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Booming Prairie ChickenThe Further Adventures of Laurie and Brad |
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These are some of the books I have used in my research.
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June 28 Anshe ChungAnshe Chung
 Businessweek cover featuring Anshe Chung
It seems like sometimes the only way to make a person take something seriously is when you start relating it to money. In the case of the financial potential within 'Second Life' just one of the potential examples is Anshe Chung - the millionaire Anshe Chung. The woman has used the virtual world as a means to earn her millions of very real dollars.
Finance in the Metaverse and Anshe Chung
June 27 A Wedding within the Virtual WorldA Wedding within
the Virtual World
 A scene from the Second Life wedding of Wolfear Clawtooth and Wolfbait Wolfzahn.
Last Sunday I got to attend my first wedding within in Second Life. I have been invited to others but always had a schedule conflict. I really did want to get to this one; I had quite a few friends who were also attending. There were actually two couples exchanging their vows but I'm afraid I only knew Wolfear and Wolfbait. There was just no way I would miss seeing Wolfbait's special day! This was also a chance to see what is a real cultural experience within this virtual world.
Now if you see Second Life as the ultimate example in 'Social Networking' technology then a wedding like this is an incredible statement of sorts. You do not see weddings taking place on Facebook or Myspace. You don't see vows being exchanged on Twitter. Now this wedding doesn't have the legal status of a wedding in the real world - at least not yet - but within Second Life it is taken very seriously.
Virtual world, real emotions: Relationships in Second Lifehttp://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/12/second.life.relationship.irpt/index.html Wolfbait's wedding was no small event; there had to be at least 60 avatars attending. You have to remember that each avatar represents a very real person somewhere. The priest could potentially be a very real priest. Virtual reality and reality can sometimes only be a matter of shared perception. Relationships in SL are real http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/09/07/relationships-in-sl-are-real/ Now when the throng gathered for this wedding it was pretty typical of other events I've attended within the virtual world. There were the usual joking, bantering and frivolity. It could have been a Friday night in a lot of the online night clubs. The amazing thing was when the ceremony began; all of the attending avatars went silent. The only sound was the voice feeds and chat typing of the actual vows being exchanged. Every so often you would hear the shutter of a virtual camera taking a picture. The crowd was taking this all quite seriously. Second Life: Relationships In Hyper Speed http://thoughtrefuse.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/second-life-relationships-in-hyperspeed/ Now the nature of these virtual relationships is subject to a lot of debate. Since there is nothing legally binding in real world about these weddings. Some relationships change at the speed of light within Second Life. I have also personally seen some that endure. It all just makes me wonder what this Social Networking technology is going to evolve into...
Bernard Broono and the beautiful Rocksie Slade.
June 21 When in Rome, do as the Romans do...When in Rome,
do as the Romans do...
I'm afraid that last weekend I didn't do a blog update. It has been a very long time since I've failed to do my weekly update. I think that the last time I didn't do an update it was because I was in the hospital. They didn't have public Wi-Fi access in the Emergency Room...
Last weekend was far different though. Last weekend I simply didn't know what to write. Laurie and I have been engaged in what can only be termed as a intense immersive learning experience in 'Second Life'. On the basis of my research I'm increasingly convinced that this is what the internet is evolving into. I can remember when years ago the buzz word of the telecommunications industry was 'convergence'. It was this vague vision of a time when various digital technologies would merge into some sort of hypothetical universal platform. You could find all sorts of visionary ideas of what this would ultimately look like. Now in 'Second Life' we are finally seeing something that could be that future.
In order to really understand 'Second Life' you need to view it from inside. It is difficult to fully grasp what this technology is capable by viewing it from outside. The first thing you have to understand is that this is not a game; you can play games in 'Second Life' but they are only a fraction of the overall experience. You will find that most of the people using 'Second Life' do not refer to themselves as players but as residents. The interactive experience of this virtual world is considerably different from that of other game-driven online virtual environments. Since the basic operating code of 'Second Life' is open-source the residents have done most of the content creation within this world. According to one estimate I've seen about 97% of what you see and experience within 'Second Life' was created by the residents. This means that Linden Labs, the company that owns 'Second Life', has up until now has done relatively little to define what form this virtual world will take. In this virtual world the imagination of the residents has largely defined what you experience here.
Some people are starting to catch on to what this means. You can create a literal second life within this place. People set up virtual homes, virtual schools and virtual business within here.
