In between all its DEMO coverage Dean Takahaski at VentureBeat had some real news with the announcement from Linden Labs, developers behind the virtual world Second Life, that users have spent more than 1 billion hours in the game.

That breaks down to something like 115 wasted years interacting with people’s avatars in the hope that maybe that life will be better than to one you already are living. User hours said Linden Labs has grew in the second quarter to 126 million hours during which they contributed to the annual income of more than $500 million.

Some of the other notable facts Linden Labs shared

• $1 billion in transactions between users
• each visit to the virtual world averages at about 100 minutes
• $50 million trades hands each month for virtual goods
• 250,000 virtual goods are created every day
• 18 billion minutes have been used in chat in the virtual world
• 1,250 text messages are sent every second
• more than 200 countries are represented

I guess a whole bunch of folks figured out how to get a life.

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From next month, Second Life publisher Linden Labs is set to ban all celebrity avatars, with its new guidelines using Barack Obama and Angelina Jolie avatars as specific examples of content that will be dropped.

Also for the chop is First Lady Michelle Obama, pictured above draped over her husband’s virtual lap, and … well, every celebrity out there who doesn’t authorize their likeness to be used in Second Life. Real-world brands, cars, artwork, and copyrighted fictional characters (Darth Vader, for example) will be forbidden as well. That’s a helluva lot of prohibited content.

This move has likely come about because of a trademark lawsuit brought against Linden Labs. After stun gun manufacturer TASER, Inc. discovered a virtual copy of its weapon was being sold as content in Second Life, it planned to sue. The lawsuit was later dropped, but LL is clearly keen to cover its back. Hence, we can wave goodbye to Barack and Angie.

It sounds like a nightmare to moderate this stuff, and New World Notes predicts that enforcing the new guidelines may prove problematic:

“I would think avatar imitations of celebrities, especially political figures, would fall under the parody safe harbor of fair use. In the real world, you can still buy an unauthorized Barack Obama mask for Halloween. Not so in Second Life very soon…”

[New World Notes, via GamePolitics]

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This might not be far away. Introducing Vollee:

Vollee is an Israeli and American technology company that develops software intended to allow users to remotely interact with CPU-intensive PC applications by streaming input and output data back and forth across a network. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, its primary focus involves enabling PC games to be played on 3G-compatible mobile phones.

Wikipedia:Vollee

This means that you launch WoW on your computer, then connect to your computer using Vollee and you are set to go. Of course, hardcore WoW players will still stay at home. The thought of 0.02 seconds of lag is enough to make them tremble.

About a year ago Vollee did the same thing to Second Life.

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Imperial College London uses the virtual world to let its med students work on “patients” and diagnose them, CNN says. It’s part of a pilot program aiming to bring a “more engaging learning environment” into the training process.

The school has set up a virtual hospital designed to look like its own real-life facility. Students communicate with professors and other colleagues within the world. Everything’s made to mimic the actual experience: If a student doesn’t virtually wash his hands, for example, he loses points.

Luckily, from the sounds of it, the personnel within the hospital are all part of the program — no random Second Lifers taking to the operating table. And, Imperial College says, the virtual training doesn’t replace the physical in-hospital experience. Rather, it’s a supplement to help expand students’ education and connect with their computer-driven lives.

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Content defined as adult will be quarantined in a separate area in Second Life, away from the mainland continent areas many users frequent. Adult content will be removed from Second Life search, and users will need to be age verified to access the new adult areas.

What counts as adult content though hasn’t yet been decided, and Linden Lab will consult with the community over the next 6 weeks to pin down what goes, and what stays.

The move may have serious consequences for the Second Life economy. Love it or hate it, adult content is a big part of the Second Life experience, and is a major player in the inworld market. The move is also a little strange, given Second Life already has defined adult only and PG rated areas, and has in the past forced age verification, with a strict no under 18’s policy for the main grid (the company operates a kiddy friendly “Teen Second Life” for under 18s.).

From a marketing viewpoint, the move isn’t surprising. Reports on Second Life often focus on its seedier side, and it’s not hard to be exposed to porn inworld, although likewise it’s not hard to avoid either. A porn free main grid is easier to market, although how many new people would join a porn free Second Life is the open question.

