For years I festered over the problem of how money was being made in Second Life. I asked students to study businesses there and ran several business models on my own in an attempt to find out how money was being made. First, I have to say that very often either money is not being made or people are duplicitous about their presence in Second Life.
In the first case, I have always been skeptical of the real estate barons. Real estate prices have been in steady decline for the entire time I have been in Second Life (after the first six months or so) and I just can't work out a model where anyone could be doing anything but hemorrhaging money. I recently abandoned my academy in Second Life because I couldn't even give the land away. This is land I paid over $100 for four years ago and paid $15 per month tier and $6.95 per month for the right to own land as a premium member. That is roughly a $1,200 investment that returned $0. If somebody can make money with numbers like that, I like to hear about it.
Second, I think a lot of people in Second Life are just shills. They are Lindens pretending not to be in order to promote SL hype. Or they are one of the many satellite SL groups developing something such as a new client as Linden Labs continues to pursue its failed collaborative vision.
I feel vindicated in a perverse way as Linden Labs takes the one of the most impressive computer applications ever developed and lets opportunity after opportunity slip through their finger. It is almost like a Greek tragedy where the core of who you are prevents you from fulfilling your destiny.
But, the thing that really caught my attention in recent weeks was an article about Money Laundering in Second Life. When I read that, so many things made sense that did not make sense before. Has it really come to that? Has LL blown so many opportunities that it has to rely on transaction fees from laundered money to stay afloat. I suspect we will never know the answers to that or many other plaguing questions. But, it would sure be great to know them.
Showing posts with label Second Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Second Life. Show all posts
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
I Think I'm Giving Up Again
In the late 1980's a personal computer appeared called the Amiga which was known for cool features and a small but savagely loyal customer base. Few people today would remember this name as it has drifted into the mists of computer history. However, it serves as warning. Having a technologically sophisticated product is not sufficient for success.
Another good example is a collection of computer companies in the 1960's and 1970's called the BUNCH (Burroughs, UNIVAC, NCR, Control Data Corporation, and Honeywell) that competed unsuccessfully with IBM. IBM was never known for technological superiority. And yet it managed to beat out all the other companies that were.
What do these two examples have in common and what does it have to do with Second Life? Second Life is the most impressive technology to come along in a long time. And yet it is failing to capture the market, even though it is really the only competitor in the market. It is on wobbly financial ground. And it shows no prospects for living up to the hype it generated in late 2006. Why is this?
Having a technologically superior product and no business plan is a formula for failure. I have complained many times in this blog about how LL does not seem to have any idea what it is doing and events are beginning to bear that out. I think that Second Life is likely to go the way of the Amiga. It will have some cool features but no plan for business applications. It will have a small but savagely loyal customer base. It will continue to pursue the "fantasy world created by its users" strategy despite the fact that this has proven to be a faulty strategy. And it will fade into the mists of computer history. It is sad but I am having a hard time trying to justify wasting any more time on it. So, I am closing this blog with the following quote:
“For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
Another good example is a collection of computer companies in the 1960's and 1970's called the BUNCH (Burroughs, UNIVAC, NCR, Control Data Corporation, and Honeywell) that competed unsuccessfully with IBM. IBM was never known for technological superiority. And yet it managed to beat out all the other companies that were.
What do these two examples have in common and what does it have to do with Second Life? Second Life is the most impressive technology to come along in a long time. And yet it is failing to capture the market, even though it is really the only competitor in the market. It is on wobbly financial ground. And it shows no prospects for living up to the hype it generated in late 2006. Why is this?
Having a technologically superior product and no business plan is a formula for failure. I have complained many times in this blog about how LL does not seem to have any idea what it is doing and events are beginning to bear that out. I think that Second Life is likely to go the way of the Amiga. It will have some cool features but no plan for business applications. It will have a small but savagely loyal customer base. It will continue to pursue the "fantasy world created by its users" strategy despite the fact that this has proven to be a faulty strategy. And it will fade into the mists of computer history. It is sad but I am having a hard time trying to justify wasting any more time on it. So, I am closing this blog with the following quote:
“For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Second Life Viewer 2
The new Second Life viewer is now available for download and I have very mixed feelings about it. On the positive side, they are clearly making an effort to make Second Life easier to use and the new look has some positive features for new users. The most significant positive feature is that you can fiddle around with the interface and figure things out. With the old client, you nearly always had to ask someone how to do something. The second positive feature is that much of the unnecessary functionality (at least unnecessary to new visitors) available in the old client is now hidden.
On the other hand, the new client is somewhat frustrating to veteran users. I am constantly trying to figure out how to do something that I already knew how to do using the old client. Some times I just give up and relog using the old client.
I've also noticed a new Welcome Island and a new Discovery Island. Apparently these islands replace the old Orientation and Help Islands. Personally, my favorites were the ones a few generations ago that had a Disney Land feel to them. But, critiquing the new client and the new islands seems to miss the point.
There was a hit movie in the late 1960's called Midnight Cowboy staring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman. In this movie Hoffman played a homeless character in New York City named Ratso. One day Ratso steals some items from a sidewalk stand and takes them home for dinner. The items are just whatever he could grabs so he makes a makeshift salad out of coconut, green beans and yellow squash or some similar hodgepodge. Later on in the movie Ratso falls asleep and dreams of being the star of a cooking show. With great fanfare he makes his salad of coconut, green beans, and yellow squash. It is both sad and funny because he has no idea how to cook and thinks whatever he does had appeal if he can just get it out in front of the right audience.
With the new client and new islands, Linden Labs is once again offering its coconut, green bean, and yellow squash salad to its customers. I suspect that the reception will be no better this time than it has been in the past. If you want to be the star of a cooking show, you need to learn how to cook. And if you want to offer software applications in an application dense environment, you need to learn how to design them.
On the other hand, the new client is somewhat frustrating to veteran users. I am constantly trying to figure out how to do something that I already knew how to do using the old client. Some times I just give up and relog using the old client.
I've also noticed a new Welcome Island and a new Discovery Island. Apparently these islands replace the old Orientation and Help Islands. Personally, my favorites were the ones a few generations ago that had a Disney Land feel to them. But, critiquing the new client and the new islands seems to miss the point.
There was a hit movie in the late 1960's called Midnight Cowboy staring John Voight and Dustin Hoffman. In this movie Hoffman played a homeless character in New York City named Ratso. One day Ratso steals some items from a sidewalk stand and takes them home for dinner. The items are just whatever he could grabs so he makes a makeshift salad out of coconut, green beans and yellow squash or some similar hodgepodge. Later on in the movie Ratso falls asleep and dreams of being the star of a cooking show. With great fanfare he makes his salad of coconut, green beans, and yellow squash. It is both sad and funny because he has no idea how to cook and thinks whatever he does had appeal if he can just get it out in front of the right audience.
