Last weeks session titled The Next Digital Experience at the World Economic Forum in Davos is recommended viewing. The panel was chaired by Michael Arrington from TechCrunch and made up of Hamid Akhavan from T-Mobile, Eric K. Clemons from Wharton, Chad Hurley from YouTube, Craig Mundie from Microsoft, Shantanu Narayen from Adobe and Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook. Discussions cover how mobility, social networks, privacy and platforms are co-evolving in a Meta Age. Runtime is just over one hour.

Rivers Run Red CEO Justin Boddington recently remarked that 60% of the queries they have received of late related to internal communication projects. Organisations cannot be something on the outside they are not already on the inside as many early entrants to Second Life have learned. With two of the Metaverse Development Company founders who brought many of the early entrants into Second Life awakening to this fact that is a very good thing.

PA Consulting and The Sunday Times recently teamed up to host a conference titled Getting Real About Business in Second Life. Claus Nehmzow of PA Consulting moderated a panel with Randy Sisks of Cisco, Pascal Spelier of ABN Amro and Dominic Rushe of The Sunday Times. The event was recorded and is viewable in four parts. Runtime for each video is under 10 minutes.

Part one and two provide business presentations from each of the panel on their experiences in Second Life todate. Part three covers the following topics from the Q&A – virtual worlds v video conferencing, partnering through Second Life, communication methods and integrate channels. Part four covers the following topics from the Q&A – entry costs, focus groups, confidential meetings, recruitment and the future of virtual worlds.

Over the next five years most businesses will have a virtual world presence just as they have a website today. As the above example demonstrates some of the more forward looking organisations are already experimenting with early virtual world offerings. While only at the very beginning of the beginning of our transition to a Meta Age virtual worlds represent a unique facilitation role for organisations of all sizes and sectors. Interesting times indeed.

Charlie Rose chatted with Ken Auletta about Google and emerging technology this week. Runtime is 38 minutes and recommended viewing. The conversation centers around Ken’s recent New Yorker piece titled The Search Party. During the interview Ken mentioned in passing Charlie’s interview with Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page back on July 26th 2001. Over Google’s first three years of operation it grew 20% month-on-month purely by word-of-mouth.

Six and a half years after bringing Eric Schmidt onboard as CEO Google are well on their way to becoming the first $100bn media company. Wireless is the business driver which will take them there. Key to enabling this is the arrival of handset devices which will deliver a remote control for life. Having been fortunate enough to use the N95 and iPhone over the last 6 months we are not there yet but we are getting there. Interesting times indeed.

The second was Getting Real Work Done in Virtual Worlds by Erica Driver and Paul Jackson. It predicts that within five years, the 3-D Internet will be as important for work as the Web is today. Information and knowledge management professionals should begin to investigate and experiment with virtual worlds. Both reports provide useful reference points as to what lies ahead.

The worlds largest annual trade show for consumer technology gets underway in Las Vegas today. This years CES keynotes will include Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates sharing his thoughts on natural user interface, Sony CEO Howard Stringer bringing updates on the high definition video format wars and Intel CEO Paul Otellini offering a glimpse of Third Life.

Reena Jana reports that Microsoft conservatively estimates its widened definition of the Serious Games market to be a $9 billion opportunity. The above video shows some early offerings of Virtual Earth + 3DVIA. This along with the remixing of MS Flight Simulator which debuted as Microsoft ESP (a platform for visualisation simulation) shows Microsofts commitment to the space.

While 2007 was very much a proof of concepts year, 2008 will see wider experimentation and adoption of social computing within enterprises worldwide. GM is getting the year off to a good start with the launch of GMnext which incorporates a weblog and wiki among its offering. Interesting times indeed.

Catching up on news over the last week three pieces caught my attention. The first was Draxtor Despres video report titled Media in SL : old vs new? An indigenous media sector was already well established prior to the arrival of Reuters, AvaStar, Sky News and iCNN over the last year. Draxtor speaks with representatives of each camp on how they view each other in this 5 minute clip.

The second piece was Sir Tim Berners-Lee commentary on the social graph meme doing the rounds. Paul Miller has an excellent post which follows the conversations which have taken place since and is recommended reading. Looking forward to seeing what semSL, a project to combine the virtual world of Second Life with semantic technologies, holds in store once it goes live.

The third was Anne Eisenberg’s NYT piece on EveryScape with details of its upcoming December launch. The mapping services provider will offer virtual street tours for ten urban areas including Aspen, Boston, Cambridge and New York. Unlike other providers within this space it will also offer interior views. Harvard Square was profiled with a preview of the browser based service here.

Virtual Worlds were highlighted as a core driver of DME within iN2015. Concept proposals are invited from prospective Virtual World technology providers, developers and user groups under a Request For Information (RFI) – Virtual Worlds for Singapore. Closure date for RFI submissions is January 15th 2008.

Both the public launch of China’s Recreation District (CRD) in Beijing last week and Singapore’s iN2015 reinforce the strategic imperative of Virtual Worlds within DME over the coming decade. International initiatives such as these bode well for the future of the emergent Virtual Worlds sector as it evolves. Interesting times indeed.

Just as CNN asks its real-life audience to submit iReports – user-generated content submitted from cell phones, computers, cameras and other equipment for broadcast and online reports – the network invites the residents of Second Life to share their own “SL iReports” about events occurring within the virtual world.

“The thing we most hope to gain by having a CNN presence in Second Life is to learn about virtual worlds and understand what news is most interesting and valuable to their residents,” said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services.

CNN are the latest media outlet to take up residence in Second Life. Having worked with Millions Of Us on their entry strategy over the last couple of months their iReport hub progress will be followed with interest. CNN joins Reuters who took up residence with the assistance of Electric Sheep Company in October 2006 and Sky News who were advised by Rivers Run Red and took up residence in May 2007.

Of particular interest is the launch of China’s Recreation District which is the virtual equivalent to China’s “Special Economic Zones”. As someone who was fortunate enough to witness first hand the rise of the Asian Tiger economies over the last 2 decades this event heralds a new chapter in the regions evolution. Many thanks to Brendan for the invitation.

Stanford plays host to its first Metaverse Meetup this evening. Mike Liebhold from the Institute of the Future is tonights guest speaker. As one of the leading 3D Geoweb thinkers Mikes talk on 3D Data for Real World Virtual Worlds promises to be entertaining and educational. Co-ordinator Henrik Bennetsen has more details on the event here. For those who cannot make it to Stanford there will be a Second Life simulcast at Spaceport Bravo.

Saturday sees Harvard Business School play host to its annual Cyberposium. This years event has Virtual Worlds high on its agenda with Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale delivering one of the keynotes and a Online Games and Virtual Worlds : More Than Just Entertainment? panel in the afternoon. For those interested in attending registration is available here.

Good to see Eric Pfanner giving the Serious Games Institute some much deserved mainstream media coverage. We are seeing many such initiatives sprouting up around the world as people awaken to the opportunities that virtual worlds present. Futurists are beginning to spread the word. Ray Hammond predicts “that in 10 years, every single business person will be conducting their business in parallel virtual world as in the real world.”

When Dr. Jacob Bronowski stated in the BBC series The Ascent of Man that “in essence all science and human thought are a form of play” it immediately registered. Bruno’s words serve as an inspiration every day as we explore the transition from role play within the work place to plays role within the work space. For those interested in tuning into this transition from 20th to 21st century organisation thinking Cory’s case study is a good place to start. Interesting times indeed.