Innovation Incubator

A judge has ruled that the lawsuit by a former Second Lifer against Linden Research will go to trial, refusing Linden's motion to dismiss. The user brought the suit after his virtual Second Life property was confiscated by Linden.

From CNET News.com:

More and more people are participating in virtual worlds on the Internet, and where people go, litigation follows.

BusinessWeek has a story about the rise of net services that connect people in real life. Some people clearly see it as the anti-virtual world approach to social networking. Some highlights (all from page 2 of the story):

"There's a fundamental difference between virtual spaces where people go to see ads and [Web sites] where people go to meet each other," said venture capitalist Esther Dyson.

"People still have hunger for other people. We are still chemical and not electronic," said Dyson.

"People can be a little skeptical about [an online network's] value proposition," founder of Eons.com, Jeff Taylor explains. "Face-to-face meetings are very reassuring. People are feeling they are really getting to know each other."

Josh Wolf was allowed an actual trial by his "peers" in Second Life. The result is interesting.

So much for showcasing your winning personality. It would seem that Chris' idea for evocative emoticons is more on-track and necessary than I previously imagined. Again, I wonder whatever happened to the idea of video conferencing? Maybe it is the old-school photographer in me, but I just don't see the value in an avatar doing my talking for me, unless I am applying for a job as a 3-D modeler. This is WSJ.com content, so check it out today. Otherwise, see me for a reprint.

Title of a recent article about some problems for our dear SL. Europe, it appears, is cracking down, hoping even to ban some aspects of it to protect children.

Wired's got a good in-depth report on how (and why) corporations are blowing money on Second Life.

The Internet will eventually be full of such 3-D environments; Second Life might even be one of them. But in the meantime, it's just slurping up corporate dollars and delivering little in return.

The article is also worth reading for its discussion of why Second Life's architecture will hold it back from being what everyone wants it to be.

That big Google Maps article is online now too for those who missed it in the print edition.