今月よりBlogTVは月イチになりました。
先週のオンエアでiCommons Summit特番をやらせて頂きました。
30時間分の映像を30分にぎゅぎゅっと圧縮するのは正に産みの苦しみ。
よい番組にしあがったと思いますので是非YouTubeでご覧ください。
ココアは3D仮想空間（メタバース）構築・運営などを目的に3月に設立された新会社で、資本金は1億円。トランスコスモスが70％、フロムソフトが20％、産経新聞が10％出資した。社長はトランスコスモス専務の森山雅勝氏。仮想世界などの開発は、数々のゲームソフトを手掛けてきたフロム・ソフトが担当し、キャラクターデザインにはアニメ制作会社のプロダクション・アイジー（I.G）とぴえろが参加。
なるほど、そういう布陣ですか。スタジオぴえろといえばうる星やつら、幽☆遊☆白書、オレンジロード、NARUTOなど有名アニメをたくさんたくさん手がけてきている。
常々Second Lifeのインターフェースには物申したいことが多くあったのでちょっと期待です。
仮想世界で流通する通貨の販売も検討するが、仮想通貨の現金への換金は「現行の法制度上黒に近いグレーと考えられるため」（森山社長）当面は行わない。
Second
Lifeは、ユーザーが何でも自由に作った結果、アダルト・ギャンブルコンテンツが増えた上、ゲーム内通貨を現金化できることも人気を集める要素の1つに
なった。meet-meにはこれらがないが、「新しいコミュニケーションの楽しさを提供できる点が魅力」と森山社長は言う。
たしかにアダルト／ギャンブルだらけかも（とほほ）
人間ってわかりやすいなあ。。
そもそもレールもなければゲーム性もないから、そういうところに走るんだろうなあ。。。
それがないってことは相当エンターテインメント性がないと難しいので
逆にそこも期待しましょう。
Last Friday evening’s Die Hard 4 virtual press conference and expo launch
in Second Life was a great example of how this virtual medium can work
well when you have some real imagination and execute a good plan of
organization.The event featured a live Q&A session with Bruce Willis, the star of the film. As with the 300 movie event
in Second Life in March, this event featured a moderator who fielded
text questions from the assembled journalists, bloggers and contest
winners (yes, there had been a contest
for Die Hard fans to win a place at this virtual launch and ‘meet’
Bruce). The answers came in the spoken word from Bruce Willis via a
real-time audio stream.
A lawsuit filed in May of 2006 by Pennsylvania attorney Marc Bragg accused Linden Lab and its CEO Philip Rosedale of wrongfully seizing his virtual land and unilaterally shutting down his Second Life
account—intellectual property that Bragg says is worth thousands of
(real-life) dollars. Linden Lab filed two motions to dismiss the suit,
arguing that Bragg came into possession of his land wrongfully, but the
Pennsylvania judge denied those motions.
Bragg is demanding roughly $8,000 in restitution from Linden Lab, and
it appears as if this will be the first case over virtual land to make
it all the way to court.
バーチャルな土地を巡って法廷まで行くのは初事例らしい。
Coca-cola社がSecondLifeに参入したがあまり人がこなかった。
勇んで参入する人も多いが、ただ店を開いてもゴーストタウンをまた一つ作るだけ。
じゃあどうすればよいか。是非原文を。
-- Joseph Jaffe, president-chief interrupter, Crayon
-- Mark-Hans Richer, marketing director, Pontiac
-- Giff Constable, VP, Electric Sheep
-- Michael Donnelly, director-global interactive marketing, Coca-Cola Co.
Second Lifeはゲームではないので、
自分なりの楽しみ方がないと絶対に楽しめない。
ものづくりですんごく楽しんでいるこのブログなんか見ると
いやあ〜ものづくりっていいねえ〜とほんわかしてまう。
Second Life rolling out WindLight Atmospheric Rendering
アーチストでない私には、このWindLightのよさも存分には理解できないんだろうな。
もちろん奇麗だとは思うのですが。
WindLightの全ての写真は こちらで見られます。
2011年の終わりまでにはアクティブインターネットユーザの80%（およびFortune
500 enterprises)は
バーチャルワールドに住むことになるだろう（Second Lifeではないかもしれないが）by Gartner.