Students get a 'Second Life' in first 'metanomics' course
Cornell University report from 2007 on the potential of this platform.
There are people who are already making real world livings within this virtual world. At this point they are in the minority within the larger population of 'Second Life'. I think I am safe in saying that most people come to this virtual world as a form of relaxation and entertainment. The fact is there are residents here that have managed to make real world livings here through providing services to these same people.
Artists visit virtual Second Life for real-world cashhttp://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/07/second.life.singer/index.html#cnnSTCText Laurie and I have actually visited some of these shows. These are actual live performances within the virtual world. REAL money on second life http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-240832 Interesting financial report on 'Second Life'. Watch this video. Think about it a minute. If you don't think there is a real world financial potential to this then why is the IRS so interested? So Laurie and I are in here. We are taking a more than active role in order to learn what we can. I can see a potential here that goes far beyond the virtual experience. The only way you can really understand this is to participate with it. To use an old saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do..."
June 07 Not out of the woods yet...Not out of the woods yet...
It is a little bizarre to have a company tell you that they would like to lay you off but not yet. You come back to work the next day and they expect you to perform just the way you did before they broke the news to you. Right now the best plan I can see is to prepare for the possibility that I will be unemployed in roughly two months.
When you work in the technology industry it isn't good enough to know what is currently popular. If you want to plan a long career you need to know what tomorrow is bringing. This can be something of a gamble even at the best of times.
Right now I am devoting all my time and energy to seeing this hypothetical future. Right now I am betting on the phenomena of 'social networking':
Time Spent on Social-Networking Sites Jumps 83 Percent
It is almost amazing that inspite of the recession the industry around 'social networking' is growing rapidly. Things like 'Facebook' and 'Twitter' seem to be in the news daily. I am personally watching and learning everything I can about 'Second Life'; I am increasingly convinced that this might be the network platform of the future. In the time that Laurie and I have been in 'Second Life', have been residents of 'Second Life', we have both seen this is possibly the ultimate social networking platform.
When it was first launched in 2003 it was seen by many as the Next Big Thing. Business flocked to be inside the virtual world. Within two years most of these companies abandoned their efforts within 'Second Life'. Their ideas of marketing failed dismally. Some people thought the whole virtual world idea was going to fade away. It did not.
Now I am seeing that some of the technology companies that remained inside 'Second Life' are taking on new life. I am also seeing other institutions finding their place there:
Graduation Ceremony in Second Life
Second Life to host first college graduation
I am also found a variety of support groups using this technology. I am seeing more non-profits using it for the purpose of conferencing, fund-raising or simply to have fun. We completely underestimate the value of fun in the technologies we use.
A Second Life on Second Life
This clip was was featured at the Health 2.0 conference on Web 2.0 technologies in healthcare on March 3-4 2008 in San Diego. For more information on Health 2.0, please visit Health 2.0.
What I consider to be the mainstream entertainment industry has already started to see the value of this sort of technology. With television viewing on the decline it only seems like a good business decision to find a place within the new mediums:
CSI: NY Second Life Virtual Experience
I am also seeing governments moving into 'Second Life'. From what I can tell several different countries have always had a presence in the virtual world. It just looks like this is starting to expand:
Philippines Department of Tourism Creates Virtual Island on Second Life
I also found this documentary about one business person within 'Second Life'. This video demonstrates that some people are using the virtual world to create real money:
So I am going to keep on learning what I can about this technology. It seems to me that if more companies start moving into 'Second Life' there will be a place for me...
May 31 Changing ParadigmsChanging Paradigms...
Last Friday was a rough day for me. My department at work recieved a broadcast E-mail telling us to report to a mandatory meeting. Then we all heard that our office managers were attempting to contact all of the department employees who were out on vacation or home sick. They were being asked to join a conference call during this meeting. Whenever this sort of meeting is called it usually means some sort of bad news is about to be dropped on us.
What we found out was that our upper level management had decided to call a 'surplus'. The word surplus is their code word for laying people off. Now our department currently has 82 people. It once had over 200 but the economy and our shrinking market share has already taken a toll. Now they are going to cut 20 more people. I am number 15 on this list of cuts.
The way it works is they will do voluntary and involuntary seperations. This means that they will first offer compensation packages to those people who want to leave the company on a voluntary basis. These voluntary packages are generally the most attractive to people who are within reach of retirement already. Now close to a third of my office is currently retirement eligible. The only reason most of them haven't already left the company was our 401K was literally gutted under the inspired leadership of Joe Nachio. At this time former CEO Nachio is cooling his heels in a federal correctional facility.
