Building Business on Second Life

This Monday, CBS Corp. invested in a virtual world content developer called Electric Sheep Co in hopes of expanding its reach beyond television sets in living rooms.  CBS will give about $7 million in financing for the developer, known for its success in creating 3-D spaces in online virtual worlds. 

   

CBS Interactive's president Quincy Smith said of the deal: "We believe that all these virtual worlds represent next generation communications platforms."  Electric Sheep's spokesman chimed in saying "We're helping [entertainment companies] bring their audiences into Second Life or other virtual worlds and then developing more entertainment experiences for that audience." 

Electric Sheep has many entertainment heavyweights among its client list: Major League Baseball, Yahoo Inc., Nissan, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment.  The president of Millions of Us--an Electric Sheep competitor--recently postulated that Second Life will be near-photo quality five years from now. 

This gives major media corporations a huge new arena in which to advertise.  Just last month, AOL launched an interactive "mall" called "AOL Pointe" on Second Life, in which users can buy clothes for their avatars and interact together in a typical mall-type setting.  CBS and AOL are on to something, seeing Second Life as the next step for the Web. 

Because Second Life comes equipped with tutorials to teach users how to interact and build and advertise, it is an attractive playground for consumers and corporations alike.  Perhaps this is where the Internet is migrating--it isn't crazy to think that, in a few years, maybe a decade, the Internet will no longer be two-dimensional, but three-dimensional, like a world in Second Life.

I'm wondering what this new 'corporatized' version of virtual worlds will portend for free speech.  Will each new world come with its own terms of service agreement?  It's likely.  And, if so, if a user violates the terms of service within corporate space, does the corporation have the right to remove the user, or does Second Life?  I wish we could get the creator of Second Life back to talk a little bit more about this now that we know more about the program.  My group is planning on creating a corporate-friendly space on Second Life (or a similar virtual world) for our project.  It'll be interesting to see if, after we're done with our project, it is similar to those soon to be implemented by other corporations.

Comments

[Cory Ondrejka]

Of course, nobody forces a user to spend time in a "corporate" space, nor do there appear to be company town-style dynamics at work?

So, what is your group going to do to make the space corporate friendly?

[Shani]

There are some unstated questions at the end of your blog that cut to the heart of many of the things that we have been discussing throughout this course; even once it is decided whether the contracted company or Second Life is the final word on regulation, does the law have a right to regulate further? Does the government, through statutory implementation? Even if the courts are able to regulate, or the government, which court system and which government will be allowed to trump all others? The idea of establishing alternative worlds online is truly a fascinating topic, but one that also brings with it a host of other concerns. One thing that is certain, however, is that the merger of the real- and online-worlds is only going to continue, and this connection is going to create legal and societal questions, many of which have not even been imagined yet.