Second Life: Shop Here for Print
June 7, 2007

Brian Regan, COO of placement firm Semper International, also consults with clients about Second Life, a virtual reality environment, on behalf of Semper. Here he explains how businesses are beginning to conduct business on this new plane:

OK. Be patient with this blog.
There’s a new medium that will provide extraordinary opportunities for printers with vision. In general, they are called metaverses, which (as described in Wikipedia) come from Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash.
They are widely used to describe fully immersive 3D virtual spaces; environments where humans interact (as avatars) with each other (socially and economically) and with software agents in a cyber space, that uses the metaphor of the real world, but without its physical limitations.

Most popular is Second Life. If you haven’t heard about Second Life, you’re going to soon. Companies are already building a presence to take advantage of a growing number of ‘residents’ who join the site every day. For example:

* IBM opened a virtual business center in Second Life that will be staffed by IBM sales representatives from around the world. Clients who want to buy hardware, software or services, or get help solving a business problem, can meet with a sales rep in the new IBM Business Center.
* Spain’s bitter political wrangling has spread to Second Life, with supporters of socialist and conservative parties trying to burn down each others’ party offices in the virtual world.

What is Second Life?
Second Life is basically an online, user-created 3D virtual world. Using online video game technology, Linden Lab (supported by some very significant high tech companies) created what many believe will be what the Web looks like in as little as 10 years. It’s a Web 2.0 application, and quite possibly the most powerful social network.

Should you be looking into it?
True, it’s quite a leap to believe that the 2D websites we are comfortable with will become a blended 3D/2D experience. However, virtual worlds have many advantages over traditional websites. The power to experience content in a group can far outweigh reading a website alone. The concept of expanding your experience on the web to incorporate the people viewing the same content bring tremendous advantages to marketing and business applications.

Mom, Is That You?
Second Life is at its most basic level an online video game. Currently, a user moves through the world using an avatar, which is very similar to a character you would use in a game. This avatar represents you in this new world. You can make the avatar look like anything you can imagine. It can be an extension of yourself, or a ‘new and exciting you’ that is anonymous from the rest of the world(s).

Saving on gas
Users who are not used to moving avatars around in video games .must learn learn how to walk in Second Life; and learn how to fly as well. If that isn’t enough, your avatar can teleport to most places in Second Life, and create a landmark (like a bookmark) to easily visit later.

Young people get it
Second Life continually gets a facelift and becomes easier to visit. Yet, those who are from Generation X (or younger) are already accustomed to this type of interface or can easily learn. As more and more educational institutions adopt these platforms, young people will understand it. In fact, many Colleges and Universities currently offer classes using Second Life as the classroom.

One other suggestion: A standard PC will have trouble working in Second Life. Now, before you start complaining, remember how computers needed to get beefed up to run on the Web. I recommend at least 2 gigs of ram and a newer computer

Don’t be shy; say hi
‘Residents’ of Second Life are characters that you can meet and interact with. Although opinions vary, to me the avatar is simply a representation of the person controlling it. There may be different aspects of a person’s personality that come out more clearly in this environment, but in the end people are who they are.

Earning a living, virtually
Some residents earn their real world income through Second Life. These people are store owners, clothing designers, editors for ‘in world’ newspapers and magazines, graphic artists, web developers, programmers/scripters, builders and a host of people who help other firms enter into Second Life. I have met many of these people. They are bright, creative and adaptive to these new environments. Some of them have become real life millionaires just from their ‘in world’ businesses. Second Life is a world built primarily by its residents. Just touring around the world and see what the residents have created is mind-boggling.

Oh, we have a store, too
Some of these creative people are now registered with Semper International. We use them in the real world for graphic design, programming and work in Second Life for Semper clients that either want a new presence in Second Life or want to add features to the existing assets they have already built.

Marketing executives
Not only are there creatives; there is a fair amount of marketing people in Second Life. They are either investigating this new world for opportunities, or are actively involved in marketing activities for their employers. These people are often approachable. Relationships made through Second Life often tie into real-life business.

Unlike traditional sales and marketing, Second Life is a social network. You must be willing to converse casually with other residents and, slowly over the course of the conversation, determine who they are in real life. If you approach a resident aggressively and ‘all business’, it often turns the resident off and you will get the cold shoulder.

Posted by on June 7, 2007 | Comments (0)