Business Communicators of Second Life®

MTV Avatar Marketing?

MTV is expanding its fans’ virtual “playgrounds” by enabling avatar widgets for three of its online and virtual properties; partnering with Oddcast and using its Voki platform for the widgets (example below).  MTV refers to its online environments as “thematic galleries” – an interesting concept in itself.

MTV hopes fans will use the customized, speaking avatars to interact with each other exchanging gossip and messages. Voki offers an impressive number of combinations of avatar features to allow for quite a bit of personalization – but the fun is adding the text-to-speech or synchronized recorded voice to deliver content via the avatar.  (Warning:If you are going to browse some recently created avatars some of the audio content is very un-PG.)

MTV of course also hopes fans will place the avatars on their other online spaces, such as social networks, blogs, or other virtual environments.  The availability of embed code is immediate upon creating your Voki avatar.

But way more importantly for MTV, is that they may be looking to these distributed avatars as an advertising channel.

Checking out the very-hard-to-find-until-you-create-your-MTV-avatar Voki terms of service, it appears you will be giving them the right to do just that.

I’ll not bore you with the TOS language (relevant portion posted below) but it basically says, we own you, your avatar, anything you record or create, and we can do anything we like with it – anywhere it is – without compensating you in any way if we do.

ClickZ reports that MTV banks on being able to eventually push messages directly to those distributed avatars.

It’s a little disturbing to think MTV may be planning to co-opt its fans by making it appear their avatar is endorsing something without their explicit permission nor endorsement.  This takes “word of mouth” to a new level, I suppose.

I think it is a great idea to think about concentrating on the avatar, since it is the only constant in a sea of social spaces – indeed I’ve been advocating the idea for quite a while now.  But I can’t say this particular kind of potential co-opting is a “best practice” I’d recommend jumping into.  I sincerely hope MTV treads into these waters very carefully. 

Social networks are just beginning to feel the restlessness of members, who are collectively coming to the realization that it is they who create the market value of the network.  It is just a matter of time before they will be exerting that power, and perhaps the expectation of reaping at least some of the benefit.

I see another, bigger Beacon potentially brewing.

Voki Terms of Service
…you agree that any materials, including but not limited to questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, discoveries, plans, notes, drawings, arts, original or creative materials or other information, provided by you in the form of email or submissions to Oddcast, or postings at this Web Site, are non-confidential and shall become the sole property of Oddcast to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. Oddcast shall own exclusive rights and shall be entitled to the unrestricted use of these materials for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or additional compensation to you. In the event applicable law operates to prevent Oddcast from becoming the sole owner of any such property, then this provision shall be effective as granting to Oddcast (with unfettered rights of assignment) a perpetual, worldwide, paid-in-full, non-exclusive right (including any moral rights) and license to make, use, sell, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, communicate to the public, perform and display the content (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, for the full term of any rights that may exist in any such material.

April 30, 2008

Cultures of Virtual Worlds

Over the last two days I’ve had the real pleasure of being back in the classroom, straining at times to hear over the noise of the construction of the engineering building next door.  But it was worth it being able to hear 30 ethnographic researchers gathered at UC Irvine to present their studies of just what we avatars are doing inside virtual worlds.  The theme for the gathering was Cultures of Virtual Worlds, organized by the Center for Ethnography in the Department of Anthropology and sponsored by Intel’s People and Practices Research Group.

Ethnographic research is a first person study of the observed behaviors of others.  These were indeed the tales from the road, observations organized and structured into what we already understand about human behavior.  But, mostly the tales raised questions and many mysteries yet to be understood about virtuality.

Dr. Celia Pearce of Georgia Tech, traversed worlds for us as she reported on the forced migration of Uru (Myst Online) players, as they became refugees in the “new” worlds of There.com and Second Life due to the closing of their game.  She showed us how the artifacts from one world ported over to another through recreation of the old world in the new, transforming both the place and the narrative of the new, joined community.  Her experiences highlight how a true community, once created, does not die easily – indeed another world often becomes the beneficiary.

