I’d like to endorse Jade Lily‘s suggestion that Linden Lab develop a CamPort facility in Second Life. The feature would give Second Life residents the ability to “remote camera” into an event without having the drag along a skinbag (avatar) that uses up client and server resources. It would mean events could scale beyond the present limitation of 40 or so avatars (skinbags) per island; a limitation that proscribes Second Life as an entertainment medium and as a presentation tool. I can’t think of another feature that would make as big a difference. Event capacity would significantly improve and virtual conferencing would be greatly enhanced.

Philip Rosedale, CEO of Second Life creator Linden Lab comments on the blog that “we can implement some things in this direction” so I expect it is on the development program.

Philip is profiled in Esquire this month; I liked his description of Second Life in the article: “It’s fundamentally out of control, like the real world”. This is not a reason for avoiding Second Life, it is an explanation of one of the attractive things about the place. The freedom to express yourself visually, socially and culturally almost without limitation. These guys should be paying me to do their marketing.

If you’re like me you take it as read that blogs run by journalists follow the same standards of editorial independence common to good newspapers. However, I did some research into the number of references in body text to three of the leading SL developers, to see if there were any differences between the blogs. I publish the chart below which shows the percentage of mentions that Google found on these sites (excluding duplicate pages) for Electric Sheep, Rivers Run Red and Millions of Us. I’ve marked the data points with the word ‘sponsor’ where the blog is sponsored by one of the developers. The searches were done on December 22nd, 2006.

I’m not going to comment on the graph other than to say that I do not pretend the results are a detailed or representative survey. It’s just what Google gave me. Sample sizes are small, ranging from 27 mentions for SLNN to 208 for 3PointD.

ESC mentions are green, RRR are white and MOU are orange.

Links:
3PointD
SL Herald
SLNN
SL Insider
New World Notes

Inside This World has just completed a Second Life proposal to a company suggesting they follow the IBM model. IBM have committed a heresy, building their own multi-island facility using their own employees*. The result is a messy and incomplete build which challenges the orthodoxy of Second Life and threatens to succeed and set some precedents.

The beginnings of corporatisation in Second Life followed the agency-client model made famous by J Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather and Leo Burnett and BBDO; that is to say, the client needs an image and by virtue of its introspection and inherent lack of creativity is unqualified to construct it. An agency is a specialist in strategic thought. They are custodians of the Menorah of creativity and the sacred maps of the media landscape.

In the tradition of this model, Second Life developers have brought many significant corporates into Second Life, influencing their strategy by virtue of their specialist knowledge of the Second Life culture and using their creative skills to produce slick, impressive looking buildings.

Readers of this blog know that I have been critical of some of these, arguing that there has been perhaps too much emphasis on a pretty shopfront and a press release and not enough on working out exactly what they’re doing here.

I spoke to a couple of the people involved in building the IBM environment and what was striking was their pride in their achievement. There was a real sense of ownership of the project and I’m telling you right now, this will be a thriving community. These people have a stake. On IBM 7, (okay they need an agency to give them a hand with the island-naming) there is a virtual community comprising IBM employees and ex-employees. It’s called Greater IBM.

This is a very sensible inititiative with or without Second Life as it extends the reach of the corporation among a very powerful alumni but it is an absolutely perfect application of Second Life, which generates sympatico like it’s going out of style. All that is necessary for this to succeed is to provide some social activity and allow people the space to collaborate on projects; doesn’t matter much what they are. I notice a machinima competition already exists.

So for companies such as IBM who understand the concept of a virtual community, are committed to a long term presence and have people with a relatively advanced skill set (my client has the same situation) this is a far better approach than an island handed over by a developer with a set of keys. Who has a stake? The developer has been paid (“call us if you need anything”) and the company don’t have the skills to evolve the facility. The buildings sit there like mausoleums but a Second Life site needs new content to an even greater extent than the web. You need new products/events/attractions/traffic to make people return.

If the IBM approach is as successful as I think, where does this leave the developer community? Will they cater for the less sophisticated companies? It’s a moot issue currently. Because of the Second Life growth rate all developers are in demand and for a couple more years there will be enough companies wanting impressive edifices to keep those with professional design credentials employed. I think that for some clients though, there is already sense in developers guiding, mentoring, consulting and training rather than developing, implementing and handing over.

