Thursday, October 1, 2009

Is Intel trying to steal Second Life though an expensive advertising campaign?

I don't even know what to make of this; Intel has decided to release a full-on internet advertising campaign sponsoring many websites, which all leads to this video.   To me, and everyone else in Second Life, and everyone else using Open Grids (Open-source OpenSim http://opensimulator.com) , and everyone else in the world that hasn't been living under a rock for the past half-decade... um, Intel, we know you're trying to steal Second Life.   Calling it Intel's "3D Internet", and obviously ripping off Linden Lab's Second Life, how foolish.

UPDATE:  Since this post Intel has conveniently changed the title of the video, changed the description of the video, and has changed all of the information on their Youtube page.

15 comments:

Dale Innis said...

Gah, nothing happens whatsoever for the first ninety seconds! Sheesh.

It may be an attempt to steal SL's thunder in some sense, but I think this ad will actually benefit SL, in that it represents Intel coming out and saying that "the 3D Internet" is good for education and stuff.

Once the people with the money are convinced of that, they will go out looking for a 3D Internet provider, and SL / Nebraska will be in there bidding.

Intentionally or not, I think this is the kind of ad that brings more money into the whole sector, and doesn't necessarily benefit one player over others.

MaryJoanne Sideways said...

I got bla bla bla and saw manboobs ;)

Salvatore Otoro said...

I would hope that they credited SL somewhere on their site for using the '3D world'. Perhaps this will open the eyes of many who seem to have no knowledge of virtual worlds. There are many out there that have not heard of virtual worlds, Second Life, etc. As was said before, this will probably benefit both companies. Honestly, the video is cheesy and boring.

Unknown said...

It seems to me that Intel is RIPPING OFF Linden Lab's Second Life through trying to claim ownership through advertising. Intel offering a promo video of "3D internet" does not erase the fact that Linden Lab created this, not Intel.
Intel has done nothing more than create a video exclaiming they are the owners and originators. Intel is using marketing money to push this video (false info) outward.
I can't see how this could possibly benefit Linden Lab or Second Life.

got to go for now, I'm going to record a video of me standing in front of a Intel Core2Duo processor and say "Doubledown Tandino has just released the new 'make-computers-do-stuff chip' which is going to revolutionize computers forever."

Sean Koehl said...

Hi,

Our 3D Internet research is trying to enable new technolgies to accelerate the adoption of of apps like Second life, which although popular are not yet what I'd consider a mainstream phenomena like YouTube, etc. The application here (called ScienceSim) uses OpenSim, which is very similar to SL, but is open-source. We are working on improvements to the the underlying simulation software and hardware infrustructure, treating ScienceSim (which is a Supercomputing '09 project) as a workload so that we can improve performance, facilitate open content sharing, and generally make the experience more immersive and realsitic over time.

There are virtual worlds today, but a true, mainstream 3D internet is a long way off. We are doing our part to accerate this by improving the underlying infrastructure.

Unknown said...

Sounds all well and good what you and Intel are trying to do Sean in this little comment reply... but lets take a look at what we really have here and what Intel is putting out to the public:

We have Intel with the video "Intel Introduces the 3D Internet".. which is two geeks rambling at a lunch table about the future, showing a glimpse of Second Life (or OpenSim SL), and doing everything they can to use "Intel" "creators" "3d Internet"

This advertising push to get virtual environments into "mainstream phenomena" has nothing to do with 3D internet and has everything to do with Intel trying to lay claim to the invention of 3D worlds. The 12 million or more people that already know exactly what Second Life is are not going to buy this slanted marketing tactic. WE DON'T BUY IT. It's plain and simple. We watch the video and we see Intel making an fool of themselves trying to steal credit through a highly promoted and purchased ad scheme. And to the millions/billions of people that don't know about virtual worlds yet, they're going to soon find out that "Intel's 3D Internet" is just ScienceSim running on OpenSim.

Whether or not Intel's ScienceSim is a success or not, you've already lost trust and shown lack of integrity just by this ad video and the paid-for advertising Intel has purchased to make this video run on niche social networks.

