Current Insight Community Cases

Essential Datacenter Tips On Application Performance Monitoring

The Importance Of Skilled Immigrants To The American Economy

Help A New Kind of Music Label Revolutionize The Industry

Mandates To Buy American Should Be More Carefully Considered

Navigating The New Business World After This Recession

Check out our CwF + RtB experiment.
Brought to you by Floor64 and the Techdirt crew.

stories about: "second life"
Culture

Culture

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
cory ondrejka, douglas merritt, record labels, technology

Companies:
emi, second life



EMI Hires Another Techie Into Senior Management; Co-Founder Of Second Life Joins The Team

from the stepping-in-the-right-direction dept

Normally, I tend to think of big media companies hiring a "Chief Digital Officer" as being severely misguided. That's because thinking "digitally" isn't a separate job function or a separate department these days. It should permeate across the business -- and assigning it to one exec pretty much guarantees that the rest of the company now thinks that it isn't their problem to think about how new technologies impact their business strategy. However, record label EMI is making some news lately, and has now hired Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka to be its VP of digital strategy. Combined with the fact that EMI also recently hired Google's former CIO Doug Merrill, it makes you wonder if the company really is taking the importance of technology seriously in establishing its business strategy. It remains to be seen if the company really is taking the time to understand these concepts across its business, or if it's pigeonholing "the tech guys" into limited roles. No matter what, it's worth watching to see if a major record label really can evolve and adapt to the changing market.

4 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
social media, social networking

Companies:
myspace, nissan, second life, sun



Nissan Builds Internal MySpace While Sun Builds Internal Second Life

from the social-media-inside-the-enterprise dept

There's been a lot of talk over the last couple years about "enterprise 2.0" efforts to bring the types of applications in the "web 2.0" world into the enterprise. How successful those efforts have been is still an open question -- but companies keep on looking for such solutions to improve internal communications. Two stories today suggest exactly how that's happening. Business Week has a story about how Nissan is trying to build an internal "MySpace" to get employees more connected with each other and make the flow of information and the sharing of ideas more useful. Meanwhile, Sun, who has been trying to push more workers to telecommute for years, is now trying to build its own Second Life-type virtual world for employees from around the world to interact as if they were in an office together. While it's worth noting both of these experiments as clearly taking a consumer internet service and moving it into the enterprise, there's still a huge question of how useful either service will be. They both make nice stories for the press, but that doesn't mean either will get enough adoption to really be useful. Lots of companies have had internal intranet-type collaboration services in the past that don't get any use. Repainting the same thing with the broad 2.0 brush won't automatically make them useful.

8 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Failures

Failures

by Joseph Weisenthal


Filed Under:
finance, virtual worlds

Companies:
second life



Second Life Experiences A Run On The Banks

from the virtual-depression dept

One of the aspects of Second Life that has gotten a lot of hype is the fact that it's not just a virtual world, but a virtual economy as well, complete with trade, currency fluctuations and banking. That being said, people that have actually tried to engage in sophisticated financial activity (e.g. forms of arbitrage) have found in-game institutions to be unsatisfactory for their purposes. These problems seem to be spreading, as in-game banks that offered depositors sky-high interest rates on their Linden Dollars are experiencing what could be described as a 'run on the bank'. It can't be a surprise to the depositors that these institutions are having trouble remaining solvent, seeing as offered interest rates were in some cases near 100%. Those are the kinds of interest rates tend to be indicative of Ponzi schemes and other fly-by-night operations rather than stable banks. If anything, this raises more of a psychological question more than an economic one: why would people trust their money to a bank offering these kinds of rates when they almost certainly wouldn't do so in the real world? Then again, these issues aren't really unique to Second Life. France's biggest bank, BNP Paribas, has just announced that it will freeze the assets of three major funds, as it struggles with issues related to the US mortgage market.

7 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Too Much Free Time

Too Much Free Time

by Mike Masnick


Filed Under:
corporate policies, guidelines, virtual worlds

Companies:
ibm, second life



IBM Decides Common Sense Isn't So Common In Virtual Worlds

from the if-you're-representing-IBM,-perhaps-your-avatar-shouldn't-be-a-grungy-rat dept

Just as companies are beginning to question the wisdom of spending time in Second Life, IBM has decided that perhaps part of the problem is that its employee representatives don't have enough common sense to recognize what's appropriate behavior in Second Life and other virtual worlds. The company has put together rather informal guidelines that basically sound like common sense: Don't discuss intellectual property with unauthorized people. Don't discriminate or harass. Make sure your avatar is appropriate as a representative of IBM. These are pretty much all things that would normally go without saying -- but apparently IBM felt they needed to be said (which is either a statement about IBM employees, or what IBM management thinks about IBM employees). In the meantime, Second Life is probably helping IBM and other corporations out by banning all the vices that made Second Life popular in the first place. Now it'll be safe for all the corporate types. Of course, that's about all who will be left since everyone else will have moved on to the next (more fun) world that isn't locked down with rules and swarming with marketers trying to pitch them.

