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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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I can hear the snickers now…

Shel HoltzAll those people who dismiss Second Life as a fad doomed to expire as quickly as PointCast did must be nodding knowingly at the report of terrorists disrupting the virtual 3D world as part of its effort to force owner Linden Labs to relinquish control to residents. In its bid for more in-world democracy, the Second Life Liberation Army has engaged in a virtual bombing campaign

As an article in the Sydney Morning Herald points out, the SLLA (which was attacked itself recently) is not the first group or individual to wreck havoc in Second Life—not by a long shot. In fact, the metaverse seems to have become a lightning rod for whackos who are more interested in disruption than collaboration and community. And these incidents could lead a lot of organizations to decide against exploring the potential 3D worlds offer, whether it’s communication or commerce the company wants to promote.

To dismiss Second Life for these reasons is a curious reaction, considering the real world is plagued by far more anarchy and terrorism than the virtual one, yet we somehow manage to continue to do business. The value of Second Life for businesses right now is the learning experience. If a company is convinced that a significant portion of the Net will evolve into a 3D experience similar to Second Life, it’s better to figure out how to function in such a world now than wait until everybody else is already there. If we can figure out how to keep the doors open and the lights on in the face of the kind of chaos we face every day in the real world, we should be able to figure it out in a virtual world, too.

03/05/07 | 1 Comment | I can hear the snickers now…

Comments
  • 1.Actually, this kind of thing doesn't really phase me. Create any open environment, and a certain degree of this kind of behavior will inevitably be a factor.

    My issue remains the usability, clunky interface, and utter inability for SL to draw (nontechnical) people in beyond that first 5 minute session where 90% of people abandon their account and never return. For all the publicity they've gained, they should be bursting at the seams with active users, but you rarely see more than a few thousand online. They should easily be cruising at a few hundred thousand for the supposed 'total membership' they tout.

    Again, I don't doubt the potential of virtual realms. I think we'll eventually see it. I'm just waiting for a company to architect a system that eliminates the fundamental flaws in SL's approach.

    Jerry Stevenson | March 2007 | Dallas, Texas

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