Newt and the Naked Avatar, Virtual World Video Search and other ditties.

Wait a second, I’ll get to the naked lass in a second.

BBC aired a program entitled The Money Programme in early June of this year that focused on virtual worlds including Second Life and Lord of the Rings Online. The show was broadcast on traditional TV in the UK and within Second Life.

Now, that’s it over, where do I find it? Are there business plans yet for virtual world video search engines? Have you seen a search engine that recalls video on second life and puts you into that world? Virtual Video Youtube?

How far will this go into the real world of persuasion and influence?

GamePolitics.com reports on the political of gaming, and includes politics in games. The Politico site sticks mainly to politics but anything goes. GamePolitics.com commented…

"How important is it for a candidate to maintain a presence in Second Life? Not very, according to several presidential campaign strategists. Website Politico spoke with senior officials from the campaigns of Republicans Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani at a recent forum on new media. Also present were advisers to Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

While acknowledging the importance of web-based campaigning and the emerging potential for text messaging to reach potential voters, the strategists were less sanguine about the political benefits of Second Life: The panelists also doubted the usefulness, for now, of campaigning in the online universe Second Life, in which some candidates have virtual campaign offices."

Time will tell. An intriguing question, one would wonder is how the campaign laws will treat virtual donations if they happen to be converted to cold cash?

(GamePolitics.com - an interesting site for breaking video gaming and virtual world news. A headline for a recent article screamed, "Newt Gingrich Speaks in Second Life, Gets Heckled, Greeted by Naked Female Avatar" It's worth a trip to gamepolitics.com to see how they are covering a virtual news story. About 50 avatars were attending, complete with protesters. Those who were along for the get together are quick to mention that Gingrich's figure was approached by a "lovely" young figure, " who arrived moments before her clothes did."

YouTube link courtesy of Game Politics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UbADZklwe0
(This is Newt in real life with the screen behind him in Second Life live. The lass does not seem to be visually present on this clip. I'm a bit surprised she hasn't put out a press release.)

Best Regards,
Peg

PS A colleague commented to me, "How about trading politicians like we trade football players. A politician trades countries, takes up his position in a virtual world, and off he goes."

Virtual Video Worlds or Video in Virtual Worlds, Second Life and Streaming, TBS hops about the broadcast migration.

TBS announced they are developing new virtual worlds that will include embedded video. Their partner in creation is Atlanta based Kaneva, who create components of video games and virtual worlds. The Hollywood Reporter noted that "The sites will have embedded video players with streaming content as well as social networking and 3-D capabilities." and likely will involve the company's non animated properties like TBS and Court TV. Noted was the fact that Warner Brothers (Time Warner) is building virtual worlds with cartoon characters. Disney (new owner of Club Penguin) and CBS have a site in Second Life. MTV offers several virtual world connections based on different programming.

Next Post...Newt and the Naked Avatar...and other virtual world ditties.

See you on the Net!
Peggy

Live Streaming Companies Funded - Different or the Same? Lifecasting? Justin.tv plus 20 or 30 others....

Justin.TV has received funding for their Lifecasting website. (Paid Content Rafat Ali mentioned that this was an "actual live streaming service." (Actual?)

If you've been into streaming media, webcasting, broadcasting on the net, downloading for 10 years, like many of us here on this webcasting membership, you may be looking for that differentiation between the different websites of this type and who has the edge today?

What do you see differing from the previous websites that did this prior to the dot com blast, and do you see innovations worth noting? How many of these sites can the marketplace support and offer a return to investors? (We do have technological improvements, bandwidth increases, and a larger community aware and using audio and video, but where's the edge?)

As many of you know - you'll always find good news blurbs and stories from paidcontent.org from Rafat and his reporters. Here's the news clip today mentioning a couple of other "live video sites" or webcasting or streaming media locations.

"Justin. TV, the website for the “lifecasting” phenomena of sorts, is now relaunching as an actual live streaming service, allowing any user to broadcast live video for free. It has entered a crowded files with the likes of Paltalk, Stickcam, Operator911, Mogulus, Kyte.tv, and many others. The company has also raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Alsop Louie Partners. The site launched in October last year where founder Justin Kan had a webcam attached to his cap and the video was streamed live on the website. It developed into a community of sorts, and the new service hopes to replicate it for others."


Will it succeed and Why?

See you on the Net,
Peg