My thoughts:  This phenomenon is as true in the actual world as in the virtual.   I’ve been watching a similar migration in process at this very moment with the closing of Virtual Magic Kingdom as that community is creating a new Virtual Family Kingdom and preparing its [heartbreaking] move from VMK.   Both these instances raise a fascinating question of just what is a community.  Do we use the word too loosely today in social networking since we move and migrate so easily among networks?  When does “affiliation” or “networked communication” become community – or does it?  Do commercial entities have responsibilities to the communities they create?

Graduate student Lilly Irani coined a phrase in the title of her presentation I suspect I will be using in the future, as it captures our modern communication habits so well:  Assemblages of Communication.  She documented her travels inside Second Life focusing on the fluid communications habits of activist avatars who seamlessly weave IRC, blogs, web forums, Facebook, Café Press, SLProfiles, and photo sharing to communicate.  Her conclusion: the immersive nature of communication inside virtual worlds is just one type of communication and that “collectives” keep in touch through assemblages of communications that are unique to them and that serve their individual community.

My thoughts: Lilly’s focused observations of a small group of activists operating inside a virtual world validate my own theories of the fluidity of what we still call “media.”  We tend to think of media as a “thing.” But media in practice is in fact very ephemeral.   We describe it as “distributed,” but it goes way fuzzier than that. Media  “in practice” isn’t a channel, but an activity.

Dr. Rebecca Black plunged us into the virtual literary world at FanFiction.net where she chronicled the shifting online identity of a young Chinese girl as she published her fiction while learning English.  Through her observations Dr. Black concludes that over time our identities shift and evolve – are never static - because we construct them in diverse ways, influenced by the media, pop culture, our ethnicity and our own “actual” identity.  In a focused study of the language used within the space, she also contrasted the support and encouragement given to her subject by this virtual community versus that she might receive within our traditional educational environment.

My thoughts:  Every virtual space has its own reason for being along with its own rules, norms, culture, and communication methods – often its own language.  The richness of the connections in virtual worlds does often trump the interactions we receive in the actual world.  There is a realness to them that transcends the physical.  Reciprocity is central to the growth of a true community.  What troubles me is that we have constructed our “real” institutions, organizations, and expectations in ways that often dehumanizes and that removes reciprocity – possibly encouraging (forcing?) us to escape into the virtual to find the real.

Deborah Fields' projects lead us through a study of race and gender via Whyville, where 68% of the participants are girls. Deborah is studying how children develop connections and identities in social worlds and how it might inform “real life” learning. She shared a fascinating case study of “Zoë” who grapples with her ethnicity through an evolutionary process of trading “face parts.”  (In Whyville you have very limited abilities in avatar creation.)  Zoë in real life is black.  However while she could approximate a “black” face – it was difficult to find black “bodies” (“bodies” are actually part of Whyville clothing).  She began looking to trade for Latina representations and she even went through a period of scamming other Whyville avatars. Through this case study Deborah  illustrated that children (all of us, actually) go through phases of participation, developing multiple identities and that we continually evolve them.

My thoughts:  Wow, many thoughts hit me on this one:  children’s game designers have enormous responsibilities and need to consider children's identity formation in their products- let’s start by making it possible to represent more than “white.” Teachers and parents need to keep tabs on the identity formation/experimentation that their children and students are doing – create safety, freedom and encouragement to do so, while gathering insight as children go about it. The shifting “demographic” implications of the transitory nature of online identity and how we will adapt to two very different “states” of identity – one where we are the “same” person all the time due to the melding of our work, social and personal lives online (you are your Google results); and two, the liquidness with which we morph and evolve our identities.

This is by no means even a close approximation of all the stimulating and insightful presentations – just a few of the many highlights.

Dr. Dean Terry of University of Texas, Dallas provided a fun and thought provoking talk on the work his Virtual Worlds Lab and Mobile Lab is doing.  He wrapped up with a demonstration of an augmented reality via a mobile phone project that his students will be unveiling soon.

