I get very frustrated at times because I see so much potential in this technology and Linden Labs seems so unequal to the task of exploiting it. Recently, it appears, they have begun a new policy regarding adult content. I say 'it appears' because I've had to piece this together from conversations that I've had with various people and note cards I've collected from unhappy vendors. I'm sure they would say, "well the policy was stated in..." some unclear statement on some obscure page on some obscured blog or forum. If I wanted to get clarification of the policy the chances of talking to a live human are so infinitesimally small that it would not be worth the bother. So, I have to go with what I have garnered.
Apparently, adult content is being moved to a separate area. This is a good idea. I wrote earlier about the need for zoning and this seems to be a step in that direction. And they are requiring age verification for people to visit those areas. This also seems like a good idea on the face of it. It will help ensure that minors are not exposed to adult content. But, when you think about it, the logic quickly begins to unravel.
First of all, minors have access to adult content all over the web already. So, the notion that protecting minors from exposure to these things is a red herring. Second, people who have fantasies involving adult content are the most likely to want to protect their anonymity. So, a lot of these people will be scared away by age verification. The claim is that age verification is anonymous and it may well be. But, people who are doing odd things anonymously in Second Life are not going to want to take the chance. So, this move will have a chilling effect on the red light districts of Second Life.
Some may feel this is a good thing and others may feel differently. I am not here to judge the morality of it. I am only commenting on the business strategy. A while back they banned gambling which seemed to have a serious impact on land prices. I suspect that age verification will have a similar negatvie economic impact.
I have also written in previous posts about the problem of anonymity. People who are in Second Life to conduct real business want to know who they are dealing with. This was part of the zoning discussion. So, I support user authentication.
However, the current policy, as I understand it, will require a measure of authentication from those most likely to desire anonymity and require no authentication whatsoever from those who would most likely benefit from it. So, the current policy seems to achieve exactly the opposite of what they would want to achieve.
I am reminded of a comment once made by ex president Lyndon Johnson. I believe he was talking about the UN when he said "these guys couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel." This quote comes back with a special resonnance every time I hear about another business decision from Linden Labs.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Trying on clothes, Virtually
One of the problems with niche marketing of clothing is knowing what measurements to produce clothes for. The standard sizes that we currently have represent averages that fit some people better than others. If you wanted your clothes to fit perfectly, you would have to have them custom made which would be very expensive. Or would it.
Imagine that you have an avatar that actually corresponds to your measurements. This may not be ideal for a fantasy life but it is ideal for clothes shopping in a virtual world. Let's push this just a bit and say that you have multiple avatar that reflect your usual weight gains and losses throughout the year.
So you decide to go clothes shopping in a virtual world. First, you step on the scale to get your current weight. And then you select the avatar developed for that weight. As you look at items in the store, you select ones that you like and have them put on your avatar. This provides several benefits over our current ways of shopping.
First, you cans see how this particular items looks on you. Not every item will look as good on each body type. Second, you can try the item in different colors and fabrics to see which one works best for you. Third, you can look at yourself from all angles without having to crane your neck as you would in a store with those full length mirrors. Fourth, you can see how this new items goes with things you already have. Say it is a new jacket and you wonder if it will go with some slacks you already have. Well, just put the virtual copy of those slacks on your avatar and you can easily see. Fifth, you can get the opinion of friends. Have a friend teleport to the store and have a look. Maybe you thought that lime green jacket went pretty well with the slate blue pants but your friend might have a different opinion. Sixth, you could consult an expert (software) fashion adviser who could tell you if certain colors, textures, and styles work together and what they are appropriate for.
Finally, when you are done, the specifications for the items of clothing can be sent directly to the clothing manufacturer, fed into the tailoring machine, and your items will be sent to you with a few days. Stretching the imagination, one can see a day when these tailoring machines may be located locally, so you can just go pick up your clothes in a couple hours like you might pick up your dry cleaning.
Of course, the specifications would then be added to your inventory and the next time you go shopping, or it you were trying to figure out what to wear to a particular event, all of these items would be available to try on.
Some of the elements of this scenario can be accomplished today. Some require a little imagination and some advances in technology. However, we can't consider the possible uses of a new technology in a world frozen in the present. We have to consider it in a world that has been changed by the technology.