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A British woman is seeking a divorce from her husband after she found out he was having gay sex in Second Life.

Lisa Best caught husband John late one evening “having gay dungeon romps” in Second Life on his laptop….in bed….next to her while she slept.

“I saw John’s little person having it off with another man in a dungeon on the screen,” Lisa told the News of the World.

“I just froze with my head on the pillow, silently watching what he was doing. I felt sick to my stomach.

“After a few minutes, I could bear it no longer and sat up in bed demanding to know what the hell he was doing. He quickly folded the damn machine shut. I went off the dial but John just brushed it away. He said it wasn’t real life so what was I doing my nut about?”

“I couldn’t sleep a wink the rest of the night wondering whether this meant he was betraying me or not—that he’d rather have gay sex on Second Life than have sex with me.”

John told the paper he wasn’t gay: “I was just messing about on there. I’m the world’s least gay man. There’s not a gay bone in my body,” despite sending screenshots to himself from in Second Life of his avatar sharing in some man on man loving.

“I just found it funny. I only went on for a laugh. I can’t believe it’s ended up destroying my marriage,” said John.

(via and image credit: News of the World)

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Sony launched its long awaited (and delayed) Home 3D virtual world for the Playstation 3 this week and the service has already been plagued with issues.

The first day in there was widespread reports of people unable to log in to the service; according to Sony it was due to overwhelming popularity, although take the spin out and you’d have to say complete and utter inability to cater for an audience was the problem.

Three days later and Sony Home is going down the same path of just about every major 3D virtual space before it: sex. Second Life has always been famous for its sex, and Google’s Lively in its last days became only about the sex as those looking for their online virtual hit were the only people still using it. Now Sony Home has followed the path.

Like many other services, men have flocked to Home in greater numbers than women, and many are already using the service to trash talk, as the video below shows.

Whether Sony will crack down on this is yet to be seen, or more importantly if they’re able to at all given how “popular” it seems to be according to Sony’s press releases. The surprising thing I found from the video is that there isn’t more men playing female characters, as that seems to be the norm in other virtual spaces; after all, who needs women when you can pretend to be one

(via Alley Insider)

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It would seem that not only is the U.S. Army going into the gaming business but they are also taking a serious look at Second Life. Over the next 30 to 45 days Second Lifers will see two new island appear in their world says General William S. Wallace; commander of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).

The first island with the starting point point for anyone wanting to check out the Army scene on Second life is their welcome center. This is where you will find an information kiosk and the means to contact an Army recruiter. The second island will provide; in the words of Gen. Wallace

“virtual experiences like jumping out of airplanes, and rappelling off of towers and using a weapon, to see if we can get some kind of recruiting benefit out of this social networking.”

What I find really facinating about these types of things involving the Army is that they seem to get what all this social mdia and technology is about better than most of the people trying to market it to businesses. They understand that social media isn’t about just setting up shop somewhere and controlling what happens. The Army understands that it is about going to where the people they want to talk with are and then creating a valid reason for a conversation to begin.

For the Army it isn’t a matter of finding a way to make money off of social media interaction. They are looking at purely from an outreach and conversation point of view. This doesn’t mean that they are seeing it as some pie in the sky either but instead are being quite realistic about its potential

Wallace says he’s a realist when it comes to social networking technologies. He admits they’ve probably been “oversold,” but won’t write them off either. The recruiting possibilities are just too alluring.  He notes, ” there’s about 4 million young people that routinely interface in Second Life. [That's] the age group of the young people who we’re trying to encourage to join the military.”

Mabye all these hot to trot social media experts and marketer should keep a closer eye on what the Army is doing. They might learn a thing or two.

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Look most recently served as vice president of software for Pixar and is credited with helping develop its world-famous filmmaking system. His resume also includes a stint at TiVo, where he was vice president of application software and user experience. He played a “key role in defining TiVo’s functionality and user experience,” his bio states. Prior to TiVo, he led the Silicon Graphics team that built the world’s first VRML-based 3D workstation. Not too shabby.

