Virtual Worlds Expo Round Up

I'm finally digging my way out of the email and RSS feed hole that the Virtual Worlds Expo left me in last week. Rounding up all the news from the show as well as a few other people's take on various sessions and and announcements, I'm remembering why I fell behind.  I've added links to all my stories and notes from sessions and those from other blogs that I had the foresight to bookmark during the Expo. If I've missed any--or you think there's something else I should add--feel free to shoot me an email or just post a link in the comments. Thanks, all, for the great, very busy week!

Business

• Vivox announced an Open Initiative for its VoIP services used in more than a few virtual worlds.
• SceneCaster announced support for COLLADA and a partnership with Blue Marble Project.
• RocketON and Animax partnered up to develop parallel virtual worlds together.
• Virtual Greats announced that it would distribute its entertainment-themed virtual goods in WeeWorld.
• Rivers Run Red announced an exclusive partnership to integrate its enterprise tool, the Immersive Workspaces Platform, with Second Life.
• The Electric Sheep Company opened its Webflock to third-party developers.
• The Cartoon Doll Emporium announced plans for a complementary boys world and a partnership with Wix.com to develop a new virtual world.

Product Announcements

• Myrl launched its social network for virtual worlds and I spoke to CEO Francesco D'Orazio about his plans for "outeroperability."
• Big Stage launched into a public beta for its system of creating realistic avatars that can be embedded into digital media and, eventually, virtual worlds.
• Multiverse announced a slew of projects: the launch of Multiverse Places and that it was developing an educational Titanic-themed virtual world and a more entertainment-oriented Buffy the Vampire Slayer world.
• IBM announced its development of Sametime 3-D, an integration of Lotus Sametime with OpenSim and, in the future, Active Worlds, Second Life, and more.
• Vayersoft began showing off its kids world, Chobots.
• Linden Lab announced SLim, a lightweight IM and VoIP client for Second Life.
• The Venue Network announced the beta of its virtual events platform, VenueGen.VastPark announced that it was developing an open-source Web-based player for its virtual worlds, the opening of its developer program, and an educational license.
• Qwaq launched two new avatar styles for business users looking for more expression: one that streams video from a Web cam and one that creates face meshes based on existing photos.
• ShanghaiPop and Animatic Media announced their new manga/virtual world, Mech Techs.
• Dizzywood announced that it had hit 500,000 registered users.
• There.com launched a Facebook app and a lightweight IM client and announced upcoming support for Mac OS X.
• Weblin announced its Sitekit for developers to add custom Weblin experience to their pages.
• Virtual Job Candy launched a presence in Second Life for interviews and job fairs.
• TurboSquid launched an embeddable marketplace for virtual worlds to tap its 3D developer audience.
• Precious Moments launched a new virtual world to accompany its Precious Girls Club series.
• Forterra announced that it would add support for COLLADA to OLIVE.
• Avocado Entertainment showed off its upcoming kids world, DinoKids.
• Altadyn began offering a promotional bundle to support its idea of Meet in 3D.
• 3Di announced that it was developing a browser-based viewer for OpenSim worlds and eventually Second Life.
• UPDATE: [TC]2 announced the release of its Human Avatar Engine, which draws on a statistical sampling of over 10,000 3D body scans to let users and developers create realistic avatars by entering in a dozen custom data points.

General Announcements

• We announced the first annual Virtual Worlds Innovation Awards winners.
• Law firm Pillsbury announced that it had formalized a special virtual worlds and online gaming division.

Sessions

• Academy Award-winning producer Jon Landau gave a keynote interview with Multiverse Executive Producer Corey Bridges about virtual worlds and their future in entertainment.
• I followed up with Jon Landau after his keynote to talk about virtual worlds and entertainment.
• Colin J. Parris, Ph.D., Vice President, Digital Convergence, IBM Research, gave a keynote outlining many of IBM's efforts in the enterprise space.
• Millions of Us CEO Reuben Steiger posted the slides for his keynote on Evangelizing Virtual Worlds. Dusan Writer's notes on the session are here.
• Roo Reynolds has David Orban's video of the Augmented Reality panel and the accompanying slides.
• Dusan Writer has his notes on the Web and Virtual Worlds session and on my session on the Future of the Business of Virtual Worlds. He's focused specifically on the discussion between Metaplace's Raph Koster and Linden Lab's Ginsu Yoon, but There.com's Michael Wilson and Multiverse's Corey Bridges were great as well.
• UPDATE: Electric Sheep Company CEO Sibley Verbeck posted the text for his keynote talk, "What Killed Virtual Worlds Before...."

Other Coverage

• MediaPost took a look at the way brands were taking advantage of virtual worlds for back-to-school marketing for kids.
• Dell's Laura Thomas has a round up of her experience over day one and day two.
• David Orban liveblogged extensively throughout the conference: day one and day two.
• Seeking Alpha took a look at some of the highlights as well.
• IBM's Ian Hughes, an Innovation Awards winner, has his take on the show as well as specific notes on the Future of Virtual World Technology and Augmented Reality sessions. Hughes also took a little video tour around the Expo floor.
• UPDATE: Christian Renaud of the Technology Intelligence Group has his overview of the Expo.
• UPDATE: UgoTrade has a roundup of some of the open source and interoperability news of the show, including coverage of panels on augmented reality and open-source worlds.
• UPDATE: Izzy Neis, who normally blogs here, wrote a roundup of her own for YPulse with a focus on the activity in kids worlds
• UPDATE: Benjamin Duranske notes on Virtually Blind that the increasing interest and activity from lawyers in the virtual worlds space.
• UPDATE: FreeToPlay.biz has a nice round up from guest writer Simon Newstead, CEO and Co-Founder of Frenzoo, looking at five trends: Sibley Verbeck's "War on Geekiness," lighter interfaces, physical brands for virtual worlds, selling branded items, and socially responsible kids worlds.