Stocks and shares

I have been calling into the World Stock Exchange (WSE) in SL recently... I'd been there earlier in the week to find out a bit about SL share dealing. The exchange was due to start trading a couple of days ago, but when I got there it was still closed... all marble halls, a few posters on the wall, and a message floating in the air to say the exchange would be closed until 1st Feb.

When I got there today, the exchange was STILL closed, but this time there were a few SL inhabitants (some in suits) coming to look at the exchange. Apparently something has gone wrong with the scripts, and the coders are all in bed getting some sleep (must have been a late night!)

This to me is something of a schoolboy error. It looks like the scripts for the exchnage have not been properly tested..... it can't have taken too much effort to set up a dummy exchange in a nice quiet spot and get some friends over to make test transactions. I think it goes to show that an IT professional is needed to do the implementation - someone who knows about test and release strategies!

The problem is that trading stocks and shares is all about trust - I trust the dealer to use my money to buy the shares I asked for. I trust the compnaies offering shares to be above board and honest. But when the company taking my money can't get their computer system running properly, then I wonder if I can trust them.

There was also a lot of speculation over the value of the current tranche of IPOs in SL. A number of the traders had the view that a few too many shares were being offered. My naive view is that they'd have been better offering just a few shares, and letting the first investors earn a packet. THEN go for volume once the market has been kick-started.

I think it will be interesting to see if the exchange does actually kick off & do some trading in the next few days.... or will it disappear into oblivion? There is, of course, the chance that an RL bankiing entrant into Sl will come along and snap up the SL exchange! Then again, with teething troubles fixed, it could be that the exchange goes live and makes a killing!

Don't Say a Word

My good friend Aleister Kronos was telling me today that he’d been playing with a Skype phone, intending to use it to chat within Second Life. We have a mutual friend somewhere in a different (RL) continent who has recently enrolled with Skype, but who hasn’t yet invested in a handset. Both parties have the necessary in-world headsets to initiate voice communication.

But hold on….. Aleister is now hesitating over whether or not to make the call. He’s been quite happy using Chat, IM and e-mail to communicate, but there’s something a bit odd about the idea of using “real” voice communication. Something doesn’t feel quite right…. There seems to be the chance of ruining a beautiful friendship!

So what is it about chat that is so good?

Similarly, why do teenagers insist in using SMS text messages rather than speaking to their friends?

Perhaps it is that Chat (or IM) keeps the interaction remote. The Avatars on screen show a virtual presence, but the keyboard and screen provide a protective barrier between correspondents. Switch to voice, and the person at the other end of the line becomes that bit more “real” and so able to inflict pain, or shatter an illusion as to their real persona.

Then again, the keyboard slows down communication, allowing time for consideration and refinement. How many times in spoken conversation do we blurt out a response and then wish we’d engaged our brains before putting our mouth into motion. Few people are so adept at touch typing that they do not have to check what they have typed…. And so inevitably have to read and consider what they are about to send, allowing tempers to cool slightly or responses to be moderated.

Finally, there is the concept of attention span…. You have to concentrate 100%, in real-time when having a spoken conversation. You do not have the opportunity to “rewind” the conversation if you were not listening or were otherwise distracted. With written (chat or IM) conversations, you can leave the thread for a while (seconds, minutes, hours even) before picking up conversation once more. You can go back and review what has been said. There is no question about what was said – there is an unambiguous audit log of the whole conversation.

Despite these advantages, it appears that Linden Labs are currently working on voice integration within SL. So soon it may not be necessary to procure a Skype (or other) external voice account. We will be meeting people within SL and chatting to them by voice directly…. Just like in RL…. But then, as I have noted in an earlier posting, we don’t actually speak to people so readily in RL…….. so will the introduction of voice be a backwards step? Or will residents still insist on using “old fashioned” methods of communication via keyboard? Only time will tell.

Historical Perspective

I'm currently struggling with finding ways of presenting SL to senior managers in such a way that it will not be dismissed as "just a game". To put SL in perspective, I started to look back to the way that the World Wide Web developed. (I could go back even further and consider the development of the underlying Internet, but then I'd start to feel REALLY old!) When WWW was first devised, it was to make the exchange of academic documents easier. The people using the Internet were universities and colleges.

Then, commercial organisations started to see the benefits of the www, and began to create simple web sites. These were pretty static affairs, containing some simple background information.... but the hype was all about marketing opportunities.

The Internet was viewed as something not to be trusted - full of pornography, and populated by academics and geeks. Few people had access, but demand was growing.

