generating revenue by managing and providing virtual land, how will they benefit from an open metaverse, with lots of competing grids and free circulation of avatars and virtual goods?
This is an important question for the residents too, because the financial success of Linden Lab is crucial for the functioning of Second Life.

Joe Miller in the Reuters' interview:

I could see Linden offering economic services, trading services, search services.

Avatar-journalist Eric Reuters explains that "some OpenSim worlds may respect Second Life’s intellectual property protections and commerce functions. The Linden Dollar, with a years-long reputation of solid financial backing, may be positioned to become the gold standard of virtual currencies."

But why would competitors of Linden Lab accept the virtual/fictional Linden dollar as the US dollar of the Metaverse? A currency which is so much a feature of the Linden Lab product Second Life?

Miller "also referenced the role VeriSign plays in the administration of the Internet by managing top-level “.com” and “.net” network addresses."

In my previous post about the Virtual Corporation, I mentioned that virtual corporations could be hosted by companies offering administrative and technical services and acting as an auction house for those looking for interesting virtual companies. So that could be another idea for "open metaverse" business of Linden Lab.

However, Linden Lab does not want to elaborate on specific projects the company has for this "open metaverse" era. Right now, providing and managing virtual land remains extremely important for the company, and one can suppose that making Second Life into a stable and easy to use platform remains an extremely important short term objective for Linden Lab and the residents of Second Life.

Metanomics is covering all these issues. We will have Zha Ewry (IBM's David Levine in real life), who made the pathbreaking teleport into OpenSim, be making a brief appearance at the beginning of Metanomics on Monday the 14th.

Take nothing from the building

Robert Bloomfield — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:23:12 -0700

With Linden Lab and IBM's recent announcement regarding teleportation of avatars from Second Life to an OpenSim world independent of Linden Lab's servers, there has been quite a bit of handwringing about intellectual property rights. In particular, people seem very concerned with the possibility that someone might infringe on a resident's IP rights over content they created, and you take Linden Lab and IBM to task for not making such infringement difficult. But weaknesses in this 'code as law' approach (which there will always be) can at least be remedied by bringing in the lawyers, and suing the pants off the infringers.

I am surprised that more people aren't focusing on a much more disturbing possibility--that Linden Lab may take the position that the content creator does not even have the right to take his or her own property to a server not controlled by Linden Lab.

Look at Linden's terms of service , esp. parts 3.2-3.4. Note that you have IP over your goods "within the service" according to 3.2, and --the scary part--look at the word "only" (my caps) in 3.4:

3.4 Linden Lab licenses its textures and environmental content to you for your use in creating content in-world.

During any period in which your Account is active and in good standing, Linden Lab gives you permission to create still and/or moving media, for use ONLY within the virtual world environment of the Service ("in-world"), which use or include the "textures" and/or "environmental content" that are both (a) created or owned by Linden Lab and (b) displayed by Linden Lab in-world.

So, if you take a picture of something you made in SL, you do not have the right to show it on NBC. If you make a shoe in SL, why should you be able to take it to an OpenSim world?

Maybe LL won't be able to defend this position--lawyers, any help here?--but if they can, this seems like a far more serious problem for content creators than that someone else might illegally copy their goods into another world.

Zha Ewry (IBM's David Levine in real life), who made the pathbreaking teleport into OpenSim, will be making a brief appearance at the beginning of Metanomics on Monday the 14th, for our On The Spot segment. Maybe I'll ask "Zha, did you arrive into that OpenSim world with no assets because you couldn't get them in, or because Linden Lab wouldn't let you take them out?"

Second Life is Dead?

Robert Bloomfield — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:37:35 -0700

No, it's not because Google's Lively killed it. Instead, according to a news article pointed out to me by Second Life resident Heidi Ballinger on her PowerMatch blog , Second Life is dead because "it can't be used for anything."

Their complaint actually sounds a lot like the complaint of Metanomics student blogger Roflcopter Robonaught. As a gamer, Roflcopter's second post was pretty much saying "ok, there is some neat stuff to look at, but what am I supposed to DO?"

Of course, when I look around Second Life, I am paying attention to the people who are doing interesting things. They aren't easy to find, for the uninitiated. But they are there.

I don't read Danish, but continue below the fold to read the quick-and-dirty translation courtesy of Google's translation service. I didn't try to clean it up, because I couldn't know if I was actually improving it or not. So be forewarned--I really don't know what it means to say "and chefredaktøren continues."

Second Life is dead
11. July. 2008 08.00 Inland Opdat.: 11. July. 2008 08.32

There were no limits to what and who should be represented in Second Life a year ago.

Companies and public institutions should be represented in the new wonderland. Private had to be made preferably also be present with his "avatar", which is the term for the figure or the representation of themselves, to control around inside the Second Life.

It is easy to point the finger of Second Life today, the floppede quite so horribly - in relation to the expectations that at a time was at the phenomenon. But I was there himself, and DR was there. Half of curiosity and half out of fear of not being with the new large webbølge.

At a time when the hypen reached exorbitant goal seemed a lack of representation in Second Life almost as a sensation in line with a company without a website. Although Customs had their branch in Second Life.

Game over
But now the virtual leg, according to several experts, game over.

Editor of the online magazine ComeOn, Jens Nielsen, may determine that the interest in Second Life have plummeted, he says to dr.dk.

-- In the forums, we monitor, and the requests we get on ComOn, is Second Life completely disappeared. The interest was huge, but it has not been able to keep the expectations that were raised at a time.

Not only using the phenomenon seems to be dead. As business looks, according to Per Andersen, Nordic director for analysevirksomheden IDC, also the last death.

-- Second Life is dead in a commercial context, says the analyst Per Andersen, which shall act for the online magazine magazine Version2.

Why this short and grumme fate?
The chief editor of the online magazine ComeOn, Jens Nielsen, the answer to this question lies in the patterns of lack of a basis in reality.

Editor in Chief of Killer Jens Nielsen, but is that dødrårsagen be found in the lack of fordbindelse to the reality of Second Life.

-- Facebook is popular because it can be themselves - and yet not quite. It can be a version of itself, but it is closely related to the reality as we know, "said Jens Nielsen to dr.dk.

and chefredaktøren continues.

-- We use Facebook to something. We create networks. Second Life is too far out, and we use it not true to anything. So, you could fly around and so on, but for how long is the fun? It is the comic-agtigt.

Lack of added value
PhD students Simon Ostenfeld Pedersen researcher in virtual reality, and although he calls that Second Life is not pure virtual reality, he has also a bid to why Second Life lost momentum.

-- Second life is not welcomed in with something unique. It had no value to visit the example of Customs in Second Life. All you have to do with Customs, you can clear via a phone call or a website, says Simon Ostenfeld Pedersen to dr.dk.

Even when it comes to more oplevelsesorienterede institutions struck the phenomenon depends on the term.

-- The State Museum of Art offered nothing we could not get by visiting muset. On the contrary. It was super boring to be in there in Second Life in relation to, in fact, says Simon Ostenfeld Pedersen to dr.dk and continues.

-- In 1963 accounted Jørn Utzon a museum to Asger Jorn, which never came to fruition. It was a very visionary thinking project, which could go around the free-floating images. That could, of course, for example, have achieved in Second Life, says Simon Ostenfeld Pedersen to dr.dk.

But it did not Monday, and according to Simon Ostenfeld Pedersen, it is just Second Life's problem - that not enough had exploited the resources that the media offered.

Is there life after the Second Life?
One might rightly ask whether there will be something next hype.

That is life after the Second Life. It's called Google Lively

According to Per Andersen, Nordic director for analysevirksomheden IDC, there will be something new in the ashes of the Second Life.

-- It comes back in one form or another, it is certainly, he says.

And there is some evidence that he is right. Google - of course - barsler with 'Google Lively', which is similar to Second Life. The user can create his own space and his own person, and you can visit the other room.

So if you thought that the virtual storm was rescued, with the funeral of Second Life, and you could save yourself out, in reality, you have to think again.

There are several avatars to do and more worlds to explore. Unless you think it will be a fly in other words.

