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Second Life Lines
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By: Robin Bloor
Published: 19th June 2007
Copyright © 2007
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I received an email recently in respect of the blog/article I wrote entitled "Second Life: The Campaign For Real Life. It was from Chris Gayson and it read as follows:
Robin,
Disclosure-
Until very recently I was an AD with Ogilvy—the advertising agency of record to IBM. While I did not work on the IBM account during my years with the firm, I was exposed to some of IBM's Second Life plans (nothing that isn't publicly available knowledge). I also attended one private Linden Labs presentation.
Disclaimer-
These are my opinions. I do not profess to speak for IBM. I do not profess to speak for Linden Labs.
I am astounded sometimes when I read otherwise intelligent people, write short sighted appraisals on the triviality of Second Life, with little understanding of it's full implications.
In the not too distant future a three dimensional VR platform will augment and in many cases supersede what we currently know of as the internet. It does not mean that Second Life will become that platform, and no, they were not even first to the party. However, nothing succeeds like success- Under Philip Rosedale's management team, Linden Labs entered the market just as bandwidth penetration for such an application was reaching critical mass in the US market. Theirs was the first viable product to deliver on the promise of a scalable VR world. It is their market to lose.
IBM's interest in Second Life is not a fad chasing, or passing, gesture. With a 2007 commitment of $100M in Second Life development, they are fathoms ahead of others in this arena. They are not fools. Most of IBM's Second Life development is not even open to the public. They have built large scale office parks off the public grid, accessible only to IBM employees, where far flung global team members are given virtual offices, replacing tele/video conferencing as the primary mode of holding project meetings, augmented by Voice over IP. Note that VoIP is the next major interface enhancement that will be implemented within the Second Life application. Headset based eye-wear is sure to follow soon. As bandwidth increases and compression/streaming technologies improve, the realism of the platform will continue to evolve in the same exponential manner as we've seen in video games over the past decade.
Neither is IBM's interest a gamble on Second Life's success. It is an investment in a new communication paradigm. While other companies are looking at Second Life as a short term PR based marketing opportunity, IBM is busy becoming THE company with extensive experience in VR based business practices—the business implications of operating a global company with full integration of Virtual Reality as a business communications platform. A communication tool where geography presents no limitations on speech, sight, or the full spacial interaction between participants. Whether Linden Lab's product, or a competitor's, becomes the standard is not so relevant. It is the experience with Virtual Reality as a business tool that is of value. This experience will transfer to any successful VR platform. In time, as VR joins the web, email, instant messaging, video conferencing, the telephone, the cell phone, the PDA, the fax machine, as just another ubiquitous communication tool, when other companies are just waking up to the notion, IBM will already be positioned as the authority on Virtual Reality best practices. All this, at a time when many companies are only pretending to have their internet/intranet/extranet strategies in place. For many businesses, VR could prove a greater impact than even the internet itself.
If you happen to view Second Life only as an escapist fantasy "game" world, and you think IBM is out of touch for not understanding this, I suggest that you're looking at Second Life through the lens of your own limited experience.
Chris Grayson
I reprint the letter here with Chris's permission. Assuming that the letter is accurate, and I'm sure it is, then VR interfaces may proliferate quite quickly if they take off. Clearly IBM is betting on this with real rather than virtual dollars. However I've yet to have any demonstration of VR interfaces being more productive than alternative ways of collaborating. Entertaining? yes, and hence commercially attractive to the entertainment industry, but productive?
The problem that I have with this is that there are already a whole set of sophisticated interface options for being productive with a wired computer, depending upon the task that you are carrying out. I don't see how being instantiated as an avatar helps with any significant ones. Many truly collaborative tasks involve working in teams with software tools, managing versions, scheduling and so on. How does an avatar improve the process?
You don't need VR to share white boards or do Powerpoint over the web or even play a 3D animation. Second life has chat—which is fine, but how is it superior if there's an avatar on the screen? I'd rather actually see a face because you can "read" faces but you can't "read" avatars. Avatars are very useful for anonymity. There are probably some business contexts where that can help, but I don't think there are many. I get the idea of marketing to people in Second Life itself. If they're there and volunteer for it, then hit them with ads. But that's clearly not what IBM has in mind. Am I missing something IBM?