18 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Overhype

Overhype

by Joseph Weisenthal


Filed Under:
gambling, virtual worlds

Companies:
second life



Second Life On Mission To Purge All The Fun

from the moving-on dept

Earlier this year, it was revealed that the FBI was watching the in-game Second Life casinos to see if they ran afoul of anti-gambling laws. In-game gambling is a tricky issue, since it brings up a litany of unresolved legal issues associated with virtual worlds. It looks like Second Life didn't want to take any chances, as it has summarily banned all gambling in the virtual world. Considering the harsh treatment of those affiliated with the industry, it's not surprising that Second Life would look to cover its hide. This news comes just days after Second Life announced that it would crack down on in-game sexual activity that it deemed to be "broadly offensive". In other words, so much for Second Life being a place to escape form the real world and virtually indulge all of your vices. All that's going to be left are half-baked corporate publicity stunts; too bad nobody goes there for that.

38 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Search Techdirt
And now, a word from our Sponsors..



Popular Posts
Poll

Which Internet Concern Worries You The Most?

 

 

 

 

 

 


Add Techdirt RSS To Your Reader
rss Add Techdirt to your Bloglines
Add Techdirt to your Google Add Techdirt to your My Yahoo
Add Techdirt to your Netvibes Add Techdirt to your Newsgator
Subscribe to Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Techdirt's Daily Email Newsletter

Older Stuff

Thursday

6:10pm: Senate Exploring Med School Profs Putting Names On Ghostwritten Journal Articles In Favor Of Drugs (22)
4:52pm: What Does It Say When A Comedy Show Does More Fact Checking Than News Programs? (56)
3:33pm: Nordic Music Week: Optimism Galore And Found Songs (11)
2:10pm: Would Top Sites Really Opt-Out Of Google Based On A Microsoft Bribe? (37)
12:57pm: Intel Lawyers Again Go Too Far In Trademark Bullying (22)
11:43am: Mandelson Wants Gov't To Have Sweeping Powers To Protect Copyright Holders (40)
10:47am: Once Again, Walmart Stops People From Printing Family Photos Due To Copyright Law Claims (42)
9:39am: Essayist Writes Popular Essay... Then Sends 'Non-Negotiable' Invoice To Church Who Posts It Online (59)
8:23am: ASCAP, BMI And SESAC Continue To Screw Over Most Songwriters: 'Write A Hit Song If You Want Money' (78)
7:07am: Kicking People Off The Internet Not Enough In South Korea, Copyright Lobbyists Demand More (26)
5:33am: Are The Record Labels Using Bluebeat's Bogus Copyright Defense To Avoid Having To Give Copyrights Back To Artists? (42)
3:53am: Larry Magid Calls For News Tax To Fund Failing Newspapers (29)
1:35am: Judge Says 'There's An Ad For That...' And It's Ok For Now (14)

Wednesday

11:01pm: Oh Look, Some Police Do Know How To Use Craigslist As A Tool (8)
8:43pm: Netherlands The Latest To Propose Mileage Tax That Requires GPS For Tracking Driving (30)
6:40pm: Spain Says Broadband Is A Basic Right (12)
4:22pm: Entertainment Industry Wants More People To Know About OpenBitTorrent Tracker (25)
3:00pm: It's The TSA, Not CSI: Actions Limited To Security, Not Crime Investigation (25)
1:49pm: The More Innovative You Are, The More You Get Sued; Yet Another Patent Lawsuit Over Shazam (7)
12:36pm: Oh No! Nobody Reads! Oh No! It's Too Cheap For Everyone To Read! (18)
11:15am: We See Your 'Copyright Contributes $1.5 Trillion' And Raise You 'Fair Use Contributes $2.2 Trillion' (17)
9:55am: Cable Industry Joins MPAA In Asking FCC To Allow Them To Stop Your DVR From Recording Movies (45)
8:44am: Sony Pictures Having Its Best Box Office Year Ever... Still Blaming Piracy For Killing The Business (38)
7:30am: Jenzabar Finds 'Expert Witness' Who Will Claim Google Relies On Metatags, Despite Google Saying It Does Not (38)
5:52am: China Says Microsoft Violates IP With Windows, Bars Sales (26)
4:01am: Don't Post Comments On StlToday.com Or They Might Tell Your Boss (45)
1:50am: Recording Industry Making It Impossible For Any Legit Online Music Service To Survive Without Being Too Expensive (45)

Tuesday

11:01pm: Crackdown On Loyalty Program Scams Shows How Ridiculously Successful They Were (11)
8:56pm: Just Because People Say They'll Pay For Something, It Doesn't Mean They Will (21)
7:02pm: Yes, Bad People Use Facebook Too (8)
More arrow
Quick Links
Close
E-mail It