NGP2

Why NGP2? I have (or rather, had) no idea, but that's the name of the sim I want to tell you about tonight. It belongs to Telecom Italia, but is intended as a showcase for their many partners. A bit of rootling about on t'interweb reveals the meaning of NGP2: Next Generation Partnership Program. So that's a mystery solved. The company Telecom is Italy's domestic leader in telecommunications products, supplying 22 million fixed lines, 36.3 million mobile lines and 7.6 million Alice-branded broadband connections.

The company has had its own 4-sim presence in Second Life since it's official opening in July ,2007. Here's the machinima made to promote it at the time:

I don't know much about the history of the NGP2 sim. And, in truth, there's also not a great deal to be said about its construction. The principal element is a 20+ storey Ecosystem Tower, each floor of which is capable of holding offices for Telecom Italia partners. The offices are all identical, as far as I can see, each has an ante-room and a conference room, and differ only in the slideshows on display. They are quite densely packed, both horizontally and vertically, and therefore I doubt they could ever be used for more than the occasional meeting. There seems nothing to prevent "chat seepage" between offices. The tower also features an auditorium and, floating above the tower, a restaurant. There is a second auditorium, principallyintended for music events. Finally, there's a quartet of "immersive 360degree photo rooms" - though I'm sure a more elegant term exists for these. You can see one of them in the picture set below: