M Linden has capped his first two months at Linden Lab with a stunning overview of his thoughts, observations, a bit of rah rah, and a lot of stats and support for his view that perception and reality are perhaps at odds.
By perception, I suppose he means the resident community of Second Life, which after months, er, years of being burned – bank closures, age verification, grid instability, concurrency limits, and poor communication. The media, on the other hand, which abandoned SL after the failure of the ‘big brands’ to make a go of opening poorly designed stores with poorly designed clothes, have been piling on again, so while the spin has been positive for Second Life in the wider media universe, this has fallen of deaf ears in the SL community who has been long frustrated and needs more than a few lag-free nights to revive the faith.
But all signs are that at least M is paying attention.
I recently argued that Google’s Lively was a play on trying to monetize social media, something that the Facebooks and youTubes and mySpace crowd has had a hard time doing, serving up banners that people ignore and trying to embed themselves in conversations where they don’t belong. M has a similar take on the inability of social media to ‘monetize’ itself, and points out that, well, Second Life actually makes money, and that can’t be a bad thing:
“Second Life is the only social media/social computing property where, at its core, user-generated content and the economy is the experience. As a result, our estimates place our monetization levels at 3-30x that of major media and social computing properties.”
M chalks this up to the unique user-driven content model that is Second Life:
“Users buy and sell the digital goods they make using our virtual currency — Linden Dollar. We generate revenue by selling land (where merchants build stores, land owners rent houses, educators teach and companies meet) and collecting monthly maintenance fees (somewhat analogous to hosting services), charging for currency exchange services (Linden Dollars to US Dollars and vice-versa) and for search and classified ad placement. We also make money as the economy expands and we issue Linden dollars to stabilize the exchange rate.”
M highlights projects that are extending the platform ranging from education to health, from government user to the British Computer Society.
And then he brings up that word, ‘interoperability’, that either leaves you quaking and shaking or leaves you hopeful that some sort of system can be built that will protect Second Life as a unique world, yet let us move through different expressions of 3D environments with more ease than needing to sign up to 1,000 worlds and create 1,000 avatars.
Well Laid Plans
OK, so I’m going to give M some kudos here. At least he blogged, which is more than we can say for Philip, although this particular post almost feels like Obama in Berlin – sure, he’s speaking to the residents but the message seems intended for another audience, namely those folks outside SL who need it explained to them what a Linden is, and that yeah, it’s worth real money.
I’m guessing the Lab’s blog is picked up by more than the people inSL (TM) so sure, he’s got a wider audience, but the lesson on selling land and how people sell virtual goods feels a little odd.
But having said that he’s building a case, post by post, interview by interview.
First off, join the lab and enthuse, feel the excitement, give some press either to Hamlet over on GigaOM and NWN, talk priorities, talk mechanics, talk focus.
And I love the consistency at least:
- User experience needs to improve
- First hour is hell and needs a massive overhaul
- UI needs an overhaul
etc.
Then, pick up the Philip/Mitch meme – the early pioneers were the ones to populate that creaky asset server with their trillions of objects, but look, there’s some serious players coming on board, and we’re not talking CSI or NIKE, we’re talking Cigna and the Christian Science Monitor.
But next up in the roll-out of the M era, I’d expect, if this continues to look like an actual PLANNED strategy (as compared to a bunch of patches and whims by the code geeks) would be the following:
- Do what you say. Improve stability, focus relentlessly on the first hour and the interface, fix search, and don’t screw around with the stuff that’s better left alone (land pricing being the prime example).
- Throw us some dazzle. Um, sorry, wrong choice of words. But something to bring back that sense of awe, excitement, something new, valuable – bring us a social networking system that works, that embeds in the Web, that lets us keep our groups organized and lets us tag our friend lists.
- Start hinting at a Second Life 2.0. A radical overhaul like you’ve been hinting at. Something that will take time, and perseverance, and community input, with a proper road map and a full communication plan to inform developers, residents, and outside partners.
- And then get marketing.
Boldly Go
But here’s the thing. For all the buzzy joy of Philip and improving humanity, I’d like to hear a vision. I’d like to hear the “why”. I’d like to know why Second Life matters not in some fuzzy way like “collaboration and saving the ozone layer” or “education is cool”, but why the Metaverse will make a difference, in a tangible, understandable, concise way that I can use to tell my mother. Or the person in the office who’s never played a game and doesn’t understand that it’s YOU in a virtual world and not some cartoon character.
Because I don’t know what it is, but there’s something that happens in Second Life. And sure, you can call it a class, or you can call it dancing in a club, or rezzing prims, or seeing great art. But it’s something different – it’s a connection to people you never would have connected with otherwise, and it’s a perspective that leaves you thinking about stuff you never would have pondered before, and sure, maybe it leaves you wondering whether you’re crazy to want the perfect pair of shoes or the best beach house – but WHY does that stuff matter? It’s not an illusion, right? I mean, it’s a real place, with real culture, and real dreams, and you don’t even need all these outside badges to say that “hey, if the universities can come this must be the real deal”, those just help to sell the story, and sure, to deepen this place that many people call home.
