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Author Topic: The TOS Is Falling! Or Not.  (Read 34144 times)
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on: June 04, 2007, 12:36:37 AM

The TOS Is Falling!  Or Not.

Submitted by CmdrSlack.
-
Various sites are reporting that there has been a decision in the latest (and most publicized) lawsuit against Linden Labs. For those who aren’t in the loop, Linden Labs is the creator of Second Life, a virtual world client known around these parts for its contingent of furries and other perverts. The lawsuit, Bragg v. Linden Lab, et. al., was filed by a Pennsylvania attorney who was banned from the service for exploiting SL’s web server to purchase virtual land at a highly discounted price. His suit alleged that the Second Life Terms of Service were unconscionable at best and that by freezing and ultimately banning his account, Linden Lab was in breach of its contract with him. The original complaint, as filed in Chester County, PA, is available here (warning: PDF).

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Trippy
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Reply #1 on: June 04, 2007, 01:26:03 AM

To clarify, Linden Research and Philip Rosedale, the CEO of Linden, have publically and repeatedly said that players own the virtual property that they buy or create in the game. These public statements are in conflict with their TOS and the actions they took against Marc Bragg for abusing their land auction system, which included seizing all his land (including the land he had bought legitimately) without recompensation and freezing his account which included a certain amount of money that he could not withdraw. Hence the lawsuit by Marc Bragg (who also happens to be a lawyer) accusing Linden of defrauding him of his property, both real and virtual.
Riggswolfe
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Reply #2 on: June 04, 2007, 06:08:11 AM

I'm very torn about this. On the one hand, this guy sounds like a scumbag who was an exploiter. Worse, he was an exploiter in a "game" where real money can get involved.

But, what they did was draconian. I think their best argument would be "it's a virtual world and we're the virtual federal government. What he did was the equivalent of a real life gangster making illegal real estate bills. So we seized his property and put him in lockup (banned his account)"

"We live in a country, where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one fucking bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! Explain it to me, God!" - Denis Leary summing up my feelings about the nature of the universe.
MrHat
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Reply #3 on: June 04, 2007, 07:22:04 AM

I'm very torn about this. On the one hand, this guy sounds like a scumbag who was an exploiter. Worse, he was an exploiter in a "game" where real money can get involved.

But, what they did was draconian. I think their best argument would be "it's a virtual world and we're the virtual federal government. What he did was the equivalent of a real life gangster making illegal real estate bills. So we seized his property and put him in lockup (banned his account)"


Ya, but since real U.S. money is involved, why open the door to Gov'n police-ing our precious worlds?
Cyndre
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Reply #4 on: June 04, 2007, 08:46:46 AM

Second Life again places the MMO industry in jeopardy with questionable business practices.   Just what this industry needed...   federal judges ruling on anything related to gaming property rights, TOS disputes, and a companies ability/ right to police their game.

This may not spill over beyond their game, but precedents that are set, will be used by every scumbag farming/ spamming outfit from now until eternity.

CharlieMopps
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Reply #5 on: June 04, 2007, 09:00:00 AM

Well, the real issue is LLs attempts to equate virtual goods with real money. That sort of thing is just bound to end up in front of the supreme court. What happens when a bug destroys and Item you paid $100 for? How could they ever shut down a server? What if LL goes out of business? Are land-owners in-game owed money? What if a Dev owns land on his server, but knows an upcoming patch will increase the number of available plots on the server... So he sells off all his land on ebay prior to the patch. Is that insider trading? It's all very hairy, and if I were an MMO company I would stay as far away from Real Money=Virtual money as possible
CmdrSlack
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Reply #6 on: June 04, 2007, 09:59:58 AM

Oddly enough, another part of the SL TOS indicates that none of your virtual stuff has any actual value.  The current motion order doesn't address that specific clause, but following the logic the court used in invalidating the arbitration clause, it's arguable that they'd do the same for that clause.  My guess is that if this case goes forward and doesn't settle, we'll see that clause tested as well.  The way it looks right now, given LL's campaign of "make money in SL," they're going to be hard pressed to justify that.  Granted, if the business realities exception was argued, it may save them...any sort of monetized virtual world would be subject to software/hardware failures.  Expecting them to then indemnify everyone for the money paid into the service would be pretty harsh from their perspective.  I still think it's a non-winner for them, but it's possible, I guess.

