Archive for Companies
March 8, 2008 at 7:00 am
· Filed under Business, Companies, Entertainment, Virtual Currency ·Tagged China, Twofish, virtual goods
While the summer olympics may put a spotlight on virtual goods because of China’s huge ambitions, signs of the coming boom are popping up everywhere. The most significant recent news concerns a virtual currency engine called Twofish Elements:
… users are looking for interactive experiences online that are too costly to be paid for by ads alone, so micro-transactions are the logical next step.
… That’s where Twofish Elements comes in, with an offer to help game companies optimize these transactions.
Its software is a plug-and-play platform, and is a sort of combination of web analytics and Paypal for games. Twofish watches what players do and helps create transaction steps to optimize revenue. It handles the micro-payments (even those from players overseas) and protects against the risk of fraud and chargebacks.
VentureBeat: TwoFish Elements launches for micro-transaction economies on the web and someday the web?
Twofish Elements, billed as a “turnkey solution” for companies with online worlds and game networks that want someone to handle in-game currency, micro-transactions and other features that comprise a virtual economy.
GigaOM: Virtual World Economy in a Box
It will be interesting to see how open this is and whether Linden Lab will enter this space any time soon. Technology News has a high level overview of virtual currency systems and I’ve rounded up some notable quotes dealing with virtual goods:
the business of selling virtual items that enable internet users to express themselves is booming. Over $2bn is spent on virtual items every year and I don’t think this is a trend to bet against. Disney certainly didn’t with its purchase of Club Penguin, which could be worth up to $700m.
And it was announced yesterday that Paramount has inked a deal with Habbo Hotel to create merchandise for one of Paramount’s upcoming movies.
e-Consultancy
Read the rest of this entry »
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September 20, 2007 at 9:18 pm
· Filed under Companies, Croquet, Intel, Metaverse, News
Yesterday in The Evolution of CAD, I noted that a platform like Croquet is suited for delivering the kind of deep level of integration necessary to make visualization broadly accessible. Today, via Croquet 2 Play we see that Intel is making serious moves towards making this a reality at the high end
“The combination of Miramar and Qwaq Forums will enable information, which is now only available to individual departments or divisions, to be easily accessed and shared across the enterprise, in dynamic unified views,”
Rattner added that Intel envisions the desktop visualization edition of Qwaq Forums could be used to coordinate and enhance productivity among the company’s global workforce.
Qwaq Forums is designed to allow users to establish workflow steps, create or review information in software applications, and evaluate designs in 2-D and 3-D collectively; at the same time, they can discuss topics using built-in text and voice chat.Qwaq Press Release
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August 22, 2007 at 2:45 pm
· Filed under Business, Cisco, Companies, Metaverse, News
In an article ideal for people who need to get up to speed on the basics, Information Week provides 5 rules for bringing businesses into Second Life:
- Do Like Captain Picard Said: Engage
- Add Value To Second Life Communities
- Don’t Believe The Backlash
- Be Smart About Keeping Out Trouble-Makers
- Think of Second Life As Beta Technology
The first two are really critical as readers of this blog have heard in the past. I’ve also spoken out about the backlash numerous times. Trouble-makers are not really as big of a problem as they’re made out to be and the article shows why. Information Week also makes the comparison to the web in 1994:
using Second Life is a lot like using the Web in 1993-94: Buggy, slow, and lacking in features. But we could all see the potential.
Likewise, in 14 or so years, we’ll all sit back, share a pint, and reminisce about how clumsy and awkward Second Life was back in the faraway year of 2007. (We’ll share that pint in a virtual pub, of course.)
but I think the numbers show that 14 years is way off because the meshverse is evolving a faster clockspeed. This will become abundantly clear by the end of the year. Second Life is just one part of the meshverse – Croquet is expanding in the corporate world, version 1.0 of Multiverse(which I placed high on Rupert’s list of target aquisitions) has just been released and there are numerous developments I’m aware of which will increase the pace.