Serendipity. Awe. Art. Ways of looking at information, architecture, design. Issues and opportunities for identity and culture. And a description of the unique power of Second Life as a world – a world that I hope will create linkages with other domains for sociality and 3D interaction, but a world nonetheless.
If we shift into talking only about platforms and applications, then you’re selling a product not a vision, and as much as Mitch might like to jettison the pioneers for the Cignas, its the pioneers that are in the DNA, who saw something deeper than monetizing Web 2.0 and who might help with that thing Philip’s going on about – the one about connecting us all for some deeper good.
Dusan, this sort of thing is tripe: “bring us a social networking system that works, that embeds in the Web, that lets us keep our groups organized and lets us tag our friend lists.”
Nobody is asking for that, really. That is, you are asking for it as some kind of PC geek thing, but it’s not a mass demand. Trust me, if somebody has a yen for a social media network, they go on Facebook. It need not be “embedded” in SL or even related to it, any more than my favourite restaurant and my favourite friend’s house have to be embedded in my office building. It’s ok to have first, second, third, four places, real and virtual, without all this silly connectivity.
I also don’t need to drag my friends (fake friends from socmedia) everywhere with me, either.
Why tag your friends? If you have so many that you’d need to tag them, maybe they aren’t friends, and maybe you don’t need to collect them so badly — they’ll just surface. You know, Scoble was right, “Your friends will find you.” I just went on Plurk and I added a few people to watch (Scoble was one because of the value of his friends’ list to easily mind) but you know something? if there is a new bunch 1,000 fake Internet friends pulled out of the sea for their oddball qualities or interest level or shared activity, and not that old bunch from Twitter, all to the good. Variety is the spice of life.
yet let us move through different expressions of 3D environments with more ease than needing to sign up to 1,000 worlds and create 1,000 avatars.
another minority use-case yen. There aren’t any 1,000 worlds. I had to make uh…like 3 avatars lately. Because, well, there aren’t the worlds. It was pretty easy to name them all “Prokofy” and put blonde hair and jeans on them. Look, it’s not the hard thing you imagine. I can leave my office, and walk to the restaurant, and see a different set of people. I don’t even have to call the office on my cell, you know?
Connectivity is not meaning.
Wordpress did me in this morning as comments to this post were somehow truncated. Back up and running now but apologies for the mess-up. I dunno what that button was I clicked, but I shouldn’t have clicked it.
In any case, I posted the following:
I’m very often vague, and very often change my opinions on things, I find a perverse thrill I guess in not being stuck in one world view and never varying from it. So maybe I’m less than clear with what I mean by stuff, so I thought I’d throw out today’s thinking on things (with the right to change my mind later):
- By social networks and embedding on the Web, I don’t mean that SL should be embedded in Facebook or mySpace or wherever. What I mean is I’d like to see some Web-based tools. I said give us social networking tools that work, and embed them in the Web. I didn’t say embed them in Facebook. I don’t LIKE Facebook, I don’t belong to Plurk, I don’t Twitter, I don’t HAVE any friends. BUT, I would like to be able to communicate with people more easily, and I would like to be able to do that in other ways than endless notecards written and saved and then copied and dragged over while trying to scan my fairly scant friends list to highlight the right people to send the notecard to. Let’s say I’m organizing an event, or trying to take care of customers…I’d like to be able to e-mail them from Outlook maybe, or G-mail or wherever – a social/contact tool that’s Web based and is easy and lets me take care of customers and keep in touch with people and save these communications other than sorting notecards.
- Tagging friends – why is this so awful? I have some people on my list that like to know about events, others who are customers, and others who like to go dancing. Why is it some sort of geek-infested idea to say that I’d like to be able to sort my contact list? I’d like to be able to look at the friends list and quickly filter customers, send out a notice, whatever, and I shouldn’t have to pay Hippo or whatever to do that.
These things may be tripe? I don’t know. They seem simple to me. I would like it to be easier to talk to people, keep in touch, send out a group e-mail to say “gonna be late for the event” or whatever it is.
As for interop – well, that’s another post. What I know is there are really very few worlds right now. And maybe there will always be very few worlds. Second Life is a world, and I don’t really want to be running around Warcraft with my avatar, or Lively for that matter. I’d like some simple stuff if it turns out to be true that say, some companies want to privately host their servers for security reasons, and some schools want to hold classes on THEIR own servers that have been tweaked or had additional code built for whatever reason, and then the community in SL is still ticking along – I just think it would be nice if I didn’t have to log out, sign up, sign in, log out, whatever. I don’t need my inventory to go with me, and I could even live with my avatar looking different. But if I could TP without too much friction from the Grid to other 3D environments, great.
However, I’m not entirely convinced that this wish is worth it. Because in having that wish, it opens up all kinds of other issues. I’m not convinced it SHOULD be easy to move from grid to grid like we surf the Web. Having said that, the idea of interoperability seems to have merit so long as it doesn’t dilute the individual worlds, but instead makes the management of our identities and movement easier and give ME control rather than the registration whims of a collision of different log-ins and approaches.
