When I first started Clever Zebra we set out on a mission to provide an Open Source solution to 3D environments in virtual worlds. Though popular, Zebra Corporate never quite made it as a business model and we continued producing virtual world events as well as consulting services for clients. That was almost 18 months ago.

Fast forward to June 2009 and we find ourselves having a blast creating virtual world events for corporations. We finally seem to have reached a point where we're just "early to market" rather than years ahead of the market...

I was not so surprised to see a blog post from Linden Lab, makers of Second Life this morning directly pitching enterprise. Until now they've always positioned as the platform provider, content to let solution providers pitch to various types of organization Under new leadership however, the enterprise team are set to agressively push their SL in a box solution.

Judy was kind enough to point me to this amazing list of healthcare and science related virtual world projects. It's amazing just how much is going on in that space!

Over the last couple of days I've dropped 300 Twitter follows and deactivated my Facebook account. The connections on both social networks for the most part are very superficial, and the firehose of irrelevant, impersonal information simply isn't useful.

I've been engaged on Twitter with a few folks as I wrestle with explainging why Second Life's content creation and scripting flexibilty is important to a group of non virtual world folks. The challenge is to avoid the curse of knowledge, and make a concrete, easily understood statement. No easy task.

Here's what I have now. If you have suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Yesterday evening someone on Twitter called me an idiot for my post on firing your meetings manager. It's easy to be rude when you don't think the other person is listening.

It seems that the #eventprofs group which meets every other Thursday at 12 noon ET on Twitter were in a minor uproar. I joined the discussion and eventually invited 3 or 4 of these folks to join me for a virtual worlds meeting to discuss. I told them I'd be happy to defend my point of view and to help them understand some of the alternative solutions they could be offering their clients.

Not one of them emailed me. CORRECTION: @showtec emailed me. I just got caught in the spam filter...

I can't tell you any more than Amanda has in her blog post, but yes, those are Clever Zebra buildings you can see in the new Linden Lab Second Life behind the firewall product. Very exciting stuff!

We're already recommending this for one client, and I think the potential of a fully working Second Life installed behind the firewall is amazing.

Just think about what that means for the possibility of fully immersive, rock solid events...

Your entire company is organized around the idea of slowing innovation. Stopping you from moving radical ideas forward at anything even resembling a reasonable pace. Sure, they might say they want to encourage new thinking, but the system is still geared to slow it down right?

It's practically blasphemous to even suggest that corporations should give up face to face meetings, but they should. Like it or not, this is not the time to be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on physical meetings when there are rich, viable and practical alternatives.

I'm not suggesting face to face is without value. I am suggesting that for the vast majority of corporate meetings, including conferences, exhibitions, team meetings and training, it's irresponsible, and wasteful.

Two things happened to me yesterday evening that have somehow managed to come together in my mind to define some thoughts that I think many people in the travel and meetings industries will find uncomfortable.

I watched the final 5 hours of Battle Star Galactica, rationalizing this extraordinary waste of time by telling myself I had a cold, I deserved it, and it would help me have a more productive week. No, I didn't buy it either, but what can I say?