And a final note – almost every conversation included a discussion of avatars….I was talking with very serious professor and senior VP level corporate types, and all of them ended up saying something along the lines of – “oh! and we could have cool avatars, or we could be robots or dragons or something”….so I’m still convinced that trying to tame down stuff too much doesn’t make sense when you see the light go off on how much fun and how engaging this can be and how that’s a business BENEFIT.

Work avatars? Meh.

Fine, include them. But have some cool AV options once you’ve figured out how to walk around.

You asked the following:

I’m not entirely sure I know what you mean by definition, it makes it sound like SL needs to have a single statement describing what it actually is, and good luck with that. But yes, it needs definition on channels, maybe…education, enterprise, industry segments, whatever.

My thoughts:

There is never one single definition, we do though need clear articulation; clear market led “solutions” propositions. This can cover sectors, but the vital things is that this all stems from “solutions”. Currently, there is an emphasis on the technology/platform.

The clear market leader for 2010, should be B2B:

The B2B market has clear ROI and tangible returns. This has been proven, especially in this era of reduced budgets, restricted travel arrangements and the need to work more intelligently.

This is something we both know is clearly achievable and being delivered via virtual worlds. Something we’re both experiencing via Immersive Workspaces.

We also know from Gartner and GigaOmPro that the potential market revenue is in the billions.

Justin

Developers/ Designers – they must create their own professional groups, if beholdant to tool makers and hypsters of a web1.0/ 2.0/ 3.0 whatever,theyll never have a profession to offer to clients in a fair way. Itll all be just more of the same..

I was there at Macworlds in the late 80s.– today it’s a luggage show for ipods.:) nothings left for now:)

Unity is where LL was in 2003. where they go from here is all up to HOW and HOW many can make business from the tools sold/licensed. Not fan based communities built;)

anyhow.

As to open sims, time will tell, I have spent the last months now setting up in ReactionGrid. Posting and writing with maxping mag.. etc…got a full sim of commercial designs ready.

now to see if “web3d 2010″ is a business , a profession, or a cult.;)

c3

Mo – there’s an elite?

Cube – yes on dreams, but there are a lot of people trying to do a lot of things in SL and it would be nice to be able to share notes in a practical way. (OMG, did I just say practical! Promote me in the ranks of ThinkBalm please).

And Justin – great comments. This history is good to keep in mind. I do believe that the next phase here is about outreach to larger communities – we’re trying to do that on our end…healthcare conferences, that kind of thing. But that’s more about marketing maybe than being a ‘developer’ which, as you point out, could leverage off the infrastructure being created for the Gold Provider FIC. Um, program.

I’m not entirely sure I know what you mean by definition, it makes it sound like SL needs to have a single statement describing what it actually is, and good luck with that. But yes, it needs definition on channels, maybe…education, enterprise, industry segments, whatever.

Good discussion to be held at a … developers conference!

Oh – and finally, the only way the idea would work at all is if the Lab was willing to properly support it, staff it, present at it, lead workshops, and attend the other workshops as well.

I was totally shocked that SLCC, which was held in the Lab’s backyard, seemed to have maybe 15 people from the Lab itself….totally baffling. I thought the idea with holding it in San Fran was to be able to interact more with the Lab, meaning beyond the Luau. I think they were trying to be respectful of it being a ‘community convention’ but it felt under-attended from their end.

Philip and M were there for a day, I think. Tom was camping in Sedona or something until his keynote. But whatever – maybe it wasn’t the right venue or something.

It is critical we hear firsthand the struggles and successes our resellers & developers are having. The offerings we have for them will always be a reflection of their feedback and especially those who would travel to see us.

Our road map even includes Unity3D & Opensimulator integration though not until 2010. Our R&D staff is very excited to be working towards mobile meeting spaces in particular Iphone & Ipod Touch technologies.

Our partners are already chomping at the bit to get some easy to use templates we’re designing in Unity3D this year based on their ideas & our own. To meet these friends in person will be a treat next year.

