SANTA CLARA, CA: Bite PR is spearheading a unique online event for Sun Microsystems Tuesday, October 10, as Sun co-founder and VP John Gage, through his digital avatar, and other executives go live on Second Life to meet with the online community.
Joining Gage will be avatars of Chris Melissinos, Sun's chief gaming officer, and Philip Rosedale, aka "Philip Linden," the CEO of Linden Labs, the San Francisco-based company that created the site. The event will be held on an island created by Sun.
Sun will be the first Fortune 500 company to officially hold a press conference in Second Life, according to Bite.
"We are very proud of this," said Tony Hynes, SVP at Bite. "While a lot of other agencies talk about it, we are… bringing meaningful client content to Second Life."
Second Life is a privately owned 3D virtual online world. Users, called "residents" create identities there, like an alter ego, with separate friends, jobs and homes. The resident count as of September was 740,000.
Gage's speech will "virtually" take place at 10 am PST. Journalists and the whole online community are invited.
Bite is also hosting a dozen or so reporters at its San Francisco offices that day to experience the press conference on its advanced computer systems.
This is not a one-off event for Sun: Hynes said the company plans to maintain an online presence there with continually updated content.
Part of Bite's goal is for Sun to reach a coveted audience of software development professionals, which they expect to find on the site in droves.
"The current residents of Second Life are a desirable audience: creative, in the forefront of the phenomenon of the virtual world; and tech savvy," Hynes added.
In August, Text 100 launched an office on its private island.
