website statistics

Archive for the 'Second Life' Category

The Google Primary I: Paying, Or Not Playing

Published by William Beutler on April 8, 2007 in Advertising, Barack Obama, Google, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Online Campaigns, Rudy Giuliani, Second Life and White House '08. 4 Comments

Considering that Google controls just about half of the market for search in the U.S., that Google estimates its advertising network reaches 80% of U.S. Internet users, and that their program is extremely flexible, any political campaign should think strongly about using them. And even though pay-per-click ads are not without risk, this should be all the more true for a presidential campaign.

I’m working on a longer post looking at the 2008 candidates’ use of Google AdWords, but in the meantime, let’s first see who is playing and how they’re playing. Counting only the top six contenders from both parties, here’s what each campaign wants you to see at the top of a Google search results when you search for their name:

Giuliani's Google Sponsored Link

John McCain's Google Sponsored Link

Mitt Romney's Google Sponsored Link

Hillary Clinton's Google Sponsored Link

Barack Obama's Google Sponsored Link

John Edwards' Google Sponsored Link

Hillary has incorporated Blogads into her online strategy and Edwards has been running an online campaign since early 2005, yet neither have bothered to make sure their campaign sites are the top result on Google. (Of course, Google News results do appear beneath the Sponsored Links for the others, but I have cropped them out.) Although Democrats have rushed into Second Life and other brave new worlds, apparently two of their top contenders are ignoring plain old Google.

A few other findings, based on tedious reloading of the same searches, over and over:

  • Obama is indeed playing, but he’s not all in. His ad displays less than half the time — so if you don’t see it, hit reload.
  • For all three Republicans, their Sponsored Link appears almost every time, but not quite.
  • McCain has three different versions of his ad in rotation. Key phrases: “Learn More” and “Sign Up.”
  • Romney also has three versions rotating. Key phrases: “Build a New American Dream” and “Strong. New. Leadership.”
  • Giuliani has just the one pictured above.

More later. Stay tuned.

The Judge and the Raccoon

Published by William Beutler on December 16, 2006 in Academic Blogging, Entertainment, Second Life, Seriously and Terrorism. 1 Comment

Richard Posner in Second LifeSecond Life has grown substantially over the past year and, since the summer, has been attracting the occasional celebrity participant. Most are just one-shot interviews, such as with former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and Kurt Vonnegut — although Duran Duran claims to be building an island concert venue.

Last week, law and economics guru Judge Richard Posner joined the list, showing up to discuss his latest book, “Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency” and other issues.

Wager James Au of New World Notes hosted the event, also has the transcript and many pictures from the event, including this bit I’d like to repurpose:

Raccoon in Second LifeJRP: Is that a raccoon? Kear Nevzerov: I’m a “furry”. Not sure how I got this way. JRP: I think it’s Al Qaeda. KN: I’m really an IP lawyer from DC. Honest. JRP: I like your tail.

The overall discussion was worthwhile, but let’s admit it: When a public intellectual enters a 3-D virtual world, this is what we we’re rooting for.

P.S. In addition to being a blogger himself, Posner appeared on Instapundit’s podcast this summer, also to discuss the book.

Home of the C+ Term Paper Makes the Honor Roll?

Published by William Beutler on November 28, 2006 in Academic Blogging, Second Life and Wikipedia. 2 Comments

This fall term, Pepperdine international law professor Roger Alford made sure his students gave something back (my take, not his), as he explains at Opinio Juris:

This semester I took Peter Spiro’s suggestion to heart and assigned my international law students to write a Wikipedia entry as a small part of their class requirements. The only limits I put on the students was to pick a topic that was relevant to international law and that was not currently included in Wikipedia (or at most was a stub). The results were quite impressive. I will not give you the details of each entry to avoid compromising the next phase of the experiment. But essentially they wrote on topics ranging from prominent international law professors and judges, several major decisions of international courts, two Supreme Court decisions, a key aspect of a major environmental law treaty, principles of international law jurisdiction, an undeveloped topic relating to the use of force, a major international investment arbitration issue, and an issue relating to corporate conduct and core labor standards. They wrote the entries in Wikipedia format to maximize the chances that the entries will be accepted by the Wikipedia editors.

First, this is a terrific idea for a course assignment — I wish there had been a Wikipedia when I was in school. Second, this is great news for Wikipedia itself. I’d like to see media outlets that picked up the John Seiganthaler controversy last year run a small feature on this development. Third, this makes a lot more sense than a whole class about Second Life.

Content hat tip: ExMo. Headline hat tip: zefrank.

Makin’ Copies

Published by William Beutler on November 19, 2006 in Asymmetrical Media, Second Life and Wikipedia. 1 Comment

At Freedom to Tinker, Ed Felten gives a good overview of the threat the CopyBot application poses to the economy of Second Life. If you’re not familiar with the Second Life metaverse, but you do recall the “World of Warcraft”-themed season premiere of “South Park” this fall, then the situation Felten describes might ring a bell:

If you’re not familiar with virtual worlds, you might think the word “economy” is a stretch. But really it’s not. SecondLife has about 1.5 million residents. Residents are given a sophisticated toolset they can use to design complex objects, specifying the objects’ shape, appearance, and behavior. Objects can be sold for a currency called Linden Dollars. Linden Dollars are real money — they can be traded for U.S. dollars on currency exchange markets. Quite a few people make their living in SecondLife, running businesses that make Linden-Dollar profits, which are then cashed in for U.S. dollars. Most days, the SecondLife economy sees transactions worth a total of between $500,000 and $1,000,000 (real U.S. dollars). This is clearly a real economy. To understand the possible impact of CopyBot, imagine such a thing existed in real life. Point this CopyGadget at any real-world object, push a button, and you get a perfect copy of that object. Want a new Lambourghini sportscar? Just find one in a parking lot and copy it. Like the lime sorbet at the local ice cream parlor? Buy a cup, take it home, and fill your freezer with copies. When you get down to the last cup in the freezer, just copy it again. You get the idea.

I’ve been getting to know Second Life for a few weeks now, and even though political uses of the virtual world are not directly susceptible to this kind of chicanery, it certainly poses an indirect threat. Sure, Second Life is big now — but so were Napster and Friendster.

If there is nothing else to be learned here, do not name your company anything ending in “-ster.” If there is something else to be learned from this, it’s that Second Life creator Linden Labs must settle this quickly and definitively. According to New World Notes, the actual damage so far is very limited, but that’s no reason to sigh with relief. As that business with John Seigenthaler goes to show, even a minor problem can be magnified many times in the media’s perception — especially if you’re doing something new and unproven, like a user-written encyclopedia or user-built virtual world.

P.S. Because I can never resist using an available screen grab, here’s the Second Life version of yours truly chilling out on the seaside balcony of a Japanese-themed luxury home:

William Beutler in Second Life

Yes, I am sitting fully-clothed in an operational hot tub. Considering that I’m also trespassing, that’s probably for the better.