Virtual Worlds, from Club Penguin to World of Warcraft, are packed with great content. In some cases, there is so much content that it can be overwhelming and difficult to find what you want! This content includes games, locations, friends, friends of friends, events, and more. Social networks have the same problem! Packed with that same rich set of content, it was once very hard to find things on those networks. Enter the social networking newsfeed. In 2006 Facebook decided to turn on their “Newsfeed” feature for all of their users. Immediately Facebook users were able to see what their other friends were up to, including who they friended, when they changed their relationship status, what applications they were playing with, which groups they joined and almost any other significant activity happening on the site. Facebook turned the world onto the notion that it is easier to find content you like by looking at the content your friends like. It’s a small world after all! Did you know that guy from high school is also on Facebook? Of course you do, because one of your friends, friended them. Did you know your good friends from college are also playing WOW? Not with the help of WOW’s social tools. Did you know Gaia introduced a great new game? Maybe not, but a good friend has been playing for days! Did you see that great new sim or hot new musical act in Second Life? Not unless you found out via Twitter.

Virtual worlds both social and game focused need newsfeeds! They help you find content and they make the world more social. My favorite part about playing MMO’s is playing with friends, yet they are hard to find and its difficult to track their behavior. I look forward to newsfeeds coming to virtual worlds and I believe they are just around the corner! I can’t wait to see what great content my friends are finding in the virtual worlds I share with them.

You’ve read our blog posts, the Tech Crunch article and our WebFlock product website and you’ve realized we are tackling fun and complex software problems! Building small worlds is fun and even The GOOG is wise to their potential. We are looking for talented ActionScript and Java developers to join our team and help us push the limits of what is possible for non-downloadable, web-based virtual worlds (big and small). Come join us at ESC and help us change the way people interact with the web.

Contact us at: dev-recruiting@electricsheepcompany.com

Flash Client Software Engineer

Experienced software engineers needed to create compelling 2.5D and 3D virtual worlds and multi-player games. The Electric Sheep Company is developing new technologies that occupy the sweet spot of the web, virtual worlds, and gaming. We are looking for highly talented, flexible and creative developers to join our core development team.
You will:

-Develop web-embedded virtual world and game front-ends
-Stay current on the latest developments in virtual world platforms and social technologyQualifications:- Fluent in Flash/AS3
-5+ years of software real-world development experience
-BS in Computer Science or related or equivalent experience
-Good grasp of 3D programming and related concepts (3D geometry, texture mapping, matrices, etc)
-Experience with network architectures/protocols and asynchronous programming and I/O
-Low-level programming experience (manipulating bits & bytes directly)
-Good grasp of multi-player gaming and related concepts (physics, animation, AI/NPCs, etc)
-Comfortable working in a highly distributed, agile team environment
Bonus points:

- Papervision3D, Away3D, and/or Sandy 3D
-Java
-Prior contributions to open source projects
-Agile development experience

Software Engineer

We are looking for experienced software engineers to create compelling 2.5D and 3D virtual worlds and multi-player games. The Electric Sheep Company is developing new technologies that occupy the sweet spot of the web, virtual worlds, and gaming. We are looking for highly talented, flexible and creative developers to join our core development team and grow with us.

Each day you will work with the team to:

-Develop web-embedded virtual world front-ends
-Contribute to multi-player server development as needed
-Stay current on the latest developments in virtual world platforms and social technology

Qualifications:

-BS in Computer Science or related/equivalent experience
-5+ years of software real-world development experience
-Experience with network architectures/protocols and asynchronous programming and I/O
-Low-level programming experience (manipulating bits & bytes directly)
-Good grasp of 3D programming and related concepts (3D geometry, texture mapping, matrices, etc)
-Good grasp of multi-player gaming and related concepts (physics, animation, AI/NPCs, etc.)
-Comfortable working in a highly distributed, agile team environment

Bonus points:

-Flash/AS3
-Java
-Development, design, and consumption of web services
-Specific virtual world experience
-Prior contributions to open source projects
-Agile development experience

It is great to see so many people reading and commenting on Sibley Verbeck’s new blog titled Roadmap to the Virtual World. If you are not yet following Sibley’s blog, I highly recommend it or encourage you to follow all of our voices at We The Sheeple, The Electric Sheep Company’s blog aggregator. There is wonderful discussion occurring on those blogs, and one dedicated reader, Millions of Us’ Reuben Steiger, asked a question on Twitter:

“Can anyone explain how his last 2 posts are consistent with eachother? http://blogs.electricsheepcompany.com/sibley/”

Reuben is pointing to Sibley’s posts, Is Google Lively? and The Electric Sheep Company. In the former, Sibley discusses ESC’s excitement about having Google in the game, but expresses our disappointment that Google’s product does not meet the needs we see in the market.

In today’s post, The Electric Sheep Company, Sibley discusses our WebFlock initiative. As noted in that post, Webflock is a product that has grown directly from the needs of the market. This is true for both our media partners who don’t want to drive their customers to someone else’s property (such as SL or Lively) and for the end user who is averse to downloading plugins and desktop software. Here’s a recap of Sibley’s points from Is Google Lively? and how WebFlock addresses them.

“By far the most active part of the virtual world industry is in entertainment for tweens.”

WebFlock can be used for projects of all ages. We have a number of features, such as chat filtering specifically designed for kids. Those filters can be modified or completely turned off for adult communities.

“Significant experimentation, at least in the form of many small scale projects, is being done by companies looking to use virtual worlds inside the enterprise for meetings and training applications. These companies all tell us that they want to host the virtual world inside their firewall and in many cases customize the software”

While the first release of WebFlock is designed to be a hosted solution, “inside the firewall” is on our roadmap.

“Large media companies who are publishers of virtual worlds, including efforts to expand beyond the tween demographic, have told me directly that they are not interested in having their work in a new medium hosted by Google; they fear that they’ll lose more advertising models to Google down the road.”

This was one of the main drivers behind creating Webflock as a white-label solution. Partners using WebFlock own the user base and it is they, not a 3rd party, who provide the virtual environment for their users.

“Advertisers thinking of using virtual worlds want one of two things: either a) execute a great marketing effort in a virtual world that already has a lot of eyeballs that they can easily get in front of, or b) an experience they can easily drive their own traffic to that adds to the effectiveness of their other marketing expenditures.”

A) I have no doubt that Webflock worlds with many users will exist. Perhaps a better point is that there are numerous websites that have great traffic and user bases. Since WebFlock embeds easily into those webpages, it is easier to reach a mass number of users on those sites. Innovative microsites and other “beyond the banner” advertising and sponsorship opportunities present themselves with a non-download, embeddable virtual space.
B) If you are going to drive traffic, you should drive traffic to a property you own.

“There are indeed many Web sites that have large communities, but all but the very most tech savvy and fanatical communities (MLB comes to mind as a very rare counterexample) also see huge drop off for any activity that involves installing a plug-in or registering for a 3rd party registration system.”

Ask anyone who deals in plug-ins, downloads, and 3rd party registration systems about their user fall-off at each step. WebFlock doesn’t require any downloads or registration.

“A significant portion of virtual world efforts currently underway are built around the ability to sell virtual goods as their primary business model.”

Webflock has digital goods and we can work with your existing or custom e-commerce solutions to make purchasing them easy.

I’m excited about the announcement of WebFlock and the Tech Crunch post that ran this morning. Our team has been working tirelessly this year to create a product we think meets the needs of our clients. I think there is great promise in “small worlds” as discussed by Bruce Damer. Stay tuned to this blog for more thoughts on “small worlds” in theory and in practice.

