Coming Soon

LL has added a new blog or a new section of their blog called Coming Soon which is intended to alert users and businesses to new features and upcoming changes. The current page mentions the new viewer, an update in a graphics format, and some issues with related websites. It is, as they say, down in the weeds.

Anyone who may be planing a serious business in SL would like to know what the overall strategy and direction is for the product. Having been burned several times in the past with tanking land prices, the elimination of gambling, the exile of adult content, and most recently the revised licensing policy, serious users are reluctant to invest serious time and attention in a product whose direction seems to be driven more by whims than by a coherent business plan.

The apparent lack of a strategy is not a major problem for the business person who owns a few islands and sells virtual products like hair and clothes. In the worst possible case they would be out a few thousand dollars for the land, a few hundred dollars a month in revenue, and many hours of invested time. However, despite these set backs, they could rationalize that it was great fun and the experience was worth the money. I do not, in any way, mean to demean the small business people of Second Life. But, in the scheme of things they do not have a great deal on the line.

What, on the other hand, if a company was considering the investment of tens of millions of dollars into virtual meetings, distance education, virtual tourism, or any of the potential applications of this technology. Is Second Life the platform they would choose? I suspect not. It just seems too risky. It isn't just the lag, or the instability or even the griefers that are the problem. It isn't the poor documentation or lack of development tools or the lack of management tools. It is the fact that there is no plan for addressing these issues that keeps investors at bay.

But what are the alternatives? Well, there appear to be two. First, is the option of using the open source software to create your own virtual world. Some companies are doing this. Second, is the option of just waiting. Wait until somebody comes along who will embrace this technology and offer it to others in a form that seems worthy of investment. And, overwhelmingly, this second option is the most popular.

Here is what I would like to see. Coming Soon: A company that knows how to develop, advance and market this impressive virtual world technology. That would make me very happy!!