Monthly Archives: May 2005

WorldChanging Notices Virtual Realities

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I’m a recent reader of the Worldchanging.com website, but the tone of this article they’ve recently posted suggests their recent recognition of the potential in virtual worlds and their economies. Of particular interest to me however was the comment that reputation is a crucial element of these online activities; and that a positive reputation carries forward and sometimes outward into the real world. Sounds alot like some comments I read a couple years ago about Chinese business practices; how even with so few mechanisms in place (China is still communist after all) Chinese businessmen managed to do just fine using the best and oldest tools available: reputation and word-of-mouth.

I was glad to read that about “reputation” and to be reminded of that Chinese article. It’s a short read with plenty of links. Might be worth your time if you’re still new to the whole virtual thang.

Second Life, Croquet, and the Next SL Future Salon

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CAD inside Croquet

Since Sunday’s are always kind of slow, thought I’d post a link to this announcement over on the Second Life Future Salon blog today instead of during the week (I figure niche news lasts longer). The post concerns the scheduled appearance of Dr. Julian Lombardi, one of the people behind the open source vr project Croquet, at the May 26 SL Future Salon meeting within Second Life. I’m especially interested in what he has to say since Croquet is, in my opinion, ripe for some serious use in the near future. It’s not only open source, but the inclusion of CAD tools within it is even more exciting for those of use that use CAD in our daily lives.

For those who don’t have a Second Life account, I’ve been told that the meeting will be webcast live from within the simulation (maybe). News of that should be posted on the SLFS blogsite before the meeting. If you do watch the virtual meeting, look for me. I’ll be in the back row.

Gamespot On Virtual Economies

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I heard about this article over on Gamespot and went looking yesterday, but to no avail. Fortunately, Terra Nova provided a link which I’ve just found. From the article:

“The market is huge… There is no way that our company can be 100 percent successful at shutting down this activity,” SOE spokesman Chris Kramer said.

The company has watched the sale of virtual items evolve from a handful of people to an estimated $200 million market, Kramer said.

“We’ve watched the secondary market skyrocket, even though it’s officially against the rules,” Kramer said. “We can no longer ignore it.”

SOE is Sony Online Entertainment, in case you didn’t know. Sony recently reversed their policy on virtual goods trading and has now joined Microsoft in supporting it. Good read.

Nike iD A Zombie?

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Nike iD image

A few years back I gave a presentation to the marketing group at the company for which I worked. The presentation was effectively about what I’m blogging here: the return of product development to a more “craft” age – courtesy of emerging technologies that allow us to create more complex, ornamental, personal products. One of the examples I used for that talk was Nike’s “design your own” website. It was a great idea and I was surprised that none of the marketing folks were aware of it (or the other similar “customization” efforts going on at the time). Then again, I suspect you had to be paying close attention since I don’t recall any Nike advertising for their little project.

Fast forward to Nike’s resurrected (?) customization effort called “Nike iD” (which makes me wonder if some concept work I saw on the Core77 forums last year, done by a Nike director, is related). Anyway, courtesy of the intriguing AdverLab blog, comes a nice link to an article on Clickz.com which includes this interesting quote:

Nike’s iD division, which lets shoe buyers customize their own footwear according to color and design, is reportedly becoming a more important part of the shoe maker’s overall strategy.

Any wonder why Nike rules?

(addendum – check out the Nike site at: nikeid.nike.com . There’s more than footwear to customize. )