BREAKING NEWS: Second Life Sold by Linden Labs to Chinese Corporation

(**Update** - April Fool ;-) )

Today in a stunning development, Linden Lab announced they had sold Second Life to China’s Baidu Corporation. In a brief printed statement released to the press, CEO Mark Kingdom stated the deal was reached after several weeks of secret negotiations.

Baidu Inc. is a major communications company in China, owning the top search engine there. It made a profit of over $600 million in 2007. It made the news recently as the company most likely to profit from Google’s troubles with the Chinese government.

On it’s blog, Mark Linden stated, “Letting Second Life go was not an easy decision. But Linden Labs has always prided itself on being on the forefront on the development of the technologies of virtual worlds. With Second Life becoming increasingly complex, we came to the conclusion we could not continue to both continue to be so and run our grand experiment. While we shall continue to improve Second Life, it will be through business deals with Baidu as new technologies become available.”

Baidu also had a statement on the Linden blog, “We welcome Second Life into Baidu ... As we have helped bring the Internet to China, so we hope to guide the virtual residents into a righteous harmonious band. ... We should remind that our company operates under a set of rules that require reverence and respect to the wise and honored statesmen of our government. Those whom run about in virtual reality in their boxers using their words as fists with no regard for the respect of their betters are asked to cease such behavior so we will not need to take actions all will regret.”

One of the Lindens supposedly stated that following the sale, Linden Lab will be cooperating with Facebook to make a sequel to the "Farmvile" game, but this is unconfirmed.

Details are still coming in about what is clearly a turning point in Second Life.

To go to the Linden blog post and comments, Click Here.

SL Enterprise Sounds Very Promising

It has been great news for Second Life when, on November 4, Linden Lab announced that they would bring a SL Enterprise product. This product that will replicate the virtual world behind a firewall will be comparable, for corporations, to having an internal Internet system without granting access to the outside world.

This is great news and an inevitable step that LL had to take to build its credibility in the business world. A 3D environment such as SL brings incredible potential for companies to organize meetings and other collaboration activities between people who work in different countries or even continents, at a fraction of the cost.

Let's make a quick comparison: you pay the $55,000 entry price to set up 8 regions with the possibility of having 800 users, 700 of them online at the same time. Add some costs to maintain the system available and you have a pretty decent "live meeting" solution. To this you can add the possibility of storing documentation and scripted learning tools that allow employees to learn and perfect their skills, without having to organize classes.

The price may be hefty for small and medium-sized businesses. The product that LL offers in beta clearly is targeting larger corporations.

The comparison with live videoconferencing systems is still funny to make. A telepresence solution from Cisco to hold meetings for 18 people will cost… $340,000. For companies, such telepresence solutions have already been cost cutters.

Although different in nature, you can compare both products and see that what you would sacrifice in real-life visual experience by using SL Enterprise, you would save. That's without even considering the potential for interaction other than plain conferencing.

This also makes me think that SL may do with virtual worlds what the Internet did with online activity. If businesses adopt SL Enterprise quickly, it will be hard for a competitor to displace SL as a "virtual world with a firewall" solution.

This Enterprise product is promising because using it with the security of a firewall will make 3D more tempting to organizations. Let's hope LL customizes it for other needs, too.

Cisco Live 2009

Knowledge is power.
This familiar adage has never been truer than it is today: in difficult economic times, it is knowledge that sets individuals and organizations apart. Knowledge is the differentiator that enables survival during the economic downturn and positions you for success when the economy rebounds.
Late Tuesday afternoon/evening I had the pleasure from a dear friend to be invited an event a first of its kind I had the pleasure of coming across in Second Life. The event was held at the Cisco Live Sim.
The name 'Cisco' is a company is real life company ( California based) one of the leaders in the information tech fields worldwide.
Cisco Live 2009 is a real life event that current runs from 6/27-7/2 this year being held in San Francisco Califonia. In addition to the real life events ongoing at the conference this year alongside the conference a virtual world aspect was introduced and brought into Second Life. After speaking with Tawni Ciscosystem, who works in the marketing department, here are some key points that have been introduced this year to the Cisco Live 2009 event.
The keynote speeches during the day are currently being streamed into Second Life to the Cisco Live Sim, there are various tech sessions held within Second Life with for various programmers and engineers and system admin specialists during the business day with various events to relax at the end of the work day.
If you work in the IT field you have the option to attend the conference in person In San Fran or the option to take part via Second Life Cisco Live 2009.
This event gives an employee a chance to make friends and enhance their skills, share and exchange information addressing problems that may arise in a real world setting.
For a major fortune 100 company to embrace Second Life as a business platform is a very creative move on their part, dont be surprised when you see more and business start to take roots and grow within Second Life.
If you have any knowledge of computers and networking and various equipment the name Cisco should ring a bell to you.

Taryn Gartner reporting from CISCO live in secondife