Business Communicators of Second Life®

Business Communicators Meeting in Second Life Tomorrow

A reminder of our Business Communicators of Second Life meeting tomorrow with Adam Reuters. It will take place at 9:30 a.m. SLT (Pacific Time) in the Reuters Artium.

We are going to keep the meeting with Adam to 30 minutes to respect his time and his time zone.  Bring your burning questions about Reuters, his SL beat, journalism in Second Life, or ??. 

If you are somewhat new to Second Life and need a teleport to the meeting, IM ZnetLady Isbell once you are in-world and I'll offer you a teleport to the Reuters sim. If you have trouble getting that far, email me before the meeting and I'll help you out.

If you aren't a member of our in-world group, it is open to anyone interested in seriously examining the potential and culture of Second Life for real world business.  We meet once per month in SL with interesting people who are doing interesting things - experts, SL business people, thinkers, creators, scholars, developers.  Our purpose is to tour, learn, listen, discuss and collaborate.

We do not have an island or simulation, but you can find us in Second Life by searching in Groups  for "SL Business Communicators."   You do not have to join the group to attend our meetings - they are open, but you can find out how to join the in-world group here.

Hope you see you and your avatars there!

Nissan Integrates Second Life into Sentra Campaign

As of tonight there are some 1001 new virtual Sentras racing around in Second Life thanks to Nissan’s in-world promotion and its developers, Electric Sheep Company.

To coincide with their “7 Days in a Sentra” campaign, Nissan opened four simulations, installed a huge Sentra vending machine, brought into Second Life the “toast” character from its television commercial as a…yes, toasty avatar, and created an impossible match-box style loop-de-loop.

Nissan is giving away the virtual Sentras and when I’ve stopped by the main sim this week it has been busy with driving avatars and zooming radio-controlled vehicles.

The main sim also sports scenes from and streaming video of the commercials but everyone is so intent on mastering the driving experience, the commercials are pretty much lost on the focused avatars.

While knowing how to get a Sentra isn’t the most intuitive aspect of this campaign, once you have one, it is indeed “ridiculously” fun, as Giff Constable of Electric Sheep says.   I admit, it is also just a tad addicting. 

Nissan has Toast roaming SL this week passing out a code which allows avatars to snatch a free vehicle.

This is apparently the initial launch phase of Nissan’s SL presence, and as far as execution they’ve started off well by focusing on providing an experience for residents – and one the residents largely create for themselves.  Nissan provided the toys – a car, and sims devoid of practically anything but roadways so avatars can get the most out of the autobahn. The fact they have themed it to the TV commercials and a dedicated weblog is smart, but it isn't seamlessly "integrated" because RL and SL aren't yet seamless.

Nissans are not the first cars in Second Life.  In-world dealerships sell cars, motorcycles, radio-controlled cars and other types of vehicles - who no doubt will be watching what Nissan does.

October 27, 2006

Reputation Management in a World Without Edges: Avatar Guidelines

Conducting business in Second Life can feel a little like Halloween at the office – except that at the office you know who the people are under those silly costumes.  Even then, it feels roundly disconcerting to be facing Charlie Chaplin across the conference table while trying to discuss that big pitch coming up the next day…

In Second Life, however you can’t be sure who the person is behind the avatar.  And privacy in Second Life is the most highly valued asset.  It is fiercely protected by residents.  In fact, the standard Linden Lab terms of service prohibits disclosing another person’s real identity within SL and is cause for disciplinary action by the “gods.”

This presents a challenge to businesses which rely heavily on reputation.  Reputation is a short cut to credibility.  By knowing a person’s real life association, or credit history or past awards, we make a quick determination of “who” that person is.  But these kinds of reputation systems are non-existent in Second Life. Currently there isn’t even the benefit of a collaborative reputation system like eBay’s or those on web-based social networks. And people purposely don’t carry into SL their real world reputations.

