Information

This page shows some of the press coverage we receive and the media trends in some of Second Life's major markets.

Linden Lab News Archives

Here are links to the various Linden Lab websites where we catalog the press we receive. (Not all of these are up-to-date, but we are constantly working on it.)

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Japanese
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Weekly Reports

In this section, you will find the media trends and press stories we are tracking in some of our key markets.

Week Ending November 7, 2008

Key Coverage by Market

US

Trends we’ve noticed:
-- Generally positive with coverage from major media outlets.
-- The presidential election was a big trend in the news this week, with several mainstream publications picking up on the events going on in Second Life.
-- Coverage of new Openspaces policy.
-- Collaboration was a theme this week, with Second Life featured as a great training and distance learning tool.

Key Coverage:

CNBC - Reports on the election activities in Second Life, allowing Residents to participate in the presidential election through inworld events.

BusinessWeek - A story about the election activity in Second Life, featuring crowded gatherings. The journalist talks about events taking place and the groups that have been active during the presidential race.

Computerworld - Observes presidential election activities in Second Life including events at Obama’s Headquarters in Victory Plaza and discussions held in McCain’s Straight Talk Café.

AP - Obama’s Second Life headquarters were so packed that some avatars weren’t even able to get in.

AP - Hundreds of volunteers have been unofficially campaigning for the election in Second Life.

GigaOM - Second Life is one of the top three virtual worlds to be in for Election Day.

Virtual Worlds News – Covers the update for land pricing and Mark’s response to the community.

GigaOm - Linden Lab has significantly revised its pricing policies due to mass protest from Second Life Residents.

InformationWeek - What future does Second Life have; will it fulfill its goal to be mainstream, embraced by everyone? Some argue that Second will always be a niche product.

Virtual Worlds News - Posts our statement about the layoff rumors.

ENTERPRISE Coverage:

Demoines Register - AvivaUSA (life insurance and annuities) is marketing itself to young, prospective agents through Second Life.

Inform IT - CODESTATION (by IBM) is viewed as a general meeting place for Second Life’s development community.

Government Technology - Missouri state government recently hired its first IT employee recruited directly from Second Life.

EDUCATION Coverage:

Digital Burg - Through Second Life, participants can hear guest presentations from around the world – developing the tremendous potential of distance learning.

Mass High Tech - The Naval Undersea Warfare Center has created a virtual model of itself in Second Life for training purposes.

About.com - Explores how ESL might be taught in Second Life.

IT Business - Numerous Canadian colleges are using Second Life to train and teach their students.

Educational Gaming Commons - Covers Second Life as a toolkit for educators.

Virtually Blind - The Second Life Bar Association will include a discussion about “Ethics of Practice in Virtual Worlds” in Second Life Saturday.

CONSUMER Coverage:

CNBC - Covers election activities in Second Life, allowing Residents to participate in the presidential election through inworld events.

GigaOM - Reports that Second Life is one of the top three virtual worlds to be in for Election Day.

AP - Obama’s Second Life headquarters were so packed, that some avatars weren’t even able to get in.

AP - Hundreds of volunteers have been unofficially campaigning for the election in Second Life.

1UP - Hundreds of Obama supporters also held virtual rallies in the online virtual world game Second Life.

16 WNDU - Obama’s unofficial Second Life headquarters was so popular that many Residents couldn’t get in.

The 33TV - Numerous election parties held in Second Life.

Peace, Earth and Justice News - Obama’s campaign has been working hard in Second Life to win the global vote for President of the US.

New World Notes - Posts a poll about the Openspace pricing policy, with 48.8% of respondents satisfied or at least tolerant and 44.2% more suspicious.

GigaOm - Linden Lab has significantly revised its pricing policies due to mass protest from Second Life Residents.

MMORPG Bay - Linden Lab has announced a new land product for Second Life in response to the negative feedback from the price increase for Openspaces.

IGN - Reports that Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski may soon be producing a project about a man’s addiction with Second Life.

Inform IT - Provides a step-by-step process to sign up and use Second Life.

Contra Costa Times - Reports that virtual worlds like Second Life are particularly poised for growth.

T+D - Second Life is an example of a public virtual world. It is extremely accessible, and users have the option of building their own custom space within the public program.

Video Game Media - The 2008 Machinima Awards included many filmmakers, cineastes, gamers, students, and technologists from Second Life.

Clickz - Linden Lab selected Big Spaceship to consult on its user experience design.

Virtual Worlds News – Covers the partnership with Big Spaceship to improve the first hour user experience.

New World Notes - Big Spaceship is being brought on to “re-invent” the user experience.

Technology Story - Sun and Samsung have demonstrated working applications of Second Life on mobile phones.

The Industry Standard - Linden Lab oversees one of the most successful social virtual worlds in existence, but it is still struggling with Residents about how Second Life should be governed, especially over the use of Openspaces.

e-Consultancy - Second Life faces a real estate crunch of its own.

UK

Trends we’ve noticed:
-- Enterprise has received the most focus, with the coverage on Clare’s appointment and Silicon.com’s image display of enterprise use being the highlight articles.
-- Continued coverage of Second Life being used for medical training purposes, in particular the training of paramedics in-world.

Key Coverage:
Silicon.com - Provides a selection of photos showing enterprise use of Second Life.

[Brand Strategy] (not published online) - Discusses the debate around virtual world branding. Catherine Smith forms part of the six contributors.

Marketingweek.co.uk - Clare Rees’ appointment as European Marketing Director.

ENTERPRISE Coverage:

Silicon.com - Provides a selection of photos showing enterprise use of Second Life.

cambridgenetwork.co.uk - Second Life aids the evolution of corporate websites.

