MetaHappenings: Diplomacy, Business, and Islam in Virtual Worlds

Date: Monday, July 21, 2008
Time: Noon SLT, 2pm CST
Location: Within Second Life (SLURL)

Metanomics is a speaker series sponsored by Cornell University and conducted within Second Life. Monday's event, featuring Rita J. King and Joshua S. Fouts of Dancing Ink Productions, addresses, "the roles virtual worlds can play in globl diplomacy and business."

Webkins stuffed animals for sale at local Gordmans

Just saw this display at Gordmans tonight. Webkins Virtual World selling stuffed animals in a display promoting their online world.

Meta Happenings: SL Virtual Worlds Business Panel

Friday, July 18th
Time: 2pm CST
Place: Within Second Life, Nokia Island, SLURL

"We invite all aspiring Second Life entrepreneurs and those already in business that want to learn the down-and-dirty on how business really operates within the metaverse to come and hear what we have to say. The event will be held as an informal, moderated panel discussion with direct audience Q&A to get *YOUR* questions answered by some of the best people in the business, all in a euro-friendly time frame. Please feel free to bring friends as well, and also feel more than welcome to send your questions to Hydra Shaftoe beforehand."

Tools of the Trade: Spigit's innovation management applications

Most organizations are incredibly inefficient at utilizing the collective creativity and knowledge of their employees and customers.

Juxtapose the dynamics of organizational relationships with social relationships outside the workforce. Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype, Second Life or any number of socially enabling technologies help us not only stay connected, but enhance our ability to share experience and thought.

Spigit applys these social concepts to the workforce. Their enterprise software IdeaSpigit & InnovationSpigit allow workers and customers to not only easily share ideas & concepts, but to also evaluate, contribute, and rank the contributions collaboratively. Those that make positive contributions gain in reputation, effectively increasing their workplace social capital. Effectively deployed, I can see how this would move brainstorming and innovative thinking away from meeting-centered to a daily routine (and who wouldn't want a workforce that constantly thinks innovatively).

Props to Erica Driver of ThinkBalm for pointing me towards this fascinating suite of applications.