IBM’s new Virtual World division will be doing Second Life development for their industry partners; Circuit City are an early sign-up. IBM’s stated goal is “to be a recognized leader in virtual world solution development”. I think the approach they have taken to their own islands shows that they are on track and it will be interesting to see the degree to which they apply their own approach to other companies’ projects.

* I note that Aimee Weber is assisting IBM with the House of Horizons project, which is not yet public.

Having now conducted a number of tours of real life businesses in Second Life I suggest to you that the medium is not working as advertised. I’m talking in particular about trying to sell real life goods.

Here are the traffic numbers in avatar minutes/week:
Adidas 1,122
American Apparel 2,588
Dell Factory 577
Warner Bros’ listening loft for Regina Spektor 62
Sony 128
Average: 650 per week ~ 900

The poor traffic numbers are in spite of the fact that these companies have used their PR infrastructure to generate tremendous free kicks from the media, who seem obsessed with the real/virtual transition. The media however are largely missing the point which is the unpredictable phenomenon of a virtual world for adults. This is a little harder to report.

Contrast the real life traffic figures from leading in-world companies:
Ricx Jewellery 22,260
Xcite (virtual sex equipment) 59,011
Ice Dragon (casino) 75,695
ETD (hair) 17,294
Vindi Vindaloo (clothing) 5,579
Average: per week ~ 36,000 or 40 times the volume of the real-life businesses.

The failure of real life companies to spark interest in their venues is partly flawed strategies and partly the nature of the medium. Let me make the point visually. Here is a pair of shoes that Adidas are marketing in Second Life.

And here’s the in-world competition:

Ladies! Cast your vote!

The people in Second Life are having an immersive experience. One of those self-expression things. They are not in Second Life hankering for the real world. Developers need to (a) understand that and (b) explain it to their clients. The opportunity for businesses is to tap into the creativity of Second Life and take that into the real world, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.

I just included Dell on the tour. They allow you to configure a computer in Second Life. But only one model is available and you still need to go to the web to complete the sale. Why not just use the web? Just because you can do something in Second Life does not mean you should do it. The web is a better tool for database applications and I am not convinced that Second Life is destined to be the web’s front end.

Businesses should consider the possibility that Second Life’s principal value might not be to help them sell more widgets but to help them communicate powerfully, especially amongst remotely located employees. Instead of second rate virtual shopfronts they should be building virtual offices and virtual communities.

Glutton for punishment? See my previous article on GM and IBM.

Big highs but a few operational complications. In the interests of balance, because I have enthusiastically advocated the use of this platform for business, I’d like to discuss some of Second Life’s flaws.

This is an unstable development and operational environment. The Linden Lab motto is Thanks For Your Patience. As I write this another official message flashes up on my Second Life screen: … operational issues… sorry for the inconvenience. But ‘inconvenience’ is a euphemism. We are talking about major instability that impacts productivity. Regular losses of inventory, spontaneous changes in the properties of your objects (potentially open-sourcing the commercial script you’ve spent months developing), regular crashes, security scares and lag issues.

The forums and blogs are full of vitriol directed at Linden Lab. There are exceptions but generally people blame the management. A recent post by a popular Linden pleaded with users to keep it all in perspective, alluding to damage in staff morale. Is it fair to blame the drug dealer? Nobody says you have to buy heroin…

In the month to November 4th, Second Life grew 43% in logged-on users. Liaison staff are under huge pressure. The in-world Live Help service is unable to cope with the demand. Administration seems to be a mess. 6 weeks ago we applied for a listing in the Developer’s Directory and were told we were accepted. We are talking about a paragraph on a web page. Nothing has been done; heaven knows how many opportunities we have missed *spits*. Did I miss something? I thought the development community were an important part of the equation here.

I have to say something about last month’s great island-pricing fiasco. Linden Lab announced a price hike of almost 50% in island costs, saying basically that they needed to do this for long term profitability. It made a nonsense of previous statements to the effect that the company was on track towards profitability. Evidence really that they didn’t know what their profitability was.

The implementation of the price rise was disastrous. ‘We have 150 islands left at the old price, place an order and if you’re lucky you’ll get it at the old price’. The users’ outrage at the size of the increase and the lack of warning caused a back-down by the company. Now islands bought by November 15th will be at the old price. Rumours were rife that Ansche Chung and the Electric Sheep Company knew of the rise in advance and warehoused islands.

