Rezzbox is sponsoring free access to the 2 Greenies sims for the rest of October in order to show-off the exciting new virtual world homes. There is a very special offer on a great Greenies inspired Rezzbox-- L$375 for October only. You can find the special promotion in the entrance of the Greenies the initial Mouse Hole. The vendor has a show room option so you can see the actual setting before you purchase.

IBM is making a virtual world for design research for Fashion Research Institute (FRI) using a combo of Second Life and OpenSim:

This first-of-a-kind system will allow fashion and consumer packaging designers to access and use 3-D tools with the Second Life client interface. In addition it will also connect to the OpenSim virtual world platform to create packaging and fashion products, provide efficient workflow queues, and allow groups with an interest in the product to collaborate and modify designs.

AP reports from Japan electronics show now that:

Sony Corp.'s twice delayed online "Home" virtual world for the PlayStation 3 console will be available sometime later this year, while U.S. software maker Microsoft Corp., which competes with its Xbox 360, is starting "New Xbox Experience" worldwide Nov. 19.

Microsoft's service will be adapted to various nations, but people will be able to communicate with other Xbox 360 users around the world, according to the Redmond, Washington-based company.

Further the article adds In both Sony's and Microsoft's virtual worlds, players can personalize their avatars, choosing hairstyles, facial features and clothing. Akagawa said avatars will be able to dress up like heroes in hit video games.

We love the idea of the metaverse, we think virtual worlds are really cool and have a lot of potential. Good news is that so do many other people including a wave of new virtual world platform companies that are starting to target Second Life directly. This certainly means that there will be more, better choices for where to create inworld content and deliver meaningful user experiences. In fact we are working now on some very exciting virtual world content for mainstream online users.

Metaverse: A Definition

Met"a*verse\,n [meta' beyond, over + verse short for universe] the inter-connected digital space of virtual worlds and web content accessible via avatars.

The true meaning of metaverse is more about what it will become than what it is today. The vision is of a 3D Web (or better termed 3D enhanced web) where all digital information can be acccessed and experienced via an avatar. So, it is the virtual universe comprised of all virtual worlds and interfaces to all digital data. The metaverse will also have a services such as currency exchange, trading transactions, 2D Web gateways and inventory storage.

How far away is this future--? 2010-2012 may see this vision become increasingly a reality as virtual world platforms gain users and build-out inter-connectivity. Increase in mobile applications will also drive expansion of a visually-oriented browsing experience.

The results from our visitor poll show that most people (51%) do not use inworld voice.  27% however, do like to use voice when they can.

This is a predicatable result really. 

Predictable because the core of SL users are accustom to inworld activities without voice as many people do not have confidence that it works well. Also the core SL user prefer to maintain some distance between their RL and SL personas--voice is in fact a very personal thing to share. Voice also breaks the immersion more than it adds to the inworld experience.

Maybe there is also a lack of compelling inworld content where voice is needed. Maybe the new open Vivox toolset will be a basis for new voice oriented content?

Finally, skype is a better alternative to inworld voice as there are more contacts possible and better quality. Where inworld chat is essential (and maybe should be improved to add value to inworld experience) voice is not so useful right now.

The team over at Phatcat's is putting the whole area up for auction on eBay. Check info on their site here  Why would they do this and what is it worth to someone else?

The why is easy enough--too much work to maintain a popular site and not enough revenue from running it.

Eventually anyone would get tired and need to move on. But why is running an area in SL so unprofitable?  Answer: costs and complexity are increasing over time, while new users are not growing--so how much is your customer base worth when it is not on aggressive growth. Not enough is what it is.  It's a great deal for Linden Labs to get people to work and make "wonderous" stuff--for less than what you can make stuffing cold cuts into a sub sandwich. We know Linden is making dough (and a lot apparently) but where's the upside for the mainstream content creators and area operators? Is the grid only profitable for porno and land speculators?

 Secondlife CEO Kingdon on current state of SL: "The third wave is now where consumers find the experiences that are most relevant to them, like live music, or participating in groups with common interest. Also, we are seeing businesses re-enter Second Life with a focus on collaboration, learning and product development. We’ve been through substantial expansion as a platform."  Full Venture Beat interview here.

Think he is spinning it or telling it like it is over at LL? What reality is LL rl? Come to London next month and ask him yourself! Kingdon is speaking at the Virtual World conference.  Info on the conference here and get a discount if you really wanna show up irl

I'll be at the conference, so if you have any questions for Kingdon or LL please send them along and I will ask and make video clip maybe. Hmmm what to ask? Hmmm....

related posts: 

LL is reporting more than 2700 new islands on the grid since 01 August. That is more than a 10% increase in land mass on the grid in the last 6 weeks. Now is this a real statistic? Is it conversion of full sims to void sims? Who is buying new islands? Seems like a bunch of new academic islands (they pay lower rates btw than businesses--even though they are not stopped from selling stuff).  With all these new islands, where are the new avatars? With such a boom why isn't LL more visible in claiming some real success?

Really the grid is getting more and more empty. More land with fewer prims per m3. Land mass expanding rapidly as new avatars dribble through.