Press Release: 02/05/2010 -  MetaMeets Internet Conference Registration Opens Registration

 SUMMARY:

"The MetaMeets 2010 Internet Conference opens just as the 2009 movie "Avatar" has become a spectacular introduction to the idea of virtual environments. The conference, like the movie, is a bridge for the public to see what’s possible in a way that begins to draw them to virtual as well as real life. The conference will be available May 7th-8th in both Live and Virtual formats. For more information see www.metameets.com."

LIVE LINK: www.metameets2010.com/press_release.html

HIGHLIGHTS:

. MetaMeets 2010 follows its successful inaugural conference last year in Amsterdam, Holland. “Metameets” appeared as a Top Ten Twitter Trending Topic on three separate occasions.

. There were 140 Million active virtual world users in 2008, projected to increase to 2 Billion by end-2013.

. The 2009 movie "Avatar" is the first film to reach 2 Billion USD worldwide and has been nominated for nine Oscar Nominations .

. MetaMeets presentations, discussions, and networking activities will be streamed from the live location to virtual environments and will include participation from virtual attendees.

. The Digital Hub is an Irish Government initiative to create an international centre of expertise for knowledge, innovation and creativity focused on digital content and technology enterprises.

For program, registration, and travel information see the conference website at www.metameets2010.com

CONTACT:
 Elisa Butler
 Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 Skype: bevan.whitfield

Starting from December 1, 2008 we'll change the way we apply commissions to the top traders*. At the end of each month we'll pick the top 20 traders who earned us the most commissions. To the first ten we'll apply a 1/6 discount over commissions paid (effectively lowering the commission from 3% to 2.5%**). To the second group of ten traders (positions from 11 to 20) we'll apply a 1/12 discount over commissions paid (effectively lowering the commission from 3% to 2.75%**).

This means that not only our top traders will benefit of advanced features like Good Till Cancelled, Good This Week, Good This Month limit orders, they'll also enjoy lower commissions!

Will you be a top 20 trader***?

Samantha Goldflake
VSTEX Communication and Public Relations Director
www.vstex.net

We've seen the bans and the policies changes from Linden Lab, the widespread financial scandals and all the many issues every stock market has faced.

Right now, the financial sector is in a situation where every stock exchange will stand up once every while presenting its achievements and successes to the general public, a situation where we can still find businesses willing to go public and launch their IPO, a situation where some people will give a try at reviving public shells, or giving a continuity to endangered companies.

We could go on like this for an undefined amount of time; months, years. By operating in Second Life we're bound to Linden Labs and their policies changes. At this point one could bring up other synthetic worlds, but this won't be the main topic of this open letter.

Following up with the many issues we've had to deal with and using our foresight, the VSTEX has been growing strong as a SRO (Self-Regulatory Organization), with an extensive set of rules and policies modeled after "real life" stock market rules, policies and laws. That was a due answer to issues, but far away from being a complete solution for the whole SL financial sector.

As far as we can see it, current SL stock exchanges and companies trying to go public are fighting over a limited set of resources. There could be way more money circulating in SL finances and one can't blame it all on the gambling and banking bans, or other policies changes from Linden Lab.

The current situation reminds us of the Italian city states we had in our country (the VSTEX was born and operates in Italy), before the Italian Renaissance. Right now every exchange is an independent entity; methods, procedures, regulations are not common and can vary a lot from exchange to exchange. Every exchange is like a city state.

It's our belief that such a situation is detrimental for a thriving financial sector. It adds to people (businesses, investors and so on) uncertainity, it doesn't help with building overall confidence.