Virtual Worlds Update

Virtual Worlds Friday, May 9, 2008 San Francisco CA Melanie Swan MS Futures Group Palo Alto, CA 415-505-4426 [email_address] www.melanieswan.com

Virtual worlds summary
Virtual worlds are the natural evolution of the Internet as an information, communications and commerce platform
Virtual worlds are becoming increasingly routine for business, academic and government use
Like other newtech, virtual worlds are complementary and category defining
Virtual worlds are not just for architectural builds, simulation and interaction, the next obvious step is streaming in live data and representing it visually

Agenda
Virtual worlds
What are virtual worlds?
Who is using virtual worlds?
Second Life
A closer look
Technical details
Economy
Accounting, tax and legal issues
Advanced data applications
3D command centers / green data centers
Data visualization tools
Opportunities for your firm

What are virtual worlds? Source: http://www.virtualworldsreview.com
Definition: 3D online persistent world with a sense of presence and simultaneous experience in context; 3D social network

Virtual world vs. MMORPG  Game  World Source: Linden Lab

Who is using virtual worlds? IBM Dr. Dobbs Life 2.0 Conference International Spaceflight Museum Showtime “The L Word” CBS “CSI New York” Vodafone SLCN “Metanomics” Princeton US Congress Second Health Operating Theater

Corporate presence in virtual worlds

Second Life is the biggest virtual world
45,000 concurrency (at any time)
475,000 active users (last 7 days)
1.2 m active users (last 2 months)
13 m total accounts
2 m assets created per day
35 TB of user-created data
800,000 unique items sold or traded per month
500 events per day
15 m concurrent scripts
10 Gbps peak bandwidth
Source: http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy-graphs.php Million Square Meters of Second Life Land Total User Hours (millions) Source: Linden Lab

Diverse Second Life residents Source: http://static.secondlife.com/economy/stats_200804.xls
43% female
60% international
Top 5 countries: US, Germany, Japan, UK, France
Average monthly hours by age tier Resident market share by age tier %

Technical details
Linden Scripting Language (LSL)
Event-driven and states, not object oriented
Havok 4 physics engine
Primitives, assets and lag
Open-source initiatives
Client exists
Server TBA
Standards and portability
Security
Griefer attack Open standards information: http://opensimulator.org, https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Architecture_Working_Group Linden Scripting Language

Economy and Linden$ currency Source: http://secondlife.reuters.com US$ Spent by Users (in Millions) US $ Exchanged on Lindex (in Millions)
LindeX exchange operated by Linden Lab
Buy: USD $.30 transaction fee
Sell: 3.5% transaction fee
Monetary policy
Banks, stock exchanges
US Dollars spent in Second Life over the last 24 hours Source: http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy-graphs.php

Land is the most significant virtual asset Source: http://www.secondlife.com Available plots Available island areas Raw Land Growth of Second Life
Purchase via auction or resale
Premium membership required ($9.95/mo)
USD $13 + $5/mo for 512 sq m
USD $1,675 + $295/mo for 65,536 sq m island
Anshe Chung Real Estate Developer 2008 2005 2003

Virtual world accounting and valuation issues
Intangible assets
Land and real estate
Objects
Scripts, animations and applications
In-world businesses: product, service
Brands: sim, business, avatar
Accounts: avatars/characters, assets
World platforms
Specific risks
World disappearance
Economic disturbance
Ease of copying
Low transparency
Motorati SpokesAvatar: caLLie cLine BarCamp Second Life

Virtual world tax issues
VAT, sales tax
Income tax
1099 contractors
Gains tax
Challenges of levying tax
Identity verification
Jurisdiction determination
Identification of activity
Monitoring, tracking and enforcement
Highly international environment

Legal and other issues
Key rules
Linden Lab: Terms of Service Agreement, Community Standards, Privacy Policy, Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Sim covenants
Dispute resolution
Metaverse Republic
Recent cases
Eros, LLC v. Doe (pending)
Copyright infringement (US $2,250)
Marc Bragg v. Linden Lab (Oct 2007)
Land acquisition via landbots (US $8,000)
Money laundering

Data visualization: IBM’s 3D command centers SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/IBM%209/170/124/141 IBM’s green data centers, VNOCs (virtual network operating centers)