With the new client and new islands, Linden Labs is once again offering its coconut, green bean, and yellow squash salad to its customers. I suspect that the reception will be no better this time than it has been in the past. If you want to be the star of a cooking show, you need to learn how to cook. And if you want to offer software applications in an application dense environment, you need to learn how to design them.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
An Old Crisis in Information Systems Development
Most people today are too young to remember the early days of Information Systems development. However, those early days were fraught with problems, cost and schedule over runs, and failed development efforts. In fact, the number often cited, at the time, was that 75% of all Information Systems development efforts ended in failure. That number can certainly be dissected and discussed at length. However, the point is that things did not go well in the early days. And one of the reasons was that most people really had no idea what they were doing.
A common response to this lack of understanding and experience was to hire a consulting firm who did have some experience to guide you. Over time consulting firms developed their own software to use as a base for their consulting (so as to avoid reinventing the wheel with each client) and this lead to the current state of application generators.
When web applications became popular this problem did not repeat, or not, at least, to the extent that it had occurred before. One of the reasons for this was that inexperienced web developers could always look at successful websites as models. And in most cases, at least in the early days, you could also look at the code if you wished. There was a lot of "Monkey See, Monkey Do" and far fewer disasters.
Now we are once again facing the "I have no idea what I am doing" problem with virtual worlds. But this time around companies are not diving into the technology because they are not under competitive pressure to do so. But the market is ripe for Development and Consulting services. A few killer apps would set off the competitive pressures and the demand for services would grow. Next time I will develop a business model for Development and Consulting services.
A common response to this lack of understanding and experience was to hire a consulting firm who did have some experience to guide you. Over time consulting firms developed their own software to use as a base for their consulting (so as to avoid reinventing the wheel with each client) and this lead to the current state of application generators.
When web applications became popular this problem did not repeat, or not, at least, to the extent that it had occurred before. One of the reasons for this was that inexperienced web developers could always look at successful websites as models. And in most cases, at least in the early days, you could also look at the code if you wished. There was a lot of "Monkey See, Monkey Do" and far fewer disasters.
Now we are once again facing the "I have no idea what I am doing" problem with virtual worlds. But this time around companies are not diving into the technology because they are not under competitive pressure to do so. But the market is ripe for Development and Consulting services. A few killer apps would set off the competitive pressures and the demand for services would grow. Next time I will develop a business model for Development and Consulting services.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Software versus Fantasy
Linden Labs currently sells fantasy. The Second Life experience from creating your avatar look, to social experiences, to buying clothes or land, to attending classes is all fantasy. There is nothing wrong with this and they do an excellent job. However, from a business perspective there are two major problems. First, the market for self induced fantasy experiences is somewhat limited. And, second, this is a fickle market with little in the way of loyalty. I don't mean to demean the fantasy market. I can easily see a day in the future where somebody creates a compelling fantasy experience and others pay to participate much in the same way you would pay to see a movie. But that day still lies too far into the future for today's business plan. So, in order to remain economically viable, Linden Labs needs to move into a new market. That market, I believe is the software and services market. Today, I will consider software. In future posts I will address services.
In order to have a virtual world, you need a simulator which is the virtual world equivalent of a web server and a client which is the virtual world equivalent of a web browser. LL has both of these, of course, but they are proprietary. There are open source versions but the development required removes them from consideration. So, the first thing LL needs to do is make freely available versions of their simulator and client that anyone can download and install. Currently, there is is a dearth of imagination regarding virtual world applications. Until talented people can download the software for free and play with it the dearth is likely to continue. But, it is difficult to make money on free software.
The second thing LL needs to do is provide a subscription service for enterprise simulator features. Anybody can download the basic software and play with it. But, if you want enterprise applications, you will have to pay. I am not prepared today to describe these enterprise applications. I will save that for a future post. However, I can say that if we look to the early days of enterprise web servers we can get some ideas.
So, free software goes out to anyone who wants it. They, in return, develop applications and new ideas. Corporate sponsors pay subscription fees and in return get advanced enterprise features. The subscription fees pay for the free software deployment and the free software deployment provides ideas for more (enterprise) applications.
This effort should be kept completely separate from the current self induced fantasy market. In fact, that service should be treated like just another client. Hopefully, by the time this fickle market finds a new home, the software business will be sufficiently viable to thrive without it. But, the software subscription service is not the only new business. In fact it is only the beginning. In the next couple posts we will look at two additional markets: Development and Consulting, and Training and Publications.
In order to have a virtual world, you need a simulator which is the virtual world equivalent of a web server and a client which is the virtual world equivalent of a web browser. LL has both of these, of course, but they are proprietary. There are open source versions but the development required removes them from consideration. So, the first thing LL needs to do is make freely available versions of their simulator and client that anyone can download and install. Currently, there is is a dearth of imagination regarding virtual world applications. Until talented people can download the software for free and play with it the dearth is likely to continue. But, it is difficult to make money on free software.
The second thing LL needs to do is provide a subscription service for enterprise simulator features. Anybody can download the basic software and play with it. But, if you want enterprise applications, you will have to pay. I am not prepared today to describe these enterprise applications. I will save that for a future post. However, I can say that if we look to the early days of enterprise web servers we can get some ideas.
So, free software goes out to anyone who wants it. They, in return, develop applications and new ideas. Corporate sponsors pay subscription fees and in return get advanced enterprise features. The subscription fees pay for the free software deployment and the free software deployment provides ideas for more (enterprise) applications.
This effort should be kept completely separate from the current self induced fantasy market. In fact, that service should be treated like just another client. Hopefully, by the time this fickle market finds a new home, the software business will be sufficiently viable to thrive without it. But, the software subscription service is not the only new business. In fact it is only the beginning. In the next couple posts we will look at two additional markets: Development and Consulting, and Training and Publications.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
My Free Home
I mentioned, a couple posts back, that Second Life was offering free homes to premium account holders. I took advantage of the offer, even though I already own some land, so I could experience the new communities and see how they develop. It took me a couple days to look at the options before I decided on one of the models in Elderglen.
To their credit, they have done a great job creating some lovely houses with fewer than 100 prims and laying them out on 512 square meter lots in a way that does not look like a trailer park. And they have created a variety of home options so that choosing is not an easy task. With the First Land program of several years back, you were allowed only 117 prims for the house and furnishing. With the new program, the house does not appear to count and you have 117 prims for your furnishings. So, at first glance it all looks good. Linden Labs clearly has some artistic as well as technical talent.
Where their shortcomings lie are in their business and social skills. I have ranted enough about their business skills so I will focus on their social skills here. The first thing you notice as you look around the new neighborhoods are the ever present ban lines. Ban Lines, for those who don't already know are the red lines that pop up when you attempt to enter a piece of land for which you do not have access. It makes a stroll through the neighborhood very difficult and quite unpleasant as you have to continually navigate your way around restricted areas. Last night, as I was looking at the various models, I inadvertently stumbled into somebody's private property and was immediately ejected. This does not make for a friendly neighborhood.
There does not appear to be any criteria for acceptance into a neighborhood. I suspect, overtime, that plonking people down in close proximity without any concern for their social organization, commonality of interests, or shared values is going to create problems. And, I suspect, that the impact on Linden Labs of the Free Homes program will be an exponential increase in Abuse Reports. But, all we can do is wait and see.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Visiting the Free Homes
I took a peak at what I believe are the free homes for premium members. I have to qualify this because like everything else in Second Life it is poorly documented and word of mouth. I received a landmark through a group I belong to and went there to look. But there were no signs to confirm I was in the right place. Nonetheless, I will go with the assumption that I was in the right place.