I traded in my fun blog for several legal blogs. Or, "blawgs," as the cutesy attorney blawgosphere likes to call 'em.
Venkman
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Reply #7 on: June 04, 2007, 01:51:17 PM

LL only claims you can make money in SL, not that the virtual goods are worth money. It's why some people think it's a borderline Ponzi scheme. In reality, it's just more proof that anything is for sale.

As to this case, I'm just pissed I can't root for anyone. I mean, come on, PR leaching self-inflated company vs exploiting lawyer?! My gods, read that again: "exploiting lawyer". It's so self-redundant it's almost a singularity.

(oh, err, no offense Slack ;) )
CmdrSlack
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Reply #8 on: June 04, 2007, 03:36:48 PM

Right, but you make money via your virtual stuff being worth something.  Or at least, via extracting value from your worthless virtual stuff.  Since I make older, more experienced attorneys laugh with my theories on things like unconscionability, I'd say that their public representations via their PR moves and Philip Rosedale bar them from asserting that the virtual stuff has no value.  The fancy term is "estoppel" and most lawyers (seem to) think nobody but law students and bar exam takers think about it.


I traded in my fun blog for several legal blogs. Or, "blawgs," as the cutesy attorney blawgosphere likes to call 'em.
CharlieMopps
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Reply #9 on: June 05, 2007, 09:30:16 AM

I dunno... I still think this sort of thing will be a really big deal in the future. It's inevitable that MMO's (or some future incarnation of MMOs) will be the dominate source of entertainment within the next 50 to 100 years. When that happens, and it's preferable to own a virtual boat to a real boat, people are going to start demanding a "bill of rights" of sorts. I think I will see it within my lifetime. What if a "Microsoft" of MMO's develops? And getting banned from their network means you lose access to everyone you know? Or maybe even your job? If I was banned from using MS Netmeeting, I'd be in serious trouble at work...
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Reply #10 on: June 05, 2007, 10:37:27 AM

If you mean that everything will be done in some kind of metaverse, that'd be different than what we have now.  What we have now are paid services that have rather draconian license agreements for accessing them. As more business is done electronically and the risks for the public and society as a whole increase, we'll likely see more liability attributed to software developers. In the case of some kind of metaverse where everything takes place, my sense is that you'll simply have a system like the internet is now -- if you can purchase access, you're good. I highly doubt that one MMO title will ever rise to that level. Any true metaverse will require that there be an open standard (like HTML/XML) to which everyone adheres.

Right now, none of your crap from virtual world A is portable to virtual world B (no matter what Anshe Chung is trying to do with cross-investing between SL nad Project Entropia). There are no open standards for virtual world clients and there is no effective transport between them. If being banned from WoW MCXLIV means that you lose your job, I certainly hope it is because you work for Blizzard. Otherwise, I just don't see a single game platform replacing what is essentially a semi-public utility like the Internet.

Player "bills of rights" are nifty concepts, but I don't think they're that realistic. As long as proprietary game servers exist, the providers of those services should rightfully maintain absolute control over them. The last thing the magic circle crowd would want is government involvement in friggin' games. Until we're all permanently plugged into some virtual world network while soaking in nutrient baths, I don't think it's going to be the issue that some make it out to be.

I traded in my fun blog for several legal blogs. Or, "blawgs," as the cutesy attorney blawgosphere likes to call 'em.
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Reply #11 on: June 07, 2007, 10:19:59 AM

[mole]

Seems like a good time to bring up IBM's work on metaverses, and specifically their Move from SL to Torque.

[/mole]

PS: I would have brought this up for discussion last month, but the whole Sigil thing and Raph's interview would have eclisped it!

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Chimpy
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Reply #12 on: June 07, 2007, 12:07:58 PM

[mole]

Seems like a good time to bring up IBM's work on metaverses, and specifically their Move from SL to Torque.

[/mole]

PS: I would have brought this up for discussion last month, but the whole Sigil thing and Raph's interview would have eclisped it!

The guy who wrote that needs to go back and proofread for grammar and punctuation. 2 glaring errors in the first 4 sentences  undecided

'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
Der Helm
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Reply #13 on: June 08, 2007, 04:56:44 AM


The guy who wrote that needs to go back and proofread for grammar and punctuation. 2 glaring errors in the first 4 sentences  undecided

I am not someone who picks on other peoples grammer (neither should I :-D) but I could not get past the first sentence.