As a way to help businesses address branding and identity issues, Linden Lab will be selling the Second Life equivalent of domain names, allowing individuals and businesses to purchase a custom last name.  People operating in-world may now carry their real world organization’s name over their head – literally. 

That’s the good news – and the bad news. 

The good news is if you purchase the privilege, you can identify your employees or representatives with a branded Second Life last name.  This makes it easy for everyone to identify your group’s avatars.  It establishes a credibility – an assumed reputation.

The bad news is it makes it easy for everyone to identify your group’s avatars.

Unlike in the real world office, when avatars leave your island or simulation and venture out into the greater Second Life metaverse, there are no boundaries.  In a “persistent” virtual environment like Second Life avatars carry their “reputations” with them everywhere.

What this means is if your real world brand is doing business in Second Life, you need avatar guidelines for your employee avatars. Creating guidelines helps you and your employee avatars to operate under your banner in comfort and with confidence.   

Here are a few areas to consider for your company’s “branded avatar” policy:

Avatar Profile.  Provide guidelines for your avatar employees’ profiles. Address inclusion of images, descriptions, and your policy about revealing “first life” information or personally identifiable information.  Profiles may include a web page, notes and location picks as well.  Consider what information may be sensitive and advise your avatar employees about what a positive profile should include when operating in Second Life under your brand name. 

Second Life locations.  Identify within which simulations your company’s avatars are allowed.  The variety of activities in Second Life is robust, and some of them may be inconsistent with your brand identity.

Code of avatar conduct.  The veil of an avatar may give people the feeling they are less accountable for their actions – or forget they are carrying your name over their head. Griefing, weapons, copyright infractions, spamming, flaming, community standards are just a few areas your avatar code of conduct might address.  The Linden Lab TOS is a great place to start for code of conduct ideas.

Group affiliation.  Groups are the closet thing to a reputation system in Second Life.  They serve to communicate an avatar’s persona and they are the basis of the social structure of Second Life.  They also pretty much define “who” you are.  You may need to provide guidelines on which groups are consistent with your brand.

It is extremely important that employees who will be operating in Second Life mingle, learn the SL culture, participate with and contribute to the community, and enjoy the unique activities and benefits of this virtual world. Encourage them to do so.  And remind them that in a world without boundaries there is plenty of room for both a professional and a personal avatar.

Photo credit:  Anya Ixchel -
Check out her recent presentation "The Avatar as Communication"

October 24, 2006

Pontiac Second Life Island to Empower the Motorati

Slated to debut in late November, Pontiac will launch its Motorati Island in Second Life with the hopes of galvanizing an in-world car culture.

Pontiac envisions turning their in-world presence into a study in consumer-engagement by offering free land to Second Life entrepreneurs, artists, car-enthusiasts and creatives to build their own projects with the goal of “unleashing the community’s passion for cars.”

According to Pontiac’s press release, they will ask residents for proposals and will award land based on how each proposed plan fits into the Motorati culture.  The planned outcome will be a community largely built by residents, but facilitated by Pontiac.

The company isn't leaving its entire region to the locals.  It will put its own stamp on Motorati Island by building a dealership  to sell custom avataristic Solstice GXPs.  New owners will be able to test drive the cars on high performance tracks and display them at a virtual car show - aka public gallery.

Pontiac's Second Life presence will be integrated with a new microsite, Motoratilife.com where the public will be able to watch the campaign develop as well as join the Motorati web community.  It is here that Pontiac will accept land grant proposals from SL car enthusiasts and builders.  The site is not yet live but scheduled to debut in November.

Leo Burnett who recently opened their own presence in Second Life, is leading Pontiac’s endeavor and according to Tor Myhern, executive VP for the agency, “We envision weekly competitive driving events, drive-in theaters playing car related films, machinima film studios, car-themed fashion shows, live concerts, drive-in restaurants, you name it. If an idea relates to any aspect of car culture, we intend to give the community the means to make it happen.”