Molly Linden has created a set of new homes and laid them out on a piece of land. I have to give her credit for good taste in both the home design and he layout. The homes are quite nice and the layout, despite being somewhat dense, does not feel dense. There are enough models laid out with enough variety that it doesn't have that ticky tacky feel of suburban sprawl. So far, it is promising.
I counted the prims in one of the house and came up with around 80. This could be a problem because it leaves the resident with only 37 prims for furnishing. However, I don't know if they plan to hold to the 117 prim rule. So I can't say for sure if this will be a problem.
Most of the homes have huge picture windows which makes them feel bigger and more airy. This is good, but since you can see into everyone's home, there won't be much privacy. This will either hurt the pose ball trade, or force residents to put up curtains which will take up prims. But, I am willing to see how it all works out. My initial impression is quite positive.
I do see two potential problems, though. The first is whether or not residents will be able to modify the builds. Since Second Life tends to inspire one's creativity, residents may be unhappy if they can't make changes to customize their homes. On the other hand, few residents have the good taste that Molly has and if allowed to make changes they are likely to junk up the neighborhood.
The second problem is how neighborhoods are constructed. A hodgepodge of people is worse than a hodgepodge of houses. If neighbors are not selected based on some sort of compatibility it is easy to see how the situation could deteriorate rapidly. Having had neighbors who rival the Saturday Night Live Church lady for moral superiority on one hand, and other neighbors who plumb the depths of depravity on the other, I know what it is like to like in a hodgepodge neighborhood.
But, I don't want to identify problems that have not yet occurred. The houses look nice and the neighborhood looks nice. Hopefully, things will continue along in this positive direction.
Molly Linden has created a set of new homes and laid them out on a piece of land. I have to give her credit for good taste in both the home design and he layout. The homes are quite nice and the layout, despite being somewhat dense, does not feel dense. There are enough models laid out with enough variety that it doesn't have that ticky tacky feel of suburban sprawl. So far, it is promising.
I counted the prims in one of the house and came up with around 80. This could be a problem because it leaves the resident with only 37 prims for furnishing. However, I don't know if they plan to hold to the 117 prim rule. So I can't say for sure if this will be a problem.
Most of the homes have huge picture windows which makes them feel bigger and more airy. This is good, but since you can see into everyone's home, there won't be much privacy. This will either hurt the pose ball trade, or force residents to put up curtains which will take up prims. But, I am willing to see how it all works out. My initial impression is quite positive.
I do see two potential problems, though. The first is whether or not residents will be able to modify the builds. Since Second Life tends to inspire one's creativity, residents may be unhappy if they can't make changes to customize their homes. On the other hand, few residents have the good taste that Molly has and if allowed to make changes they are likely to junk up the neighborhood.
The second problem is how neighborhoods are constructed. A hodgepodge of people is worse than a hodgepodge of houses. If neighbors are not selected based on some sort of compatibility it is easy to see how the situation could deteriorate rapidly. Having had neighbors who rival the Saturday Night Live Church lady for moral superiority on one hand, and other neighbors who plumb the depths of depravity on the other, I know what it is like to like in a hodgepodge neighborhood.
But, I don't want to identify problems that have not yet occurred. The houses look nice and the neighborhood looks nice. Hopefully, things will continue along in this positive direction.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Houses For Premium Members
I received emails for several of my alternative accounts stating that Linden Labs is going to be offering free homes in Second Life for premium accounts. On the surface, this seems to be a good idea. Yet, I can't help but wonder if LL has thought it through. It is a good idea because it addresses several problems with premium accounts in Second Life. First, there is little incentive for people to become premium account holders. Very few people are seduced by the lure of being able to buy land. Basic account holders who want land can rent if they really want a place to call home. So, the 'right' to buy land, especially given the softness in the virtual real estate market, is little incentive. From this perspective, the premium membership is little more than just an added tax on those who want to buy land anyway. Second, showing up in Second Life without knowing anyone is a lot like showing up in New York City without knowing any one. It can be a cold and lonely place. Having homes in communities can provide a sense of belonging that current does not exist.
There was a program several years ago refereed to as 'First Land' where premium residents could buy a 512 square meter piece of land for L$512 and put a home on it. However, it failed and was terminated. The main reason for its failure is that many, if not most, people who bought their first land for L$512 turned right around and sold it for L$9000 feeding the speculative bubble in virtual real estate. The speculators got what they deserved, however, as land prices crashed and are still about half of what they were at the time. And Linden Labs got what they deserved for not having thought this through a little more carefully.
First, consider the math. L$512 is roughly $2 US. L$9000 is roughly $36 yielding a profit of $34. A one month premium member ship cost around $10. So one could spend $10 and make $34. While this is not a huge profit, it is a profit. And when you consider the hype at the time along with the fantasy elements of Second Life, a lot of people felt good (in their fantasies) about making money in virtual real estate. So, the idea that most people would simply buy and sell was entirely predictable. Further, the notion that this buying and selling would create a real estate bubble was also predictable. And the consequence of the bubble bursting at some point was also predictable. So, the First Land initiative turned out to be an unqualified disaster. But, money was not the only reason why it failed.
There were at least three other reasons why this initiative was doomed to failure. First, most new residents do not know enough about building to build a home on their first land. So, nearly everybody put up one of the freebie homes. This was fun for the 45 seconds it took to rezz the freebie home but not much fun after that. Second, 512 square meters with 117 prims is not enough to do anything with. This is like selling somebody a bite of a prime steak for $2 and telling them the second bite (and every bite after that) is $36. Finally, without any kind of a development plan, the hodgepodge of First Land plots gave Second Life the feel of a trailer park without any zoning restrictions.
Hopefully, this new initiative will be thought through a little more careful although I am not optimistic about that prospect. Nonetheless, I will look into some of the key issues next time.
There was a program several years ago refereed to as 'First Land' where premium residents could buy a 512 square meter piece of land for L$512 and put a home on it. However, it failed and was terminated. The main reason for its failure is that many, if not most, people who bought their first land for L$512 turned right around and sold it for L$9000 feeding the speculative bubble in virtual real estate. The speculators got what they deserved, however, as land prices crashed and are still about half of what they were at the time. And Linden Labs got what they deserved for not having thought this through a little more carefully.
First, consider the math. L$512 is roughly $2 US. L$9000 is roughly $36 yielding a profit of $34. A one month premium member ship cost around $10. So one could spend $10 and make $34. While this is not a huge profit, it is a profit. And when you consider the hype at the time along with the fantasy elements of Second Life, a lot of people felt good (in their fantasies) about making money in virtual real estate. So, the idea that most people would simply buy and sell was entirely predictable. Further, the notion that this buying and selling would create a real estate bubble was also predictable. And the consequence of the bubble bursting at some point was also predictable. So, the First Land initiative turned out to be an unqualified disaster. But, money was not the only reason why it failed.