I stopped by NYU’s Tisch School of Arts, tonight to check out the ITP Spring Show 2008. I enjoyed myself and recommend you check it out tomorrow night (the last night) if you are in the neighborhood. I left the venue thinking highly of TischITP and its students. It was a mix of interactive projects including hardware projects, software projects and the combination of the two. There was an impressive number of projects on display and it looked like DIY heaven, with prototypes sporting wires and exposed circuit board all over. It was great. Creativity was bursting all over the place.

Alternate hardware interfaces for games were popular. There was a stick figure flash fighting game that used stick figure dolls as the interface. There was also an ankle bracelet and a shoe insert that could be used to detect motion, giving way to dancing games. There were all kinds other input devices that used cameras, musical instruments, or low cost sensors. Plenty of those interfaces were used to create music too!

Perhaps the project that wins the “Most Relevant to Readers of this Blog” award was GoQuest. GoQuest provides children with watches that detect their heart rate. “When a child performs a set amount of daily physical activity, an energy meter on their wristband begins to fill and their wristband begins to light up. The state of the child’s virtual character or avatar on their wristband changes in response to their physical activity. When a child fills up their avatars energy meter they can then wireless send this information to the online game environment.” I love the idea of rewarding kids in virtual worlds for physical activity in the real world.

I also enjoyed Hana-Hana, which is a toy flower connected to your pc that responds when your friends water it online or thru txt messaging. “The Physical HanaHana toys show you how your friends care about you in the most direct and playful way. The HanaHana toy flower change their movement and color depend on what kind of animation that your friends sent to you. The flower will gradually dim out and droop if no one take care of it. However, you can take care your own flower by touch it genteelly, and it will revive and glowing again!”

Here’s the official ITP Spring Show info:

ITP Spring Show 2008
Monday, May 12 and Tuesday, May 13
from 5 to 9pm at ITP

A two-day festival of interactive sight, sound and technology from the student artists and innovators at ITP.

An oversized Greenwich Village loft houses the computer labs, rotating exhibitions, and production workshops that are ITP — the Interactive Telecommunications Program. Founded in 1979 as the first graduate education program in alternative media, ITP has grown into a living community of technologists, theorists, engineers, designers, and artists uniquely dedicated to pushing the boundaries of interactivity in the real and digital worlds. A hands-on approach to experimentation, production and risk-taking make this hi-tech fun house a creative home not only to its 230 students, but also to an extended network of the technology industry’s most daring and prolific practitioners.

Interactive Telecommunications Program
Kanbar Institute of Film and Television
Tisch School of the Arts
New York University
721 Broadway, 4th Floor, South Elevators
New York NY 10003

This week, Intel opened up an exciting new campaign in Second Life: their virtual Sunflower field. Second Life residents are invited to plant a sunflower on Intel island. The sunflower displays the avatars name and grows over time. For each sunflower planted Intel will donate $1 USD to the Conservation International Foundation (up to $10,000 USD).

The first week has been great. A large number of residents have already stopped by to plant their sunflowers and some have taken it upon themselves to spread the message throughout the grid. You may be thinking… why a sunflower? From Intel’s site:

“The sunflower is nature’s own metaphor for resource stewardship and environmental renewal. As it reaches toward the sun, each blossom draws lead and other metals from the surrounding earth, leaving the soil healthier and more fertile for future growth.

At Intel, we’ve followed the sunflower’s example with ground-breaking 45 nanometer Hafnium-based High-k metal gate transistor technology that eliminates lead from the semiconductor manufacturing process, and will soon remove halogen as well. To celebrate, we’ve been spreading sunflowers throughout the real world. Now we’re taking our green thumbs—and hopefully yours—to the Second Life world.”

Join those of us, voting with our attention on Intel’s island. If the cause is not enough, every sunflower you plant, enters you into a Sweepstakes to win a new Gateway laptop. You can find out more at Counting Sheep.

Also check out Nexeus Fatale’s take on the promotion.