This campaign has promise – depending, of course, on its execution and on how seriously Pontiac follows through on SL resident engagement.  In other words how much they empower versus control.  But at first blush they seem to be inviting full-scale participation - which has the ingredients to organically create and grow experiences/spaces that residents value.

Millions of Us will be the creating the in-world region.

More to follow on this as the campaign develops, but GM seems to be headed in the right direction with this one.

Read GM’s press release here.

October 20, 2006

U.S. Congress Studies Public Policy Around Virtual Economies

As Second Life reaches 1 million residents today, the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress announced they are studying public tax policies related to virtual worlds.

It is no wonder.  Spending in Lindens, the Second Life currency, reached over 92 million dollars for September of this year, and October is already on track to outstrip that figure by 20%.  Linden Lab today announced that largely due to heavy media coverage, it expects to add 50,000 new resident accounts today alone.  In recent months Second Life has been growing by 38% per month in a sector that generates between $1 billion and $3 billion USD a year.

According to Representative Jim Saxton, chairman of the JEC, the committee is concerned that the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. taxing body, may step in and begin imposing taxes on virtual transactions before appropriate public policies have been set.  “This I believe would be a mistake,” says chairman Saxton.

The present explosive growth of virtual worlds has civic leaders sitting up and taking note far earlier than they did when the World Wide Web began to change and challenge the flow of information and commerce. These virtual environments are rapidly creeping into our real world business and public social and economic structures.   It seems that the U.S. Congress wants to lead the public policy debate about how these economies will be regulated.  But the impact of these virtual spaces on public places has been more quietly advancing for quite a while.

See the full Joint Economic Committee press release here (pdf).

Photo credit:  Linden Lab Market Data

October 18, 2006

Wired Opens Its Second Life Offices

Immediately on the heels of Reuters’ Second Life announcement, Wired magazine officially opened their virtual offices today in Second Life on the Millions of Us sim.  According to the magazine, while preparing to publish a Second Life travel guide, they decided to follow their readers into Second Life.  Wired plans to hold lectures and other events in their new virtual digs.

Editor-in-chief, Chris Anderson’s in-world interview and book signing last Friday with the Second Life embedded reporter, Hamlet Au  – and Wired’s Second Life cover story in this month’s print pub were perhaps the harbingers of today’s official announcement.

As a companion piece to their announcement article, Wired has a great SL fact sheet, as well as guides to destinations, shopping, and entertainment.

Wired’s Second Life offices were created by the virtual worlds agency, Millions of Us, and includes offices, a conference room, and presentation stadium. Wired has not announced future events, but you are invited to their “house warming” on Saturday, October 21st from 4-7 p.m. SLT (same as Pacific Time).

Access Wired's in-world offices at:  secondlife://Millions Of Us/202/227/23

October 17, 2006

Intel, 5th Avenue and Second Life

Sitting in a 3-foot wide window on 5th Avenue in New York City today is Versu Richelieu and an Intel dual core processor laptop – along with video cameras, big-screen overhead displays and a live web cam.  For 72 hours Versu is living on a Centrino Duo powered laptop building in Second Life a virtual version of the NYC landscape she is sitting in and is able to see from her glass cage.

This is Intel’s “Live without boundaries” 72-hour experiment/buzz marketing campaign in which the renowned virtual builder is living and working in the window at 5th Avenue and 39th Street. 

Passersby are watching her build their city block within Second Life on the overhead displays in the window – and if you happen to be in the area you can get a $100 in-store discount toward any Intel Core 2 Duo system.  Virtual visitors watch Versu through the live video feeds on Intel’s web site: one of the real Versu in the window; the other of her Second Life point-of-view camera where you can see her work unfold within the Second Life virtual world.

Pointing up the limitations – and frustrations – of Second Life, is the fact the game went down for a while this morning, interrupting Versu’s in-world activities.

