Category:Linden Lab PR Update
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.)
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
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 14, 2008
Key Coverage by Market
US
Trends we’ve noticed:
-- Generally positive coverage with a mix of traditional media and blogs.
-- Some of the highlights from this week included a segment on CNBC and the announcement of the $10,000 Linden Prize.
-- Response to the Q3 blog post, which shed some positive light on the current financial strength of the inworld economy.
-- Universities continue to expand into Second Life and we’ve seen more local coverage, especially school publications.
Key Coverage:
CNBC - Aired a segment on the Future of Collaboration, featuring Mark and highlighting the benefits of Second Life for business collaboration.
The Boston Globe - Second Life provides a cheap and effective way for businesses to communicate and collaborate.
San Francisco Business Times - Reports on the Linden Prize.
Virtual World News - Covers the Linden Prize.
Los Angeles Times - Second Life’s economy is healthy as the value of the Linden dollar remains fairly stable compared to the weakening dollar.
EDUCATION Coverage:
E-Commerce Times - Students at San Jose State University are able to attend lectures at its Second Life campus.
The Flat Hat -A College of William and Mary law professor held the schools first virtual lecture in Second Life.
Birmingham News – The University of Alabama is building a 3D virtual campus in Second Life.
Coshocton Tribune - Ohio University and Kent State University have started degree granting programs in electronic game development.
Intelligencer - Loyalist college, the first college in Canada to build a virtual world campus in Second Life, will receive that ORION Award for its achievements in research, education and scientific discovery.
Kirkwood Community College Blog - InfoIsland in Second Life is hosting a virtual college fair this weekend. Kirkwood will have a booth there to showcase Distance Learning.
Daily Kansan - The Spencer Museum of Art and Kansas University Department of Art will showcase artwork and provide interactive exhibits in Second Life.
eSchool News - Second Life is a huge success due to improved gaming technology and enthusiasm about video games.
Medical Education Blog - Virtual Ability, Inc. serves to enable people with a wide range of disabilities to enter into virtual worlds like Second Life.
Linden Prize Coverage:
The Click Heard Round the World
Other coverage:
Los Angeles Times – Says many entrepreneurs are taking advantage of Barack Obama’s presidential win by selling virtual Obama t-shirts to Second Life residents.
Tech News World - Reports on the difficulty of defining and enforcing trademark law in virtual worlds like Second Life.
IT World - Discusses how the Matrix (film) helped inspire Philip Rosedale to create Second Life.
The New York Times - Reports that Amanda Van Nuys will join Linden Lab as director for enterprise marketing.
Profy - Second Life third quarter financial data shows solid growth in its in world economy as people turn to entertainment and relaxation during tough economic times.
Web Pro News - Current economic downturn seems to have no effect on Second Life with t user hours reaching there highest ever.
Profy - Posts on the growth of the Second Life economy amidst the recession.
The Metaverse Journal - Presents commentary on the Q3 blog post.
Second Thoughts - Provides commentary about the strength of the inworld economy.
UK
Trends we’ve noticed:
-- No negative articles about Second Life.
-- Case studies make up the bulk of coverage with highlight articles looking at how Obama fans celebrated his win in Second Life.
-- The enterprise section continues to receive the most focus, but again there has been coverage about using Second Life for training particularly for education institutions.
-- Continued coverage of Second Life being used for training purposes, increasingly amongst universities and colleges.
-- Jimmy Carr brings the first stand-up show into Second Life.
Key Coverage:
timesonline.co.uk - Dancing avatars created to mark Obama’s victory.
ENTERPRISE Coverage:
Silicon.com - Discusses the launch of the Linden Prize.
onlyfinance.com – An American life insurance company has set up a space on Second Life.
melcrum.com - Recommends Second Life as a cheaper alternative to travelling to achieve a personal sense of communication.
independent.co.uk - Second Life used by Obama’s supporters to celebrate his victory.
trainingzone.co.uk - Reports Cranial Tap launched a business solutions showcase located on Cortex Island in Second Life.
EDUCATION Coverage:
Guardian blog - Discusses how useful Second Life could be for education and research.
Guardian.co.uk - Discusses how useful Second Life could be for education and research.
trainingzone.co.uk - Reports the use of Second Life amongst universities and businesses for lectures and internal training.
eveningnews24.co.uk - City College Norwich has built virtual college for student use.
ADULT CONSUMER Coverage:
porstmouth.co.uk - Jimmy Carr is the first ever comedian to perform a stand-up show on Second Life.
GERMANY
Trends we’ve noticed:
-- No negative coverage this week.
-- A lot of coverage in the Adult Consumer section.
-- Companies develop new services on Second Life’s technologies.
-- The archdiocese of Freiburg’s presence is still a topic for journalists.
Key Coverage:
Computerzeitung.de - Describes how Internet traffic rose to incredible heights after Obama’s victory. Second Life experienced a lot of log-ins as well, plus dancing avatars on the streets.
ENTERPRISE Coverage:
Bild.de -- Avadeal, a platform where you can sell and buy virtual goods from several virtual worlds and online games.
Computerwoche.de - Publishes the next part of its journey to Palo Alto and stops by at Qwaq, a virtual word that's only for “professional clients”. Qwaq wants to do better than Second Life and is supposed to have more than a thousand clients now, among them BP.