... Just in time for James Cameron's movie "Avatar" to come out. Intel, do you think that your false ads claiming originality and invention plus the release of "Avatar" are going to glide right over the voices of the real communities already existing in these already functioning current metaverses? Intel, you're going to have a very hard time with this falsy-glossy campaign once the Second Lifers, OpenSim users, World of Warcraft guild members... and frankly everyone that's a virtual world user, and everyone on the internet decides to speak up that this is a facade perpetrated by an Intel campaign. Intel, you cannot steal credit, and call someone else's product yours because you have the extra money to advertise.

Unknown said...

One more note Sean, take a look at the Youtube video comments, and the digg comments, and everywhere else Intel paid to have this video promoted. You'll see many many of the comments and replies are of the exact same sentiment. I'm not just one rare negative observer. ALL the comments are on the same line as mine. It's why the video is getting buried on digg, and it's why the vid doesn't have more than 4 stars. All of us, not just me, see through Intel's bullshit.

Unknown said...

The maker and seller of the original Copybot that so undermined Second Life back in 2006, John Hurliman known as Eddy Stryker in SL, is now working at Intel.

Does he have anything to do with this?

Opensource is a racket. It's for big companies to get free R&D using enthusiastic young coder fanatics, and then ultimately make a profit from their consulting.

Prokofy

Sean Koehl said...

Brad, I appreciate what you are saying. My apologies if the positioning in this video makes it appear as if we are taking credit for things like SL. My intention in participating in this interview was to introduce some concepts of 3D Internet to laymen, and to speak a bit about our own research in this space. There a many, many companies doing great work in this area. From our labs perspective, any emerging SW usage model has implications to the hardware platform and software stack. It's essential that we adapt future architectures and software tools to meet the needs of future SW apps, hence our research in this area.

Shai Delacroix said...

Positioning is everything in this day and age. I do think it should at least credit Linden Labs for their research efforts. Tacking a known brand name to the "Open Source" technology is a marketing lesson we all need to learn from watching TV Commercials and local politics. Cheers to the invaluable wikipedia ,OS Commerce etc. Good day!

Luc Aubret said...

I didn't get the impression at all that Intel was trying to take credit for OpenSim. It was a technology evangelism webisode, and it advocated the adoption of 3D virtual worlds.

It was never referred to as the "Intel 3D Internet," or branded as anything other than an example of virtual world application.

What happened here is that someone with no real understanding of what's going on saw this video and decided to make sweeping accusations without bothering to do much in the way of research.

Unknown said...

@Luc . Since it was initially posted, the title of the video has been chaned. The title of the video at first was "Intel's 3D Internet"
The description on their youtube site has also since been changed.
And I do give credit and commend Intel for that. They are LISTENING to us, and adapting, which is great.
That has never been something Linden Lab has done.

This all sort of means that Intel is beginning to show legitimacy in this project, and what's most important, is it's showing they are willing to work WITH the people that are going to be using it.

My complaint at first was that Intel was trying to perpetuate the notion that they created this entire concept; as in, before this commercial this technology didn't exist, and that Intel was the inventor.

Intel is moving towards the steps to show the history of the virtual environment concept and previous actualities, and is now trying to take it to a new level. and that, I like. I can respect that.
I have a feeling in the future Intel will take into consideration what we're discussing here, and move forward from there.

We shall see. ... all we want is for Intel to help make this mainstream with their own unique concepts, rather than pretend that this is their own invention. The infrastructure they are working on with opensim will be the proof in the pudding, not the advertising campaign.

Unknown said...

@Sean , I do appreciate you taking the time out to represent Intel in a real, justifying way. it's rare that such a large corporation such as Intel would have a serious interest in hearing from it's users in a personal fashion like this.

Unknown said...

Posted directly from @Secondlifeup on twitter:
Intel Always Intended Science Sim OpenSimulator to be a Competitor to Second Life http://bit.ly/2vWyU

Unknown said...

Even though their video has changed title.... They're still perpetuating the bullshit with social network site advertising.

What's hilarious about this:
http://www.youtube.com/user/channelintel#p/a/f/1/pO_MQDUZUyw

The video has two stars and shows "Error has occurred" when trying to play the video on their youtube channel.

Hey there Mr Intel... so you're inventing the 3D internet, but you can't even get your youtube channel to work.

"Intel inside... my toilet"