バーチャルワールドに対する為に企業に向けた５つの法則：
First Law: Virtual worlds are not games, but neither are they a
parallel universe (yet).
Second Law: Behind every avatar is a real person.
Third Law: Be relevant and add value.
Fourth Law: Understand and contain the downside.
Fifth Law: This is a long haul.
キター！いつかは誰かが来ると思ってた。
Anshe Chung がvirtual world-spanning financial marketを６月初旬に開始する。news release
Second Life, Entropia Universe と IMVUのマーケットを接続し、３つの世界を結ぶ
“a virtual financial market, financial products
and a set of services” を提供するという。
Second Lifeの住民がLinden
dollarsをEntropia等他の世界でも使える、といったぐあい。
現時点ではあまり需要があるとも思えないが、こういったインフラは絶対必要になる。
世界間／サービス間の通貨の共通化と友達ネットワークの共通化は絶対必要だと思う。
（新しいSNSができるたびに友達をみんな登録し直すのはもう面倒すぎる。。。orz）
The Metaverse Messengerの先週号のトップページで
今やっているプロジェクトを取り上げて頂きました。
2007年6月15日〜17日にクロアチアのドブロフニクで開催されるiCommons Summitの会議の様子を
Joi Ito's Labのストリーミングサーバでストリーミングをします。
そして、iSummitの会場を現在Second Lifeの中に建設しているのですが
そのSecond Life内の会場でもストリーミングを流します。
また、Second Life内でリアルとは別の解説者を立てて
アバターがセッションを行うということもやる予定です。
つまり、今年のiSummitはリアルな世界（ドブロフニク）でのiSummit会場での開催と
Second Life内のiSummit会場での開催を行うのです。
ヨーロッパ時間だと時差がアメリカやアジアだと時差で見づらいということもあり
ライブストリーミング以外にも録画して流す、ということも行う予定です。
これを"dual reality conference"と呼んでいます。
さて、私はこのプロジェクトを手伝っているのですが
今までつきあったことのないコミュニティの人たちで、なかなかしびれます。
いきなり「今日電話会議ね！」と突然言われて目を白黒させながら23時からSkype。
会議相手がヨハネスブルク／ザグレブ／LAと私が日本と散らばっているので
どうしてもこうなってしまう。（LA時間は朝７時）
そしてその後一週間「明日も同じ時間！」ということでガーッとテスト。
ストリーミングはMacのQuick Time Broadcasterで問題なく行えていたのですが
エンジニアの一人がいかに自分がLinuxを愛し、Macでやりたくないかという長々としたメールを送って来て、
再度Linuxでテストを続けることに。
また、ある人から「プレゼンをパワーポイントで行う」と一言メールが流れたとたんに
「このオープンソースの時代にパワーポイント？！openofficeとか知らないのか」と抗議メール。
「いやそこは自由だろう」と仲介が入りパワポでOKで落ち着きましたが
いやあもう、皆さん思いがすごく強いんですね。強烈で面白いです（笑）
5/21追記：iCommons Summit in Second Life色々なところに出始めました。
iCommonsサイト
USC
LindenLabからSecond Lifeのkey metrics4月版が発表されました。
User Hours
Land Size
L$ Supply and User to User Transactions
LindeX Transactions
Population
Premium Residents
By Country
By Age
By Gender
。。。と盛りだくさん。
ちなみに日本は８位で3.38%
平均年齢は30歳で、18ー44歳で87％。17歳以下は１%しかいない。
（18-24 26.64% 25-34 38.51% 35-44 21.78%）
ComScoreが発表した数値とあまりに異なるのではという指摘もある。
たしかに結構違うな。。。
ComScoreによるとUnited States 16% Germany 16%
SecondLifeのデータだとUnited States 29.49% Germany 10.37%
Comscoreによるとactive users が1,283,000人がSecondLifeを使ったことになっているが
SecondLifeのデータだとunique residents 2007 March 3,251,579 2007 April 3,768,092
registration count 2007March 5,137,072 2007April 5,973,301
Copybotが出回って以来、Secondlifeとクリエイターたちはてんやわんやである。
何作ってもコピーされちゃうので、クリエイターにとっては死活問題。
そんな中。
というWired Newsの記事。
law baseではなくnorm baseで解決していくというexperiment.
