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Okay, so I’ve just spent the better part of four hours mucking about in Second Life.
I can only call it ‘mucking about’ because so much of it is about finding my way around, finding help, finding mentors, and very little about meeting the objectives I had in the first place.
I still can’t find the help I need, although there is no shortage of mentors around, especially at the very friendly ‘The Shelter’ - an amazing resource and thank you to the must-read resource Second Life Insider for pointing it out.
Inside The Shelter (where I spent a good 45 minutes picking up mostly un-necessary freebies (see pxp on how to organise them once you have a gazillion and don’t remember what is what) and learning how to dance in syncopation (great fun!)) I also found the phenomenal newsletter the Metaverse Messenger, which at 22 pages is a damn fine read!
But I am *still* underwhelmed.
I know that many have commented about the business comms applications of SL (Second Life) — Neville is just one of them — and I know that I have commented before about how we, as business communicators, need to ‘be across’ SL, but I am still to be convinced that for SOHOs or medium sized professional service businesses this is a viable investment of time.
I have not yet found any property to purchase for a residential home, I have not yet found a suitable office location for my business interests (after all, there is no point setting up shop where there is no footfall, is there?), I have yet to find a compelling reason to invest lots and lots of hours here. I can’t even find the FIR presence on the podcasters island.
I know that in an earlier post I waxed lyrical about how a current client of mine could definitely benefit from the ‘training ground’ potential of this medium. I still hold to that belief. But the hours of investment to even get a presence on SL make me wonder if my time is better spent dealing in current issues (both face to face and social media like blogs and podcasts) rather than being a pioneer in a new frontier.
After all, how many of the early pioneers in any country do we remember, as distinct from the savvy second or third tier who followed behind their trail-blazing efforts and capitalised on the path-smoothening activities of those who sacrificed their livelihoods before them…
Do I really want to spend potentially US$30+ a month to be ahead of the pack, knowing that the ROI is still potentially two years down the track?
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C.C. Chapman 07.22.06 at 4:07 am
I can’t tell you if it’s worth it for you to do or not. That’s something each person has to determine for themselves.
Finding land though is “easy”, it’s choosing the land that is the hard part. Just do a FIND on the menu and there is a whole tab for just land. You can set parameters on how big of a plot or how much you want to spend.
If your looking to just sort of test the waters click the box that says “First Land” as you can only buy this one time as your first plot.It’s 512 meters and only costs L$512. It’s a great first thing to do becaue you’ll never find it that cheap again and it allows you to play a bit more. Plus down the road you can always sell it for a profit if you want to move onto bigger and better things.
This is a longer conversation then should be done in a blog post. Swing by http://www.secondlifeoffice.com sometime and we can talk about it further.
Ed Lee 07.23.06 at 3:08 am
I’m with you Lee - I’ve no doubt that there is a business (and marketing) opportunity in Second Life, but it’s the potential (http://bloggingmebloggingyou.wordpress.com/2006/06/13/second-life/) that exites me, not the actual experience itself.
Ed
Bryan Person 07.23.06 at 7:53 am
What I would like to know, Lee (that’s given-named Lee, not surnamed Lee), is why you have a female avatar in Second Life? You mentioned it on your podcast a week or two ago, but didn’t ’splain yourself too well. Care to spill your guts about it here on the blog?
We promise to be a very understanding audience
Lee 07.29.06 at 11:35 pm
Ah well… the female avatar has gone to the great avatar heaven in the ether. I’m now ‘posing’ as a male and … but there’s another story