What "The L"?

Other than the NBC tree lighting, I have yet to see such a large single media entity island presence in Second Life as what I saw today.

The picture below is a map snaphot showing a set of twenty-five (25) islands all representing Showtime's "The L Word". You might call it the Continent of The L if it were not simply duplicates of the same island.



Additionally, there are eight (8) other The L Word islands, all but one appear to be dedicated to orientation for newbie L Word fans rushing to get their mixed world experience on. There are plenty of billboard style cues that direct people to planned events, as well as shopping and popular off island destinations such as Yadni's Junkyard.


This morning I found several avis, new and old, roaming around The Planet for a morning cup of coffee.

I don't know what the plans are for such an agressive in world presence, but I plan to keep my eye on this development. The investment (notwithstanding initial and on going ESC development costs) are roughly $55,275 island purchase, plus $9735 per month maintenance = $65,010 first month - a tiny sliver of a first rate cable show marketing budget.

Go Showtime, go ....
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Greg Verdino "gets" Second Life

I've been labeled a "technologist" for many years - before that it was "scientist" and in living up to the stereotype, I have been wary of anyone remotely associated with "sales and marketing". As disciplines, science and marketing seem to be at odds when it comes to ways of thinking, approaching a problem, and most importantly, communicating results. Today my role in new product development provides a new perspective on this apparent tension.

In the past, it seemed that marketers were simply pleased with hype - real or imagined - and were experts at the spin and the silver lining. To the contrary, scientists and technologists drove and graded their work merely by data, often at the expense of the intangible obvious when faced with actual consumer wants and needs. But the landscape is changing as CMOs turn over faster than pancakes at the Waffle House for failing to deliver measurable results, and *successful* technologists are turning their ear to the consumer - sometimes foregoing new bells and whistles for predictable performance, coupled with aesthetics.

So why the long winded introduction? Because I found a recent MediaPost article with Greg Verdino especially refreshing. I fact, I had to read it a couple of times to convince myself it really was Greg Verdino, but it was and he clearly "gets" it - at least more so than some of his colleagues. His points are simple yet salient, and communicate a few very important points about the Second Life and what companies should expect. I especially liked this quote:

"You don't just build something and say, 'Hey, great. It's done!' You have to keep adding to it and maintaining it," he says. "A big mistake marketers make is to invest in building the environment, but not investing for the long-term."

How many times have you visited the myriad of big name private estates in Second Life only to find no one there? Greg does a good job of calling out the true mystique about Second Life without being as blunt as I will. So what's the secret sauce?

It's the culture, stupid ....

What do I mean by "culture"? I mean nothing less than every entry in the definition of the word and every elemental discussion of the ideal including values, norms, institutions and artifacts.

Second Life has it's own culture and it is not one that should be presumed, it must be experienced and consumed. Starbucks has a culture - and you can figure it out in a few visits - it's defined by the ambiance, the language and even the barista. Second Life has a culture that is evolving - shaped and influenced every day by new and old Residents, by external forces like Clay Shirky's wag, Henry Jenkins' insight, and Howard Rheingold's experience.

If you want to succeed in Second Life, then you have to live it to "get" it and thanks to Greg Verdino, maybe more people will start to understand.



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Second Life Client Meets Open Source

Linden Lab announced today that the source code for the Second Life viewer (the client) will be available as open source. Check it out here.

Will there be much rejoicing? An open source client means the door for copyright infringement has been left ajar for those that wish to enter. This has been the subject of some debate most recently stimulated by the CopyBot, but time will tell who may light a fire about this section in the FAQ.

Will someone use a hacked client to copy all my content without my permission?

In some cases (e.g. textures), it will be possible for someone to create a client that doesn't respect the "do not copy" flag, since anything that can be viewed on the viewer can be copied. Some content doesn't need to get sent to the viewer, such as scripts, or items in your inventory, and these types of items will not be copyable.

Please see the next section, For Content Creators, for more information about how Linden Lab is working to protect content in Second Life.

More specifically, I think this suggestion to content creators may raise some eyebrows:

Copyright infringement is a problem for content creators, but there are many ways to respond. Naïve content creators often respond by attempting to implement ineffective copy protection mechanisms that rarely hinder infringement, and often hinder lawful use of their creations. More sophisticated content creators respond by figuring out how to deepen the relationship with customers and create such value around their brands that customers will want to pay to ensure they get the "genuine article". We hope, over time, that the Second Life community will become more sophisticated in dealing with the same issues that content creators in the real world have been dealing with for quite some time.

The last sentence is moderately incongruent with the first two. The "genuine article" argument is a difficult one to make even for tangible real world products where quality may ultimately be more important and therefore represents differentiation (at least today). In Second Life, a texture is a texture is a texture as long as it's seamless and sized correctly. The rendering isn't that good to make a meaningful difference. However - in the *real world* - copyright, the protection thereof and the resultant legal actions toward infringement require a level of sophistication that are far beyond what is afforded by the Second Life platform.
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Shirky vs. Economics vs. The Value of First Hand Experience

The Clay Shirky battle rages on, even after some lengthy "my Dad can beat up your Dad" forays and continuous bashing across the many outlets afforded to those with a voice and an ounce of blog *fame*. The conversation is difficult to follow and I am certain that Clay's reported initial "reporters beware" point has been lost. Most recently, I found Tristan Louis' analysis interesting albeit still lacking any meaningful discussion past the numbers, the bloody numbers.

I was wondering how Clay and others might report on, say a street performer that draws an inordinantly large crowd at Washington Square. I suspect it would be completely devoid of any mention of the performer's talent, or lack thereof, or of the bewilderment in a child's eyes, or even of the inpsiration the performance afforded an otherwise downtrodden passerby.

Instead, it would bark about the relatively low numbers given the size of the venue, and yelp about the fact that most of the observers were merely tourists, or homeless or hookers. It would wax poetically about the same performance last week that drew a far smaller crowd in the middle of a rain storm perhaps even include snarky snippets about the fact that the week before several on lookers even cried ... silly tourists trapped in the media hype of a street performer.

And the closing paragraph would include a video of a "reporter" attending the next performance, behaving badly - rudely - inappropriately - mocking the strong cultural tendencies of the onlookers who object to his behavior, and ignoring their suggestions and explanations to what might constitute true participation and engagement ... silly reporter.

I know it's the first impetus of an economist to start building a model, but it is too early and pointless for number crunching to draw meaningless conclusions. A true reporting and understanding of the Second Life phenomena takes a more than a ride around the block in a 32 prim Pontiac to understand. If you want a balanced analysis, Gwen says it best here.
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