An update on Transreality

I have written from time to time about transreality on the Internet. This is where real life and virtual products mix and match. Where virtual products become real products and real products become virtual products.  Industry week has an interesting article about the next wave of user-generated content. This is user-generated, community-driven manufacturing. As the 3-D development tools become better and better, they lower the barriers to entry for the creation of virtual models of real products. The article focuses on 3-D development tools and how user communities are emerging to design and rapidly create real world items using these tools.  You can check out Motorola’s rapid prototyping process to see one way this is being done.

 

Techcrunch has an article that goes into more detail  “Forget Crowd-Sourced T-shirts: Print Objects In 3D”. They cover this emerging user generated content very well.

 

Some of the companies in this emerging trend are:

http://www.shapeways.com/login

Netherlands-based Shapeways is a community for consumers where they can “print” 3D objects n plastic or metal and share the items.

 

http://www.ponoko.com/

Ponoko is a marketplace for product plans. Creators and consumers use these plans to share, buy, sell and make individualized goods.

 

 

http://www.emachineshop.com/

Where you can create real metal and plastic objects in a virtual machine shop!

 

It would seem that Transreality is now here and that the wave is just now forming for the newest user communities based on a producing real products from virtual 3-D designs.

Another part that makes this possible is that information is being shared around the world. For example material from a MIT course “Toy Product Design” is now available to anyone. Not only the 3-D tools are getting better, information on how to design is improving and readily available. The barriers to entry are coming down rapidly. Transreality is now can take place almost anywhere in the world. I have already watched 3-D design community’s form in Second Life. I am now watching new 3-D collaboration communities emerge around lines of products like jewelry. The world of user-generated content is just beginning in the 3-D world. The creation of both virtual products and real world products has just begun.

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.

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.

COLLOQUY wonders if virtual flowers are what you give a online spouse when you have a cyber-fight :)

“COLLOQUY wonders if virtual flowers are what you give a online spouse when you have a cyber-fight. “ Think about it because 1-800-Flowers.com can now link its rewards program to Facebook with a new application called “Gimme Love”

See DM article

This is just another example of the growth of Transreality. In this case is it the thought and message that virtual flowers represent? After all, what are flowers but a bunch of dead plants !!!!

Expert opinion, consumer comment, and buzz all in Wize

Springwise found another one to watch with Wize
“Experts bring their own biases when they review consumer products. So do the people who’ve purchased those products and later post their opinions online. But if you combine the two, online shoppers just might get an accurate picture of how good or bad the latest gadgets they crave really are. At least that’s the idea behind Wize, a consumer review site that combines Web 2.0 community features with expert commentary in a way that could herald a new method of comparison shopping. “

Has anyone thought of using something like this as a basis for product improvement? 

When is a product real?

Wouldn’t it be cool if … That is the opening line of Ben Kaufman. He has created Mophie which is doing rapid collaboration to generate ideas for iPod  accessories for the iPod. These ideas are then turned into real products. The ideas come from a community of users interested in iPod accessories. Users themselves vote for ideas and the generator is rewarded based on the votes. Not only does Ben Kaufman get new products he also have a instant market for the stuff that he turns into real life products. It seems like this form of Transreality will allow rapid targeted niche marketing. Even if the product is not patented the time to market advantage Ben Kaufman will realize will be great. Not to mention the instant creation of loyal customers who helped develop the product. Does this provide a sound business model for the future of retail?

When ordering groceries online its health food tomorrow, junk food now!

Here is a study that looked into how consumers order healthy and junk food items online. The conclusion of the study seemed to indicate that the farther out in the future the food was ordered the more likely that healthier items would be ordered. The closer the order was place to the time of delivery the more likely that junk food items would appear on the order.

Ever wonder why you buy what you never use?

Ever wonder why you buy what you never use? Well a Kansas State University study may have the answers. It boils down to “customers overestimate the risk that a product without such features will become obsolete, and customers overestimate the likelihood that they will learn to use the new features.”