There were at least three other reasons why this initiative was doomed to failure. First, most new residents do not know enough about building to build a home on their first land. So, nearly everybody put up one of the freebie homes. This was fun for the 45 seconds it took to rezz the freebie home but not much fun after that. Second, 512 square meters with 117 prims is not enough to do anything with. This is like selling somebody a bite of a prime steak for $2 and telling them the second bite (and every bite after that) is $36. Finally, without any kind of a development plan, the hodgepodge of First Land plots gave Second Life the feel of a trailer park without any zoning restrictions.
Hopefully, this new initiative will be thought through a little more careful although I am not optimistic about that prospect. Nonetheless, I will look into some of the key issues next time.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Looking Back
I started this blog a year ago next Tuesday. I have fallen into the pattern of adding entries each Tuesday so this entry represents one full year. Looking back over the past year, I have to say that I highly recommend blogging to anyone as a form of writing exercise, intellectual engagement, and self expression. When you have a blog, even a weekly blog such as this one, it forces you to think more critically about things as you attempt to formulate ideas for the next entry. It forces you to stay engaged whereas most people tend to drift quite a bit in their interests. And it forces you to stay on top of things. This is all good and good for you. In addition, if somebody actually reads your blog, you get the added advantage of having communicated your ideas. I have referred people many times to something I wrote in this blog when I just didn't have time at the moment to explain something in more detail to them.
At the same time, you have be honest in your introspection about whether the time you invest into your various activities is really worth it. And I have decided that this blog is probably not worth continuing. Part of this is my fault. I have to admit that I went a little crazy when I started blogging and started more blogs than I reasonably could handle. I have two others that seem to be making a little more progress so I really should focus on them. In addition, the focus of this blog, Second Life, seems to be pretty much in a steady state leaving little to comment upon. It is a land of great potential waiting to be exploited. I hope the old expression "it has a lot of potential and always will" does not apply. I hope the potential does get exploited. And I think it will. But, this will happen in its own time and regardless of whether or not I chronicle the action. So, with that, I am signing off.
At the same time, you have be honest in your introspection about whether the time you invest into your various activities is really worth it. And I have decided that this blog is probably not worth continuing. Part of this is my fault. I have to admit that I went a little crazy when I started blogging and started more blogs than I reasonably could handle. I have two others that seem to be making a little more progress so I really should focus on them. In addition, the focus of this blog, Second Life, seems to be pretty much in a steady state leaving little to comment upon. It is a land of great potential waiting to be exploited. I hope the old expression "it has a lot of potential and always will" does not apply. I hope the potential does get exploited. And I think it will. But, this will happen in its own time and regardless of whether or not I chronicle the action. So, with that, I am signing off.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
A World Created Entirely By Its Residents
Imagine a restaurant that advertised meals cooked exclusively by its customers. Would you go there to experience fine dining? Probably not. In fact, we have a name for this sort of dining experience. We call it a pot luck dinner. Pot luck dinners are not without merit. They provide a social experience. There is usually plenty of food. And the food is generally tasty and filling (meaning high in salt and fat). And people enjoy pot luck dinners, as long as they don't go very often. The problem with pot luck dinners is that ordinary people create relatively ordinary food. If you are going to go to the trouble of getting dressed up and go out, you really would like to experience something extraordinary. You would like food created, not by your neighbor who clips coupons, but by a chef.
Consider another, parallel, example. What if a Hollywood movie studio boasted that its line of movies was entirely made up of home movies. Last year's big success was Sally's Surprise Party and this year they are betting on The Travails of the Bar Mitzvah Band. Would you expect this studio to produce classics of the caliber of The Godfather, Jaws, The Terminator, or Fargo? Probably not. There are television shows that rely entirely on home movies and they are fun to watch. They are the pot luck dinner of the movie industry. But, their cultural contributions are nil. And their enduring value is nonexistent. If you want to see a movie of enduring value, you have to see one that is produced by professionals.
Now imagine a virtual world created entirely by its residents. Oh, wait, we don't have to imagine that. It is Second Life. And while the residents of Second Life do come up with some interesting things, they are the virtual world equivalent of Aunt Betty's creamed tuna over noodles. No matter how good that creamed tuna may be, you get to a point where you can't stand it any more.
I suspect this is the reason why the retention rate is so poor. And yet LL continues to redesign the orientation islands and reorganize the volunteer groups. What is that old line about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Consider another, parallel, example. What if a Hollywood movie studio boasted that its line of movies was entirely made up of home movies. Last year's big success was Sally's Surprise Party and this year they are betting on The Travails of the Bar Mitzvah Band. Would you expect this studio to produce classics of the caliber of The Godfather, Jaws, The Terminator, or Fargo? Probably not. There are television shows that rely entirely on home movies and they are fun to watch. They are the pot luck dinner of the movie industry. But, their cultural contributions are nil. And their enduring value is nonexistent. If you want to see a movie of enduring value, you have to see one that is produced by professionals.
Now imagine a virtual world created entirely by its residents. Oh, wait, we don't have to imagine that. It is Second Life. And while the residents of Second Life do come up with some interesting things, they are the virtual world equivalent of Aunt Betty's creamed tuna over noodles. No matter how good that creamed tuna may be, you get to a point where you can't stand it any more.
I suspect this is the reason why the retention rate is so poor. And yet LL continues to redesign the orientation islands and reorganize the volunteer groups. What is that old line about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The Tragic Flaw
In another two months, I will mark my third anniversary in Second Life. Reflecting on my experiences over those three years, I wonder how I could have been so far off on my expectations of this wonderful technology. In that time, Second Life has added voice which is good. It has banned gambling which was probably not good as it caused land prices to tank. It is moving adult content to a new continent which is a good idea although handled somewhat poorly. And it has open sourced the technology which is good because it takes control of the technology out of the hands of Linden Labs who do not seem to have the foggiest idea what they are doing and into the hands of people who may know how to exploit it. But, overall, this is meager progress at best.
For their part, Linden Labs has sold a lot of virtual real estate; infuriated a lot of their customers; and dashed the dreams of countless people who saw potential in the technology but failed to achieve that potential for any number of problems most of which can be traced back to poor management on the part of Linden Labs.
Also, during that time, reliability has improved only slightly; lag still persists; inventory still gets lost; and LL seems totally unequal to the task of controlling griefers. In more paranoid moments I have even considered the possibility that the griefers may actually work for Linden Labs. They seem to have free run of the place and perhaps LL sees greifing as a bonding experience for residents. Who knows?
For all my hopes, its seems like the future of Linden Labs is to keep the grid and servers running and to keep adding virtual real estate. All my expectations for future applications in education, commerce, tourism, event management and so on seem to be failing to materialize.
Ignoring the myriad of little problems and attempting to get to the heart of the matter, I realized that the fatal flaw in the Second Life strategy lies in the claim that Second Life is a virtual world created by the residents. This was the BIG mistake. And lest I ramble on too long in this post, I will pick of this thread next time.
