Up Next, Techdirt Sets Up First In-Game Corporate Intelligence Firm

from the putting-the-reality-back-in-virtual-reality dept

Mon, Aug 14th 2006 1:10pm — Carlo Longino

Hardly a week goes by without somebody trying to drum up some publicity for doing something in the online world of Second Life, and it usually works. What's more entertaining than the actual announcements are the justifications people come up with for entering these sorts of deals, acting as if they've really got something to gain by setting up shop in the game. Last week, it was the band Duran Duran saying it would eschew the typical career path of rock stars of days gone by -- playing small clubs, commensurate to their current audience size -- and play shows in Second Life instead. This week, a hotel company is launching a new brand with a hotel in the world, but as with most of these announcements, they're hiding their attempt to just buy some publicity (which, again, has worked) by saying that watching how people in Second Life use the hotel could give them valuable insight into how they should make their real-world hotels. So the next time you check into a hotel from this company and there's nothing to eat (since SL avatars don't need food) and the bed is gone (they don't need sleep, either), you know who to blame. Kudos to SL's developers, Linden Labs, for creating a roaring in-game economy from which they can benefit in the real world. But to all the companies buying space inside it, you can go ahead and drop the charade that Second Life is anything but a PR vehicle.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

18 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

rijit (profile), 14 Aug 2006 @ 2:02pm

blah.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mlvassallo, 14 Aug 2006 @ 2:04pm

"Last week, it was the band Duran Duran saying it would eschew the typical career path of rock stars of days gone by -- playing small clubs, commensurate to their current audience size -- and play shows in Second Life instead. "

Question... you think current musicians aren't playing small clubs and venues everyday to try to make a living and get their music out there?

I know that isn't the point of the article, but you made it sound like you can just cut and EP and be famous with out the footwork...

muh.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
rijit (profile), 14 Aug 2006 @ 2:04pm

Arrgh!
Sorry. Meant to say:

Blah. SL is a place to pimp yourself out, what is new in this story? Businesses moving online and using it to enhance their brick and morter places? Blah. Nothing exciting here.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2006 @ 2:18pm

Techdirt most have a stake here
Mayhaps I live in the dark ages...

But I;ve never heard of secodn-life.. except here on techdirt, where I hear about it all the time. Usually really pointless stories, like this one of a nobody doing a non-event.

So that really begs the question. Why does second-life keep getting featured here? Is there some sort of a vested interest? (nothing wrong with it if there is, but a little warning to that effect would be nice, a la slashdot and its mentioning of "sister" sites every time a story is mentioned about one)

I'm sure second-lifes owners are just loving all the free publicity... but I'm just confused by it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pedant, 14 Aug 2006 @ 2:39pm

Re: Techdirt most have a stake here
Well, it doesn't really "beg the question". If enough people say it then perhaps.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Man, 14 Aug 2006 @ 3:00pm

Tech Dirt or Geek Dirt
I am a CIO at a small business (200million) and in the tech trenches everyday learning what is new in technology. I am only saying this because I too have never heard of Second Life. I don't know how I have missed all the weeks of people trying to drum up publicity for it. Where were they drumming it up? My point is, with all your worry about video games and downloading music, TechDirt is not really covering business technology. Are you just attempting to cater just to geeks who have no life or are you trying to get business people in the tech world to view your product as important enough to purchase. You are doing a poor job at the latter.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike (profile), 14 Aug 2006 @ 3:31pm

Re: Techdirt most have a stake here
But I;ve never heard of secodn-life.. except here on techdirt, where I hear about it all the time.

Hmm. We've written about them 11 times, over a period of 3 years. That's less than once a quarter. I don't see how that's "all the time." Second Life is immensely popular, however. If you notice, whatever we write about is based on news stories elsewhere. In the case, the stories were in News.com and the Washington Post -- both about Second Life.

I'm sorry if you haven't heard of them, but they are widely known among the tech community.

So that really begs the question. Why does second-life keep getting featured here? Is there some sort of a vested interest?

Um. No. This is even more amusing considering the tone of most of our posts on Second Life is somewhat negative.

Why do you think we have a stake in them? Do a Google search on Second Life and you can see how widely talked about the company and the game is.

In my quick Google search it shows almost 20 million results -- many of which include mainstream press coverage or others talking about Second Life.

Yet you assume we have a "stake" here?

Sorry. Try again.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2006 @ 3:44pm

Re: Re: Techdirt most have a stake here
"I don't see how that's "all the time.""

It was often enough that I noticed it and asked.

Okay, I took your bait and googled it. Here was my query.
Site:techdirt.com second life

Hey guess what? over 7,000 results. many of which are techdirt. oh wait, all of which are techdirt.

"This is even more amusing considering the tone of most of our posts on Second Life is somewhat negative."

Your tone of second life is never negative, you do however speak negatively about what is being done in second life though. Thats not the same, and is still advertising for the game.

"Yet you assume we have a "stake" here? "

No, I noticed a trend, stated (my view of the) facts and asked a question.

