"While the article is great in terms of what kids and some adults do in a guild, the misnomer that 'leaders' are created in a game of any type or simply because you wear the abused tag 'guildleader' is absurd. I have no problem with the term guildmaster, GM, stratman, stratperson, roteman, etc., but labeling or calling anyone who plays a game a leader because of that particular game is plain wishful thinking."

Continue reading The Guild Counsel: Am I a leader?

The Guild Counsel: Am I a leader? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 May 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab, the company behind the Second Life platform is launching the open beta of Project Nebraska today. Project Nebraska was the working title for what is now called Second Life Enterprise, a standalone Second Life solution for enterprise use.

This "Second Life in a box" solution, is actually in two boxes. It consists of a combined software and hardware bundle, including two 1RU rack-mount servers, prepackaged as an appliance and configured to provide virtual environment and voice services, ready to use with standard Second Life viewer software.

But that's not all.

Continue reading Linden Lab launches Second Life Enterprise beta, Second Life Work Marketplace to come

Linden Lab launches Second Life Enterprise beta, Second Life Work Marketplace to come originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

After Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon's announcement of a standalone virtual world product (essentially Second Life, but able to be run on private servers and with no connection to Linden Lab's virtual world) at the last Virtual Worlds London, the Lab's new director of enterprise marketing, Amanda Van Nuys has followed that up with an announcement that the product (codenamed Nebraska) is now in preliminary testing by a number of organizations.

The beta test (Linden Lab calls it an alpha test, but there's no denying that it is a preliminary beta) is being conducted by such organizations as IBM, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), the New Media Consortium (NMC), Intel, and Northrop Grumman.

Continue reading Second Life in a box, now in preliminary beta

Second Life in a box, now in preliminary beta originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Recently, multinational technology and consulting giant IBM ran some very successful Second Life events, purely for their own benefit. The Academy of Technology conference met the targets, and saved IBM a significant fraction of a fortune in costs. Nevertheless, the conference was quite a high-level affair, and a number of IBM staff feel that there are significant gains that can be had with a more down-to-earth virtual conference focusing more on those who are using virtual environments as an ordinary part of their day.

Jo Grant (aka Jaymin Carthage) has announced the Beyond Blogging conference, which is about exploring the use of virtual environments by IBM and IBMers alike in their social and working lives. Virtual environments are used for the expression of ideas, new concepts, collaboration, communication and community building. The organizers are are looking for papers, posters or presentation sessions along the lines of the conference theme: how virtual environments have affected IBM and IBMers.

Continue reading IBM virtual environment regulars go beyond blogging with virtual conference

IBM virtual environment regulars go beyond blogging with virtual conference originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Linden Lab have published a case-study based on their strategic technology partner IBM's use of Second Life to save money on meetings and conferences. IBM's experience is quite unlike Australian Bank Westpac, which did not find such a compelling case, but the details of Westpac's findings are a bit vague.

In this case-study, IBM staffers talk about their experience with running a Conference and their Annual General Meeting in Second Life , though what seems a bit odd is that it is hard to shake the feeling that we've seen this particular case-study before. Nevertheless, feel free to take in the report, bearing in mind that it seems to be targeted towards those who have the least familiarity with virtual environments, only very carefully introducing concepts and tropes like presence, for those new to the notion.

	Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

Linden Lab/IBM case-study on virtual-environment meetings originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

From 22 to 27 March this year in San Francisco, the 74th IETF meeting will take place in San Francisco. The IETF is the Internet Engineering Task Force, a volunteer group responsible for the development and promotion of Internet standards, and while it represents just one of the cogs in the Internet's success and usability, it is fundamentally responsible for most of the interoperable network and communication protocols in use today.

For this particular meeting's schedule, there's a new BoF waiting for approval. To be jointly chaired by Linden Lab and IBM, the MMOX BoF (loosely translated as Massive Multiplayer Online X -- where X stands for 'stuff' or 'experience', take your pick) is to tackle the preliminaries of virtual environment standards and interoperability mechanisms.

