Archives

IBM in the Metaverse was a 3-world event with Sandra Kearney, IBM’s Global Director of 3D-Internet and Virtual Business. This mind-stretching show seamlessly integrated real-world feeds from a Cornell (Johnson School) classroom, a feed of Sandra’s avatar in IBM’s ActiveWorlds space, and our audience in Second Life.

Anti-Social Contracts, with law Professor Joshua Fairfield, explored the
limitations of the current state of contract law in virtual worlds.

Julian Dibbell is an author of numerous books and articles about virtual worlds. Our discussion emphasized his recent writings, and his exploration of “ludo-capitalism.”

U.S. Congress Looks at the Metaverse. Dan Miller, Senior Economist of the Joint Economic Committee is trying to stay a step ahead of the IRS and Department of Homeland Security (and perhaps the SEC) before they do something unwise in regulating the metaverse.

Fashion! included Raven Pennyfeather, who quit her job as a mortgage compliance officer to create a very successful line of Goth and Victorian clothing in Second Life; Nyla Cheeky, a real-life designer who is extending her brand by developing copies in Second Life. Jack Myers, a media analyst who weighs in on the challenges and opportunities of Raven and Nyla’s efforts.

Taxation of Virtual Worlds, with Bryan Camp of Texas Tech University’s School of Law, explores the tax implications of virtual commerce, in game worlds (like World of Warcraft) and unstructured worlds (like Second Life).

Electric Sheep and CSI revealed the experience of the Electric Sheep Company’s Chief Creative Officer, Chris Carella, who worked with CBS to tie their top-rated crime drama CSI-NY to content within Second Life, to mixed reviews.

Second Life's Economic Architecture. Gene Yoon, the VP of Business Affairs for Linden Lab (the maker of Second Life), spoke about his controversial perspectives on the nature of the Second Life economy (of which he is often called “the architect.”).

Virtual Finance discusses the challenges involved with investing in and regulating Second Life financial markets. The panel discussion includes exchange CEOs IntLibber Brautigan and Arbitrage Wise, blogger Gigs Taggert, and David Karsbol and Jillian Falconi, representatives of the real-world Denmark investment bank, Saxo.

Edward Castronova is the first economist to examine virtual worlds. We discuss his past and his future plans.

Higher Education examines the efforts of Chris Collins (University of Cincinnati) and Benn Konsynski (Emory) in using virtual worlds for higher education.

Virtual Retail considers two of the more colorful and successful retailers in Second Life, Stroker Serpentine and Temporal Mitra, who market largely to the adult entertainment industry. Don’t worry…the discussion never gets inappropriate, and has a number of lessons for anyone exploring e-commerce in virtual worlds.

Journalists on Entrepreneurs allowed Daniel Terdiman (CNet), Peter Ludlow (Second Life Herald) and W. James Au (New World Notes) to discuss their books and their views on business ventures and journalism in Second Life.

Virtual Interoperability. Dr. Yesha Sivan is a Harvard-educated Israeli who is pursuing interoperability standards for virtual worlds. Dr, Sivan describes his views on standard-setting, defining the metaverse, and doling out funds to companies that are seeking to create new standards.

Linden Marketing. Robin Harper is the Vice President of Marketing and Community Development at Linden Lab, and spoke on wide range of topics, including business disputes, zoning and privacy in Second Life, and the political considerations involved in dealing with virtual world residents.

Virtual Banking. Two special panel discussions discussed the motivation for and impact of Linden Lab’s banking policy, which was announced in early January, 2008. The first panel included David Talbot (Chief Correspondent, Technology Review), lawyer Ben Duranske of VirtuallyBlind.com, Second Life bankers Travis Ristow and IntLibber Brautigan, and representative of the Danish Saxo Bank, a retail bank and Metanomics sponsor.

Virtual Finance. A follow-up discussion brought in views from outside Second Life, from Joshua Fairfield (Washington and Lee School of Law), Dan Miller (US Congress Joint Economic Committee), Dave Altig (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta), along with inworld bankers Travis Ristow and IntLibber Brautigan, and lawyer Ben Duranske of VirtuallyBlind.com.

Federal Agencies. Our show on Federal Agencies included Paulette Robinson of National Defense University (and director of the Federal Consortium on Virtual Worlds), along with Ericka Vick of NASA, both talking about how Federal Agencies can use—and are using—virtual worlds for outreach and education.

Serious Games. David Wortley is Director of the Serious Games Institute of Coventry University, who discussed the role of serious games in training and education, the nature of SGI’s unusual public/private partnership, and how they work with the developer community in their region of the UK.

Forterra Futures. Robert Gehorsam is the President of Forterra Systems, Inc. This fascinating interview covered Forterra’s work with the University of Maryland’s Transportation Laboratory (which is using a virtual world to train I-95 emergency response teams) led to a broader discussion of the role of simulation...which led to an interesting discussion about work being done at the University of Central Florida, and my favorite term of the day: the military-entertainment complex.

New Realities in Commerce. In February, Metanomics held a multi-world broadcast from the Emory University Conference, "Virtual Worlds and New Realities in Commerce, Politics and Society." Streaming live simultaneously from Emory University and Second Life, our cross-world panel included Benn Konsynski of Emory University, Chris Klaus, Founder and CEO of Kaneva, and John Zdanowski, CFO of Linden Lab.

Real World Press in Virtual Worlds examined the attraction virtual worlds have for Reuters, CNN and CMP, with commentary from Second Life blogger Prokofy Neva. Eric Krangel represented Reuters, Rhonda Lowry represented CNN/Turner Broadcasting, and John Jainschigg represented CMP.

Here and There. In late February, Metanomics conducted its first event in There.com, interviewing There’s CEO, Michael Wilson. Mr. Wilson discussed There’s business model, and his views on intellectual property, open standards, and the future of virtual worlds.

David Levine is a 23-year veteran of IBM Research. This interview covered the business implications of three-dimensional visualization, Second Life's Architecture Working Group (AWG), the OpenSim efforts to reverse-engineer private servers to work with the open-sourced Second Life viewer and David’s perspective on the business models of Linden Lab & There.com.

Richard Bartle spoke to Metanomics about real-money trade, game design, his famous model of player types, and his critiques of existing virtual worlds. This discussion generated considerable commentary on other blogs.

Virtually Social. As part of CMP’s week-long event Life 2.0, Metanomics interviewed Nick Yee of the Palo Alto Research Center. We discussed Nick’s work on how virtual environments affect the way we perceive ourselves and others; who participates in games and why; and the behavior and uses of guilds in World of Warcraft.

CosmoGirl is There! took Metanomics back to There, with There’s CEO Michael Wilson, CosmoGirl’s Morgan Brooks, and market researcher Mary Ellen Gordon of Market Truths, all discussing CosmoGirl’s activities in There, including their virtual prom.

Mitch Kapor, Chairman of the Board of Linden Lab, graciously agreed to appear on a special Friday edition of Metanomics to discuss his vision for virtual world technology and business strategy, the future of Linden Labs and Second Life, and the motivations and implications of the announcement that Philip Rosedale would be stepping down as CEO of Linden Lab.

Just in Time for Tax Day, Metanomics interviewed Accountants in Second Life. We were joined by Arlene Ciroula and Byron Patrick of KAWG&F, a real-world accounting firm with a Second Life practice, and Tom Hood, Executive Director of the Maryland Association of CPAs. We discussed the role of accountants in virtual worlds and the tax treatment of virtual world income.