Microsoft pushed out an announcement that they were holding a C# developers meeting in Second Life.  The email pointed to an article on devsource.com.  At Clear Ink, we're finding that Second Life is a good place to hold meetings that would otherwise be on the phone. It made me wonder why Microsoft hasn't created their own competitor to Second Life. After all, it's practically in their brand that they take great ideas in the marketplace (Mac OS, Netscape Navigator, Google Earth) and make "better" versions (Windows XP, MSIE, Visual Earth). I've got to think they've got some bright people who could put together a clone. They definitely have MMORPGs (Asheron's Call).

So, they clearly recognize the utility of a virtual world. They clearly have the capital to fund a project. They clearly have the will, however misguided, to fight Google head to head. They must have some will to fight with IBM and Sun, both of whom have interesting virtual worlds work going on. It would nice to see Microsoft come out with a leading edge product after such a long time.

Maybe they need a visionary. I understand Cory Ondrejka doesn't have a job. He was the CTO at Linden Lab until recently. I'd wish him luck, but luck is something one makes. He's clearly made his own already. I will be really interested to know if the company in Redmond is paying attention.