In recent years, access to the Intneret has exploded. Novel applications and business models have developed. Admittedly, there was the dot com bubble, when the hype outstripped the application, but now there are sound companies generating business based on the World Wide Web. Web applications have moved on to Web 2.0, with interactive page content, personalisation, voice, video etc. etc.

This development curve is now being mapped by Second Life. The environment started as a game for geeks. It has been adopted by academic institutions and libraries as a significant teaching tool. Companies have started to enter Second Life with simple buildings and static displays, to show off their brands.

Interfaces are being developed to Real Life applictions (e.g. Amazon)

We don't know what new applications are going to be developed in SL, but clearly the opportunities are boundless.

Just as I have been following this line of thought, I came across the Reuters interview with Linden Lab Chairman Mitch Kapor I've had the audio-stream of the interview playing whilst I write this blog entry. Rather spookily, his views have mapped directly onto mine (or is it that my views have mapped onto his??) Either way, have both reached the same conclusions about the potential for SL, and the way that its development is mirroring the Internet or the PC.

He had quite a few other interesting observations and comments - the broadcast is well worth a listen!

New ways in.

My good friend Aleister Kronos has just noted in his blog that "The L Word" has just set up a stack of islands in SL, with their own registration route into SL that avoids the standard Linden Orientation Islands. He briefly touches on the potential for this as a more controlled and structured route into SL for business users.

To expand.... what The L Word are using is the Registration API... a tool which enables organisations to offer Sl registration via their own web site. The only caveat is that it is made clear that registering for SL means entering into an agreement with Linden Labs. Once into SL, the user is free to wander where they please. Similarly, the alternate orientation islands are available for other SL residents to visit.

The potential for business users is that they can steer their users away from the hubub of the standard Orientation Islands (which, I noticed the other day, were heaving with newbies..... there is a veritable flood of new useres pouring into SL at present). They can bring users into their serious business applications, before getting distracted with the trivia of flying or furry avatars (see my earlier posts on these topics).

More details on The L World's site, and the custom entry point can be found in the "mynake is kate" blog

On a related tack, I heard recently of organisations with their own private (internally hosted?) areas of SL that were totally hidden from the outside world. I wonder how long it will be before it is possible to buy an SL grid for use behind a corporate firewall, just in the same way that we now have intranets firewalled from the internet??

More observations on Avatars

I have already noted (People Communicate More in SL) that in SL avatars are generally either all quite youthful and good looking or totally bizarre in their appearance. I'd like to develop the idea a bit further, and take a closer look at the sorts of avatars people use.


After my sweeping statement above, about the apparent age of avatars, I've taken a look at myself in the mirror (well, taken a look at my avatar on screen, which could be considered as amounting to the same thing) and see that I elected for the "elder geek" look; with white shoulder-length hair and a beard, dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt. OK, so I managed to lose the beer-belly, added a slightly more muscular frame than I have in RL, and I don't have long white hair, but apart from that, I went for a "conservative realistic" look. Similarly, my pal Aleister Kronos's avatar is decidedly not young. In RL, we're both just over the half-century mark.... so has this had an influence in our choice of appearance?

(Here is Aleister chatting to what apears to be a wolf in man's clothing and a slender young woman in bling bling stilettos)

It's not just us blokes who have taken a more conservative approach to avatars. Both Aleister and I know a couple of ladies in SL who have resisted the urge to go for the "happy hooker" look of short skirts and stilettos, electing instead for more a more conservative appearance.


Then again, there's quite a lot of work involved in creating an exotic avatar. The standard "out of the box" characters are all OK as they go, but they don't really posess any great style. I discovered this to my cost (in terms of time) last night, when I decided go "camping" in a nightclub to earn some Linden Dollars. (more on Camping in a later blog entry), It didn't seem right to retain the "elder geek" look for this exercise, so a change in appareance was called for. Just for fun, I went for a gender change whilst I was at it. This was a mistake. Just as in RL, it takes an age for women to get dressed, I discovered that in SL it can take just as long! Admittedly I was trying to look presentable on a low budget (limiting myself to free clothing, hair and skin) but after an hour of preening, I still had a pretty ordinary looking avatar. I think it will be a while before I take her out of the box again..... it was just IMPOSSIBLE to find the right thing to wear.... & then to get suitable shoes to match!!!


On the bright side, I'd been able to package up Team's appearance and store it in my inventory before making the gender change. So after my night on the tiles,it was a quick and easy task to drag the"Team's Normal Appearance" box out of my inventory and bring him back to normal. (well, almost.... somewhere along the line I hadn't saved his skin properly, so he ended up still sporting a fine sun-tan, lip-gloss and eye makeup!)


