Virtual Worlds Conference 2007- Morning Session/RAW NOTES

Welcome
- Christopher V. Sherman, Executive Director, Virtual Worlds Conference



  • "We are at the beginning of something big"


Introduction
 - Philip Rosedale, Founder and CEO, Linden Lab



  • "We probably won't crash" (Philip joke about all of us being able to hear him :) )


  • Who would be if you could be anyone..."Me"

    •    If pressed on the question he said he would be Richard Feinman



  • "The atomic details of the world are very fine grained"

  • "There is something magical that is in these machines"

  • Virtual Reality as space exploration, inner space

  • "We dreamed we could become something new....a place where anything can happen"

  • "Space is cold inhospitable and mostly empty"

  • "When we started working on Second Life we though of it more of a physics code'

  • "The most important thing about virtual worlds has to do with people"

  • Virtual Worlds value proposition is not that it is 3D per se, it is that it enables you to do thing with other people. We can be there together. We can make things together. We can do all the things that people wanted to do on the web at its inception

  • "Virtual Worlds fundamentally change the nature of who we are"

  • "We are still early in this"


Trends and Numbers - where is it all going
This session lays the groundwork giving you the numbers you need to understand how to take advantage of Virtual Worlds today.  We'll also look at forecasts for where Virtual Worlds are going. What are the growth projections?  And what are the factors that will promote or inhibit growth.
 - Chris Collins, Business Analyst, Linden Lab
- Sibley Verbeck, CEO, The Electric Sheep Company
- Joe Laszlo, Analyst, Jupiterkagan
- Steve Prentice, Distinguished Analyst & Chief of Research, Gartner
- Justin Bovington, CEO, Rivers Run Red
- Daniel Terdiman, Senior Writer, CNET News.com(moderator)
 



  • "We are at a point of still be extraordinarily undefined" Verbeck

  • "The interest level is very and we all have a lot of questions"

  • "We are just at the point where Virtual Worlds are being defined as their own medium" Bovington

  • "We are pretty much where the internet was in the mid 90's" Collins

  • "There was only one internet, there are multiple virtual worlds"

  • we are getting to the time when companies are actually interested in performing their business models through virtual worlds- Verbeck

  • "How do we use this medium to drive actual business model" Verbeck

  • Co- Collaboration and Co-Design

  • Second Life as a great way to create additional content

  • Podcasts and Videopodcasts from within virtual worlds

  • Verbeck speaks about the importance of simpler virtual worlds such as Club Penguin, Webkinz etc.

  • "Virtual Community as high performance work place"


  • What is the ROI?

    • With the money Adidas spent in SL they would get an average 6 minutes user attention. On SL we they got 11- Bovington

    • How long are users engaged



  • Second Life is a great catalyst- All of the activity does not happen in world. Much of it happens as a result buzz

  • Why VLB leveraged There?

  • "We need more platforms out there, we need more competition" Bovington


Comment from (CEO??) of  Whyville- This is all very Second Life-centric and it is a disservice to the audience


Spurred on a conversation about platforms, MySpace as the largest virtual worlds?


Are we at the beginning of the next gold or are the only people going to make money the ones selling pick axes to the gold miners


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Virtual Worlds 2007 Is Here!


I will tell you now, if you are not interested in Virtual Worlds you need not read this blog for the next two days (well, if you are not interested in Virtual Worlds and are in the interactive marketing industry, you should probably start thinking about getting into virtual worlds or, you can always learn how to say, "Would you like fries with that?" :)


 I was at an affair last night which was like a who's who of Virtual Worlds. Philip Rosedale himself was  hanging out along with many others. This promises to be a great few days!


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Social Networking 2.M

Mobile has been a hot topic for quite a while now. To be honest, while I have adopted many mobile functions in my personal life, I still have not found a way to efficiently integrate mobile into a campaign that I am working on. Perhaps it is due to the direct nature of business here at Morpheus but I simply have not gotten Mobile to work like so many other channels we employ.


What I do see as a burgeoning mobile experience with great opportunity for, not only geek's like me but, marketers as well, is the social aspect of the mobile arena.


I may not consume a tremendous amount of mainstream content on my phone but I certainly tweet a lot (twitter). If some of my social mobile activities were subsidized by advertisers, I may be fine with that. Furthermore, if value in the form of relevant advertising were presented to me, I would mind even less.