Imagine that you have an avatar that actually corresponds to your measurements. This may not be ideal for a fantasy life but it is ideal for clothes shopping in a virtual world. Let's push this just a bit and say that you have multiple avatar that reflect your usual weight gains and losses throughout the year.
So you decide to go clothes shopping in a virtual world. First, you step on the scale to get your current weight. And then you select the avatar developed for that weight. As you look at items in the store, you select ones that you like and have them put on your avatar. This provides several benefits over our current ways of shopping.
First, you cans see how this particular items looks on you. Not every item will look as good on each body type. Second, you can try the item in different colors and fabrics to see which one works best for you. Third, you can look at yourself from all angles without having to crane your neck as you would in a store with those full length mirrors. Fourth, you can see how this new items goes with things you already have. Say it is a new jacket and you wonder if it will go with some slacks you already have. Well, just put the virtual copy of those slacks on your avatar and you can easily see. Fifth, you can get the opinion of friends. Have a friend teleport to the store and have a look. Maybe you thought that lime green jacket went pretty well with the slate blue pants but your friend might have a different opinion. Sixth, you could consult an expert (software) fashion adviser who could tell you if certain colors, textures, and styles work together and what they are appropriate for.
Finally, when you are done, the specifications for the items of clothing can be sent directly to the clothing manufacturer, fed into the tailoring machine, and your items will be sent to you with a few days. Stretching the imagination, one can see a day when these tailoring machines may be located locally, so you can just go pick up your clothes in a couple hours like you might pick up your dry cleaning.
Of course, the specifications would then be added to your inventory and the next time you go shopping, or it you were trying to figure out what to wear to a particular event, all of these items would be available to try on.
Some of the elements of this scenario can be accomplished today. Some require a little imagination and some advances in technology. However, we can't consider the possible uses of a new technology in a world frozen in the present. We have to consider it in a world that has been changed by the technology.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Clothing Sales in Second Life
Mass marketing became very popular in the middle of the last century. There were, as far as I can see, two reasons for this. First, the mass production of goods brought down the price making them affordable by a much larger number of people. And, second, mass appeal advertising (possibly due to advances in media technology) created the demand needed to justify mass production. However, before the end of the century, pundits were predicting the end of mass marketing. Alvin Toffler was one of those pundits, if I recall correctly. And stepping up to provide an excellent example of a new way of marketing, Dell Computer started allowing customers to go to their website and customize their personal computers.
Now, lets think about what this means for a moment. The marketing paradigm shifted substantially. In the mass marketing paradigm, product designers created products that can be manufactured in great quantity with little variety. Then they endeavored to convince consumers that these products are what they needed. In the niche marketing paradigm, consumers design products that will be produced in small quantity with much more variety. And nobody has to convince them to buy as they have specified exactly what they want.
But, some problems arise with extreme niche marketing. First, how to do you make custom products at an affordable price? And, second, how do you get the specifications for the custom product from the customer to the producer. As to the first, I can only say that making more flexible automated production lines seems to be the answer. That is not my area of expertise. So, I will leave that to the process control people. However, the answer to the second is virtual worlds and that is something I know a little about.
Next time, I will describe the process of buying clothing in a virtual world that dovetails very nicely with this concept of niche marketing.
Now, lets think about what this means for a moment. The marketing paradigm shifted substantially. In the mass marketing paradigm, product designers created products that can be manufactured in great quantity with little variety. Then they endeavored to convince consumers that these products are what they needed. In the niche marketing paradigm, consumers design products that will be produced in small quantity with much more variety. And nobody has to convince them to buy as they have specified exactly what they want.
But, some problems arise with extreme niche marketing. First, how to do you make custom products at an affordable price? And, second, how do you get the specifications for the custom product from the customer to the producer. As to the first, I can only say that making more flexible automated production lines seems to be the answer. That is not my area of expertise. So, I will leave that to the process control people. However, the answer to the second is virtual worlds and that is something I know a little about.
