Real Estate Life is latest aussie entrant into Second Life
October 23, 2007
Back in July we reported that the REA Group(best known for the realestate.com.au site) had an island under development. The development is now complete and is called ‘Real Estate Life’.
We’ll do a more detailed tour of it later this week, but here’s what REA are saying their objective with the presence is to “learn from and build relationships with other in-world inhabitants and entrepreneurs”.
The build itself is described by REA:
“The island is relatively modest, with a small, inviting building, which includes a reception area, meeting rooms, a boardroom and large screens that provide information about the company’s websites.
The building sits on what is in fact the largest of four closely placed islands. Each of the other three has an outdoor gathering area for meetings and events.”
Watch for a fuller report later this week including an interview with REA about what they’re hoping to achieve. I’ll be surprised if there’s not some significant mainstream media coverage given the previous focus on virtual real estate in SL and the long timeframe since the last Australian corporation entered the fray.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Education & Non-Profit Organisations in Second Life
October 21, 2007
One of the problems we encounter in this information age is the enormous quantity of information encountered each day and the danger of overlooking the bleeding obvious.
Checking out the home page of Second Life every now and then to see what is happening can throw up some interesting gems. If you’re like me that may be every blue moon, but this week I happened to notice over in the right side margin an item labelled; “Education & Non-Profit Organizations“.
A perusal of this link will show there is an enormous wealth of information, web and SL based resources for those interested in either setting up an educational or non profit presence in SL. Or for those looking into the opportunities that SL offers in various educational areas.
At the educational level a click on the More… link towards the bottom of the page opens the wiki listing a pretty full list of universities and other education providers in SL.
A quick scan down the list shows that the “Australian Film TV and Radio School: Sydney, Australia” but no others from our neck of the woods. Perhaps its time for someone from the Australian Universities we have featured here on SLOz to pay a visit and add their details…
Popularity: 6% [?]
Weekend Whimsy
October 19, 2007
Each Friday we provide a sampling of content generated by SL users and posted on services like YouTube:
1. Dejate de joder Sean en vivo en SL:
2. Greenies: The Cat is On Sale Now!
3. Really Virtual. Virtually Real.
Popularity: 10% [?]
The Pond expands
October 19, 2007
As Tateru Nino has reported on Second Life Insider, the Pond have added another two sims: Pondagon and Pondi Beach.
An increase in rental property is an obvious driver for Pondagon in particular. Pondi Beach is off limits at this stage - maybe some surfing competitions are on the way? I personally would like to see a ‘Find Harold Holt’ treasure hunt….
Popularity: 4% [?]
The 2007 Federal Election a non-entity for Second Life
October 18, 2007
In June this year, I wrote a piece for Crikey.com.au on the lack of interest by Australian political parties in Second Life as a campaigning platform. I even contacted the offices of the Minister and Shadow Minister for Communications asking them for their thoughts on Second Life - with absolutely no response.
Now that the 2007 Federal Election is underway, it’s fairly safe to assume there’s not going to be any official campaigning in Second Life and it also doesn’t look likely that any grassroots efforts are underway. Given the heavy presence of US presidential hopefuls in SL, was I being naive in assuming there would at least be some activity from an Australian perspective? I fully understand that with a lot less than 15000 active Aussie SL users, there’s not a lot of political gain in terms of votes gained - but surely there’s some awareness of the value of being perceived as innovative. The first Australian political party who sets up in SL is pretty much guaranteed widespread, mainstream media coverage.
I’d also be interested in hearing suggestions of how political parties could actually be of use in SL, if at all. I intend on bundling up the suggestions and emailing them to each of the parties for comment.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Is it a long-term slide?
October 17, 2007
I’ve had some interesting comments privately from people about the significant decline on active Australian Second Life users over the past two months.
So, I’ve created a topic on the SLOz forums to delve a bit deeper - why the slump? Wold love to hear your thoughts.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Aussie population update - the decline continues
October 16, 2007
Linden Lab have released the metrics for September 2007 and there’s been a further significant decline in the number of Australians actively using Second Life.
The active Australian population is now cited as 11,975, down from the 13,567 reported last month and the 14.832 the month before that. Australia has stayed in 11th place overall for countries using Second Life.
That’s a really significant drop in Australians using SL actively. We seem to be heading back to below ten thousand if the trend continues.
Popularity: 8% [?]