For their part, Linden Labs has sold a lot of virtual real estate; infuriated a lot of their customers; and dashed the dreams of countless people who saw potential in the technology but failed to achieve that potential for any number of problems most of which can be traced back to poor management on the part of Linden Labs.
Also, during that time, reliability has improved only slightly; lag still persists; inventory still gets lost; and LL seems totally unequal to the task of controlling griefers. In more paranoid moments I have even considered the possibility that the griefers may actually work for Linden Labs. They seem to have free run of the place and perhaps LL sees greifing as a bonding experience for residents. Who knows?
For all my hopes, its seems like the future of Linden Labs is to keep the grid and servers running and to keep adding virtual real estate. All my expectations for future applications in education, commerce, tourism, event management and so on seem to be failing to materialize.
Ignoring the myriad of little problems and attempting to get to the heart of the matter, I realized that the fatal flaw in the Second Life strategy lies in the claim that Second Life is a virtual world created by the residents. This was the BIG mistake. And lest I ramble on too long in this post, I will pick of this thread next time.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
This is Going to Take Longer Than I Thought
In another couple of months, I will reach my third anniversary of working with Second Life. My 'rez day' as they call it, was November 3, 2006. I have to say that I thought a whole lot more would have happened by now. I am, at once, still optimistic and disappointed. I am optimistic because I think this technology has enormous potential that has yet to be exploited but will be. I am disappointed because I think that a major reason why this has not gone further is a complete lack of vision on the part of Linden Labs. Despite the endless complaints about lag, reliability, griefers, and such, I think they do a reasonably good job at the operation level. I think that any operational deficiencies could easily be cured if they were to charge a small fee for membership and use that money to shore up operations.
However, at the tactical and strategic levels they seem to be completely unequal to the task of launching this technology. They have a gold mine here and they are sending people in to mine the gold with plastic spoons. They hire people who know how to use plastic spoons and their research agenda is consumed with finding better quality plastic spoons.
I still plan to use Second Life in the classroom as I think it has a great deal to offer in helping students to envision the new world of computer applications that is slowly coming about. I also plan to continue promoting the use of Second Life in educational applications as I think its potential has only just begun to be exploited.
However, as the academic year begins and I have to decide where to invest my limited time (especially my limited writing time), it does not seem worth it to try to write a weekly blog on Second Life. Consequently, I will step back a bit and write only when I feel I have something important to say. This is going to take a while and if I am going to be in it for the duration, I will have to pace myself.
However, at the tactical and strategic levels they seem to be completely unequal to the task of launching this technology. They have a gold mine here and they are sending people in to mine the gold with plastic spoons. They hire people who know how to use plastic spoons and their research agenda is consumed with finding better quality plastic spoons.
I still plan to use Second Life in the classroom as I think it has a great deal to offer in helping students to envision the new world of computer applications that is slowly coming about. I also plan to continue promoting the use of Second Life in educational applications as I think its potential has only just begun to be exploited.
However, as the academic year begins and I have to decide where to invest my limited time (especially my limited writing time), it does not seem worth it to try to write a weekly blog on Second Life. Consequently, I will step back a bit and write only when I feel I have something important to say. This is going to take a while and if I am going to be in it for the duration, I will have to pace myself.
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.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Third, Marketing
Second Life received a lot of press in the Fall of 2006 and the following Spring. There were stories about fortunes being made, political candidates offering speeches, real world vendors setting up islands to sell their products, large companies like IBM making major investments, television shows like CSI NY using Second Life as an extension of their shows, and so on.
But the publicity often cut both ways. There were stories about a lurid sex trade, pedophilia, and infidelity. Following he 'get rich quick' stories there were 'get poor quick' stories about falling land prices and vendors pulling out.
The upshot is that Second Life has a major image problem from a business perspective. And marketing a product as a Second Life capability would be a real uphill battle. So, this capability to hold meetings in Second Life could not be marketed as such. In fact there should be no mention of Second Life what so ever.
Second Life meetings would conjure up images of griefer attacks, naked avatars parading around, people sneaking off to meet with escorts, and all manner of antisocial behavior. People wishing to hold business meetings would not find this an attractive prospect at all.
Instead it should be marketed simply as "Virtual Meetings". The benefits of Virtual Meetings should be emphasized which include cost savings, functionality and ease of use. People don't have to drive and park, or sit in airports and hotel rooms. Instead of loosing three days for an out of town meetings, only one day is lost.
Unfortunately, Second Life today is like a pristine wilderness inhabited sparsely by eco-friendly artists. It has potential, but in order to exploit that potential, some of the pristine quality of the wilderness must be loss. It is a 'hand in the cookie jar' problem. If you do not exploit the technology nobody will ever appreciate it. If you do exploit it, it will loose a lot of its original appeal.
Perhaps another analogy might be to say it is like having a priceless painting locked in a closet. Putting the painting on display could damage it. Restoration could alter it. And yet, leaving it in the closet is not an option because its value is derived from viewing.
The exploitation of Second Life will alter it forever. However,not exploiting it will leave it unappreciated forever. Personally, I would go with the exploitation and see where it takes us.
But the publicity often cut both ways. There were stories about a lurid sex trade, pedophilia, and infidelity. Following he 'get rich quick' stories there were 'get poor quick' stories about falling land prices and vendors pulling out.
The upshot is that Second Life has a major image problem from a business perspective. And marketing a product as a Second Life capability would be a real uphill battle. So, this capability to hold meetings in Second Life could not be marketed as such. In fact there should be no mention of Second Life what so ever.
Second Life meetings would conjure up images of griefer attacks, naked avatars parading around, people sneaking off to meet with escorts, and all manner of antisocial behavior. People wishing to hold business meetings would not find this an attractive prospect at all.
Instead it should be marketed simply as "Virtual Meetings". The benefits of Virtual Meetings should be emphasized which include cost savings, functionality and ease of use. People don't have to drive and park, or sit in airports and hotel rooms. Instead of loosing three days for an out of town meetings, only one day is lost.
Unfortunately, Second Life today is like a pristine wilderness inhabited sparsely by eco-friendly artists. It has potential, but in order to exploit that potential, some of the pristine quality of the wilderness must be loss. It is a 'hand in the cookie jar' problem. If you do not exploit the technology nobody will ever appreciate it. If you do exploit it, it will loose a lot of its original appeal.
Perhaps another analogy might be to say it is like having a priceless painting locked in a closet. Putting the painting on display could damage it. Restoration could alter it. And yet, leaving it in the closet is not an option because its value is derived from viewing.
The exploitation of Second Life will alter it forever. However,not exploiting it will leave it unappreciated forever. Personally, I would go with the exploitation and see where it takes us.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Second, Functionality
Last week I discussed performance issues and placed them first because no matter how great the functionality is that Second Life provides for meetings, if users log in and are bogged down by lag, they will not want to return. So, this week I am going to discuss some of the functionality required.This is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Instead, it is examples of the kind of customizations that would make the SL environment conducive to business meetings.