The involuntary seperations are then carried out after the voluntary seperations have been determined. This is done on the basis of seniority. I have 14 years with the company. This is not enough time to make my job secure. Now if five or more people take the voluntary packages I'll be safe. I could also attempt to transfer out of this department into another department within the company. This would protect the time I already have with the company. The problem is the company is downsizing all over the board. There are not many openings to try to get into.
So now the clock ticks. I won't know if I have a job for about two weeks. I do know that there are people fighting to find a place to slot me; I know to much for them to let me go. I also know that logic often fails in the face of corporate financial thinking. So I plan for the worst and hope for the best. This might be harder on Laurie than it is on me. She feels somewhat powerless in the face of what is happening.
The fact of the matter is I don't think the current wave of job cuts will save the company much. It is my opinion that we are in a time of changing paradigms. We are seeing a revolution of sorts take place within the telecommunications industry. Job cuts will not be enough to insure survival.
I see two principle technological forces working against the traditional telephone companies; mobility and bandwidth. This is to say that the cellular telephone and other wireless devices are rapidly eclipsing the old landline phones. The advent of local number portability is only accelerating the popular transition to wireless phones.
The other challenge is bandwidth; the internet speed the physical carrier is able to support. Now we are seeing that the hypothetical bandwidths available for copper twisted-pair wiring are greater than what was thought ten years ago. The problem is the telephone companies are competing with DSL against a host of new technologies that all potentially offer greater bandwidth than what our copper-based facilities can offer.
I also think that most traditional telephone companies suffer from a lack of perception about what the internet is evolving into. More of our personal communications are being moved onto the web. The old switched telephone system is being replaced by technologies such as VOIP. I can personally remember a time when telephone companies were all scrambling to get into long distance services. They thought that long distance was going to be their financial salvation. Voice over IP has squashed those hopes. Now when you might pick up your phone to make a long distance call the odds are good that it is actually being routed through the internet.
Social Networking
So what am I doing in response to all this bad news? I am making a personal investment in where I think the future is going.
I have been watching the phenomenal growth of social networking technologies such as 'Facebook' and 'Twitter'. I am also seeing that video is taking up more and more bandwidth with such sites as 'Youtube' and 'Hulu'. We also have a generation of kids that are very familiar with online virtual world game technology. What if all of these things were to converge? What if the hardware to access these technologies became relatively inexpensive?
The answer is you would have 'Second Life'.
I have been doing an intense amount of research on 'Second Life' for awhile now. If it seems like I have an obsession with it you are absolutely correct. I am convinced this is where the future is. There was an initial frenzy by a lot of companies to set up operations when 'Second Life' first launched in 2003. Their hopes of this being the future of marketing faded as the realities of virtual worlds evolved.
This is a video about the companies that initially set up operations within 'Second Life'. Many of them eventually left.
I think that the Linden Labs, the company that owns 'Second Life', is now rapidly finding a position from which to evolve their virtual world into the ultimate social networking technology. Rather than the commercial model that many originally envisioned they are moving it to an integration of social networking and internet marketing.
LINDEN LAB LAUNCHES GOLD SOLUTION PROVIDER PROGRAM FOR SECOND LIFE
I reported on this blog awhile back about how IBM was working with Linden Labs of integrating 'Second Life' with other virtual world technologies.
The number of companies researching this is growing. There are actually a number of virtual worlds currently operating but 'Second Life' seems to be the widely accepted platform model.
Now if the efforts of IBM and Linden Labs and at least 200 other collaborating technology companies succeed we could see all of these virtual worlds meshed together.
Second Life generates 15 billion minutes in web voice calls The integration of Voice over IP technology into 'Second Life' continues to grow. The numbers here are approaching what can only be termed as phenomenal.
Second Life Colocates at Terremark NAP
It also looks to me like Linden Labs is working to provide the infrastructure to support expansion. I don't think they would be doing this if they didn't have information demonstrating the future need.
What this all means...
I am going to be doing an intense amount of research into this technology. It will probably be the only thing you see on this blog for awhile. It might seem a little chaotic at times. I am pulling in new information as fast as I can. Sometimes I might even be just dumping what I find here as I sort it out. Right now this is what I think I need to do as I face the future.
Thanks for visiting!
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