Recap of discussion held on 10-20-2007 in Second Life

Well I conducted my first discussion in Second Life about the Romantic Picnic. It was a humbling experience. I have held several discussions in Second Life this year. For this one Murphy’s Law really applied. It started off with a number of technical difficulties. Instead of starting at 7:00 am SL time, it really started about 7:15 am SL time. People in Second Life see an event posted and you will have people showing up throughout the event. So I do not know how many people I lost because of the 15 minute delay.

 

The discussion was successful through. It started off with me providing information. Most of this information had little value because I could not put it in a context that fit within Second Life. Fortunately, there were several people attending who took over the conversation. Their comments provided a context for the discussion that was relevant to Second Life. I did not expect to define romance or what is a romantic picnic and it turned out as expected, each person had their own view of it. However, they all seemed to agree that for a romantic picnic location was a very important feature. Furthermore, they all seemed to believe that they would know if a location was romantic when they saw it. Some people described the features that romantic location would have to have in Second Life. The best description was “an area of outstanding natural beauty”. This seems to parallel a lot of the research on romantic picnic locations in Real Life I have come across.

 

In Real Life, location seems to be one of the most critical features of a romantic picnic. In Second Life, location was one item that everyone seemed to agree was important. Second Life’s 3-D is visual above everything else. So it makes sense that people could judge if a location was romantic if they saw it. The most logical next step in this experiment would be to identify the top 10 locations for a romantic picnic in Second Life. I believe that this is an achievable objective. Not everyone will agree on a location, but it should be possible to find 10 locations that most people believe are romantic and would allow a couple to have a romantic picnic. Some system of voting can be used to rank them. What this would provide is a context in which to proceed with the experiment. Romantic picnics could be constructed for each of the locations. The location becomes the framework and defines the context. Some type of context is really needed to make information like emotional response to color, reactions to 3-D images based on Real Life associations, etc. meaningful.

 

Another point that came out of the discussion was the purpose of the romantic picnic itself. Is the romantic picnic a means to a physical end? Or does the romantic become an end in itself as in a means of building a relationship. In the studies and literature there seems to be a divide on this point. Women seem to have one opinion and men seem to have another. You can not tell who is really male and who is female in Second Life. It was still evident that there was a difference in opinion as to the desired outcome of a romantic picnic and what the main purpose for it was from the comments made during the discussion. It will be interesting to see how these differences play out as this experiment continues.

 

If you attended or have an opinion please leave a comment on this.

Is 3-D going anywhere?

Dr.Dobb’s has interesting article about progress IBM and Linden Labs are making advancing the 3-D Internet. 3-D is here to stay and understanding the emerging environment will be the key to making it payoff for businesses. How will 3-D meshes with the rest of web 2.0? In what ways can real life and virtual relate. That is what Transreality is all about. So I believe this area is worth an investment of time and money to gain understanding. This is why I am working on my Transreality Experiment in Second Life.

Forget the web page

Social Networking is changing the way we do business. I am trying to take advantage of this in my Second Life Transreality Experiment.  CIO Insight has a great example of this from CIO of FedEx Rob Carter. When Mr. Carter opened he was informed by his partner ‘We really don’t need a Web site.’ They had been keeping their friends informed about the progress of their Club in MySpace. When they were ready to open it was just a matter of letting their friends know and letting the word spread.

Between IM, and the social networks it appears that the rules are changing. Who you know may really be more important in the web 2.0 world than what you know. I will keep this example in mind as I move forward with this experiment.

Kimberly-Clark – example of turning virtual into real?

CNN has a interesting article on work done by Kimberly-Clark using Virtual Reality.

Kimberly-Clark is using virtual reality technology to identify innovations, gain insights, and strengthen customer relationships. Sort of the whole idea behind Transreality.  

Metaverse continues to grow.

Futurelab has observed that there is “No slowing down in market adoption of Serious Games and Virtual Worlds, on both sides of the equation”. There is growth both in the numbers of virtual worlds and in the amount of money being investing into virtual worlds. What is interesting is that you are seeing more connections between activities in Virtual worlds and the Real World. Some virtual worlds are becoming more than standalone environments. You are seeing real world products being taken into the virtual worlds. It is only a matter of time before virtual products find themselves created into real world items.

A resent example of Transreality.

CIO INSIGHT has identified a great example of Transreality involving Second Life.

Fashion designer Giorgio Armani has opened up shop in virtual world Second Life.

Second Life residents will be able to buy items virtually created for Ciorgio in the virtual world currency Lindens. People in Second Life can also connect directly from Second Life to recently launched online store www.emporioarmani.com for non-virtual items. In the long term Giorgio will have an opportunity to create virtual items and determine acceptance and demand. This may lead to creations of real life items based on his popular virtual ones in Second Life.

A way to save time sharing your experiences.

Dr.Dobbs group pointed a Service developed by IBM. It is worth noting on this Blog because it offers improved opportunities to people who are sharing experiences, such as their romantic picnics.

CoScripter is a system for recording, automating, and sharing processes performed in a web browser such as printing photos online, requesting a vacation hold for postal mail, or checking bank account information. Instructions for processes are recorded and stored in easy-to-read wiki on the CoScripter web site, so you can share them with others. This is a great example of saving time and addressing denied value. Thanks to DrDobbs for pointing it out.