EDUCATION Coverage:
Guardian.co.uk - Paramedic students at St George’s Hospital have been using Second Life to help prepare them for the real life situations they could face when they qualify.

ADULT CONSUMER Coverage:

Earth Times - Avatrait Digital Galleries, the Second Life gallery, has teamed up with the we-R-you Corporation to use their fully integrated social network platform, coRe, within the existing Avatrait website.

GERMANY

Trends we’ve noticed:
-- There was still some coverage about churches in Second Life and, of course, the presidential elections in the US.
-- Article in Handelsblatt about consultancies urging their clients into Web 2.0.
-- Financial Times Deutschland has published an article about business schools using Web 2.0 features to communicate with students.

Key Coverage:

Noows.de - A long news about the presidential elections within Second Life and Obama’s victory inworld.

EDUCATION Coverage:

[Financial Times Deutschland, Nov 31] - Published an article headlined “Business School 2.0”. The article is very positive overall and amongst others introduces the virtual campus that Insead Business School is running in Second Life. This is backed with positive quotes of a marketing professor.

ADULT CONSUMER Coverage:

Heise.de - Writes about an artist who takes care of the avatars that are not in use anymore.

PR-Inside.com - US elections inworld and how they are taken up within Web 2.0.
SL Inside.com - A video called “The witches of Eastgrid” which is quite nice to look at.

FRANCE

Trends we’ve noticed:
-- Coverage of Tom Hale’s appointment.
-- Focus on recruitment in-world and how it can be used by enterprises to get new interesting profiles with several big companies mentioned.
-- New employment agency for French community is now located in Liberta island.
-- Reality Festival in Paris, the first international festival dedicated to virtual realities. Media wonder if Second Life is really a space to create and it has been demonstrated partly by this successful event. Even French singer William Scherrer exploration of Second Life inspire creativity in his latest album.

Key Coverage:

Virtuel News - An article about Jack Linden answering to demands in Second Life. This follows a series of posts on pricing increase, riots inworld, and service interruptions.

Gromike - Covers Cold War Kids in Second Life, that demonstrates how you can be creative inworld.

IndiceRH.net - An article about Tom Hale’s appointment as Chief Product Officer of Linden Lab.

Tribune de Genève - Covers new virtual world dedicated to people who have AIDS to discuss their issues.

ENTERPRISE Coverage:

La Tribune.fr - A very positive article about what can recruiters expect from an avatar-candidate. Interview with several recruiters: AXA France, L’Oréal, La Caisse d’Epargne.

PC World - About how to survive economic crisis by developing Internet technologies usage, and mentions immersive workspaces as those proposed by Second Life that can enable to make real economies.
Virtuel News - On VirtuelJobs: a bridge between Real Life and Virtuel Life in Second Life. This is about a new employment agency located in Liberta French community island.

Pink-SEO – Virtual shopping in Second Life.

L’Atelier.fr - Covers how to detect false CVs when recruiting where Second Life is mentioned: even in Second Life, you need to have a detailed and strong CV to be enable to meet recruiter.

Sud Ouest - Stonfield Inworld initiative of e-commerce in Second Life.

Direction Informatique - How to attract new talents from Generation Y into your enterprise by using Social networks or Second Life, for instance.

Direction Informatique - Digital networks or players, mentioned Second Life as one of the active places to be in.

EDUCATION Coverage:

VirtuelNews - Posted an article on Distance Learning Day in the virtual world Second Life.

Daneel Ariantho Digital Log - Distance Learning Day in the virtual world Second Life.

Vagabondages - Distance Learning Day in Second Life.

ADULT CONSUMER Coverage:
Liberation.fr - Reality Festival with 4 days dedicated to Virtual Worlds. Second Life is mentioned as being an exciting laboratory for artists to experiment their creativity. Only regret is that they often reproduce real experiences inworld rather than developing new types of creativity.

Vnunet.fr - Obama’s success also amongst Web electors in Twitter, Facebook or Second Life. Obama headquarters in Second Life has been filled with people during elections. Celebrations in Second Life have brought huge crowds of avatars together.

Causeur Salon de Réflexion – Says Sarah Palin is not human at all but rather like an avatar from Second Life. This qualification about her non humanity has been given by journalist Christian Salmon on RTL radio broadcast.

Chronicart.com - Reality Festival with an interview of artists Camille Bovier Lapierre and Paul Coudamy. Both artists have worked on the Virtual but not on Second Life. They have been asked if they considered Second Life as a creative space and if it was not dead as a creative environment. Answer is complexity and richness of use is one of the reasons why some have abandoned creating in Second Life but Reality Festival creations hopefully will change things by showing extent of possibilities.

Afjv.com - Reality Festival and Second Life true Creative potential for Artists: “Your World, Your Imagination”.

Afjv.com - About Reality Festival, and Second Life mentioned as a creative space.

RFI - Article about William Scherrer, famous French singer who explores Virtual Worlds, as Second Life that he visits regularly, that inspired his last album.

EditoWeb Magazine - Obama in Second Life.

LeMonde.fr – Covers politics “second life” meaning that politics are now focusing on virtual news or virtual political effects based on no reality. Thus, journalist qualifies politics as becoming “second life” politics. He is the same author, Christian Salmon to qualify Sarah Palin as Second Life woman and not real human being.

Vnunet.fr - Weblin new technologic application to surf and chat online as an avatar in this social network and meeting website. Second Life avatars are allowed.

LeMonde.fr - Covers Thriller’s birthday where it is explained Michael Jackson dance has been reproduced many times as in Second Life.

20 Minutes.ch - About Swap, a new service to exchange/convert virtual money. This service is available for Second Life.