I think you have to assume that the initial pricing decision was made at the highest levels of senior management. The company should understand that a judgement error of this magnitude suggests the processes of management are not working in their present form.

Is there a management philosophy that could cope with out-of-control growth and half a million highly involved users with half a million ideas on what should be done? The starting point for such a philosophy would be to formally survey users before implementing policy changes. Surveys would conducted on a rolling basis and be structured to be representative of the broader community and stakeholders in the policy. The process is more important than the actual decision.

I’ve said before that what distinguishes Second Life from other environments is the level of involvement. The owner of a box of tissues is unlikely to have a close relationship with the manufacturer. The person reading your web page actually doesn’t care that much about your new logo, J Walter Thompson. But people in Second Life are building dreams. The person working a check-out job who has visions of making a full-time living selling virtual jewellery, the person who is conducting a virtual love affair, the person who is building a memorial in Second Life to their recently deceased mother; don’t fuck with those people. The intensity of the relationship people have with this software calls Linden Lab not just to work hard, but develop world-leading management practices that involve and respect their users.

The blog of one of IBM’s virtual world evangelists, Irving Wladawsky-Berger (some call him Irving Berger, not sure why) reveals an deep understanding of the potential of this platform. IBM are exploring Second Life as a way of conducting remote meetings and are developing ways of using it as part of an induction program for new employees. A colleague recently met Irving in London and told me that in the IBM office, about twenty people were on-line in Second Life. It might look like The Sims, but Second Life is pushing the envelope in the human-machine interface and in e-commerce.

Irving draws comparisons between the beginnings of the internet and Second Life and that is correct. What is not correct is the Channel 4 description of Second Life as the latest internet phenomenon. That makes it sound like another web site. You cannot compare MySpace and Second Life. Second Life is a new platform.

Also on the ball, somebody at General Motors or perhaps at their agency Leo Burnett, who have themselves recently entered Second Life. This press release touting Pontiac’s soon to be Motorati Island shows a very good understanding of the platform. Rather than mimic their real-life products, like Toyota and American Apparel, GM are allowing the residents to create car-lovers’ content. This will generate involvement and some buzz.

And that is the point. Was talking to some conservative business friends of mine who are not in Second Life. They asked how Second Life people will feel about corporations putting advertising billboards up all over Second Life. No, that’s not what’s going to happen fellas. This is not a passive medium. It’s interactive. Something that GM and IBM have already grasped.

CNet and IBM are in Second Life. IBM have a full time employee who is researching Second Life for its business applications and is promoting virtual worlds within IBM. CNet is the first major commercial media group to take a permanent slot. It has covered Second Life more closely than other outlets and this step shows that they understand its significance.

Add to these the heavyweights already involved; Toyota, Adidas, Amazon, Starwood Hotels, Yale, Harvard, Warner Bros, and you start to get the feeling that the cat is out of the bag.

Despite this, and despite that present rates of growth would see over 30 million people in Second Life by July 2008, you still see the eyes glazeth over when you talk to middle management about it.

Second Life is hard to explain to people, precisely because it is a new medium. Gwynyth Llewellyn has blogged about this in her usual incisive manner.

And SecondLife looks like a computer game. Historically, any animated content struggles to get taken seriously. Blame Disney, who targetted animation at children, the censors who prohibited animated adult content and the difficulties of lip sync in the medium.

Second Life might look like a computer game but this is not people being entertained by passive, illustrated characters. It is the use of animation to provide real people with a mask of anonymity and access to a fantasy world. Relationships form very quickly and are very powerful. Because of this and because it is a commercial shopfront, business needs to take Second Life very seriously.

The apparently frivolous interface makes marketing Second Life difficult for its owners, Linden Lab . The problem is this: show people footage of Second Life and they relate to it from what they know. “Oh, this looks like a video game. Or, “this looks like The Sims.” Or, “this looks like The Simpsons.” Our visual response is, I’ve already seen this stuff.

Nonetheless, apart from being in Second Life, video is the most effective medium for describing the environment.

So if you don’t know anything about Second Life but are curious, have a look at the NMC video which presents their vision for education in Second Life. It’s a damn fine piece of machinima with a killer voice-over but when you watch it, keep in mind that every animated character you see in it is a real person.

And if you are a business or institution wanting inside knowledge of the medium, contact me for a personal tour.

Attending the Second Life Community Conference was like standing with a group of people on the edge of a cliff looking down on a city, knowing that in the morning it would be ours.