Next time, I will describe the process of buying clothing in a virtual world that dovetails very nicely with this concept of niche marketing.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Second Life for Retail Sales
My last few posts were addressing the use of Second Life for virtual meetings. I chose that because it was a fairly mundane but important and easy to implement application of virtual world technology. Next I want to turn to the use of virtual world technology for retail sales. Several companies such as Dell Computers and a couple book sellers have attempted to come into Second Life to sell their products. These attempts have ended up as abysmal failures casting a lot of doubt on the viability of Second Life, or virtual world technology, for retail. Personally, I believe that this technology has enormous potential for retail sales and will provide some examples over the next few posts. However, in this post, I would like to offer some basic principles for achieving a successful retail presence in a virtual world.
First, don't try to replace the web! The web is very, very good at what it does. It is a big interactive document which allows you to get information about products and then purchase them. Hence, any retail application in a virtual world should link back to the retailer's web site to complete the sale. Web technology is cheaper, faster and better at this and it should be used in conjunction with virtual world technology. Virtual world applications should never attempt to replace web applications. They should, instead, augment them.
Second, use the virtual world for what it does best. I will provide several examples of this over the next few posts. However, for now, suffice it to say that there are things you can do in virtual worlds that you cannot do on web sites and that should be the focus of retail applications in the virtual world. What are some of these things? We, you can try on clothing in a virtual world. You cannot try it on at a web site. You can test drive a car in a virtual world. You cannot drive it at a website. You can demonstrate how to use a product or have a speak explain it in a virtual world. You cannot do that easily at a website.
Third, take advantage of the social interaction available in a virtual world. When you are on a web site looking at a product, you may be there with hundreds of other shoppers. But you cannot turn to them and ask what they think. Nor can you turn to a representative of the retail company and ask questions. Both of these are achievable through awkward means on web sites. For examples, many websites have product reviews. And often you can IM somebody for technical support. However, nothing beats just turning to another person and asking a question. And that you can do in a virtual world.
Finally, and this is critical, decouple your sales from the In World economy. If you buy a shirt for your avatar in Second Life, you will pay around 250 Linden dollars for it or the equivalent of one US dollar. If you are using Second Life to buy are real shirt, you will pay around $20 US which is around 5000 Linden dollars. Talk about sticker shock!! The disparity between the In World and Real World economies makes it very difficult to sell real products in-world. And, the solution is to decouple real world sales from the virtual world. In other words, provide all the pre-sale support through the virtual world. Then, when it is time to make the sale, go to the website and let it does what it does best.
Over the next few posts, I will explore specific retail applications and how they can take advantage of virtual world technology.
First, don't try to replace the web! The web is very, very good at what it does. It is a big interactive document which allows you to get information about products and then purchase them. Hence, any retail application in a virtual world should link back to the retailer's web site to complete the sale. Web technology is cheaper, faster and better at this and it should be used in conjunction with virtual world technology. Virtual world applications should never attempt to replace web applications. They should, instead, augment them.
Second, use the virtual world for what it does best. I will provide several examples of this over the next few posts. However, for now, suffice it to say that there are things you can do in virtual worlds that you cannot do on web sites and that should be the focus of retail applications in the virtual world. What are some of these things? We, you can try on clothing in a virtual world. You cannot try it on at a web site. You can test drive a car in a virtual world. You cannot drive it at a website. You can demonstrate how to use a product or have a speak explain it in a virtual world. You cannot do that easily at a website.
Third, take advantage of the social interaction available in a virtual world. When you are on a web site looking at a product, you may be there with hundreds of other shoppers. But you cannot turn to them and ask what they think. Nor can you turn to a representative of the retail company and ask questions. Both of these are achievable through awkward means on web sites. For examples, many websites have product reviews. And often you can IM somebody for technical support. However, nothing beats just turning to another person and asking a question. And that you can do in a virtual world.
Finally, and this is critical, decouple your sales from the In World economy. If you buy a shirt for your avatar in Second Life, you will pay around 250 Linden dollars for it or the equivalent of one US dollar. If you are using Second Life to buy are real shirt, you will pay around $20 US which is around 5000 Linden dollars. Talk about sticker shock!! The disparity between the In World and Real World economies makes it very difficult to sell real products in-world. And, the solution is to decouple real world sales from the virtual world. In other words, provide all the pre-sale support through the virtual world. Then, when it is time to make the sale, go to the website and let it does what it does best.
Over the next few posts, I will explore specific retail applications and how they can take advantage of virtual world technology.
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