超面白い。
Second Life内レストラン登場。
人材採用とか予約のサイトとかもある。
Sublime
was conceived and founded in June 2006, with the goal of
creating a unique, full-service dining experience in SL. We
wanted to provide the community with a romantic,
interactive date spot that mimicked a real-life restaurant
as closely as possible.
• Self-service tables, which produce a menu of our pub
food when you sit
• A comfortable bar area, where our friendly
bartenders offer free drinks
• Full-service dining, by reservation only, with
service by our professional wait staff
We also provide a private dining room, available for
couples only. Here you can order either a full-service meal
or a fantastic chef's meal, where one of our creative chefs
prepares your meal tableside and serves you personally.
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Second Life, the three-dimensional virtual
world, has been getting tons of press lately. In the software, which
anyone can download for free, you travel around as an "avatar"
representing yourself (with a different name), through a huge range of
spaces - beautiful natural environments, shopping malls, museums,
clubs, homes, apartments and cities. So far, it's signed up 1.3 million
members.
It's not a game, it's just a place you go to do whatever you want to do. It has been on the cover of Business Week, on the front page of the New York Times Escapes section and in the coverage of Reuters, which has now assigned a reporter to operate full-time inside Second Life. The Reuters reporter, Adam Pasnick, told
CNET that his assignment has caused so many waves he's been getting
interview requests from Poland, Colombia, Brazil and New Zealand.
うわわ、ロイターがSL内でフルタイム働くレポーターを置いたって。
でもたしかにロイターに行っても人もいなくてつまんなかったしね。
へええええ。
W Hotels has built a prototype of its new Aloft hotel brand inside Second Life. It was featured in the Times,
among many other articles. W President Ross Klein told me that while
the company originally just wanted to test out concepts, the PR value
from all the stories written about Aloft in Second Life has given the
company a "hundred-fold" return on its investment, just in positive PR.
Even IBM (Charts) CEO Sam Palmisano can now be seen lurking around Second Life.
へえええ！！
Yet Second Life may be more important,
longterm, than even this much publicity would suggest. That's because
what it really may represent is an alternative vision for how to
interact with information and communicate over the Internet.
Yes
it's cartoony, but one of the great things about Second LIfe is that
whenever you are doing anything, you can see the other people who are
nearby as well. This brings a dimension of social life - so elemental
to how we live our lives offline - to the Internet in a way that up to
now the Web has not. In Second Life everything you do is done in a
social space, though you can get privacy if you want.
So far
Second Life is way too hard to use. The people who do best there are
still techie types. It requires a fairly powerful computer. You have to
download a special software application to use it. It can't be used in
many corporate offices (like mine at Time Inc., for instance).
But
Second Life is important as much for what it represents as for what it
concretely offers today. Looking at Second Life makes me realize just
how much the Web, wonderful and useful as it is, still mimics a print
model.
We are all lathered up about the success of News Corp.'s (Charts)
MySpace. But the social networks of the future will probably be much
more than merely a bunch of Web-site-like collections of data, as
MySpace is today. MySpace beat Friendster, the previous champion social
networking site, by allowing its members much more freedom in how they
created their pages.
Second Life goes much further. It took a
radical approach to design from the beginning. It offered itself as a
mere platform for the creations of its occupants. Essentially
everything seen inside the software today was created by its users.