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Harlequin101
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Reply #14 on: June 10, 2007, 08:53:10 AM

Does anyone know how EULAs work for international customers?

I live in Sweden, and as far as I have found out the EULA (example: EQ2) isnt binding in any way.
As long as the company agrees to provide a service for me (the subsciption) while I live here in
Sweden they are to conform to Swedish/EU law and can just forget the whole buisness of me
agreeing to take up any issues with them in CA or anywhere else they managed to have laws
re-written to suit them.

In short, they can forget the whole EULA and start studying swedish consumer law if they want to
try to ban me or cut off the service/change the service as long as they sell the product here
(such as game boxes). The customers rights here overrides any claim they have in an EULA since
the national law > made-up legal mumbo jumbo written in the US.
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Reply #15 on: June 10, 2007, 09:57:19 AM

Does anyone know how EULAs work for international customers?

I live in Sweden, and as far as I have found out the EULA (example: EQ2) isnt binding in any way.
As long as the company agrees to provide a service for me (the subsciption) while I live here in
Sweden they are to conform to Swedish/EU law and can just forget the whole buisness of me
agreeing to take up any issues with them in CA or anywhere else they managed to have laws
re-written to suit them.

In short, they can forget the whole EULA and start studying swedish consumer law if they want to
try to ban me or cut off the service/change the service as long as they sell the product here
(such as game boxes). The customers rights here overrides any claim they have in an EULA since
the national law > made-up legal mumbo jumbo written in the US.

I don't think that any local law would come down anywhere but with the company in 99% of the ban/change of service cases.

You are paying to use assets on their hardware which they have the right to turn off at any point. The most you will get in your favor is a ruling that they are required to pro-rate a refund of any time you have paid for that you are no longer allowed to use.


'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
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Reply #16 on: June 10, 2007, 08:45:05 PM


The guy who wrote that needs to go back and proofread for grammar and punctuation. 2 glaring errors in the first 4 sentences  undecided

I am not someone who picks on other peoples grammer (neither should I :-D) but I could not get past the first sentence.

Uhh, guys, that is a personal blog--give the guy a break :P

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Harlequin101
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Reply #17 on: June 10, 2007, 11:40:16 PM

Does anyone know how EULAs work for international customers?

I live in Sweden, and as far as I have found out the EULA (example: EQ2) isnt binding in any way.
As long as the company agrees to provide a service for me (the subsciption) while I live here in
Sweden they are to conform to Swedish/EU law and can just forget the whole buisness of me
agreeing to take up any issues with them in CA or anywhere else they managed to have laws
re-written to suit them.

In short, they can forget the whole EULA and start studying swedish consumer law if they want to
try to ban me or cut off the service/change the service as long as they sell the product here
(such as game boxes). The customers rights here overrides any claim they have in an EULA since
the national law > made-up legal mumbo jumbo written in the US.

I don't think that any local law would come down anywhere but with the company in 99% of the ban/change of service cases.

You are paying to use assets on their hardware which they have the right to turn off at any point. The most you will get in your favor is a ruling that they are required to pro-rate a refund of any time you have paid for that you are no longer allowed to use.



Actually they are providing a service to me, sold in this country and thereby are forced to follow the law regarding my rights as a subscriber and customer. That their hardware is located on the dark side of the moon is beside the question. As long as they sell the game itself here in a box they are bound by this. If they only sell downloads it is another thing. At least this is the version Ive been given by friends who work with legal stuff.

Anyone know if an EULA have actually been tried outside the US for example?
Samwise
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Reply #18 on: June 11, 2007, 10:47:29 AM

The box might be sold to you in some physical form in your country, but the subscription (past the free month or whatever that came with the box) and associated services are not.  So if that's the criteria, I'm pretty sure you're still borked as far as your account goes.  (According to your legal friends Swedish law still protects your box, though.  For whatever that's worth.)

(edit) Also, Second Life (the subject of the original article) is not sold in a box as far as I know.  It's all downloaded.

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CharlieMopps
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Reply #19 on: June 12, 2007, 09:58:31 AM

But, at the same time, Gambling via the internet is still illegal in areas where gambling is illegal... even if the content provider is in another country. Didn't they just pass a law regarding that?

