Community Mobilization

Email Service Optin Lists Selling Fake Virtual Worlds Conference Attendee Lists

As a friend of Chris Sherman and a two time past presenter at VW I am posting this for public awareness!

This is a public service announcement to tell you to avoid an email marketing firm called Optin Lists which is selling fake virtual worlds conference attendee lists.  Repeat: These lists are fake, filled with bogus information. Please keep in mind that we at Virtual Worlds Management (operator of this blog and the Virtual Worlds Conference series) do not sell or rent any of our attendee lists.

We learned of the bogus offering after Optin Lists contacted one of our prior exhibitors with an offer to sell said exhibitor the show attendee list.  See email to the right >>

Upon receiving the forwarded email from said exhibitor one of our undercover operatives here at Virtual Worlds Management, posing as a potential customer, contacted Optin Lists directly to learn more about the company and what exactly they were offering to sell.

A couple of phone calls and email exchanges later and we found that Optin Lists claimed to have all of our attendee lists for sale. (see image to the right).

What really amazed us is the audacity of their claims. While we wish 6,651 people attended the Virtual Law conference last month, that simply is not true. And the Virtual Worlds 2008 Conference did not have 4,375 attendees. None of these attendee numbers in this chart are correct.  We have publicly stated many of our attendee numbers (1,200 people attended VW2008) so whoever put this chart together did not do any research.

Keep away from Optin Lists. Our understanding is that they are also claiming to sell attendee lists for other conferences and tradeshows in other industries as well.

If you want to get in front of Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo attendees the best way to do so is to exhibit at one of our shows. 

This is a public service announcement to tell you to avoid an email marketing firm called Optin Lists which is selling fake virtual worlds conference attendee lists.  Repeat: These lists are fake, filled with bogus information. Please keep in mind that we at Virtual Worlds Management (operator of this blog and the Virtual Worlds Conference series) do not sell or rent any of our attendee lists.

We learned of the bogus offering after Optin Lists contacted one of our prior exhibitors with an offer to sell said exhibitor the show attendee list.  See email to the right >>

Upon receiving the forwarded email from said exhibitor one of our undercover operatives here at Virtual Worlds Management, posing as a potential customer, contacted Optin Lists directly to learn more about the company and what exactly they were offering to sell.

A couple of phone calls and email exchanges later and we found that Optin Lists claimed to have all of our attendee lists for sale. (see image to the right).

What really amazed us is the audacity of their claims. While we wish 6,651 people attended the Virtual Law conference last month, that simply is not true. And the Virtual Worlds 2008 Conference did not have 4,375 attendees. None of these attendee numbers in this chart are correct.  We have publicly stated many of our attendee numbers (1,200 people attended VW2008) so whoever put this chart together did not do any research.

Keep away from Optin Lists. Our understanding is that they are also claiming to sell attendee lists for other conferences and tradeshows in other industries as well.

If you want to get in front of Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo attendees the best way to do so is to exhibit at one of our shows. 

Web Playgrounds of the Very Young

It is no shock to me that youth wordlwide are being drawn into graphically based virtual world environments. The medium captures attention like no other as it engages us in sight, sound, hearing, and touch (keyboard). As parents encourage their children to stay inside more often then venture outdoors for unstructured fun and free time, kids are making semi-structured play online.

The article in the New York Times captures the exuberances of the youth entertainment community but it fails to represent the potential for outside marketers to engage participants. Will these spaces be breeding grounds for the next wave of consumerists who are cultured to 'purchasing' as the only means to enhance their avatar? I applaud the CDC's efforts in engaging the community of Whyville, where avatars are catching the flu ... that is unless they get their vaccination. Rez Nation recorded a session given by Erin Edgerton and John Anderton from CDC on their engagement in virtual worlds.

Virtual Worlds, Real Laws

One of the major intellectual quandaries in the virtual space arena is what are the roles of real world laws, if any? New York University Law School and Harvard's Berkman Center, with the direction of Professor Beth Noveck, even set up the State of Play conference to address some of the concerns. They included legal questions on Intellectual Property rights, taxation, pornography, and free speech. Now Virtual Worlds Management is conducting a Virtual World Law conference in New York this spring. I am not sure of the attendees or the nature of the presenters, academic or professional, but their conferences have been well attended in the past and their content is consistently very good. The conference will involve the American Bar Association's committee on Virtual Worlds and Multiuser Online Games. Their participation will help in world business owners address legal questions they have in the wake of some of the more public virtual world law suits.