Continue reading MMOX standards at the 74th IETF

MMOX standards at the 74th IETF originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gaming promotes life skills according to IBM exec originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While the announcement of the Google Lively public beta may have taken many by surprise, apparently it did not take Linden Lab unawares -- their Second Life messages were already lined up and ready to go.

Indeed considering that information about Lively's launch was available to a number of people who were close to Linden Lab, either as partners or ex-staffers, it seems silly to suggest that Linden Lab might not have known Lively's public beta launch date, unless those contacts were aflame with considerable, searing resentment.

Wheezing, clanking and dripping oil from dark and unnameable apertures, one of Linden Lab's most neglected subsystems -- the marketing machine -- arose from it's years-long slumber and went about it's ponderous, mechanical business.

Continue reading Peering Inside: A media campaign

Peering Inside: A media campaign originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There's a certain amount of background anticipation among Second Life users about the "very important announcement" that Linden Lab tipped to be a part of former chairman Mitch Kapor's speech on the morning of 7 July. At least among those users who are aware of it, which seems to be very few. The ripples of that anticipation, however, have spread far wider.

'Blizzard has bought Linden Lab,' I hear for the ninth time today, and it's early yet. Another item in my mailbox from a user tells me that they are sure that Electronic Arts has snapped up the virtual world operator. Two more pitch IBM as a potential purchaser, and five insist that an IPO announcement will come on the day.

What's interesting is that of all the material people are certain enough to send on to me, they all relate to a sale or an IPO, essentially taking the business out of the hands of its current owners, and it all seems to be presented with an astonished, yet hopeful air.

Continue reading Will Kapor bore? Rumors say sale!

Will Kapor bore? Rumors say sale! originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Technically it isn't supposed to be news until Noon (US Eastern) today, when it is to be announced at the big virtual worlds conference in New York City, but Reuters accidentally jumped the gun and seems to have taken the wind out of the sails of Linden Lab's and IBM's big joint announcement.

The plan, essentially, is for IBM to hold Second Life grid servers on their private corporate network, back behind the firewall, but (we gather) with enough network access to allow those servers to communicate with the central services on the Second Life grid.

This would give IBM a virtual world intranet of sorts; regions that are actively locked away from the rest of the world, but giving their employees the freedom to move between internal simulators and those that are part of the main public grid seamlessly.

Continue reading IBM hosts Second Life attached intranet

IBM hosts Second Life attached intranet originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Multiverse partners with Vivox to bring voice to virtual world developers originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ex-Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Tokyo-based virtual worlds service firm NGI/3DI, Toshitaka Jiku, has been newly appointed as CTO of Chinese virtual world developer/operator, HiPiHi. Jiku brings quite a bit of experience and education to the table from his time with NGI, and is expected to help HiPiHi position itself and scale to the global market.

As you may recall, HiPiHi has already partnered with IBM to collaborate on both massively scalable architecture and long-term interoperability, and seems to have also gained significant buy-in from US chip giant Intel. HiPiHi is on the move, and has their eye on the world stage. It will be interesting to see if this China-based virtual world can pick up broad international appeal.

HiPiHi appoints new CTO originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Circuit City originally opened in Second Life as a part of the IBM subcontinent. The build there was comparatively modest and not heavily trafficked, but it was successful enough for Circuit City to make a much larger commitment to the virtual world, in the form of four sims, forming an extra-large island, with the help and expertise of IBM.

The island features an orientation area (though a registration portal is still in the works), and some helpful signage. A Circuit City HUD enables you to summon assistance from a staff member, and has a built-in flight assister as a bonus. What might really grab your attention though are prizes!

Continue reading Circuit City relaunches in Second Life

Circuit City relaunches in Second Life originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Two hospitals opened up in Second Life today. Except only one actually did any opening. IBM's Virtual Health Center actually isn't open to the public. Rumors of its opening seem to be greatly exaggerated, and are largely confined to the press-release and coverage by folks who didn't actually try to visit it. We've asked IBM what's up with that, and we're waiting for an answer - so we can't even show you a picture of the place.

So, the more interesting hospital (ie: the one we could actually look at) comes to us courtesy of Cisco, Palomar Pomerado Health, and metaverse developers Millions-of-us. The design of the hospital is exceptionally modern, and the Second Life version of the hospital is - essentially - a model of the physical campus that will be built (by the year 2011) in San Diego, California, all packed with top-of-the-line, medical-grade Cisco technology.