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19th June 2007: 'Candi Kahne' said:
From what I read I believe you are saying that this virtual world stuff is NOT where the future of the internet is heading. And in that respect I agree. For the most part I think the web will stay 2d for information however I believe that this 3d environment will be used in other media applications such as TV shows. Imagine being able to watch a show or even a movie in full 3D. Being able to walk around and see the characters live out their lives. What if you could talk to the characters or help them out and influence the story. The talking feature of Second Life is already out and it's pretty cool if I say so myself. You should go check it out! You have to download the First Look Client which can be found here: http://secondlife.com/community/firstlook.php With the voice feature I think that it would bring virtual meetings to a whole other level. 3D audio and cool stuff like that. Candi
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19th June 2007: 'Paul' said:
You are absolutely missing something. VR is not the same as 2D. It is exactly saying I'm perfectly happy with 2D animation, so why do 3D. Or it is the same as we can already use a telegraph and communicate with each other, then why invent the telephone, or the telvision. Or it's the same as saying why go HD when analog works just fine. Virtual reality allows another dimension to the usage of the web. For example, say you are in a conference with 10 people from 10 seperate places in the world. Sure if you have the money, you can go and have everyone buy a few monitors to open up a video for everyone's face there and then start chatting away. But what if you have a conference with 20 people or even more? We can do a simple voice/text chat only, but VR actually provides an alternation. It allows for an actual physical presence. I can actaully use my Avatar and point at something and everyone knows exactly what I'm pointing at. The visual aspect is happening in real time for 20 or 30 or 50 people from 20 or 30 or 50 different places simultaneously in the world. No, Second Life isn't perfect right now, but there are certainly great implications there. Also, VR is a step up from browsers. With browsers, we only see what we see here in one website. But with VR, you can fly around and look at the surrounding neighborhoods, and what else is there. Surfing the Web really is surfing the web...if you get a nice litte surfboard attached to you and start flying around with that. It really does open up possibilities that otherwise would not be available. Also, it is a step up in terms of a networking perspective. I have been able to network with people from all over the world and gained a network of more people than I would otherwise have in a year or even more. For example, I purchased some land in Second life, thinking I was just gonna have a little place to do my thing in arts. by mere chance, a man from DC in the arts community there opened a gallery there next to me and we've collaborated in a few endeavors. This would never happen with the current web interface. Even if someone started a website in the same server, I would most likely NEVER find out who they are. Virtual reality does provide things that otherwise would not be possible in our current state. Yes, some of which can be a little "stupid" and simply a "novelty", but it has helped given people lots of opportunities, and even people with real disability a life that they can have online that otherwise would never get. So are you missing something, I would think so. Most of the people I think who entered Second Life and have negative reactions to it is because they failed to realize that Second Life does not provide content. When I first logged on I was completely lost and it was only work that kept me there until I have discovered its benefits. It is very easily to be overwhelmed by either the sex business in Second Life, and also by the boredom that may be felt as there seems to be absolutely nothing to do inside Second Life but chatting. But I assure you there are vibrant communities. There are near 300 art galleries large and small inside second life showing works that otherwise would either never see the light of days or that most people would never get a chance to access them. There are a tremendous amount of business opportunities there inside Second Life, and yes, some of which are venturing into dangerous territories, so just buyer beware. No matter, I do think IBM is thinking along the right path.
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20th June 2007: 'Randal Oulton' said:
>> The problem that I have with this is that there are already a whole set of sophisticated interface options for being productive...., depending upon the task that you are carrying out. I don't see how being instantiated as an avatar helps with any significant ones. To put it in context, many people still say the same thing about computers in general -- that if you know what you're doing, a pen and paper are tools as good as a computer.
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20th June 2007: 'Bill Linton' said:
the cross-over between the fantasy/game world and the business world is mostly the stuff of shallow journalism. I'm not saying it won't happen but the business benefits of collaboration by cartoon are elusive
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23rd June 2007: 'mouthsoap' said:
I have very serious doubts about the accuracy of the letter. Most of all because of the $100 million sum that is mentioned ("a 2007 commitment of $100M in Second Life development"). I have read of a $10 million budget for one year allocated by IBM for projects in SL, and I also saw once the amount of $100 millions mentioned but it was for a large number of entrepreneurial projects and not only for SL (I think this is what the author of the letter is confusing for a committment for SL). Well, $10 million is still pretty impressive, but why would I listen to this letter's author if he throws in numbers like that without backing them up with some reference and if I am pretty sure these numbers are incorrect?
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