What about buying Plat in EQ2 with real money on the exchange server... then blowing it all on the Goblin lotto machine they have? Or, winning a bunch and selling it for profit on the exchange servers... How long can stuff like that go under the radar before the justice department catches on? Isn't getting a rare Fabled drop and then selling it for cash just like winning at slots? I don't really see how its all that different.
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Reply #20 on: June 12, 2007, 11:23:44 AM

Slots require less camping.

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Reply #21 on: June 12, 2007, 12:35:03 PM

But, at the same time, Gambling via the internet is still illegal in areas where gambling is illegal... even if the content provider is in another country. Didn't they just pass a law regarding that?

What about buying Plat in EQ2 with real money on the exchange server... then blowing it all on the Goblin lotto machine they have? Or, winning a bunch and selling it for profit on the exchange servers... How long can stuff like that go under the radar before the justice department catches on? Isn't getting a rare Fabled drop and then selling it for cash just like winning at slots? I don't really see how its all that different.

They had to go around the whole "who's law applies" thing and make the law such that it was illegal for credit card companies to electronically deliver or accept money from gambling sites if the owner of the credit card resided in the US, instead of trying to declaim internet gambling itself as illegal.

Smart move actually, since there was no precedent and valid arguments both ways for where the gambling actually occurs, while it's obvious where the address of a particular person lives.

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Yegolev
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Reply #22 on: June 12, 2007, 02:25:28 PM

Seems like a good time to bring up IBM's work on metaverses, and specifically their Move from SL to Torque.

This is interesting and I look forward to the day that Torque is borged into Lotus Notes.

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Murgos
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Reply #23 on: June 13, 2007, 05:48:22 AM

But, at the same time, Gambling via the internet is still illegal in areas where gambling is illegal... even if the content provider is in another country. Didn't they just pass a law regarding that?

What about buying Plat in EQ2 with real money on the exchange server... then blowing it all on the Goblin lotto machine they have? Or, winning a bunch and selling it for profit on the exchange servers... How long can stuff like that go under the radar before the justice department catches on? Isn't getting a rare Fabled drop and then selling it for cash just like winning at slots? I don't really see how its all that different.

They had to go around the whole "who's law applies" thing and make the law such that it was illegal for credit card companies to electronically deliver or accept money from gambling sites if the owner of the credit card resided in the US, instead of trying to declaim internet gambling itself as illegal.

Smart move actually, since there was no precedent and valid arguments both ways for where the gambling actually occurs, while it's obvious where the address of a particular person lives.

I think his question more fundamentally asks how do you determine what a gambling site is?  My credit card company still accepts charges from Sony even though I can gold with cash, gamble and win gold in game and then sell that gold for cash.  So, is EQ2 a gambling site?

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Merusk
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Reply #24 on: June 13, 2007, 02:44:17 PM

So, is EQ2 a gambling site?

Were someone to point this out to the proper authorities, they might just classify it as such.

Otherwise, there's a HUGE loophole for poker & gambling sites right there.  "You're not using USD.. you're using plinko chips that you can sell to other players!"

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DraconianOne
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Reply #25 on: June 14, 2007, 06:05:17 AM

This is interesting and I look forward to the day that Torque is borged into Lotus Notes.

Is that "borged" as in "assimilated" or "borged" as in "making a square peg fit into a round hole"?

Wasn't really paying attention to any of this until you said this.  The whole concept of things like SL is to me what MySpace and SMS texting is to others.  I just don't get it.  While I finally got my head around why a company might be keen to encourage its employess to keep blogs and wikis and profile pages because of social networking and knowledge sharing (thanks to an IBM seminar day I attended not so long ago), I still don't get the SL 3D virtual world model in terms of business applications.  It still strikes me as gimmicky. 

A point can be MOOT. MUTE is more along the lines of what you should be. - WayAbvPar
Chimpy
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Reply #26 on: June 14, 2007, 12:11:00 PM

This is interesting and I look forward to the day that Torque is borged into Lotus Notes.

Is that "borged" as in "assimilated" or "borged" as in "making a square peg fit into a round hole"?

Wasn't really paying attention to any of this until you said this.  The whole concept of things like SL is to me what MySpace and SMS texting is to others.  I just don't get it.  While I finally got my head around why a company might be keen to encourage its employess to keep blogs and wikis and profile pages because of social networking and knowledge sharing (thanks to an IBM seminar day I attended not so long ago), I still don't get the SL 3D virtual world model in terms of business applications.  It still strikes me as gimmicky. 