Intel is adding some other social media to the promotion mix: YouTube will host segments, there is a Flickr photostream, and Versu is providing an audio blog via Hipcast.  Rocketboom reported on the mixed reality event, interviewing both Versu (a.k.a Kess Quinn)  and Ruben Steiger of  Millions Of Us, the creative agency behind the event in coordination with Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.

While the event is an interesting mashup of social media, it is has all the trappings of the typical real-world staged event.   It seems the only place to “participate” is to comment on Versu’s blog page via the Millions of Us blog or to IM Millions of Us if you are in-world.  Intel’s event web page has no comment feature nor is there a dedicated blog - which is one, very simple way to provide a sense of immediacy and connectedness to event.  Those outside the  real-world window can only stand by and watch - maybe use a few hand signals.  The virtual build-in-process sim is accessible by making a request to Millions of Us – which is a very understandable technological need to limit the avatars in the space.

Perhaps Intel, Ogilvy and Millions of Us should step back and truly re-consider their promotional tagline within the context of that very “social web” - the one without edges - that they are presumably trying to leverage.  The coolness factor may have taken the front seat here instead of the message.  And yes, the build and process is very cool.

The Versu “Live without boundaries” event build will reportedly be available in-world after the real world event concludes.

The Intel event page is at www.nyclivewindow.com/

See the Rocketboom interview here.

YouTube video of "Day 1" by Millions of Us is here.

Contrary views on the event from Eric Rice and CC Chapman.

October 14, 2006

Reuters Opening Second Life Bureau

Adam Reuters is the official Reuters Second Life bureau chief and in-world reporter.  Adam will apparently be living his news beat by staying close to the SL culture and its stories.  According to the Reuters Second Life News Center web page, the real-life Adam Pasick and his avatar will be keeping in-world office hours in Reuters’ new sim, Reuters Atrium.  The Atrium is not yet open, but based on the web site, I'm venturing to say it is slated for unveiling on October 16th. 

The Reuters web-based Second Life News Center has real-time Linden currency charts, a currency converter (for all major world currencies) and a teleport link to the Reuters Atrium. They have advance-posted there three of Adam’s interviews. Two of the interviews are audio interviews with Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab (creators of Second Life) about the Second Life economy – and one is an interview with the in-world bank, Ginko Financial.  Rosedale talks about how the money supply works and has changed; as well as keeping the SL economy growing while keeping inflation in check.  Linden Labs closely watches the currency exchange rate, instituting the same kind of economic controls any central banking system might to keep the SL currency stable.  Of course, the economy is also subject to similar open market forces that any real world economy is.

What is far more significant than the opening of their presence in SL, is that Reuters Second Life News Center signals that Reuters believes Second Life is a viable and "real" business sector – an environment that real business should be monitoring.  And, taking the 2D concept of comments from readers into the 3D web, Reuters Atrium is an area for avatars to gather to discuss Second Life stories.

Reuters is asking for story ideas – so it may now be time to pay "real world" attention, business communicators.

On a side note, I'm honored by the discovery that this blog is included in Reuters Second Life news feed and has been listed on their blog roll.

October 13, 2006
 

Vodafone Preparing Second Life Presence

Mark Wallace at 3pointD is reporting that Rivers Run Red, a UK creative services company, is building out a Second Life Island for Vodafone.  Vodafone’s ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty recently opened their own presence is SL, and it seems Vodafone’s upcoming SL island launch is part of a marketing campaign BBH is spearheading.

Vodafone Group operates mobile telecommunication services throughout most of the world but its U.S. affiliate operates as Verizon Wireless.

The company sponsors global sporting and entertainment events, so it isn’t surprising that they are planning these types of events for their Second Life Island.   They are apparently also planning to bring “new ways” for Second Lifers to interact with each other inside the grid and with real life. Details are scarce, but they are beginning their Second Life buzz.

Canadian telecommunications company Telus opened a virtual store in Second Life back in August of this year, offering virtual mobile telephones with small applications that are mainly for “buzz appeal” rather than anything functional in-world or that bridges RL and SL.

