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Goodbye SecondLifeGrid.net and Hello SL Microsites in Working Inworld
Posted by Amanda Linden May 13, 2010
Case Study: Making the Real World Safer - TUEV NORD Group in Second Life in Working Inworld
Posted by Catherine Linden Apr 16, 2010
For those of you not familiar with Metanomics, it is one of the largest and most successful business communities in Second Life and they also have a weekly mixed-reality event—in SL and streamed on the web—that is one of the most well attended business gatherings in SL. Under the leadership of Doug Thompson (SL: Dusan Writer), CEO of Remedy Communications and Robert Bloomfield (SL: Beyers Sellers), Professor of Accounting at Cornell University, the Metanomics program has thrived and trail blazed several best practices around building community and producing large mixed-reality events in Second Life. So, we just had to do a case study exploring how they built the program and showcasing their accomplishments, entitled, “A Vibrant Community and Mixed-Reality Events for Virtual World Business and Policy, “ now available in English, German, French, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese on the SL Work website. The case study is also mentioned on the Metanomics blog.
Here’s the executive summary:
"Metanomics™ explores the serious uses of virtual worlds and, from its start, has built a global community as a weekly discussion of policy and research. Centered on a talk-show program that broadcasts live from Second Life, Metanomics is an example of how organizations are building engaged communities and cost-effectively developing content that can be widely distributed on the Web."
"Metanomics began in September 2007 as a visionary guest lecture series for business and law undergrads by Robert Bloomfield, a professor at Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University, but it soon attracted business and thought leadership-minded professionals from the Second Life user community. The broad ranging audience participation won the attention of Remedy Communications, which bought Metanomics in December 2008. The weekly program, now in its third year, has since evolved into a successful and vibrant mixed-media communication network—using both inworld and Web-streaming technologies—consisting of over 3,000 content developers, businesses, educators, and thinkers."
So, I encourage you to check out the case, join the Metanomics community and participate in their weekly events—generally every Wednesday at 12pm PT—but check their events listing for specific dates/times. And, get involved in the Metanomics community on their Forum, Facebook group, and Twitter feed.
One other note. Esbee Linden and I were invited onto Metanomics yesterday to discuss Viewer 2 and Shared Media. Check out the replay.
Enjoy!
P.S. And, if you’re looking for other business-related communities and events, I’m also a big fan of Gronstedt Group’s “Train for Success,” events every Thursday at 9:00am PT.
Viewer 2: Driving Adoption and Content for Enterprise in Working Inworld
Posted by William Linden Mar 3, 2010Our announcement last week of the Second Life Viewer 2 Beta marks a significant evolutionary step on many fronts, as covered in recent blog posts. Now that the dust has had a chance to settle a bit, I'd like to dive into some of what this means for our Enterprise customers in particular. Two areas stand out as big wins. The first is the opportunity for deeper organizational adoption as usability obstacles have been cleared. The second is the vast new content creation (and purchasing) opportunities that will abound with the introduction of Shared Media. Let's look at each of these in detail.
Organizational Adoption
Like many other technologies, the value of Second Life derived from within the organization increases with adoption, for many reasons: shared learning, reduced setup times, more productive time spent on the tasks at hand, resulting in more in-depth, creative and productive uses of the product.Second Life Viewer 2, now in Beta, has the ingredients necessary to take Second Life deeper into the organization:
- A slimmed-down more familiar user interface with a cleaner layout and simplified menu choices means that if your users have seen a browser, they're starting on familiar ground
- Simpler location sharing via integrated Second Life URLs (SLURLs) -- location links that can be copied from the browser-like location bar to an email, instant message or calendar event to facilitate both scheduled and impromptu collaboration
- A smooth transition: the current production viewer (1.23) will still work; so existing users making the transition can easily fall back to familiar ground as they master the new viewer
Build or Buy? Rich Interactive Solution Possibilities Abound
Adoption will also be spurred by what you and your users can now create inworld -- thanks to the implications of the powerful new Shared Media feature set. Until now, sophisticated content creation has centered around several core competencies: object creation using inworld building tools, object texturing, and of course, scripting. Many organizations until now have found it a daunting proposition to develop these skills within their organizations due to their limited transferability to other projects. But many organizations do have essential Web application expertise; and this can be leveraged fully through Shared Media, by incorporating interactive Web content with inworld objects. While we'll continue to support the existing content-creation tools, building sophisticated interactive training and collaboration space now becomes significantly easier.
Further, in addition to having access to the full complement of Web development capabilities (pretty much anything supported natively in a Web browser), media is no longer constrained to a single instance per parcel. Before the introduction of Shared Media, a given parcel of land could support only a single piece of media, such as a video or audio stream. Today, any surface can be assigned a separate media source. And more than this, the media can be interactive. Consider some new possibilities:
Complement Live Events
With the ability to put media where you need it without parcel constraints, virtual live events become a much simpler affair to conduct. Envision a space with live streaming video of the presenter(s) along with simultaneous Flash-based media presentations to accompany their discussion points; breakout rooms with collaborative white boards or idea-sharing synchronized notepads; and hands-on software product demonstrations via Web-based VNC-style application sharing. All of these components can be assembled readily by leveraging Web-based software that you are likely already using (or could easily be).
Leverage a World of Existing Web-Based Collaborative Applications
So, what Web applications in particular might you be able to use inworld today to facilitate collaboration? There are plenty of options. Here are some examples, by category, to get you started (but by no means an exhaustive list):
The other result we believe will soon become apparent is an explosion of Shared Media-based solutions available for purchase, either inworld or online via Xstreet XL, from individuals as well as seasoned solution providers. In this way, Enterprise users will have access to a wider choice along the buy-build spectrum: build from scratch, assemble pre-built components, or purchase complete off-the-shelf solutions.
All of these exciting UI and Shared Media features introduced here with Viewer 2 Beta will soon be coming to Second Life Enterprise (SLE) as part of the Release 1.0 product offering, scheduled for release in the second quarter of this year. Further, because some of the most valuable media content is secure behind your firewall, SLE will be the go-to solution for easily sharing this secure data in private workspaces. This includes things like company Intranet pages, internal wikis, SharePoint pages, project planning output, and any number of common web-based workgroup mediums.
These are just some initial concepts on what we're sure is the virtual tip of the iceberg of possibilities now available for compelling solutions in the enterprise. We're excited to see the creative solutions that begin to emerge, both as organization-specific solutions as well as those introduced into the SL ecosystem as items available for purchase inworld and on Xstreet SL. We'd love to hear some of your ideas and observations!
Further Reading:
- Tom Hale's Viewer 2.0 Beta Launch Blog Post
- Edelman Linden's Shared Media Blog Post
- Viewer 2.0 Beta Forum
Resources to Help You Learn Viewer 2
- Viewer 2 Help Portal (links to everything below)
- Quickstart Guide (SL Wiki)
- Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)
- Release Notes (SL Wiki)
- Video Demos (YouTube)
- SL Answers (SL Answers)
And, if something breaks or you're really stuck, then contact Support and we're happy to help.
Looking for a way to get your organization started quickly in Second Life? Linden Lab now offers four pre-built regions with landscaping, buildings and appropriate additional features for purchase by invoice.
Developed Region Styles
