So, I was on a business panel at the Second Life Community Convention (Amanda captured some of the discussion on the Second Life blog, although it has a sort of diluted crowd-sourced feel to it) and the question came up: “what’s the biggest hurdle to adoption of virtual worlds by business”.
My immediate gut response was – “oh, you’re a cartoon character” which is that reaction you get when you set up the idea of 3D immersive environments and the person is nodding and you seem to have them where you want them and then maybe you show a screen shot or log-in or whatever and they just don’t get it – your avatar isn’t “real”, it’s cartoony, so how can we take it that seriously?
During the panel I attempted to make a larger point, but I’m never very articulate when I don’t have a keyboard glued to my fingers, and the larger points was really a Sales 101 thing: if you’re talking about the application or the technology or what it can do, you’re off on the wrong foot to start. You need to be talking about what it can do for THEM, and you should probably be talking about how it can help them achieve some specific business goal: save the company money, train the sales force better, get them a promotion, manage change, look cooler than the competition, that kind of thing.
But the conversation had me thinking about a broader idea I tossed around a few months ago, and this being San Francisco it seemed like a good place to bring it up again, as the idea was inspired by Harvey Milk. And the idea was a sort of international coming out day for avatars. Or maybe we should call it the First International Meet My Avatar Day or something. And the idea is this: that if we would all ‘come out’ and reveal our avatars, even to one other person, then maybe the broader world will understand how wide-spread this has become, and how it’s not just game geeks sitting in their basements or kids playing with their Wiis but that there are far more people with avatars than you might imagine.
We’re here. We have avatars. Get used to it.
I sort of imagine a Web site where we could post slides and statistics and case studies and machinima – different tools and resources to help explain what an avatar is, how we use them, what they mean to us, which organizations have adopted them.
Then, on one day when maybe the press is there, or at least covers it more broadly, we bring our avatars to work, to school, to our families. I figure in the typical office there’s a few people with avatars but they don’t talk about them. Maybe the person at the desk next to you has a level 60 Palladin in Warcraft; your students have avatars in Club Penguin or wherever; your volunteers hang out in Second Life and go dancing.
Imagine if even 20% of the people with avatars, well, came out. On one day. A sort of network effect conversation. “There was someone in my office who revealed their avatar today and I never would have guessed it”…”Wow, there was someone in my school, same thing”.
See, the articles in the Wall Street Journal and places like that are all well and good. Big company names saving money on travel. (Ugh, I am really hating hating hating the “save money because we’re a glorified WebEx” thing). But it’s someone ELSE’S example. And it’s still removed from our own, um, reality.
So maybe it’s time to reveal our avatars. Come out of the closet with the avatars that mean so much to us. And then share and post about the experience – a sort of single day massive reveal and maybe if we can show the person who sits next to us at work, or in the faculty lounge or wherever that we are your friends, your brothers, your uncles, your colleagues, your staff then we can collectively put a dent in that response: you’re a cartoon character.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Dusan, I love, love, love the idea! In my cubicle at work hangs a picture of my avatar, however, I just noticed it’s not as prominent as it could be, more for my personal enjoyment. That changes now!
Such a pleasure to meet your cartoo… um, carbon self in SF, Dusan! And yes, sadly, while I also loathe the “save money because we’re a glorified WebEx,” I’m guilty of saying it just cause I want to hustle all those newbies into my sphere.
Here are a couple of shots from my office wall:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27180696@N02/3843045344/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27180696@N02/3842256799/
Wow – great photos David!
We need to include outreach to other worlds, I’d think. Pictures like yours to give people ideas on how to ‘promote their avatars’. Maybe do the ‘day’ around the release date of James Cameron’s new movie – (nod to Draxtor for the idea!) –
T-shirts? Slideshare group on the topic? Twitter hash tag?
@Bettina – my carbon self IS an avatar. Or that’s what someone told me at SLCC, that I reminded them of an avatar….must be the prim hair.
And yeah, I do the same thing – it’s an easy-to-explain early ‘win’….but needs to be placed in the larger context – “come in, have a meeting, save some money, but please know that once you have, the real value is in the expanded possibilities for creativity, sharing and community”.
The problem is that the majority of people can open the conversation about introducing their avatar to other people but then lack the ability to continue the conversation from a position of understanding. That means that the intended effect gets lost amongst the sniggers/disbelief/general dismissal of the concept.
I too have some pictures of my avatar pinned up on my office wall, pictures of friends and so on. People ask about them, I explain, they nod and carry on. I don’t evangelise about them (well alright, maybe a little!) I simply leave them there for people to get used to the concept and if anyone asks a question, I try to answer as best I can or direct them towards some of the articles on my blog (http://whenitchanged.blogspot.com/) if they’re interested in learning more.
