Filed under: Educational, News, Interviews, Stories
Nerine Kasei is the energetic and friendly Marketing Manager for Useful Technology Corp (UTC). Useful Technology is preparing to launch Usability Island (despite recent disruption from a fire, and a Second Life software update) as a community-oriented effort in conjunction with their Linxter software. We spoke with her about UTC's upcoming launch in Second Life (on 17 December) and its recent announcement of educational support.Usability Island is designed with a couple of goals in mind. Product assessment surveys in this case. People will be able to set up booths where they can have their product evaluated by Second Life users, in exchange for some reward (a gift or payment of L$). Useful Technology will be using it to get feedback on the new user interface of their Linxter suite of software. "Our Linxter product is going on closed beta on Friday, Dec. 15. While we put some major major hard labor into it, we're not sure how users will react to it. Thus, we're starting off with something small, the UI in this case, and seeing how the early technology adopters of Second Life react to it.", said Kasei.
People who participate in UTC's UI assessment, from the 17th will be compensated for their part in the survey. UTC is planning a rewards/loyalty program for regulars who provide useful feedback. "I believe that UT and the various vendors using our services truly will benefit from honest answers from the Second Life community," explained Kasei, "For this brutal honesty and verbose answers offered, there are plans in the works for a loyalty program for frequent, excellent testers."
Kasei is enthusiastic about Linxter, UTC's new flagship product, "Linxter is your digital life, in one sweet package. It combines the ease of IM/Email communications with bookmark managers, blogging, advertising, identity management while maintaining 100% security. Under our identity management application, you'll be able to swiftly change your identity on the fly. From work life, to personal life, to that secret hidden life that you don't want anyone to know about, it's managed under one package. When you change identities within our identity book, your bookmarks change, your IM name changes, your email address changes, the ads that you select changes, etc."
So, what's the attraction of Linxter to Second Life residents? Kasei explains, "We'll also be offering support for virtual identities, with Second Life being the first supported. Switch to your SL identity, and you'll be emailing to your contacts under that name, you'll receive directed advertising from Second Life vendors that you have a relationship with, you'll be able IM with your Second Life friends while you're offline, but they are in world. It extends your Second Life persona and gives you the conveniences of the real world."
Kasei also points out portability and convenience as major features, "Everything you send or receive is uploaded into our Amazon Web Services cloud. That means if you're at any computer with Linxter installed, you can retrieve that file attachment you received months ago, or that email you sent yesterday. It's all just there."
UTC is also planning on providing educational support, as previously mentioned, for both Real Life and Second Life topics. Support includes Audio/Video support, inworld advertising and promotion on Usability Island.
More information on product evaluation, being an evaluator, and their educational support programs will be available on Usability Island from the 17th of December, or you can IM Imami Inada (Business Development Manager), Aertisan Fei (Virtual Worlds Manager) or Nerine Kasei herself for more information.
[Update: It is Useful Technology Corp (UTC) not Useful Technology Inc (UTI)]Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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