Hashtag. Why Simulcast a Shareholder Meeting Into Second Life? What you're watching in this video is a recent shareholder meeting of NIC, a 600 employee-strong, Kansas-based provider of eGovernment web portals, streamed via audio into Second Life, delivered by an avatar representing NIC's CEO Harry Herington, to an audience of ten or so in-world. (In addition to audiences getting the simulcast via the web and speakerphone.) "Our business is based on making information easily available through a variety of communication channels," NIC's Nolan Jones told me via email, so adding a Second Life aspect to the meeting was a natural extension of their in-world activities. "We used a media presentation tool developed by Cranial Tap," for the Powerpoint display, Jones added. "I managed the CEO’s avatar so he could focus on presenting to the live audience. Using the media player while controlling the avatar was extremely easy.
" But is this a cost-effective way of broadcasting a shareholder meeting? Space and Virtual Worlds: Why We’re Not Mainstream « Aporia, or Kaseido’s Quandries. Reading a smart set of predictions (which I happen to disagree with nearly completely) for “next year in virtual worlds,” [EDIT: that should read "the future of," not "next year in'] I was struck clearly by something I’ve long known, but never seen in such a pure form. The technology-advocacy community I came from – space exploration – and the technology-advocacy community I’m active in now – virtual worlds – suffer from the same set of delusions. For nearly a lifetime, space advocates have grappled – largely badly – with the question,”why don’t we have widespread space exploration and settlement?”
Lately, virtual worlds advocates, the excellent Wagner James Au prominent among them, have been asking, “what will it take for virtual worlds to go mainstream?” Both groups see the revolutionary potential of their field, and are largely baffled by the lack of widespread adoption. Let’s look at some of those, and then in a next post, I’ll deal with the specifics of virtual worlds predictions. Anti-Aliased: Virtual worlds as the great equalizer pt. 2 - Massively. Social situations shattered How many times do we have a young player in our guild who act more like a 30-year-old than the 30-year-olds do? How often do we cross cultural boundaries and forget that we're speaking with someone who might be across the world, in a completely different time zone?
To us, they're simply standing in the same room as us, and that puts them in the same place we are. I know that I don't consciously think about where someone lives or who they really are when I meet them in Second Life or Metaplace. I'm too busy chatting with them about shared interests, because obviously if we're meeting one another while standing inside of a fantasy roleplaying simulation, then we both enjoy fantasy roleplaying. This is doubly true when I'm playing something like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XI. In a weird sort of way, virtual worlds humanize us more than the real world is able to.
Beyond that, the experiences we gain from being in virtual worlds do not exist in a vacuum. Pooky Amsterdam on 5 Reasons to Use Second Life as a Media Platform. I use Second Life as the platform upon which to produce, and know like days of yore when Television began live, that this is indeed The Golden Age of the Internet. In these heady days of social media marketing, the very real time MUVE of Second Life is rarely mentioned. Understanding how to use Second Life has more to do with how you use it, and is more complicated than using 140 characters at a time or how to increase the number of people who follow you peripherally. It can be used for very cost – effective, targeted and relevant marketing. It is somewhat of an art form, as advertising is also an art form and has taken years of production experience to develop what I, and my team know. The failure of business to really connect here is due to a lack of understanding of the real marketing potential inherent in Second Life.
Many brands are trying to do that now, jumping in, and using any one of the social media sites such as twitter, facebook, MySpace. Any marketing experiment can fail. What Virtual Events Can Learn From Twitter. Virtual Events - Twitter In 2009, Twitter has taken the world by storm – in fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if Time magazine named Twitter their Person of the Year. In my opinion, Twitter’s success hinges on its simplicity, celebrity (use by celebrities, that is) and portability (users stay connected to the service from nearly anywhere). While virtual events have been around for a few years – they too took the world by storm in 2009 – mostly, the business-to-business world. As we look forward into 2010, here’s what virtual events can learn from Twitter: 140 characters or less – I often find it a challenge to condense my thought into 140 characters – the usual trick is to lean on acronyms (or abridged versions of words) to get under the limit.