I think proselytizing avatars, Second Life, and virtual worlds is wrong. Instead, proselytize the work, art, and play you do in virtual worlds.
Don’t talk about the value of doing business in Second Life. Talk about specific companies who are succeeding doing business in SL.
Don’t talk about the value of live music in Second Life. Take them to hear Tamra Sands, Grace McDonnough, or Cylindrian Rutabaga.
Don’t talk about the value of journalism in virtual worlds. Talk about Virtually Speaking or *koff* Copper Robot.
And so on.
Actually you’re on the right track here, but I don’t think we need to do anything.
Think back to 1998 or so: How ridiculous might it have seemed for a commercial to end the now ubiquitous “www.site.com” caption.
These are mundane affectations of the new medium – it’s not a big surprise that the General Population has a little trouble getting used to them at first.
But one day soon, Sandra Bullock (or the 21st century equivalent) will be shown logging into Second Life, or represented by her avatar on TV. The very next day, virtual worlds will become “ordinary”.
Yes that was a reference to the crappy movie “The Net” – while utterly sucky, it exposed the teeming masses of America to the concept that email was a regular thing for regular people. And the next day, everyone had an email address. And not one of them can recall mocking this “new internet thing.”
And that’s how societal adoption works.
I dunno why it didn’t work when Gary Senece did it on CSI. Try again, someone, pls?
JSG – great points. And you’re right, this type of thing has its own sort of rhythm and then one day you wake up (as I did) to discover your mother is asking for lessons on how to get into a virtual world.
Evangelizing avatars isn’t so much the point – but rather to evangelize how many people are using virtual worlds for work, music, play, creativity, etc. The avatar is the proxy for a deeper discussion and the idea behind my proposal wasn’t to show off our avatars per se, but to use the concept as an opening for a discussion about how people are using virtual worlds, the companies and schools already there, the musicians performing, etc.
I sort of imagine a machinima highlights reel that we all put together and share. Or I imagine a teacher being interviewed on CNN about a discussion she had with her class about what it means to be “you” on-line and in virtual worlds.
Meantime yeah – well, the CSI thing might have been it, only problem was that people hardly wanted to recommend the experience to their friends…it was a giant Cisco ad, a puzzle game (and thin one at that), and not the kind of compelling thing you’re going to talk about at the water cooler.
This is all still very new to most people. My avatar streams music and media into my studio. When people see him dancing on the monitor they somehow know its me even though we look nothing alike. Our avatars are much more than just “money saving devices” or “cartoon media players”
First International Meet My Avatar Day…what a fabulous idea.
I have been hard at work getting my academic colleagues (fellow accounting professors) to join me for round table discussions in Second Life every week, and I very much follow Mitch Wagner’s advice–I talk about what we can do in SL, and I don’t talk about avatars at all.
Everyone else does, though, mainly as a way to poke fun. Sometimes it is good natured, often it isn’t. But they join us anyway, because we are providing real value. The avatars provide some of the value too, but I don’t emphasize that.
Actually, I think this would be a great thing if we did it out of second life, but as a fundraiser thing for some charity (RFL?) and include all kinds of worlds. Give people a page for their RL self and their avatar, and a “thermometer” for their fundraising for a charity.
“Avatars in SL have raised US$X for Relay for Life over the last Y years. Today, we challenge every person on the net to come out and show us *your* avatar, and get your real life and virtual friends to help out…”
It could be awesome publicity not only for SL, but for the respectability of legit folks who don’t live in their mom’s basements who game in various worlds, whether MMOs, virtual worlds, pseudonymous blogging, twitter, whatever!
And yes, I’ll help if we want to do it, but I don’t want to take point!
@Mitch – P.S. your lack of mention of Metanomics means we’ll have to demote you from Gold Correspondent to um Copper.
I really like the idea of tying the event to a charitable drive of some sort. It should be a cause that would appeal to the mainstream folks that you have indicated we are trying to reach.
From another angle, what about having our avatar selves participate in mainstream social networking sites such as Facebook? Might it tweak someone’s interest when they find that 25% of their “friends” are avatars and that they are contributing to the network in a knowledgeable, creative, and supportive manner. Just a thought…
Metanomics goes without saying!
I don’t hide the fact that I like VRs and I have avatars. But it isn’t something I evangelize.
And truthfully people’s interest in avatars are akin to their interest in the mole growing on someone’s backend. Which means not at all.
There has to be something else that will catch people’s passion and jumpstart VRs. It just isn’t ready yet. And it certainly isn’t customizing avatars.
I strongly recommend sharing with people in your world. I’m quite open about the fact I participate in the second life community and as a result many people from my real world have joined second life – some as occasional tourists, some who are now very involved in the community.