In a press release today mobile content provider, Mobileplay announced the release of eXpress It. It is described in the release as the following:




a social networking service for cell phone users which
allows them to create and share personal mobile web
pages as easily as sending an email.

The free, advertising-supported community allows users, regardless of technical ability,
to create mobile web pages for themselves or to share them with others
simply by sending an email or an MMS picture message to their own phone number.


I am downloading the software while I type. 

I should have some personal feedback later in the day (who am I kidding, it will take a few days :) )



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Social Media Convergence

Social Media convergence is something that I have been talking about for some time. Of course, one step (or a few steps :) ) ahead of me (as always) is Mark Wallace of 3pointD.


Side Note: He is one of my top tens favorite bloggers. I do not have a top ten listed in order but, I know who they are and as of late Mark has moved into my top ten so, you probably should be reading him.


I will be speaking with him at Podcamp NYC on topics related to Social Media Convergence. I came across this slide on his blog today and had to share it:





Lucky for me, "The Metaverse" grows in brooklyn.



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Winter Music Conference Here I Come/Habersham Sound Theory

Those of you who know me may know that I have been working with a company called Resonant Vibes. They are doing some really cutting edge things in the electronic music space and I am headed down to Miami to help promote (and do a little bit of partying :) ) a new initiative they are working on.


Whether or not you are a fan of electronic music I recommend taking a look at this promotion as it is indicative of the type of forward thinking initiatives that can only exist in a digital/mash-up culture. I will not go into detail about the promotion as it is layed out quite well on the site.


If you are a music marketer (or any type of marketer for that matter) I would head over to the RV Site


If you are looking for me, I will be in South Beach...see you there!






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Nokia Knows How To Be Social



In addition to the promise of a really great product (the N95) with all the fixin's you would expect from a modern cell phone (including an advanced GPS navigation and mapping service), nokia has created a great little microsite to promote this new product (I have to admit that I am catching a plane in a bit and have not had a chance to fact check. This site may not be new, it may just be new to me)


First of all, it is outfitted with everything essential, Digg, Del.icio.us, send to friend etc (why does everyone not do this by default at this point)


Nokia has also uploaded photos to Flickr and has call outs on what to search for. I have not yet fully explored the site but I am sure there are other little gems in there.


Finally, the video is a great, inviting little vignette.



One note: does anyone find the tag line a bit phallic?



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Scent Of An Avatar


With the aid of Justin Bovington's River Runs Red Calvin Klein has brought it's new scent, IN2U to Second Life.


"Avatar's cannot smell" you say? Well, with the new SL with voice client, who knows what they will be able to do in the future :)


I have not yet had a chance to look at the in-world execution but so far CK seems to doing a lot of things right. Whenever I see long form branded content I get excited and when i went to the CKIN2U site, I got excited.


I am going to do a bit more digging on this one, I will definitely follow up on this campaign.



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Lovemarks On Penny's

Charming little vignettes- Yes


Tidbits of Americana and American Cinema-- Sure


Influential-- Maybe


Unique- hmmmm


Instilling love in the hearts of the masses and worth the price of production- eh?


That is correct, I am talking about Saatchi's first stab at creating a Lovemark of JC Penny. I really like the spots but, I don'f feel they take chances and they offer no unique selling proposition (as Bob Garfeild does point out,. By the way, ad age's video player really rocks; I guess you know what is really important to me :) ). Not having a traditional ad background I am not the best person to throw stones but, I am a marketer and a consumer so I think I am qualified to have an opinion.


Check out the spots. Let me know what you think.


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VirtuaLive.tv (tickets are now on sale, get them while you can)



There is a fine line where physical existence and virtual existence meet... or is there? Come experience the future of entertainment; a future where flesh and pixels are blurred by the experience of media. A Virtualive Experience


Take me to ticketmaster right now dammit, I need my VirtuaLive Tickets!!!



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A Dean In Second Life/Struck By Might

I am not quite sure which was more exciting for me, seeing Dean Koontz's avatar read what felt like 10 seconds of his new book or, seeing the illustrious Torrid Midnight in world for the first time (I think it was the latter...yep, definitely the latter)


Rhiannon Chatnoir and I cruised over to the Sundance Channel sim to see a video stream which was shot by Destroy TV (friggin cool). I got some donuts, all was well. I just wish SL with voice was working and Torrid was talking, that may have been more exciting than Dean.






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A Day with the PRSA



Okay, it was two days but that would have not made for a good title.


