McKinsey: Ignore Second Life At Your Peril

We must all be doing something good if McKinsey, the top consulting company, is writing about virtual worlds. Times On-line reports on April 23:

Virtual worlds such as Second Life will become an indispensible business tool and vital to the strategy of any company intent on reaching out to the video-game generation, one of the world's leading consultancies has said.

McKinsey & Company, the management consulting firm whose observations about corporate behaviour are closely watched, said that virtual worlds were on the cusp of a major expansion - particularly as a way to reach younger customers - and that companies were "ignoring them at their peril."

OK, it is part of a much larger report on on-line marketing. But still nice quote.

IBM Haifa Reserch Lab: Real Virtual Worlds: Key Technical Challenges (with Focus on MLM Virtual Goods)

This is computer science seminar where I will cover three topics:
- Intro to Virtual Worlds.
- Key Technical Challenges in Virtual Worlds.
- Focus on the MLM Virtual Goods Challenge.

Abstract:

Real Virtual Worlds are defined as a three-dimensional worlds in which human characters spend their time, play, work and live. A definition is proposed – 3D3C: 3D for the three dimensions of this interactive world and 3C for Community in which people connect with one another, Creation that allows people to express themselves and Commerce that links real monetary value to actions in this world. Current business models -- what works and what does not work -- as seen today in Second Life, the first example of a real virtual world, are described. To fulfill the immense potential we need to overcome several technical barriers -- this barriers calls for new
algorithms, and define a research agenda in this topic.

One such technical challenge is the issue of MLM Virtual Goods management. MLM stand for Multi Level Marketing -- a known and sometimes problematic scheme or real sales -- yet MLM like sales method has an important meaning when it comes to virtual goods. Baring in mind, that internet:ads==virtual worlds:virtual goods, the ability to sell, cross sell, up-sell, co-sell takes a specific meaning.

Open University Event: April 28, 2008: Real Virtual Worlds and their Impact on Learning - Hebrew

Updates:

• The presentation in pdf format -- most of the slides.
• Info about the Book including how to order (at the end).
• Reference to the 3D3C definition of real virtual worlds.
• My avatar in Second Life is Dera Kit and you can visit the lab at this location (this is an SLURL -- a URL that activate second life directly into a specific location). Alternatively you can search "metaverse labs" in second life.
• My email: yesha at shenkar dot ac dot il.
  

I will give an invited talk for the Open University in Israel which will connect "Real Virtual Worlds" as defined as the 3D3C ... and learning...

April 28, 2008. 12:30 after noon. Canbar Hall, Kikar Building.

Airplane Tracking in Second Life

This is a technical demonstration -- and lots of fun....

This video show's how real-time aircraft tracking data can be used to drive a 3D display of aircraft in Second Life. The system uses fboweb.com's KMZ feed for Google Earth, with all SL functionality being developed by Daden Limited.

Stephen Wiltshire: The Human Camera

I am often asked why 3D? Granted there is value to 1D, 2D, 2.5D. But basically our mind is designed to deal with 3D -- our productivity depends on that. This next movie demonstrates it.

Stephen Wiltshire has been called the "Human Camera." In this short excerpt from the film Beautiful Minds: A Voyage into the Brain, Wiltshire takes a helicopter journey over Rome and then draws a panoramic view of what he saw, entirely from memory.

Paper That Define Real Virtual Worlds: 3D3C

This is a PDF version of a paper that was published as part the book "New Media and Innovative Technologies" from the The Hubert Burda Center for Innovative Communications at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

This paper is the first official version of the 3D3C definition for Real Virtual Worlds. Here is the abstract:

The Metaverse is described as a three-dimensional world in which human characters spend their time, play, work and live. A definition for the Metaverse is proposed – 3D3C: 3D for the three Dimensions of this interactive world and 3C for “Community” in which people connect with one another, “Creation” that allows people to express themselves and “Commerce” that links real monetary value to actions in this world. This study assesses several Metaverse phenomena as manifested in the Second Life environment: Social structures, Griefers, commercial data, real businesses, ceremonies and real experiences, comparing them with parallel phenomena of World of Warcraft. The Metaverse is then mapped into the conventional course of technology development (invention, realization, excitement and aversion, maturity and transparency), leading to the conclusion that a new medium is born.

Download the paper here.
See also an on-line video discussion.