Linden Lab isn’t revealing any specifics yet about what sorts of changes could be coming. The Second Life company does say, however, it intends to make its virtual world “more accessible to more people by making it easier to use, more intuitive, and more joyful.”

This is Linden Lab’s second big name hire in recent months. The company snagged former AOL exec Frank Ambrose as its senior VP of global technology in August. Ambrose was hired to work on expanding the Second Life network.

Linden Lab is based in San Francisco.

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Second Life, the once highly hyped virtual space has dropped from the radar this year for many. And yet for the lower coverage, the Second Life universe has continued, with new peak concurrency rates, and a loyal user base going on as they’ve always done.

But lately, things are not great in Second Life. The company has slowly shifted its focus to high yield business services such as teleconferencing and the private “Second Life Grid” while giving less attention to its existing users. To make matters worse, Linden Lab has increased monthly fees for some users by 66%, resulting in large scale protests within Second Life itself.

I asked Lowell Cremorne, the Editor of the leading Second Life blog The Metaverse Journal what his take was on the recent events.

What do you believe the motivation of Linden Lab is behind the 66% increase in tier rates?

Aside from the obvious motivator of generating more revenue, it seems fairly clear to me it’s a clumsy attempt to re-balance their product offering toward the higher priced options.

The OpenSpaces sims were marketed as an option for ‘low-impact’ uses such as a virtual beach or other open area. They’ve been incredibly popular because of their low price compared to standard land simulators – and some people have totally stretched the interpretation of low-end use. Instead of managing the individuals who aren’t doing the right thing, they’ve imposed the price rises on everyone.

I’ve used the analogy of the local council setting up zoning laws and raising everyone’s taxes when a couple build dwellings that don’t meet the regulations.

Could Linden Lab be trying to force low level user generated content off Second Life, particularly with its push into teleconferencing and other high yield services, such as a the SL Grid?

That’s possible although every communication from the new CEO emphasizes that user-generated content is the strength of Second life (and it is). That said, the focus on enterprise by Linden Lab has never been stronger. If there is an agenda of forcing off low level user generated content, it’s hard to see the business case in that it will just drive people to competitors – particularly the OpenSim grids which run on the open sourced Second Life engine. A particularly short-sighted move was removing the discount for educators – the community that drives so much of the innovation within the platform.

Do Second Life residents universally feel strongly against the move, or are the protests coming from a select few?

It’s certainly not universal but it’s one of the strongest responses I’ve seen since the gambling and banking bans in Second Life. It’s a cumulative effect – Linden Lab have dropped the ball on communicating with Second Life residents over the past year. Combine that with price rises, minimal improvements in usability and the growth of competitors, and the issue of being ‘loyal’ to the Second Life brand is starting to become even less logical.

Where do you see Second Life heading now with the changes?

For the majority of residents whose fees haven’t increased, things will continue as normal. That said, Linden Lab have acknowledged they still have some big hoops to jump through in an increasingly competitive environment. Without significant improvements in communication and usability, Second Life could by default become an enterprise environment whilst the early adopters and innovators move elsewhere. Linden Lab have overtly painted that picture anyway: those that signed onto Second life the past 3-4 years are pioneers that need to understand the settlers have arrived.

You can follow the latest from Second Life, including protest news on the Metaverse Journal here.

(img credit:SL Herald)

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Under the deal, Linden Lab will sell and market Rivers Run Red’s teleconferencing solution Immersive Workspaces 2.0, and will explore developing and deploying additional offerings for from the company in the future.

Immersive Workspaces 2.0 enables organizations to construct custom virtual work environments, including meetings rooms and design centers, on the Second Life Grid, the private Second Life implementation that is separate from the main Second Life space. Integrated web-based applications and the ability to upload and integrate real world content such as PowerPoint slides delivers a full virtual conference experience.

Demo as follows, and Silicon Alley Insider has more.

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ExitReality transforms the social networking experience by offering virtual versions of every social network site profile, or any page on the web, on the fly and in real time. Users visiting a site or profile at the same time can interact, or simply browser the content within the space.

