Thanks for dropping by, seems like you missed our announcement and move to Clever Zebra, our new company. Don't worry though, all the old content is still here and you can catch up on the details in the original announcement below :)
~Nick Wilson
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For many, the announcement that Metaversed is evolving from a company that comments on others products, to one that creates products people want to comment on, is old news. I did a small promo video that went from something to show a few folks inworld to being a pretty hot topic among virtual worlds commentators last week. If you've not seen it, take a few minutes to watch, it'll give you the thumbnail on the new direction.
When I started this blog in early 2007 it was because I had recently discovered virtual worlds, and was convinced that this was what I wanted to do. I'd recently sold shares in a previous venture and was not enjoying my decision to run a social media consultancy one little bit. I was so convinced that virtual worlds were important, really important, that I quit the consultancy within a month of discovering Second Life and focused all of my energy on learning as much as possible as quickly as possible.
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, or what I could do. I was just soaking up knowledge and (as I'm wont to do) blogging about it as part of the educational process. As a result of that we've made many friends, and built up a great readership here at Metaversed. I'm very grateful to all of the people that have emailed, commented and just skimmed the headlines here over the last year.
Along the way I met Caleb Booker, who first wrote for Metaversed, then later became the Operations Manager for Metaversed's inworld events and pretty much everything else we've been doing. We plan to continue producing events in 2008 under the banner of Clever Zebra, and are also looking to take the next step in the evolution of the company.
Hello Clever Zebra
Recently I had the chance to work with Josh Eikenberry, aka Lordfly Digeridoo. A little while before Christmas I talked with him about an idea I'd had to lower the barrier to entry in Second Life by producing an Open Source development kit for corporations (see the video if you didn't already..) and found that he'd had a similar idea a few months back, and that our thoughts were very much in line. The next day, Clever Zebra was born. We're still working out some of the details but the new company has already gained the support of some prominent members of the architectural, technological and business communities in virtual worlds (announcements later in the week) and is making partnerships on an almost daily basis. The idea to produce a free, open source solution for corporations in virtual worlds has inspired some great speculative debate, and I'm looking forward to putting meat on the bones of this idea in the coming weeks.
Josh joins us as Chief Creative Officer. Between the three of us there is now very little we can't accomplish and with new found friends we're set to kick off the DOING part of Clever Zebra today. Join the Clever Zebra group in Second Life for details.
So Long Metaversed
Metaversed is a great name for a virtual worlds blog. We've not done any actual blogging here for a little while though and the brand is far to well established to just uproot it and switch direction. No matter what I did, a good portion of people would always think of the company as a virtual words news blog, and well, we already have a pretty good one of those don't we?
So, Metaversed the blog will close. We will redirect to the Clever Zebra blog, so there's no need to change your RSS feed settings. Though if you'd rather not follow our event and product announcements you should unsubscribe now. We'll report on our events inworld, our products and initiatives, but we won't be reporting news. We'll leave that to others.
Change is never easy, it is inevitable though. I hope that the freinds (that's you, dear reader..) we've built up over the last year will continue to follow our progress in 2008. I've not learnt everything there is to learn about virtual worlds. Far from it. The more I learn the more I realize how little I know in fact. I have learnt enough to decide what is is I want to do in virtual worlds though. The basic principle remains the same: To promote business and education in virtual worlds. The manner of doing so is evolving.
We will redirect the site on Wednesday. So again, if you don't want to follow our new site, please unsubscribe now.
If you have comments or questions, please drop them below and I'll answer them as soon as I can.
Thanks everyone, and a happy new year to you all!