そうなの。
だから稚拙だったりつまんなかったり難しかったりもするんだけど、これはインターネットの始めの頃にハードルが高かったけど、ホームページビルダーとかメーラーとかブログとか色々な物ができたのと同様、これからツールが発達すると思う。でも今飛び込むのがカオティックで面白いんじゃないかなあ。（ふみ＠カオス好き）
All
that the company that operates Second Life, Linden Lab, sells is server
time and network capacity. The more real estate you own, the more you
pay. It costs nothing to enter, so you can go in and explore all you
want. It's often worth it to own real estate, because you can make real
money by renting it out or developing it to resell.
Users pay in Linden dollars, which can be
converted to real dollars. Though Second Life has established codes of
behavior, and does enforce them, restrictions are minimal. Second Life
really is the creation of its residents.
One of the more intriguing aspects of Second Life is that it includes links to content outside. If you go, for instance, to Sony's (Charts)
island, you can enter a Christina Aguilera room, and watch her latest
video (while your avatar sits in an easy chair, of course). There's no
reason why some version of a 3D world couldn't eventually offer as much
functionality as we get today on the Web, and more. An interesting
corollary - searching with Google (Charts) might be harder. It's completely text-based.
Every
day more big companies turn their attention to this new medium,
realizing that it really represents something new. I'm now convinced
that one day Second Life or something related to it will become a
Google/Yahoo/MySpace-scale company.
Maybe Second Life will grow
organically to become that company. Or an existing giant striving to
stay relevant might buy it. Or maybe somebody will build a different,
even better virtual world.
But we're seeing something new and
important. If you want to stay abreast of what's happening in tech, you
need to get inside Second Life. If you run into David Liveoak, don't
hesitate to say hello.
Breathing Second Life into Business
先日はメディアとSecond Lifeの記事を書きまして
昨日BlogTVの番組でも紹介させて頂きましたが
今度はビジネスのお話。
Toyota,AdidasやSun MicrosystemsなんかはみんなSecond LifeをPromotionに使い始めています。
11 Reasons why massively multiplayer games are going to change the way business works
Once we accept that the media is more than paper and airwaves it becomes clear that games like Second Life are part of the media. The main point of difference is that the media used to be a tool for business whereas this media encapsulates business and becomes an environment rather than a mediator.
Second Lifeのようなゲームはメディアになりうると。
しかも通常のメディアはビジネスにとってツールにすぎないけれど、
Second Lifeのようなものだと環境になりうると。
Provided massively multiplayer games remain populated there should be no reason why the worlds can’t scale infinitely and never suffer the risk of environmental depletion.
膨大なるゲーム人口はまさに"unlimited"であると。
The economies are as real
Second Life is perhaps one of the most poignant examples of a thriving virtual economy that has a real-life corollary. There have been several success stories, particularly in the area of property development, and the key driver of this type of economy is in its extension into the real world.
経済がリアルワールドの延長線上にあると。
ただ、一つ指摘しておきたいのはリアルワールドの延長にあるんだけど
環境がSecond Lifeとかに変わることにより
国力の差をぶっとばせてしまうこと。
だからWoWでは中国で地下に何百人と安い労働者を雇って
ひたすらゲームをさせるというビジネスがあって
ゲーム内ではchinese farmersと呼ばれて通常のゲーマーから不評を買っている。
私も何度も会った。。。
つまり、貧富の差をぶっとばして下克上できちゃうってことだと私は思う。
そうか、がんばれば私もお金持ちになれるかしら :P
Outdoor advertising is back in fashion
If the real world were safer to walk about we’d probably have much better outdoor advertising. In new worlds like Second Life and outdoor advertisement can be interactive, have embedded functionality like a direct link to a call centre, or ordering capability, and you seldom have to worry about muggers or vandals interrupting you.
Proximity matters again
The Web made proximity and location irrelevant. There is no such thing as “closer” on the Web, although this could change with the net neutrality debates going on right now. In 3D worlds, the value of being closer to where a character lives or works is significant, much in the same way it is in real life.
