Business

Those of you I hang with in Second Life know that I met Hammer at Toby’s Juke Joint, so it’s a little special to us. And you all know I blogged Toby’s pretty heavily lately. I get a rash if I go too long without the blues, and Hammer named his RL dog after B.B. King’s guitar. So the blues has been the backdrop to our growing relationship.

Dancing to the blues on the deck at home

Now Toby’s is pretty much my regular hang-out (when I manage to pry myself away from the beach house), and since we met there a few weeks back, Hammer and I tend to pop back fairly often. It’s comfortable and feels like home to us.

This has been a difficult week real life and today was the most difficult of all. So I was not amused when I walked into Toby’s tonight, and who was there but my ex and his GF. I know he reads this blog; he knows I hang there. And I know he completely learned about Toby’s Juke Joint from this blog, because he has never, so help me, had an original idea on anyplace to go in Second Life. Ever.

Space Park in Second Life

So needless to say, I didn’t stay. I went out RL for a few hours (I’m a firm believer in the time-honored Friday happy hour tradition), and met Hammer back at the beach house once I was in a decidedly better humor. He wanted to stop by Savoy Jazz Club, which we did, but the dance balls were kind of out of sync. So we did a bit of shopping, and then we decided to head out to the Inspire Space Park, as he hadn’t seen it yet.

If you have not been to the Space Park, cancel all your other Second Life plans and GO. It is beautiful, spiritual and relaxing. We started out having a glass of wine, and could have been happy just sitting there lazily chatting and watching the shooting stars. You see, the sky changes, and you can never be sure what you will see next.

Floating weightless above the Space Park

We walked across some small asteroids to what appeared to be a dance floor. But when we clicked the dance ball, we floated off into space… all very 2001 Space Odyssey.

After awhile, it was time to float back down. I thought a bit of meditation might be in order. I was quite amazed at the calming effect of SL mediation as the platform I sat on slowly rotated among the heavens. The animations were familiar to me, as they are similar (though certainly not exact) to prayer rituals I have practiced so many times before at Hindu temples over the years RL in Bali.  Hammer was feeling a bit under the weather with a stomach bug RL, poor dear, and he said it made him feel better too.

Obviously, I wasn't expecting to be meditating when I put on this skirt!

Hammer and I communing with the universe

While we were chanting, I got a message from Tom Divisadero about an Ozzy concert over at Wild Hogs on the Full Throttle sim, so we did a complete about-face (the sublime to the ridiculous) and headed on over. This is SL at its best perhaps; a pulsating slate for artistry of all types. That, and the fact that Second Life allows us the opportunity to switch gears and attitudes at the speed of light.

Ohhhhmmmmmm

So I guess it is good to get out of your rut, even if you’re forced out of it.  Outer space, even when virtual, can make human idiocies seem small.

Are we turning to virtual worlds as our real life economy slides into recession? Read this Reuters update on the upswing in the Second Life economy.

We hear a lot of talk that Second Life is one of the pioneers in the next phase, the 3D Web. Web 3.0 is envisioned as an extension of Web 2.0, which has spawned vibrant growth in social interaction and community growth. The 3D Web of the future, as BusinessWeek phrases it, may be ” slicker, more realistic, more interactive and social than anything we experience today through the Web browser”. We are just now envisioning how businesses, educational institutions, non-profits and communities might interact in this future web environment.

On the other side are the naysayers who seem to think that Second Life is just a game destination filled with sex and gambling, and not part of a movement of any importance whatsoever. (Well, we all know that SL gambling is under cover these days, but not eradicated.) This, despite evidence that goes beyond subjective anecdotes, evidence that shows people spend most of their time in Second Life shopping and just socializing. For example, a Reuters survey of 657 Second Life residents in 2007 before casinos were banned from SL showed that only 13.6 percent said they “often” practice cybersex, and only 2.2 percent patronized casinos regularly.

But with big brand businesses, universities and conferences holding real time events in Second Life, it’s exciting to watch. Just this week in the Second Life Reuters Auditorium, the interested could sit in on live interviews from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. We heard Richard Edelman, president and CEO of the world’s largest public relations firm, Martin Sorrell, CEO of the world’s second-largest advertising and marketing company, Robert Scoble, well-known tech geek blogger, Linden Labs CEO Phillip Rosedale and others. (Course, Scoble was banned from SL last year for letting his 12 year old son play in Second Life with him, but then he was banned from FaceBook at the beginning of the month too… but I digress.) Here you can see a bit of turn-around as Robert Scoble interviews Phillip Rosedale, which he sent as a live feed via qik.

A lot of real life businesses are in Second Life, but to a large degree as an effort to position themselves as on the edge, rather than due to any expectations of driving immediate sales. I for one would love to hold conferences in Second Life for my real life clients, but it’s still a bit early to use Second Life to market to consumers not already Second Life residents or to use Second Life as a replacement for WebEx. However, as the technology becomes more stable, and Second Life and similar, future applications become easier to use, it will be fascinating to watch how the Web evolves.

Not long ago people were rolling their eyes at social media sites like YouTube, FaceBook and Twitter. (Well, let’s face it, businesses are still figuring out how to interact with their customers in this new world of consumer generated content and social networking.) But like today’s Internet (and any other media format you want to name for that matter), the future Web is bound to run the gamut of human interests - and savvy entrepreneurs will find opportunities around all of them.

I had been planning to write a long dissertation this week about the future impact of the 3D Web on business. This is in no small part due to the fact that Sapphire has been nagging me relentlessly to start doing my part as the business correspondent. Of course, Sapphire and Shameless both always fall asleep whenever I discuss business. They’re such light weights!

But it’s two days before Christmas, and business will have to wait. I am filled with the holiday spirit, and I’m off to buy party supplies and gifts! Happy Holidays everyone! And, hey, Sapphire, your mother wears army boots!