Second Life morphs into first-rate communication tool

If you think Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com/) is just a haven for people who don't like their real lives, you might want to think again. More than a utopia, this supplemental online universe is becoming part of many companies' communication systems - and it might not be long before people at your workplace come looking for advice on a Second Life strategy.Born of San Francisco's Linden Research Inc. (a.k.a. "Linden Labs"), Second Life is a virtual phenomenon - literally. People access it via their PCs and broadband Internet connections. Users don "avatars" - digital representations of themselves - to interact with others in the 3D system. They can talk to each other via the chat function built into the Second Life client. Users can dress their avatars in any manner. Avatars can fly, do back flips...even buy things - virtual cars to drive around the Second Life lands, unreal cellphones as fashion accessories, digital vending machines for...well, whatever. Name it, and chances are someone has designed, or will design, a version of it for Second Life.This virtual world even has its own economy and private ownership of property. The system's currency, known as a Linden Dollar, was trading for approximately 260 per US$1 recently. The virtual buck is tied to the greenback.On the surface, this seems a fantasy -a way for people to escape their boring, work-a-day lives and pretend they're someone else, somewhere else, with others who may or may not be who they say they are; in other words, an inexpensive, 3D chat room thrill.But that's not the whole story. People have also found ways of making Second Life part of the real world's fabric, in thoughtful ways. The Alzheimer Society of Ontario was nominated for a Canadian New Media Award for its Second Life spot, where the organization exhibits photos of people living with the disease. It's an interactive signpost for efforts to find a cure, and a reminder of those who have trouble remembering things for themselves. Cisco Systems Inc. holds user-group meetings in Second Life. The company plans to use it to aid enterprise network configurations.Telus Corp. has integrated Second Life into its marketing mix. The telco opened a virtual boutique selling phones in pixel form last year, and according to a spokeswoman, various business managers at the BC communication service provider are curious about using the digital universe to support other endeavours.As Second Life cracks the geek ceiling and makes its way into mainstream headlines - Time Magazine recently wrote about it - eventually one of your organization's C-suite representatives is bound to come calling for Second Life insight. So, what are you going to say? Get a load of other companies' Second Life experiences for some clues.The Conference BoardOver the phone, Edward Roche sounds excited. The director of scientific intelligence at Barraclough Ltd., a business advisory firm in New York, he's organizing a Second Life meeting for The Conference Board Inc., a corporate consultancy. Scheduled for June 15, the gathering will bring together technologists, lawyers, journalists and various Second Life observers to discuss the system's future. Some of the meeting will occur in the real world, but some of it will happen inside Second Life itself.There are two reasons for the meeting, Roche explains. "One is to explore the potential of the new technology. The second reason is to make it possible to get participation from people around the world who otherwise could not travel in person to the meeting....You could have a teleconference or a webinar, but in those situations, it's not quite as interactive."The event's scope is wide. "We're looking at emerging applications like training, customer service, buying and selling," Roche says. He figures 20 to 30 people will be involved in the digital part of the meeting, which will be held on IBM Corp.'s campus in Second Life. "We're looking at technology issues, such as what it takes to build these things....What sorts of system-interfaces are used? What type of network issues are there? What development methodologies are there? "And then we have a fairly robust panel looking at...intellectual property issues, issues around contracts and enforceability," Roche says, adding that legalities are a big concern. The Linden Dollar, after all, stands for a genuine currency, the US dollar. But is the L$ real?"All of the traditional relationships of property ownership, contracts, payments and responsibility exist in virtual worlds, and need to be enforced," Roche says. "But at the same time, virtual worlds are virtual. They're not really there....The more you look at the legal issues, the stranger it gets."But the potential seems great. Some researchers are considering Second Life as a new way to help people who are severely handicapped to interact with others, Roche says. At least one group is already using Second Life as an interaction tool.Cisco's user groupOne early May afternoon, avatars begin to appear at Cisco's Second Life amphitheatre for a meeting. The topic: security. Cisco reps - or digital versions of Cisco reps - lead the small crowd, comprising network and IT managers, through a slide presentation describing certain Cisco network-security initiatives and investments. The discussion leader's words appear inside chat bubbles at the bottom of the computer screen. Questions and comments from the audience appear there, too.This is just one aspect of Cisco's Second Life presence. According to Christian Renaud, San Jose CA-based chief architect of networked virtual environments at the Cisco Technology Center - Cisco's technology incubation arm - the company plans to go even further."We built a connected home with all of our consumer products from Scientific Atlanta and Linksys, so people can see where the products go, or where they could be deployed," he says, adding that he was skeptical at first. "It turns out that's one of the most popular places, as far as static content is concerned. It was such a powerful tool that we've been asked repeatedly about a connected enterprise and a connected service provider....That's something we're working on over the next month, two months. We're shooting for an interactive network so you can see the ramifications of turning on firewalls, turning them off, with some animation."Options abound. "How quickly can I convene a birds-of-a-feather session, or a focus group, or a technical advisory board?" Renaud posits. "What if I held one every Friday? I could have a sort of rolling focus group."Meanwhile, a Canadian telco is focusing some of its marketing efforts on Second Life.Telus' Second Life store"We created virtual cellphones," says Tami Gillespie, Telus' direct response manager in Vancouver. The firm sells the devices to avatars in Second Life, positioning the sub-real handsets as both fashion accessories and useful tools. "They provide ‘away' modes," Gillespie explains. "When you're in main chat, you can show that you're on a real phone call, or stuck in instant messaging, or away from the keyboard." Presence meets virtual reality.The phones range from free-of-charge to L$500. The more expensive models let users send emails