Visavis.de - Reports that the Chinese government is planning to impose taxes on virtual revenues.
EDUCATION Coverage:
[http://debatte.welt.de/kolumnen/55/meine+woche/98382/nachtgebet+im+internet
Welt.online] - Comments on the archdiocese in-world and describes what is offered there. The journalist also alludes to the fact that the church loses a lot of acceptance among the people and needs to attract new target groups.
ADULT CONSUMER Coverage:
OpenPR.de - Tells us about Mickey Mouse’ birthday party in Apfelland.
tecchannel.de - A new book was published called “Second Life – to live, to love and to make money”.
Netzwelt.de - Published an article about short movies made in virtual worlds. “Molotov Alva” in Second Life is mentioned as well.
FRANCE
Trends we’ve noticed:
-- Less coverage this week and quite neutral.
-- This week there has been coverage on various topics such as competitors and on potential usage of Second Life.
-- Region le Jura is now in Second Life and this is an interesting step forward on the Government side.
Key Coverage:
LeMonde.fr - An article about a new virtual world dedicated to Muslim community, which is inspired by Second Life model.
Jeux online – Covers the Nexon G-Star 2008 events’ announcements, which should include a social network similar to Second Life.
Bases Publication - Reports about Google’s diversification with Google Lively which is inspired by Second Life.
Overgame.com - Published an article about how gaming or virtual worlds (such as Second Life) stakes for military usage and simulation.
ENTERPRISE Coverage:
News Press - Published an article about Government Regional District Le Conseil du Jura launching a project in Second Life. The region has been recreated in 3D inworld to visit: Juracom.
ADULT CONSUMER Coverage:
Virtuel News - Posted an article about Artists without Linden dollars creativity space in Second Life.
L’Express - Article about William Scherrer, famous French singer who explores Virtual Worlds, as Second Life that he visits regularly, that inspired his last album.
JAPAN
Trends we’ve noticed:
-- Almost articles and quotes are positive.
-- A number of articles covering Second Life in trade newspapers.
-- Following the overheated anticipation for Second Life, each industry, seeking future business opportunities, seems to be looking at ways to utilize Second Life.
-- Educational and research organizations still remain very interested in Second Life and many universities have been promoting SL-related projects. Mycom Journal’s article about the “3Di Education Summit 2008” on November 4th reported about these activities.
-- The US presidential election was also big news in Japan; articles reported on how the election campaigns utilized the Internet, since using the Internet for campaigning is prohibited in Japan. The article from Second Times on November 3rd showed some of the differences in elections between Japan and the US.
Key Coverage:
Insatsu Shimpo (newspaper) – A recruitment consulting company from Osaka Japan started a service this October enabling college graduates currently searching for employment to talk in real time with recruitment staff and senior employees through Second Life. Over 14 million people use Second Life from over 90 countries worldwide. The business activities between users can reach as high as 30 million dollars a day (sic, the journalist made a mistake), and Congress is debating whether imposing taxes is possible.
ENTERPRISE Coverage:
The Second Times – American Vostera Company and Japanese choumi-shouji, Inc., are presenting a photo exhibit of Burkina Faso in Second Life.
The Second Times – Linden Lab announced they will not raise the price of Openspace SIMs under certain conditions. They will provide a new type of SIM, “Homesteads,” which is something between Openspace and ordinary SIMs.
The Second Times – In order to make “the first hour” a more pleasant experience for first-time Second Life users, Linden Lab has hired design agency Big Spaceship.
EDUCATION Coverage:
Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun (newspaper) – A short article explaining what a metaverse is. Metaverses gained attention when Linden Lab released Second Life in 2003. There are currently more than 15 million users around the world.
Nikkei Marketing Journal (newspaper) – Internet point exchange service NetMile, inc. has started reciprocal exchanges between NetMile's and MMP (the currency used in metaverse “meet-me”.) This is the second time NetMile has set up an exchange with a metaverse after Second Life’s Linden Dollars.
The Second Times – University of Florida built “The Second China Project” on Second Life. “The Second China Project” is a virtual training facility intended for diplomats who have decided to take up a post in China, in order to get used to Chinese culture and customs before they go there in real life.
Mycom Journal – 3Di’s educational event using 3D Internet, the “3Di Education Summit 2008,” was held October 15, hosted by Uchida Yoko Co., Ltd.
ADULT CONSUMER Coverage:
Nihon Keizai Shimbun (newspaper) – Article introducing the book “Why people buy things with no shape.” The book analyzes how a metaverse -- starting with Linden Lab’s Second Life and other online games -- functions as a business, and as a place for business between individual consumers.
The Second Times– The “Second Miyagi” SIM has reopened, with more free items and accessible stores.
The Second Time – An article introducing the various communities and SIMs on SL supporting Obama and McCain.
The Second Times - An article showing photos of the dance parties being held at SIMs supporting Obama after he was elected president. On the other hand a photo of a McCain-supporting SIM shows that things there were pretty frigid.
[http://www.secondtimes.net/metaverse/event/20081104_ioi.html The Second Times (online, 11/3) – Japanese Aioi Life Insurance is holding a charity event on Second Life. The money made will be donated to JCV (Japan Committee Vaccines for the World’s Children).
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.
Pages in category "Linden Lab PR Update"
The following 7 pages are in this category, out of 7 total.