ゲームだとギルドもあって「緊密な人と緊密でない人」がすごく分かれる。
だから私はゲームにログインするとたいていすぐに誰かが「やあ！」と声をかけてくれる。
それはギルドのメンバーだったりそうでなかったり。
リアルで会ったことがない人がほとんどで、アメリカにいたりシンガポールにいたりするけど
でもすごくcloser on the Webな友達たち。
だから命と時間とお金をかけて一緒に戦ったり手伝ったりしてあげたりしてもらったりする。
People spend more quality time in the game
Even if you spend less time interacting with a virtual world, it will probably seem like quantitatively “better” time than the time you spend in your real life because you have chosen to spend it that way. By implication there is something there that appeals to you more than your current real life situation. Some people watch TV, others play sports, some inhabit strange worlds that don’t really exist. The point is that for many in the game it is a time spent feeling good, which is the best time to transact.
そうね。。。
ずぶずぶになってしまうので、私は自制心フル活動で
もう２ヶ月ぐらいWoWにまったくログインしていないのだけれど
はまってしまうとずぶずぶです。
There are new and unimaginable markets opening up
Because the physics of these new worlds and they way they work are flexible and subject to change, the potential range of needs or desires is significantly different to those of the real world, some won’t have a real word equivalent. This means new markets will develop where there weren’t any before for things that have never existed before.
Everyday mundanity can now be part of an escape
Going to the bank or shopping for groceries is a drudge in real life but put it in a virtual world and suddenly everything seems like fun. Companies that understand this will be able to increase their customer base by making their products interesting to find and buy.
毎日必ずオークションハウスに行って価格をチェックする人とかすごいいるいる。
Customer service can be personal again
As customer service has been migrated from interpersonal to telephonic to email, the quality of the service has become worse even though rapid responses are more available. With avatar-based customer service some of the interpersonal aspects of human communication can be reintroduced and some others will continue to be automated.
God is present (to fix bugs and release new versions)
Game and world developers are keeping an active eye on the way the virtual worlds are operating. This means that critical changes can be made quickly, that the community of users can influence the direction of the development and that things will not remain stagnant for hundreds of years at a time.
This is just the beginning
The world of massively multiplayer games is in its infancy now. The economic, political and cultural impact has only just begun to become apparent and then only on a small scale. Whatever the impact is, it will be significant. The question is, for how many and what happens to those who either don’t have access or the interest.
やっぱ先日も書いたけど、デジタルデバイドですよ。
インターネットやってないとデジタルデバイドなののごとく
ゲームやってないとデジタルデバイドでおいてかれちゃう日がいつか来るに違いない。
今は単におたくと思われてるかもしれないけどさ。
WiredもCNetもロイターもSecond Lifeの中にプレゼンスを作り始めたという話。
「インターネットやってる人とやってない人」でデジタルデバイドができたかのごとく
「SecondLifeをやってる人とやってない人」でデジタルデバイドができるかも（笑）
。。。とは言われ尽くしてきてる。特にSecond Lifeは無視できないレベルまで来ちゃってる。
Second Life, for example, was specifically designed by San
Francisco-based Linden Lab to have a free-flowing market economy. Its
internal currency, the Linden dollar, can be converted into U.S.
dollars through an open currency exchange, making it effectively "real"
money.
Inside Second Life, users can buy and sell virtual objects
from T-shirts to helicopters, develop virtual real estate, or hire out
services ranging from architecture to exotic dancing. Up to $500,000 in
user-to-user transactions take place every day, and the Second Life
economy is growing by 10 to 15 percent a month.
ゲームなんてわからない人が当局に多いので教育しないとと言いつつ実は：
However, there are probably some on Capitol Hill who won't require
much explanation. "I can almost guarantee that there are some members
of Congress spending time in Second Life or World of Warcraft," he said.
Heheそうだろうね。
で、記事の末尾がこれでしめられていたのが面白かった！
(For more coverage of Second Life, where Reuters is opening a virtual news bureau, go to http://secondlife.reuters.com)
アナログなCM見ていて「続きはネットで！」の現代バージョンは
ネットニュース見ていて「続きはSecond Lifeで！」
