Digital Suburbia

Kaneva aims to bring social networking to a relatively cautious, upscale crowd more interested in making real-world connection than in building fantasies online

by Reena Jana and Aili McConnon

One recent evening, Amanda Rains, a mother of two college-age boys and the owner of 9mm Books, a small publishing company in San Francisco, was watching a streaming video of a Fox News (NWS) report on her computer. She was mesmerized by an interview with Christopher Klaus, who was talking about his new company, Kaneva. The concept behind Kaneva, Klaus told the interviewer, is a 3D virtual world that parallels reality and provides a social-networking tool for establishing real-world relationships.

Kaneva is part of a new crop of user-friendly virtual worlds. These digital communities, created by such companies as Multiverse, There.com, and Sony PlayStation Home (SNE) (due in the fall), are threatening to challenge Second Life's dominance of the category. Think of Kaneva as Second Life meets MySpace, with a dash of Match.com thrown in—aimed not at tech-savvy teens but at a mainstream audience. Like Amanda Rains.

Networking for Grown-Ups

The interview inspired Rains, who had never visited a virtual world or heard of Second Life, to create an art gallery within Klaus's 3D environment. (Klaus has been offering free accounts for beta testers since March, 2007.)

Rains hoped to build a national, even global, audience for her small business. So she set up a virtual storefront to point visitors toward the real-world Web site for her publishing company, which specializes in artists' books, and its affiliate, an exhibition space called Shooting Gallery.

On Apr. 6, Rains' digital gallery opened for business, showcasing images from the work of Niagara, an artist she publishes. The real-life paintings go for between $1,800 and $4,500. Rains hosted small crowds of avatars—or virtual alter egos—including potential art collectors from Oregon, New Jersey, and even Belgium, just as digital doppelgangers socialize and sell goods within Second Life.

Rains hasn't sold any paintings yet, but her desire to build awareness for her small business has been fulfilled. She has a list of friends she met in Kaneva and keeps up with them via the site—as users do on MySpace. She even has an "e-boyfriend," as she calls her online companion, whom she met in Kaneva, Match.com-style.

Rains is just the type of customer that Klaus hopes to lure—a newbie who has never played online games or visited a virtual world. He wants to attract large, mainstream audiences via easy-to-use, avatar- and environment-design tools, graphics that load quickly, and safety features to keep out cybercriminals who lurk in Second Life, such as stalkers and vandals. In real estate terms, Kaneva is the suburbs to Second Life's more urban sensibilities.

And people are starting to move in. Rains is among 150,000-plus beta users. That's up from 115,000 in March, 2006, and nearly double the 80,000 users in December, 2005. Klaus won't say when Kaneva will officially launch.

Kaneva is generating some early buzz thanks to its focus on social networking and security. Like MySpace, Kaneva allows for friend requests, comments, e-mail among members, and profiles. And as in Second Life, Kaneva offers animated characters that users design and manipulate through onscreen environments in real time.

Users can also upload music, images, and video and play streaming media within virtual environments. A YouTube-like feature will be added too, once video capabilities are built in, says Klaus.

Kaneva is a world with lots of adult supervision The entire environment is aesthetically controlled by Kaneva's software—users can't design their own buildings, clothing, or vehicles from scratch or hire a developer to design virtual products.