Village Gamer

Toronto – Organizations who are looking for new ways to engage with their customers, employees, students, or stakeholders are finding that virtual world technologies provide a cost-effective way to broadcast and interact with their communities. Metanomics™, a weekly on-line broadcast on the serious uses of virtual worlds, is a leading source of insight into the best practices, case studies, and research into these cost-effective methods to build and inform community, and was re-launched today by Remedy Communications.

Remedy Communications also announced that it was starting a new season of the Metanomics weekly show with special guest Mark Kingdon, CEO of Linden Lab, and that it had unveiled new Web resources and social media applications.

“Metanomics will continue to be a leading source of insight into how virtual worlds are being put to serious use,” said Doug Thompson, CEO of Remedy Communications, the owner of Metanomics. “It is also an example of how organizations can use virtual world technology to build and inform their communities. It is a cost-effective way to give people from around the corner or around the

world a sense of engagement and ‘presence’ that you simply can’t achieve in any other way other than meeting in person.”

For over 70 episodes, Metanomics host and founder Robert Bloomfield, Professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, has interviewed a wide range of distinguished guests covering topics that include the enterprise use of virtual worlds, real-world policy issues, research, case studies, and the societal impact of these technologies.

In recent Metanomics programs, attorney Benjamin Duranske considered how the creation of virtual worlds might alter intellectual property law, architect Jon Brouchoud explained how virtual worlds could provide cost-saving collaborative and integrated practice in the building industry, and Dahlia Khalifa of the World Bank emphasized the value of reaching a large world audience through virtual worlds as part of their “Doing Business 2009” report.

“In an economic period where cost-savings are critical for large corporations, virtual worlds offer advantages that are not fully realized by alternative bleeding-edge internet solutions,” said Sandy Adam of Sigma-Aldrich Chemical. “For example, Sigma-Aldrich uses virtual worlds for cost-effective 3D collaboration, as well as for product demonstrations that would not be possible at customer sites. Enterprises that benefit from 3D visualization, global intra-communications, or effective social networking, rely on the weekly Metanomics show to keep up-to-date with timely and in-depth coverage of virtual worlds opportunities.”

“Metanomics provides a thoughtful, informed view of virtual worlds including the challenges, and the policy and social applications,” said Doug Thompson. “With a new Web site and social media tools we have also built a platform that is an example of how organizations can build new, innovative and meaningful ways to broadcast, share, and collaborate.”