Second Life Enterprise

Linden Lab announced the launch of an open Beta program for its behind-the-firewall product, Second Life Enterprise, the company said on Nov. 4.

The company also announced it will release a marketplace for Second Life Enterprise in Q1 2010. The marketplace, Second Life Work Marketplace, will add customization features for the virtual world environments, and it will also add more revenue streams for the product.

“Out of the box, the system comes with content such as meeting rooms and conference areas, which are just ready to go,” Chris Collins, Enterprise general manager at Linden Lab said. “There’s also a marketplace - an area where users can purchase content for their meeting rooms, or if they’re the military, it could be content for tanks and planes, all the way up to full software applications.”

So far, 14 companies or organizations are part of the Beta program. The list includes IBM, Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), The New Media Consortium and DefenseWeb Technologies.

The addition of the behind-the-firewall product will give these countries more options for simulation, training, collaboration, innovation and product design.

Program Technology Lead for NUWC Metaverse Strategic Initiative Douglas Maxwell said Second Life gives them a unique opportunity to prepare for real-life situations in a risk-free environment.

"Virtual Worlds have the potential to provide a safer, more cost effective approach to some of the Navy's current mission areas,” Maxwell said. “The Naval Undersea Warfare Center has collaborated with Linden Lab to create a version of Second Life Enterprise that is secured and meets military grade information assurance compliance standards - out of the box."

IBM is one of the 1,400 schools, businesses, government agencies and other organizations that use Second Life to some degree.

"Second Life Enterprise version offers a great combination of collaboration, content creation and communications tools and resources," said IBM vice president of innovation initiatives Francoise Legoues. "We were one of the early adopters of the Second Life platform, and having that technology behind the firewall gives us the opportunity to expand our use of the platform enterprise-wide."

Second Life Enterprise pricing starts at $55,000. The beta is expected to run from Q4 through the first half of 2010.

Brandon Gibson profie

ST. LOUIS – Not many people experience life-changing phone calls while out shopping for supplies for their apartment.

At the same time, not many people get to experience the thrill of playing football in the NFL.

Brandon Gibson has been able to experience both.

Gibson, a former Washington State wide receiver and sixth-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Eagles, was on his way to Wal-Mart when he received a phone call from a St. Louis Rams representative informing him he had been traded.

“I was pretty shocked,” Gibson said. “I thought I had done enough during training camp and preseason so that the Eagles would give me an opportunity to make the 53-man roster, but there were injuries at linebacker. We had extra depth at receiver and the Rams felt I could come in and help their team.”

After the trade on Oct. 20, Gibson was inactive for his first potential game with the Rams, an Oct. 25 showdown with the Indianapolis Colts. He saw limited action in Sunday’s win against the Detroit Lions.

Gibson said as he grows more comfortable with the Rams’ offense, he expects to see his playing time increase.

“I’m not sure (when I’ll play more), maybe when I gain the coaches trust that I can be in the correct assignment and give maximum effort
,” Gibson said.

The Rams’ offensive coordinator, Pat Schumur, spent eight seasons in Philadelphia as the quarterbacks coach. Because of this, Gibson said the two offenses are almost identical, giving Gibson and edge to play sooner rather than later.

“It’s the same offense so I think I’ll contribute in the same way as I would have at some point in Philadelphia, I hope,” Gibson said. “I really would just love the opportunity to play.”

Gibson said the Rams contacted him during the fifth round of the NFL draft but ended up drafting a different receiver, North Carolina’s Brooks Foster. Foster’s season ended before it could get started after he suffered a season-ending ankle injury in preseason.

On the other hand, Gibson thrived during the preseason for the Eagles. He led the Eagles with 12 catches for 123 yards and one touchdown through four games. Gibson said a lot was going through his mind as he took those first NFL snaps.

“I just tried to remember my coaching, play fast and have fun,” Gibson said.

Gibson said the biggest difference between the two teams is the mentality each has going into games. The Eagles (5-2) are tied for first in their division and considered to be Super Bowl contenders. The Rams (1-7) had not won a regular season game since Oct. 19, 2008.

“Not saying the Rams were expecting to lose but it is just a young team,” Gibson said. “When you’re a young team, you must figure out a way to win games. In Philly, playing at your highest level and winning every game was what was expected.”

Gibson was widely considered one of the best receivers in college following his junior season when he racked up 1,180 yards and nine touchdowns. He struggled to repeat those numbers in his senior season under first-year head coach Paul Wulff and his draft stock fell.

As for heading to a new city, Gibson said he is transitioning well to his new surroundings.

“It (the transition) has been real smooth,” Gibson said. “I don’t get shocked too often. I try to get used to my surroundings and get comfortable as soon as possible.”

Frontline: News War

The show Frontline on PBS brought up some interesting topics in its “News War” segment. One of the first things I noticed was the level of newsworthiness among current news anchors and news outlets. On local television channels there is a fair amount of solid journalism and reporting, but on major national outlets, there has been an obvious switch to more opinion-based programming. People want to watch news with people who share their opinions and now, with so many different outlets, they can find exactly what they want.

Another interesting thing to me was the loss revenue from classified ads for newspapers as people switch to online sources like Craigslist. Craigslist offers better exposure, free advertising to a larger audience, than a traditional newspaper’s classified ad that charges people who place ads by lines or characters. It has led to a significant shift to online sources because it just makes more sense to advertise for free if you can. A side affect of this is other advertisers switching where they spend their money. Instead of placing ads with newspapers in their classified ads or in other sections, advertisers can reach more people if they buy space on Monster.com, Craigslist or other similar web sites.

The most important topic I saw was the conglomeration of newspapers. It doesn’t make sense to me that only a few major corporations own a significant majority of the newspapers in the United States. Local ownership makes so much more sense because a local owner will have the community and the individual paper’s best interest in mind when making decisions. A large corporation who owns papers in Florida, California and Illinois can’t always have each paper’s best interests in mind when making decisions because each paper has much different needs.

In all, there are many significant problems with the way news is presented and if news coverage continues on the same path, it will only make bigger and more problems.