Comeptition in Virtual Worlds Conferences

I received my usual weekly update from Chris Sherman and the Virtual Worlds Weekly newsletter (really good publication)and was surprised to see a section from him regarding an event I assumed was being produced by him in London, but is actually not. Competition in the virtual worlds conference space is heating up and getting fierce. Below is Chris's comments on the naming, and production of the London event.

Editors Note: We are not producing the Virtual Worlds Forum, clearing up any confusion

I cannot tell you how many people have asked me if we are producing upcoming show in London.  We are not.  The Virtual Worlds Forum is not produced by Virtual Worlds Management. The organizers of that event have repeatedly referred to it as the Virtual Worlds Conference, inviting confusion with our Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo which was just held in San Jose and our Virtual Worlds 2007 Conference in New York earlier this year. Given the confusion I decided to register to attend the event in London but Sasha Frieze, the event's organizer, emailed me, telling me I'm not allowed to attend because I am a competitor. Not cool since she attended our Virtual Worlds Conference in New York in March. She even asked for and received a discount for that show. I'm all for fair competition but Virtual Worlds Forum management has pushed this to the edge, deliberately creating confusion in the marketplace. I'm trying to be proactive with this post.  I hope this clears the issue. We are however hosting a London party:

Healthy competition, or riding the coat tails? I am not going to be able to attend the London event but certainly enjoyed the San Jose event and the New York event tremendously. Heres to advancing the Metaverse!

Virtual Worlds 2007: Togetherness: What Drives the Virtual Human Connection

Here are the notes from the Afternoon community panel featuring some friends of mine including Giff Constable, Betsy Book, and Robin Harper to name a few.

Insularity is one of the biggest issues with virtual worlds. There is a privacy value but to maintain the connection and value of the connection it is important to be able to take the relationship with you. A challenge that we all have is to help people take advantage of the anonymity and identity options. Are we interested in bringing in pieces of real life and making them available bit by bit at a time? We are becoming more compassionate as we learn more about each other through secondary spaces such as social networking spaces. Our social rules a re evolving with the technology. The tech has causes us to rethink how we deliver and disclose information as well as adjust our expectations of privacy.

One of the strong ties that bind together communities is fandom, but what creates the community is not the topic but the exchanges about the everyday life. Virtual worlds are spaces that are ripe as the mediums for this kind of discussions. Voice chat has been one of the real powerful tools that help facilitate community building. One of the neat things is using the chat tool as a back-channel to voice conversations. Making communication tools easier and more prevalent is the key to getting the community to gel and bond.

Part of the availability of the online space provides an amazing opportunity for cultural sharing. Moreover having the ability to communicate across native languages using translator programs provides a potential for person to person global diplomacy. In certain areas you can delineate and mark spaces and it is more of a human factor. The goal is to continue to keep the relationships in world alive while they are out of world.

One of the content applications is that with people that are housebound, or ill find that their virtual friends are their support system. At what point does the line between real and virtual friends dissolve and disappear. The reality is that friendship is a state not a location or something tangible. For older users location still seems to be a key component of their virtual experiences.

Virtual Worlds 2007 - Demographics – Where they are and Where They are Headed

The curve for the early adopter curve is flattening out and the need for a more accessible interface is they key. One of the big challenges is orientation via 3^rd party company (branding opportunity) is an emerging trend. A separate sentiment is the deep desire for a browser based / mobile device as a way to connect to the virtual worlds.  One of the trends is that general worlds create communities based on interests  while vertical worlds are based on specific use – Football Superstars. Other sports themed worlds will follow. The draw is not for early adopters but for specific interests. Nicak from KZero did a fantastic job presenting great information!

A unique point  I discovered is that IBM Continues to work on cross-world avatars. How interesting would it be to be able to take reputation, inventory, and finances with us between platforms. The demographic guys were really bullish on Whyville and Club Penguin are expected to expand rapidly. Whyville is attracting international users while Club Penguin has the strongest friend invite technology. 

Some of the demographic point provided by Parks Associates showed that 6% of us broadband users visit virtual worlds. Teen flash and web based words are much more popular in part because of ease of use. Challenge is the small active concurrent user base. Moreover social networks still trump virtual worlds because of the ease of use.

Market truths first market research project in SL. Producing reports on the perception of brands in SL. Better perception of RL brands. Attitudes towards brands are slowly improving. This could possibly be contributed to growth and influx of more tolerant mainstream population. The key is to maintain users and keep them active after they create account. Managing the lifespan of an avatar is going the be a key determinant in the long term success of the any of the virtual worlds.