Grand Opening of the Art Installation „7000 Oaks“ on 25.11.2009 at the Goethe-Institut SIM in Second Life
Italian born media artists Franco and Eva Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG are this years Artists in Residence on the Goethe-Institut SIM in Second Life. They used the space given in the 3 prominent orange sky-boxes for an piece of art called „7000 Oaks“. It is a reenactment of Joseph Beuys' installation with the same name produced for the documenta 7 in Kassel, Germany.
The artwork starts with a pile of stones. You can take a stone, so the pile shrinks and you'll receive this stone and an oak tree in your inventory. Now teleport home and plant the tree on your parcel, so you'll become part of the artwork. The oak and stone will tell us their position, so you can track the distribution of the artwork over the whole SL Grid on a map on the web.
This work is part of Eva and Franco Mattes' series of “Synthetic Performances”: reenactments of historical performances inside synthetic worlds where body, space and time can be completely reinvented. The series started at the beginning of 2007 and will feature works by artists like Vito Acconci and Marina Abramovic.
The Grand Opening will be on Wednesday, 25th November 2009, 7pm CET, 10am SLT. Come and join us, take your stone and oak and become part of the artwork.
The stand alone behind the firewall version of Second Life, formerly known as Nebraska, is finally out now. Its final name is Second Life Enterprise and still has a beta tag on it, but you can have it right now and start immediately.
Second Life Enterprise Beta is a fully integrated set of two servers: the Second Life Server and the Second Life Voice Server. Once these servers are installed in your data center, they provide a full out-of-the box 3D immersive experience that includes:
Standard 8-core server hardware that runs 8 concurrent Second Life regions.
Support for a maximum of 800 concurrent avatars, with an optimal maximum of 700 avatars.
Powerful inworld 3D building tools and scripting language.
LDAP integration for account creation and authentication.
Web services for external system integration.
3D spatial voice, peer-to-peer calling, and group voice moderated chat.
Support for direct SLurls.
Second Life Enterprise client software for both Windows and Mac.
A Private and Secure Virtual Environment
The SL Enterprise Beta is a standalone solution that runs 8 standard Second Life regions concurrently behind your firewall. The corporate administrator is in control of which people have access to the Second Life environment with HTTPS administration and user authentication and access control. So, confidential and proprietary information, prototypes, and training materials can be shared safely within your network.
Full 3D Visual, Audio, and Text Collaboration
A complete set of communication tools makes the virtual world easy to work in. Users can upload and share most media files and share computer screens directly in the virtual environment. Also included are easy-to-use tools for creating new content and virtual collaboration to help you take full advantage of the power of 3D space.
Rich Standard Content Makes SL Enterprise Beta Easy to Use Right Away
SL Enterprise Beta is a complete business solution and rich experience right out of the box, so you can install the solution and start using it right away. The server comes loaded with 7 default regions, including traditional corporate office buildings and meeting spaces, a more whimsical lunar landing collaboration area, and a large amphitheater that can accommodate large groups. Also, there are 10 multicultural avatars—with both casual and formal business attire—are pre-loaded into the SL Enterprise Beta avatar inventory.
Easy Advanced Management Tools Put You in Complete Control
A web-based dashboard of administration tools allow Second Life Enterprise Beta administrators to manage users, regions, content, systems, backups and scheduled downtime with ease.
And, Yes. You can Use Real Names
Because SL Enterprise Beta is completely Separate from the main Second Life environment, you can use real names as avatar names and then connect those identities to your LDAP system.
Price for the Second Life Enterprise Beta starts at $55.000, you can get it through selected partners, e.g. us, so if you have any questions, please let us know, we are happy to help.
Current work: www.secondlife-neu-entdecken.de
We are proud to announce a new Second Life microsite dedicated exclusively to the German market:
It's combined with a display advertising campaign and part of Linden Labs effort to address and develop the German Market.
The campaign is running now on selected premium general interest and news websites. The goal of the campaign is to show the wide variety of German content that's available in Second Life created by well know German companies and organizations, as well as to communicate some basic figures on where Second Life stands now and why press perception is so different from the actual situation. (See also Mark Kingdons interview on manager-magazin.de on that).
The microsite features 20 case studies showing excellent work done by German Companies and Organizations within the virtual world of Second Life from the sectors "Science & Education", "Economy & Social", "Arts & Culture" and "Communities & Cities".
The section "Communities & Cities" features projects which are member of the newly formed Germany in 3D initiative, a small continent consisting of German Community Gateways and Cities.
