Editors have sent me to a long list of destinations to report stories firsthand, but this assignment seemed truly alien.
Second Life? What in or out of this world is that, and all I have to do is sit at the old PC to get there? And what sort of X- or Gen Y-rated stuff will I find there? These and other
questions challenged my operative paradigm...along with a recollection that I’d heard some teens chatting about it in a shopping mall. If they were into it, I would probably be out of it.
A browser search yielded a rather sinister screen on my monitor that invited me to register—for free. Yeah, but I’d surely get sucked into something really weird, and all these graphics would probably crash my hard drive, I argued. Minutes of anxiety passed before I tapped multiple prompts into my keyboard and accessed what resembled a video game.
A few more prompts birthed my avatar right there on my screen—a svelte young lady who looks nothing like the real me. But that’s the point, isn’t it? Second Life, aka “SL,” allows people to be anonymous in both appearance and name—and do just about anything they feel like in its various “worlds.”
I managed to fly my avatar to SL’s Orientation Island, where words on my monitor assured me I would learn how to navigate this bewildering environment. But when I tried to redesign my appearance right there in the front of several other avatars, I did the unthinkable.
I removed my clothes.
What is Second Life?
Learning to use and maneuver an avatar in SL isn’t the only challenge new users face as they step into it and other 3-D virtual worlds. This genre of Web 2.0 (users create content) platforms is constantly evolving, just as its applications are. “Metaverse” (3-D worlds) pioneers say it’s the future of the Internet, and savvy business people at the bare minimum need to familiarize themselves with it now, as it’s the perfect platform for networking, collaboration and educational deliveries, they advise.
Developed and released to the public by Linden Lab in 2003, SL allows its Residents to interact with each other socially and commercially. In its early days, SL’s appeal arguably was geared toward gaming and porno peeks, but its increasing use by educators and business for legitimate purposes is changing the culture. Early adopters such as IBM, GM, Toyota, Dell, and American Apparel generate revenue by selling products to Second Life Residents, or avatars—representatives of the Real Life (RL) puppet masters pulling the strings.
Several universities offer courses on their SL campuses and entrepreneurs are making money selling SL real estate, while developers charge to develop and furnish buildings on virtual land.
The possibilities in the virtual world parallel those in the real world, albeit with different sensory results. You can consume steak, lobster and a lot of liquor at an SL table, but your RL body won’t get the full effect—yet. For now, SL is to the metaverse what Earth is to the universe—the largest inhabited virtual world out there so far.
While meeting face to face in the real world is the standard for meetings now and in the foreseeable future, gatherings in virtual worlds are set to transform electronic get-togethers while presenting myriad educational opportunities for meeting planners and other real world inhabitants.
“Second Life represents a new direction in virtual meetings,” says Jeffrey W. Rasco, CMP, president of Wimberley, Texas-based Attendee Management. “The open source nature [content created entirely by its residents] of SL gives meeting planners an opportunity they might never have in RL, the ability to create perfect environments for their meetings. Planners can create an entire island for the meeting—even in the shape of the company’s logo—for virtual pennies.
“Gone are the constraints on space, weather shifts and travel difficulties,” Rasco continues. “In fact, virtual attendees can fly under their own power or teleport themselves to the event and its functions.”
Metaverse Meetings Pioneers
Exciting metaverse possibilities are emerging for the meetings industry. At the same time groups are learning to use 2-D social media (i.e. MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook) to achieve objectives like enlarging attendance at RL meetings, the 3-D virtual world offers even more options, mostly untapped.
Leading the industry parade into virtual exploration is Dan Parks, president of Corporate Planners Unlimited (CPU), along with his creative team. Parks acquired land in SL and built both the 16-room MeCo (The Meetings Community) Mansion and Virtualis Convention Center, for use by CPU clients and meetings industry people. The MeCo Mansion’s elegant design promotes informal chats, networking and casual presentations.
Corbin Ball, CSP, CMP, MA, delivered the first MeCo industry event last fall, titled “Web 2.0 and Technology Trends,” to about 40 attending avatars. “Wednesday Water Cooler Chats” are also on the Mansion’s docket.
Gloria Nelson, CSEP, chief experience officer for Gloria Nelson Event Design and a member of Parks’ SL team, Bonnie Wallsh, CMP, CMM, and Marianne McNulty, CMP, are launching a “CMP Boot Camp” in early 2008. Nelson presented a MeCo event design session in January.
The more than 150 colleges and universities already in Second Life influenced Parks to move forward with Virtualis. The center functions like its RL counterparts, with an exhibit hall, breakout spaces and a ballroom.
“When our society is full of travel security and cost issues, this is the optimum time to expand into the safe and exciting new world of Virtualis,” Parks contends. “Virtual tech is not new to our younger generation, and the transition of learning modules into the SL setting will be natural and expected.”
Yet both Parks and Nelson acknowledged the virtual learning curve they are scaling with both projects.
“We are attempting to learn how to best utilize the Mansion and be mindful of time changes with ‘Right and Left Coast’ attendees,” Nelson says. “Some companies prohibit the access of SL through their IT departments, so we’re in our ‘learning curve’ as we move initiatives forward.”
Parks says the whole thing could go sideways in a week, but people in high-tech places are tackling the challenges.
“Google is working on a 2-D version of SL,” Parks says, “a business-only application with no social aspects, so as to eliminate some of the negative aspects of SL.”
Other Worlds
Outside SL, others are using virtual technology they say offers a more business-friendly culture.
Malcolm Lotzof, CEO of Chicago-based InXpo, a creator of virtual trade shows and other events, says his company mounts events on privately branded environments.
“Second Life is tough to sell to business people,” Lotzof says, “because you can do a presentation there and some avatar can run across the stage with no clothes on—or you can make a wrong turn and end up in the red light district. So what we offer is something for those who are looking to interact with prospects, customers or employees in a more business-friendly environment.”
John Walber, CSTP, CEO of Philadelphia-based Learning Times, a provider of conferences, webcasts and other online events, conducts client programs on Squirrel Island in SL and QWAQ, a 3-D platform aimed at creating standalone worlds over which administrators have control. Some Learning Times projects are what Walber calls “hybrid conferences” in which virtual tech is integrated with RL gatherings, and people in the face-to-face conference interact with people online.
“In Second Life, there’s a lot of emphasis on how your avatar looks—everyone is 28 and beautiful,” Walber notes. “But QWAQ avatars look more like a Lego person. The program is also more accessible and easier to use right from the beginning.”
Are virtual worlds of any kind gaining anything approaching acceptance by business people? Lotzof says his company did about 40 trade shows in 2006 and 120 in 2007.
“We expect to do three times that in 2008, because people are more accepting now and they’re getting off the fence with this. And the technology is getting better. When we started with 3-D graphics the trade shows looked like Web pages, but now we can replicate McCormick Place in Chicago, the Strip in Las Vegas and many other worlds.”
Parks foresees the day when event RFPs will ask about experience with virtual programs—those totally in the cyber world—and some that integrate the metaverse and the universe. When those begin to come across the wires, he contends, the industry will certainly begin to get into the virtual swim.
Inside informationweek.com’s blog, Andy Bannister, managing director of Hippo Technologies, a U.K. company based wholly within SL that provides tools for virtual world applications, offered his observation about the future of virtual world business operations.
“I certainly see SL as a valuable business tool, albeit one in its early stages with lots of issues that require ironing out,” Bannister says. “I am, however, constantly reminded of the early days of the 2-D Web, back in, say, the early 1990s, when the few early adopters were considered to be wasting their time on something that would never catch on…”