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August 1, 2007 at 12:54 pm
· Filed under A Quick Link, Business, Companies, Rhythmeering, Siemens, Technology
If you’re interested in how Second Life can be used in business, global engineering and electronics giant Siemens has a page with an excellent video and link to their even more informative island in Second Life.
Collaboration is the core of PLM and the heart of how UGS PLM Software does business. To enable collaboration through Global Innovation Networks, UGS PLM Software develops and leverages 3D modeling, visualization, and collaboration technologies. Virtual environments like Second Life are a natural and exciting extension of these technologies. Through Siemens Innovation Connection, our customers and our partners are experimenting with these new collaboration and visualization technologies. We are working together to explore how these technologies can be utilized to improve business processes and innovation. Siemens Innovation Connection also provides an exciting way to share some of our customer’s innovative products.Siemens Innovation Connection in Second Life
See also Siemens On The Road To Rhythmeering
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June 18, 2007 at 10:20 pm
· Filed under Avatars, Companies, Nintendo, Second Life, Wii, iPhone
This past weekend I played with a Wii and while making my Mii avatar, I was struck by how similar the process is to creating an avatar in Second Life. It was also obvious that this kind of interface could work for lots of things if it had softer iPhone like controls. There’s similarlity in how both work and why people like them:
Once you use an iPhone, you’ll get twitchy fingers. You’ll wonder why you can’t swipe your finger across your laptop screen to jump backward and forward in your browser. The touchability exposes the mouse as the crude finger substitute that it really is. Look at the success of Nintendo’s Wii, which works on the same principle, converting physical movements into virtual ones. People are ready to break the fourth wall of computing and put their fingers directly on the data. This is manual-free computing, instinctive and intuitive, with zero learning curve.
Touch Screens Take Over
I’ve mentioned before that people are hacking the Wii, so once the iPhone comes out I don’t suppose it will be long before we see an iPhone and Wii remote meshed together. I believe that this is the kind of interface that will be pervasive in the meshverse. It’s the kind of platform I’ve been creating software for over the past 5 or 6 years so it is pretty exciting to see it materializing.
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June 14, 2007 at 5:48 am
· Filed under Amazon, Business, Companies, Croquet, Second Life, Statistics, eBay
Although there are serious problems with governance, marketing, programming and even core infrastructure in Second Life, overall the future prospects for Linden Lab look pretty strong. That doesn’t mean Second Life can’t lose the market lead it currently enjoys, but it’s unlikely Linden Lab will end up a non-factor in the meshverse. They’ll probably fare better than Netscape which while living a very low key life at AOL, has um, uh another life at Mozilla. Second Life has survived difficult transitions in the past, they have a visionary and resourceful board, momentum, a stable economy, passionate premium members, thriving communities, critical strategic partnerships, virtual world management expriences and last but not least over 7 million registered residents. Nearly a half million of these folks logged in during the past 7 days. Yes, you can take exception and say that many accounts are owned by the same person but consider the following question. Has anyone gone Shopping for Virtual Worlds and found any with comparable numbers and capabilities? Let’s assume that one or two alternatives to Second Life really start to ramp up. Not only will they face most of the same challenges as Second Life does, some of the millions who registered for SL will take another look and find that it’s changed for the better. Perhaps it will be the cool new weather LL acquired with Windward Mark Interactive or some innovation from the Amazon developer community. Last week eBay’s Meg Witman was interviewed in Second Life and said she wanted her people to revisit their involvement with Second Life because of the sustained growth. If eBay comes up with a way to attract its customer base into Second Life, real estate values in SL will climb. Then again, SL property could be greatly devalued by one or more of the many virtual world developers including Google, MySpace, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft and AOL whose virtual economies are powered by PayPal/Linden Lab exchange servers. It’s hard to find a scenario in which Linden Lab is not a significant player in the meshverse.
Related Links:
Amazon’s Second Life Virtual Marketplace
Marketers ‘floundering’ in Second Life
Reloaded Again and Again(is anyone counting?)
Opportunity Fading: Why The New Second Life Offers Less for Business
Second_Life
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