Although the tone of your response is likely warranted, I'm still suprised by it. Anyways, thank you for answering the question asked.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Man, 14 Aug 2006 @ 3:44pm

Mike Re: Re: Techdirt most have a stake here
I don't know if you are a Techdirt writer or not but, you comment hits at that fact. If all Techdirt writers are this snippy with their customers, it gives me further reason to dismiss Corporate Intelligence as a product that would be useful for my company. Tech Dirt should probably look for writers with a thicker skin, not everyone is going to agree with them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike (profile), 14 Aug 2006 @ 3:50pm

Re: Tech Dirt or Geek Dirt
I am only saying this because I too have never heard of Second Life. I don't know how I have missed all the weeks of people trying to drum up publicity for it. Where were they drumming it up?

How about: Wired,the Washington Post, CNET's News.com, MIT's Tech Review, GigaOM, ZDNet, Internet Financial News, MSNBC, the BBC, The Sunday Times (UK), The Guardian, CBS News, The Globe & Mail (Canada), The Boston Globe, Business Week, the Malaysia Sun, The Age (Australia), USA Today, The San Francisco Chronicle and a ton of other publications.

That was just based on a really quick search and just naming some of the more popular sources. There are plenty more where those came from.

We understand how difficult it is to keep up with all this stuff, down in the tech trenches as you are, but it seems like you may be missing an awful lot of stuff.

If you'd like some help, please, feel free to contact us about helping your company make sure it isn't caught unaware like this again.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike (profile), 14 Aug 2006 @ 3:59pm

Re: Re: Re: Techdirt most have a stake here
Okay, I took your bait and googled it. Here was my query.
Site:techdirt.com second life

Hey guess what? over 7,000 results. many of which are techdirt. oh wait, all of which are techdirt.

Hmm. You'll notice that Google only shows 37 of those results. That's because they're all repeats. And, the reason they're all on techdirt is because you used the site limiter.

If you do a search on our own search engine, you will see all all 11 posts over the course of nearly 3 years. If you read those posts, you'll find many that are somewhat negative on Second Life itself.

Although the tone of your response is likely warranted, I'm still suprised by it. Anyways, thank you for answering the question asked.

I'm sorry if you do not appreciate the tone of the response. However, if you are going to accuse us of something (having a stake in a company we're writing about) without proof, we take that as a fairly serious accusation, and one that we will respond to.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Man, 14 Aug 2006 @ 4:02pm

Re: Re: Tech Dirt or Geek Dirt
Question is not if I am missing a lot of stuff. I know I do. The question is am I missing stuff that is important to real people. The reason I read tech dirt and other tech sites is to attempt to stay somewhat in the loop of new technology. Unfortunately I am finding that Techdirt is only concerned with file sharing and video games. That is fine if I was a geek loser living in my parent’s basement. My comment is just that you are trying to sell your Corporate Inelegance product when your posts have very little to do with "Corporate Intelligence", or any intelligence. Maybe you should start an off shoot blog by the name "Geekdirt" and then start doing informative articles on "Techdirt". I won't even charge you for the new name.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike (profile), 14 Aug 2006 @ 4:13pm

Re: Re: Re: Tech Dirt or Geek Dirt
My comment is just that you are trying to sell your Corporate Inelegance product when your posts have very little to do with "Corporate Intelligence"

The blog is not about "selling" our services. If we were just pitching our services constantly, who would read us?

The Techdirt blog is a technology news analysis site so that we can highlight our analysis on various topics that impact the overall market and to get discussions going on those topics. We tend to focus on subjects that are interesting to a wider audience, or which we think have a larger impact on the tech world overall -- rather than more narrowly focuses. Intellectual property certainly falls into that category -- and we believe goes well beyond "geeks in your parents' basement."

What we cover for our clients is specific to what each client needs. While you may not find the general blog useful, what we do for our corporate clients is customized to each one -- and the overlap with the public blog is basically zero.

While you may not find the use of extremely popular virtual worlds as a marketing vehicle, there are plenty of other large companies who probably do. Why else would such a large hotel chain be doing so? Or just look at the many other large companies that have set up shop in Second LIfe as well. It's certainly an interesting trend worth discussing -- and plenty of people may be interested in it.

I'm sorry it's not relevant for you.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
babies, 14 Aug 2006 @ 4:30pm

All of you
WAhhhhhhh Wahhhhhhh
[ link to this | view in thread ]
geek living in parents basement., 14 Aug 2006 @ 7:04pm

As a geek living in my parents basement, I will have to say that I understand that your negative tone is clearly caused by jealousy. You are just upset that you have a job and a family and no free time, and you hate that people like me who get to sit around and play and play HALO for fourteen hours straight whenever we want. I forgive you.
PS Hey Carlo, its been awhile since you've had any coverage of internet piracy, I'm dying for some more.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2006 @ 7:42pm

Re:
"...hate that people like me who get to sit around and play and play HALO for fourteen hours straight whenever we want."

eek, you are proud of that?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 15 Aug 2006 @ 4:40am

And to think...
..all this time, I thought TechDirt was a humor column.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Guess who I am, 15 Aug 2006 @ 9:33pm

Actually a lot of people these days dont really care about progressing their lives, as long as they got enough money to spend, food to eat, then they might as well spend the rest of the day doing pointless stuff.

Its true, the next generation will doom humanity
[ link to this | view in thread ]