The better approach is to be more efficient, using less words to make the same point. And there you have it – adopt these five principles and your virtual event platform may some day be worth $1B as well! Like this: Like Loading... Second Life Claims Social Network Crown - PC World. OK, guys. We get it. Second Life is not a fad. But a rival to social networking sites? We're having a little trouble with that one. An one billion hours in-world, but it also describes a few pieces of information that seem intended to put the 3D virtual world way ahead of the social networking pack in several key areas: "Second Life Residents spend an average of about 100 minutes inworld per visit. "The equivalent of more than US$1 billion has been transacted between Residents in Second Life, who purchase virtual goods and services from one another.
"More than 18 billion minutes of voice chat have been used in Second Lie since voice was introduced in 2007. Of course, virtual economies and voice chat are two areas in which Facebook, MySpace, and most other text/photo oriented social networks are lagging. Where does this leave Linden Lab? New World Newsfeed: Former Detractor Now Describes Second Life As Fun, Innovative, Business Friendly. Publishes business value study « ThinkBalm: Immersive Internet insights & expertise.
Virtual Worlds News: ThinkBalm Conducting New Study On Business Value Of Virtual Worlds. ThinkBalm opened up a new study today on the business value of virtual worlds in the workplace. Sponsored by Altadyn, Forterra Systems, Linden Lab, ProtonMedia, Qwaq, and Tandem Learning, the study will consist of two parts, an anonymous online survey and in-depth interviews. The team at ThinkBalm is now scheduling interviews with people personally involved in using immersive environments for work and has opened up the survey as well–no solution providers, sales, or marketing staff allowed.
One of the major challenges facing virtual worlds for work this year is the lack of publicly available data and information about ROI and hard results. Businesses are looking for ways to cut costs from travel and meetings budgets, but they want to know they're buying in to the right solution as well. The results will be freely available in May, so I encourage you to go ahead and chip in your two cents if you fit the criterion. You can find info about the project here and the survey here .
VirtuaL journalism summit. Media Literacy: Making Sense Of New Technologies And Media by George Siemens - Mar 14 09 - Robin Good's Latest News. eLearning Resources and News learning, networks, knowledge, technology, trends by George Siemens Handbook of Emerging Technologies For Learning Over the last year or so, Peter Tittenberger and I have been working on a Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning. The wiki is now available (will continue to be updated), and if you prefer to read paper, a .pdf version of the handbook is also available.
Course: Virtual Worlds We are offering a new course in our Certificate in Emerging Technologies: Immersive Worlds, Avatars, and Second Lives. Why TV Lost Education has three components that provide value to learners: content, interaction, and accreditation. Content creation / validation has moved sharply (but not exclusively) to learner control... and where still under institutional control, it's often available for free.Interaction with peers and experts outside of universities is not confined to classrooms anymore. Consider the future of news: Snowflake Effect Does anyone believe Gartner? Learn 4 Life » Interview with Peter Twining about the Schome Park Project in Second Life. How do you get people to think completely differently about education and learning? Image Attribution dawn_perry on Flickr CC 2.0 non-commercial license Learn 4 Life exists to document change and innovation in education in this country and the world. The site highlights ideas around ICT that challenge and question the current orthodoxies.
It’s not simply a blog about the latest Web 2.0 tools or teaching techniques although it does encompass those things – the aim of the whole project is to document and disseminate significant pointers to future change in education. Virtual worlds is one area where this really is the case and I make no apology for highlighting any practice involving these environments. Image Attribution Tadson on Flickr CC 2.0 non-commercial license I personally believe that the current models for learning in schools are not fit for purpose and that a lot of the curricula around the current exam based systems are outmoded and, to be honest, anachronistic.