This ability to swap avatar within seconds is actually rather handy. I have already noted that the choice of avatar is important in business situations (can YOU take someone seriously if they look like a giant chicken??) But with a packaged appearance, you can pull on your business suit within seconds. Apparently IBM Chief Executive Samuel S. Palmisano has two persona - one for formal presentations, the other for more casual situations. (see www.businessweek.com )
I just wish I could switch appearance so quickly in Real Life! Pehaps this is another of the attractions of SL - the ability change yourself at will and take on a completely different identity in seconds.

Working in a 3D World

I've just been eavesdropping on an interesting conversation about a building project in SL. The plan was to investigate re-modelling a meeting room. The flexibility of a virtual environment soon became apparent.....

First off, how do you compare the new room with the orignial?

Simple - take a copy of the room before you start! Then if the modifications go pear-shaped, you just reinstate the original.

Then, where do you do the work.... the plan was to involve a number of people in a collaboration exercise.... but how to stop them from trashing the rest of the building?

Again, relatively simple.... put the copy of the room in a sandbox away from the original building.

But then came the further leap of the imagination, as it was suggested that the sandbox area should be created in a box 300 ft up in the air! Now OK, this is a routine technique in SL, but for the un-initiated person still immersed in Real Life, it is another of the radical differences between SL and RL. And remember, something that YOU consider to be blindingly obvious is often seen as something REALLY clever and imaginative by someone else!

As well as considering vertical space (for a "private" venue) the vertical also proivdes a way of utilising a plot of land to the full.... but whereas in RL, you need foundations and supports, in SL objects can be suspended in mid-air just by "Art" *

Other concepts to consider when building are templates or grids to aid in layout.... again, in RL you can use something similar, but in SL you have the advantage that a whole layout grid can be put in place or deleted at the click of a mouse.

Finally, from another security perspective, the map function in SL provides an instant areal view of any new island or parcel of land..... so even if you have access controls and a virtual fence to keep intruders out, anyone can bring up the map view and zoom in to see what you are up to. Anyone wishing to keep their building works a secret, must remember to put a giant virtual dust-sheet over the whole operation to keep out prying eyes!

So, once again, we have SL mirroring RL, but then going beyond our normal boundaries and requiring a much broader mind-set to take full advantage of the (virtual) environment.

* Suspending objects in space using "Art" - a concept developed by Douglas Adams in the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Used to suspend a plastic cup in mid-air as part of a 3-mile high statue of Arthur Dent throwing his cup at a Nutrimatic Drinks Dispenser.

The Immersive Experience

Following on from my discussion about why people communicate more in a 3D environment, (See the previous post) I began to consider the way that a meeting or conference within SL can be so much more rewarding (and more flexible) than a simple multi-way chat session.

How is this?

Dana Gardner recorded in his ZDnet Blog that the IBM launch in Second Life was a huge success, because participants from around the world, and were able to communicate directly with senior managers and key thinkers from IBM. There was a feeling of "being there". Similarly,Betsy Stoll recorded in her blog that when Michigan Library Consortium held an in-world event to discuss MySpace, they found a their meeting in SL to be far more productive than other types of meeting, as everyone was involved in the discussion. (on a different note, a key speaker did observe that this was the first time they'd made a presentation to a group of people whilst still wearing pyjamas!)

But this still doeesn't explain WHY the meetings worked so well.

Perahps it is in the visual clues that are available when avatars are involved. You are able to see who is speaking (or, through the avatar's and movements, who is typing). You can see if someone gets bored and starts to wander away from the discussion. If you have a question to ask, you can "approach" the speaker (or whoever you wish to address) so that they are aware that you are intending to speak to them.

Similarly, if you find a group of people who you would like to chat with outside of the main meeting group, it is simple for you all to move away, "out of earshot" of the main discussion to have your break-out session.

The whole experience is more immersive. You feel that you are "there".

This can sometimes be a little TOO much.... On one occasion, I was in an SL disco, chattting to a friend. Our avatars were on a dance floor, which had built in animation - so the avatars were dancing away to the music whilst we held our chat conversation. I was watching the avatars dance, whilst at the same time following the chat. It was quite tiring.... I felt psychologically out of breath (though, obviously, was not exerting myself physically). There was the in-built associatioin that if I was "dancing" and trying to speak at the same time, then I MUST be shouting and exerting myself. I must be getting old... it was far too much... I just wanted to move away from the dance floor and continue the conversation whilst sitting in a comfy chair!