Second Life Conferencing

We've all seen the headlines.  Social networking is the next "big thing".  From Myspace to Youtube we're all asking ourselves, are these companies really worth what they're selling for?  Hundreds of millions to billions of dollars are being spent on these social communities.  What makes them so special and valuable? 

Personally, I think the true financial value of these organizations are still to be determined, however any medium that can draw millions of subscribers is obviously worth a lot of money to the right organizations.  I have been involved with a few of these communities and have a bit of insight.

Second Life - This is one of the largest virtual worlds in existence today.  Over 6 million residents and $1.5 million dollars are spent daily in this virtual world.  Sure, you'll find many articles on both sides of the fence about this virtual world, but the fact remains that it's the most popoular in terms of subscriber base for a non-gaming virtual world.  I have recently launched a presence in Second Life for my company and am currently offering conferencing and collaboration services within this environment.  It's not a game per se as there are no "levels" or killing, or any end-game at all really.  It's purely a social networking environment on a large scale, combined with a revenue generation model and economy that allows individuals and businesses to earn decent to envious sums of money.  You can find out more about what we offer in this medium at www.slconferencing.com.

Project Entropia - A completely different take on a virtual world environment.  This follows the more traditional MMORPG systems including wepons, hunting, leveling, etc.  In this sense it is probably more easily acceptable to traditional gamers then Second Life.  However, it also has a deep economy as well that allows for individuals to literally make thousands of dollars.  They recently launched Virtual Banking Licenses that were purchased for an average of $90k each in addition to the purchasers needing to deposit $100k to secure funds.  As you can see, we have moved well beyond your traditional "game".

There are several others as well that I have not tried yet, including There.com (too cartoony for me and not enough real dollars involved) and several others.

I firmly believe that over the next 5 years there will be a transition from traditional 2-D web pages to these 3-D virtual environments.  While these virtual worlds are still looked down upon by most traditional businesses and individuals, I predict these attitudes will change over the next year or two.

For more information you can go to www.ganconference.com.