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Build-A-Bear Workshop and Sanrio have partnered to bring Hello Kitty to Build-A-Bearville. More info.
AOL's Kids Online launched a content partnership with both Planet Cazmo and Minyanland. More info.
Carl's Jr. and Hardees are taking their 2D websites into the 3D world with ExitReality. More info.
Preferred Family Healthcare is working on an island in Second Life. More info.
Build-A-Bear Workshop today announced a partnership with Sanrio to let children build their own Tropical Hello Kitty dolls at retail stores and then take them online with Build-A-Bearville. Users who buy the doll will also get a load of digital extras: 3,000 Bear Bills, an extra room and Hello Kitty Wallpaper for their virtual homes, a virtual Hello Kitty tee for their furry friend, and a virtual Hello Kitty purse. For those keeping track at home, this makes the third virtual world appearance by Hello Kitty: first in Sanrio's own Hello Kitty Online, then through a partnership with Playhut Inc's GoLive2 for Hello Kitty Land, and now in Build-A-Bearville. That's a traveling cat.
"Our partnership with Build-a-Bear Workshop continues to deliver fun, original, unique experiences to Hello Kitty fans and we are thrilled with this new offering!" says Dave Marchi, Brand Marketing Manager at Sanrio, Inc. "Tropical Hello Kitty's sun-kissed look is perfect for summer and we're certain that she'll be a big hit."
Grockit is decidedly stealthy. There's not much clear about what it's doing beyond working on a "Massively Multi Player Online Learning Game" that is about "students teaching students." They've generated enough interest, though, to get $2.7 million in a Series A round led by Benchmark Capital and angel investors back in July 2007 and now $8 million in a Series B round from Integral Capital and Benchmark.
It's not clear if it's going to be a virtual world-style environment--Tech Crunch cites Grokit's previous products as a WebEx GMAT prep courses and, based on the MMOLG, a fax machine-based game--but it sure sounds like an option. As it preps to launch in the fall, Grockit may be one to keep an eye on, if nothing else. [via TechCrunch]
Slashdot reported today that NASA had extended the deadline for its RFP for an educational MMO from June 18 to July 21 due to the number of questions raised after its briefing in April. There was some confusion about the payment model for the MMO, but Project Manager Daniel D. Laughlin says that's not the specific issue. "It is not the nature of the questions causing a delay; it is the volume of questions and the necessity of coordinating responses through multiple offices," Laughlin told Virtual Worlds News. "In addition to the questions submitted at the April 21 workshop, we have to address every question that has been (and continue to be) received by the Learning Technologies project office."
Laughlin couldn't address the number of submissions that have been received so far, but he did note that the group had received 176 responses to its RFI earlier in the year. You can view the amended request here or submit inquiries to the project managers at Daniel.d.laughlin [at] nasa [dot] gov and Darryl.R.Mitchell [at] nasa [dot] gov.
Adam Broitman and Jack Tatar have a good column up at iMedia Conneciton, digging into what Gartner's Generation V theory means for marketers. When approaching a community in a virtual world, do you market to the persona (or avatar) or person at the keyboard? From their research, there's not much difference. In WeeWorld, a popular contest is based around creating avatars that look like the real user, and 50% of the users spend most of the time chatting with real-world friends as their real selves. In Second Life, while the avatars are often more fanciful, that's often just a way to expose the user's real personality behind a mask of anonymity. As Gartner pointed out, the persona may not fit your typical demographic, but it's who the users want to be viewed as.
"How can you separate the person from the persona or ultimately find the person behind the persona? Or do you really need to in order to effectively market to consumers in such environments?" ask the authors. "The answer seems to be -- probably not." [via iMedia Connection]
We are wrapping up program planning for Virtual Worlds Expo and Virtual Worlds London and want to make sure that everyone who was interested in submitting speaker proposals to either event has had a chance to do so. We already have some fantastic proposals submitted and the advisory boards of each event will soon be reviewing those already submitted proposals. If you haven't submitted and you would still like to now is the time to do so. To submit to VW Expo go to http://www.virtualworldsexpo.com/speakers/call.html to submit to http://www.virtualworldslondon.com/speakers/call.html
We're pleased to announce that Rivers Run Red, an immersive spaces company, developing content, applications and business tools for the emerging 3D Web, has joined as a sponsor of Virtual Worlds London taking place 20-21 October 2008. As an industry-leading development company, instrumental in the evolution of the virtual worlds market, Rivers Run Red works with some of the world's largest companies in the extension of their digital strategies, including Diageo, Vodafone and Unilever. Virtual Worlds London, place at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, a beautiful venue right across the street from Westminster Abbey, is the leading event for businesses seeking to understand and maximize business strategies within virtual worlds. VW London is produced by Virtual Worlds Management (VWM), publisher of www.VirtualWorldsNews.com.
Earlier this month, the IRS ruled that at least one of the Electric Sheep Company's former contractors, a greeter in Second Life, should be treated as a full-time employee. At the time, Sheep COO Giff Constable noted that it could be an interesting precedent for virtual worlds work. While the company has been preparing to comply with the ruling, it's also investigated its options, and legal counsel supports the Sheep's original classification of the contractor as a contractor.
"It is the Company’s position that all “greeters” are independent contractors and are not employees of the Company," explains Constable on the ESC blog. "Greeters are free to (1) accept or reject assignments; (2) utilize substitutes; and (3) work for other companies, including competitors of the Company. Greeters use their own equipment and receive a Form 1099 from the Company."
Nic Mitham of K Zero has continued the tiring task of tracking virtual world growth across the metaverse. He's updated his "Universe Graph," with figures from 2008 Q2 and added in several new worlds as well. It's a big jump--almost double the size of the 173.61 million registered users he tracked in January, though that's in part due to the addition of new worlds. Now, across 21 virtual worlds, there's over 303 million registered accounts. Unsurprisingly, most of those users come from the massive amounts of worlds out there aimed at younger users. In fact, only Second Life is posting numbers in the 30+ sector, and only four worlds are showing user numbers in to 20-30 category. There's been discussion about whether the kids world boom is a bubble set to pop, but there's clearly still plenty of room to grow with the other demographics. [Check out the full-size chart at K Zero]
Google's 3D mapping technology, Google Earth, is now available as a browser plug-in and Java API. Yesterday's release didn't bring the entire application to the Windows-only browser plug-in, but just as Google Maps started off small and then expanded as a tool for building Web apps, Google wants to help developers take those mash-ups to Earth. In fact, it only takes one line of code to turn a Maps application into a 3D embedded tool. If nothing else, you can already check out the mash-up example that lets you drive around Google Earth in the Monster Milktruck.
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