Find out more on Germanyin3d at www.germanyin3d.com
Based on Linden Labs new online corporate design guidelines we produced the microsite, helped to pick the featured projects and coordinated the whole project, also media planning and booking had been done by us.
We hope you enjoy the microsite and agree with us that there will be a bright future for Second Life also in Germany. For more information see also our press release (in German).
Interview with Mark Kingdon at Manager Magazin
"The press has gone, but the users are still there."
Very interesting interview on manager-magazin.de with Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon. He explains why Second Life isn't affected by the worldwide economical crisis, why the user base is steadily growing, but nobody in Germany takes notice of it and what Linden Lab has to offer for the European market.
Enterprise Virtual Worlds to See Real-World Growth
Another analyst report forecasting a bright future for the Enterprise Virtual World market hits the road last week. According to a report by GigaOM Pro, 3-D virtual world applications for enterprise use will grow into an industry earning $8 billion to $10 billion in annual revenue by 2014.
The slides of Markus Bokowsky's talk at the inworld conference of Potsdam University „Immersion statt Konfusion - Neue Wege der Zusammenarbeit durch den Einsatz Virtueller Welten." are now available for download on our webpage as well as on slideshare.
Review: "Kulturbiergarten"
To celebrate the 851 anniversary of the founding of the city munich, web2.0 activist and underground icon Zehra Spindler organized a series of cultural events called "Kulturbiergarten" at the location of the old Isartor in RL Munich.
Program had been versatile and colourful reaching from classical theatre to electro pop acts, they even had their own radio station broadcasting on the internet. Part of the program had been also a panel discussion about Second Life, hosted by Stefan Weiss, initiator of the Munich SIM in SL. Markus Bokowsky had been part of the panel and enjoyed the hot day under the warm Munich sun.
Review: dmexco
With 14.200 attendees and 290 exhibitors OMS successor dmexco was a bit smaller than OMS last year, but still a success. The exhibition hall was crowded and having in mind worldwide financial crisis, the business climate was surprisingly positive.
First time this year, there had been a huge conference program including some first class speakers. Megatrends of the show had been Mobile Commerce and Advertising, as well as all kind of video ads. Of course also all sorts of software and services making online marketers life a bit easier had been there to discover. Almost all vendors of web analytics software launched a new version of their product at dmexco. Multivariation tests as well as heat maps are the must have features in this area at the moment. It was a good start for dmexco in cologne, I'm sure it will continue to grow next year, and don't forget, expo as well as conference program was completely free of charge.
Source: dmexco
Upcoming Event: Medientage München
The traditional gathering of the media industry goes into its 23rd year. Again all media channels are covered, from classical TV, print, radio to all sorts of new media. Let me make a guess, we will see the 16th version of the discussion about paid content on the web.
Innovate, Share, Succeed is the theme of this years Online Educa taking place in early December in frosty Berlin. If you are in the e-learning sector, you shouldn't miss Europes largest global e-learning conference for the corporate and public service sectors in education and training.
As most of you know, Virtual Worlds are just one part of our business, the others are consulting and classical web development as well as PlusParts of course. We don't talk that much about it in the newsletter as it's not as colourful as Virtual Worlds and most of the stuff we do are long running projects which run 1 year or more and as long as it includes consulting we are often not allowed to talk about. One of the most exciting projects we've done since the beginning of this year and that just has finished was the selection and evaluation of a Content Management System for a large multinational Organization. Again, can't tell much about it so far, but hopefully in the next newsletter. But I don't want to miss the opportunity to share some findings with you I came across during my long hours of desk research and practical evaluation.
A big consolidation process is going on in the CMS Industry for a couple of years now and probably reached its climax this summer by Autonomy acquiring Interwoven and OpenText acquiring Vignette. Looking back at previous acquisitions we saw, that companies are struggling bringing together their existing solution with the just acquired one, especially when they're build upon different technologies. Premier example again is OpenText facing the challenge to bring together RedDot and Vignette with its very own solution Life Link, not to mention previous acquisitions like Gauss and Obtree.
Some of the megatrends we observe in the CMS industry at the moment are:
User Generated Content
yes, the term finally arrived in serious business. It's a big challenge for CMS companies to integrate UGC into their structure of handling content. They have to deal now with a large number of anonymous authors, bringing this content together with the one produced by licensed authors in the backend is a big challenge. When you're in the process of selecting a CMS for your company have a look at how systems handle this task, you will see big differences.
Social Collaboration
Another Web2.0 megatrend that finally hits the industry. All major vendors have Social Collaboration solutions in their portfolio, some with external interfaces, some without. Again, the challenge is how they integrate it into their core product. Is it an external add on with its own content repository, own user management etc. or does it fully integrate into the core system? If this is something you plan to use in the future, better look twice.
