Business Communicators of Second Life®

SL Business Communicators Meeting: SkyTran Transcript

Our meeting SL Business Communicators meeting last Friday with UCI professor Crista Lopes a.k.a. Diva Canto flew by - literally.  We got the chance to see the coolest rezzing process ever -and it was the SL prototype of the RL magnetic levitation transportation pod project, SkyTran.  Below Professor Lopes explains the project and how she is using SL to inform the RL engineers and planners.

We're aiming at organizing an upcoming meeting with Unimodal who is driving the RW transportation system in California.

Introduction
Diva Canto: I gave everyone a landmark for our workshop in the sky
Znetlady Isbell: Got it.
Diva Canto: we'll move there in a bit
Csven Concord: Gracias, Diva.
Brandon Catteneo: OK
IYan Writer: ty Diva
Znetlady Isbell: Diva, maybe I should introduce you? Should I do that while
we wait a moment?
Csven Concord: Speech! Speech!
Diva Canto: yes, you're the master of ceremony!
Znetlady Isbell: LOL!! Diva Canto is an associate professor at University of
Calif., Irvine.
Znetlady Isbell: She came to UCI via Xerox's PARC
Diva Canto: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~lopes
Znetlady Isbell: and she is the headmaster here at SkyTran, helping the RL
company Unimodal bring it to life in the RL.
Znetlady Isbell: She'll tell you more about that, AND..
Znetlady Isbell: she is the developer of the new SLBrowser SL search engine
Znetlady Isbell: which is both a HUD and a web-based google-ish SE.
Znetlady Isbell: I use it all the time - a fast way to locate things out of
world.
Znetlady Isbell: She's been written up in the the Orange County Register about
this project and she tells me it is getting a lot of attention.
Znetlady Isbell: Diva, what did I miss?
Diva Canto: that's right, lots of web publications picked that up
Diva Canto: oh, that's about right
Znetlady Isbell: She's a fast typist too. lol
Diva Canto: :-)
Diva Canto: ok, so let me talk first about skytran, ok?
Znetlady Isbell: Please!!

SkyTran Project
Diva Canto: this is a prototype of a PRT system that's being designed by a
company here in Irvine
Diva Canto: PRT = Personal Rapid Transit
Diva Canto: it's the kind of transportation system that we see in sci-fi
movies :-)
Csven Concord: Maglev?
Diva Canto: they have developed a magnetic levitation technology yjay yjey
believe will enable that to happen
Csven Concord: *shuts up
Diva Canto: :-)
Diva Canto: np ask questions, interrupt me
Diva Canto: anyway
Diva Canto: they are looking to deploy a small prototype, proof-of-concept,
somewhere in California
Diva Canto: within the next couple of years
Diva Canto: they needed some help with the control software
Csven Concord: Attractive or repulsive?
Diva Canto: what do you mean?
Diva Canto: maglev?
Csven Concord: Yes
Diva Canto: oh, I'm afraid I don't know enough about maglev technology
*lughs*
Csven Concord: Just curious.
IYan Writer: isn't it repulsive by definition? otherwise it'd stick to the
track
Csven Concord: No.
Diva Canto: you can ask them or check their web site
Diva Canto: anyway, we helped them on ghe control software
Diva Canto: that's not the low-level control, but the logic control of the
cars
Diva Canto: -- when cars start and stop moving, their velocities, etc
Diva Canto: background --
Diva Canto: real-world systems have two or more levels of control
Diva Canto: the lowest one is very close to the physics of the system
Diva Canto: so, making sure thaty when the upper layers says "go at 100 mph"
it stays at 100mph
Diva Canto: stuff like that.
Diva Canto: but above that there are more layers of control
Diva Canto: so, we ignored the low level layers -- because SL's physics
sucks
Brandon Catteneo chuckles
Diva Canto: we made some emulations of the low level behavior, and proceeded
to study the higher-level logic
Diva Canto: the controller here controls the scheduling of the cars
Diva Canto: plus we did, as you see, 3D modeling of their system.
Diva Canto: this is actually very accurate, it was dsone according to their
specs
Diva Canto: and during the process, we found several bugs in their design,
which they promptly corrected
Bruce Voight: can you descrie, if any, safety features that are or will be
installded.
Diva Canto: oh there's all sorts of safety controls. we haven't simulated
those yet
Diva Canto: what you see here is just the beginning -- the scheduling --
making sure that the cars don't collide
Diva Canto: with each other, that is
Diva Canto: the engineers at Unimodal think this has been a super-valuable
tool for them
Bruce Voight: and also earthquake and power outtage features I assume.
Diva Canto: oh yes, lots and lots and lots of safety issue here!

Control System: The Guideway Brain
Csven Concord: Could you explain the control system a bit?
Diva Canto: safety will basically account for most of the code
Diva Canto: hmm, I'm afraid I can't go into the details of their control
Diva Canto: that's been NDA'ed
Csven Concord: So, if I were to ask if there are any levels of autonomy, you
couldn't answer - ?
Diva Canto: I can answer that.
Bruce Voight: will the controls be controlled by the driver or a master
steersman.....Like a rollercoaster?
Diva Canto: the autonomy is in each station controller
Diva Canto: the cars are relatively dumb
Csven Concord: ok
Diva Canto: I measn "passive" -- that's a better term :-)
Diva Canto: the guideway is the "brain" in a way
Diva Canto: it's also the guideway that makes the cars move
Diva Canto: that's part of their maglev technology
Diva Canto: so the staion controller sends signals to the guideway bricks
Diva Canto: if you zoom in, you'll see that the guideway is made of small
bricks
Csven Concord: Did you emulate it in SL?
Diva Canto: there's over 500 of them
Csven Concord: I mean, code-wise.
Diva Canto: yes -- everything
Diva Canto: there's a lot of "talking" between the bricks and the controller
Brandon Catteneo: So those are all scripted to align to each other?
Csven Concord: So each brick is "sensing" the train.
Diva Canto: yes. I wanted to show you the rez of the guideway, cos that's
really cool to see
Diva Canto: but this guideway down here is not responding to my commands --
my studemts must have messed it up yesterday
Diva Canto: let's go to our worlshop, shall we?
Diva Canto: it's it on the clouds.
Diva Canto: I gave most of you the landmark
Diva Canto: for the others, please pull up the map, notice a platform on the
upper left corner of this sim, and TO there
Diva Canto: or fly -- if you have a device that allows you to fly above the
clouds

To the SkyTran Workshop in the Sky
Bruce Voight: OK....The TP is too close...Have to TP somewhere else and then
to your shop.
Pebbles Hannya: It won't let me TP to the landmark.
Brandon Catteneo: I have the LM I can give it to whomever needs it
Csven Concord: fyi, @IYan, an "attractive" system has a T-shaped rail.
Magnets are under the "t" arms, and the attraction raises the vehvicle above
the top of the "T"
IYan Writer: ty csven, checked it out on wikipedia in the mean time :)
Csven Concord: Kind of a wrap-around.
Csven Concord: Ah. That'll work.
IYan Writer: but thanks :)
Csven Concord: I'd originally planned to get into maglev design after the
military.
RezTrackV29: Resetting Bricks
RezTrackV29: Resetting Virtual Points
Csven Concord: Not much in the U.S> unfortunately.
Diva Canto: ok, I made the whole thing disappear :-)
Diva Canto: Let me try to pull those other people up before I show the demo
Diva Canto: oh, try not to click on the objects!! :-)
Rissa Maidstone: / I'm sorry I got here late, this may have been covered. Is
this a project for CalTrans?
Diva Canto: this is an active workspace, you'll probably mess things up :-)
Znetlady Isbell: Hi, Rissa!
Diva Canto: no, not caltrans. This is Unimodal Inc. -- SkyTran
Brandon Catteneo: Just looking at the properties
Rissa Maidstone: Hi Znetlady :)
Brandon Catteneo: But thanks for telling me
Znetlady Isbell: I think it's what you are looking for Rissa!
Diva Canto: Anyway
Rissa Maidstone: Unimodal must be planning on "selling" this to
someone--it's a huge initiative.
Diva Canto: there's still one person down.
Rissa Maidstone: Me too Znetlady
Znetlady Isbell: Let me see if I can go help. Please go ahead Diva
Diva Canto: ok, I'll rez the track
Diva Canto: Is the machinima person here?
Diva Canto: Hi John and Rissa, aren't you guys from the Dr. Dobbs events?
John Zhaoying: Yup.
Rissa Maidstone grins.
Diva Canto: I thought I knew you
Rissa Maidstone: Part of what we do
John Zhaoying: How are you, Diva?
Diva Canto: Linda, are you here?
Pebbles Hannya: I think she went to try to find the missing person.
Diva Canto: ok, I'll wait a bit for her, cos the rezzing of the track is
really cool to see
Diva Canto: any questions?
Diva Canto: oh there she is
Znetlady Isbell: I think we have everyone.
Diva Canto: ok. zoom out everyone!

Rezzing and Riding SkyTran
Csven Concord: Do the track elements receive speed info and relay propulsive
commands to the vehicle?
Pebbles Hannya: Is there some sort of emergency button in the cars? For example, what
if someone is in one and it's already set to go somewhere and they have a
heart attack?
Diva Canto: I'll answer all of those questions in a bit. Let me create the
system
Diva Canto: look now!
Diva Canto: zoom out
IYan Writer: cool!
Diva Canto: really out
Post Wylie: neat indeed!
Diva Canto: the engineers wish they could do this in real life :-)
Rissa Maidstone chuckles.
Pebbles Hannya: Even in SL it's a neat trick!
Post Wylie: wont be too long....
Diva Canto: so, these bricks -- their size, position, rotation -- are made
according to the specs
Csven Concord: Imported track geometry data?
Diva Canto: "import" is a strong word :-)
Csven Concord: Granted.
Diva Canto: it was done manually
Diva Canto: the guideway has sections
John Zhaoying: Neat rez process.
Diva Canto: we were able to codify each section into an algorithm
John Zhaoying: Do the tracks form based on a call signal from the red
spheres?
Diva Canto: there ar ethe vehicles
Diva Canto: and some decoration
Diva Canto: now three of you can ride
Diva Canto: one at a time
Diva Canto: anyone wants to sit on the first car?
Central Station v87: clock start
Central Station v87 shouts: Station Assigned logical vp: 20
Central Station v87 shouts: Station Assigned physical vp: 20
Vehicle_1 shouts: Bogey got LVP: 20    brick calc starting pos:  <67.99619,
238.45389, 260.97198>
Diva Canto: yuo can only ride to the car in front
Diva Canto: you have to wait
Vehicle_1 shouts: starting pos: <65.85220, 238.43889, 260.97198>
Diva Canto: off he goes!
Diva Canto: second person?
Brandon Catteneo: lol
IYan Writer: let's see if he comes back safely first ;)
Brandon Catteneo: I was unsuccessful at that
Diva Canto: lol
Rissa Maidstone: laugh!
Diva Canto: just sit on the first car
Znetlady Isbell: anyone?
Diva Canto: I can send it off empty too
Central Station v87 shouts: Station Assigned logical vp: 4
Central Station v87 shouts: Station Assigned physical vp: 4
Vehicle_1 shouts: Bogey got LVP: 4    brick calc starting pos:  <67.99599,
238.45399, 260.97198>
Vehicle_1 shouts: Be Patient, bogey is waiting to start
Vehicle_1 shouts: starting pos: <65.85200, 238.43900, 260.97198>
John Zhaoying shouts: Hey! I can see my house from here!
Diva Canto: you can't sit on the car unless it's in the front of the line
Znetlady Isbell: lol
Rissa Maidstone: laugh!
Pebbles Hannya: In RL will there be one single route, or will cars branch off to go
different places?
Brandon Catteneo: maybe its my AO
Central Station v87 shouts: Station Assigned logical vp: 16
Central Station v87 shouts: Station Assigned physical vp: 16
Vehicle_1 shouts: Bogey got LVP: 16    brick calc starting pos:  <67.99599,
238.45399, 260.97198>
Vehicle_1 shouts: Be Patient, bogey is waiting to start
Diva Canto: in real life there are two phases for this project
Vehicle_1 shouts: starting pos: <65.85200, 238.43900, 260.97198>
Rissa Maidstone: The red and black balls are acting as a traffic
control/signal system?
Diva Canto: Rissa: yes. it's a visualization of our control system
Rissa Maidstone: Great.
Diva Canto: so they want to build a prototype first
Rissa Maidstone: You work for Unimodal Diva?
Znetlady Isbell: No, Rissa UCI
Diva Canto: the first prototypes will be exactly like this
Rissa Maidstone: Ok
QueueManager v10 shouts: vehicles_id:
QueueManager v10 shouts: curVehiclesInQueue: 0
QueueManager v10 shouts: last in queue vehicle id: 0
Znetlady Isbell: Professor Crista Lopes
Diva Canto: one single loop, one single statin
Diva Canto: but the idea is that there will be branches and lots of stations
Diva Canto: that's where the fun starts, fromthe control perspective
Central Station v87 shouts: Station freeing logical vp: 20
Rissa Maidstone: What is the advantage/cost compared to existing light rail?
Diva Canto: welcome back John
John Zhaoying: Wow, neat.
John Zhaoying: I hadn't realized I'd been unseated.
QueueManager v10 shouts: vehicles_id: 0
QueueManager v10 shouts: curVehiclesInQueue: 1
QueueManager v10 shouts: last in queue vehicle id: 0
Csven Concord: Frictionless
Diva Canto: you'll have to ask that to the Unimodal people, and people who
are into PRT. But from what OI understand
Pebbles Hannya: So the person would stay in a single car for their whole journey rather
than having to change to a different track at a station like on a subway?
Rissa Maidstone chuckles at John.
Diva Canto: yes -- this is a point-to-point system
Diva Canto: no need to go in bluks of people
Brander Heron: ETA for a working prototype?
Central Station v87 shouts: Station freeing logical vp: 4
Diva Canto: theoretically this is a lot more efficiently
Brandon Catteneo: This must've been dirt cheap for them.
IYan Writer: very cool!
QueueManager v10 shouts: vehicles_id: 0, 2
QueueManager v10 shouts: curVehiclesInQueue: 2
QueueManager v10 shouts: last in queue vehicle id: 2
Diva Canto: ETA: according to Unimodal, 2 years
John Zhaoying: Is there something about the track construction or other
details that doesn't make point-to-point incredibly wasteful of resources?
IYan Writer: /ao on
Diva Canto: I guess it's their maglev technology
Rissa Maidstone: Frictionless--smoother ride, lower maintenance costs, lower
energy usage?
Diva Canto: they say they can do it relatively cheap
Central Station v87 shouts: Station freeing logical vp: 16
John Zhaoying: Well, that's the engine. But you can do maglev for 'subways'
too. I'm talking about the logic of providing a capsule per person, vs. a
capsule for many people.
Csven Concord: I'd expect maintenance to be higher initially; new tech is
usually full of surprises.
Diva Canto: to give you some context -- I'm not a magle or PRT expert. I
think it would be great if we could hav ethe Unimodal people here too, so
they could answer those questions better than me
Brandon Catteneo: I mean this mock-up, doing it in SL, must've saved them a
good deal of money.

Design Problems Identified Through Simulation
John Zhaoying: Absolutely. Plus, with more moving parts, you have way more
points of failure.
Csven Concord: Tho the Japanese and Germans have been working on it for
quite a while now.
Diva Canto: yes that was the point of the simulation
Diva Canto: they were able to detect some design problems
Rissa Maidstone: Could you give an example?
John Zhaoying: i.e., the intelligence in each car, here, is equivalent to
the intelligence required to drive a whole subway train. So you have a point
of failure per person.
Diva Canto: and we're able to show this to a wide audience -- press, VCs,
potential partners
Csven Concord: Diva, are you moving this to Havok 4 anytime soon?
John Zhaoying: Whereas on a subway train, you take extra processors and
cheaply provide redundancy to your limited points of failure.
Diva Canto: no, not anytime soon. I want to focus on the high-level control
first
Diva Canto: physics is another whole thing
Diva Canto: there's another group
Diva Canto: in another UC campus that may do that part
Rissa Maidstone: Are they planning on carrying more than 1 person per "car"?
Diva Canto: I think it's a 2-people car
Rissa Maidstone: And back to design flaws, can you be more specific on
how/what was discovered?
IYan Writer: if you want to go "backwards", do you have to traverse almost
whole of the track? ie, is it one-way?
Diva Canto: @rissa, let me answer that
Rissa Maidstone grins.
Diva Canto: first, we found problems with their calculations of the
positions and rotations of the bricks
Diva Canto: so they fixed that
John Zhaoying: iYan -- yeah, that's interesting. A system without
T-junctions would compel a lot of backtracking. But can you do a T-junction
in maglev?
Diva Canto: then we found a serious design problem with the station
Diva Canto: on their first design, they had the upper track right on top of
the lower track at the station/
Diva Canto: in their concept drawings it looked good. let me get you a
picture
Rissa Maidstone: Great and this is next queston since I already typed it :)
Interesting--and this was all brought in from AutoCadd? or how was the
conversion to SL performed?
John Zhaoying: So you guys came in and fixed an SL design-in-progress, then?
Diva Canto: but when we made it here and looked at it in this immersive
manner, it didn't look so good
Diva Canto: it looked quite unsafe to me
Diva Canto: so I told them, brought them here, and they agreed that it was a
bad idea
IYan Writer: RL design, john
Rissa Maidstone: Makes a big difference to be able to "see" the conceptual
design.
Diva Canto: they went back to the drawing table and produced this other
layout
Diva Canto: where the station if horizontally offset
Csven Concord: What tools *are* they using?
Diva Canto: there was yet another design problem
Diva Canto: when they rode the car and used the mouselook view
Diva Canto: they realized that they had to be very carefull with the roof of
the car
Diva Canto: it must cover the sight of the track above
Diva Canto: because people prone to eppileptic attacks may have one :-)
Rissa Maidstone: Are you doing noise simulaton too?
John Zhaoying: Because they're seeing a rapidly-flickering pattern?
Rissa Maidstone: That's got to be part of the concern with this type of
infrastructure.
Diva Canto: no, no noise simulation
Diva Canto: @john - yes
John Zhaoying: Maglev is very quiet
Diva Canto: here: http://www.unimodal.com/
John Zhaoying: It's levitative, so no friction to produce noise.
Diva Canto: that's how their original concept was
Rissa Maidstone: I'm sure, but it's likely it went through some kind of
"hush house" or noise simulation in order to become very quiet.
Diva Canto: they changed it to pull the station out
John Zhaoying: No, it's just that when there's no contact between any
physical component, there's no noise.
Csven Concord: There are no "touching" elements.
Diva Canto: right. you know what? maybe Linda can invite the SkyTran people
here one day
Diva Canto: PRT is really interesting in itself
Diva Canto: and their technology too, obviously
Rissa Maidstone: Yes, and I'd love to talk to them if they come in.
John Zhaoying: Your worry in systems like this is EMF. The Gauss on maglev
magnets is huge, and you have all sorts of power going to maintain flux.
Rissa Maidstone: Agreed
Diva Canto: yeah, there are all kinds of problems. They think they have good
solutions for them
John Zhaoying: Component hum might be - almost certainly is - an issue if
there's anything conductive in the tracks besides the magnet coilbars.
Diva Canto: anyway, we're focusing here on the logic control and failures at
that leve;
Diva Canto: this has been quite useful for everyone
Rissa Maidstone: I'm only asking these questions because it's interesting to
see how a project like this is incepted here and how far you can take it to
simulate
John Zhaoying: So what's the logic architecture, Diva?
Pebbles Hannya: Speaking of that, will you do the next stage of simulation here too --
where different people want to go different places?
John Zhaoying: All asynchronous state machines talking to each other?
Diva Canto: the part that controls the scheduling of the cars and their
speed at any point of the track
Csven Concord: You could simulate the noise. Each brick could trigger a
sound event as it was propelling the vehicle.
John Zhaoying: Is it controlled deterministically from toplevel?
Diva Canto: I'm afraid I can't go into details, I'm NDA-ed on that
Rissa Maidstone: Understood :)
John Zhaoying: Or are the cars smart enough to figure out the world on their
own?
Diva Canto: no the cars are relatively passive in this system
Diva Canto: the stations are the brains
Diva Canto: the stations "talk" to the guideway bricks
John Zhaoying: Oh, interesting.
Diva Canto: and the bricks are the ones that make the cars move, slow down,
speed up, etc
John Zhaoying: So it's like routers talking to each other about
packets-in-transit on an out-of-band connection. MPLS for concrete and
steel.
Diva Canto: "routers" is a great keyword!
Diva Canto: this is, in fact, a physical object network
Diva Canto: not unlike the internet
Central Station v87: clock pause
Diva Canto: but, of course, we can't "drop" packets here :-)
Farley Scarborough smiles
John Zhaoying: No ... that would be bad. (grin)
Rissa Maidstone chuckles.
John Zhaoying: But you can _stop_ packets here.
Diva Canto: yes, indeed
John Zhaoying: the lines are the input buffers.
Diva Canto: so there are similarities and differences
John Zhaoying: So in that sense, you can produce 100% QoS on all
connections.
Diva Canto: the model of the internet is a good one to look at, but there
are differences that cannot be ignord
John Zhaoying: In terms of packet retention. Not delivery.
Diva Canto: yes - retention must be 100% :-)
Pebbles Hannya: Unfortunately I need to go, but this has been really interesting.
Thanks Diva, and you too Z.
John Zhaoying: It's really more like an MPLS network. Where you have a fixed
channel architecture.
Austen Scanlan accepted your inventory offer.
Diva Canto: let me know if you have more questions about this, Feel free to email me or call me
Diva Canto: lopes@ics.uci.edu
Diva Canto: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~lopes

Introducing SLBrowser
Diva Canto: I have another cool project to talk about, but I'm not sure we have time?
Farley Scarborough is all ears
Znetlady Isbell: Please go ahead = SLBowser?
Diva Canto: yes, it's a search engine
Post Wylie: shoot, Luke, your faded....
Diva Canto: http://slbrowser.com
Csven Concord: Out of curiousity, why SL instead of... for example... a game engine (where the physics would allow lower level investigation)?
Diva Canto: @Csven
Diva Canto: that was because I wanted to find out if SL could be used for these kinds of things
Diva Canto: the immersion factor is a great thing to have
Csven Concord: Makes sense.
Diva Canto: so I wanted to find the limits of a tool like SL
Diva Canto: there are limits, of course, and not all modeling should be done here
Diva Canto: anyway, sens more questions by email. let me talk a bit about my bots :-)
Diva Canto: slbrowser is a search engine like google
Diva Canto: it works like this: we have 14 bots that crawl the grid twice a week
Diva Canto: right now they look like snowmen :-)
Diva Canto: they go around looking for objects on sale
Diva Canto: and we store that information on a server outside.
Diva Canto: We then index it and serve search.
Diva Canto: the indexing has some notion of relevance
Diva Canto: we use an relevance method that is quite unique
Diva Canto: since the bots can see who created the objects inworld, we then compute the statistics of who are the main builders of SL
Diva Canto: there's about 50,000 people who have built SL, essentially
Znetlady Isbell: ah - the 1% rule.
Diva Canto: :-)
Diva Canto: so then we crawl Linden Lab's web pages and scrape the Top Picks of thode 50,000 people
Diva Canto: then we use that to boost those places and their products
Diva Canto: so it's a recommendation-based relevance, where we choose the recommenders very carefully
John Zhaoying: There's a level, though ...
John Zhaoying: ... at which, at first blush, you'd think corporations in SL would _fear_ that.
Znetlady Ibell: lol
John Zhaoying: That's a hard system to game, right?
Csven Concord: And you haven't had the kind of *polite* feedback which other search engines received?
Diva Canto: yes, very hard
Diva Canto: hard to game
Diva Canto: oh...
Diva Canto: actually, the amount of complaints has been really really low
John Zhaoying: But in another sense, they shouldn't. Because (I guess) the search would inevitably be weighted heavily to the picks of the most prolific builders, all of whom are metaverse developers, mostly in the employ (direct or indirect) of corporations.
Diva Canto: some people have contacted me, sometimes very annoyed. I simply do whatever they want
Diva Canto: if they want me to delist their products, I do that in a couple of hours
Diva Canto: so, it has been a relatively smooth ride
Znetlady Isbell: so, basically though it is weighted against a newcomer or less frequent builder?
Brander Heron: What's the rationale for a delist?
Diva Canto: yes
Diva Canto: only if people ask to be delisted
Brander Heron: What reason do they provide, I mean?
Diva Canto: oh, they have all sorts of fears
Csven Concord: What about the freebies? They're sometimes everywhere.
Rissa Maidstone: Diva, Znetlady, thank you, this has been great. Must go get ready for our noon event with the Sci-Fi Writer coming in.
Diva Canto: some people think that our bots are copybots
Diva Canto: other have fears about other people stealing their texture
Csven Concord: (which they might have stolen)
Znetlady Isbell: lol
Brander Heron: Indeed.
Znetlady Isbell: Where can we get the HUD?
Znetlady Isbell: Is it all over SL?
Diva Canto: oh, there's a HUD-giver downstairs near the other guideway
Diva Canto: but you can also use it on a web browser AND...
Diva Canto: you can hook it up to the search window in the SL viewer!
Diva Canto: Here, if you;re interested: http://metaverseinik.com/OpenSearch
Diva Canto: it's really great to be able to use 2 search engines in world
Brandon Catteneo: Link didn't work
Diva Canto: oh sorry
Diva Canto: http://metaverseink.com/OpenSearch
Brandon Catteneo: OK, got it ty :)
Znetlady Isbell: Has LL had any input on the SE?
Diva Canto: well....
Diva Canto: yes and no
Diva Canto: they know about it very well
Diva Canto: but officially they ignore it, because they don't really know what to do of it :-)
Znetlady Isbell: :-)
Diva Canto: we don't make waves eithers
Brandon Catteneo: I think they are realistic about this platform becoming more and more open
Diva Canto: so far, we've been focusing on figuring out how to do google-like search in virtual worlds
Csven Concord: How will you deal with Hetgrid?
Diva Canto: our search technology will scale to OpenSims
Znetlady Isbell: It does not search groups - only locations and objects, right?
Diva Canto: right -- we stay away from Linden Lab's person-related DBs
Znetlady Isbell: of course..
Brandon Catteneo: Is it able to crawl 100% of the Grid?
Diva Canto: it doesn't go into protected sims
Brandon Catteneo: (other than closed sims)
Diva Canto: but other than that, the bots go everywhere
Diva Canto: about 13,000
Diva Canto: bots are really fun
Brandon Catteneo: I mean, has it been successful in doing so wiht lag and all?
Diva Canto: yep
Brandon Catteneo: Cool
Diva Canto: I mean, there are failures here and there
Diva Canto: but overall, it collects most of the information
Diva Canto: it's not 100% deterministic, but it works relaly well
Znetlady Isbell: We should probably wrap up.
Diva Canto: yep -- I need to go to a class
Znetlady Isbell: Thanks so much, Diva!
Brandon Catteneo: The reason I ask is that more lag may cause lower results, so some vendors would be disadvantaged unless they get their stuff out of laggy sims
Diva Canto: thank you for inviting me!
Znetlady Isbell: This has been fascinating.
iAlja Writer: thanks Diva, very informative!
Brandon Catteneo: OK, Diva, thanks a lot
Butch Dae: Thanks.
IYan Writer: this was very interesting, thank you Diva
Znetlady Isbell: I will follow up with Unimodal and perhaps we can have them come into SL a well.
Diva Canto: thank you all. Feel free to contact me
Csven Concord: Enjoyed this. Thanks. Appreciate your time, Diva.
Farley Scarborough: Yes, thanks so much.
Post Wylie: Thanks, Diva.....well done!
Znetlady: Thanks, everyone.
Diva Canto: bye all!

February 5, 2008

Virtual/RealWorld Custom Manufacturing Project: Double Happiness Jeans

It took me some digging to put all the pieces together, but this is just too fascinating not to have made the effort. 

Without a doubt Second Life is helping companies innovate products and processes - even though 2007 mainstream media was seemingly all about SL marketing efforts.  Often such innovation is being done inside organizations that are quietly tapping the collaborative, cost-saving virtuality of it all.    But Double Happiness Jeans is a public and shining example of the innovation potential of Second Life.  This is product innovation, design innovation, process innovation, business model innovation - and perhaps much more lying just below the surface.

Double Happiness Jeans are real world custom-made jeans that are "manufactured" virtually – and then delivered to your local Kinkos or Double Happiness Jeans express store location. The jeans are the product of the  Invisible Threads, project that explores telematic manufacturing through Second Life. 

The project is virtually replicating a RL assembly-line manufacturing facility, with ten manufacturing stations each correlating to a specification of the custom jean order.  The physical “just in time” inventory system allows customers to place an order for one of several styles of jeans with a live factory representative at a terminal.   The process then enters Second Life. 

Customers can watch their jeans being created in real time in the virtual factory via projection screens.  At the end of the manufacturing process the jeans are output on Tyvek material to a large-format printer in physical space.  With simple assembly the jeans are ready to wear. The manufacturing process takes about 20 minutes. 

Double Happiness Jeans is employing an “indentured servitude” model for its SL workers.  Workers will be given land (and Lindens) in exchange for their factory service over three months’ time, emphasizing the relationship of the exchange of real world dollars for virtual assets. 

From the Invisible Threads web page:

"At the start of each workday, workers will need to clock-in. The worker will then be assigned to a specific department and workstation and given a specialized task to perform. Just as in a real life factory, workers will be monitored by a department supervisor and be held accountable for their speed and efficiency and any production errors. The erratic flow of supply and demand and extenuating circumstances such as equipment failures and irrational dispositions may result in docked pay, layoffs and overtime."

Project collaborators and Double Happiness Jeans co-owners, Dr. Stephanie Rothenberg and Jeffrey Crouse of Eyebeam also hope to shed light on the politics of outsourced labor and the role of “play” in cultural production, according to Adam Elenbass over at Reality Sandwich.

The project will have a special debut at the Sundance Film Festival in the New Frontier Theater on Main Street in Park City, Utah January 17 – 27.  On-site sales staff in Park City will help you customize your jeans, or you may order your jeans on the web site through February 2008.

Double Happiness is currently hiring and training SL factory workers.  Check out their promotional video.

Eyebeam is supporting the project on their Second Life Island, and the profits from the project will be used to maintain the project and pay factory workers.

Double Happiness Jeans is located in SL here: secondlife://Eyebeam%20Island/204/43/27.

Questions come to mind: 

How might this disrupt the clothing manufacturing industry?

How might this open up unseen revenue opportunities for Kinkos?

What new businesses might develop to “receive” in the physical world that which was “manufactured” in virtual space?

Might this potentially impact equipment manufacturers in the future?

Edward Castronova’s book Exodus into the Virtual World dicusses the possible impacts on the economy when segments of the population are spending time and energy producing in virtual economies rather than real ones.  How might such virtual telematic workers impact economies, labor, laws, society?

Are you at least considering how practical virtuality might impact your business?

Is SL really just some cartoon interface?

December 31, 2007

Colgate Smile Power Un-Fixed

Colgate launched the Second Life version of their Smile Power campaign last Friday.  For seven days and encompassing 500 avatar-hours, brightly Colgate T-attired BuzzAgents will be roaming Second Life handing out smile animations and a list of ten places in SL that will make you smile. Should they not encounter a Colgate gifter-agent, avatars can snare these items at the Smile Center vending machines on This Second Island.  This Second Marketing, the agency behind the promotion, has hired people to interact with island visitors.

The theme behind the campaign:  sharing a Colgate smile.

The SL promotion is an element of Colgate's Smile Sweepstakes in which they are giving away $100 American Express gift cards each week for sharing smile photos on their campaign web page.  They've enabled photo sharing, slideshow sharing and photo tagging there.

Aleister Kronos who writes an excellent SL travelogue and critique was frothing a bit over his recent visit to the SL Colgate smile vending area and suggested Colgate damaged their brand and should rethink their SL presence.  I couldn’t disagree more.

Colgate takes the absolutely correct approach – they went un-fixed.

A couple of relevant notes:

• Second Life is a social network
• Social media is sharable
• Social media is un-fixed (distributed)
• The “avatar” within social media is the channel

Kronos’ comments points to an interesting social media conundrum:  “network” versus “place.”

In subsequent posts Aleister published his email exchange with Joni West, President of This Second Marketing as to the intention of the campaign.  She points out the tendency to focus on “place.”

"No matter how much we say it is about a live promotion, people tend to focus on the build because to date, that has been what marketing efforts in SL have consisted of."   

If we looked at this campaign through the Facebook lens, it would not look “out of place” -  it would look like this:  Colgate creates Smile Power widget.  Widget is added to the Applications list (a tiny “place” in FB).  People who find it fun/useful spread widget by distributing it via Facebook friends. Everyone is smiling. (BTW, Colgate Smile does have a Facebook group.)

Yet, as Aleister’s post illustrates, Colgate was judged on the “place” in SL – because SL has a unique “presence” characteristic that in our minds mirrors RL while Facebook doesn’t have that legacy. In some ways, FB is more virtual than SL.

Colgate's is definitely not the only "un-fixed" campaign in SL. Many more companies are using limited time or shared presence strategies.  Much has changed this year in the way brands are thinking about marketing efforts in SL.  They increasingly are beginning to see it functioning like the distributed social network it is – thanks to the frequent and vocal critiques of its residents.   

Colgate could have significantly improved the way it communicated its SL initiative, - and it could have easily oriented SL visitors by visibly tying in its web site - but its distributed approach is on target.

The avatar is the most valuable terrain online – 3D or 2D. But networks are also a “place,” and brands need to balance both channel and place in their strategies.

Colgate's SL smile vending machines are here.

December 26, 2007

SL Business Communicators Transcript: The Office in SL with Clear Ink

Kiwini Oe (aka Steve Nelson, EVP, Chief Strategy Officer) of Clear Ink is a great typist!  And beyond that, he is funny, incredibly interesting and opened up a view for us into Clear Ink's production of their machinima segments and "back lot production" for NBC's The Office episode, Local Ad which aired October 25. 

Kiwini shared what NBC hired them to do, how the process went and what lessons were learned.  He also illustrated out how quickly and unexpectedly a community can form.  One lesson - always be prepared for what to do next.

The chat transcript follows below.  The SL voice versus chat issue always rears it's head these days. Reporter Draxtor of Life4U was there needing video and audio, but the chat transcripts are so valuable for our purposes. As a compromise, Draxtor will interview Kiwini further this week and that interview will be up on Draxtor's channel on YouTube next week.

A huge thank you to Kiwini for joining us and taking our many questions in stride. Thanks to Pebbles Hannya of Market Truths for hosting us once again - and for capturing the transcript as my machine kept crashing.  Thanks to everyone who came to the meeting!...now on to the interesting conversation:

Znetlady Isbell: Everyone, I will introduce Kiwini Oe of Clear Ink.
Znetlady Isbell: He has some fun stuff to share with us today.
Znetlady Isbell: He's going to talk about his project on The Office for NBC - and lessons learned as well.
Znetlady Isbell: It is informal - text chat for transcript purposes.
Znetlady Isbell: Please ask questions.
Znetlady Isbell: And, unless it gets unruly, should we just use chat for q's Kiwini?
Kiwini Oe: that's OK by me
Znetlady Isbell: Great. Thanks sooo much for being here, Kiwini and everyone.
Znetlady Isbell: I'll turn it over to the guy we came here to hear!
Znetlady Isbell: Kiwini..
Znetlady Isbell: all yours.
Kiwini Oe: Thanks, Z
Kiwini Oe: These will be mostly off-the-cuff recollections
Kiwini Oe: and my colleague, Keystone Bouchard is here as well in case I need my memory refreshed
Kiwini Oe: Clear Ink has been doing work in SL for about a year and a half
Kiwini Oe: though we usually take on about one project at a time
Kiwini Oe: the one I'm talking about today was one we did this Sept-Oct over a very short timeframe
Kiwini Oe: we were in the middle of another project - about a week away from an event
Kiwini Oe: with Newt Gingrich at Second Life Capitol Hill
Kiwini Oe: which was pretty time consuming in and of itself
Kiwini Oe: when I got a call from Kent Zbornak, co-executive producer of "The Office' ON NBC
Kiwini Oe: They had a script that included some of their characters getting into Second Life
Kiwini Oe: and could we help
Kiwini Oe: After thinking about a half second
Znetlady Isbell: lol
Kiwini Oe: We jumped into that one. He said it would be a very tight deadline, so we started working on it as soon as I hung up
Kiwini Oe: It was an interesting process -
Kiwini Oe: We never really signed a contract with them - they signed one with us about a week later
Kiwini Oe: but as soon as we hung up, they mailed us a script, and digital photos they took on the spot
Kiwini Oe: of Rainn Wilson and John Krasinski
Kiwini Oe: so that we could start on avatars
Znetlady Isbell: fun!
Kiwini Oe: The script looked good - it was written by BJ Novak
Kiwini Oe: who plays Ryan the temp who turned into Ryan the executive
Kiwini Oe: So we started right away on the avatars, and also spent the weekend location scouting
Kiwini Oe: Kent said basically, "run with this" - saying they were trusting us to do what was right in Second Life.
Goldie Goodman: Nice to have a client like that!
Kiwini Oe: That was the main directive from the get-go, and that was an important thing for him to tell us, and for us to recognize.
Pebbles Hannya: You might want to answer this later, but did they know that SL avatars don't usually look like the RL people? It seems like almost the only ones that do are people who come in for TV things. I wonder if that's a deliberate decision or lack of understanding of SL?
Znetlady Isbell: or branding? heheeh
Kiwini Oe: The script called for Dwight to make an avatar that was *exactly* like himself because he liked his first life so much
Pebbles Hannya: Yes, true about the branding
Kiwini Oe: he wanted his second one to be just like it
Znetlady Isbell: ah- so true..
Kim Chihuly: did you have a connection with them from some earlier project? How had they heard of you?
Kiwini Oe: We looked at the script for locations, and Kent said to send over shots based on the script, or based on any other locations that would be familiar
Kiwini Oe: Good question, Kim -
Kiwini Oe: I had thought it was a direct reference from Linden Lab
Kiwini Oe: but I think they gave NBC a list of who might be able to do this
Kiwini Oe: and given the quick turn
Kiwini Oe: we were available
Goldie Goodman: how quick?
Kim Chihuly: thanks
Kiwini Oe: Well, we got the call on Sept 21, and the show was to air Oct 25
Maryrose Mariani: ouch
Robbie Kiama: :)
Robbie Kiama: fast
Goldie Goodman: A whole month??? lol
Kiwini Oe: But they had to do shooting for the show Oct 1-5
Pebbles Hannya: :)
iAlja Writer: :)
Kiwini Oe: so they put off the shooting of the SL scenes until the last day - Oct 5
Maryrose Mariani: so a couple of weeks barely
Kiwini Oe: right
Kiwini Oe: The first weekend was location scouting and avatar creation
Goldie Goodman: What were your criteria for locations?
Kiwini Oe: Then that week we narrowed down the locations and did snapshot storyboards
Kiwini Oe: We needed locations that mapped to the script, that would be recognizable in SL
Kiwini Oe: and that were practical for filming - low lag, etc
Goldie Goodman: That last one is always a concern.
Kim Chihuly: recognizable - to whom? SL users or ??
Kiwini Oe: They had one scene scripted as "downtown urban"
Kiwini Oe: recognizable to SL users
Kiwini Oe: I did my location shots at the "Downtown" sim - and the producers really liked it
Kiwini Oe: When I went back for a test shoot - "Downtown" was gone!
Znetlady Isbell: ah!
Kiwini Oe: I IMed the owner, who said it had just closed
iAlja Writer: ouch
IYan Writer: whoops
Goldie Goodman: Yikes
Kim Chihuly: aarrgh!
Maryrose Mariani: lol
Kiwini Oe: so we went over to Amsterdam, which worked great
Maryrose Mariani: truly an sl moment
Goldie Goodman: What type of permission did you have to get from the sim owners?
Kiwini Oe: There was a scene in a nightclub where Dwight plays his recorder
Kiwini Oe: So I talked to Ham Rambler and Sitearm Madonna at the Blarney Stone in Dublin
Kiwini Oe: and we filmed a scene there
Kiwini Oe: There was a paintball scene - we actually filmed a test at Paintball Funhouse - but the producers had something more specific in their heads, so Keystone built one
Kiwini Oe: We went to Boardman to film Dwight just walking down the streeet
Kiwini Oe: That was in the first still shot that NBC put on their web site
Kiwini Oe: and people immediately started commenting on blogs that they recognized it.
Robbie Kiama: cool
Kiwini Oe: So we ended up with 8 locations for shooting, and we did most of the shooting on Oct 2
Kiwini Oe: Tuesday before they needed it in Van Nuys on Friday
Znetlady Isbell: How involved were the producers in that shooting?
Kiwini Oe: The producers had given feedback based on some test shots at the end of the previous week
Kiwini Oe: In addition to Kent, we also talked with Greg Daniels, the showrunner, who created the American version
Kiwini Oe: after that, we were on our own during the shooting and editing
Znetlady Isbell: wow
Kiwini Oe: We did edited clips to fit the time frames they asked for for each scene
Kiwini Oe: and also had all the raw footage
Pebble Hannya: Were all the avatars shown created specifically for this, or did regular SL residents end up on TV as unofficial extras?
Goldie Goodman: It's tough to have a producer on site during shooting, since they can't really see what you're shooting!
Kiwini Oe: we did versions with type chat as well as voice with green waves over the head
Kiwini Oe: yeah - the other thing was -
Goldie Goodman: So they'd have a choice of which to use?
Kiwini Oe: we were getting direction and feedback from the producers - Kent and Greg
Kiwini Oe: and not the director - Jason Reitman - or the writer BJ Novak
Kiwini Oe: which can be a problem
Kiwini Oe: We filmed most everything in one day:
Goldie Goodman: because?
Kiwini Oe: A scene at Ginny Business Systems
Kiwini Oe: (I'll get to that, Goldie :-)
Kiwini Oe: which was a great office complex
Kiwini Oe: Dublin was fun
Kiwini Oe: because the audience was already there for Kiki Dee at the real Blarney Stone
Kiwini Oe: and when she was done, I got on stage and said
Kiwini Oe: the next act won't be so good
Kiwini Oe: in fact you'll boo him off the stage
Znetlady Isbell: lol
Kiwini Oe: and then he'll take out his paintball gun
Kiwini Oe: and spray the lot of you
Goldie Goodman: Bet they loved that!
iAlja Writer: lol
Kiwini Oe: yup
Kiwini Oe: we filmed at boardman, and at amsterdam
Kiwini Oe: then we needed to create 3 sets on our "backlot"
Kiwini Oe: which is actually the Clear Ink dev island:
Kiwini Oe: The paintball arena that the producers envisioned
Kiwini Oe: Dwight's "apartment"
Kiwini Oe: and a bar.
Kiwini Oe: Not that there aren't a lot of bars in Second Life, but we made our own.
Kiwini Oe: As soon as each scene was shot, the files went to our editors, who worked to get them in shape to send to NBC
Goldie Goodman: So you did rough editing of your raw footage, before sending it out.
Kiwini Oe: we were going to do it all electronically, but of course the files were so big that really wasn't practical
Goldie Goodman: Did you capture in HD?
Kiwini Oe: we actually edited into specific lengths:
Kiwini Oe: 30 second scenes mostly
Kiwini Oe: So they could load them up on the computers on the set
Kiwini Oe: and run them during filming
Goldie Goodman: Good idea.
Kiwini Oe: Because the scenes played out on the computers in "The Office"s office
Kiwini Oe: we didn't do HD
Kiwini Oe: and they weren't really to look like machinima as much as look like someone actually in SL
Kiwini Oe: which means that it was all shot from first-person perspective
Znetlady Isbell: and they did!
Kiwini Oe: which means driving the avatar that does the filming, for the most part
Kiwini Oe: and coordinating directing the extras. TROI Timtam and Keystone were at each scene,
Kiwini Oe: making sure things were prepared and lined up
Goldie Goodman: how did you communicate with the extras?
Kiwini Oe: We mostly did that over open chat -
Kiwini Oe: setting up the scene before hand
Kiwini Oe: and communicated among the crew over voice IM
Kiwini Oe: I had to learn to say "cut" instead of "crap" when I needed to do a retake
Goldie Goodman: ha ha
Znetlady Isbell: LOL!!
Pebbles Hannya: lol
Kiwini Oe: but they knew what I meant!
Robbie Kiama: :)
Joi Koi: :)
Keystone Bouchard: lol! =)
Kiwini Oe: We were doing edits until Thursday PM
Kiwini Oe: they wanted the files by about 8 AM on Friday.
Znetlady Isbell: yikes
Kiwini Oe: So at 10, we were on the phone with the producers
Kiwini Oe: and our Clear Ink project manager, Nicole
Kiwini Oe: whose IM icon has *always* been Dwight from the office
Kiwini Oe: and was still in our office at 11PM
Kiwini Oe: coordinating the edits
Kiwini Oe: decided she could probably see fit to deliver the hard drive in person the next morning
Kiwini Oe: so she, without any sleep, having worked till 11 - went and changed clothes and got on the 6am to burbank
Kiwini Oe: hard drive in hand
Kiwini Oe: Kent picked her up at the airport and took her to the studio
Kiwini Oe: where she loaded up each of the computers in "The Office"
Kiwini Oe: met the crew and cast
Kiwini Oe: and got to hang out all day.
iAlja Writer: nice :)
Kiwini Oe: It got interesting when the director tried to continue directing the machinima
Znetlady Isbell: lol
Pebbles Hannya :)
Kiwini Oe: as though Second Life were a module within Final Cut Pro
Tynan Clary: /now that's the best part of the story
Shred McMillan: hilarious
Znetlady Isbell: hilarious
Kiwini Oe: "Can Dwight walk a little slower ther... or go backwards?"
Kiwini Oe: "No."
iAlja Writer: lol
Znetlady Isbell: lol!!
Goldie Goodman: Re-shoot time, huh?
Znetlady Isbell: too funny
Kim Chihuly: that's a great picture<G>
Robbie Kiama: :))
Kiwini Oe: so one lesson - let the director in on it a little earlier
Goldie Goodman: Surprised he didn't insist on it!
Kiwini Oe: but at the end of the day - they had their scenes shot - and Nicole left there around midnight
Tynan Clary: or add another month - which you didn't have
You: Is the story line such that they'll go back to SL (I don't watch the Office)?
Kiwini Oe: and we waited...
Kiwini Oe: Well, they didn't use all the scenes
Kiwini Oe: next thing we heard was that the edit on the 21 minute episode was down to 41 minutes
Kiwini Oe: and that maybe all the SL scenes would be cut
Goldie Goodman: oooohhh
Tynan Clary: groans
iAlja Writer: :(
Kiwini Oe: and we'd know the next day.
Kim Chihuly: how awful!
Kiwini Oe: yeah
Znetlady Isbell: oh noooo
Kiwini Oe: But the next day, Kent said that they managed to keep bits of about half the scenes - and by that time, for me the glass was WAY half full!
Kiwini Oe: having been ready to hear the worst
Shred McMillan wishes he could see the whole 41 minutes
Kiwini Oe: And NBC had already released a still photo from it
Kiwini Oe: and that's where it got interesting
Kiwini Oe: And about the question about real SL avatars aren't really photorealistic
Kiwini Oe: After we had filmed it all
Kiwini Oe: Kent asked if we could use the characters real names for avatars
Kiwini Oe: Dwight Schrute instead of Dwight Shelford
Kiwini Oe: etc.
Goldie Goodman: you mean, visible over their heads?
Kiwini Oe: "no"
iAlja Writer: lol
Kiwini Oe: right - which of course would have meant reshooting
Kiwini Oe: and getting the names from Linden Lab overnight
You: Good luck with that.
Goldie Goodman: Or, they could composite new graphics in post, lol.
iAlja Writer: ia anyone from the cast or makers of the series an SL user?
Kiwini Oe: But as soon as NBC put a photo out with "Dwight Shelford"
Kiwini Oe: people started IMming him, friendship requests, etc.
Kiwini Oe: This is part 2:
Pebbles Hannya: :)
Robbie Kiama: :)
Kiwini Oe: In order to give Dwight and Jim the right titles,
Maryrose Mariani: lol
Kiwini Oe: we made groups
Kiwini Oe: and TROI made them very realistic groups and profiles
Kim Chihuly: i know my students went right in the next day in class looking for dwight
Kiwini Oe: Like the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, Inc. group
Kiwini Oe: with dwight's title "Assistant to Regional Mgr"
Kiwini Oe: and did detailed profiles for others
iAlja Writer: nice touch :)
Robbie Kiama: yeah
Kiwini Oe: This turned out to be important for the viral aspect of this.
Goldie Goodman: the after-life, so to speak?
Kiwini Oe: NBC never engaged us to do promotion, viral marketing, etc.
Kiwini Oe: But when a viral phenomenon happens
Kiwini Oe: you don't ask questions - you just follow your instinct
Goldie Goodman: it can't be stopped!!
Kiwini Oe: I had said that Luck = Preparation + Opportunity
Kiwini Oe: and because of the details that went into the profiles and groups
Kiwini Oe: people connected
Kiwini Oe: We were trying to be true to two passionate communities at the same time:
Kiwini Oe: Second Life residents
Kiwini Oe: and fans of "The Office"
Kiwini Oe: and in the end, we heard from SL people who had never watched "the office" until then
Kiwini Oe: and from Office fans who had never heard of SL
You: And you also created an opportunity for them to come back and pick up on some of those groups in a future episode :)
Kiwini Oe: and each got from the experience what they thought it should be
Kiwini Oe: I read about someone's kid who laughed for 4 minutes, just because Dwight was flying
iAlja Writer: lol
Robbie Kiama: hehe
Kiwini Oe: So we understood from about a two weeks out, when the first picture was up
Kiwini Oe: that fans would get hold of Dwight, Jim, etc
Kiwini Oe: so we decided that after the show aired
Kiwini Oe: we'd open our "backlot" for the night
Kiwini Oe: and invite people to party there
Goldie Goodman: nice of you.
Znetlady Isbell: smart too
Maryrose Mariani: yes very cool
Kiwini Oe: Because of the response, we kept it open for the next week, until the next episode aired
Kiwini Oe: we hated to close it down, but we had to get back to our development - and we didn't want to be running NBC's 3D fan site forever!
Kiwini Oe: Though we let them know what the response was, they didn't pick up on any followup
Kiwini Oe: for several reasons, I'm sure:
Kiwini Oe: Immediately after the show, they had the first Real Life fan convention in Scranton
Kiwini Oe: most of the producers were there, and that was keeping them busy
Kiwini Oe: They have their own community site: dundermifflininfinity.com
Kiwini Oe: that was giving them some fits
Kiwini Oe: and I think they wanted to attend to the one that they probably paid big bucks creating and promoting
Kiwini Oe: (I almost typed "big bugs")
Kiwini Oe: and finally:
Znetlady Isbell: lol
Kiwini Oe: they were distracted by the writers strike that was about to hit th em
Goldie Goodman: (could have paid you big bucks to continue the SL promotion :-)
Kiwini Oe: I saw in EW magazine that "the office" had the least amount of finished scripts before the strike
Znetlady Isbell: such a shame they didn't too Goldie
Kiwini Oe: The SL group has about 840 members
Kiwini Oe: based on word of mouth
Pebbles Hannya: Wow
Robbie Kiama: wow
Znetlady Isbell: 844
iAlja Writer: impressive
Kim Chihuly: Man - nbc missed out!
Kiwini Oe: the dundermifflininfinity.com site is based on people creating "branch offices' based on their city
Znetlady Isbell: Big time.
Kiwini Oe: without any promo, the SL group would be in the top 25% of their "branch offices"
Znetlady Isbell: Wow - so easy to extend that into SL.
Salt Voom: Sorry to interupt but Kiwini Oe your 1st life website has some of the smartest marketing i have seen in a long time!
Pebbles Hannya: I'm guessing you pointed that out to them?
Goldie Goodman: There's a brief window of opportunity, and it sounds like they lost it.
Kim Chihuly: yeah - since they could actually "build" the branch ovffices
Kiwini Oe: I agree - though there are some other fan groups that have formed
Znetlady Isbell: Clear Ink rules!
Keystone Bouchard: ;-)
Kiwini Oe: We did what we did because we thought it was the right thing to do in SL
Goldie Goodman: Can I ask again about the permissions thing?:
Kiwini Oe: but we can only go so far
Kiwini Oe: sure, Goldie
Goldie Goodman: Did NBC give you legal release forms to have "avatars" sign?
Goldie Goodman: And location owners to sign location releases?
Kiwini Oe: As I said, our client was not very formal in any of this - they did not do any avatar or location release management
Goldie Goodman: Did you?
Goldie Goodman: To protect yourself?
Goldie Goodman: Or just informally by asking?
Kiwini Oe: we asked permission of the property owners, and announced to anyone in the scene that we were filming
Kiwini Oe: so that they would know to leave if they didn't want to be in the scene
Kiwini Oe: the only "crowd"' scene was at Dublin
Kiwini Oe: One lesson learned:
Goldie Goodman: OK, thanks. Curious that NBC wouldn't pay attention to releases in this situation.
Kiwini Oe: I don't think this whole endeavor rose through the corporate machine at NBC
Kiwini Oe: that was part of the quick turn nature of it
Goldie Goodman: ahhh, the content police didn't even know about it, then, lol
Kiwini Oe: And from the other side, we were careful in how we used NBC IP
Goldie Goodman: That's the way to do it -- get in, do it, and get out before they even know what's happeing.
Kiwini Oe: that everything we did was an extension of the assignment
Kiwini Oe: the group, the sets, the avatars, etc
Kiwini Oe: and informing them along the way
Kiwini Oe: So a good lesson was:
Kiwini Oe: when the client says they trust you to do the right thing -
Kiwini Oe: that means you'd better pay attention -
Kiwini Oe: and use that as a real opportunity
Goldie Goodman: and earn their trust.
Kiwini Oe: Also, know the routes of amplification of the story
Kiwini Oe: I had my Google Alerts well tuned
Kiwini Oe: and made sure to comment on blogs
Kiwini Oe: and track how the story progressed
Goldie Goodman: You're very conscientious.
Kiwini Oe: And to let fans know what was going on
Kiwini Oe: It's all been interesting in the context of the writers strike
Kiwini Oe: that NBC is showing the episode we helped them create
Kiwini Oe: on the web
Kiwini Oe: selling advertising
Kiwini Oe: but not compensating the writers for that
Znetlady Isbell: yeah...
Kiwini Oe: The Office was one of the first staffs to get laid off
Goldie Goodman: that's the writers' key gripe, i sn't it?
Kiwini Oe: so beyond the stars, the writers, etc
Kiwini Oe: there are 102 people who have lost their jobs, just on the Office
Pebbles Hannya: Wow
Znetlady Isbell: wow...
Kiwini Oe: Not to make too blatant of a pitch, but a fan is working with Kent Zbornak on a Office Fans Christmas Fund for those 102
Kiwini Oe: http://www.myspace.com/ofcf
Kiwini Oe: like the props people, the crafts people, the medic, the interns etc., fired without severance
Znetlady Isbell: great idea!
Kiwini Oe: but that's enough of my soapbox :-)
Kiwini Oe: any more questions?
Kiwini Oe: I feel I've scratched the surface of a lot of the experience
Znetlady Isbell: Kiwini, this was soooo interesting!
iAlja Writer: yes!
Goldie Goodman: Very nice presentation. Thank you very much.
iAlja Writer: is the writer of the episode in SL?
Robbie Kiama: thank you a lot
Znetlady Isbell: I can't thank you enough for everything you've shared.
Robbie Kiama: that was very interesting
Kiwini Oe: iAlja -
Maryrose Mariani: Thank you so much Kiwini.
Kiwini Oe: I don't know - someone there is
Kiwini Oe: because the script really showed knowledge of it
Tynan Clary: I'm still realing at the short timeframe you had
iAlja Writer: yes, that's why I asked :)
Znetlady Isbell: Kiwini, i there anything I shouldn't publish on the blog?
Kiwini Oe: No - it's all open, Z
Znetlady Isbell: thanks - just making sure.
Goldie Goodman: Thanks for setting this up, Znetlady.
iAlja Writer: yes, thanks for sharing - interesting story!
Znetlady Isbell: Please thank Kiwini, who has been so generous.
Pebble Hannya: Yes, this has been really interesting!
Kiwini Oe: If anyone has any other questions, just IM me
Znetlady Isbell: An Pebbles for letting us meet here.
IYan Writer: thank you for an interesting insight into the project
Goldie Goodman: applause
Tynan Clary: /claps
Kiwini Oe: Thanks everyone
Znetlady Isbell: Yay!!!
Znetlady Isbell: Thank YOU!!
Znetlady Isbell: Thanks everyone for coming.
Joi Koi: cheers
Tynan Clary: :)
Tynan Clary: thanks you for having us
Znetlady Isbell: Since I've been crashing Pebbles is giving me the transcript and it will be up on the blog later today.
iAlja Writer: awesome!
Znetlady Isbell: Thanks, Pebbles.
Tynan Clary: and sending me a landmark when I emailed a few days ago - that was helpful Z
Znetlady Isbell: np Tynan
Znetlady Isbell: Thanks for spreading the word.
Tynan Clary: Love to
Znetlady Isbell: Check out Clear Ink's site too....they are awesome.
Tynan Clary: Nice to see you again too Joi
Robbie Kiama: yep they realy are :)
Joi Koi: u2 Tynan ;)
Kim Chihuly: thanks znet - another good talk
Znetlady Isbell: Every event I have been too that they have held has been so well handled - and just smart.
Znetlady Isbell: smart, smart, smart.
Znetlady Isbell: Thanks again, Kiwini for taking the time.
Kiwini Oe: yw, Znet
Kiwini Oe: I'll see you all later!

Next month SL Business Communicators are slated to meet with Orange.

November 20, 2007

Playing Catch-Up: Business News Briefs

Manchester Evening Star has a nice follow up article on the launch of virtual Manchester, UK last February.  According to the story the Manchester International Conference Center has plans to offer virtual exhibit space to compliment exhibitors' RL installations.  In addition, the UK consortium behind the Second Life Manchester initiative is in talks with RL property developers to showcase apartments in SL so RL buyers can take a tour of their new homes before being built. 

Government agencies and developers are no strangers to joint ventures in RL, but I don't think there is another such initiative between two such entities that extends into the virtual world.  The consortium who brought Manchester to SL is made up of Manchester Digital Development Agency, the Urbis Museum and consultants, Clicks and Links.

----
Recruitment
Business & Decision,  a France-based international consulting and systems integration company, is launching a recruitment campaign in Second Life.  They hope to connect with and recruit IT professionals across France.  According to their announcement:

"When connected on the site http://recrutement-secondlife.businessdecision.fr the candidates schedule a meeting with the recruitment team and access detailed information on the various positions offered by Business & Decision. After registering and creating an individual avatar, candidates are then able to connect to Second Life, attend their appointment, and discover the world of Business & Decision.

3 candidate meeting sessions:

Monday 5 November, 18h - 20h
Tuesday 6 October, 12h - 14h
Tuesday 6 October, 18h - 20h"

...
The state of Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (US) has launched an SL presence aimed at expanding its IT recruiting efforts.  They say it was the demographics of SL that attracted them, and they will be experimenting with a worldwide job fair in SL in the coming months.  They are on Eduisland at EDUISLAND 3 (137,95,23).

...
Kelly Services launched their phase II Second Life presence on Friday with in-world festivities.  Kelly will be offering public seminars, conferences, job fairs, interviewing, job scenarios and general job-placement related activities.  Although Kelly initially launched in SL earlier this year, their in world services are not unique to Kelly alone.  Kelly joins numerous individual corporate recruitment efforts and TMP Worldwide has been a leader in 3rd party recrutiment services and activities in SL.

...
Wipro Technologies (India) plans recruitment via their soon-to-be-launched Innovation Isle.  The firm has also set up an Offshore Development Center (ODC) model campus with a client engagement centre, learning centre, 3 floor ODC set-up with cubicles, security desk at the campus entrance gate, amphitheatre, press announcements hall, basketball and volleyball courts, admin, data centre and library. It will be regularly staffed by Wipro’s own avatars.

“Our upcoming Innovation Isle will showcase Wipro’s innovation initiatives to our stakeholders and how they deliver increased flexibility and predictability, lower cost and faster time to market for our customers,” said Jessie Paul, Chief Marketing Officer, Wipro Technologies, in a release.  This will also be a virtual forum for customers, partners, and other like minded people to collaborate with Wipro in the area of co-innovation and business transformation.” 

--  via Business Line, Sify Walletwatch

----
TV Beams Into and Out of SL
If you missed the press or the show, The Office ran an episode on NBC this week featuring a plot line around Second Life.  Says character Dwight, he loves his first life so much he wanted a second one.  Rumor has it SL will be weaved into future episodes with Dwight's co-workers perhaps going in to play virtual pranks on Dwight. 

CBS's CSI:NY debuted a storyline on Wednesday that continues in SL until February when the show will unveil the plot's villan.

----
For Fun:  Social Media SL Mashup
I know I keep banging the drum... but you don't need a Facebook, MySpace or Twitter tactic - you need to think broader into a social network strategy.   Daden Limited (UK) illustrates why one site/technology can't be the focus with a little mashup of Twitter and Second Life in which Twitter posts float into SL like bubbles in a fountain.  It is located in Halo's Garden on Daden Prime 207, 95, 24.

October 27, 2007

World Bank Presents Global Doing Business Report in Second Life

The World Bank presented their fifth annual global Doing Business report in Second Life yesterday.  It was a notable effort to expand knowledge and understanding about the work of the World Bank to end poverty across the globe. Case in point as to the need for that very effort:  Nobody Fugazi and Canuckflack (two very tuned-in people) wonder how the clients of the World Bank "many of them living in remote corners of the internet" were supposed to sign on to hear the presentation. The World Bank customers were not the intended audience - in fact, it was the exact opposite.  It was intended to inform those who know little about the role of the World Bank. The role of the World Bank is to finance states (countries), not individuals or companies - but to my point, it is a widespread misconception that developing countries are "unconnected."  Connectivity is in fact a driving force toward their overall economic development. 

The event was extremely well attended (gratifying to see!) and the presentation summarizing the 2008 report by Dahlia Khalifa, senior communications officer for the Doing Business project of the World Bank, was chocked full of the high-caliber information you would expect to come from such an institution.  Most unfortunately the session was also full of audio technical snafus and avoidable SL event-planning mistakes - but I for one found the session thoroughly engrossing and it upped my global economic market perspective quotient several notches. I am delighted to see the World Bank living up to their goal of innovation.  And Second Life can indeed be a most suitable communication platform - if sometimes tricky.

To learn more about Doing Business 2008, to review market data or to view a variety of videos on regional economies and reforms visit the Doing Business website:  http://www.doingbusiness.org/  For more information on market approaches to development and toward ending world poverty, check out the World Bank blogs:  http://psdblog.worldbank.org/.

On a related note, The World Bank is not only employing social media to distribute information on global ecomonies, but it is watching the space for its implications toward ending poverty, growing businesses, and providing peer-to-peer support structures.  They note in a recent blog post for example, a favorite site I reference in my social media "It's Sociology, Not Technlogy"© presentations, the peer-to-peer lending site Prosper.

Social media - and you thought it was just a new-fangled marketing or PR tactic.  Go figure.

October 27, 2007

Cisco To Announce Winners of Connected Life in SL

Cisco’s expert panel has judged over 600 entries in their Connected Life creative-networked-experience-idea contest. The 11 winners will be announced on Tuesday, October 30 in Second Life.

The grand prize winner is receiving $10,000 (US), ten runners-up will receive $1000 (US), and the winning ideas are being demoed on the Cisco sim.

Join Cisco’s winners presentation and entry demos:

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 @ 12:00pm PT
Cisco Sim 1 Stage
Slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cisco%20Systems%201/76/57/23

Cisco originally announced the contest last June.  To see some of the ideas submitted to date, visit Cisco’s Connected Life web page.

You can learn more about the larger Connected Life initiative in Cisco’s brochure (PDF) or get the background in their white paper (PDF).  Cisco plans to enable the future “experience providers."  From their "Living the Connected Life" white paper and the genesis of their contest:

"The connected life reflects the growing consumer desire to have “many services to many screens” – integrated voice, video, and data services that are available anytime, anywhere, on any device. At the same time, consumers’ preferences are shifting from a discrete service model to one of a consistent, personalized “experience” that accommodates their content preferences, access types, and chosen devices. To realize the significant possibilities and profitability that the connected life can offer, service providers must transform themselves into “experience providers.” This transformation will require service providers to redefine themselves as something greater than merely their access technologies to more of the branded, rich, integrated experiences they provide."

October 26, 2007

1-800 Flowers Expands SL Presence – Discussion at SLBC Meeting Tuesday, Sept 18.

Seth Lasser, 1-800 Flowers Director of Special Projects and Assistant to the CEO, sends news of their plans to expand their Second Life presence.  It is in the form of a contest to guide their next SL steps – and which culminates in the winning avatar staring in a Times Square video. 800 Flowers would like avatar ideas and inspiration for their upcoming build on Costa Del Sol.

I took the opportunity to ask Seth to meet with SL Business Communicators to give us the background on the brand’s decision to plant more seeds in SL, to talk about the contest and to allow us to directly engage the guy behind the brand’s initiative.  He most graciously agreed and he will be in-world with SL Business Communicators on Tuesday, September 18th at 5:00 p.m. SLT.

The 1-800 Flowers “Fields of the Virtual World” contest is going on now and we avatars get to vote for the grand prize winner.  Tell 800 Flowers what inspires you and your avatar by taking an in-world snapshot, accompany it with its 100-word story, and submit it by October 1.  The winning avatar will be on video in RL Times Square in November and December.

Get more information about the contest here – and join us on Tuesday in world to hear lots more about 1-800 Flowers in SL.

Last June 1-800-Flowers came into SL with a small greenhouse and pavilion, and a group of internal employee volunteers to staff it and to connect with avatar visitors.  The initiative was part listening, part promotional, part corporate innovation exploration.

The company has been savvy so far in their virtual world practices. They have taken it seriously at the highest level in the organization, centered it around connecting people and avatars and opening up the initiatives to the community.  They have also started small and set realistic expectations internally, which Seth reports have been exceeded.

Come and meet and chat with Seth.  Learn more about their SL successes and experiences and the on-going contest.  Be at the SL Business Communicators meetup on Tuesday.

RSVP and get further SLBC meeting details by IMing Znetlady Isbell in world or emailing me.

Photo Credit:  Cranial Tap

September 14, 2007

Virtual Worlds Dissertation Research - Participate

You’ve undoubtedly noticed many references to various research studies or projects here.  And my guess is you are at least somewhat active or interested in virtual worlds if you are reading this.  So, if your intellectual generosity so moves you, there are a couple of dissertation students currently doing academic research projects who could seriously benefit from your insights and a few minutes of your time.

Post-graduate marketing student, Benjamin Bach, University of Lincoln is currently working on a research project about Second Life as part of his dissertation.  His title is:

Virtual online worlds: Enabling technologies to establish interwoven relationships to network constituents in an emerging virtual marketspace. Are virtual worlds the evolving precursors of socially interactive customer environments providing a scope for marketers?

Benjamin is exploring avatar motivations, participation reasons and the benefits you see in being involved in virtual communities.  He asked me if I would post a link to his 5-minute survey (which I also took, so I can vouch that it took less than 5 minutes).

Will you add your voice to his research?  Follow the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=dzH96qGxcRq3IsvtnRQgKA%3d%3d

If that doesn’t interest you, how about Organizational Leadership?  Today at 2:00 until 3:30 SLT Phelan Corrimal, doctoral student at University of Phoenix, will be hosting a 90 minute forum on Organizational Leadership in Second Life.

The purpose of the panel is two-fold: to get an idea of what doctoral level research on organizational leadership is currently going on in Second Life; and secondly, to explore a specific dissertation project that is current and relevant to where we are today in Second Life.

The forum will be in the Emerald Room of Rockcliffe I.
Slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/193/50/41/

Your time is most appreciated by these students. Be sure to ask them to share the results of their research with you!

September 9, 2007

Getting Involve: Name Change or Shape Shift?

The bit of a buzz around some mysterious “Involvium” last week proved to be the plot of a corporate name change story.  Interactive/metaverse agency Infinite Vision Media is now Involve, Inc.

I have to admit that I’ve known the back story for a while, so I’m coming at this from, well, a rather distant “sideliner’s” perspective.   Still, it is exciting when one catches a glimpse at a leader.

Drew Stein, founder and CEO of Infinite Vision Media-turned-Involve is a loyal reader of this blog (oh, bless you, Drew), and every once in a while we chat about something metaversial - exchanging thoughts on topics from virtual identity to social marketing.  He clued me into the name change earlier this summer.

I admit the new name sits well in my ears, since I’ve been emphasizing the concept of  “involvement” on this blog for a while as the means to successful virtual marketing initiatives (3d or otherwise). 

But from my perspective, within their name change Involve is articulating a fundamental mind-shift that marketers need to heed.

Involve’s corporate narrative is shifting the focus from “the sim” to “ the avatar.”  And that is where the virtual magic lies.

Involve’s campaign is nicely multi-layered, but more importantly, it is aimed straight at the heart of involvement.   They are walking the walk.

Let me backtrack a little to put this in context. 

Involve’s rollout campaign is centered around an augmented alternate realty game (ARG), in which a mysterious ‘company”(Involvium Energy Ventures) discovers somewhere in the metaverse the equally mysterious Involvium crystal. The crystal holds powerful energy properties – yet to be fully understood.  A freelance journalist (J.S. Tomorrow) is sent along on the latest Involvium Energy expedition to explore and report from the island within the Metaverse where Involvium was first discovered.  J.S. is filing expedition reports on her weblog.  The island and it’s various inhabitants seem to shape-shift, presumable due to the effects of the Involvium crystals.

Involvium Energy Ventures does not claim to know all the secrets of Involvium, but their early analysis of it has discovered three properties:

• Energy saturates the ether of the Metaverse
• Energy intensifies around people
• Energy currents are strongest between bonded or associated individuals

You can see the Involvium Energy Ventures website for more information and the promotional video contemplates the possibilities. Or see J. S. Tomorrow reportage.

So, here is my point.  The campaign itself is aimed at actually illustrating involvement –drawing one into a mixed reality fantasy that spans both the real world and the metaverse.  The messages underneath the fantasy are the corporate values (virtual strategies work best when focused on people/avatars).  An illustrative implementation is the story's island and blog – these are the places where the story will play out (with you, should you choose) – and where real and virtual mix.  The “shape shifting” island is both a story element as well as an outcome (with those who get involved and contribute to the evolving story).  More importantly, it is a metaphor for discovering the evolution of the metaverse and going beyond the known (or the predicatable).

The apparent message: this is what Involve is as well as where they hope to lead their clients’ initiatives. Toward involvement.

On the tactical side the initiative brought several “social media” into the mix to accomplish it’s goals: some Twittering; a little pre-announcement Pownce discussion; a micro web site; the expedition blog and the SL island where the ARG takes place; and the Involvium video. 

Personally, I think Involve has drawn an interesting line in the virtual world development sand.  I hope the ARG, and most especially the corporate narrative, play out.

August 26, 2007

S.Pellegrino Celebrates Opening of its Cafe Society in Second Life

If you've ever wanted to be part of the high-brow Italian art and club scene, come join in on Sanpellegrino's launch pool party in Second Life Tuesday, June 26 at 1:00 p.m. SLT (9:00 p.m. GMT).  Residents "who really know how to 'live in Italian'" are invited.  I visited the island last evening, Virtual Italian Parks, and I must say there is definitely a vibe going on - Italian, high-class, and oh so chic. 

During the event Sanpellegrino will also launch the Second Life Map of Stars, a free in-world navigation device to the top bars in Second Life.