New World Notes

My Favorite NWN Analysis/Editorial Posts From 2009

• If Reuters Left Second Life for Lack of Important Stories, Why Did They Miss So Many When They Were Here?
• What New York Times Magazine Gets About Second Life (That Others Often Don't)
• Second Life's Killer App is a Platform For Binding Weak Ties, Says Grace
• Second Life Is What Twitter Isn't: Unique, Sticky, Profitable
• Why a Second Life Achievement System Would Work
• Stat Shock: Just 133K Second Life Users Responsible For Nearly 90% Total Monthly SL User Hours!
• Only Mass Adoption of Second Life Will Best Address All SL's Major Challenges -- And How to Make it So
• Five Facts About Second Life the BBC Doesn't Understand

Ten Favorite 2009 NWN Posts on Content Creation, Controversy, Community

Ten of my favorite 2009 New World Notes posts on the content, controversies, and communities which make Second Life real:

• Disputed Territory: War in Gaza Provokes Protest (And Conversation) In Second Life Israel
• Has Bloodlines Become Second Life's Next Tringo? 69,000 Players, Mid Six Figure US$ Revenue Suggests So
• Chicken Run: Second Life Home To Estimated 100K+ Artificial Life Chickens That Breed, Hatch, Learn, Die
• Aimee Logs Into Second Life... From Within Second Life!
• SL Blogger Challenge: Show Me the Economic Effects of Virtual Content Theft
• Mr. Whybrow Builds AT-AT Walker That Walks With Physics
• Breast Enhancement: Open Source SL Viewer Adds Avatar Breast Physics, Attracting Controversy, 50K Downloads
• Ophelia's Gaze: Bruised Avatar Skins -- Stylish, Or Sexist?
• Wandering Hal: Autonomous AI Bot Randomly Explores Second Life, Offers Surreal Conversation
• Ophelia's Gaze: 5 Signs of Low-Quality Second Life Fashion

Five More Favorite Second Life Personality Posts From 2009

Last week I mentioned my five favorite profiles of Second Life users from 2009, here's five more that I also loved:

• Ophelia's Gaze: Three Things I've Learned From My Mom and Dad's Second Life
• A Mixed Reality Marriage (With Metaverse Mom)
• Who is Grace McDunnough (Besides a Great and Innovative Musician Who Only Performs in Second Life)?
• A Green Lantern In Africa: A Story of Mixed Reality Activism
• Second Life Couple Have Real Life Baby, Name Him "Linden"
• Willow's Playlist: Is Skye Galaxy Destined to Become Second Life's First Breakout Popstar?

Second Life 2009 Recap: Numbers, Money, Policy, and Company Announcement Highlights

For Second Life, 2009 was a year of interim. With the departure of Robin Harper and the resignation of Philip Rosedale, all the founding executive members of Linden Lab have left the company. (Indeed, I believe the only Linden from the pre-launch days still regularly involved in Second Life on a public basis is, well, me.) In their wake, a new Linden team slowly but steadily instituted new regulations, policies, and strategies meant to make Second Life more inviting to real world organizations and consumers beyond the Burning Man era. In 2009, we just saw glimpses and beginnings of those changes, which strongly suggests they'll come to fruition this year. First up (perhaps): the new, greatly-revamped Second Life viewer, which was promised to arrive "by 2010", but that deadline passed, hopefully hitting very soon. For now, the end result is a company that remains profitable, but a world that has hit another growth plateau, as if the market is waiting to see what comes next.

That said, here's a look at the business side of Second Life from the year that was:

FEBRUARY '09

• Robin Leaves: Last of the Founding Linden Execs Quits; Remaining Mgmt. Sparse on SL/Virtual World Experience

MARCH '09

• Amsterdammed: Linden Lab to Segregate "Adult" Content in Second Life to Red Light Continent (Real Life ID Required)
• Sexed Down: Second Life's Latest Release Candidate Hides "Adult" Content From Unverified Users

APRIL '09

• Newsfeed: Taser's Lawsuit Against Linden Lab Sign Of Things To Come
• New World Newsfeed: Second Life's Growth Plateau Ends
• Enforcers of Dune: Frank Herbert Estate Targets Dune Roleplayers In Second Life

MAY '09

• New World Newsfeed: Second Life Concurrency Competitive With Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike
• The New Second Life: Lindens Announce Dramatically Improved Viewer and Website for 2009; Interactive, Dynamic Web Media in SL by 2010 <<== THEN WHERE IS IT?