Price Waterhouse Coopers

Price Waterhouse Coopers is the next serious consulting corp that has an opinion on Second Life: The virtual world of the internetplatform Second Life is getting more real for many companies. Small and medium sized businesses are getting interested in the millions of dollars that are spent in Second Life. The biggest mistake you can make is by considering it the next internethype. Second Life is an economic reality with many opportunities"

"Second Life's biggest win is that it can offer an extra dimension to your webproposition", say Ilja Linnemeijer and Ronald van Tongeren, PWC's media and telecom consultants, "By being present in such a platform you connect your business to a portal that's accessible for everyone"

Their conclusion is a little strong "You have to hurry. This is the time in which this alternative economy is getting shape and everyone is taking in positions. Think about what these developments mean for your organisation before it is too late."

update:

You can find the whole thing here. I'll warn you upfront, nothing new or visionary to be found.

Berenschot Bubble Bursts

The Berenschot Group sim can easily be spotted, the island is shapen in the form of a bear's head (not an uggly grizzly, but a kind happy bearhead). I took a shot and TP-ed into a Teleportroom. At first I was kindly surprised by a greeterbot. It's not the real-deal life greeting party, but it's certainly better than entering a cold dark and lonely sim.

Kind surprise made room for normal surprise as I wasn't impressed with the room, then surprise gave way to shock. Hovering over the island I came to the conclusion that Berenschot has done a very bad job at the build. If a company spends nearly 2K on a sim, at least some effort might be expected from the build. The sim is rather empty, a few things dropped here and there, default textures, ah... well, you can see the pictures...

The Berenschot Group is a large, independent management consulting agency with approximately 400 personnel in the Benelux. I wonder how much consulting they've given their own management over this build...

Now I'm probably touching someones feelings, but this build does really remind me of the early days of the internet when big corporate CEO's always had a little nephew who knew something about making websites, ending up with horrible F****page designs because a pro would be to expensive (some of these legacy sites are still online though).

Oh... please forgive me for not remembering where the location is.

PA gets Griefer consult

On the 15th I reported over gridwide precautions taken in fear of griefer attacks. Well, not truly gridwide. Several sims did suffer attacks, though not as massive if feared beforehand.

From inside sources I received confirmation that the sim owned by PA Consulting had been subject to a Griefer attack.

"and yes we had griefers here, two people - one in the air - the other in the water at the edge of sim. I was in the air - wasn't affected - but when coming down I saw lots of parcels falling from the sky in different colors - that caused the lag."

The attack lasted 10 minutes before the griefers were banned. However, in RL a 10-minute stop could be a costly disaster, but in SL we're not yet to the level that it has become business-critical. As PA said "well it is anyoing - and the reasons not understandable for any intelligent person. There is WOW or other combat plays - for them to go to."

PA Consulting Group (PA) is an international management consulting firm known for its expertise in technology and new product development. As of 2007 it operates in more than 35 countries, so you could say that PA is a Player. The firm works across both the private and public sectors. It has won independent awards and recognition for its client work in financial services, energy, life sciences and healthcare, government and public services, manufacturing, defence, and telecommunications. PA's Report and Accounts for 2005 defines its services as: helping clients to design strategies for growth, achieve effective IT that improves business performance, mobilise human resources, deliver complex programs and major business transformations, and develop breakthrough products and processes. The latter are created at PA's dedicated applied technology facilities at Melbourn, Cambridge, UK, and Princeton, NJ, USA. (from Wikipedia)

The PA sim itself doen't differ from most Business sims. A rather conventional office setup with the usual places, built by Rivers Run Red