First, there needs to be some sort of an external meeting planner. This planner could invite people to meetings and remind them when meetings are approaching. When they log in, the meeting planner could give them the option of being teleported directly to their meeting. If they are on already and a meeting time approaches they could be notified and given a tp option.
Second there need to be default accounts set up for people holding meetings so that a person can attend a meeting using a default account. Some people may wish to attend a meeting and may not wish to have a Second Life account and all that entails. So, default accounts will allow greater accessibility.
Third, there needs to be greater support for the display and distribution of media. As it currently stands, you can get a PowerPoint presentation into Second Life and display it, but it is a royal pain. There should be an object in Second Life that will take a Power Point presentation from your hard drive, convert it, up load it and display it in Second Life. Further, there should be an easy way to distribute the presentation to others at the meeting and place the presentation in some sort of archive for people who missed the meeting. Similar capabilities should be available for the display and distribution of documents and other media.
Fourth, protocols need to be developed to prescribe proper meeting behavior. How does one ask a question? How do you take turns? Do virtual meetings follow the protocols of real world meetings or are there some differences.
These are major areas in which capabilities need to be developed if Second Life is going to be used successfully for meeting. Next are some minor 'nice but not necessary' features.
When an avatar shows up at a meeting they should have some clothing options to choose from. This may include a range of business attire or a collection of outfits that would be appropriate to the theme of the meeting. Avatars should be able to select an outfit with a click, and have it placed automatically on their avatar. If they don't like it, they should be restored to the original with another click. This business of paying nothing for a box, dragging it to the ground, etc, has got to go.
There should be a collection of meeting gestures readily available to the meeting attendees. For example, an avatar should be able to raise its hand while sitting to ask a question. Text gestures like "Joe Smith has a question" or "Bill Brown nods off" should be available and possibly even accessible through a HUD.
There should be some audience management capabilities so a speaker or a person running a meeting can queue up questions and get to them in turn. And finally, there should be an easily accessible meeting aid so that people who are attending a meeting can easily contact a person whose primary responsibility is to help people with questions about the environment.
As I said at the beginning, this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of functionality. It is intended to be examples. These are features that would be useful for meetings and not much else. Currently, Second Life focuses on generic functionality which makes it good for a lot of things while not particularly good for any specific thing. If it is going to catch on for business applications, that is going to have to change.
First, there needs to be some sort of an external meeting planner. This planner could invite people to meetings and remind them when meetings are approaching. When they log in, the meeting planner could give them the option of being teleported directly to their meeting. If they are on already and a meeting time approaches they could be notified and given a tp option.
Second there need to be default accounts set up for people holding meetings so that a person can attend a meeting using a default account. Some people may wish to attend a meeting and may not wish to have a Second Life account and all that entails. So, default accounts will allow greater accessibility.
Third, there needs to be greater support for the display and distribution of media. As it currently stands, you can get a PowerPoint presentation into Second Life and display it, but it is a royal pain. There should be an object in Second Life that will take a Power Point presentation from your hard drive, convert it, up load it and display it in Second Life. Further, there should be an easy way to distribute the presentation to others at the meeting and place the presentation in some sort of archive for people who missed the meeting. Similar capabilities should be available for the display and distribution of documents and other media.
Fourth, protocols need to be developed to prescribe proper meeting behavior. How does one ask a question? How do you take turns? Do virtual meetings follow the protocols of real world meetings or are there some differences.
These are major areas in which capabilities need to be developed if Second Life is going to be used successfully for meeting. Next are some minor 'nice but not necessary' features.
When an avatar shows up at a meeting they should have some clothing options to choose from. This may include a range of business attire or a collection of outfits that would be appropriate to the theme of the meeting. Avatars should be able to select an outfit with a click, and have it placed automatically on their avatar. If they don't like it, they should be restored to the original with another click. This business of paying nothing for a box, dragging it to the ground, etc, has got to go.
There should be a collection of meeting gestures readily available to the meeting attendees. For example, an avatar should be able to raise its hand while sitting to ask a question. Text gestures like "Joe Smith has a question" or "Bill Brown nods off" should be available and possibly even accessible through a HUD.
There should be some audience management capabilities so a speaker or a person running a meeting can queue up questions and get to them in turn. And finally, there should be an easily accessible meeting aid so that people who are attending a meeting can easily contact a person whose primary responsibility is to help people with questions about the environment.
As I said at the beginning, this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of functionality. It is intended to be examples. These are features that would be useful for meetings and not much else. Currently, Second Life focuses on generic functionality which makes it good for a lot of things while not particularly good for any specific thing. If it is going to catch on for business applications, that is going to have to change.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
First, Performance Issues
Second Life is a dynamic environment. If you have the right permissions, you can change the environment on the fly. You can create new objects, change the location and shape of objects. Or apply new textures to objects to give them a new look. In Second Life parlance this is referred to as 'building'. It is the act of creating the 3D environment. You can also change the behavior of objects. If a river is flowing east to west, you can change it to flow west to east. If a door opens on the right, you can change it to open on the left. In Second Life parlance this is referred to as 'scripting'. Both building and scripting make make the Second Life environment extremely dynamic which is why I said earlier that you can think of it as an extension of the imagination. However, there is a cost to all this dynamism. And that cost is performance.
When a simulator is slow to produce the 3D environment or when objects in the 3D environment do not perform their actions quickly enough it is referred to, again in Second Life parlance, as 'lag'. Here are some examples of lag. You might show up at a location and not see the location for a few minutes. You might appear in a crowd of people and not see the people for a few minutes. You might be walking across a room and your avatar looks like it is walking through molasses. You may raise your hand to ask a question and yet your hand does not go up. Or you may type a question into chat but not see the question until several lines later.
Lag is caused by a number of factors including the number of prims to be rezzed, the number of scripts running, and, yes, the number of avatars on the sim. This places a limit on the number of avatars that can be at one location. That number varies depending on how much lag you are willing to accept. However, a ball park figure for a maximum number of avatars in one location is 30. This creates problems if you want to have a meeting or a class or a conference with more than 30 people in attendance. When I teach my class in Second Life, I tell students not to follow me immediately to each location as having that many avatars show up at one location may crash the sim.
The solution here is to trade dynamism for performance. Unless you are having a meeting in which you are demonstrating or teaching building or scripting, you don't need that level of dynamism. Once the Second Life environment is created, it should be compiled down to a static environment and optimized for performance. Not only is it costly to have a sim for each 30 people, it is extremely inconvenience. Further, individual applications, such as meetings, can be optimized for different kinds of performance. For example, meetings should be optimized for gestures and chat, possibly also for displaying images such as PowerPoint slides or other media. A different application, say an amusement park, may be optimized for avatar movement and script performance.
The dynamic quality of the Second Life environment is wonderful for stimulating the imagination. And with imagination you can do almost anything. Unfortunately, with such a dynamic environment you cannot do anything particularly well.
When a simulator is slow to produce the 3D environment or when objects in the 3D environment do not perform their actions quickly enough it is referred to, again in Second Life parlance, as 'lag'. Here are some examples of lag. You might show up at a location and not see the location for a few minutes. You might appear in a crowd of people and not see the people for a few minutes. You might be walking across a room and your avatar looks like it is walking through molasses. You may raise your hand to ask a question and yet your hand does not go up. Or you may type a question into chat but not see the question until several lines later.