Post-graduate students, Paolo Ruffino introduced some fascinating concepts of our collective evolving worldview (virtual and actual) through mapping; Bianca Ahmadi presented machinima as an art and education form; and Lindsay Todres explored “self spectatorship” online and how it relates to/changes our use of media, especially cinema.

All in all, there is much to be understood about we avatars.  But it is clear our ideas of reality, community, intimacy, identity and space must evolve in step with virtuality.  This research is just a beginning, and from all the encouragement and collaboration I saw going on we have some interesting research to look forward to.

Kudos to Tom Boellstorff and Maria Bezaitis of UCI’s Anthropology Department for organizing the event.  Tom’s book, Coming of Age in Second Life is due to be released in a couple of days.

April 27, 2008

New Research Services from Involve, Inc. and Metaversatility

A slew of virtual worlds announcements is likely being unleashed from the floor of the VW2008 conference, which opened its doors this morning. I opted to observe it from afar this year as VW200x tends to focus on virtual world development, technology and corporate forays into virtual space.  As a business strategist and social media consultant, my interest tends toward how people are using – and are transformed by - virtual spaces and virtuality.

To that end, a couple of announcements came my way a couple of weeks ago - eons ago in virtual world and blogger time. But, important enough in my world to do the nearly unthinkable in blog space – write about such “old news.”

Just a few days apart, developers Involve, Inc. and Metaversatility each announced new client service offerings – research. (By way of disclosure, my company introduced a directly competing research service last year). 

This is a very good trend – more accumulated research means we all get a better understanding of the unique characteristics of place and people in virtual spaces.   Operating in the virtual is far too new to have risen to the confidence level of “marketing staple! go blindly forward” and it creates far too deep an impression to just wave away vital insights good research affords.  I dare say the widely hyped corporate virtual marketing “failures” of 2007 might be fueling this trend just a tad, as well.

Developers are responding to very real client needs – to learn more and to show results.  Clients often can’t get emerging media guidance and expertise from their “traditional” agencies and developers are wisely stepping into the role by partnering with organizations that can provide some of the “best practices” agencies bring to the table and clients have come to expect in more traditional settings. 

Involve, Inc. has teamed up with Strategy Analytics to offer “consumer insight” to inform emerging media initiatives and business strategies.  The service is called the “Emerging Media Impact Assessment” and reportedly focuses on defining objectives and metrics.

In an interview with Virtual World News, Involve president Drew Stein says he believes Strategy Analytics “gets” the space, and he tells me that the two companies make a dream team.  I have no reason to doubt that, as SA is a respected research firm and Stein definitely does “get” emerging media principles. 

But I just have to say that I hope Involve will prove a valuable learning partner for SA in lightening them up a bit and helping them embrace the new 2.0 era of communications.  Their white paper, the results of which is touted in the partnership announcement, is locked away behind the SA firewall, requiring registration - which only supports IE6, by the way - and the registration form has checked by default 500 (exaggerating, but not by much…) areas of interest I want to receive information about from SA.  Yes, I am one of those “abandoned” visitors in your web stats, SA.  The executive summary is available on Involve’s site, but it doesn’t provide any real insight into what is in the report, and warning: the summary is dense reading.  (Do I sound annoyed?  I think I sound annoyed...).

That said, I hope Involve's clients will budget more and early for research.  Ideally, implementation should be informed by it and is then a process developed over a longer-haul budget.  I also hope that Involve and SA will share with the community some of the insights gained as they accumulate more knowledge through their research.

Metaversatility teamed up with GSD&M.  GSD&M has been trying to be a player in the virtual worlds data game for a while.  They took a big lead in the Second Life Market Data Project that ultimately wound up being abandoned - in my opinion from watching the progress - due to a lack of expertise toward developing virtual world appropriate research methodologies.  So it makes terrific sense for GSD&M to partner with Metaversatility to help them gain that expertise and the appropriate resources.

Metaversatility is also providing GSD&M's IdeaCity with a branded research “bot” to automatically screen and survey avatars in-world, rather than using “out of world” web-based surveys.

This in-world surveying has value from the standpoint the person behind the avatar is “in” the environment being researched.  So, it will be interesting to see if IdeaCity’s results differ significantly from other researchers’ based on this approach.

However, I think GSD&M’s characterization of their new research service as “ethnographic” is using the term rather loosely.  Ethnographic study deeply involves the researching human who is observing in a native environment – generally over a long period of time.  By its nature, it is not objective research.  Bots don’t fall into that definition, at least not yet.  This is qualitative research, to be sure, but the mere fact that surveys or interviews are done in world doesn’t make it ethnographic research.  Maybe there is more to their ethnographic story, so hopefully someone from Metaversatility or GSD&M will step in here and provide more context.

I’ll forgive (soon) both GSD&M and Metaversatility for the blatant PR spin in their press release generalizing the “gaping void” in “best in class virtual world research.”  There has been enormous amounts of truly impressive research going on for years in virtual environments (academic and commercial); several consultancies and agencies have been quietly affording clients data and research-informed advice and solutions.  A few have distinguished themselves as leaders in 3D virtual spaces.  Metaversatility has itself had various research services as part of their client offerings since they were founded, and members of their team have shared their research at past conferences, including VW2008 this week.

No matter the details,  I wish them each success.  The entire community will gain from more research being done in virtual spaces and these are two partnerships that can only help further everyone’s knowledge about these environments and the people who inhabit them.  Even if the research these companies undertake isn’t widely shared or made available, it will leak out in the form of better initiatives, case studies, new services, and a higher degree of client satisfaction.

Photo credit: Australian National University, Centre for Mental Health Research

April 3, 2008

Innovating and Investing in the Metaverse April 8

Come join us at University of California, Irvine on Tuesday evening from 6:00 -8:00 for what promises to be a truly fascinating "metaverse" panel discussion. We've gathered four stellar people - all working on enterprise initiatives in virtual spaces (two of which will be just returning from Virtual Worlds 2008): 

• Christian Renaud Chief Architect, Networked Virtual Environments, Cisco Technology Center
• Denis Browne, Senior Vice President, Business User Imagineering, SAP Labs, LLC
• Mary Ellen Gordon, Founder & Managing Director, Market Truths
• Crista Lopes, Associate Professor of Information & Computer Sciences, UCI

Each will be sharing their view of the business opportunities of virtual environments. specifics of what they are working on,  and we'll have a intimate chance to meet and greet and ask questions.

Try as we might, we haven't been able to organize and secure the UCI resources to stream the panel online or in a world, but we're trying for a conference number to at least provide the opportunity to listen in. I'll update this when I have teleconference info.

Here is the official description and please join the Facebook group whether you can attend or not:

Fully immersive 3D virtual worlds such as Second Life, There.com, Gaia Online and HiPiHi are seriously entertaining, and 30-40 million people are currently living, working and playing in them. In an April 2007 report, Gartner projected that 80% percent of active Internet users and Fortune 500 enterprises will be engaged in virtual worlds such as Second Life by the end of 2011.

Virtual spaces and technologies represent a serious business opportunity. More than 170 major brands in categories from automotive to consumer products, education to tourism are experimenting with the innovation, marketing and business value of virtual worlds. A recent Forrester report predicted that within five years, the 3-D Internet will be as critical a business tool as the Web is today.

What’s the opportunity for virtual world innovation and investment? Bring your questions and join our panel of digerati for an exploration of how organizations are using virtuality for collaboration, branding, R&D, recruiting and research.

The event is being sponsored by OCTANe Orange County. If you aren't familiar with the organization, it is  a 15,000 member strong hub of innovation, investment and people fueling the technology and biomedical sectors in Orange County, CA.  Check out their web site here.

Location details and registration link:  http://www.octaneoc.org/calendar/view_event.asp?CalendarID=667

Hope some of you can make it!

April 2, 2008