We also will attend Unity3D conferences next year to touch base with the developers of the platform WE are investing so much time and money into. I would expect they would want to engage the community like this. Less IRC and more face to face and or virtual meets, occasionally face to face is a good thing

I think SL could also benefit from the same kind of event especially for those who develop applications on top of it. This is exactly one of the strengths Microsoft has shown towards its developer community even using virtual worlds to do so with SL and now ReactionGrid.

Virtual worlds need to move in the direction of letting many more content or technology development firms feel like this is a tool to create upon so choice becomes greater than it is now and an industry blossoms like Flash, Silverlight & more (who hold fantastic live and virtual events).

My observations:

The first SLCC conventions enabled the original pioneers to come together and share experiences in the real world. The sheer novelty of the meet up was enough of a glue to hold it all together.

We even sponsored, which was a loss leader. As we felt it was important and vital to work within the community; we came from SL, the first company to create and identify SL as a commercial platform in 2003. RRR was the first of a 250+ developers now in SL, six years later we’re still here and more enthusiastic about the potential of Second Life.

By the time Chicago 2007 came around, it had lost direction. Each track was it’s own convention, with arguably the Education track the strongest.

So we stopped supporting the SLCC in 2007, for the reason of its lack of direction, management and how it handled sponsors. Second Life by its very nature is arguably a “Public Park”, therefore it’s rules and interactions are very different and unique. The entry points are not defined and the terminology is skewed.

Second Life is a game that moves as you play: The Second Life of 2003 – 2004 -2005 – 2006 – 2007 – 2008 – 2009 is a story of 7 parts: each year a new epoch of change, growth and un/focus.

As we enter 2010, this will change will bring about a more defined set of entry points:

EDUCATION – second life and privately managed entry points

ENTERTAINMENT – P2P content creators, defined by Xtsreet and Second Life.com

ENTERPRISE – (b2b) privately managed solutions, delivered by the SL develop community

With education and enterprise a hybrid of managed privately hosted environments and “code name: Nebraska” behind-the-firewall solutions. Entertainment’s front door with be via the traditional Second Life.com experience.

These defined entry points – I believe greatest epoch change since 2003 – will give us all the opportunity to focus and build relevant experiences. This is arguably why the media still has trouble categorising Second Life. Some of the press still see Second Life as a “story” from 2006-2007, with little to no definition beyond Google researched news threads. As we know, it’s not that black and white. Hence why I think 2010 will be the tipping-point. Definition creates Clarity*.

Beyond the SL developer community, we need to crossover from “niche conventions” and take this into the mainstream clients/sales/development conference circuit. Virtual Worlds are coming of age as a business tool; we’re seeing real ROI and real tangible benefits. The longer we hide this in the wilderness, the longer it will take to adopt. The current “niche conventions” are peer-to-peer meet ups, with no purpose other than showcasing platforms.

Success will come from proving to the market that these “platforms” have relevant and developed “solutions” for sector specific business use and challenges. This is the reason we created Immersive Workspaces, a complete solution for the collaboration and virtual business development.

The Entertainment entry point is the world of the fantastic designers, artists and artisans who create the rich tapestry of content and ideas in Second Life.com They need a celebration and party once a year, with the opportunity to network and attend workshops. Linden Lab can use these sessions as a “listen and learn” with the community. This would also be a great place for Adobe or Autodesk to run master classes.

Education needs it’s own convention, maybe again within the established Education conference circuit? I will leave the educators to answer this one, as they do it well and with gusto.

Justin Bovington – CEO – Rivers Run Red the creators of Immersive Workspaces

*This is a contentious statement, one though I feel needs to be said. If Second Life delivers what I think it can in 2010, it will be “game over” for the majority of the other vendors/platforms. Especially the ones that leverage off a similiar immersive experience.

The opportunity is for the developer community to be part of conferences that are focused. I believe this is being handled well by the new Gold Solution Provider category, created by Glenn Linden and his excellent team. This is manifesting as in-world conferences; the recent one was excellent and showcased the power of virtual conferences as a credible alternative to physical meetings.