Or so they say. Metaversed's 57 Miles has the podcast up from the panel with Gartner. Attending were 57 Miles, Steve Prentice of Gartner, Robert Bloomfield of Cornell university's Johnson School, Fiona Gallagher, Sun Microsystems' lead in Second Life, and Joel Greenberg, VP marketing and innovation for Electric Sheep Company.

Skype was off for some hours around the time of the event so it was handled in voice. Miles has heroically edited it all together in a 50MB MP3. Go grab the audio file from Metaversed.

As previously reported by Tateru, 57 Miles from Metaversed.com moderated today a panel with Gartner's Steve Prentice (ST Mensing in SL), and representatives from Sun Microsystems (Fiona May), The Electric Sheep Company (Joel Greenberg), and Mystik business-school professor Robert Bloomfield (Beyers Sellers). Sadly, Skype was down all this morning and the panel had to resort to using SL Voice. This meant, at least for me, that the conversation faded in and out every few seconds. I'm sure 57 Miles will have more detailed notes up on his blog soon. Until then, here are two ideas that stuck in my mind:

Steve Prentice explained that his prediction that 80% of people will have a virtual life by 2011 was referring to the increasing popularity of virtual worlds/online gaming/social media as a form of interaction and entertainment. He was prompting companies to take note of this trend and explore with care as they learn. His subsequent attempt to caution companies mostly focuses on security issues and risk management of these platforms.

Joel Greenberg of the Electric Sheep pointed out that the problem is not security. There are some ways to get around that with private islands/restricted access. However, there aren't enough collaboration tools for enterprise use. And he's spot-on. I can count on my fingers what you can do in terms of collaboration in SL: build together, watch a movie/video, listen to music/audio, and present a slideshow of images. Many are trying to create gadgets that enable other types of collaboration, but the infrastructure is often times the limiting factor.

This is the second in a series of largely demographic interviews that will be conducted with established residents, to find out more about them and their involvement with Second Life, and to contrast the differences between their views and experiences and those of the newer residents. The questions may be tailored slightly for each interview; responses may be edited for purposes of clarity.

I've run into Nightbird Glineux a few times lately, she's been coming to my office-hours inworld. She's thoughtful and self-effacing, and still sees herself as very junior, despite having joined Second Life in November.

On May 21, the JayR Cela reported in the Second Life Herald that he had had a conversation with Guy Trenchard of Sun Microsystems. During that conversation, Trenchard said that Sun Microsystems was "Working closely with L[inden] L[ab] porting SL to Solaris."

Was that true? If so, which parts? I mean that's huge news, and would represent a fundamental shift in philosophy at Linden Lab. So, we took the simplest route, and we asked. Was Linden Lab working with Sun Microsystems? Were they porting Second Life to Solaris in whole or in part? The definitive answer via Linden Lab's PR people is that "there is absolutely no truth to this."

This Friday, April 20th, will see the kick-off of the International Technology Expo, showcasing well over 50 vendors and developers from all over the world. Organized by the V3 Group, the Expo will take place on Silicon Island and feature a keynote address by Jim Parkinson, VP of Collaboration and ISV Engineering at Sun Microsystems, who will discuss the company's role for 3D worlds.

The Expo will also host a number of interesting panel discussions on topics ranging from Digital Property to Client Demands to User Experience. SL Cable TV will offer a weekend-long simulcast, with additional interviews to be hosted by SLBC-Radio. Finally, the People's Choice Awards for Most Innovative Technology will take place at the end of the weekend, with the winner to receive a year's free rent on Silicon Island, as well as a copy of co-sponsor Reallusion's iClone, a 3D Animation and Machinima suite of software tools. Don't miss this event!

April 20 - 22nd will see the hosting of the International Technology Expo 2007 on Silicon Island and Silicon City. Odin Liam Wright, aka Liam Kanno in-world, is the developer of the event, along with Kelly Emms, its director. This will be a huge event designed to showcase the technological accomplishments of SL's residents in the areas including, but not limited to: telecommunications, marketing, audio, video, content management, and financial operations.

From the press release: "Lectures, demonstrations, and product launches by the exhibitors are scheduled from noon to 6pm PDT each day, for example Afalalota Cummings will discuss The Lag Project research. SLCN.tv will be there to broadcast these events. In addition SLBC will broadcast live radio interviews of the developers Saturday and Sunday between 2-4pm." Additionally, musician John Legend will play in concert on Friday, and Saturday will feature the Black-Eyed Peas.

Finally, Sun Microsystems, who are the main sponsors of the event (alongside S Media Corp., Cattle Puppy International, Reallusion, and SLBC), are offering a 100 free hours of their network.com service to residents who show up to the Grand Opening on Friday. Drop in and say hi to everyone for me!

This is interesting news for those who doubt that SL has any impact on RL: Sun Microsystems is held its press conference today in SL, in the Sun Pavilion, rather than at Sun HQ. Why have they done this? Naysayers contend that it's an attempt to jump on the perceived bandwagon of MMOGs, with no real purpose behind taking advantage of whatever benefits such a move would bring.

The other side maintains that SL is part of the 'Web 2.0' configuration, and that by getting in early, Sun is merely staking out important territory in mindspace. Regardless, Sun's motto "The Network is the Computer" seems pretty relevant here ... I wonder if their press conference was affected by the recent particle attack? The mind boggles!

(Via Download Squad)