User Interface
Ajax has finally arrived in the industry. We currently see a big turnaround in the usability section of Content Management Systems. Social Networks and other "free" services on the internet dramatically raised the expectations users have on usability. Some systems already updated their web clients some didn't but all of them will have to, to stay in business.
Linden Lab Gold Solution Provider
We are very happy to announce, that we are a Linden Lab Gold Solution Provider now. Linden Lab, the company behind the virtual World Second Life launched its Gold Solution Provider Program, the first of its kind in the VW industry. The program should help companies and organisations to find a appropriate partner to realise their plans in Second Life. Amongst the 250 existing Solution Providers, 31 had qualified for the Gold program. Only two from Germany, and we are very happy being amongst them.
"Innovative enterprises, military organizations, government agencies and educational institutions are actively using virtual worlds for distance learning, training and simulation," said Tom Hale, Chief Product Officer at Linden Lab. "The Gold Solution Provider Program makes it easy to find experienced partners that can deliver high-quality experiences for a wide range of Second Life projects."
Connect with us. We are now also on facebook, twitter, slideshare, youTube, Flickr
If you want to connect with us even closer, you can do now in almost every social network around there in the cloud. Follow us on twitter, to get daily updates, become a fan in facebook, subscribe to our channel in youTube watch a screenshot selection of our projects in Flickr and enjoy presentations on slideshare.
Feel free to embed the material into your blog or website using the tools these services are offering. Of cause we haven't outsourced the communication, its always us you are talking with.
Often announced, now finally ready. We made it into the english speaking world, our english website is ready now. Its not as big as our german one, but it's a start. We concentrated on our recent work in Virtual Worlds.
Of cause we still do all the other wonderful things the web is made for, Webpages, Intranets, Online-Shops, Communities etc. but we had to start somewhere. Please have a look, and as always, feedback is highly welcomed.
Report on the Goethe-Institut in Second Life.
Now time for some excellent inWorld journalism. Draxtor Despres, a pioneer and meanwhile living legend of inworld journalism produced a machinima report on the activities of the Goethe-Institut in Second Life. Grab a popcorn, lean back and Enjoy.
Facts & Figures, Second Life metrics Q1/2009
We thought it's time to have a look into the figures again. In fact, Q1 was for Second Life a quarter of records. 124 Million Minutes had been spend inworld by residents Jan-March 2009 a new record. Another all time high was archived when 88.200 residents had been inworld at the same time, as many as never before in the history of Second Life. Also no signs of a economic crisis. 120 Million USD had been spend in the inword economy in Q1/2009 also a all time high.
Studies on Immersive Internet Business & Healthcare in SL
We'd like to bring two new surveys into your attention. ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Business Value Study and A Survey of Health-Related Activities on Second Life conducted by the University of Toronto.
ThinkBalms Study gives you and excellent overview of status quo, how organisations are using Virtual Worlds for their daily business. A few words from the conclusion: "The best characterization of the result of this survey is probably: “Immersive technology is delivering solid business benefit, both financial and non-financial, to a wide range of organizations, for a wide range of use cases."
A Survey of Health-Related Activities on Second Life gives you an inside view into the growing healthcare sector. A few words from the results: "We found a wide range of health-related activities on Second Life, and a diverse group of users, including organizations, groups, and individuals. For many users, Second Life activities are a part of their Web 2.0 communication strategy. ... Studies show that behaviors from virtual worlds can translate to the real world. Our survey suggests that users are engaged in a range of health-related activities in Second Life which are potentially impacting real-life behaviors."
On 23rd and 24th June the 2009 edition of Internet World takes place at ICM Munich. Internet World has been the premium branch event for internet professionals and a forum for decision-makers on the provider and user side since 1997. It is the only event in Germany that covers the entire internet value-added chain in its entirety. Tickets are pricy but worth the money.
Upcoming Event: Education and Business Models in Virtual Worlds
On June 18th a virtual conference called "Education and Business Models in Virtual Worlds" takes place at the University of Potsdam's place in Second Life. The conference is part of the Science in 3D program lead by Prof. Dr. Lattemann (Corporate Governance und E-Commerce).
Markus Bokowsky will take part as a speaker to the conference, his avatar talks about "New Ways of Collaboration in Virtual Worlds" at 7.10pm CET, 10am SLT.
