Gradually getting back into the main drift of things. Checking links on the web that passed by recently. The main one seems to be from Victor Keegan a couple of weeks ago on the Chinese approach to virtual worlds.

Based on an interview with Robert Lai, chief scientist of the Beijing Cyber Recreation District project, Keegan reports on an investment in servers covering 100 sq km. This is for a virtual world expected to have 150m avatars, of which 7m could be online at the same time. Keegan comments

This is so far above the capability of the much-hyped Second Life, which rarely has more than 50,000 online concurrently, that I had some difficulty in believing it.

Keegan continues to suggest that the long term plan is to use this kind of space as a means of merchandising product direct from China. As if online could be as enticing as somewhere like Princesshay for example.

Meanwhile the Phoenix are holding a series of events around or in Second Life. Maybe not many have the bandwidth to get involved but there seems to be a future for this sort of thing.