Valleywag
Ponder these three facts. Sam Palmisano, chief exec of IBM, tells Fortune's David Kirpatrick that virtual worlds are the "next phase of the Internet's evolution". The businessmen and politicians at last week's Davos conference went ga-ga for Second Life, Linden Lab's virtual world. And we learn from a Viacom exec, who is planning to recreate a Lower East Side club scene in a 3D environment, that the media giant's founder "is fascinated by the virtual currency and the way this world is interfacing with the real world." All very impressive, except for the fact that the more clueless the exec, the more mesmerized they are by the delusional promise of virtual worlds. IBM is a stodgy computer services company that attaches itself to any new trend to jazz up its image; the typical Davos attendee is a German factory boss in his late 50s; and Sumner Redstone, Viacom's chairman, is 83, and hasn't been in touch with popular culture since he launched MTV.
A virtual world's arthritic fans
Ponder these three facts. Sam Palmisano, chief exec of IBM, tells Fortune's David Kirpatrick that virtual worlds are the "next phase of the Internet's evolution". The businessmen and politicians at last week's Davos conference went ga-ga for Second Life, Linden Lab's virtual world. And we learn from a Viacom exec, who is planning to recreate a Lower East Side club scene in a 3D environment, that the media giant's founder "is fascinated by the virtual currency and the way this world is interfacing with the real world." All very impressive, except for the fact that the more clueless the exec, the more mesmerized they are by the delusional promise of virtual worlds. IBM is a stodgy computer services company that attaches itself to any new trend to jazz up its image; the typical Davos attendee is a German factory boss in his late 50s; and Sumner Redstone, Viacom's chairman, is 83, and hasn't been in touch with popular culture since he launched MTV.
2:23 PM on Mon Jan 29 2007
By Nick Denton
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