The Otherland Group - Blog

Do you want to change the (virtual) world? We're hiring!

The Otherland Group is a young and fast moving company, based in Berlin, focused on professional services in the emerging market of virtual worlds. For this market we provide consulting, development and services for b2b and b2c oriented projects.

We strongly believe that the future web will not be limited to a web of ‘pages’, consisting of text, graphics and some snippets of sound and moving pictures. The next big evolutionary step for the internet will be a platform where information is presented as a virtual world, rendered more or less realistically on the screen before our eyes, in which you move around as an avatar, a virtual persona.

We will be among those who create this future web and we need you, as a

Software Developer (f/m)

to help us make this vision come true. We are looking for a personality that develops our internal and customers’ services, a person with a strong understanding for code quality and an intuitive feeling for flexible, medium sized software architectures.

Your responsibilities will include implementing software solutions for customer projects as well as for our own service projects for virtual worlds. You will assist our business consultants and software architects in designing the software’s architecture and specification. And you will be responsible for software documentation. ;)

You should apply if you have the following proven experience:

• Master (or comparable graduation) in computer science
• First project experience (projects during internships are counted in)
• Ruby, Ruby on Rails alternatively Python, Django
• HTML, DTML, XSLT, PHP
• Apache Webserver, Apache Tomcat

Additional experience in the following fields is considered desirable

• .Net / Mono
• SOAP, WebServices, WSDL
• LSL

And you should be willing to work in a fast moving (= sometimes chaotic) team.
If you recognize yourself in the description above and would like to change the (virtual) world, get in contact with us at [email protected].

Technorati Tags: 3d web, job offer, second life, virtual worlds, web 3.d

Metaverse Brunch with Jeff Barr in Berlin

The Otherland Group proudly presents ... Amazon's Jeff Barr in Berlin ;)

Jeff not only has a job to envy him (Webservices Evangelist for Amazon) but is an avid and seasoned resident of virtual worlds and very much involved in some interesting projects interfacing the World Wide Web with the Metaverse (in the form of Second Life). If that doesn't sound like an interesting guy to talk to ...

If you like to chat with Jeff a little (and get to know us, too), you are very welcome to this informal little event, which will take place in our (temporary) offices at

Paul Lincke Ufer 44a
Aufgang A
c/o The Business Class Net
10999 Berlin, Germany

Friday, September 14th, from 10:00 - 12:00 CET

No, there is no agenda. We are just happy, to have Jeff here in Berlin and be able to exchange some thoughts about what is at the heart of our company's vision. While we sincerely believe in virtual worlds as a nice place to meet ... sometimes it's still fun to do it in physical reality, too.

If you would like to attend, we would appreciate it if you would send a short notice to PixelSebi ([email protected]). Looking forward to see you on Friday!

Technorati Tags: 3d web, second life, virtual worlds, web 3.d

The other Otherland Group

Yes, while The Otherland Group GmbH is a brand new company, there has been a business called 'The Otherland Group' within the virtual world of Second Life for quite a while. And, yes, those two are related. You could say that the Second Life company was kind of the first incarnation of a vision. It has grown to be something larger now - but the old Otherland Group is still part of the new one. It will grow and go through a kind of metamorphosis in the next months, probably. But those, who know it, will still recognize it.

But first a few words about the history of the Otherland Group brand. It is an important part of my life in the realm of virtual worlds, too. The first Otherland Group was a real estate firm in Second Life. It was founded in the autumn of 2005, nearly two years ago and a little more than half a year after I discovered virtual worlds. This virtual (but somehow very real) company has been a great hobby for me in the last 2 years. It wasn't the business side of this company, which I enjoyed most. I have enough of that in my first life. If was the creative side, which lead to the creation of this business - and, which made me spend so many weekend hours in Second Life especially during 2005 and 2006. Some of the results can be seen in the pictures of this blog entry, btw. They are all pictures taken on The Otherland Archipelago.

I know a lot people who might ask "But whats the 'creative' side of a land business in a virtual world?" Be assured: there is a lot of it. Just read on ...

Technorati Tags: second life, virtual worlds, web 3.d

Why 'Otherland'?

A few people, who already have heard about "Markus' New Company" have asked me "how on earth did you come up with THAT name?" Which is an obvious question, of course. Why not call it Metaverse this or Second that? And, like always, there is a story behind the name; a rather long story actually. But don't be afraid. I won't tell this story here. It has already been told by someone who is a much better author than me ...

The namesake for our company is a series of novels by Tad Williams: The Otherland Tetralogy, consisting of four volumes telling a many-facetted story set in a near future society. Most of the story takes place inside a number of virtual worlds, The Otherland Network. See? The connection is becoming apparent! ;) Two groups of protagonists are traveling through this network of worlds in their fight against a malevolent and very powerful organization, controlled by one ruthless guy - who has do die in the end. (Yes, I love happy ends.)

Technorati Tags: 3d web, second life, virtual worlds, web 3.d

Our first (temporary) office

At the moment we are at a point, where we definitely need a office in RL to work together. Berlin is a big city and has of course a lot of office spaces. So we can't complain having not enough choices ;) But our search for a new home is still ongoing and therefore we decided to rent two desks in a coworking space in berlin. (see picture above)

And I have to say: very good decision so far ;)

Goldie from "Anshe Chung Studios" has visited me yesterday to chat a little bit about whats happening in SL and he, who is setting up the german ACS office in Berlin, has been taken with it from the first moment aswell and is now considering if he will work from here for the first weeks aswell.

So - if anybody is in town: come on over ... we have pretty good coffee here.