Just as I am packing up my place in Brooklyn for a big move out west (to Manhattan), Brooklyn Is Watching has popped onto my radar. Brooklyn Is Watching is a cross-reality art exhibit being shown at Jack The Pelican in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I have not had a chance to see it in person at Jack The Pelican but it appears to be very similar to the Destroy Television art show at the Lit Lounge last year. I’m a big fan of crossing, unifying and smashing the realities around us. Check out the Brooklyn is Watching site for more.

GayWired.Com writes about The L Word in Second Life for their first installment of Lesbian Gaming. I don’t usually reblog articles about Electric Sheep projects but this article captures the core of what we were trying to do when we designed the project. Second Life’s biggest strength is in communities. When Showtime asked for our opinions about which show they should do a Second Life project around I answered with one question…. “What show has the strongest Internet community?” Dunbar’s number shows that strong communities are small (150 people). When they begin to grow bigger than 150, they often splinter into a number of sub-communities, often with the same core values and interest. In this case… The L Word and a lifestyle choice. From the article:

So far The L Word in Second Life experiment seems to be working. What was at first just a pretty, but empty corner of the game is now populated by a growing crowd of virtual visitors. Events at the L Word dance club and ampitheater are increasingly packed—and during a live concert or a celebrity visit, the island is now so overloaded that sometimes you can spend half an hour just trying to get in. Players that only weeks ago trotted around in horrid spiky newbie hair and flat, oddly colored skins are now evolving slowly into sexy, L-Word-esque butch and femme divas. Strangers who shyly shouted “Hi” as they crash-landed into the island are now laughing over virtual coffee with new friends, creating and hosting their own events, and exploring the realms of virtual love.

One of the most delightful aspects of The L Word in Second Life is the sheer diversity of avatar looks among the ladies who attend events. Unlike many locations in SL, The L Word island plays host to female avatars of all shapes, sizes and styles—instead of being dominated purely by Barbie-doll types with cleavage ready to explode out onto the floor at any moment. Though, of course, most of The L Word girls aren’t going to object to a bit of curvaceous booty swaying over the dance floor in a tight-cut gown or two (we love you femmes!).

For those looking for fun gals to hang out with in game, groups like The Lesbian Mafia (several members are featured in the images in this article) have sprung up for players interested in socializing with like minded folks. Mafia members (women only) gather to play Russian roulette, mud wrestle, go bowling, play virtual poker, dance—and whatever else the girls happen to feel like doing. The Mafia has even built its own headquarters for events and hanging out. The Mafia has hundreds of members and continues to grow rapidly—and it is only one of several groups to spin up out of The L Word in Second Life phenom.

I recently read Cory Ondrejka’s paper titled Collapsing Geography Second Life, Innovation, and the Future of National Power from the Summer 2007 issue of MIT’s Innovations journal. I read it twice and think it is thought provoking and brilliant. I put this paper on my list of must-read papers for anyone interested in the Metaverse. Second Life still has a long way to go before it becomes a true open global Metaverse technology, but corporations and residents are prototyping the Metaverse’s applications within Second Life.

The paper has a heavy focus on innovation, real-time collaboration and the implications of shattering the constraints of geography. It strikes a good balance between current practices and big vision. It is also full of great citations useful to anyone working in this space. For example:

“The pseudonymity of virtual worlds makes it even easier to ask questions. This was demonstrated at Harvard’s “CyberOne” law class, where students were given the choice of attending class in the real or virtual world.[101] When students began preferentially attending the virtual classroom, the professors surveyed them. They discovered even incredibly gifted students preferred asking questions in a virtual environment. [102]”

Another favorite passages of mine, full of useful citations:

“People are more likely to trust interactions with avatars [82] than less embodied forms.[83] This is an important idea, for it means that systems emerging within virtual worlds can generate more influence between members than similar systems created on the web.[84] An outcome of this trust advantage can be seen in early research around changing opinions through virtual collaboration.[85 ] In particular, evidence suggests that opinion change between collaborating avatars mimics opinion change seen in real-world exchange programs.[86] ”

Utility aside, I found the sections on innovation and how virtual worlds can help the process of innovation to be thought-provoking. While Cory used examples from the Second Life resident population, I immediately started thinking of ways for large organizations to take advantage of virtual worlds for innovation. I hope to blog more about that in the coming weeks. I’ll leave you with a short peak at what is inside and encourage you to give the paper a read for yourself.

“FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION… IT IS A REQUIREMENT

Entrepreneurs fail early and fail often. Any study of successful inventions or businesses describes the missteps along the way to success.[70] Whether a creator is able to recover and learn from these mistakes is the critical question. There are costs related to risk and failure, but virtual worlds provide several methods of reducing them.

Two have already been discussed: pseudonymity and the need for vastly less investment capital than in the real world. For both of these, less activation energy is required to cross the chasm from idea to execution. When inspiration strikes within a virtual world, all the necessary tools are available for immediate exploration. No factories need be built, no inventory chain created. Instead, ideas are able to flow directly into practice.

Of course, many of those ideas will not succeed. That is OK! Attempts at innovation will be full of dead ends, missteps, and bad ideas. Unfortunately, innovation is generally not spoken about as a random walk. Instead,focus shifts to innovation being tied to people,spending money,or some shortage of ideas.[71]“

Citations mentioned above:

71. Supra note 64.

72.“Structural Holes versus Network Closure as Social Capital,”Ronald Burt,available online, last visited 2 September 2007.

101.“Interview: Harvard’s Rebecca Nesson discusses teaching in Second Life,”Ian Lamont,available online, last visited 2 September 2007.

102.“At Law School,‘Second Life’in the Cards,and the Course Catalog”,available online, last visited 6 January 2007.

82.“Being Real, ”Judith Donath, available online, last visited 2 September 2007.

83.“Being There Together and the Future ofConnected Presence,”Ralph Schroeder,available online, last visited 2 September 2007.

84.“Social Influence within Immersive Virtual Environments,”James Blascovich,Social Life of Avatars,Ralph Schroeder (editor),Springer,2002.

85.“Video Game World Gives Peace a Chance,”Mike Musgrove,available online, last visited 2 September 2007.

86.“Playing Along for Global Understanding,”Carl Marziali,available online, last visited 2 September 2007.

The first version of the OnRez Viewer, which was released around the CSI:NY Virtual Experience, was purposely CSI:NY centric. The splash page showed CSI:NY branding and the pop-up web page showed you current events regarding the CSI:NY Virtual Experience. The Electric Sheep Company has recently released a general purpose OnRez Viewer. One of the differences from the original version is a featured called “The Loop”.

The Loop is a web page formatted for the OnRez viewer that acts as a guide to Second Life. Second Life is such a large place these days, sometimes it seems difficult to find great content. The Loop highlights some of the great content and experiences within SL.

The Loop is not just for the OnRez Viewer. You can check it out in any browser and subscribe to the RSS feed. Do you have great content you think should be featured in The Loop? Drop us a line here.

I love street art. I have been reading Marc Schiller’s Wooster Collective long before I had met him. New York based artist, WK, is one of the many talented artists that have been featured on the Wooster Collective.

I was pleased to come across this post titled, Virtual WK, this week. An astute Wooster Collective reader submitted the following:

“so i hurt my knee a few months ago and i couldnt do much other than get on the dot com. i saw second life in an episode of CSI and decided to check it out after my lady showed me it was actually real. well the other night i was wandering around this place called midian city and looked over to one of the walls.

low and behold, wk interact.”

I love when my various interests come together like that.

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The Electric Sheep Company creates Web-enabled social and virtual world experiences. This blog is written by many members of our team, and contains a mixture of corporate messages and individual opinion pieces. To learn more about ESC, please visit our website.