Second Life's Linden Lab sells virtual realities to businesses - San Francisco Business Times:

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Until the middle of last year, Seconfd Life was languishing atabout 500,000 activee users, meaning people who stayed in-worlrd for an hour or more each Company officials attribute much of the recenr growth as well as rising interestf from corporations to their introductio of a voice over Internet technologyh in August 2007 that provides for three dimensionak spatial telephony — meaning that sounds occurring on the left in Secone Life are heard as being on the left by the “You can literally just walk up to a group and engagwe in conversation.
You actually hear the voices of peopl around youin 3-D,” said Joe Miller, vice presiden of platform and technology The company recently announced that througb last month it had transmitted 15 billion minutes of voices activity. “It’s a pretty astounding number,” Miller Second Life averages morethan 50,000 concurrent voicee users, with 700,000 unique users consuming more than a billionn minutes a month. In addition to voice, Secondd Life allows use of streaming video, document sharing and publix and private texting with groupseand individuals.
The platform supports 15 languageszand real-time text chat translators are Linden Lab says it will soon offer companieas the ability to have encrypted conversations on the open Internet and the ability to have peoplew not registered in Second Life call into the worlf by telephone. Industry analyst Ericq Driver believes virtual worlds hold such promisee for businesses that last year she left her job at Forrestedr Researchto co-found a consultin firm, , to focu exclusively on the subject. Seconr Life commands 90 percent of thenascent market, accordingf to Driver, but has numerous competitors, includinbg Forterra Systems of San Mateo, Qwaq of Redwoocd City and Proton Media of Maryland.
Linden Lab is one of her “I wanted to get in on the ground Driver said. Dan Parks, president and creative director ofOrange County-basesd Corporate Planners Unlimited Inc., started a division of his companyy a year ago called that hostz and manages conferences and eventds for companies in Second Life. Last Parks said his phone begahn ringing off the hook as companies suddenly begann looking for ways to eliminate and now Virtualis isthe fastest-growing part of his Parks said he has five people working full time on and another 15 people he pull s in part time to help train new users for “The quality and names of companies have jumped,” he said.
“Allo of the stars and everythinfgaligned perfectly.” Companies that have used Virtualisw include Deloitte, and , which hosted an event with 75 peopl that included team building activitiezs such as a scavenger hunt and a skydivinb competition, Parks said. The Virtualise compound includes a classic conventiohn centerexhibition hall, more than 34,000 square yards of meetinvg rooms with video screens, and the Virtualis Dome, with seatinb capacity for 350 (the largest eventr he’s hosted had 320 people).
Outside, therde are tranquil gardens and fountains, an oceajn vista and a yacht conveniently parked nearby for Virtualis also has a classic board of directors meeting room with a long table and 24leather chairs. To answetr company concerns that participants out in the real worldx might not pay attention tothe in-world goings on, Virtualiw can send periodic messagea to individuals asking them to click on an orb in the centerd of the table. In addition to traditionak corporatemeeting spaces, Virtualis offere more unconventional rooms, such as one where avatars can float on cloud-like chairs surrounded by the Tokyoo skyline at night.
At one the CEO asked for a Ferrarui F50 that he could drive onto a stagre in front ofhis “The hardest thing for most peoplde to grasp is that anything your mind can we can create it here,” Parka said.