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The World Economic Summit is going on in Davos, Switzerland, and I've been browsing the Times's Davos Diary blog. Yes, there's some stuff about celebrities non grata this year, Iraq as a "war against civilians" and this (From Davos, NYSE Chief Says Tide Will Turn on Private Equity), which sounds important:

John Thain, chief executive of the NYSE Group, offered up some sobering words Friday about the explosive rise of private equity, which has swept many publicly traded companies off of the world’s major exchanges. He said, in effect: They’ll come back to us.

Half of last year’s initial public offerings on the New York Stock Exchange, which the NYSE operates, represented private equity firms exiting their investments, Mr. Thain said, making buyout shops “our biggest customers.”...

But the showstopper is about the virtual world Second Life -- Davos is there:

Virtual world Second Life is a hot topic at the World Economic Forum this year, according to The Independent. Indeed, even the forum’s founder and chairman, Klaus Schwab, has his own avatar, or virtual identity, and Reuters is conducting interviews with major players at Davos at its virtual bureau in the Second Life realm.

The Independent suspects that all this chatter is likely to increase the number of big companies that have a presence in the the alternate computer world owned by Linden Labs. ...

Here's the website for Reuters Second Life News Center. The photo above is the "avatar" of Reuters' Second Life bureau chief Adam Pasick of London, at right, called "Adam Reuters" in SL.

You don't have to join Second Life to see the Reuters interviews live or later. Here's an Interview with Linden Lab chairman Mitch Kapor in Davos -- actually, it's with his avatar, inline in a Web page.

(Mitch Kapor, who made his fortune early with Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software, went on to co-found the Electronic Frontier Foundation, chair the Mozilla Foundation and found the Open Source Applications Foundation.)

Independent UK from Davos: Get a Second Life: the age of the Avatar has arrived

Davos Conversation is blog central, including big-media blogs.

Free mp3s: Randy Newman, San Francisco 1972; Joe McPhee, New York 2005; Neil Young,
New York 1974.

Wired: What We Don't Know: How did life begin? What's the universe made of? Why do we sleep? 42* of the biggest questions in science

Veep disclosed: CNN: Cheney: Talk of blunders in Iraq is 'hogwash'. Interview with Wolf Blitzer.

WaPo: Ex-Aide Says Cheney Led Rebuttal Effort:

Vice President Cheney personally orchestrated his office's 2003 efforts to rebut allegations that the administration used flawed intelligence to justify the war in Iraq and discredit a critic who Cheney believed was making him look foolish, according to testimony and evidence yesterday in the criminal trial of his former chief of staff...

In Ex-Aide's Testimony, A Spin Through VP's PR begins,

Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you....

Megalabel? Indie labels combine to form a "virtual fifth major"Ars Technica

Friday cat blogging: How cats groove to different musical styles.

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2 Comments

Shane Lennon said:

Great to see internet technologies have woven themselves into the mainstream - confounding many traditional marketing practices about building brands & awareness over years with traditinal marketing mediums. Youtube took less than 2 years - google less than 5 years to possibly the most recognised brand, certainly on power with Coca Cola/Pepsi - now SecondLife, what are the odds on Google, Yahoo or a traditional media organisation acquiring it in 07 for 100s of millions.

Link | January 27, 2007 11:29 AM
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Sheila said:

Maybe Second Life will acquire one of them -- there's real money in there, and a functioning economy.

Link | January 27, 2007 12:12 PM
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