3pointD.com

Registration for the Second Life Community Convention, to be held August 18-20 in San Francisco, is now open at the SLCC site. The three-day event, which is still in the planning stages, will bring together several hundred Second Life residents, as well as representatives from Linden Lab. Virtual world marketing and services company Rivers Run Red will make a presentation, and if last year’s SLCC was any indication, an outstanding time will be had by all.

Last year’s event was actually very interesting to me, in that it was very apparent that the connections being made offline would only strengthen the community that was coming together online. Of course, there aren’t any metrics to measure this, but the past year has seen an explosion of development activity in Second Life, and I’d wager that much of it is due to developers having had the chance to come together in the real world. That, of course, is at the heart of the vague idea I’ve been calling 3pointD: that ultimately, the thing all these technologies should be doing is helping people connect in the real world. Such gatherings can only help create a virtuous feedback loop, in my opinion.

Of course, you have to pony up your $150 to attend. Interestingly, though, you can also pay in Linden dollars. At L$50,000, it’s actually US$5 more expensive to pay in virtual currency at the current exchange rate (L$322/US$1), but with the falling Linden it may well pay to wait a few days.