Darren Herman

Second Life's $1.6mm Spent Today...

I was reading my RSS feeds this morning and saw a very interesting posting from the Second Life Herald about the total amount of dollars spent in Second Life during the last 24 hours.  The number seems extremely high to me as the virtual world has about 1mm residents and has been around for a few years... but it's doing $1.6mm USA Dollars in transactions. 

Apparently, if you pass around money with a zero sum total, it registers those transactions and adds them into the total money spent.  Knowledgeable users of Second Life can write scripts that pass money back and forth all day and increase the total amount of money spent in the virtual world... with having a pure zero sum transaction.

Makes me wonder...  original article is here.

Social Networks as Fads?

Wired Magazine's September issue (9/2006) includes a reader "rant + rave" that says the following: "As a fad for the young, MySpace will fizzle out within two years, just as a new nightclub burns brightly with all the cool people until the mundanes discover it.  If old media wants to keep the young dazzled with its online clubs, it'll need a virtual velvet rope to keep out the unhip, including parents, teachers, and those over-the-hill 35 year-olds fishing for 18-year olds." (William McCarthy)

I agree partially with what William discusses above.  I like the MySpace vs. nightclub comparison. In the nightclub industry, you can only be "hot" for so long - it's a rule of thumb.  Owners of hot restaurants and nightclubs will generally close after they are the #1 club for the summer and go and open up somewhere else under a new name.  The reason for this is that the "elite" or "trendsetters" do not want to keep frequenting the same place year after year.  What will generally happen is that the "trendsetters" will find the place, party for a summer, then the name will spread to the masses and it'll become the mass place to go until that fizzles out.  Just think of Pangaea and Serafina here in New York... those were the hot-spots.

MySpace according to McCarthy "was" the hot-spot.  I like his analogy here.  The trendsetters are probably up in arms that 55+ million people have registered as well, so they are out scouting new social networks.  However, my question is, can you take 55+ million people away from Myspace as it's not the "hot club" anymore?  Probably not, but I do like his analogy.

Social Networking Rant in NYT

Theodora Stites has written a fantastic article labeled, Someone To Watch Over Me (on a Google Map) which touches upon a half dozen social networking companies who directly impact her life every day.  Sites that are realized in the article are:

• Myspace
• Friendster
• Dodgeball - good to see the site/service appear
• Facebook
• Match.com
• Nerve * not really part of the list
• Plazes
• Fark
• Geocaching

The most interesting part of the article focuses on why Theodora has multiple social networks.  She explains it well, and honestly, it's fascinating:

WHY, you ask, do I have to be a part of so many online communities? Isn't it hard to keep track? I need to belong to all of them because each one enables me to connect to people with different levels of social intimacy.

Don't know you but think I may want you to be part of my network? I'll contact you through Match.com or Nerve. Just met? I'll look you up on MySpace. Known each other for a while, but haven't been in touch recently? Friendster message. Friends with my friends and want to get to know you better? Dodgeball or MySpace. Good friends and want to connect more often? Dodgeball. Really good friends? Instant Message.

Anyone involved in the social media space or investment realm should take a look at this article.  It may be a bit slapstick or informal, but it does lay out some great thoughts into the social networking realm.

Tags:  social networking, myspace, friendster, fark, dodgeball, facebook, and NY Times

Virtual World Tennis

I bet you didn't think you'd be able to watch Wimbledon within Second Life, did you?  Ian Hughes has been developing a full Wimbledon environment within Second Life with the following:

• security gate is there to show you can detect things about peoples avatars
• RSS weather feed globe
• world tracking data for actual tennis matches
• The flying wimbledon towel. When anyone clicks the towel it act like a normal banner ad and directs them to the real wimbledon shop for the real towel
• advert watching posts
• and much more

Check out Ian's blog to learn more.

Second Life. tennis, content

Facebook Nears Deal With Major Holding Company

When we think social networking, most of us can name Myspace.com immediately, but if you've graduated from college in 2003 or less, you probably can also name TheFacebook.com, or their newer name, Facebook.com.

A major advertising holding company, IPG (Interpublic Group of Cos.) is nearing a deal to purchase a 0.5% stake in the organization.  IPG has 2 significant media agencies within:  Initiative Media Worldwide and Universal McCann.  R/GA is part of the holding company as well.  Not only will IPG media agencies purchase their media on Facebook.com, but ideally, and I personally think they should use the platform to mine the data... forecast trends and understand what college and high school kids are doing and WHY.  There is tons of data that they have... IPG can leverage this for their clients to provide valuable insights.

Denuo (Publicis) has hinted at M&A and investments in the media space but this would be an unexpected move by IPG who has been hurting financially lately.