I spent the last two days at PR boot camp at the PRSA trying to find that line where media, marketing and advertising end and PR begins. You know what, it is my assessment that there is not a fine line. In fact, the convergence of these disciplines is so great I am going to have to go back and listen to every episode of FIR once again! :)


For Example,


What are the key elements of the definition of PR?




  • Creating a clear and concise message




  • Influencing opinion leaders




  • Mutually Beneficial relationships/2 way




  • Define and Promote Image




  • Consistent Face and Voice of Company




  • Reputation Management




While some of this is specific to PR, much of it borders on the aforementioned disciplines. One of the things that struck me most was the conversations we had about the  2 way conversation and  those about quantification of efforts.


As an interactive media practitioner, this is something that I deal with everyday.  Does that also make me a PR practitioner. Perhaps not fully, but I am not far from it.


I have been led down this road of inquiry by people like Shel and Neville and will continue to define my role in this industry (as the Director of Emerging and Creative Strategy for Morpheus Media). My feeling is the definition of my role will change as the industry changes, and I sure look forward to that!



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You can write about it. I stay NDA

I was recently reading a post by my bald marketing brother about the new virtual world Kaneva and was struck with a sense of metaversal jealousy about his ability to share his feelings about something that the virtual worlds community is dying to talk more about.


It kills me to not be able to legally share my feelings about their product (or share my feelings about anything) alas, thanks to a tip by C.C Chapman (who actually does read the fine print) I have realized that I am under NDA.


Anyhow, I started this post as a reaction to Verdino's post and eventually I will get there (maybe). While I cannot talk about my experience with Kaneva, no one can stop my from commenting on Verdino's post (as well as other post's that I have read).


My initial feelings are this; if someone is going to compare Kaneva to Second Life, don't waste your time. It is like comparing apples to duck. I am not saying that I think one is better, rather I am saying that they are for different audiences and the two platforms satisfy different needs for different people.


As I am typing I am realizing that I cannot make a strong point without getting into specifics. I think that I will spare myself the legal headache and stop here. I recommend continuing to follow Verdino's posts and hopefully the rest of the blogosphere will be unsilenced soon :) and we all can have a chat.


More to come from me on this topic.


Cannot wait for the Virtual Worlds conference in NYC



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Let's Talk Second Life, Shall We




Voice chat in Second Life (yes, I am a few days late)! This is a huge deal for current residents, but for those people who have not yet drank the poison I don't think that it will matter much. I have friends who are having trouble singing up and getting in.


Either way, it is totally cool! Check out Secondcast episode 54 and hear Johnny Ming rip it up with Philip and Co.


File this under- "Things I Don't Really Care About But Caught My Attention Anyway"

I am not a big commentator on print ads that have no connection to a larger experience. In fact, I generally do not care about them as they do not really interest me that much these days. I did however come across this ad in adrants today and it made me stop. Perhaps because it is simply odd looking but, it made me look twice so I figured I would share it. Any thoughts?





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Reflections on the Past 30 Years of Media in My Life

So today I turn 30. Never thought I would make it but I have and boy has the world changed. I have some fond and not so fond media memories and I thought I would share them with you.



  • I worked in a mom and pop video store. When it closed I got hundreds of VHS tapes. They are doing me a lot of good these days!

  • Cassette Tapes- Oh how I miss thee

  • 7 inches means more to me than a genitalia reference

  • Stealing music is not a crime

  • 28k modems rock the house!

  • Laser Disc Anyone!

  • When I was working in studios the ADAT was popular, thank god that was a short lived medium

  • 2” Tape will never die :)

  • I had the first Mac g4. Cost me 8 thousand dollars. It had a gig of RAM and a DVD-RAM drive. Does anyone have a DVD RAM drive I can use to get my data  :)

  • I had the very first stand alone hard disk audio recorder. The Roland VS-880. It had one gig of memory. Mucho SCSI zip disks were needed

  • Podcasts- I never liked radio anyhow



You know what, this is depressing me. It is time to start the future!




Calling All Podcamp Fans!

Podcampers, we need your help.


We have come very far in our efforts raise the necessary funds to make this thing happen and, have done pretty well. As many of you know it is not an easy task to plan such an event and while we love doing it, we are still short in funds and are getting somewhat concerned.


Since we have 91 amazing sessions and some of the top minds in the industry, it would be a shame if we were not able to do all of the great things we had planned.


If you are attending podcamp and can help out at all, you will get Adam Broitman as your best friend forever!!!


Show your love here