Lag is caused by a number of factors including the number of prims to be rezzed, the number of scripts running, and, yes, the number of avatars on the sim. This places a limit on the number of avatars that can be at one location. That number varies depending on how much lag you are willing to accept. However, a ball park figure for a maximum number of avatars in one location is 30. This creates problems if you want to have a meeting or a class or a conference with more than 30 people in attendance. When I teach my class in Second Life, I tell students not to follow me immediately to each location as having that many avatars show up at one location may crash the sim.
The solution here is to trade dynamism for performance. Unless you are having a meeting in which you are demonstrating or teaching building or scripting, you don't need that level of dynamism. Once the Second Life environment is created, it should be compiled down to a static environment and optimized for performance. Not only is it costly to have a sim for each 30 people, it is extremely inconvenience. Further, individual applications, such as meetings, can be optimized for different kinds of performance. For example, meetings should be optimized for gestures and chat, possibly also for displaying images such as PowerPoint slides or other media. A different application, say an amusement park, may be optimized for avatar movement and script performance.
The dynamic quality of the Second Life environment is wonderful for stimulating the imagination. And with imagination you can do almost anything. Unfortunately, with such a dynamic environment you cannot do anything particularly well.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Advantages of Meeting in Second Life
Before elaborating on the functional requirements of meeting support software in Second Life, it is useful to articulate the advantages of meeting in Second Life. With the advantages in mind, it is easier to define the capabilities necessary to support those advantages.
First, and foremost, the advantage of meeting is Second Life is logistical. Getting people to show up for a meeting in a conference room half a hallway away from their office can be a challenge. If people work on different floors, in different buildings, in different cities or different parts of the globe, this challenge becomes even greater. So, just the fact that you don't have to get up from your desk, whether at home or at your office, is an enormous benefit of meeting in Second Life.
The second advantage, convenience, is related to the first but distinct. When attending a meeting in Second Life you don't have to worry about transportation, parking, lodging or any of the usual hassles associated with traveling to a meeting. Further, you don't even have to get out of your pajamas. You don't have to shave or fix your hair. You don't even have to bathe. You can dress your avatar as you see fit and what you actually look like is irrelevant.
Third is the ability to multi-task. Normally, it would be considered to be rude to bring work into a meeting and then work on it while the meeting was going on. And yet, we all know how deadly boring meetings can be. However, while your avatar is respectfully sitting there appearing to pay attention, you can be working on something more interesting keeping an ear tuned to whatever might come up in the meeting. In addition, you can have side conversations with other people in IM, another feature that would be awkward in a typical meeting. Your confederate can even alert you if the topic of discussion turns to something you care about.
And, fourth, is the ability to record the meeting. Nobody likes to take minutes so meetings are often convened and dismissed with nary a note taken. Open chat and IM are easy to log. However, you could also record the meeting as a Quicktime movie for anyone who missed it or for later reference. If somebody does actually take minutes they can be used later to search for comments on a specific topic.
At the same time, there are three drawbacks of having meetings in Second Life. First, is the learning curve. Second is lag and the limitation on the number of avatars in a sim. And third is observation that in Second Life you don't get to see the faces of the people in the meeting. However, none of these drawbacks are hard to fix. And the benefits so far outweigh them that even if they couldn't be fixed they wouldn't be major detriments.
Next time I will address these drawbacks and begin talking about the functionality required to make Second Life meetings successful.
First, and foremost, the advantage of meeting is Second Life is logistical. Getting people to show up for a meeting in a conference room half a hallway away from their office can be a challenge. If people work on different floors, in different buildings, in different cities or different parts of the globe, this challenge becomes even greater. So, just the fact that you don't have to get up from your desk, whether at home or at your office, is an enormous benefit of meeting in Second Life.
The second advantage, convenience, is related to the first but distinct. When attending a meeting in Second Life you don't have to worry about transportation, parking, lodging or any of the usual hassles associated with traveling to a meeting. Further, you don't even have to get out of your pajamas. You don't have to shave or fix your hair. You don't even have to bathe. You can dress your avatar as you see fit and what you actually look like is irrelevant.
Third is the ability to multi-task. Normally, it would be considered to be rude to bring work into a meeting and then work on it while the meeting was going on. And yet, we all know how deadly boring meetings can be. However, while your avatar is respectfully sitting there appearing to pay attention, you can be working on something more interesting keeping an ear tuned to whatever might come up in the meeting. In addition, you can have side conversations with other people in IM, another feature that would be awkward in a typical meeting. Your confederate can even alert you if the topic of discussion turns to something you care about.
And, fourth, is the ability to record the meeting. Nobody likes to take minutes so meetings are often convened and dismissed with nary a note taken. Open chat and IM are easy to log. However, you could also record the meeting as a Quicktime movie for anyone who missed it or for later reference. If somebody does actually take minutes they can be used later to search for comments on a specific topic.
At the same time, there are three drawbacks of having meetings in Second Life. First, is the learning curve. Second is lag and the limitation on the number of avatars in a sim. And third is observation that in Second Life you don't get to see the faces of the people in the meeting. However, none of these drawbacks are hard to fix. And the benefits so far outweigh them that even if they couldn't be fixed they wouldn't be major detriments.
Next time I will address these drawbacks and begin talking about the functionality required to make Second Life meetings successful.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Video in Primative Cultures
I think I have an analogy that can provide some perspective on the problems that Second Life is having in getting traction. First consider all the ways in which we use video. It is hard to get your arms around all the uses. We use video for entertainment. We sell products via commercials. We inform people through news programs. We educate people through educational programs and train them with training programs. We use video to document events and to explore possibilities. In fact, the uses of video in today's culture are virtually endless.
Next imagine showing up at a village in the Amazon rain forest with video equipment trying to introduce the villagers to video technology. You give them cameras and take some video of villagers. They are all impress and every body wants to be in front of the camera. However, when it is their turn to do something, they are not quite as enthusiastic. They like it when you shoot the video but when it is their turn they cannot think of what to shoot. They are not really sure what they can shoot. They are not really sure what this technology is good for. "Everything," you say, "it is good for everything. The possibilities are endless." They might even agree that the possibilities are endless but still cannot come up with anything that they may want to do. So, you leave the village frustrated.
I think this analogy is apt because introducing virtual world technology in the early part of the 21th century is a lot like introducing video equipment to primitive villagers. There are a lot of Ooo's and Ahh's but few really grasp what can be done. And moreover, by thinking this analogy through a little further, I think we can see what needs to be done in virtual worlds to overcome this problem.
Let's say our visitor to the Amazon village had to get them to adopt video technology. Let's say they were working on a UN technology transfer grant or for some eccentric philanthropist just to make it believable. How would they get the villagers to accept video technology? Well, doing demos and talking about endless possibilities is probably not the way. This is way too ethereal and way to difficult to grasp.