The 3D space created includes any rich media content on the site, and external sources can be dragged into a space, and all items can be copied. The platform is built on open standards including Collada, VRML and others, meaning that existing 3D objects built on the same standards can be easily included in any 3D space, including most objects from Google 3D/ SketchUp.

One of the coolest features is the offering of a “virtual space search engine” that allows anyone with their plugin to enter any 3D space on the web built on open standards, and when I lasted visited the company, there was over 3000 spaces with some incredible builds.

The business model revolves around the creation of custom spaces and advertising for site owners. The first announced deal was with Carls Jr, and since then Blinx has also come on board. Otherwise the service is free to use, and anyone can customize their space. Notably though this isn’t Second Life, and you don’t set up something external to your site; instead the space starts based on content on your site, and you go from there. The benefit there is that not only does every page online have a space (if you never use it, users who visit your site have one generated automatically), but site owners don’t lose traffic as the views within ExitReality a literally a 3D version of your site, calling your items, and counting towards your page views.

It’s a cool service, well implemented, but it does face some challenges, the biggest being Google. The first thing I thought when Google released Lively is that ExitReality is going to take a hit, but as it turns out, Lively is nearly a complete failure, so there’s still lots of room. ExitReality overcomes the boredom aspect of Lively by being a browsing experience, so finding fresh content is as easy as visit a new site. The other challenge is the reliance on a browser plugin, coupled with it being available for Windows. Asking users to install a plugin can be difficult, but what the service does would be a challenge any other way. In terms of Mac support, every time I’ve visited the company I’ve asked about it, and am always told soon. Hopefully one day

My two previous videos on ExitReality below, including an interview I did back in April for TechCrunch. And no, I didn’t pick the music on the second one

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Engineers have just revealed the first release of Lively by Google — a virtual 3D chatting experience powered by GTalk. The platform, reminiscent of a Second Life-type setup, lets you customize an avatar along with a complete room. Characters can then interact with other, so you could actually come over and give me a virtual hug. Aww.

Lively also has built-in YouTube support that gives you the option of playing videos on virtual TVs and showing pictures on virtual frames within the rooms. Not bad.

The utility is even designed to interact with your desktop, so you can run any of the features right from your own environment. Google is also hoping to see Lively rooms embedded on various web sites for user interaction.

Here’s one, just for kicks, called Tech Stop:

And here’s a video demo of all the Lively features:

Looks like we may have another Google home run on our hands.

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VBusiness Expo is a regular virtual conference dedicated to corporate opportunities in virtual spaces run by Nick Wilson’s Clever Zebra.

The event is entirely hosted within virtual worlds (mostly Second Life), and brings together thought leaders and innovators from across the physical globe to discuss how virtual world technologies are being used in business. Over 170 companies and 511 people attended the first Expo in April, with leading companies such as Sun, IBM, Kelly Services and Gartner speaking on how virtual worlds are changing business.

The next vBusiness Expo is being held July the 29th to August 1st 2008. Attendees can expect to hear from companies “who have experimented in virtual worlds, discover the practical uses and opportunities available to them today, and how to take their first steps into the emergent 3D web.” Interesting content and a serious take on the opportunities virtual worlds provide.

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Entropia Universe for those not familiar with it offers a 3d online virtual space for interactive entertainment, social networking and e-commerce. Entropia mixes MMO entertainment with a real economy with users conducting hundreds of millions of dollars of annual trade in virtual goods and services since its launch in 2003.

I first covered Entropia Universe in May 2007 when I asked whether it was a better Second Life. It’s not, but it’s still a very smart virtual world platform that combines your Second Life style ecommerce with a basic space focused roll playing sort of game. I’m still happily recommending it for people who want to be active in the virtual world space but prefer a game thread unlike Second Life.

For more coverage on the virtual world space be sure to visit Inquisitr sponsor The Metaverse Journal, an Australian perspective on Second Life and the online world universe.

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The AP has an interesting write-up about how researchers are now using the online world to develop new AI technology. Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are testing their creations there to see how convincingly they can think on their own and interact with real people.

“It’s a fantastic sweet spot — not too simple, not too complicated, high cultural value,” one of the institute’s directors said.

Would you be fooled? Read more about the technology here.

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