Please find more information on the conference as well as the full timetable at www.science-in-3d.de
Markus Bokowsky's traditional CeBIT Report
With a loss of 25% of attending companies it was the smallest CeBIT I can remember, but nevertheless here is my traditional CeBIT Report. Yes, there is a recession, but thanks god we are not in the financial sector. We are the IT Industry, let’s go:
CeBIT 2009 - It's all in the Cloud(s)
The main trend of this year's CeBIT had been 3D in all sorts of flavours, Netbooks and of course the ubiquitous cloud computing.
The Internet becomes the center of everything. Application and data move from LANs and WANs onto the Internet. Nothing new so far -at least for most of us- but now it hits the mainstream and the Core of the IT Industry at CeBIT. It is old wine in new wineskins, it started as ASP (Application Service Providing) got renamed recently into SaaS (Software as a Service) and finally became Cloud Computing now.
It was the dominating new term and so receives my buzzword of the show award this year. Master of visualisation was again IBM, they managed to make the term tangible by an interactive installation. Very nice, very appelling.
Almost every major city and every country claims that an important part of the internet had been developed there, so we know many "birthplaces" of the Net, Hannover wasn't amongst them so far, but nevertheless, the new Area called "Webciety" in Hall 6 had been promoted with the claim "Internet is coming home". The Term - a combination of Web and Society - named an area in Hall 6 for companies of the social media sector and web start-up. Organisators of the show also hoped to get some California based big names to Hannover. But most of them stayed at home, Webciety consisted mainly of german Multi-Media Agencies and local start-ups.
Nevertheless the architecture and the program of the talks and panels held there had been very interesting. Finally the Internet at the CeBIT gets the Attention it deserves for years.
What about Virtual Worlds?
Virtual Worlds hasn't been a major topic on its own as in 2007 but it made its way through the institutions and finally is present in Products and Applications.
Virtual Worlds frontrunner IBM showed a virtual Version of the Forbidden City in Bejing. It's based on a game engine, available for free in Chinese and English and had mainly an educational background.
Also IBM launched during the CeBIT a press release that the long awaited Virtual World integration into Sametime 3D is finally available as beta. Unfortunately they didn't show it at the show and nobody was there to give some details.
Clare Rees, Linden Labs Marketing Manager for Europe, attended two panels held at the California booth, covering eLearning, serious gaming and virtual worlds.
3D around the corner
One of the next big things will be in my opinion 3D on the computer at home for games and movies. The Gaming industry will drive the
innovation here. On the show all sorts of different solution had been on display. The most promising ones is the combination of a 120 Hz LCD Display and a wireless shutter glass. The solution by nVidia looked very promising.
And hardware? Most of the big brands with a full range of hardware had been absent from the show this year. With Samsung, the show lost one of the big names this year. So hardware was dominated by smaller Asian companies offering all sorts of Netbooks. Netbooks had been all over the place. A bit more behind the curtains, but also a hot topic had been e-Book readers.
Also seen on different places had been multitouch multimedia tables like the Microsoft surface table. The most impressive had been seen at Art+Com booth in the future parc of hall 9.
Last but not least
Finally my Claim of show. It comes from a document management company and goes "Yes, we scan".
Immersive Workspaces™
RiversRunRed developed together with Linden Lab a brand new and very exiting way of collaborating in the Virtual World of Second Life.
Immersive Workspaces™ is a combined 2D and 3D solution that brings together the comfort of a web based backend with the benefits a 3D world can offer you for meeting and collaborating. In the web based backend, you can arrange meetings, share documents, upload media for use in SL and manage your projects and teams in a very comfortable way. In Second Life you can meet with others, brainstorm, show your presentations uploaded in the backend and collaborate in a very easy and stress free way.
If you are interested in using IWS for your company, have a look at the video on our website and talk to us.
German based 2.5D web based Virtual World sMeet is now offering the option of creating your own room within the sMeet world. You can decorate the room the way you want and put in furniture form the sMeet shop. Also the popular sMeet Phone Feature is available in your room as well as the ability to show videos. And unlike many other Virtual Worlds you don't need to stick with the sMeet Webpage, you can plug your room into your MySpace site.
For Companies and Organisations there is also the option available to create special branded rooms that can be plugged direct into their website. Talk to us, if you want to know more on that. We offer professional services for sMeet and can help to bring your brand inworld.
Moodle/Sloodle Showcase
If you are from the education sector, you are probably familiar with the e-learning platform Moodle. To expand the 2D web based e-learning experience into 3D on the one hand and to support 3D inworld e-learning with a web based 2D tool and the other hand, there is a Second Life connector for Moodle available, called Sloodle.
You can access the glossary, perform a crossplatform chat, conduct inworld text - scored in moodle - etc.
For a more hands on experience we created a showcase, so you can test and find out yourself.
