The technical problems are partially because the company took on a huge project with a fairly small staff… and even though this means that fewer new bugs can be introduced, it also means that existing bugs take longer to be exterminated. The small staff means that LL is not burning through its money as fast as it could.

Repurposing the Grid as a venue for Soulless Multinational Corporations seems like a bad move: the SMCs have an agenda which is at odds with SL’s culture. And there is the danger that the current customers will be driven away.

Two interesting things about LL which haven’t gotten much attention are that, while building SL, they have made significant advances in two peripheral areas: they have developed a micropayment system (with its own transnational quasi-currency) which people actually use (and which works pretty well.) Also, 3D voice is a major advance in the boring yet ubiquitous technology of conference calling.

The technical problems are partially because the company took on a huge project with a fairly small staff… and even though this means that fewer new bugs can be introduced, it also means that existing bugs take longer to be exterminated. The small staff means that LL is not burning through its money as fast as it could.

Repurposing the Grid as a venue for Soulless Multinational Corporations seems like a bad move: the SMCs have an agenda which is at odds with SL’s culture. And there is the danger that the current customers will be driven away.

Two interesting things about LL which haven’t gotten much attention are that, while building SL, they have made significant advances in two peripheral areas: they have developed a micropayment system (with its own transnational quasi-currency) which people actually use (and which works pretty well.) Also, 3D voice is a major advance in the boring yet ubiquitous technology of conference calling.

I’d actually like to know on what you base this assertion, in as much as it relates *directly* to the Main Grid (which eliminates their attempt to set up an isolated Stagecoach Island for Wells Fargo).

Not saying you’re mistaken, only that I recall a lot of teeth pulling before LL made a public statement that effectively opened up the MG to companies.

But I had one idea once for SL and Corporations making a buck at the same time. You know how there is web hosting on the web? What if the same could be done for land in SL? This would probably be good a good idea. Pay a monthly, or annual fee, with a various fixed acres of land to offer. They could host the servers, as you would any web server (this is how LL gets paid). And if you really wanted to experiment with the idea, provide free advertising paid, 512 sq Land. I’m surprised something like this wasn’t done in the beginning. Now I am sure, someone will chime in here and tell me that probably wouldn’t work. After all I know nothing about how advertising, or running a company works. But it was just an idea.

The concept of offering ‘real’ attractions for SL residents is good too. A group of four ‘clean’ sims (specially designed for minimum lag) made available to live performers would work for instance.

Another possibility, which is pure transfer of RL PR techniques into SL terms, would be sponsorship of events, possibly providing facilities as part of the package as well…

This is the sort of thing I meant by corporates becoming part of SL, actually becoming involved and providing things to interest residents, rather than expecting us to come running to their sterile reproductions of RL.

Still, they are going to have to dig a wee bit deeper in the corporate purse to do this. At the weekend a friend and I ran a modest event ourselves to promote the opening of a new sim complete with a new, bigger, store. First time for both of us for an event like that.
Nothing fancy, a treasure hunt, a couple of live performance sessions and a DJ filling in. And of course the obvious personal contact with potential customers.
I have to say it was pretty hard work! Between dealing with an overcrowding provoked sim crash mid-way, a single griefer, policing excessive script usage by some guests and a few other unexpected issues, we both concluded that more ‘staff’ are really needed, even for such a small event.

Something else corporate users will have to learn, like we did, from experience. Of course, this is likely to spawn yet another group to milk unwary corporates – inworld event organisers – charging far more that the corporates could do it for using their own staff…

Oh well, as I said previously, the ones who will make it work will be the ones who figure that out and meet SL on it’s own terms.
It remains to be seen which corporate is going to be the first to ‘get it’ and build a real SL presence.

IBM appears to be taking it slow and steady. They have set up a Sears and Circuit City presence, mostly an enhanced catalog operation to order RL goods. You can also order your US$250,000 server from one of their islands!

So true. I still remember the moment when I saw a first life brand logo in SL for the first time (I it CBS or NBC, I get these mixed up), or more a place with a lot of poles with flags of these logs waving. For a moment I had this creepy thing up my spine, this “Oh no, *they* are coming”, not about that company in particular, but the corporate world in general casting their shadow over the land like when you might hear that Saruman’s army was coming.