What would make sense would be to select a single very concrete application to demonstrate the value of video. You might record the chief's speeches to the villages for historical value. You might record wedding ceremonies for their social value. You might record young hunters learning how to hunt for its educational value. It would probably be difficult to select one thing, but that is what you would have to do. Pick one thing and show how video is useful in that one case. Once people became more familiar with video they could see other uses. But, initially they would need a very concrete example.
I think the same could be said for virtual world technology in general and Second Life in particular. There are way too many possibilities and people need a concrete example. I think the uses that I discussed in the previous post for using Second Life for personal development are still not concrete enough. They are very compelling but probably not the place to start. I think the place to begin is with a very mundane, very concrete application. Perhaps something like using Second Life for virtual meetings. This application is as promising as it is boring. And I will take it up next.
Next imagine showing up at a village in the Amazon rain forest with video equipment trying to introduce the villagers to video technology. You give them cameras and take some video of villagers. They are all impress and every body wants to be in front of the camera. However, when it is their turn to do something, they are not quite as enthusiastic. They like it when you shoot the video but when it is their turn they cannot think of what to shoot. They are not really sure what they can shoot. They are not really sure what this technology is good for. "Everything," you say, "it is good for everything. The possibilities are endless." They might even agree that the possibilities are endless but still cannot come up with anything that they may want to do. So, you leave the village frustrated.
I think this analogy is apt because introducing virtual world technology in the early part of the 21th century is a lot like introducing video equipment to primitive villagers. There are a lot of Ooo's and Ahh's but few really grasp what can be done. And moreover, by thinking this analogy through a little further, I think we can see what needs to be done in virtual worlds to overcome this problem.
Let's say our visitor to the Amazon village had to get them to adopt video technology. Let's say they were working on a UN technology transfer grant or for some eccentric philanthropist just to make it believable. How would they get the villagers to accept video technology? Well, doing demos and talking about endless possibilities is probably not the way. This is way too ethereal and way to difficult to grasp.
What would make sense would be to select a single very concrete application to demonstrate the value of video. You might record the chief's speeches to the villages for historical value. You might record wedding ceremonies for their social value. You might record young hunters learning how to hunt for its educational value. It would probably be difficult to select one thing, but that is what you would have to do. Pick one thing and show how video is useful in that one case. Once people became more familiar with video they could see other uses. But, initially they would need a very concrete example.
I think the same could be said for virtual world technology in general and Second Life in particular. There are way too many possibilities and people need a concrete example. I think the uses that I discussed in the previous post for using Second Life for personal development are still not concrete enough. They are very compelling but probably not the place to start. I think the place to begin is with a very mundane, very concrete application. Perhaps something like using Second Life for virtual meetings. This application is as promising as it is boring. And I will take it up next.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Second Life for Personal Growth
In this post I want to explore three ways in which Second Life can contribute to your personal growth. These include enriching experiences, role switching, and overcoming social anxieties. This is not to say that these are the only three ways in which Second Life can contribute to your personal growth. It is merely to say that these are the ways that come to mind at the moment.
There are some fairly standard ways in which we enrich ourselves in real life. Most people would say that travel is enriching. Many would say that visiting art galleries and museums is enriching. Some would say that taking classes or doing volunteer work helping people is enriching. All of these things are possible in Second Life and you don't even have to leave your desk to do them. I visited an island recently called Suffugium. It is a cyberpunk rendering of a future world. I have actually been there many times and I am always astonished at the effort that was put into the place to provide an interesting and artistic experience for the visitors. You can walk around this wonderful location and experience the art and the political message. It simulates your thought and your creativity. And, there are hundreds of other similar locations, each one unique, which provide enriching and thought provoking messages and experiences.
The second way in which Second Life can provide you with personal growth is through role switching. We are who we are and we tend to see life from our very own perspective. But, how does the world appear differently to people of the other gender? Do younger or older people see things differently? Are life experiences different for people of a different social class or ethnicity? Do people of a different sexual orientation get treated differently? How can you know the answers to these questions without changing who you are and going out into the world as somebody else? The answer, of course, is that in Second Life you can do just that. And if you do, you will be astonished at how different life presents itself to you. Seeing the world through the eyes of others is good for you. It broadens your perspectives, and helps you become more compassionate, understanding and tolerant. All good stuff.
Finally, many people suffer from social anxieties such as shyness, fear of crowds, or fear of speaking in front people. It is possible to limit the impact of these anxieties through systematic desensitization. For example, you may speak in front of one person, then two, then three and so on. However, this systematic desensitization in real life can still be difficult. Just setting up the scenarios can present logistical problems. And you may still be afraid of blushing or shaking. In a virtual world you can take baby steps to overcoming these anxieties. People do not actually see you, they only see your avatar. So you get a bit of protection. But, even more importantly, people in a virtual world are much more supportive and much less judgmental than they are in the real world. So the barriers are lower.
These are just a few of the ways in which Second Life can help enrich and improve you. Unfortunately, this capability exists today largely as a possibility. And one of the most frustrating things about Second Life is that all these possibilities exist simultaneously with none of them being fully exploited.
There are some fairly standard ways in which we enrich ourselves in real life. Most people would say that travel is enriching. Many would say that visiting art galleries and museums is enriching. Some would say that taking classes or doing volunteer work helping people is enriching. All of these things are possible in Second Life and you don't even have to leave your desk to do them. I visited an island recently called Suffugium. It is a cyberpunk rendering of a future world. I have actually been there many times and I am always astonished at the effort that was put into the place to provide an interesting and artistic experience for the visitors. You can walk around this wonderful location and experience the art and the political message. It simulates your thought and your creativity. And, there are hundreds of other similar locations, each one unique, which provide enriching and thought provoking messages and experiences.
The second way in which Second Life can provide you with personal growth is through role switching. We are who we are and we tend to see life from our very own perspective. But, how does the world appear differently to people of the other gender? Do younger or older people see things differently? Are life experiences different for people of a different social class or ethnicity? Do people of a different sexual orientation get treated differently? How can you know the answers to these questions without changing who you are and going out into the world as somebody else? The answer, of course, is that in Second Life you can do just that. And if you do, you will be astonished at how different life presents itself to you. Seeing the world through the eyes of others is good for you. It broadens your perspectives, and helps you become more compassionate, understanding and tolerant. All good stuff.
Finally, many people suffer from social anxieties such as shyness, fear of crowds, or fear of speaking in front people. It is possible to limit the impact of these anxieties through systematic desensitization. For example, you may speak in front of one person, then two, then three and so on. However, this systematic desensitization in real life can still be difficult. Just setting up the scenarios can present logistical problems. And you may still be afraid of blushing or shaking. In a virtual world you can take baby steps to overcoming these anxieties. People do not actually see you, they only see your avatar. So you get a bit of protection. But, even more importantly, people in a virtual world are much more supportive and much less judgmental than they are in the real world. So the barriers are lower.
These are just a few of the ways in which Second Life can help enrich and improve you. Unfortunately, this capability exists today largely as a possibility. And one of the most frustrating things about Second Life is that all these possibilities exist simultaneously with none of them being fully exploited.
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