Virtual Worlds. Are Mirror Worlds the answer for greater VW adoption? : Kzero. We all know that virtual worlds catering to KT&T segments are hot property right now – lot’s of worlds already launched and plenty in development. That’s all well and good but I’ve been thinking a lot about us grown-ups and the opportunities and factors influencing greater take-up in the adults space. To be realistic, there’s not actually a whole load of choice available for adults wishing to explore virtual worlds at present and to a high degree Second Life has no competitors (yet). And it’s interesting because all these worlds for kids etc have been (and are) created by adults. We’ve just completed an initial business planning and strategic project for a new kids/tween VW where the creative drive is coming directly from some children – we’re using their vision and ideas. But this made me realise just how under-served older people are in the virtual worlds space.
So what are the issues with current VW’s with older audiences? What’s the business model here? User Created Content in Virtual Worlds and Cultural Diversity by Mira Burri-Nenova. University of Bern Law School - World Trade InstituteJanuary 1, 2009 GOVERNANCE OF DIGITAL GAME ENVIRONMENTS AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY, Christoph Beat Graber and Mira Burri-Nenova, eds., Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010 NCCR Trade Regulation Working Paper No. 2009/1 Abstract: User created content (UCC) has often been celebrated as a grassroots cultural revolution that as a genuine expression of creativity, localism and non-commercialism can arguably also cater for a sustainable culturally diverse environment. The present article puts these claims under scrutiny and in a more differentiated manner seeks to identify the value of UCC within digital game environments considering the constraints upon players and upon creative play that these impose.
The article subsequently tests whether UCC in its dynamic sense of a creative and communicative process can be seen as a channel for the promotion of cultural diversity and if so, what the State should (and could) do about this. Accepted Paper Series. Virtual meetings pros and cons. Second Life convention center shows virtual meeting pros and cons WELCOME: Overview of Virtualis Convention Center in the Second Life virtual world. This is the second of two articles on business uses of 3D virtual online worlds. "They say you should think outside the box," says Dan Parks. "This is outside the box. " That's putting it mildly, since he's working not only outside the box, but also outside the limits of the physical world. Floating through the air in a convention center that Parks built in the Second Life virtual world, his on-screen character is leading tours for businesses seeking new, stimulating, low-cost venues for meetings. Those tours reveal the pros and cons of business meetings in a virtual 3D world.
Speaking through his avatar, DanParks Voom, Parks shows off a jungle-themed brainstorming room, a classroom with floating pod-like seats, and a fancy ballroom that turns into a garage-band nightclub at the flick of a switch. Marketing in virtual worlds overview. What do you mean? There’s other virtual worlds aside from Second Life? Crikeys. Although Second Life virtually became the poster child for virtual worlds in 2007, the more savvy marketers realised they had other options. That’s not to say Second Life isn’t worthy of marketing attention – it is, primarily due to the high numbers of early adopters residing in it. However, just as marketers have multiple options for other media platforms such as TV, print, press….well, just about every other platform, the same can be said for virtual worlds.
You have to choose the world that’s most appropriate for you brand. This decision at present is primarily based on target market age ranges. Second Life caters for individuals in the 25 – 35 age bracket, with an average age of 32. So which brands run campaigns in 2007 outside of Second Life? Here’s a selection: Strategic decisions made by brands in 2007 in terms of metaverse selection were primarily made by age. Read: No 1. No 2. No 3. Virtual world media. About second life media. “We’re looking into expanding into other virtual worlds,” said Leider Stepanov, deputy editor of Second Life tabloid The AvaStar . The move, which Stepanov discussed at the mixed-reality Metaverse 07 European Second Life Conference and Expo, would echo a recent rebranding of the now-defunct Second Life Insider into Massively.com , which covers multiple virtual worlds.
As Massively and the AvaStar aggressively try to build their brands and pursue larger stories, the latest entrant into Second Life’s topsy-turvy media landscape is CNN’s I-Report . Thus far, the CNN site focuses on one paragraph descriptions of Second Life locales accompanied by a SLurl link. In-world media outlets, who have been championing virtual “citizen journalism” for years, say they aren’t impressed. “We are glad CNN is in SL, because they offer training classes on how to write headlines and conform to AP Style ,” said Marvel Ousley, editor-in-chief of the Second Life News Network .