Holtz Communications + Technology

PR and communication types continue to wrangle about the value of Second Life (SL). My own position is pretty simple. I’m not a gamer and I’m having no fun learning my way around this virtual environment. But businesses and other institutions (ranging from universities to political candidates to government agencies) are taking their brands and images to Second Life, and we’d better be there…

PR agency Text 100 made news today by become the first global agency of any kind to establish a permanent presence in Second Life. The company has built a three-story headquarters building, according to a PRWeek report, that includes a welcome center, an information center, and an amphitheater. The amphitheater will be used for a variety of events for clients,…

Last weekend, I got a call phone call from the editor of the Second Life Business Magazine, the debut of which I wrote about here. Hunter Glass (his SL identity) told me he is a U.S. military contractor—formerly a soldier in the U.S. Army—working in Afghanistan, but he is enthusiastic about his activities in Second Life, both as a resident and as an…

Lee Hopkins points out another nifty simulation created for Second Life with serious real-world implications. Jeremy Kemp, with SimTeach, has developed a medical facility with three exam rooms. In each, patients await diagnosis. Medical trainees listen to each patient’s heart to determine whether anything is wrong and, if so, what the problem is. A video walks you through the process. Lee…

ZDNet has released a couple videos that reinforce the idea that Second Life is something businesses—and business communicators—need to understand and, perhaps, embrace. The first looks at a convention center built in SL by new-media whiz-kid Eric Rice, which includes the ability to project video and audio into a meeting space. Rice is planning on renting the facility to organizations interested in…

While skepticism continues to be aimed at Second Life as a channel communicators should take seriously, one company thinks it’s a serious enough business venue that it’s launching a magazine dedicated to business in Second Life.

C.C. Chapman alerted me to the impending publication of “SL Business: The Premium Virtual Branding Magazine.” The magazine, which will be published as a PDF, currently offers a media kit on…