Second Life survey says: “Try it for work — you’ll like it” .

[Mark Hall]

Second Life Annual Survey 2008, a Web-based survey of 1,258 Second Life residents who are part of the organization’s First Opinions Panel™. Some very interesting trends. 3D data and concept visualization will emerge as killer apps for immersive technology in 2009 and 2010

http://thinkbalm.com/2008/10/10/second-life-survey-says-%e2%80%9ctr...

What are your suggestions on how best to help our local businesses and community leaders endorse this trend? Where and how would you suggest we incorporate this technology into the teaching and school systems?

Here is what I found most interesting and I suspect will change geometrically in the near future.

From the Survey
"As was expected . . . Of the 198 survey respondents who say they use Second Life for work-related purposes, 114 (58%) say they use Second Life for teaching and/or learning and 32 (16%) use it for a related purpose: to rehearse or practice business activities. Eighty six (43%) say they use it for collaborating with others to get work done and 81 (41%) say they use it to hold or attend scheduled meetings.

But there were surprises. We are surprised to see that as many as 70 respondents (35%) are using Second Life to visualize information in 3D. 3D data and concept visualization will emerge as killer apps for immersive technology in 2009 and 2010 because they allow us to do things we simply can’t in the physical world or with flat 2D technology. We were also surprised to see that as many as 34 (17%) respondents are using Second Life for recruiting or interviewing and 23 (12%) are using it to manage real-world systems. We expected these numbers to be much lower."

[rick smyre]

Think Second Life would be great to give students a three dimensional undestanding of emerging professions that can be expected by 2020. Also, use for economic development purposes to show how to connect different "idea spaces" for examples of continuous innovation. Show how SL can be used for innovative training for medical profession and community servics so that simulations of new situations could lead to virtual certification that would reduce budget needs of training.

[Mark Hall]

Thanks Rick.

Ran across another survey that has some interesting trends in social media--the use of on-line social networking is growing quickly by IT professional that were recently surveyed. Now to bridge and connect this social networking trend with the collaborative tools that 3D virtual reality provides--a platform for the Creative Molecular Economy....hmmm.....

Is Social Media Good or Bad for Business? Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Business owners often struggle with the question of whether or not their employees should be using social media in the workplace. There are obvious reasons why they shouldn't, but there are certainly potential benefits as well, and unfortunately not a lot of clarity to the matter. So let's look at this from several different angles.

Stats

Security company FaceTime Communications has released results from a survey in which it asked over 500 IT managers and employees about their Internet and social media habits at work. The survey revealed that:

- 79% of workers use Facebook, LinkedIn or YouTube at work for business reasons, and of those business reasons, 54% cited professional networking, 52% said research, and 52% said learning about colleagues were what they used them for.

- 82% say they use social media sites for personal reasons

- 51% of workers use social networks at least once a day

- 62% said LinkedIn was their preferred network for business purposes while 55% said they prefer YouTube for personal reasons.

Based on this survey alone, there isn't a whole lot of difference between the amount of people using social media for business reasons and those for personal ones. There is no clear cut answer to the question, "Is social media good for my business?" There are obviously pros and cons.

Pros

Social media is a good way to network with other professionals in any given niche. In fact, there's hardly a better, more cost-effective way to do this. It's literally free not counting your ISP fees and any on-the-clock time used. It can be particularly effective for an entrepreneur who is still trying to make a name for his/her business.

Along with networking comes the second major pro, which is branding. The more you network within communities like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, etc, the more your brand is going to be exposed to others. For the established brand, social networking can help keep that brand fresh in the mind of said communities.

Cons

A decrease in productivity is often noted as a con to using social media in the workplace. As the numbers from the FaceTime survey indicate, this certainly does occur, although the amount of people using social media for business reasons isn't much lower than the number using it for personal reasons. The problem is, there isn't really a tangible way to measure the amount of productivity reached by these efforts. Just like it is hard to measure brand awareness.

[Bruce LaDuke]

Mark,

I met a man on an Indiana community I belonged to named Frank Corsi. Here's a discussion that talks about his efforts and what he's doing with virutal worlds => Virtual World - Looking for CEO/Partner

And here are Frank's virtual world websites:

http://www.centralgrid.com/
http://www.avatarhangout.com/

As I understand it, Frank is working toward replication of real U.S. Cities in virtual worlds.

Thought you might be interested in connecting with him.

[Larry Wenzl]

Lots of great stuff here, guys!

I am acquainted with a gentleman who has a career in creatively constructing and testing real life appliances, recreational equipment, and more - in the immersive 3D environment of Second Life (SL) - for big name companies. He then forwards this design to the company for product production.

He recently showed me how he puts the entire design/pattern for what SL calls "Sculpties" (incredibly detailed, low memory-usage objects) on a color tile (jpeg) that contains the entire code for those sculpties. Basically a blended color photograph contains the code to create an interesting 3D object!

If anyone "today" wants to see how things will be done five or ten years in the future, please get involved in virtual reality from your home computer. You will be surprised how quickly you can be a part of this emerging tool for communities, organizations and businesses. It is very simple to do. I would be happy to help anyone, just contact me and I will send you a concise introductory PDF to set up a free "account" for yourself!

[Mark Hall]

Lifelike Avatars -- The Business Possibilities!!

Larry shares the following website address:
I could see this technology used by businesses and everyone in the future for remote personal interactions in a 3D immersive environment. This would facilitate the creation of lifelike representations (avatars) of oneself.

http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2008/10/3-d

Mark continues the dialogue with the following:

I agree, uploading a series of JPEG images from a couple different angles and running them through a process could be a tremendous business opportunity. Knowing you could try on a set of 3D virtual clothes to see if you like what you picked, even verify that the size the manufacturer says the item is with your actual size. I don't know if the ladies will like this solution as they won't be going to the mall as much, but it could really cut down on the returns and improve customer satisfaction.

Could you see yourself with a iPhone 3G type smartphone, scanning a RFID chip on the clothing and then viewing your 3D Virtual look-a-like right on your mobile communication and video device. Or a brick an mortar store puts in scanning equipment to produce the avatar the customer uses on their smartphone for selecting clothing using RFID tags. Even better matching your clothing choice with your partners to see if you clash or not? This will likely put even more pressure on the brick and mortar stores to increase the amount of technology in their stores to help consumers have a better experience. Otherwise more of the shopping will be done on-line.

I could even see the military using these Avatars for simulated training purposes to get a better understanding body language, facial changes, etc. when preparing for a deployment. My son just went through the boot camp at USMA so there was a series of measurements taken to get the clothes properly fitted. This whole process could be streamlined with an individual RFID chip with their avatar related information.