T-Online Online and Inworld

Out on a short ramble today I spotted a couple of islands belonging to T-Online, the German ISP, so I popped by to take a look. T-Online already had some involvement in Second Life as co-sponsors (with Axel Springer) of the SL newspaper, "The AvaStar". [Hmm... I see Gwyneth Llewelyn has written an article in the latest copy - should be worth a read.]

At the CeBIT show in Germany last week T-Online unveiled their new presence in SL.

The 2 islands share a common "tropical isle" theme, but serve 2 different functions. First, there's the information and events island - the place to go to find out stuff. Then there's the beach island, where you can go to chill out, dance like a loon or laze in the Sun.

Here's the map for the first island.

As you can see, it's not all about ruthless efficiency - rather it seems to be a bit confused about its purpose. On the one side, you have serious-minded locations like the "executive briefing centre" and "board meeting centre" (nice to see English spellings too!). On the other, you have the catwalk and gallery. The latter has a nice facility - it allows you to upload your portrait (or so it says, I'm too shy) on to the Gallery wall. There appears to be a photo-studio, like that at AOL Pointe, but there were no instructions or any indication that this did anything.

They also employ a greeter to welcome you to the main building - which is always a good thing in my book.

The second island, aside from sporting a giant logo, seems largely unadorned. There's sunbeds, a beach hut and some dance stages. The place seemed quite popular, with a number of people dancing or sunbathing.

If I am not mistaken - and I often am - the islands have been put together by The Web Production, or so this webpage says. It's not a company I am familiar, but I now know they are based in St Peterburg (the one in Russia, not Florida). There are some nice aspects to the build - which seems to be very effective in "midnight mode". However, I am curious about the messages T-Online wants to put out. Are they trying to use the place for their own internal meetings, attract business customers or provide a "promotional playground" targeted at home users? Most of the site would suggest the third of these, and if that is the thrust then maybe they'd be better shifting the "serious stuff" to another, more private sim. Just a thought...