Second Life Romantic Picnic Experiment

For those few who have been following this blog I would like to explain the new direction this blog is going in. The past blogs have been on items that I have come across on my research that I wanted to share with a select few people. I have been offered an opportunity to work with the SIM 2.0 group in Second Life to develop some concepts in Transreality. For those of you reading this blog for the first time let me explain my view of Transreality.

In the simplest terms Transreality can be defined as “the combined Real World and Internet aspects that make up a product and/or service”. Some of the factors that have lead to Transreality are:

1.     Almost no product today is sold as just a product. Most are now a combination of product and service. Even a simple can of Dole pineapple has a label. The picture and information on the label is a service related to the product inside the can.

2.     Many times a consumer is not really purchasing a product. They are purchasing the ability to do something. Buying a drill bit enable someone to make a hole. A can of black beans may enable one to produce a seven bean salad. The purchase of a product may just be a means to an end.

3.     Service related to a product can begin long before a purchase. Many people use the Internet to obtain product information. It is now easy to compare features and prices when making a major purchase. Amazon and others have rating systems that let you know what other thought about a product or service. All of these are examples of services that are used before the product is purchased.

4.     Some products do not exist before they are purchased. We are now in the age of Mass Customization and Lean Manufacturing. This means they build it when the customer demands it and to the specifications the customer demands. Sort of like going into Burger King and getting a burger with no pickles.

5.     Some major manufacturers are now working directly with consumers to help define and develop new products. We have entered an era where mass production and mass marketing no longer work like they did before the Internet.

6.     The Internet has made some niche markets profitable. Netflicks can offer movies that a Real World Store could not afford to offer. This is because the Internet offers the opportunity to reach enough people in a given market segment to make it profitable enough to service that niche segment.

7.     Content is now King. The Internet has always been about communication and information. The success of the first PC’s in my opinion was related to the content that could be stored on the PC. Now we have entered an era where content on the Internet is more valuable to many people than the content on their PC. When you add cell phones and other means to access Internet content you can only expect this to increase.

8.     Internet content is now being examined and rated. The days of clever gimmicks may not be over but it will now only take you so far. Consumers are now demanding value from the content they spend their time on. Consumer time is now the currency of the Internet. Just look at www.digg.com, if consumers don’t Digg it, it doesn’t get exposure. You have to provide real value to last. That is the key to Web 2.0, providing content with real value.

9.     Consumers are now building and participating in Internet communities at an increasing rate. E-mail, IM, Blogs, YouTube, etc. are changing the way people define communities. Again time is the critical resource. Time, emotion, money, etc. is now being invested in these new digital communities instead of local real world communities.

So what is this SIM 2.0 Transreality experiment I am conducting in Second Life? The experiment is called “Romantic Picnic”. The theme is romantic picnics. I have created a site in Second Life on the SIM 2.0 Island that will be used to model a romantic beach picnic. The site will also allow discussions to be held to go over different aspects of romantic picnics. From participating in Second Life I have found that the picnic theme appears time and time again. There is also an element in Second Life that is attracted to romantic themes. Another interesting fact is 40 percent of the residents in Second Life create items in Second Life. I have noticed that a number of introductory classing in creating items is focused on creating simple items that can be used on picnics. I will start out by using group discussions to begin developing aspect of a Romantic Picnic in Second Life.

Romantic Picnic was also selected because there is a sizable amount of content on the Internet about this subject. A larger amount of this content is directly related to real life businesses. These business sell products related to;

1.     Items that can be used on a picnic. These items include food, beverage, blankets, baskets, etc. These can be considered the props that are needed to make a picnic. This is an important real world part of Transreality. Real Life picnics and Second Life picnics both require items to enable someone to obtain the complete romantic picnic experience.

2.     Vacation sites such as beach resorts, mountain lodges, and other romantic destinations. Location is everything to a picnic and these sites are all dealing with locations. This is another important real world part of Transreality. People think of these real locations when they picture a romantic picnic in their minds. A Second Life romantic picnic must take this into account. One can also enjoy pictures and video of these real locations in Second Life.

3.     Romance and/or Picnic advise, this is as much opinion as fact in most cases. Here is where it can be hard to tell good from bad. Many times an opinion is stated as fact and then repeated many times.

4.     Peoples experiences, here is a treasure trove of valuable content. People have put their romantic picnic experiences into Internet content. It now exists in YouTube, Flickr, Myspace, etc. These real life experiences can provide understanding and prove a valuable resource if they can be identified and shared.

I will attempt to bring images, video, etc. into Second Life. I have also created a new Blog “romanticpicnic.wordpress.com” to bring learning from Second Life into Web 2.0. As this project progresses I hope to be merging several Web 2.0 pieces into the competed experiment. Much of this will be a learning process. I will be posting the Lessons learned to this blog.

So starting on 10/07/2007 the posting on this blog will be about the “Romantic Picnic” experiment.

Some background on SIM 2.0 in Second Life, hosts of my Transreality experiment.

I am conducting this experiment with the help of SIM 2.0 in Second Life. Most of you may not be familar with them. So here is the URL for SIM 2.0 “A Better Concept in Living & Marketing in Second Life”.

SIM 2.0 is providing me the land in Second Life that I am using for my Transreality experiment using the “Romantic Picnic” theme.