I don’t think it was bravery on my part, I am just so used to sharing anything I’m enthusiastic about with friends, family and colleagues and I’m not particularly good at compartmentalising.
All of my immediate family have accounts – my mum commented how you could see right down my top.
A number of friends and colleagues have accounts – of course there are those with no interest and those who don’t want to explore themselves but who are curious and ask lots of questions.
I always offer to show friends and colleagues around to help them get used to the environment and generally I give them some Lindens to get started.
Depending on whom I’m talking to I’ll talk more about building/creating or the art community or the education community; the ability to sell; the business community; the not for profit or the gaming components.
I don’t give my avatar name away to everyone but if they join, I’ll tell them who I am in world. Most of my close friends and family know my avatar name whether they are inSL or not.
I can’t imagine having to keep it all a big unspoken secret… but then again, that’s the appeal for some people – having a world where they can escape.
I do admit when people first join, if they are enthusiastic, it can be quite a time drain. It’s useful to have some ground rules or times or else and alt they don’t know about!!
I like the concept of a coming out day. It is something different and innovative. I also agree that the avatar is just a virtual representation and that an explanation of what the avatar does in-world is crucial to getting the message out in a more concise and clear manner. I’m sure when email first started; people were hesitant to make the move with natural fears such as privacy and technology. Eventually those fears were replaced with a need to embrace this technology.
Now we have the metaverse, virtual worlds, where we are seeing a vast array of uses such as teaching, learning, building, meeting, and gaming. Second Life has been featured in shows such as CSI: NY and Law & Order: SVU but mainly as a gaming platform or a socializing spot. This misconception greatly hampers our ability to demonstrate the many other things you are able to do there.
As far as my avatar is concerned, I have shared its existence with some colleagues and friends though not all have been receptive to it. Even though I explain the many uses of SL, some see it as a game and nothing more and others have little but a passing interest in it. My use of SL is mostly as an MMORPG as well as for my blog and my writings for in-world magazines.
As far as using Facebook as a medium for promotion, I’m not sure about how long that would last. They have had a long standing policy of deleting profiles they deem not real, among those, the profiles of SL avatars. While it is a great social medium, I have yet to decide whether I want to join my first life profile with my Second Life profile publicly. As Moggs said, having alts is a great way to maintain privacy from acquaintances but I still ponder transitioning to a merger of both profiles.
Dusan, as always, your take on these events and your willingness to share is so helpful. I think there are two valuable threads here, first, a “reveal” day for a specific purpose and second, an “under-sell” theme which really does help people to not be overwhelmed by this incredible shift in how we can relate to one another. I am so looking forward to you talking more about this at this next Thursday’s Metanomics Community Forum, (27August2009, noonSLT.) Should be a lively discussion!
Who does not make a distinction between friends/family and business relationships? Those close to me know I am Orchid in SL, who mostly relaxes inworld. My landless alt is the avatar introduced to rl strangers and to link SL- First Life professional activities. The take home learning about avatars is that how you look in any world really isn’t at core the essential point. I believe that displayed visible skin, shape, etc. will become a blue, purple, green color preference sort of distinction, from the better/ worse one, now less often directly expressed but present none the less. We’re just learning it faster inworld. Some differences really don’t matter. Someday folks won’t flinch at all at the concept: yes, that’s my/your signature… yes, that’s my/your avatar and move forward. Delighted to have met those I did at SLCC09.
I think when someday the avatar is more tied to our own identity this will be easier and VW’s and avatars will be more accepted. Right now a huge percentage of SL’ers would never disclose their RL selves and use sl as immersive life substitution rather than augmenting who they are in RL. It’s part of the SL culture, and it turns a lot of people off.
When we can get over the “make a new self” phase and move on to avatars tied to RL identities, I think outing avatars will be less necessary because the whole thing will seem less like delusion or fantasy, and more like part of the internet to more people.
[...] Dusan’s blog post. [...]
I wonder what the result would be if one could join a virtual world from a conventional real world oriented social network such as, say, facebook. So you’d start out in the virtual world associated with a real world identity. Possibly your name my be something “Sheila Smith from facebook”, while someone else would be “Madeline Jones from Friendfeed”. One would be able to post messages and screenshots from within the virtual world directly to their social network account, or to their contacts in the social network. Since this would be an avatar publicly connected with one’s real world identity, it might not be the one you’d use to explore those sides of one’s self that one doesn’t want made public, so you’d have another avatar to be your private virtual world id.
[...] metrics on number of views, mentions, and breakdown by territory. – Execute my brilliant “Bring Your Avatar to Work Day” idea. [...]