SLCN

After 35 shows in 35 weeks, we are going to take a short break to prepare for Season Two. In the meantime, we will be running "best of" shows on Mondays and Tuesdays, drawing the most interesting clips from more than 50 fascinating guests.

We ended the seasons with two great guests (Susan Tenby from Tech Soup and Randal Moss from American Cancer Society), a clip of Cybergrrl Oh reporting on location about RacerX Gullwing's contributions to Relay for Life, a very special guest in the audience (my mother--hi Mom!), and a challenge to Stephen Colbert.

The Metanomics Colbert Challenge

Metanomics: Fall, 2007

During the Fall of 2007, Cornell Professor Robert Bloomfield hosted 15 shows on Metanomics: Business and Policy in the Metaverse of Virtual Worlds. Here is a complete list, in order of scheduling. (After a while, Caleb Booker of Metaversed began providing comprehensive written summaries, with analysis of key issues. Sorry, nothing like that is available for the first month of the series.)

Metanomics 101 sets out Rob's view of metanomics, laying out all three major subfields (experimentalist, immersionist and augmentationist).

IBM in the Metaverse. This 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 exploration of "ludo-capitalism.

In US Congress Looks at the Metaverse, Rob interviewed Dan Miller, Senior Economist of the Joint Economic Committee. Dan 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. Summary and analysis here.

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, and Jack Myers, a media analyst who weighs in on the challenges and opportunities of Raven and Nyla's efforts. Summary and analysis here.

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

Electric Sheep and CSI interviews the Electric Sheep Company's Chief Creative Officer, Chris Carella. ESC worked with CBS to tie their top-rated crime drama CSI-NY to content within Second Life, to mixed reviews. Summary and analysis here.

Gene Yoon, the VP of Business Affairs for Linden Lab (the maker of Second Life), spoke with me about his controversial perspectives on the nature of the Second Life economy (of which he is often called "the architect."). Summary and analysis here.

Virtual Finance discusses the challenges 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. Summary and analysis here.

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

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

Virtual Retail explores two of the more colorful and successful retailer 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. Summary and analysis here.

Journalists on Entrepreneurs allows 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. Summary and analysis here.

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

Well, the Wall Street Journal spelled my name right in their article on Second Life banking , and even got my affiliation correct (a faculty member at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management, not just "Cornell University," and they didn't make the mistake of calling me an "economist," as the New York Times did this summer.)

But then, the stinger: according to Ms. Sidel, "Mr. Bloomfield's own Second Life avatar, named Beyers Sellers, hosts a pretend television show in the online game about virtual economics." Ouch!

This remark is mildly insulting (hmmph!), but even more to the point, extremely confusing. Please don't ask an accounting professor what is real—accountants are still struggling to define the most basic terms, like revenue, asset and expense. But what are readers to make of the term "pretend television show?"

In an effort to set the record straight, I just submitted a letter to the WSJ. Since they probably won't publish it, I thought I would just post it here:

To the Editor:

I am glad to see the Wall Street Journal covering the banking crisis in the virtual world Second Life (Cheer Up, Ben: Your Economy Isn't As Bad as This One, Robin Sidel, January 23, 2008; Page A1). Having spent a good deal of time virtual world economies, I would caution that terms like "make-believe," "game" and "pretend" obscure the nature of these new bastions of entrepreneurship.

To take one example of particular interest to me, Ms. Sidel notes that I host a "pretend" television show in Second Life. The show, called "Metanomics," airs live on Second Life Cable Network every Monday; see http://metanomics.net for info).

I am not sure which aspect of the show is not "real." The guests seem pretty real, including faculty from Stanford, Emory and various law schools; top-level executives from tech giants like IBM and virtual world developers Linden Lab, There and Forterra; and senior government officials from Congress, the Federal Reserve Bank and NASA. My audience seems real as well. The Second Life Cable Network reaches close to half of all Second Life residents, and Metanomics is nearing the top of the ratings, while appealing to a pretty desirable demographic of entrepreneurs and academics. This has made the show seem real enough to our sponsors, who include Sun, Cisco Systems, SAP, Saxo Bank and Generali Group.

Are we providing real insights into the future of business and policy in virtual worlds? Tune in and decide for yourself.

Robert Bloomfield
Professor of Accounting
S. C. Johnson Graduate School of Management
Cornell University