The context for this is a user base which has grown from 15,000 two years ago to 536,000 and continues to grow at 22% a month. It is a context that includes the arrival of major companies and universities at an increasing rate.

Mitch Kapor gave the keynote address. He compared skepticism about Second Life (he is chairman of the board of owners Linden Lab) to skepticism about the internet and personal computing. But he also sees the bigger picture and that is the potential of virtual worlds to impact human consciousness. I don’t believe he is overstating the long-term impact.

The diversity of applications within Second Life was clear during the conference. From the whole-hearted participation of the charity American Cancer Society to the US Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the arrival of the first Auto manufacturer, a cross-section of American society now sees the potential of this platform.

I am bound to report that Qdot Bunnyhug stole the show however with a very funny talk about teledildonics. How do I phrase this? Given the active virtual sex environment present in Second Life, his product is a very good fit.

As for our own participation, (this is a new paragraph now) we had a very enthusiastic response to both of our new businesses (watch this space) and the many universities we spoke to were excited about our development project which involves a pioneering use of streaming into Second Life.

The education sector is abuzz with the possibilities. 20% of conference registrations were from educational institutions.

There were many outside-the-box presentations, for example, Sarah Brooke Robbins’ presentation on Image Slippage in which she described a subversive undermining of the traditional teacher/student relationship. She and the students decorate their houses in Second Life and then visit each other. The result is an unusual familiarity and a high trust level. In doing this, she is taking advantage of one of Second Life’s great strengths; the tendency of people to bond very quickly in the environment.

Larry Johnson of the NMC Campus summed up the feeling among educators, describing Second Life as an “important part of the future of education”.

I am pleased to be working with a major American university in Second Life on a project for one of the world’s largest companies, an energy multinational. We put together the pitch with seven days’ notice, building a co-branded location that showcased live video feeds and an email/SMS bridge between Second Life and real life. We have developed three new Second Life products within the last month.

Proud to have been instrumental in bringing into Second Life the largest real world business yet involved. Look forward to developing applications for them that answer their real world business needs with virtual world solutions.

Alter-ego Biscuit Carroll just completed a Powerpoint Presentation in Second Life. This was done as part of the barcamp organised by Spin Martin, aka Eric Rice.

You’re probably wondering why you would give a presentation INSIDE a virtual world. Because this is a new way for corporates to hold meetings with personnel scattered across the world. A valid competitor to video conferencing, which is expensive and telephone hook-ups, which are difficult to manage with more than three people. The advantage of Second Life is its immersive nature and the fact that it’s a pretty enjoyable interface compared to alternatives.

Was discussing at the Blog Meetup last night how virtual worlds and on-line games subvert normal hierachical power relationships. Suddenly it’s important how quickly you type. How knowledgeable you are about the medium you are using. This may be an advantage in a corporate environment, may be a disadvantage. We’ll know soon enough, as Free Beer is working with other consultants to bring this facility to the attention of interested businesses.

The Powerpoint side of things worked fine, though it’s a bit fiddly to set up. It took a while for the slides to appear; initially I thought the next slide wasn’t loading so I impatiently clicked again (if it doesn’t work, hit it) which of course loaded another slide and the presentation went out of sequence

Some presentations were done with audio streaming but my audio didn’t work. Highlights the complexity the user faces in this area. Quite frustrating to be standing there watching a mute avatar, knowing that all (or most) of those around you are listening in.

In order to do the presentation, it’s necessary to save the Powerpoint Pres as jpegs, then attach a script to the screen you create. Instructions here. Make sure you load the jpegs into the Content tab. I tried to load them as textures. *Stupid Biscuit*.

The presentation aimed to start a conversation about widening the exposure that bloggers and podcasters receive in mainstream media. Audience apparently unmoved. No-one asked any questions. Mental note to self. Next time, ask your own.

Here is the content:

Hi
:
:
Some very smart people in this room
:
:
Intellectual freestylers
:
:
Should get together
:
:
Challenge political, economic, social orthodoxy
:
:
In mainstream media
:
:
Speak new futures
:
:
New ways of agreeing with each other
:
:
A structure for turning agreement into action
:
:
We have a platform
:
:
SL machinima, cable tv
:
:
Web + SL + intellectual freestylers
:
:
= might make a difference
:
:
A shift in human consciousness
:
:
Starts with Africa
:
:
Any questions?