We will be streaming *LIVE* from the Palo Alto meeting into Second
Life with all venues linked from http://www.virtualworldsig.com

Full Description:
Perhaps no other virtual world has pushed the concept and execution of
virtual economies as far as Entropia Universe. Launched in 2003, the
free-to-play Entropia has a user base of over 800,000 users today,
generating over $400 Million USD in-game turnover in the economy.

Blurring the lines between games, virtual worlds, and real economies,
Entropia was chosen in 2007 by the Beijing Municipal People’s
Government as the platform of development for the Chinese “Cyber
Recreation Development Corp” (CRD). The project will create a
cash-based virtual economy for China that encompasses
business-to-business transactions and other sophisticated economic models.

Not only innovative in economic terms, the Entropia world is being
deployed this year using the CryEngine 2, which will deliver stunning
graphical experiences not yet seen on a wide scale on the web. On
nearly every level Entropia Universe is leading in virtual world
innovation, while extending the reach of the experiences from the game
directly to real-world ATM’s.

The change brought about by virtual collaboration is only beginning to
be understood. Join us for a unique look inside the merging of real
and virtual economies via one of the most fascinating virtual worlds
today - Entropia Universe

More about this event: http://sdforum.org/vwsig

Time:
6:30PM Monday Aug. 25, 2008

Silicon Valley location:
Pillsbury Winthrop Office Silicon Valley
2475 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1114
Directions:
http://www.pillsburylaw.com/bv/bvisapi.dll/portal/ep/ofcDetail.do/ofc/14

Virtual Locations:
Streaming media links posted day of the event at:
http://www.virtualworldsig.com

Be there or be virtually irrelevant!

-MRO

I’ve had an average of 4-5 people through at any given moment.
I’m pretty impressed with the fun level but the uses of Lively remain to be seen.

Until then, stop on by the Virtual World SIG Lively room and say hello!

Virtual World SIG location is up and running so let’s meet up there.
I chose the “island” room in keeping with the Second Life ™ tradition. We don’t need walls anyway. Check it out!

The URL is:

http://www.lively.com/dr?rid=-4023305174264225962

And you should see it below:

Gaia Online tees up its massively multiplayer online game

The missing ‘links’: Looking towards an augmented reality

Three steps to encourage corporate investment in virtual worlds

I found this interesting article about how Microsoft has internal “Quests” that are worked on collaboratively.

You can safely say that the reality that “Work is an MMOG” has arrived.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080626/D91HVAS80.html

Copybot comes to the Music Industry

as follows:

Thanks Prokofy for standing up (over a period of years now) for intellectual property rights. IP protection is the backbone of our economic system which keeps people fed, housed, etc. etc.

Just look at the results:
* Second Life ™ has become the most rapidly adopted and most profitable virtual world ever, creating income for thousands of residents and developer businesses. How? By creating a business based on IP protection and a closed, subscription based (hosting) model.

* iTunes has risen to become the #2 music retailer within 7 years. How? By creating a business based on IP protection inside a closed, limited use system.

* World of Warcraft has become by far the #1 MMOG, surpassing uncountable thousands of “free to play” games with essentially equivalent graphics and gameplay. How? It’s based on a closed, subscription model.

* Kindle is rapidly becoming the first successful ebook reader, with those ebooks now accounting for 6% (!) of Amazon’s book sales. How? With sales of IP protected digital books in a closed system.

Meanwhile the major music labels suffer year after year of declining sales of CD’s - disks of digital files lacking any copy protection whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the YouTube “stunt” remains the repository of all things infringed. It’s still under fire by Viacom – likely on the hook for over $1 billion USD to Viacom alone for “brazenly exploiting the infringing potential of digital technology”. Everybody knows what they did, it’s not even debatable.

Second Life ™ is one of the rare few places online where your IP can be created and reasonably protected. It’s a place where you can finally escape the awful plague of mindless and manipulative corporate content.
Isn’t that a good thing? Or is their some perverse power trip in the “rippers” and copylefters for some reason needing to threaten to drown everyone with “all the music from 1950″. Puh-leeze people, leave it alone!

No matter what they go on about, reality check: code is not law - law is law.
The real IP laws protect real writers, painters, and musicians and yes, even coders. The same laws protect you in the event of theft, even when the door can’t be locked.