It is somewhat of a gimmick, even the guys doing the work at IBM would probably tell you that. The thing about this gimmick is that IBM especially is trying to find a way to make people who are generally uncomfortable dealing with the 'modern' communications tools of email, IM, SMS and such things comfortable in some form of electronic communication. There still are people who work more effectively in an environment where they interact with people "face to face". Their hope is to create a place with the advantages of both worlds combined.

'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
DraconianOne
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Reply #27 on: June 14, 2007, 02:36:16 PM

There still are people who work more effectively in an environment where they interact with people "face to face".

Video conferencing 4tw.

IBM are becoming seriously guilty of trying to hijack any passing bandwagon at the moment.  Don't get me wrong, I think some of what they're doing in terms of IM and advances in other areas of collaborative software is great but I nearly walked out of the room in disgust when I found out that they'd rebranded "Quickplace" as "Quickr".  I felt like I was Macready watching a decapitated human head grow spider legs and walk away.  If only I'd had a flamethrower to hand!

I'm glad it's not just me who feels the whole SL thing is a little gimmicky though.

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Reply #28 on: June 14, 2007, 02:43:08 PM

There still are people who work more effectively in an environment where they interact with people "face to face".

Video conferencing 4tw.

IBM are becoming seriously guilty of trying to hijack any passing bandwagon at the moment.  Don't get me wrong, I think some of what they're doing in terms of IM and advances in other areas of collaborative software is great but I nearly walked out of the room in disgust when I found out that they'd rebranded "Quickplace" as "Quickr".  I felt like I was Macready watching a decapitated human head grow spider legs and walk away.  If only I'd had a flamethrower to hand!

I'm glad it's not just me who feels the whole SL thing is a little gimmicky though.

I'm of mixxed minds here--I think the potential is mindboggling, but currently implementations are completely gimmicky.

By nature, human beings are 3-dimensional entities, and technology still presents information 2D (or in many cases 1D--text for example). Integration of our current information presentation technologies into a 3D "holding medium" and the flexibilities that allows the technology in the future could be pretty freaking spectacular.

I've got most of the IBM team coming up for a boot camp next week, and I'll try to get the skinny on their long term plans, and let you guys know what I can (that's not :NDA: )

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Reply #29 on: June 14, 2007, 03:05:46 PM

Second Life IS gimmicky, in that the tech to do what they want is really only in the nascent stages right now. And their implementation is horribly gimpy, with way too much lag, primitive graphics and obtuse interface to reach critical mass in the mass market.

But it's a start.

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Reply #30 on: June 14, 2007, 04:19:17 PM

There are information processing products on the market (some of which cost SERIOUS bucks) designed to give CEO's "dashboard indicators" of the progress and state of their companies--spreadsheets, balance reports, sales numbers, and hundreds of other tidbits all go into "at a glance" GUI's on a desktop that the CEO can read to get a feel for what's up and look for trouble spots.

Once we get three or four (or more) generations into integrating the tools of the "company peons" into a visualization medium that anyone can (relatively) intuitively view, in 3D, and make that information not only available to many, but also have this medium used as the primary communications toolset for the company itself, it's going to be a pretty interesting way to do business...and I think (hope?) that's what IBM is actually looking at here long term.

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DraconianOne
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Reply #31 on: June 15, 2007, 02:54:33 AM

There are information processing products on the market (some of which cost SERIOUS bucks) designed to give CEO's "dashboard indicators" of the progress and state of their companies--spreadsheets, balance reports, sales numbers, and hundreds of other tidbits all go into "at a glance" GUI's on a desktop that the CEO can read to get a feel for what's up and look for trouble spots.

Once we get three or four (or more) generations into integrating the tools of the "company peons" into a visualization medium that anyone can (relatively) intuitively view, in 3D, and make that information not only available to many, but also have this medium used as the primary communications toolset for the company itself, it's going to be a pretty interesting way to do business...and I think (hope?) that's what IBM is actually looking at here long term.

I think they are.  I certainly get that impression from the latest incarnation of Lotus products.  (This is the point where I say that I'm a freelance Lotus Notes consultant and this is the point where I duck to avoid the rotten veg and/or bricks being hurled my way).  It took me quite a while to get my head around the corporate application of social networking tools but I'm getting there slowly. 