Which brings me to walled gardens I guess. Which I confuse with magic circles. And that, plus wanting to know why I’m geeky might be posts for another day.
Whether or not any of the ideas from your contest get adopted, they’ve done one thing for those interested in the continuance of Second Life: They’ve made us think.
In fact I have a blog post on the subject bubbling away somewhere, even though it’s getting to be way too late!
Prok has been provoked to think too. Of course it would be too simple to enter the contest and express her ideas upfront the same as everyone else. No, as is Prok’s way, she’s sat back and poured scorn and vitriol on everyone else’s ideas.
You have to also appreciate that Prok’s ideas are right, always right and anyone who disagrees with her is wrong. It’s ironic that one of her favourite attempted put-downs is “Do you appreciate other people might not agree with you?”
You may not have friends (they’re your words after all, although I suspect you do yourself down), but after being attacked by Prok you have allies. Oh, and probably an appearance on the next FIC list if she publishes one soon enough or you remain on her radar.
Whatever the outcome of the contest, congratulations on a thought-provoking concept.
Dusan,
It’s always an eye-opening and thought-provoking experience to read your blog posts. Thanks for the cognitive workout and the chance to add my thoughts…
Having been “inSL” for more than two years now, I’ve seen and weathered a good chunk of the metaversal evolution. Like real life, SL has its moments of sheer excitement, wonder, and awe as well as frustration, anger, disappointment, even panic, and I ain’t giving up on it anytime soon. I am part of this virtual world–embedded and woven in its fabric–not merely a bunch of pixels on the screen.
Maybe that elusive “something” you sense permeating the grid (besides lag) is a kind of virtual viriditas–an essence that binds physical hardware and software with human creativity and imagination, transforming both into a rather new and undefined quintessence. It is there, but one must be quiet enough to actually find it, and it is worth seeking.
Our forays into virtual worlds lead us into uncharted territories. Day by day, we struggle to define who and what we are, a task not easily qualified or quantified. Nevertheless, we are here and we continue to seek meaning for this place. We oscillate among hope, idealism, pragmatism, pessimism, and even sometimes despair, but we keep coming back to give it another try. An adventure it is, tripe it is not…
Trying to understand the tugs between Dusan and Prokofy finally allowed me to grok what Dusan has been talking about with ‘magic circle’ and perhaps ‘augmentation versus immersion’. What I am thinking is there is a mind function that instantiates a world view, like when a kid has a couple dolls, toy animals, or action figures and goes about playing with them by imagining they each have a personality, a role, and a he enters that world he has defined with them and plays. Is this the magic circle? I am guessing we all have relative abilities and proclivities to allow ourselves to immerse.
A lot of tourists may go to the same places I have been too, but they certainly may not experience what I experience. We all may be looking at the same painting in a gallery, but how it affects us will certainly not be the same.
Just because something is tripe to one person but an compelling to another is not a usable metric until we have a way to ground the issue.
The Prok example of not needing friend’s house and restaurant embedded in the office building makes a good point. But it cuts a little the wrong way when calling “all the silly connectivity”. Being able to wear the same set of clothes as you go from one to the other, use a common currency, language set, and many other things that “connect” one place with another are being taken for granted. And once you eat that meal at a restaurant, you probably want it to stay in your digestive system as you move to the theatre. And when in that theatre, you probably want the actors to stay in their characters, and not stop every few moments to tell you “this is all fiction, we are not really these characters”.
Maybe you are a vested resident or maybe you are simply a tourist that runs in, takes a snapshot, and runs to the next thing just to say they’ve been there. If you are really allowing yourself to fully BE somewhere, of course you want to treat it as real and reinforce those connections.
[...] OK, so look – I like it so far, nothing wrong with it, but I posted previously: [...]
Rain rain go away come again a NEVA day.
People like Prok, need people like Prok, to keep people like Prok, in check. A self-fulfilling prophecy if you will.
Eloise is right, you will have “allies”, but so will Prok from his side of the fence..One mans trash is another mans prime-time tv.
I read both, when I want a “personable” view on the world, a humanist approach (there is no spoon), I read Dusan; Ciaran Laval, Sarah Nerd, Delicious Demar, even Torley to an extent..etc etc. But when I am in “work mode” or seek a hard and fast opinion (black OR/AND white, no grey), I know I can trust Prokofy; Nobody Fugazi, Benjamin Duranske etc. I may not agree with a single word any of them say at times, but at least the thoughts are provoked and I can form my own opinions and I am better for knowing those of others.
As you can see, I do alot of reading, so I apologise for being 6 days late with a response…I’m still catching up!!
The Lindens once talked about a Web project called my.secondlife.com which, if I recall correctly, was some sort of Web-based extension to SL. Maybe you could edit your SL Profile on the Web, or invite someone to be on your SL friends list from the Web, or send a group notice from the Web, etc. Here’s a link: http://tinyurl.com/5s2quv