Telstra-Big Pond has 12 islands in Second Life. And he touched on some of the challenges of a major company operating in SL. People had protested against the telco’s presence, but he accepted that this was a risk of doing business in Second Life.

One of the most interesting parts of his talk was how the second largest bank in SL just shut today, reflecting turmoil in international financial markets in the real world.

He also showed off some interesting sound sculptures in Second Life where moving through light shards made some sounds or even had triggered words. In the US, public funding is going to support the Auden project

Big Pond created the islands just in March, and their presence has generated three-quarters of a million dollars worth of press coverage. They now have the largest brand in SL in the world, based on Linden traffic and time spent on their islands.

They definitely have a good strategy in that they have focused the development on their islands to focus on activities, giving people things to do. I don’t spend much time in SL, but Suw did for a time. And one of her complaints after a time was that she didn’t find much to do. After flying around for a while, she got a bit bored.

Now, there is a VoIP service in SL that is supplanting text chats. People are coming to their Billabong Bar to talk and play music. They also are renting out plots of land on their islands. They struggled with a lot of issues about privacy and what types of services they would allow. Very un-Telstra issues such as what would be their policy for ‘escort services’.

What they are trying to do is to balance governance with a desire not to interfere. Traffic is up 35% since they started the tenancy agreements. Telstra is working with Linden on both software and hardware improvements to make the SL experience better.

Technorati Tags: Melbourne, XMediaLab

The main theme of X|Media|Lab was virtual worlds, and one of the most well known is Second Life.

Keren Flavell is with SLCN – the Second Life Cable Network, which broadcasts programmes from Second Life or events in SL.

She is a strong believer in SL and talked about the empathy that people feel as an avatar. SLCN broadcast a presentation by an education consultant Intellagirl Tully about how distance learning attendance rates had increased to 100% since moving to SL because it was clear that you were there or you weren’t. Intellagirl Tully argued that SL provided a unique way to provide community and engagement for students.

Keren also showed how film companies were using SL to promote films and highlighted the launch events for Die Hard 4 and Transformers. Die Hard fans could jump into poses on virtual film sets based on the films, and Bruce Willis took questions from residents in SL.

SL residents feel a strong sense of involvement with the virtual world, and she showed town hall meetings in SL where residents were fighting for their rights. People are creating newspapers in SL. She also argued that virtual worlds were satisfying human needs that 2D social networks don’t.

They produce a programme called S’Life about goings on in SL and a talk show called Tonight Live with Paisley Beebe, satisfying a lifelong dream for her. They remove the obstacles to creation for residents in SL, she said. They also allow SL residents to play the role of sports broadcasters by calling hockey games or car races in game. “We feel we’re filling an important role in the burgeoning SL community,” Keren said. Marshall McLuhan was right when he said:

Instead of directly experiencing each other and nature, citizens of information societies share the world through media.

We all know that we’re operating in an attention economy. Google and YouTube are succeeding because they generate benefit for everyone who participates, and Keren said that was the model for SLCN.