Gambling may be banned in Second Life, but not gambling research

Robert Bloomfield — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:49:34 -0700

A metanomics member sent me the following note with a description of her research study on gambling. If you have a few minutes, read more for a description of the study, and some links.

One of the missions of Metanomics is to foster research in and about virtual worlds, so please do help Viki out!

Dear Second Life residents,

I’m master student of information systems and my area of research is “computer ethics”.

Currently I’m working in my dissertation which is related to “ethics in online gambling” and I choose second life as my project ground.

Part of my project is to provide statistics about general knowledge of people all around the world about gambling risks
and related odds, and self-defined prediction of gambling behavior.

To collect those data I created two questionnaires in the following links:

How much do you know about gambling risks and odds?

Predict your gambling behavior

I would really appreciate if you find the time to fill in my questionnaires and help me to collect the data.

Thank you in advance

Viki Silvansky

THE VIRTUAL WORKFORCE: Manpower's First Year in Second Life

Lynn Cullens — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:46:24 -0700

Start: 07/14/2008 - 05:45

End: 07/14/2008 - 07:45

Timezone: Etc/GMT-7

VIDEO AND AUDIO OF THE EVENT NOW POSTED! READ MORE for the full story and lots more links!

On Monday, July 14, 2008, at 5:45 AM SLT (yes that's right! 5:45 AM!) Metanomics will be covering the first anniversary celebration of Manpower’s Second Life Headquarters. This event, organized by Dancing Ink Productions, features a roundtable discussion with Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres, Linden Lab Chairman and Founder Philip Rosedale, among many other fascinating speakers (including Second Life resident Gentle Heron, co-founder of the Heron Sanctuary, a support group for disabled people in Second Life.) Roundtable discussions will be separated by machinima from the incomparable Draxtor Despres. Host Robert Bloomfield will provide live commentary from the event via slcn.tv, at our event partners and on the web and ChatBridge at www.metanomics.net/WatchNow.

Topics for the roundtable include:

Manpower's commitment to social responsibility and to the UN Global Compact.
The evolution of a global workforce and of virtual work.
Opportunities for Second Life residents, especially those who have real-life disabilities or who are focused across several cultures.

Metanomics’ live coverage of this event is part of our new series, The Virtual Workforce, which focuses on how virtual worlds and related technologies change the nature of employment, management, and organizations. The Virtual Workforce series is brought to you by all of the sponsors of Metanomics, with special thanks to Kelly Services for their insights in helping us map out this emerging area.

Metanomics Gets Lively

Robert Bloomfield — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:33:07 -0700

Following the novelist's rule "show me, don't tell me," I went ahead and created a room in Lively, called Metanomics. My avatar name is, naturally, BeyersSellers.

Join me here .

The following code is supposed to provide a window to the room right on this web page, but maybe it isn't supported by Drupal:

Hmmmm.....

Google Launches Virtual World in Competition with Second Life

Dusan Writer — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:49:44 -0700

The rumours are true: Google's plan to make a play in virtual worlds was unveiled today with the launch of Lively, their competing platform to Second Life and in particular, during its beta phase at least, other virtual social spaces. Google's platform will run in a browser, differentiating it from client-centric worlds like Second Life and can be embedded in a Web site.

According to CNET, however, Google says that their virtual world is not intended a separate destination but rather something that integrates with "real life":

"It's integrated with the Internet. It's not an alternate destination," said Niniane Wang, Google's engineering manager for the project. "Our intention is to add to your existing life."

Links to Mitch Kapor's Closing Speech for SL5B

Lynn Cullens — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:58:53 -0700

For those Metanomics folks who missed it -- or just want a review -- the video, audio and transcript from Mitch Kapor's closing speech for Second Life's 5th Birthday celebration, which contained some really rich content and surprising announcements, have been made available for view and download on the Second Life (TM) website.

Or use these links:

Download video;(MP4 format, plays inworld)

These recordings are also available on the Second Life Podcast.

Read the text transcript here. Or review the summary by Metanomics member Dusan Writer who wrote a text summary with pictures.

Download the 2 clips featured in the video: