Business Communicators of Second Life®

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

Revisiting the Media's Second Life Hype Cycle

Now that 2007 has passed, we may be stepping into the “slope of enlightenment” on the Gartner Hype Cycle as far as Second Life – indeed virtual worlds – is concerned. 

As we entered Q3 of last year, the media launched into their predictable backlash against Second Life after they had wrung their fun out of hyping it. But as we turn our calendars into 2008, it seems the self-replicating media echoes of the much-touted “marketing failures” is losing its attraction.  Even the silly references in massive media reports to all things provocateur are fairly limited these days. 

Of course, it helps that the activity in and around virtual worlds as an “industry” is accelerating ever more rapidly.  In addition, enterprise experimentation with them has reached a point where some of those high-profile, cutting edge enterprises are now going more public with their otherwise quiet initiatives.  And, the technological commitments by the likes of IBM, Sun, Cisco and other large technology, entertainment and media companies fuels the “let’s get serious” attitude that is almost palatable now. 

In just the past week, I’ve found several rather sensible media stories in my news reader that hopefully reflect a coming media era of more widespread knowledge and discussion of the applications of virtual worlds.  There is plenty of deep discussion going on in sectors other than the press, but let’s face it, mainstream perceptions are [still] largely influenced by mainstream media.  So, here’s a sampling in case you’d like to peruse:

Virtual World Workforce, Part 1: Promising the World
Virtual World Workforce Part 2: Real-Life Pitfalls

By the way, TechNews World has a very nice ongoing series on virtual worlds of which these two articles above are a part.   

Businesses look to online world Second Life to create virtual enterprise.

Asperger’s Therapy Hit Second Life

Pixelanthropy: Charities tap into Second Life

NASA investigates virtual space

On a related note,  Shel Holtz in the Hobson and Holtz For Immediate Release podcast interviewed Forrester’s Erica Driver, Principal Analyst and co-author of the recently released Forrester report, Getting Real Work Done In Virtual Worlds.  Nothing new and pretty fundamental for those of you already familiar with virtual worlds, but the interview provides a nice overview of what Forrester’s report covers relative to “real work” being done in immersive 3D spaces.  You can listen to the 30-minute podcast here.

Image via Wikipedia

January 21, 2008

Roo Reynolds' Enterprise 3D Presentation

IBM Metaverse Evangelist, Roo Reyonlds, has posted his excellent presentation, Enterprise 3D: Living and Working in Virtual Worlds, delivered this week at Online Information 2007 in London.

Roo discusses the internal virtual world IBM is building for its eventual use by 300,000 employees in the context of the importance of social networking in the enterprise.

Favorite concept:  WoW (and virtual worlds) is the new golf, with structured rules, funny clothes, and almost entirely for socializing and conducting and brokering business.

His remarks harken back to my previous post... here is a snapshot of Roo’s desktop (from his presentation) that beautifully illustrates my point about distributed virtuality: 

Case in point:  The "avatar" is the most valuable asset in the cosmos.

December 8, 2007

Gartner Sees Virtual Worlds As A Growing Shopping Experience

Yesterday Gartner Finland released their predictions to retailers about emerging shopping habits and venues.  These are actually not so much predictions as a “heads-up display” of what is already happening.

By 2010, says Gartner, 20% of global Tier 1 retailers will have some kind of marketing presence in virtual worlds and online games.  This isn’t surprising considering Gartner’s 2007 Emerging Trends report from their April Symposium predicted 80% of active Internet users and Fortune 500 enterprises will have virtual world presences by 2011.  And, with virtual worlds on track with Moore’s law of doubling every 24 months, it is no big stretch of the imagination that retailers are riding the wave.

Networks are a Channel and a Place

No matter what lens you look through, 2007 saw an enormous embrace by organizations of “virtuality,” from social networks to Second Life.  The various different types of virtuality (2D and 3D) which organizations are trying to get their heads around are simply mashing up into an information and social space.  Soon we won’t be making distinctions among the technologies used to facilitate these spaces. 

And shopping certainly isn’t waiting around.

Brookstone launched their Kinset store for this year's holiday shopping season.

Social shopping networks like Kaboodle, ThisNext and Stylehive were built as ‘visual’ social sites, socially bookmarking through images rather than text.  Stylehive is now offering “Nectar Hives” allowing  retailers to "snap in" social shopping communities around their brands.

H&M set up shop in SimCity (video link), and have launched their initiative at My Virtual Model, also distributing it to Facebook.

Of course, Sears and Circuit City are experimenting with virtual-to-real retail via IBM in Second Life; and in-game advertising and product placement is old news.

Gartner encourages retailers to expand their definition of customer touchpoints to online games and virtual worlds – and cites the mobile shopping web as a big growth opportunity, as well.

The important point in all this is this:   it is not about the virtual “place.”  Like everything else today, the shopping opportunity lies with the avatar. 

See Gartner’s press release here.

See Kinset’s 3D shoppping videos here.

December 8, 2007

Book Review: Exodus of the Virtual World; How Online Fun is Changing Reality

Life is a game.  Edward Castronova brings us face to face with a new twist on the concept in his newest ‘speculative non-fiction’ book, Exodus to the Virtual World; How Online Fun is Changing Reality.

Thumbing through it, you might guess this is a book about a generation of gamers addicted to seeking unending fun, opting out of the real in favor of the virtual.  Or, you might think it is a sociological warning about the weird and scary world of gaming cultures, whose millions of inhabitants have entered the mainstream work world and are bringing with them their geeky scary view of society.  Or, if you happen to land dead center in the book, you might think Castronova himself is living in a fantasy world where he’s mistaken game society and real world public policy as one. 

Well, kind of…but No.

Grasp this book between your two hands, and before you open it, repeat three times: “this is a book of speculative non-fiction.”

And then read every word of it seriously.

The three underlying themes within this book are happening.  They may be under the radar, but that doesn’t make them any less real or less disruptive to your near future. If you are in business, pay attention – it has implications for you.  If you are a marketer, be aware that you have to get in the game (pun intended).  If you are a public official, at least consider the possibilities.

Theme 1:  Virtual economies cannot help but affect real world economies.  Castronova walks us through how so.  The ‘virtual economy’ as a whole is already the size of a small country.  Even if people are spending only a small percentage of their time producing, buying, selling virtual goods, it is taking money/production out of the real world economy.  As millions of people start doing it and migrating “there” (China is betting on it) and on a growth curve following Moore’s Law, it will make a very big difference to all of us. 

“The thought of a new community, society or state emerging on its own territory should give us pause.”

Theme 2:  Virtual worlds are fun; the real world is not and people like fun more than “not fun.”  What’s not to love?  Of course what ‘fun’ actually means here is the key to the title of the book.  The case Castronova makes is that people are finding meaning/satisfaction in collaborative game spaces and virtuality that real world structures/systems don’t allow or support.  It is the why of virtual world fun-ness that is key here and that may be an imperative for the real world.  Fun in Castronova's sense is not ‘meaningless play’ it is challenge, mastery, learning, testing without serious consequences, survival, fairness and the ability for everyone to succeed (if eventually).

But herein lies one of the sticking points I have with Exodus to the Virtual World.  Castronova seems to equate virtual worlds, video games and ‘practical virtual reality’ as one and the same, interchangeable, seemingly painting them with the same cultural and structural ‘fun’ brush.  They aren’t the same.  Motivations, activities and structures are different – but I forgive because this is a book about trends and possibilities – and that is the really important place he takes the reader in his discussion.

Theme 3: Game designers are designers of societies, with the goals of making people happy and improving well-being.  Successful public policy might learn from game design.  Here’s where you might think “okay – gone too far.  I was with you for a while, but time to close the book now.”

Hang in.  Of course Castronova, economist that he is, knows life is not ‘the game.’ Not everyone finds these games ‘fun’ or are ‘technographically’ aligned with them (a point Castronova doesn’t make).   People do operate in the real world.  But he does run the concepts of game design and public policy in parallel with the reader, just asking the question, “can we learn something about human happiness by listening to the multi-disciplinary arena of game design?”   If millions of people are migrating into virtual reality, it might be worth at least considering the question (not to mention the reasons). 

These are radical and sometimes very impractical ideas.  But I have to admit I marked this passage:

“Perhaps the most striking difference between fun policy and real-world policy is in the process of policymaking.  Game designers deliberate briefly, then implement policies in test environments and tinker with them for a very long time.  Real-world policymakers deliberate for a long time, then implement policies in the real world without any tests at all.  Those who have experienced policy effects in both worlds cannot help being impressed by the difference in the policy quality that results.”

Virtual worlds do give us the ability to test real world scenarios – doing that alone could save a lot of real world human pain and distress.

A final point of digression I have with Castronova that I'll note here is that he states no other online experiences allow for these kinds of societal disruptive environments.  I disagree – and in fact think by focusing only on 3D virtual worlds as where this is happening is shortsighted.  Two-dimensional social networks/social media share many of the characteristics – and implications – of which Castronova speaks in his book.

So, you might think all this isn’t happening, or it is a long way off, or it is far-fetched, or it has no real implications for you or your real world…

Well, early in the year I was in conversation discussing the state of an enormous public institution with a high-ranking government official (of baby boomer age) and she said to me as we discussed solutions, “there must be a way to make it work more like World of Warcraft – how can we make it so people are encouraged and motivated that way?”   I swear.  It happened – in the "real” world.

Thanks to St. Martin's press for a review copy of Mr. Castronova's book.

December 3, 2007
   

Telemedicine Conference In Second Life: October 22-23

The Center for Connected Health will be bringing their upcoming telemedicine symposium, “Building the Connected Health Economy” into Second Life.  The symposium, being held at the RL Harvard Medical Conference Center, begins on Monday, October 22nd and continues through Tuesday the 23rd.  The sessions will be streamed into SL at Connected Health Island auditorium.  The SL audience will be able to ask questions during the live sessions.

A key panel session on Monday will be simulcast in Second Life and RL.  At 7:00 - 8:00 a.m. SLT Monday the RL/SL panel, Second Life: Healthcare Enters the Virtual World, will explore the potential of virtual worlds in the delivery of medicine.   The panelists include:

•    Joseph C. Kvedar, MD, . Director, Center for Connected Health, Partners HealthCare
•    John Lester (Pathfinder Linden), Boston Operations Director, Linden Lab
•    Daniel Hoch, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School
•    Roger Edwards, ScD, Managing Consultant, PA Consulting Group
•    Karen Gans, PhD, patient advocate

The full conference schedule is available here.

The Center for Connected Health tapped Involve, Inc. to develop the Connected Health Island sim and to provide in-world production services.

To attend the conference sessions, teleport to Connected Health Island.

October 18, 2007

CSI New York in SL: Information Week 10/16 Gridtalk

Mitch Wagner/Ziggy Figaro of Information Week is hosting Electric Sheep Company tomorrow, October 16th at the regularly scheduled GridTalk at 8:00 a.m. SLT to discuss the ESC and CBS initiative that will bring the CSI: New York TV show into Second Life.  Dr Dobbs Island is the place to be.

The news of this particular move into SL by CBS has been widely reported in both the SL and mainstream press, but in case you haven’t gotten the skinny, here’s the news:  In an episode to air on October 24, CSI: NY detective Mac Taylor enters Second Life to chase an avatar suspect.  In the episode the virtual world is not renamed to protect its identity.  The story line seeks to meld the virtual and the real, with a RL victim who is a wildly popular avatar in SL, and a killer who attempts to assume her virtual identity.  Taylor (and you, should you decide to accept this mission) goes in world to track down the killer.

We’re seeing with this the logical evolution of the 7 million-dollar investment in Electric Sheep Company in which CBS participated in February of this year; the acquisition around the same time of machimists, ILL Clan; and the success CBS/Showtime experienced with The L Word in SL.

CBS plans to air two 30-second spots that will direct viewers to experience SL for themselves.  The uninitiated will be able to choose from 12 avatars – smart move – and the promise is CSI creator, Anthony Zuiker’s avatar will greet the newly virtual viewers. For the occasion, ESC will provide a customized version of their new browser-like Second Life viewer to make SL easier to navigate and to join in on the planned CSI activities.

The SL CSI environment will reportedly include CSI forensic lab activities, clues left at the virtual murder scene and a field kit of tools for those who want to become a virtual CSI agent.  The aim is to provide various levels of participation.

The “episode” will continue until February during which time Zuiker hopes to draw the connected crowd back to television by integrating show content with the immersive and interactive.

Although not unexpected, I’m delighted to see this move by CBS and I sincerely hope CBS and ESC will share the ups and downs they experience with their initiative. Dare I say this is an important milestone for TV.  This is the future of television in one form or another - from both a content and advertising perspective.  This is one to watch and learn.

Various details at the Virtual Worlds News, the Scotsman and the SF Chronicle.   But be at GridTalk on Tuesday as that promises to be the best bet for up-to-the-minute info.

Here’s the CSI:NY promotional machinima:

October 15, 2007

USC Center on Public Diplomacy Simulcasting Virtual Worlds Panel in Second Life

Join in on September 10, from 10:15 am – 11:45 am SLT for USC's Center on Public Diplomacy panel discussion, From Global to Local: Virtual Worlds, Immigration, and Linguistic Diaspora while the RL version will hail from Mexico City.   According to USC's press release, the topic is meant to explore how virtual worlds can have an impact on making global issues local; and how immersive and digital environments are playing a role in cultural dialogue and interaction.

This panel is actually part of the larger event, Interdependance Day V, that brings together civic leaders, artists and thinkers for a series of discussisons on "the realities and possibilities of forging constructive interdependence in our troubled and divided world." 

The entire event will be simulcast in Second Life and will feature a mix of panelists participating physically in Mexico and virtually in Second Life.  USC's participation is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The USC panelists include:

• Peter Marx, Former Chief Technology Officer for Vivendi Universal Games;
• Jose Murilo, Manager of Strategic Information, Ministry of Culture (Brazil);
• Mark Wallace, virtual worlds journalist;
• François Bar, Associate Professor, USC Annenberg School for Communication;
• Gilson Schwartz, Academic Director of the City of Knowledge, Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil).

Join the group in Second Life "MacArthur Foundation SL Events" for detailed updates.

Get the complete event schedule for Interdependence Day V and details on the USC panel here.

And the PDF of the conference schedule is here.

September 4, 2007

Science Friday: Ahhh…An Intelligent Second Life Media Discussion

Maybe it is the flow of Ira Flatow’s voice, or maybe I’m conditioned to expect the exceptional from his radio show, Science Friday.   Either way, it was just refreshing to sit back and listen to the calm and intelligent conversation about Second Life and virtual worlds that Ira gave us yesterday on NPR’s Science Friday show. 

Flatow, in the avatar persona of Ira Flately was taking questions in Second Life live yesterday afternoon during the taping of the show.  I was listening on delayed radio broadcast last night, but the Science School sim where the action was taking place in world was reportedly maxed out during the taping,

Ira, with his characteristic curiosity, focused on the sociology and psychology of human behavior in virtual worlds as well as the very real research potential of Second Life.  He brought on Dmitri Williams (USC), Sherry Turkle (MIT), Eric Lofgren (University North Carolina), and Cory Ondrejka (Linden Lab) to weigh in on various aspects of human behavior in virtual spaces. 

Dmitri, Assistant professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, honed in on an oft-overlooked aspect about extrapolating (or predicting) real life behaviors from virtual world behaviors.  Incentives and risks in virtual spaces are often quite different than they are in real life.  Rules, morality, laws, cultural imperatives may have no connection in a particular virtual space to the person’s real world constraints.   Mapping incentives to those in real world environments – as well as environmental control – are key to making any kind of viable rl/vl behavioral research connection.

Turkle, Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self Program and well known for her research on virtual identity, is particularly focused in this discussion on the bridges between real world and virtual world personas and behaviors.  I have to say I found a good deal of dissonance in her continual distinction between the virtual and the real.  Although she said she prefers to refer to rl as  “rest of life,” and said she doesn’t like to make a distinction – she went on throughout the discussion to underscore “real” versus “virtual.”  She mentioned she is particularly concerned about the impact of virtuosity on the political realm: that people put in real work to create virtual communities and yet don’t vote because they feel their virtual politicking is more potent.  Turkle would like to see them move these organizational skills into the “real” political realm.

The dissonance for me is that she is surprisingly missing a key point in her remarks - we are increasingly melding our real presence into the virtual (okay the other way around too). 

Virtual (in all its forms) facilitates our expanding global knowledge and presences and the imperative to do so is only broadening. 

It seems to me we have virtual “presences” that we consider part of our “real” life – telephone, email, video conferencing, ecommerce, PayPal, eBay, WebEx, IM, text messaging, logins to our various networks.  I’m sure your list goes on.   The march is on toward taking our “virtuosity” as much for granted as we do the telephone.  Yes, eventually, even the rl politicking Turkle is particularly concerned about will be played out in virtual spaces as seamless adjuncts to the real.  Candidates are certainly using the virtual to expand their campaign organizations!

Dmitri pointed to a tangentially related thought – that scope and scale are quite different in virtuosity.  What may be small(er) group dynamics of community and society in real space suddenly becomes the potential coordination of large(r), more diverse groups.  Real skills come into play – and are learned - "there."

Perhaps we need to consider that those who feel politically (or otherwise) potent in virtual spaces just possibly, partially may be a function that they may be more rl/vl “melded” than others.  I call it “sociology, not technology” in many of my presentations.  (Yes, virtuosity can also be an escape.  Okay, that is a huge topic for another post…. just consider my point for now.)

We won’t meld our virtual and real presences linearly or predictably. History takes jumps.  Rudimentary case in point – mobile phones suddenly brought many parts of the world voice connectivity.  They didn’t move through a “linear” progression of wired lines. 

Back to Science Friday – and a final important point.  There is a wide range of interpretation about the effects and/or benefits of virtuosity.  Dmitri (again) pointed out that virtual must displace some real (or what we accept as “real”). The individual isn’t scalable, after all. 

His research shows that “virtual” activities mean, for example, watching less television, but that certain news gathering behaviors are not displaced (radio, newspaper-reading….hmm would that be online (virtual) newspapers - isn't that real??).  Virtual spaces also tend to be existing-relationship maintenance tools, but that relationships with casual friends may change – rl casual friends may be displaced with friends met in virtual places.  The important question to ask: is what we displace better or worse?  Not a simple “good” or “bad” answer to that.

Listen to the show at NPR here. Lots of other topics were discussed besides those I focused on here.  Come back and tell us your thoughts!

Science Friday show notes here.

Science Friday– Making Science Radioactive.

Photo Credit:  Science Friday


September 1, 2007

Cisco Launches Virtual World Blog

Cisco has added a new blog to their growing list of corporate blogs - the Virtual World Blog.

Reason?  As Christian Renaud says in the inaugural post:

"We believe that these environments offer an excellent new tool in our collaboration toolbox, alongside established technologies like IP Telephony, Web Collaboration, and Telepresence. They also offer a number of new opportunities to collaborate in ways we haven't had before, which is intuitively obvious to those who use them regularly, but we'll work on enumerating in future blogposts."

Christian is Chief Architect of the Networked Virtual Environments team at Cisco, and he and members of his team will be contributing to the blog, according to Christian's post.  As a nice touch, they are also maintaining a del.icio.us page that will contain all the links they reference in their blog posts. 

Christian is an active SL avatar so we know he and his team will be speaking with great authority.  More importantly, Cisco has made both big and public commitments to virtual worlds, from their multiple-island SL campus to actively experimenting with internal 3D collaborative spaces - and then back again with in-world b2b meetings and mixed reality public events.  And, they aren't overlooking infrastructure, as they are also working on  technology to support 3D environments, and tools to facilitate our virtual work and entertainment lives.

Christian will also be keynoting at the upcoming Virtual Worlds 2007 conference in October.

Click on over to the Virtual World Blog, say hello and chat up a team that is contributing to the next generation of business and of virtual worlds.

August 15, 2007

MacArthur Foundation Announces $2 Million Digital Media Competition

The MacArthur Foundation announced today a public competition for $2 million in funding for "emerging leaders, communicators, and innovators shaping the field of digital media and learning."

The purpose of the competition is to stimulate and encourage innovation in all areas of digital media and learning, as well as to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way people live, play, work, learn, and socialize.

The awards will be given in two distinct areas:  Knowledge-Networking and Innovation. 

The Knowledge-Networking awards will be given to proven communicators who are already steeped in social media and dedicated to "digital learning" through blogs, social networking, social bookmarking, podcasting and virtual worlds.  There will be twelve $30,000 - $75,000 Knowledge-Networking awards.

Innovation awards will go to pioneers in exploring or developing new digital learning environments, especially targeted at youth.  They should be built upon social concepts, social media spaces, and informal collaborative models.   There will be eight $250,000 or $100,000 awards.

The rationale for the choice of these two areas is just too beautiful to paraphrase (from the competition FAQ) :

    Why single out “Innovation” and “Knowledge-Networking”?

In an age of rapidly expanding information and communication technologies, innovation and networking are complementary and mutually interdependent.  Innovation that isn’t communicated, shared, developed, customized, and implemented is irrelevant.  Networking without significant content and innovative ideas can be shallow.  In addition, knowledge-networking promotes the distribution of the best developments in digital media and learning in order that communities can participate in the growth, adoption, sharing, and conversation (and, ideally, the improvement) of those ideas.

The competition is open to a wide range. Bloggers, journalists, digital media practioners, communicators, gamers, social networkers, researchers, think tanks, educators, students and theorists are being encouraged to  submit - that means you!  The primary applicant must be a U.S. resident, but members of the team can reside in any other country.

The competition is part of the Foundation's $50 million Digital Media and Learning initiative. 

Get more information on the competition web site - there is lots of it.

Find the competition FAQs here

August 14, 2007

Second Life Entertainment Study Discussion Panel

We've lined up a panel discussion to delve into the recently released study, Second Life Entertainment Market.  We've aimed at getting expertise from several sectors in Second Life to contribute to the discussion and we invite you to come and get involved in the conversation. 

I will be moderating the panel and Mary Ellen Gordon of Market Truths will be among the panelists.  She will give us a briefing on the report and provide some additional insights.

The panel discussion will be held on Friday, July 27th at 9:00 a.m. SLT.

Panelists include:
Mary Ellen Gordon/Pebbles Hannya, President of Market Truths
Troy McLuhan, Director, SL International Spaceflight Museum
Link Pippen, Galveston Island
Giff Constable/Foresti Svarog, Electric Sheep Company
Ian Teepoot, Infinite Vision Media
Gary Goldhammer/G24khamr Goodfellow, Edelman Interactive Services
Moderator:  Linda Zimmer/Znetlady Isbell

We will be holding the discussion on the Depo Business Hub, at Market Truths 50/185/34.

Join the discussion and bring your questions for the panel!

July 23, 2007

Engagement Redemption

A couple of weeks ago I Twittered my Virtual Strategy Quip of the Day as:

Engagement is a means to an end - it is the touchpoint. Use Engagement but get to Involvement.

I’ve gotten several emails asking just what I meant by that.

Although  I publicly bashed “engagement” as the hottest, emptiest term in marketing communications today – engagement is actually a vital element in today’s marketing equation.  But (as I noted in a response to Joel Greenberg’s post on reach and frequency) engagement is a means to an end.  It is a tactic – not a strategy.  Engagement needs a third dimension that I described in that post as “Depth.”

My  working illustration here is far from perfect, but here is where I see engagement fitting into today’s marketing and communications.

As marketers, I think we’ve got Awareness down pretty well.  And unfortunatly, we still center most of our strategies there.

Engagement is how we move people from Awareness to Involvement. It is the method we use to open the door, invite people in, start a conversation, touch a nerve.

But, Involvement is personal relevance – and the more personal connections created, the more the involvement.  Involvement has varying levels (category, product, ego) and it encompasses key qualitative concepts like motivation, intensity, and attitude.  Getting to involvement means the customer has accepted the invitation, walked through the door, given the permission, taken up the conversation – but most importantly joined us in building that all-important third dimension:  Depth (of relationship).

Our strategies need to be aimed toward Depth.

July 15, 2007

Virtual Brand Answers: A Starter Kit for Marketers

Between us, we've talked to dozens of organizations who are looking for answers to "the big six" questions about virtual worlds: who, what, when, where, how and why. 

We've seen that organizations are looking for a way they can get a smart and clear start with a virtual world initiative.  So my company, MarCom:Interactive teamed up with marketing research company, Market Truths.  We put our heads together, took a hard look at our experience in the marketplace and came up with a kind of virtual world “starter kit.” 

We dubbed it Virtual Brand Answers.  It’s a simple services “kit” that provides qualitative research and some expert advice to get to the answers to those "big six" questions pretty quickly.  Here's our take:

Who:  Determines if the target market(s) is in the virtual world to a degree that makes sense for the brand.

Why:  Articulates clear goals that lead to great strategies that work.  Clear goals also set up a way to measure virtual world success down the road.

What:  A “go/no go” recommendation, based on the results of qualitative marketing research with real avatars.  Strategic and tactical recommendations for the brand’s virtual world presence.

How:  Concept generation if there isn’t one -  or qualitative research with real avatars to test a virtual world concept, if there is one.  (Concept generation is not a “build” vision, but the type of presence that makes sense for the brand.)

Where:  Which virtual world(s) make sense for the brand:  Second Life or Habbo Hotel?  Buy an island or a plot on the mainland?  Create a tribe or join an existing one?  Product placement or immersive Brand Land?

When:  Realistic time frame to create the virtual world program and other vital factors we think are vital to know related to timing of the virtual project or promotion.

Our goal with VBA is not to replace the visioning or in-world strategies that virtual world developers provide, but rather to set up that development process for the greatest success.

This is what Virtual Brand Answers currently includes.  I’m sure we’ll be refining it, and we’d appreciate your input on what you’d like to see included:

• Virtual Brand Answers Q&A Session
• Target Market Evaluation
• Goal Shaping
• Qualitative Research based on the target market (virtual world research evaluation of the brand presence concept): Research includes:
  • Four avatar-to-avatar focus groups (selected from Market Truth’s panels); or
  • Ten avatar-to-avatar interviews (selected from Market Truth’s panels)

• Concept Testing (qualitative research) ; or Concept Generation (if the“big idea” isn’t quite there yet)
• Qualitative Research Results
• Virtual Brand Answers Report
  • A Go or No-Go recommendation
  • The virtual world target that is right for the brand
  • Recommended or refined concept for the virtual world presence
  • Strategic suggestions
  • Timing & implementation implications
  • Measuring the virtual presence effectiveness suggestions
  • Other relevant recommendations

• Virtual World Expert Consulting

Based on our experience, this represents the “FAQ” organizations are presenting us with as they are getting started or evaluating internally whether to move forward on a virtual world initiative.

Our hope is Virtual Brand Answers will provide everyone involved in the process of developing a virtual world presence some key components for a successful marketing initiative - and will save organizations some time and money as well.  By the way, it isn't just for virtual worlds, it can be applied to social media of any kind.

If you’d like a PDF of the Virtual Brand Answers description, you can find it here or here.

Your comments on it would be most welcome!

July 4, 2007

Surf's Up in Club Penguin with Sony Movie Promo

While the blogosphere is all abuzz with rumors Sony and News Corp are both eyeing a Club Penguin purchase, I find it interesting that Sony's newest movie promotion is a Club Penguin membership give-away.  The grand prize is a year's free membership in Club Penguin.  The tie-in is promoting the movie, Surf's Up, opening in theaters June 8th.

Lesser prizes range from a month of membership to an annual membership. 

I'd say Sony knows the value of Club Penguin in more ways than one.

May 23, 2007

The Republic of Maldives Opens Embassy in Second Life

A tiny country undergoing huge reforms, the Republic of Maldives has opened an embassy on a corner of Diplomacy Island in Second Life.

The Maldives, a developing country with limited resources within the global arena, sees Second Life as a method to extend its diplomatic outreach beyond the opportunities the “real world” affords them and a way to boost its international profile.

The space prominently displays information about the Maldives reform agenda.  The Republic is currently engaged in sweeping constitutional, human rights and democratic reforms, including enhancing the role of the media in Maldivian society.

Unlike Sweden’s plans for their SL embassy, which is slated to open May 30, visitors to the virtual Maldivian embassy will be able to conduct some diplomatic business such as talking to virtual diplomats about visas and trade issues.

Pay them a visit at Diplomacy Island 209, 99, 23.

Read more in The Local from Sweden, or Australian News.com.

May 22, 2007

Identity versus Reputation: Wandering and Wondering in Virtual Spaces

There is something about 3D spaces that seems to make us think harder about virtual identity.  It usually comes in the form of the question: “How do you know who is really behind the avatar?”

It is almost always the first question that comes up at every presentation or conference I’ve participated in where virtual worlds are mentioned.

It is cited as one of the “big three” issues of doing business in virtual worlds.

The identity question has all kinds of insecurities behind it. Just who is the puppeteer hidden behind this little mass of bits and bytes displayed on my computer screen?”  Can I trust this person?  Are they who they say they are?  Are they really representing what they say they represent?  Can I do business with someone I can’t see?

Yet today we wander almost without thought through hundreds of 2D virtual places every day dressed in our virtual identities, dealing with other virtual identities, and leaving virtual breadcrumbs along our path of virtual footprints.

In business we wouldn’t function without our virtual email identity, and we’re professionally “hooking up” with others via Linkedin or Xing identities.  We buy products from web sites although we’ve never met the people behind it nor have we walked into their RL store.  We create, affiliate and transact within virtual identities hundreds of millions of times per day.

What allows us to do so comfortably is reputation.

Identity is a set of facts: name, location, employment, position, age, gender.  To the marketer it may be merely certain online behaviors.  Identity in the real world is carried with us from context to context – the office meeting, the cocktail party or the football field.  We “are” those set of facts. 

But reputation is contextual.  On the sports field you may be the great coach.  But in the office meeting you are the one who is always late; at the cocktail party you “work the room.”  The fact you are a winning sports coach is unlikely to automatically earn you respect as an expert at a wine tasting. We don’t carry a “good” reputation into all the different areas of our lives.  We earn reputations within particular contexts.

In business at the moment of “transaction” (however it is defined) what we really need to know and care about is reputation.

So, we’ve created reputation devices like credit scores or D&B ratings; a domain name system or eBay ratings.  It is a measure of reputation allowing us an assessment of risk in doing business with someone.

Identity online is more easily created, abandoned or shielded than in real life.  But virtuosity is making even that easier.

Reputation is of course tied to an identity. They are two sides of the same coin.

Reputation however is earned over time.  Identity without reputation is nearly meaningless.

As we delve deeper and wider into virtual spaces, both our identities and reputations are scattered across them. 

Philip Rosedale CEO of Linden Lab told the Guardian last week that they are building the technology to allow a Second Life avatar identity to wander out across the web.  He said:

"We are building the backend to support that. We believe the concept of identity through your avatar will span the web. We are going to seek to enable that. Technology-wise, it's only about 18 months away. I do think we will see some interconnected virtual worlds…

But reputation must come right along with identity. 

Tools such as OpenID and ClaimID are the beginnings of managing our virtuosity across online spaces.  OpenID allows us to carry our identity from one virtual place to another for convenience, while ClaimID gives us a tool to pool and manage our various reputations.

In thinking about the identity/reputation challenge for today’s communicators I can’t help but conjure up for us an image from the story of Peter Pan: Wendy attaching Peter’s lost shadow before they fly off to Neverland.

Photo credit:  Dedric Mauriac, Marianne McCann

May 21,2000

UGS (Siemens) Enters Second Life to Be Near Customers

Not customers like you and me.  No.  More like General Motors.

This is big B2B. 

UGS are purveyors of innovation through collaboration.  They assist such minor organizations as Proctor and Gamble, Lockheed Martin, NASA and Toshiba to innovate faster, better, cheaper by using collaborative “ideagoras.” Visualization and 3D modeling are also vital elements in helping customers and customer partner companies to rapidly develop products and manage a cost-effective product lifecycle.

That may sound all buzz wordy – but if you’ve read Wikinomics, you know that mass collaboration is driving the most successful companies today.

Second Life is an extension of what UGS and their customers are doing in other virtual places. I see this as significant a move in 3D environments as IBM’s and Sun’s recent announcements.

The UGS machinima says it all.  It is worth the 1.5 minutes and the click – go ahead.  Click.

By the way, UGS didn’t leave their visualization expertise in RL.  This is a sim to visit just to see and learn how to implement information presentation in a visual medium.  And, they have a microsite for the initiative that is simply perfect.

UGS is a Siemens company.

UGS is located in SL at UGS Innovation Connection 128, 128, 0.

The Electric Sheep Company developed the UGS sim.

Photo credit:  UGS

May 8, 2007

Kraft Teams with Supermarket Guru & Food Editor in Second Life

Phil’s Supermarket is slated to open in Second Life with grand ceremonies tomorrow, May 7 at 8:30 a.m. SLT.  Kraft Foods is showcasing more than 70 new food and beverages in the virtual market as well as sponsoring its SL version of the Kraft Food Institute.

Phil Lempert is the “Phil” of Phil’s Supermarket. He also happens to be MSNBC’s Today Show Food editor and contributor, food marketer extraordinaire and every-media personality.

Phil's Supermarket on Food Island is as intriguing a build as it is expansive.  From my solo tour and sneak-preview it looks like a lot of food education, events, and discussions will be going on.   Rick’s Wine Cellar has all the trappings of a vibrant wine education center.   There are “frequent shopper” incentives, and email interface to product information.   There are little community applications sprinkled around like gifting virtual items to other avatars.

The Focus Group and Forum areas suggests Kraft will be doing some serious market research with avatar shoppers.

According to Phil’s website, SL shoppers will be able to pre-shop for real world items – and he is promising over 100,000 items in the virtual store by summer’s end.  Shoppers will be able to personalize product lists, recipes and nutritional profiles and receive real world coupons.  Phil plans to host celebrity chefs and cooking demos, all manner of food seminars and offer expert advice from Betty the Baker and Fred the Fishmonger.  The Supermarket Guru Podcasts will take questions from the Second Life audience.

All signs point to an ambitious and truly integrated RL-SL marketing presence that just might set a standard.

During a mixed reality event from the Food Marketing Institute Supermarket Convention being held this week in Chicago, Kraft will be making a donation of $450,000 to American’s Second Harvest – the Nation’s Food Bank Network to commemorate Phil’s Supermarket virtual grand opening.  You too can make a donation at Phil’s Supermarket at Food 118, 94, 28.

[update 5-7]:  As I suspected based on the scale of this initiative, IBM has a hand in bringing Phil's Supermarket to life and will support the project going forward. Toyshoppe Productions is responsible for all the design and scripting.  It is obvious that "marketing" is only a part of the mix - that new business touchpoints are being developed here and new merchandising concepts prototyped.  This is a build that is clearly going beyond marketing.

At the opening ceremonies, it was announced that America's Second Harvest will have a permanent home in SL at Phil's Supermarket.

You can find lots more photos here.

May 6, 2007

SL Business Communicators Wiki Growing Resource

If you haven't been by our Second Life Business Communicators wiki, I think we're keeping pace with the growing number of businesses, non-profits, media companies, public agencies, and civic entities establishing a Second Life presence.  Dylan Devillers  is contributing European entrants and various others have contributed links they've discovered.  Many thanks to all those who have contributed links along the way for helping create a resource that is useful to several thousand visitors a month.

If you are inclined to contribute, please let me know by dropping me an email or an IM in SL (Znetlady Isbell). 

In recent weeks we've added entries such as the NBA, Kelly Services, STA Travel, Australian Broadcasting Company, the UK's Press Association, Plant-it 2020, several politicians and French political parties, and the list goes on.

While I can't claim it is absolutely comprehensive, we've got a pretty thorough list in several categories.  I'm sure the marketing companies and politician lists need additions and the Media of Second Life will be updated very shortly with some new blogs and publications.  I'd very much like to expand the current tiny list of Useful Tools.

If you should be on the lists, let me know! If you'd like to contribute, please join in!  This is the only resource like it that I've come across - and, we also list locations, since many aren't easy to find. If you know of other wikis or resources, please share (and we can add them to the wikis list too)!

May 6, 2007

IBM and Sun Charting Virtual World Business Territory

While the natives of Second Life are restless due to infrastructure challenges that are causing teleports to fail, inventory to disappear and transaction loops to fall short, IBM and Sun are leaping into new industrial-strength virtual world turf.

Both companies have been publicly active in Second Life and elsewhere in the metaverse for quite a while.  Both have left their mark there providing tools and spirited open-source knowledge-sharing. 

But going back to its roots, IBM announced last week they are building a specialized mainframe computer that is specifically designed to power 3-D environments.  It will incorporate the same Cell processor that Sony’s PlayStation 3 uses. 

The new computer system is intended to be an “enterprise-level” platform upon which new generation virtual worlds will be built.  IBM’s focus here is on facilitating secure, lifelike 3D graphic environments and thousands-per-second transactions within those environments.  However, IBM sees uses beyond virtual reality into mapping, 3-D showrooms and new types of resource planning and customer relationship management.  According to David Gelardi, vice president, Industry Solutions at IBM. “what we are doing is starting with online gaming and then moving to a Web-based commercial world."

The first company to work with IBM and the Cell mainframe is Brazilian online gaming company Hoplon Infotainment.  Hoplon is developing the software and service-oriented architecture for a new virtual world and online gaming community.  According to IBM, the two companies will be delivering this new online environment at the end of this year.