Cattle Puppy has been busy working with the team at Telstra Enterprise and Government. They are using Second Life tools for quick virtual prototyping of their real world construction projects in Sydney and Melbourne. Last week was the public launch of the very impressive Melbourne Executive Briefing Centre.

Watch Leonie Valentine's avatar introduce the venue in the short machinima clip we produced for them. It's under the "Show Me" link in the Executive Briefing Centres introduction.

Two new words to add to you glossary:

Metanomics: Metanomics is the study of business and policy in the "metaverse" of virtual worlds.

Intraverse: Private virtual world - as in IBM's internal Active Worlds environment.

Both of these stem from a series of mixed reality events in Second Life put on by The Johnson School at Cornell University and Metaversed.com. Nick Wilson (57 Miles in SL) has also setup the Metanomics website where you can participate in pre and post-event analysis.

I've been involved with the series because SLCN.TV has been covering the sessions. For anyone looking at virtual worlds as a platform for business or commercial activites, these sessions are required viewing.

Spacejunky Live Gig
I returned from Sydney last night where I sat on a few panels talking about the
Australian Music Business. It's no secret that these are not happy times for the record industry and the message that artists are getting is it's now a DIY world so roll up your sleeves, become online savvy, and be your own recording/marketing/distribution/booking machine. It's always been a tough business for artists - even when there were boom times for the record companies - and now it's even tougher.

But along with change comes opportunity, if a band is willing to try something new. One area that I am excited about and mentioned at the conference is the potential for live performances in Second Life. Music performances in SL are glue that brings people together to socialise and it's a vibrant and active scene.

AIIA Building in SLThank you to Sheryle Moon and the AIIA staff for inviting me to give a brief talk at the annual Directors dinner last night. There really wasn't enough time to go into much in depth, so I thought I'd touch on a few points here.

Modern communication is now driven by social networks, instant messaging, and Flash Mobs. An entire generation has come of age living online. A comparison of June 06 to June 07 traffic at Facebook.com shows it experienced a growth rate of 270%. The MySpace crowd is enterting the workforce and they are bringing Facebook with them.

Virtual worlds like Second Life have been called the 3D web. That might lead some companies to think they should be transitioning their current websites into new platforms like Second Life. Don't get caught in that trap.

Web-based applications, are more mature - and commercially, have been able to show a good Return on Investment. Successful sites have either provided revenue or cut costs, and we have all been trained for a self-serve world from banking to blogging. Automation has made this an efficient and sterile process. In other words, NO human contact is needed .

Second Life needs human contact.

Look at your own organization and identify the areas that require humans. Then, apply the same ROI thinking for your B2B services, export strategies, or direct marketing. If your organisation needs to touch people, think about how an immersive and social space might play a role for you. Obvious areas that come to mind:

Check in with SLCN this weekend to watch the Second Life custom sessions from the BlogHer conference taking place in Chicago. The first session will be streamed live at slcn.tv on Friday (27 July) at 12:45 - 2:00 PM (PDT). Other SL sessions will follow on Saturday.

Main SL Best Practices in Education VenueThe virtual conference starts at midnight SLT on Thursday, 25 May.

SLCN will be providing live video coverage of the event. Second Life residents will be able to watch the proceedings from in world movie screens and non-residents will be able to watch from the SLCN.TV website.

ITE Conference

The International Technology Expo Day 1 is over and the live coverage by SLCN was just great. Be sure to tune in for Day 2 and 3 to see what's going on with the presentations and vendors. The conference has been put on by The V3 Group. You can watch the coverage on SLCN.TV.

Adjust your calendars. The early switch to Daylight Savings Time in the US means that the time for the Aussie Music Party here in Australia will be adjusted. (see news.bbc.co.uk)

The start time in SL is 6:00 pm SL (or PST) on 14 March. That means here in Australia we will log on on 15 March at about 12:00 noon.

The Aussie bands that will be appearing at The Hoe-Down Under - Texas's Aussie Music Festival are lining up to take part in the fun. Rehersals on the main stage are now underway with Sydney-based Kaya. No doubt these lovely ladies will be out shopping in some Second Life fashion designer shops over the next few weeks leading up to the party. Be sure to check out the scene and meet Kaya during the party.

slurl.com/secondlife/Norcott West/237/140

Austrade Music Office and Cattle Puppy Productions are promoting Australian music by hosting an online event in the 3D virtual world Second Life. (See www.secondlife.com) This event will coincide with other Austrade promotional and showcase opportunities planned around the SXSW music industry conference held in Austin TX in March. (See www.themusic.com.au/sxsw/ ). The inworld event will be held on the island of Norcott West on Salmon Bay beach.

slurl.com/secondlife/Norcott West/237/140