Why tech leaders think Second Life could be a gold mine. – Jan. 22, 2007
Honestly, second life’s scheme of giving their users property rights is a creative novelty in the world of online games. It allows them to outsource some of the development of the game environment to their users, who because of the rights they have to what they create have an incentive to contribute, to think what would users want, what would be useful. It also allows Linden Labs, the creators and owners of Second Life, to create a more democratic experience for their users, which adds to the games appeal.
However, it’s important that people realize that the property rights they enjoy in Second Life are a product of the terms of service agreement they have entered into with Linden Labs. That agreement specifies that Linden Labs may at their sole discretion alter it, potential negating any property rights users have. Furthermore, any conflict arising under the agreement are subject to it’s arbitration clause.
This is not to mention what would happen if Linden Labs went bankrupt.
All I’m saying is not to loose the forest because of the trees, don’t make this house of cards into something that it is not. It definitely is something to watch, maybe invest sometime and energy into, just not all of one’s time and energy!
Last November in Beijing, IBM gathered 2,000 employees, with 5,000 more watching on the web, to unveil a series of global initiatives on digital storage, branchless banking, and the like. During the presentation, CEO Sam Palmisano walked up to an onstage PC, logged onto the online three-dimensional virtual world called Second Life, and took command of the cartoon-like “avatar” that represents him there. He then visited a version of Beijing’s Forbidden City built on virtual real estate, dropping by an IBM (Charts) meeting where avatars controlled by employees in Australia, Florida, India, Ireland, and elsewhere were discussing supercomputing. Among the initiatives announced by Palmisano that day: a $10 million project to help build out the “3-D Internet” exemplified by Second Life. Linden CEO Philip Rosedale stepping into the metaverse. Rosedales avatar is edgier than the actual Linden Lab CEO. Sam Palmisano’s avatar inside one of IBM’s Second Life properties
By early January more than 3,000 IBM employees had acquired their own avatars, and about 300 were routinely conducting company business inside Second Life. “The 3-D Internet may at first appear to be eye candy,” Palmisano writes in an e-mail interview, “but don’t get hung up on how frivolous some of its initial uses may seem.” He calls 3-D realms such as Second Life the “next phase of the Internet’s evolution” and says they may have “the same level of impact” as the first Web explosion.
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