Last year, I was involved in organizing an event at Stanford featuring Linden Lab’s CEO and their online product Second Life. It was one of the most surreal topics that we had hosted at VLAB, talking about products and entire economies that don’t really exist. I knew this would be a field to watch, or even better, to participate in the building of related business models.

Jerry Paffendorf and I met quite randomly years ago at a wireless industry conference. He’s now working as Futurist in Residence at the Electric Sheep Company.

I moved from Silicon Valley to NYC for several reasons, including my contention that there must exist technologically-forward, alternative type companies oozing with style outside of the Valley. If a company that architects virtual properties within Second Life and other Virtual Worlds is not such a company, I don’t know what is. They are located within tres chic Williamsburg, Brooklyn (if you’re from the Valley, think Berkeley/Oakland vibe).

Jerry organized an event held the night after Thanksgiving entitled “Thanks for the Metaverse”. 30 or so geeks and geekettes were in attendance, a well-known VRML pioneer gave a presentation, and lots of discussions ensued. I really felt like I was back in the Valley, or perhaps Burning Man…

I’m surprised it’s taken this long, but it was in fact the first party I’ve been where people introduced themselves first w/ their “IRL” name and then their avatar name. Interesting sub-topics included the “CopyBot issue”, real concerns that virtual bling creators have regarding their creations being copied/stolen. The presenter also declared that there likely never will be an actual Metaverse, as the variety of virtual worlds are tough to connect. Of course this was met with cries of:

Ken Berger is a serial entrepreneur and mentor capitalist who recently made the Valley -> Alley switch. His bio and contact information can be found here.