Eolus and Smiley 3D command centers Smiley Telescope, PARI, Balsam Grove, NC USA Smiley in Second Life Smiley Virtual Control Room: real-time radio data received into 3D graph SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ strace%20island/55/43/27 SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/EOLUS/170/139/42 Eolus enterprise facilities management control room

Data visualization: data representation tools SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/uvvy2/90/243/29 SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/SciLands/170/92/28 GreenPhosphor’s Glasshouse plotter MS Futures Groups’ 3D Stock Chart

VIT Mindmap SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/VIT%20World/128/128/0

SLurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ACS/174/82/114 Cheminformatic-Assisted Image Array (CAIA) 8 images 24 meters 36 meters 12 images

Data visualization in Second Life Real-time LAX airport traffic Real-time NOAA weather data SAP airline booking application Wiki: http://sldataviz.pbwiki.com SAP eCommerce

Enterprise virtual worlds: Qwaq, Wonderland Nanotechnology Island SIMS microscope BASHIBA Data Climate eCommerce Qwaq Forums Sun’s Wonderland

Virtual world ecosystem Investment transaction in the last 12 months or was acquired Virtual World Platforms Linden Lab’s Second Life , ActiveWorlds, Entropia Universe, There, Kaneva, MultiVerse, vastpark, metaplace, Cybertown, Habbo Hotel, Muse, Taatu, Whyville, Voodoo Chat, Traveler, Sims Online, Club Penguin, WebKins, Hipihi, Uonenet, Noviking 3D Modeling and Physics Engine Platforms Havok , Ageia PhysX, Unreal Engine, Open GL, Maya, 3D Studio, Croquet, SoftimageIXSI, Form Z, Strata 3D CX, RenderMan, Blender, Wings3D Virtual Businesses and Brands SL Boutique , Anshe Chung Studios, DeCuir Creations, FairChang, Etopia, Hunter’s Cove, Preen, House of Nyla, Second Life Cable Network, Rezzable, caLLie cLine, PeoplePool, Raven Pennyfeather, Lapointe & Bastchild Designs, InStyle, Vista Animations, Chai Skins, Acedia Albion, AV Puli Animations, Reel Expression, J&S Aviation, SZ Designs, Vindy Vindaloo, Esoterica Couture Virtual World Developers and Agencies Electric Sheep Company , Millions of Us , Rivers Run Red, CMP, Aimee Weber Studio, Campfire Media, depo consulting, Forterra, Metaversatility, Wish Farmers, Virtual Worldlets, Icarus Studios, Proton Media, NGI Group 3Di, DAZ 3D, Code 4 Software

Opportunities for your firm
Provide industry leadership
Virtual worlds white papers
OpenSim working group
Data visualization development
Support clients in the virtual medium
Platform counseling
Enterprise simulation setup
3D command center setup
Security and traffic management (SOX)
Interaction opportunity
Facilitate internal initiatives
Recruiting, telepresence, collaboration

Virtual worlds summary
Virtual worlds are the natural evolution of the Internet as an information, communications and commerce platform
Virtual worlds are becoming increasingly routine for business, academic and government use
Like other newtech, virtual worlds are complementary and category defining
Virtual worlds are not just for architectural builds, simulation and interaction, the next obvious step is streaming in live data and representing it visually

Resources
Open standards and data visualization
http://opensimulator.org
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Architecture_Working_Group
http://sldataviz.pbwiki.com and Data Visualization group
Second Life SLURL Directories
http://nbhorizons.com/list.htm (companies)
http://edumuve.com/tour/ (international locations)
http://npsl.wikispaces.com/Tenant+Directory (non-profits)
Getting started in Second Life
http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/Getting_Started
Event listings
http://secondlife.com/events
http://metanomics.net/ *
News, blogs, etc.
http://secondlife.reuters.com/ *
http://www.ugotrade.com/
http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/
* Business-related

Provided under an open source Creative Commons 3.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Thank you Melanie Swan MS Futures Group Palo Alto, CA 415-505-4426 [email_address] www.melanieswan.com

Virtual Worlds Update

by lablogga on May 08, 2008

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Virtual Worlds Update — Presentation Transcript