a business person's introduction to second life

David Leip

Second Life

David Leip

STSM, Chief Innovation Dude and Agile Methods Advocate, ibm.com

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Thomas Folsom (aka David Leip)

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IBM Almaden Island

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Irving Islander: This isn't just about a series of separate game environments. We're seeing the dawn of a true 3-D Internet, a global, integrated, fully immersive world with the scope and openness of today's 2-D Net.

Sam IBM: This is truly fascinating, Irving.. You're right, it's not just about games. This is really about business and society.

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From Business Week

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Opportunity

• Second Life is like foreshadowing for what lies ahead. • Richer online interactions would seem to have a lot of

potential in a world where teams, clients, vendors, suppliers and partners have little less in person interaction.

• And in the Now…– Good meeting environment, reduce travel costs, and wear and

tear on employees.– Environment encourages creative thinking.– Collaborative and participatory– Opportunities to interact with clients and potential clients– Can extend brand presence– Yes, and possibly even sell.

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Second Life Population (Jan 2003 - Jan 2007)

Unique Users

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

2003-present

From Second Life Census Jan. 2007

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SL Population by First Life Country

Italy

Others

Belgium

Canada

Brazil

Spain

Netherlands

UKGermany

France

United States

•Very Strong European Presence•Very Weak Asian Presence

From Second Life Census Jan. 2007

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Where’s the Value?

• Need to measure effectiveness.– Even if the strategy is to take a loss initially as an investment…. MEASURE!

• Consider:– The number of people that are visiting your property, or even better the number

of unique visitors.– Can you measure the amount of attention each “offering/asset” is getting.– How long do visitors stay?– How often various assets used? (Video’s watched, presentations viewed, etc.)– How many clients does each staff member interacted with?– How often does a visitor to your property leave satisfied? (questions answered,

etc.). Can you tie that back to who they spoke with or what they did?– How many leads and sales are connected to a SL experience. Can you tie that

back to the specific rep they interacted with if any?– How many web downloads originate from SL.– The ROI on SL investment. Expenses in property, development and staffing.

Staff in the SL property will likely be multi-tasking with First Life (FL) activities, but you should be able to measure a drop in FL productivity in order to derive the cost of staffing the SL property.

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Beware!

• Security is currently weak in SL.• You can restrict access to certain properties, but that

doesn’t make it secure.• All identities are fictional.• It is easy to masquerade as someone else, even one of

your employees.• If you have a business presence staffed by employees,

they need to follow a code of conduct.– Play it safe and require employees to have separate avatars for

work and play. You probably don’t want your SL staff seen having sex in a public place while they are off duty.

• Business assets vs. Personal assets.• Plenty of people creating a public nuisance of themselves.

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An Angel?

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Get a First Life!

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Further Information

• David Leip Leip@us.ibm.com

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Back-up Charts!

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