CBS's Quincy Smith and The Electric Sheep

CBS will participate in a 7m round of financing for The Electric Sheep.

From Reuters:

"We believe that all these virtual worlds represent next generation communications platforms," CBS Interactive President Quincy Smith said in a phone interview last week."

From 3pointD:

"Sheep CEO Sibley Verbeck tells the news agency, “Electric Sheep plans to use the financing to create software to make virtual worlds ready for mainstream consumption.”

From ESC: (Giff)

"As Sibley told Reuters, some of the capital will be focused on our software efforts as we strive to make virtual worlds ready for mainstream consumption. A big part of this is ease of use, which is why Electric Sheep is so active in the Second Life open source effort and hosts openmetaverse.org. Another part of this is building a second layer of information services on top of virtual worlds that helps people communicate and engage."

Market Truths wins Second Life Business Plan Contest

The Electric Sheep and Edelman's business plan contest has a winner, Market Truths.

From CNET:

"The proposal was for a system in which Market Truths would conduct regular focus groups, as well as surveys and other market research to determine the kinds of things that members of the Second Life community like and don't like about brands, products and services from third-party companies.

"I personally favored Market Truths because they had the best execution," said Susan Wu. "It seemed most likely that they would be able to execute on their idea (and) the fact that (Gordon) already has experience doing this."

From 3pointD:

"They walk away with six months of free access to a private island, plus L$350,000 in prize money (a little over US$1,000). I’ve been a big fan of this contest for some time, so I’ll be interested to see what Market Truths can do with their new venture. I’d also love to see a small VC fund that backed virtual business ideas.

From Marketing Truths:

"Market Truths is a real life market research company and we also provide our services in Second Life, to both organizations in Second Life and organizations interested in Second Life.

We do custom research for clients according to their needs. We also have standard reports on various aspects of Second Life."

Linda Zimmer interview:

"In what areas do you believe RL businesses are most interested in acquiring research about virtual worlds?

It's clear that many businesses are finding that some channels they have traditionally used are not as effective as they were in the past, and also that customer expectations have changed in the sense that more people want a two-way dialogue with companies, with fewer willing to accept a one-way monologue.

Many people seem to be trying to determine the long-term implications of that and so I think companies are interested in exploring the extent to which virtual worlds will emerge as a new channel (for information, promotion, and/or sales) for their particular product or service, and if they do, what form that interaction will take."

Wanted: Second Life Workers

Expect more of this:

"Electric Sheep Co. is offering Second Life residents $10 U.S. per hour to work for them in-game."

The Grid Review Launches!

The Grid Review launched today, or last night, or sometime before I saw all of the posts about it.

From ESC: Giff

"The Grid Review's goal is to deliver the best Second Life news machinima, from the serious to the irreverant. We welcome user submissions from all Second Life residents. Whether you’re a Second Life Peter Jennings or Jon Stewart, we want to see you in action. Please see the submission guidelines for more information on submitting your machinima clips."

Here is one of the anchors, Moo Money:


Business Communicators of Second Life:

"Grid Review seeks to present Second Life news in machinima format with submissions from residents. It kicks off with such initial news categories as Building/Architecture, Business & Economy, Editorial/Opinion, Entertainment, Fashion, Policy & Governance, Social Trends, and Tips & How-to's.

Grid Review is accessible on the web, but is not [yet] available in-world on the Edelman sim. You are invited to submit your machinima and 3pointD hints that there may be some tools or features in the works to facilitate machinima production."

3pointD:

" I believe there may be some facility in the works to help you produce those pieces, though I’m not entirely sure."

IBM: v-Business

Adam Reuters reports on IBM's continued push into Second Life.

From the article: (photos by Michel Leblanc)

"Computer services giant IBM has plunged into Second Life at the urging of its “metaverse evangelists” Roo Reynolds and Ian Hughes, using it as a location for meetings, training and recruitment. But the company is also eyeing revenue opportunities that could have it vying with Second Life design firms to bring real-world businesses into the virtual realm.

, Ele

“E-business was a strategy for us, why not v-business?” said Reynolds, known in-world as Algernon Spackler, at the “My So-Called Second Life” conference in London on Tuesday. “I don’t mean to be competitive with Rivers Run Red or Electric Sheep, but just like we set up a bricks and mortar business online, we could integrate a company’s services in a virtual world.”

"Integration with services, integration with data — exactly what we helped people do back in the days of e-business, that’s sort of what I envision us doing,” he said. “Mind you, I’m an evangelist, not a strategist, but if I had to guess that’s where we’re going.”

IBM has embraced Second Life to an extent unmatched by any other major company — it has more than 230 employees spending time in-world, and it owns some half-dozen islands. Some are open to the public, but most are private, with restricted access for the public."

See also:
IBM's Secret Island
IBM's R&D in Second Life