Last April Vivox, a company that enables voice communication for online communities, began putting in virtual phone booths and group microphones (for up-to-five group chatting) in Second Life allowing residents to call RL phones from in-world.  To use the in-world phones requires a download of special software.  Vivox is currently promoting their Second Life presence with a “million minutes” give away.

Voice communication between the RL and SL isn’t new with the entrance of Vivox or presumably, Vodafone.  Skype is being used regularly for voice communication while in-world.

It isn’t clear what Vodafone has planned as yet.  While the standard text based communication in Second Life has some unique benefits, seamless voice communications will be a vital component for broad-based real-life business conferencing applications. We'll be tracking Vodafone's Second Life initiative.

Photo Credit:  Cailyn Miller


October 10, 2006

Sun Microsystems to Hold Press Conference in Second Life

Sun seems to be pushing the news dissemination envelope.  Next Tuesday Sun’s Chief Gaming Officer, Chris Melissinos and Chief Researcher, Jon Gage will hold an in-world press conference, officially opening their Second Life pavilion and discussing how Sun plans to work in Second Life.

Their PR agency, Bite PR seems to be spearheading the Second Life press event. 

This move shows a real understanding of modern media as both “channel” and “place.” 

And, if the press conference is open to the avatar public, that would also signal Sun’s understanding of who “the media” is today – everyone.

The Red Herring has a story here and includes another interesting move Sun is making related to financial disclosure regulations.

[Update 10-6-02] The press release has just come across at Yahoo, and access to the Sun Pavilion will be restricted prior to the event.  But to visit the Pavilion another time, it is located at: secondlife://Sun Pavilion/182/144/55.

 

October 5, 2006

Amazon’s Jeff Barr to Present at Second Life Library

Contributing to the Grand Opening celebration week of the Second Life Library, Jeff Bar, Web Service Evangelist at Amazon, will be doing an in-world presentation on Info Island.  Reserve Tuesday, October 10 at 5:00 p.m Pacific/Second Life time and meet Jeff, ask questions and just join in.

Jeff’s day job is to help people build cool stuff using Amazon’s technology.  But on Tuesday he’ll be clueing us in on all things Amazon, including Amazon’s web services and technologies – and, of course, what Amazon is doing in Second Life.

He gave a presentation last month for a meeting of the Kuurian Expedition and it was a unique chance to hear about services beyond Amazon’s pace-setting e-commerce web site.

Jeff blogs at Jeff Barr’s Blog.   Read about his experience, challenges and comments about presenting in Second Life here.

Jeff's presentation will be in the open-air auditorium on Info Island at: Info Island: 141/181/33

October 5, 2006

Sony BMG Jumping into Second Life

As part of its search for new revenue streams in an industry that has frequently failed to keep pace with its customers, Sony BMG has purchased an island in Second Life.  Sony plans to hold concerts in Second Life, and presumably to facilitate shared music experiences.

Financial Times Deutschland reports that Sony BMG Europe is getting serious in its search for new market strategies and Second Life is just one in a series of moves into new venues and perhaps toward new models.

The addition of the capability to stream music in Second Life was largely responsible for the explosion in its now-robust social scene, but the number of avatars able to occupy a simulation is a technical hurdle that currently limits SL as a mass experience medium.

However, the possibilities of new licensing/purchasing models is intriguing. Music attached to our in-world objects and islands and animations and events.  Indeed, your very presence (avatar) in Second Life may be music. We use it as a device already in movies and radio to communicate “presence” – why not in SL?  The ringtones we attach to our RL cell phones act as a form of self-expression.

Our music – whether we create it or experience it - is an expression of ourselves   It is logical that we take it into our virtual spaces, as well, and shape it to ourselves.  It will be interesting to see if Sony, EMI and the others that will follow them into Second Life will let us play with the music there.

Photo credit: Argus Collingwood 

October 2, 2006