Go to our Moodle site moodle.bokowsky.net and teleport to our Second Life SIM Bokowsky Island. More on Moodle/Sloodle coming soon.
Upcoming Event Learntec09
On February, 3-5 Lerntec 2009, 17th International Convention and Trade Fair for Educational Information takes place in the city of Karlsruhe. On Wednesday 4th there are some lectures on Teaching in Virtual Worlds with talks by MFG and Markus Breuer.
The Virtual Worlds Conference New York has changed its name and is now Engage! It enlarged a bit its program focus, but all in all you'll have the same well known crowd from the Virtual World scene as last year. The keynote will be held by Jack Buser from Playstation Home. Sony sold over 1 Million Dollar of goods inworld since the launch of the public beta. I guess it will be very interesting to here was Jack has to say.
Engage! takes place on 10-11 March in the Javis Exhibition Center NY.
To celebrate the 851 anniversary of the founding of the city munich, Zehra Spindler organized a series of cultural events called "Kulturbiergarten" in Munich.
As most of you know, Virtual Worlds are just one part of our business, the others are consulting and classical web development as well as PlusParts of course.
Draxtor Despres, a pioneer and meanwhile living legend of inworld journalism produced a machinima report on the activities of the Goethe-Institut in Second Life.
Upcoming Event: Education and Business Models in Virtual Worlds
On June 18th a virtual conference called "Education and Business Models in Virtual Worlds" takes place at the University of Potsdam's place in Second Life.
www.secondlife-neu-entdecken.de
The slides of Markus Bokowsky's talk at the inworld conference of Potsdam University „Immersion statt Konfusion - Neue Wege der Zusammenarbeit durch den Einsatz Virtueller Welten." are now available for download on our 
With 14.200 attendees and 290 exhibitors OMS successor dmexco was a bit smaller than OMS last year, but still a success. The exhibition hall was crowded and having in mind worldwide financial crisis, the business climate was surprisingly positive.
The traditional gathering of the media industry goes into its 23rd year. Again all media channels are covered, from classical TV, print, radio to all sorts of new media. Let me make a guess, we will see the 16th version of the discussion about paid content on the web.
Innovate, Share, Succeed is the theme of this years Online Educa taking place in early December in frosty Berlin. If you are in the e-learning sector, you shouldn't miss Europes largest global e-learning conference for the corporate and public service sectors in education and training.
ThinkBalms Study gives you and excellent overview of status quo, how organisations are using Virtual Worlds for their daily business. A few words from the conclusion: "The best characterization of the result of this survey is probably: “Immersive technology is delivering solid business benefit, both financial and non-financial, to a wide range of organizations, for a wide range of use cases."
Also IBM launched during the CeBIT a press release that the long awaited Virtual World integration into Sametime 3D is finally available as beta. Unfortunately they didn't show it at the show and nobody was there to give some details.
Most of the big brands with a full range of hardware had been absent from the show this year. With Samsung, the show lost one of the big names this year. So hardware was dominated by smaller Asian companies offering all sorts of Netbooks. Netbooks had been all over the place. A bit more behind the curtains, but also a hot topic had been e-Book readers.
Immersive Workspaces™ is a combined 2D and 3D solution that brings together the comfort of a web based backend with the benefits a 3D world can offer you for meeting and collaborating. In the web based backend, you can arrange meetings, share documents, upload media for use in SL and manage your projects and teams in a very comfortable way. In Second Life you can meet with others, brainstorm, show your presentations uploaded in the backend and collaborate in a very easy and stress free way.
German based 2.5D web based Virtual World 
For Companies and Organisations there is also the option available to create special branded rooms that can be plugged direct into their website. Talk to us, if you want to know more on that. We offer professional services for sMeet and can help to bring your brand inworld.
If you are from the education sector, you are probably familiar with the e-learning platform Moodle. To expand the 2D web based e-learning experience into 3D on the one hand and to support 3D inworld e-learning with a web based 2D tool and the other hand, there is a Second Life connector for Moodle available, called Sloodle.
On February, 3-5 Lerntec 2009, 17th International Convention and Trade Fair for Educational Information takes place in the city of Karlsruhe. On Wednesday 4th there are some lectures on Teaching in Virtual Worlds with talks by MFG and Markus Breuer.
The Virtual Worlds Conference New York has changed its name and is now Engage! It enlarged a bit its program focus, but all in all you'll have the same well known crowd from the Virtual World scene as last year. The keynote will be held by Jack Buser from Playstation Home. Sony sold over 1 Million Dollar of goods inworld since the launch of the public beta. I guess it will be very interesting to here was Jack has to say.
