Ask Namssor Daguerre why he started designing skin for Second Life and you'll get a straightforward answer: "I thought the avatars looked terrible!"
This desire to beautify the virtual race became Second Skin Labs, one of Second Life's premier skin producers and Beta Business Park tenant.
With business partner Cierrah Blair, Daguerre maintains a shop populated by male and female skins he creates from his database of more than 2,000 reference photographs. "I can combine features and create new skins from combining different ones. The database is constantly growing, and I look for good reference material on a regular basis."
Inc. Magazine asks business owners: "Should You Stake Your Claim In a Virtual World?" The author says that, while virtual worlds like Second Life have lost some ground to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, they can definitely be worth the small business oweners' while.
Linden Lab's Working Inword blog provides three case studies detailing how real world businesses are using Second Life for training. The post profiles nTeams, Human Mosaic Systems and Virtual Training Partners.
Linden Lab has acquired the social networking site Avatars United, and plans to use it to enhance the Second Life community experience.
The new season of Metanomics has begun. Their first interview of season went to Frontline correspondent Douglas Rushkoff, whose episode "Digital Nation," airs on PBS on February 2nd. If you missed the broadcast, you can read the transcript at the Metanomics site.
Venture Beat blog reports that the U.S. virtual goods market will grow to $1.6 billion in 2010. Second Life will see the majority of that business.
For updates on all the Second Life and virtual world news, follow @B2PBetaTech on Twitter, or join our Facebook page.
Last Updated on Saturday, 30 January 2010 17:33
Location, Location, Location: Choosing A Business Space In SL
Written by Heather Michon
Wednesday, 27 January 2010 20:43
Location, location, location.
This mantra for business success doesn't just apply to the "real" world. Choosing your virtual retail or office site within Second Life is a crucial part of establishing your business or brand inworld.
How to select just the right site was the subject of a recent forum at the Beta Business Park. The discussion, led by B2P General Manager Gayle Cabaret, touched on many of the practical and technical issues involved in virtual real estate shopping. About a dozen new and established residents were on hand to share their experiences.
Sage Pexie, owner of Sage Fashions, has a large main store and several satellites. "I chose my main [store] by price and prims and made sure it was surrounded by other businesses," she says, "my satellites strictly by traffic."
Beta Business Park (B2P), a project of Beta Technologies, is a community of businesses and the people who own, operate, and work at them. This business-to-people community offers a different way to use Second Life. B2P provides a coherent territory dedicated to businesses and their clients, allowing easy connections between people, as well as convenient shared costs of common facilities.
B2P tenants can use their Second Life offices for bringing together geographically diverse staff and clients, saving traveling costs without forfeiting the personal touch of being in the same place at the same time. B2P is a superb entry point for widening your market. Its knowledgeable staff and partners assist tenants with everything from introducing their workers and clients to the basics of virtual worlds and Second Life, to creating entire communities of their own. Round-the-clock support from the B2P staff gets tenants answers and assistance when they need it. If the answer to a question is not on the tip of their tongues, they work to get it quickly.
Networking between tenants is key to what makes B2P special. Regularly scheduled events encourage community members to share ideas and learn from one another, as well as from the experts brought in to speak. Topics range from "Second Life 101" to the intricacies of navigating the global market. Read the B2P Offering Description for more details.