Palomar West hospital has its own Second Life account registration portal, and a video tour. On the whole, the campus is very pretty. It's as 21st century as you could hope to see, without flying cars.

Cisco opens virtual hospital in Second Life and IBM ... doesn't originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Icarus Studios, an MMO middleware developer specializing in zoneless next-gen MMO platform technology has made the shift to migrate their underlying tech away from widely used open-source SQL database, mySQL, and instead has migrated to IBM's Informix Dynamic Server.

Icarus was able to switch from mySQL to Informix rapidly and apparently fairly painlessly, with Fallen Earth - a post-apocalyptic MMORPG built in Icarus' middleware - running on the new high-performance database systems.

Continue reading Icarus Studios switches from mySQL to Informix

Icarus Studios switches from mySQL to Informix originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Cinemassively: Virtual strike of IBM by employees yields real results

Cinemassively: Virtual strike of IBM by employees yields real results originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Power Up - educational game from IBM originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Okay, so they may not have intended to do it. The message could have been "You need IBM's expertise to take advantage of virtual worlds" or something more like famous-apparel-company's "Just do it."

That's not really how it comes across, however. A quick informal poll, where we showed the video to a bunch of people suggests that the impression people get is "Virtual worlds are for losers and failures." - which seems a little bit odd since IBM is betting heavily in the virtual world space

This is all a part of IBM's "Talking versus doing" campaign. Some of their campaign adverts seem to be more on-message than others.

The video is below the fold, courtesy of YouTube's special twinkly magic - what's the message you're getting from it?

Continue reading IBM disses virtual worlds

IBM disses virtual worlds originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Chinese virtual world developer HiPiHi has partnered with international information technology powerhouse IBM. The collaboration is essentially twofold, a spokesperson from HiPiHi tells us.

First, IBM is to provide hardware, services, and consultation on scalable architecture, essentially "battle-tested solutions". IBM's obviously getting into virtual worlds, and is too big and too experienced to put all of its eggs in one basket.

Continue reading IBM partners with HiPiHi

IBM partners with HiPiHi originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading The Second Life Philip Linden/Gavin Newsom Fireside Chat, Part 1

The Second Life Philip Linden/Gavin Newsom Fireside Chat, Part 1 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

According to Wagner James Au at GigaOm, Benchmark Capital has joined the board of Vivox. We're not sure how much Benchmark Capital invested directly. The total was $7.8 million US dollars in Series B financing, some of which also came from Canaan Partners and GrandBanks Capital.

The man behind the deal was Mitch Lasky, formerly with Eletronic Arts' mobile division, now general partner at Benchmark Capital.

Continue reading Benchmark Capital joins Vivox in 7.8 million USD deal

Benchmark Capital joins Vivox in 7.8 million USD deal originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

HiPiHi (pronounced High-pee-high, for those of you that are curious) is gearing up towards a launch by pulling in partners. P&G are already on board, and Intel are gearing up to launch the "Intel Experience Center" on 160,000 square metres of HiPiHi land on 22 November (considering that HiPiHi is in China - you can take your pick about which day 22 November actually is).

Chinese-based HiPiHi has been both criticized and praised in the media for it's uncanny resemblance to Second Life - from the feel of their website, to their avatars, stock animations, creation tools and business model.

Continue reading Intel to launch in HiPiHi this week

Intel to launch in HiPiHi this week originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Chet Murphy, experienced distributed systems developer at IBM is to collaborate with Linden Lab and open source developers on the Certified HTTP project, one of the next generation technologies that will underpin the new Second Life architecture, and potentially be incorporated into many virtual worlds and MMOs in future.

IBM has a solid history of participating in and contributing to open source projects of various stripes, and this marks the first direct, practical collaboration between Linden Lab and IBM since the announcement of their collaboration on virtual worlds standards approximately one month ago.

Continue reading IBM's Chet Murphy joins CHTTP team

IBM's Chet Murphy joins CHTTP team originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 08 Nov 2007 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.