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UK virtual worlds writer, Tim Guest, dead at 34
UK virtual worlds journalist and best-selling author, Tim Guest (also known as Errol Mysterio in Second Life) passed away last week at the untimely age of 34. Only recently married late last year, his wife found him dead of apparent heart-failure late last week. Guest's work in UK journalism and with metaverse development group, Rivers Run Red, straddled the period of mainstream awareness of virtual environments in general and of Second Life particularly. Guest's book Second Lives: A Journey Through Virtual Worlds was widely acclaimed as a full and frank view of the realities and the potentials of Second Life and other virtual environments, and his treatment of virtual environment topics in his journalistic career demystified the subject for many ordinary people. While we didn't know Guest personally, the industry will suffer from the loss of Guest's informed commentary and popularization of the medium. [via Sky News] Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Linden Lab sets sights on government
Not all that long ago, if you wanted a piece of Second Life Linden Lab would be just about the last organization to deal with you. Linden Lab was all about the platform. If you wanted help setting up shop, or a marketing presence, to the Lab you were no different from any other customer. Those days, apparently, are over. Linden Lab has partnered with Rivers Run Red, and is now in the business of marketing and selling solutions. While a jump in new sales and marketing staff (like European Marketing Director, Clare Rees) are now old news, Linden Lab has a new hire from Washington DC. That's Scott Sechser, former Operations Manager at the White House. That's the one at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW.
3Di launches enterprise Opensim product
3Di, a Tokyo-based member of the NGI group who maintain a fairly solid Second Life presence, have announced the launch of an enterprise virtual worlds product based on the BSD-licensed Opensim, Second Life simulator workalike. 3Di Opensim (the base 3Di technology) is a reworked and extended version of Opensim, and as an enterprise solution is packaged with additional tools and support under the name 3Di Opensim Standard. 3Di maintain a separate project developing further extensions and enhancements for 3Di Opensim. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
Kingdon's Second Life updates: What's missing?
New Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon is still making irregular postings to the official Second Life blog. It's all heady and exciting stuff, to be sure. Growth, focus on improvement of the new user experience, simplified registration, and so on. Yet something seems to be missing. What's missing is anything that excites you if you're already a Second Life user. There's plenty here to entice those who aren't already users, but if you're already one, there doesn't seem to be anything much in them for you to get excited about. Put together with some other pieces, however, it certainly creates an interesting picture about future direction for Second Life. Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.