from inside Second Life."We were looking for some unique online media," Gillespie says. "Everybody was getting into MySpace and such. I have an online gaming background, and I'd been on Second Life for a while. I brought that idea forward to the team, and everyone really liked the idea of getting Telus in there."But it's tough to say where Telus will go next, having established a beachhead. "We're watching it quite closely," Gillespie says. "I've had business groups (in Telus) come forward and ask questions about Second Life, just to check it out."Second Life raises many questions. For instance, could virtual worlds supplant established communication systems? After all, Second Life supports quick, rich access to other people.But no one thinks it will unseat phone calls, emails, video conferences - or erase the need for face-to-face meetings. "There's nothing like being able to read body language - I don't think Second Life can replace that," Gillespie says.Renaud agrees. "If I'm going to close a million-dollar deal, I'm probably going to want to look them in the eye."But Second Life might provide the kind of public interaction largely missing from modern life. "Video conferencing, email and this phone call...assume a prior knowledge of each other, and we have co-ordinates of where to meet," Renaud says. "But what if we didn't know each other? What if I didn't even know you existed, and that you had interest in this subject? Where would we bump into each other to find that out? We might meet at a tradeshow, or some sort of birds-of-a-feather event. But that's once a year. Maybe we would collide, maybe we won't. In Second Life, I have people coming up to me multiple times a day, saying, ‘Hi, are you a Cisco guy? Good, because I have a few questions.'"Other worldsSecond Life certainly isn't the only virtual reality online. Others, such as the World of Warcraft (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/) and Entropia Universe (http://www.entropiauniverse.com/) immerse players in fantasies that, nonetheless, reflect real life. "You have people getting married, and having funerals, and having birthday parties in Warcraft," notes Renaud.Eric Rice, a new media producer known as a Second Life authority, figures other corporations could come to provide still more virtual options. "There are like 11 competitors," he says over the phone from Morgan Hill CA. "You have companies like EA (Electronic Arts Inc.), Atari, Sony, Microsoft and Google. They have all the pieces - Google especially. They've been making some very interesting purchases lately. A Google metaverse is not an if; I think it's a when."But Second Life is unique, says Gillespie from Telus. "The reason it's getting a lot of attention is it's consumer generated. Everything in there is built and created by the residents....In the other ones, the content is controlled. Everything is built by the developer."Still, the Second Life-style interface could flourish outside of Linden Labs. "I don't think it'll just be Second Life," she says. "I think it'll be on the Web."So what should your organization do to prepare? First, consider reasons for adopting a Second Life strategy in the first place. Is it a matter of customer contact, as it is for Telus? If so, Rice suggests making your stake as interactive as possible. "Reuters has their little news displays you can put on a wall or have free-standing," he says. "It's up to the users to put them wherever they want. I see Reuters stuff all over the place. They let their thing exist out and about."Connections are key, says Cisco's Renaud. "You could take static Web content, repurpose it and put it in a 3D environment like Second Life. But I don't know why you would. Second Life is useful for person-to-person interactions and collaboration."But are your company's PCs powerful enough to run the Second Life client? "You have to have the proper video card, something gaming-calibre," Gillespie says. "The other issue is the usability," she says, pointing out that new users sometimes have trouble navigating.The Conference Board's Second Life meeting is part of a plan to follow the virtual world's progress. "We're going to try to anticipate the research agenda for this area from 2007 to 2015," Roche says.He figures this is just the beginning. "What you're seeing is the Pong version."You're wearing that?If clothes make the man in the real world, do they do the same in virtual reality?That's one of the issues of operating inside virtual worlds such as Second Life. Users can dress any way they please. But perhaps it's not the best idea to arrive at a business meeting wearing a purple dragon outfit and carrying a lightsaber."If you're going to the farmer's market with your children on Saturday morning, you're probably wearing a pair of shorts and a baseball cap," notes Cisco's Renaud. "If you're going to meet a Wall Street firm in New York, you're probably wearing a suit." It's the same in Second Life: dress appropriately.Social taboos are still in place, even if the place isn't really a place in the first place. "From my own experience in business meetings, people tend to put on a business suit and sit at a virtual table and hold what looks like a regular meeting in a bank," says Roche from Barraclough. "People act the way they do in real life."But there are exceptions. "One of the best user-group members we have is a cat...a big, furry black and white cat with a purple collar," says Renaud. "During one of our press events, we had an avatar show up that looked like a 20-foot-tall Kool-Aid guy. One blogger shows up as a penguin."I suspect corporate types will always come in as human and alter our apparel," Renaud says. "However, I certainly hope genetic diversity doesn't go away in Second Life."Another issue has to do with getting around Second Life. As Telus' Gillespie says, it's tough at first. "It does take a while to figure out how to navigate."Cut to the Cisco user-group meeting we attended in Second Life in mid-May: the presentation is rolling along, when all of a sudden it's interrupted when an avatar appears out of nowhere and flies into the PowerPoint slides. His digital legs kick frantically as he's pressed against the presentation screen. This goes on for a few minutes, as if the user were distracted in real life while his avatar makes a fool of himself. Eventually he disappears.Second Life throws up certain barriers. For instance, the main communication tool - message chat - isn't always conducive to effective dialogue. Back in the Cisco user-group meeting, the presenter's words came slowly as he typed them into the limited-character chat field. His talk lasted longer in Second Life than it would have done in the real world, because he could only get so many words out at a time.The problems suggest improvements are needed - either from within Linden Labs, or from competitive platforms. And no one is discounting the idea that Second Life-type features might find their way into other interactive systems."I'd rather play in a Second Life environment powered by my Xbox," notes Rice. "That would be an epic experience. No lag."

Second Life morphs into first-rate communication tool

News | 05/17/2007 4:00 am EDT

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