Tags: Facebook, M&A, IPG, Social Networking, and community

Web 2.0 Directory

Remember Jerry and David's Guide To the World Wide Web?   We now know the company as a small little search engine/portal/media company called Yahoo!

I was looking for a bunch of Web 2.0 applications and came across eConsultant which lists over 900 differnet Web 2.0 apps.  Certainly worth a look.  You can access the site here. 

Metaverse Forecasts

The Metaverse Roadmap met this past weekend in San Francisco but I was unable to attend do to a few reasons.  A few of my friends made the event and said it was fantastic and there was some excellent break-out meetings that covered a broad range of topics.

Mark Wallace over at 3pointD.com put together a few forecasts of the Metaverse through 2010 (take each with a grain of salt):

• Government regulators will require real-world ID information from people wanting to create an account in online games.
• We’ll see a decline in business travel as a result of virtual world business applications.
• Current AOL users will discover Second Life; current Second Life users will leave Second Life.
• Anshe Chung will earn $1 million in Second Life.

For those of you who do not know of the Metaverse Roadmap, here is their mission statement from their website:

Taking its name from the immersive virtual world imagined by Neal Stephenson in his visionary novel, Snow Crash, the Metaverse Roadmap (MVR) is the first public ten-year forecast and visioning survey of 3D Web technologies, applications, markets, and potential social impacts. Areas of exploration include the convergence of Web applications with networked computer games and virtual worlds, the use of 3D creation and animation tools in virtual environments, digital mapping, artificial life, and the underlying trends in hardware, software, connectivity, business innovation and social adoption that will drive the transformation of the World Wide Web in the coming decade.

Tags:  Metaverse Roadmap, virtual world, and Web 2.0

The Web With A Face?

The web is finally coming alive.  It's not that this is new, but consumers are finally adopting this moreso in the past and we're seeing some great new startups emerge into the avatar & virtual world space. 

Meez is the latest startup that has landed funding ($4.3mm) and was recently in Forbes Magazine (March  28, 2006).  Sean Ryan, formerly CEO of Rhapsody is at the helm and is positioning Meez well wihtin the marketplace by striking some business development deals with major sports leagues and other brands.  The whole point of Meez is to make your 3D ID (identification).  The avatar can be customized pretty robustly to look like you, or whatever your mind conceptualizes.  It than integrates into Myspace, Live Journal, AIM, and coming soon...casual games.

This is the first service that I've heard of (I can be 100% mistaken) where an avatar that exists out of a game can be brought into.  This is fascinating - as gamers can now play multiple games with the same avatar (granted, they are participating in the Meez program - or they're standards setup within the avatar industry).

There are some competitors within the avatar industry - but not really a direct competitor to Meez.  IMVU has created an instant messenger that uses 3D avatars.  Comverse Technologies has created Klonies, which are avatars for the mobile world.  Sitepal....What's coming next?

These are exciting times within the virtual worlds and games industry.  Lines are blurring as to what a game is and what a virtual world is, in some cases.  Is Second Life a game?  It's a virtual world with a real economy.  There are games within Second Life - but I'd argue it's more of a world...  These avatars will help us bridge the gap between external and internal characteristics.

Tags:  Meez, LiveJournal, Sean Ryan, IMVU, Virtual Worlds, and avatar

Web 2.0 Matrix

Programmableweb.com has put together a fabulous matrix of web 2.0 mashups. 

http://www.programmableweb.com/matrix

Certainly worth checking out.

Tags: web 2.0, internet, mashup, cool

Two Interesting Startups

Two startups recently crossed my desk: ClaimID and Ether.  These both are extremely interesting in their ideas and I happen to like them for the fact that they solve problems and are monetizable.  Simple.

ClaimID is a website that allows you to "claim" your identification online.  There are billions of people in this world and how does one control their identity in the online space - it's nearly impossible.  By using ClaimID, you allow people to find you and your online postings (blogs, tags, photos, sites, etc) simply and efficiently.  Very good for folks to put on their resumes - so employers can find you easily online and weeds out the possibility of associating you with the wrong person.  As of today, the site isn't live yet - they are accepting folks to sign up for their beta program and they'll receive an invitation shortly.  My guess is that they can monetize ClaimID through a subscription model which is paid yearly.

Ether is a solid business idea.  Not all transactions are physical - some are verbal.  Think about all the lawyers and consultants (not limited to) that exist in this world who bill based on time.  Ether provides the payment infrastructure between both parties and allows for seamless flow of verbal transactions without worrying about being paid or collecting afterwards.  This is a very simple and straightforward idea, one of the reasons I really like this.  Ether will make its money based on a % of the transaction - estimated to be between 10-20% (I've heard 15%).

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0, Internet, web, ClaimID, Ether, startups