Linden Announces $10k Prize for Real/Virtual Innovation

Linden Lab announced the beginning of a contest today to promote innovation in Second Life "that improves the way people work, learn and communicate in their daily lives outside of the virtual world." The most important thing, it seems, is tangible, demonstrable results of a project, ranging from research to technology that enables wider access from the disabled, that uses the virtual world to affect real lives. The winning individual or team will receive $10,000 paid in Linden dollars.

"We expect and want to create a wide funnel of people thinking, 'hey that might be me,'" explained Everett Harper, Linden's Director of Community Initiatives.  "We expect to have people in healthcare, people creating communities with real impact, we could imagine scientists with psychological studies, there are diplomacy projects, architecture--we could go on for a long time listing these. The key thing is that can you document tangible evidence of improving and having a good impact on people’s lives, and I say that broadly. And it’s got to be compelling and high-quality, from compelling to aesthetics to technical to pure execution. It should really have a sense of being influential to creating future development across virtual worlds into the real world. "

Applications for the Linden Prize must be submitted by January 15, 2009. They will then be reviewed by anonymous Linden Lab employees, Second Life residents, and outside thought leaders before being announced in April 2009.

The hope is that when announced, the selected projects might raise awareness of good works inside of Second Life, both for those already involved and those who may know the virtual world mostly through its occasionally tarnished reputation.

"One of the things that surprises me personally, and I think this goes for a lot of Linden’s, is how amazing certain projects or builds are and we only hear about it in the newspaper or in a press release," said Harper. "It’s just rewarding to be a part of that, so it’s exciting to see what comes in. Second, it’s to promote that and to promote Second Life and Linden Lab to a new audience who have only heard about it from one perspective, whether that’s controversy in a newspaper or a rag or just general interest story. For those audience members who see that people are doing something in Second Life that really connects with what they do on a daily basis, if it brings in that audience and they see that, that’s great."

Comments

[anon]

Will the winner be able to cash in the lindens for real prize money without any problems from Linden lab ?

[len]

A question would be who owns the intellectual property for the innovations submitted and for the winner?

10k is a very shallow R&D investment but a very good deal for Linden Labs if it produces any significant product.