Virtual world branding expert Betsy Book has officially announced she’s joined the “There” crowd. This answers a question I sent her last week after hearing rumors of this development inside Second Life, a rival virtual world.

Her post over on Terra Nova announcing her new position is short, so I’m just going to lift the whole thing and repost it here (Link):

Just wanted to let the TN community know that I’ve started this week on staff at Makena Technologies (the folks who bring you There) as the new Director of Product Management. In this role I’ll be focusing on There’s in-world marketing programs, merchandising and events as well as helping to develop and implement new product features. As many of you know, I’ve been intrigued by There since its beta period. Now I’m thrilled to have the chance to gain some first-hand experience with the development of a social virtual world product and I couldn’t be happier to have this opportunity. Looking forward to great things in 2006!

This is good news I think. Few people are as intimately familiar with virtual world branding as Ms. Book, so it sounds like some big changes are in store. They could certainly use better news (see this post for some background – Link) … and Second Life could use better competition.

I decided early on not to invest my time in There. Perhaps things are finally turning around and now would be a good time to join. If nothing else I could maybe gauge first hand any impact she might have.