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Permalink Reply by Dave Elchoness on November 25, 2007 at 12:14pm

I am simply pushing ahead. Networking, meeting, speaking, writing, and offering tours in SL to those who are interested. I am launching a website including machinima depictions of workplace scenarios shortly. My sim in SL is continuously being improved and I am investigating new communications technologies in the sim. In short, I am sharing my thoughts wherever I can.

I am not a technologist, but I have run large organizations, including global outsourcing and vendor relations. And my background is in HR law. Perhaps it's the combination of these disciplines, which oddly enough converge in the VW space, that make me so passionate about all of this. There is no question that we are in the PONG era (and I express that openly when I discuss the subject), but without PONG, there would have been no Donkey Kong, and no Mario, and no XBox, etc.

I am 36 years old and so my earliest memories of a home computer are the Commodore 64 we got when I was around 12 or so (I think.) The thing worked poorly, stalled, the printing stunk, etc. but it was a harbinger for things to come.

As you indicate, Linda, this is moving so fast, that I am pushing myself into the field as quickly as I can in the hopes that I will be caught up in it sooner than later. I am not wed to SL by any means, but today it appears to be the most vibrant and publicly accessible.

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Permalink Reply by Linda Zimmer | Znetlady Isbell on November 25, 2007 at 10:01pm

I do hope you will share your website when it is launched!

It seems to me that you make a really important point - that SL is the most accessible virtual world - both in terms of openness, and in terms of flexibility of applied use. Thus the prospect for innovation is so ripe in SL - although I think there is opportunity for innovation in hundreds of areas that service, support or touch virtual worlds as well.

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Permalink Reply by Alex Fedotov on November 26, 2007 at 9:19am

Linda, let's talk about something concrete...
Are you ready to invest (mostly people/time and effort) in opportunities for business-innovations (for now - in SL)? If yes - I can show you 3 WORKING technology solutions ready for stuffing and joint-venture/promotion. Namely:
1. Affiliate media network for SL. Web-based management of graphic content network with SL representation (you may call it a 'banner network' for now but it's something different). ESC are just building similar things, we have it ready.
2. Catalogue of locations (built on affiliation principle with independent editors and general supervision). Can work together with 1. or separately
3. Media/add-supported cross-sim transportation service in SL (can be installed all around the SL). Can work together with 1. and 2.

Let me know by private message here if you are interested.

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Permalink Reply by Corrie Messinger on November 26, 2007 at 3:05pm

Are you finding now companies and intuitive environments outside of the tech industry that are both utilizing this regularly(not just one-off's?) and committing to further branded design, or adaptation to their style of workplace and conferencing?

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Permalink Reply by Dave Elchoness on November 28, 2007 at 1:07pm

yes

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Permalink Reply by Labsji Link on November 25, 2007 at 1:25am

Virtual Worlds as place for rapid prototyping of market situations has promising (Business Innovation)potential. For instance the concept Vendor Relationship Management(VRM) can be evolved faster and showcased in SecondLife rather than the first.

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Permalink Reply by Alex Fedotov on November 25, 2007 at 7:22am

Thank you, Labsji
I have one product close to the end of production line. All words in this purely academic initiative apply to it to some extent. Will not have to invent many of them, just copy-paste (kidding, no kidding). :)
Note: I'm not sure about the perspectives of Liberty Alliance and the like after the last round of Google initiatives. Or to say it more clearly I think the time for them is over. They had their time-window and didn't manage. Now other people have come and will do it differently.

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Permalink Reply by Linda Zimmer | Znetlady Isbell on November 25, 2007 at 11:05am

Hi, Labsji!

I know that Cisco recently held a channel partner recuritment event in Second Life, but I haven't run into any organizations "doing" VRM in VWs - and I should see if I can dig up some results from them to share . UGS (a Siemens company) has an SL presence partly as an "extension" of their PLM software. I particularly like the machinima they did. I wonder if anyone knows what direction they are going with it in SL, or if their presence is a branded presence to 'speak' to their PLM visualization approach.

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Permalink Reply by Labsji Link on November 25, 2007 at 11:32am

Individual to Business VRM( as in topsy turvy of CRM) is the tricky part in the real world. There is lot of learning and education involved both from Individual and businesses side. VW as testing ground for such learning activities is one area where the adjustable reality of VWs will be handy IMO.

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Permalink Reply by Linda Zimmer | Znetlady Isbell on November 25, 2007 at 12:11pm

Sorry, I should have included the link to the UGS machinima/web page:

http://www.plm.automation.siemens.com/secondLife/

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Permalink Reply by Linda Zimmer | Znetlady Isbell on November 25, 2007 at 12:15pm

Labsji, are you currently involved in doing any of that testing or learning related to VRM? I can see where the lines between the individual brand, their partners and their customers could become quite blurred!

While today's business environment is moving towards openness, there is still a lot of "protecting" of relationships going on. I wonder if VWs are threats to innovations because of that? Hmmmm.

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Permalink Reply by Labsji Link on November 25, 2007 at 12:31pm

Not yet Linda,
I'm consulting for a B-School wanting to check out what the heck the SecondLife and VW is all about. Instead of asking them to go through the grind of creating a Sim and figuring out what to do with it, I was suggesting alternative approaches for using SecondLife and learning. VRM prototyping in SecondLife will be 2 fruits in one stone.
That apart, I'm experimenting with SecondLife, Real Life mashups. Avatar Voodo or Avoodo is a mashup of SecondLife with Amazon Mturk - a marketplace for fine grained Human Intelligence Tasks(HITs).
Here are links if you care more:
http://treepu.in/wp/avoodo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mturk

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