Last night I had a chat about the potential of 3D "worlds" and yeah, I'm beginning to see it.  We considered the nature of a forum like this where you can see the names of people browsing the boards at the top/bottom of the screen but there's no easy way to initiate a conversation with them.  A 3D world can provide a more visual way of seeing people standing at a "noticeboard" or whatever and also a more immediate way of interacting with those people, allowing you to virtually meet others with similar interests as yourself. 

The downside is that I'm from the UK and we don't start conversations with strangers.  tongue

I've got most of the IBM team coming up for a boot camp next week, and I'll try to get the skinny on their long term plans, and let you guys know what I can (that's not :NDA: )

I'd be very interested in this.  Also be interested to know who you've got coming up! :D

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Reply #32 on: June 18, 2007, 11:55:46 PM

I know I say this everytime some bit of near-future tech strikes me as a little too gimmicky, but I really do get an early-nineties "Virtual reality is the future!" vibe here.  A three-dimensional virtual world is, in terms of business applications, just a chat client.  No more, and no less.  Not only in overall purpose, but likely in terms of interface.  At least to a much larger extent than people think.

You're at the noticeboard, and you need to get to the meeting hall for a virtual conference.  You're certainly not going to spend five minutes of company time walking or flying there.  You're going to bring up a drop-down menu (or whatever) so you can zap yourself there instantly.  And since we already have this menu of locations, why not list the number of avatars present at each one next to the name?  So now the average user is logging into the company's virtual world and what they end up looking at is...

Meeting Hall (12)
Noticeboard (7)
The Lab (2)
Brainstorming Club (6)
Human Resources (4)

Or as I like to call it, a bog-standard text chatroom selection interface.  And... I mean... have you guys ever played an MMO before?  You spend half your time staring at a little text chat box at the bottom of the screen, sorting through the reams of color-coded local chat, global chat, guild chat, party chat, and whispers that all are made neccessary by the fact that an avatar can only be in one place at a time, but may need to talk to others in many different places all at once.

Let me repeat that again:  An avatar can only be in one place at a time, but may need to talk to others in many different places all at once.  So now instead of employees sending faceless instant messages, you have employee avatars sending faceless tells.  Unless you disable tells and force them to meet up, at which point they get tired of trying to coordinate their virtual movements and  all log out to just use the phone instead.

And that guy who isn't too tech savvy?  The one who isn't quite comfortable with email and instant messages?  The only computer game he knows about is Solitaire, and his fucking brains will explode if you even try explaining the term "virtual world" to him.

"You're just a dick who quotes himself in his sig."  --  Schild
"Yeah, it's pretty awesome."  --  Me
Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474


Reply #33 on: June 19, 2007, 05:50:19 AM

Go to a lot of business meetings do you WUA?

Sometimes there just isn't a lot of reason to be there in person but calling in just doesn't get you that participation cred.  Plus it can be a pain in the but if you have to go to another plant on the campus or 10 or 15 minutes down to road just to nod off in the corner in case something comes up or they get around to some item your concerned with.

I could see virtually attending meetings as become a pretty standard practice.  We pretty much already do that what with screen sharing, and net meeting and conference calls and etc...

Log in, hit the menu drop down for 'conference room 4' and you're there.

"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
WindupAtheist
Army of One
Posts: 7028

Badicalthon


Reply #34 on: June 19, 2007, 03:52:13 PM

I could see virtually attending meetings as become a pretty standard practice.  We pretty much already do that what with screen sharing, and net meeting and conference calls and etc...

Explain how dicking around with avatars and virtual spaces offers an advantage over just putting everyone's face up on the screen, giving them voice chat, and letting them display media at will.

Quote
Log in, hit the menu drop down for 'conference room 4' and you're there.

Yeah, you're there reading a small text chat window while a large portion of the screen is pointlessly occupied by a display of avatars sitting in virtual chairs.  Useful.

The more I think about it, the more it sounds like just so much empty techie-masturbation for people who used to read a lot of cyberpunk novels and somehow think giving people avatars is the end-all and be-all of user interface.
« Last Edit: June 19, 2007, 03:59:25 PM by WindupAtheist »

"You're just a dick who quotes himself in his sig."  --  Schild
"Yeah, it's pretty awesome."  --  Me
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