RatePoint Extends Intelligent Rating System for Second Life Residents.Virtual Social Networks and Community Feedback Created Through Resident Driven Ratings BOSTON -- RatePoint, Inc., creator of the universal platform for social ratings, today announced the general availability of a unique technology for use in the Linden Lab Linden Lab is a privately held company based in San Francisco, California. Its CEO is Philip Rosedale, former CTO of Real Networks. Mitch Kapor is on the board of directors. The company was founded in 1999. The name comes from Linden Street, the street it was originally based on. [R] 3D virtual world, Second Life[R]. RatePoint connects people based on their personal tastes, and presents personalized rating information so that users can make more informed decisions about everything from products, services, websites and now Second Life Residents. This new Second Life technology is an extension of RatePoint's free "People Powered Ratings(SM)" service and is available at secondlife.ratepoint.com. "When it takes off, RatePoint will provide Second Life Residents with the power of both eBay's rating system and Facebook's social networking See social networking site. social networking - social network ," said Second Life power user Joe Munkeby. "This has tremendous implications from improving the Second Life Residents experience to helping accelerate the growth of Second Life." RatePoint's Second Life extension leverages RatePoint's unique rating system to provide personalized ratings for Residents in Second Life. As RatePoint members build a ratings profile, they are connected with other members called "dittos(SM)." A member's "dittos" are leveraged to determine personalized ratings on everything from websites to Second Life Residents. RatePoint members can also provide comments (GABs) so that they can share a review with the community. RatePoint's unique algorithms allow for highly relevant, customized information to be shared with like-minded individuals. This same concept is now applied to the world of Second Life. RatePoint's Second Life Extension has two components. First, Residents can install a private view panel that displays any Second Life Resident's five star rating in their immediate vicinity. RatePoint members with this view activated can see the ratings of all residents in the Second Life environment and rate them, regardless if they are members of RatePoint.com. A Resident can also install an optional rating icon that displays their individual rating to other residents in public view. This rating hovers over their head for all Second Life Residents to see. This can be used to show off a user's rating status to all other Second Life Residents even if they are not a member of RatePoint. "In general, the Web 2.0 experience is one of community involvement and user input in design and functionality," said Mike Rowan, co-founder and CTO (Chief Technical Officer) The executive responsible for the technical direction of an organization. See CIO and salary survey. of RatePoint, Inc. "What RatePoint can offer is the ability to provide disintermediation The elimination of the distributor and/or retailer (the middleman) when making a purchase. The term is used to refer to purchasing directly from a manufacturer's Web site, the benefits of which are convenience, fast turnaround time and sometimes lower prices. from the aggregate information provided by most rating services. We are committed to continuing to build applications that will help focus community commentary and will grow with the needs of popular online environments like Second Life." Second Life Residents can download the RatePoint Ratepack[TM], which will then allow for Residents to rate each other and leave comments. "Second Life Residents interact in a variety of ways in this environment" said Rowan. "RatePoint provides an additional layer to their experience whether they are interacting socially or having a business transaction in Second Life's rapidly growing economy." Generally, communications within Second Life require physical proximity of residents to "hear" a conversation; the same is true for this rating technology. Once a Resident approaches other residents, they are able to see their respective ratings, and also rate the resident. Second Life and Linden Lab Second Life is a 3D online world with a rapidly growing population from more than 100 countries around the globe, in which the Residents themselves create and build the world which includes homes, vehicles, nightclubs, stores, landscapes, clothing, and games. The Second Life Grid is a sophisticated development platform created by Linden Lab, a company founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale Philip Rosedale (born 1969) is an American businessman and technologist, best known as the creator of the virtual world Second Life. Within the Second Life metaverse, his avatar is known as Philip Linden. , to create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D experience. The former CTO of RealNetworks, Rosedale pioneered the development of many of today's streaming media See streaming audio, streaming video and digital media hub. technologies, including RealVideo. In April 2003, noted software pioneer Mitch Kapor Mitchell David Kapor (born 1950) is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the "killer application" often credited with making the personal computer ubiquitous in the business world in the 1980s. , founder of Lotus Development Corporation (company) Lotus Development Corporation - A software company who produced Lotus 1-2-3, the Symphony spreadsheet and Lotus Notes for the IBM PC. Disliked by the League for Programming Freedom on account of their lawsuits. Quarterly sales $224M, profits $10M (Aug 1994). , was named Chairman. In 2006, Philip Rosedale and Linden Lab received WIRED's Rave Award for Innovation in Business. Based in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , Linden Lab employs a senior team bringing together deep expertise in physics, 3D graphics and networking. Note to editors: Second Life[R] and Linden Lab[R] are registered trademarks of Linden Linden, city, United States Linden, city (1990 pop. 36,701), Union co., NE N.J., in the New York metropolitan area; inc. 1925. During the first half of the 20th cent. Research, Inc. About RatePoint Founded in 2006, RatePoint, Inc. offers a service that is capitalizing on the proliferation of social networking sites A Web site that provides a virtual community for people interested in a particular subject or just to "hang out" together. Members create their own online "profile" with biographical data, pictures, likes, dislikes and any other information they choose to post. and the need for individuals to better communicate with people of like interests across the Internet. Current investors include Prism VentureWorks (www.prismventure.com), .406 Ventures (www.406ventures.com) and former GeoTrust executives Chris Bailey Chris Bailey is the founder and front man of legendary rock band The Saints. He was born in Nanyuki, Kenya in the late 1950s to Irish parents. Bailey grew up in Belfast until the age of 7 when the family emigrated to Australia. (former co-founder and CTO at GeoTrust) and Neal Creighton (former co-founder and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of GeoTrust). RatePoint's service is an intelligent social rating service that lets people rate websites and shares those ratings among other users with similar profiles. More information can be found at http://www.ratepoint.com. RatePoint, ditto dit·to n. pl. dit·tos 1. The same as stated above or before. 2. A duplicate; a copy. 3. A pair of small marks ( " ) used to indicated that the word, phrase, or figure given above is to be repeated. groups, GABlets and "People Powered Ratings" are registered trademarks of RatePoint, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. |
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