Patrice Curtis of Curtis Research moderated a panel consisting of Russell Miyaki of TMP Worldwide and Valerie Williamson for The Electric Sheep Company. Patrice provided an overview of Second Life, she's not arguing that it's the only way to go but it's an interesting way to go in her own estimate. SL is a dynamic community with its own economy, multiple languages, good people and bad people and, recently, even the U.S. Internal Revenue Service scrutinizing as to whether this virtual economy should be subject to taxes. About 10,000 virtual square miles of real estate, 6,003 islands, about USD 36,000 generated in Linden Dollars. 31 percent are huge fans, 19 percent are there just to take a look. Average adult age is 33, average teens 15. 31 percent of users from U.S. Lots go to engage in very "social" activities but there are also universities, libraries and other publishing-oriented institutions. It's a community, though, there needs to be a "give to get" aspect to content here so that users who are not turned off by over-commercialization and exploitation. Toyota's site was "vandalized" because they were not giving back to the site.
Russell outlined how they can engage job candidates to encourage them to consider their clients' companies. Helps them to find out about an organization much like old-fashioned career fairs but on a captive "island". Demonstrates in second life how employees can network with one another. Inside the "main lobby" of their virtual business to look at mini-islands of employers. Shows a sub-building for T-Mobile, candidates are pre-screened to understand who they are, while they're waiting for interviews, can sit down in "interview rooms" with a company interviewer. Can use a private chat channel to have a private conversation not displayed to other users. SL "note cards" provide summaries of the organization to help cue conversations. "A virtual world is about co-collaboration, need to help them seek information, not just a billboard, if you're selling cars let them build a car."
Electric Sheep creates content for virtual worlds, including SL but also an MTV platform and others. "If you haven't gotten on the Web 2.0 bandwagon just bypass it altogether and go to virtual worlds." Gives people a chance to interact in an immersive world. Built content for a television show "The 'L' Word", entertainment companies are driving people into SL, like 1995, the "dot com" phenomenon. "In the land of TiVo, DVDs and pirating people need to figure out how to extend engagement with their audiences." Lots of lookers but SL is a difficult platform, they provide an orientation interface. When they register on a Web site such as Showtime they get a billboard that will provide orientation. A "greeter" logged in for the TV show is directed by her to a newbie who seems to need orientation. Linden Labs' "stick rate" for their own orientation is only ten percent - their numbers are much higher. A toolbar will highlight events and content that's interesting - i.e. - *gasp*! - Web site navigation. Most areas are empty but where they program content people congregate - e.g. a building party that allows people to create spaces and structures in SL.
It's all neat stuff, but the bottom line is that unless you work hard to build real communities it winds up just being a very complicated display ad. Yet there is a "tactile" aspect to Second Life that could provide a new way to build commercial relationships effectively. The thing that comes to my mind is how local communities in the real world could create their own SL islands to recreate the experience of navigating a real downtown area - and to ensure that there is community built around a real community as well. It's also an interesting way to bring together from very dispersed geographic cultures in a way that goes beyond typical social media technologies - giving a sense of physical closeness that otherwise would be very difficult to manage. I disagree with Valerie's statements about Web 2.0, but it's an important extension of Web spaces that should continue to be interesting to follow. Hopefully new generations of this type of technology come along to simplify membership. I envision Google or another vendor providing a much more accessible version of SL and that ties in to other key content from the greater world of cyberspace. XML feeds already used in SL make this easier, but more consistent use of "author once, use many" in BOTH directions will be an important factor for SL. This is an obvious acquisition target for Yahoo - especially with its brand orientations. Needs a very strong destination content partner.
Labels: Second Life, SIIA Content Forum 2007
