While on vacation the last couple of weeks, working hard tearing things down, I took some time to relax and decided to spend some time inside of Second Life (SL). Now I've been inside of 3D online worlds since they first started popping up way back when and so far Second Life has proven, at least to me, to be the absolute best in terms of potential and opportunities.

I decided though that instead of just playing around I wanted to see if it held value, I mean real value so I rented an office and started a little side business. Helping Real Life (RL) companies come into SL. I helped two although only one is active at the moment, that one being RedMonk. I set up a whole office space for them with conference table and "huge" video monitor for presentations they can run streaming video and audio as well. It has value, that was my basic conclusion. Now how much value is of course the big question, I can run Twitter inside of it, I can do streaming audio and video, I can pull data in from external websites and system (yes I am going to show a demo of SAP data inside of SL after I finish my Zoho ones next week). You can have fun as well though, I started a second little side bit for Sky Diving, now that is fun!

I of course also wouldn't be me if I didn't bother to try and see a space for SAP in there, now this is all done without express consent - meaning this was not requested by SAP officially it's just me and a few others "looking" to see what can be done. It's all been taken down since then as it was just a bit of "playing" around...

Now having looked I'm definetely going to be pushing hard to see it go a bit further, the raw potential is just amazing inside of SL and if you find the right place, like Silicon Island you can definetely see some cool things start to happen.

The island I am on is holding an event, the ITE 2007, I picked up this bit below from 3pointD.

The blurb for the event says "ITE'07 is dedicated to showcasing the most innovative in technology products and services created by its residents for your business and personal needs." As well as extensive exhibition halls, to satisfy your Tshirt-grabbing needs, you can expect a full programme of lectures, product launches, demos and discussions. But if you find that thought too earnest and worthy, you might be more interested in the concerts and parties. The programme is not yet finalised but is set to include:
• Friday April 20 noon to 6:00 pm SLT 7:00 PM EXPO CONCERT - John Legend
• Saturday April 21 noon to 6:00 pm SLT 7:00 PM EXPO CONCERT - Black Eyed Peas

The event, hosted on »Silicon Island« and »Silicon City«, has been largely constructed by Liam Kanno (Odin Wright in RL) and the V3 Group, and is sponsored by:
• Sun Microsystems
• S Media 24Ã-7
• Reallusion
• Cattle Puppy Productions
• Second Life Broadcasting Company

Not everyone thinks that SL is all that though, many question the value and rightly so it's a hard sell to be quite honest. Many still view it as a game where as I see that I also see the huge potential. Imagine you work at an automative company and you are working with your designers to build the next cool deal. Well you can go through the costly (but very fun expenses) of using clay modeling (I saw the PT Cruiser as a huge clay model before it went into production) or you can bring all of your developers/designers together and build the model inside of SL, giving everyone the ability to actually sit down inside of it, drive it the works. Or you work for an aircraft building company - how interesting would it be to actually bring "testers" into SL to board your SL built aircraft sit down in the seats use the video equipment, the works? I would have loved to be a "tester" aboard the Airbus monster.

Many focus on the "marketing aspects" though and there I see some downfall, although at the up and coming ITE 2007 event you take a tram across the lake from Silicon Island to Silicon City and on both sides of you as you move across are bilboards (one's that even I could rent for L$800 for a week) so everyone attending the event will see these advertisements, but is it enough or is marketing a dud? I guess it depends on what you are expecting from your marketing? Me awareness and visibility seem to be more important than anything else, however does that lead to more sales? Admitted I work in a completely different type of environment where marketing is a flyer or banner placed somewhere and we hope people come over to see more, not that someone clicks and immediately wants to buy something.

I guess the bottom line is that RL companies are coming to SL and they are starting to find value, perhaps we should forget the "marketing" aspect and simply focus on the visibility aspect instead? What is more important that someone clicks it buys it or that they come to your site and want more...

Link to Is Marketing in Second Life a Dud?

Link to Terraforming the Internet: When 3D Models Meet Business Models