Next Generation Deal Makers - The Future of Second Life November 29, 2007

THE FUTURE OF SECOND LIFE - AND ITS IMPACT ON BUSINESS

Featured Speakers: SHERYLE MOON CEO AIIA & DELL WOLFENSPARGER (USA)

Gone are the days when a business can disregard an emerging technology until it is completely mature. As Gartner’s distinguished analyst Steve Prentice warns, “don’t ignore this trend. It will have a significant impact on your enterprise during the next five years.”

By the end of 2011, Gartner predicts that 80 per cent of active Internet users -and Fortune 500 enterprises - will have a ‘second life’ in one virtual world or another.

Industry analysts are predicting that collaborative and community-related aspects of virtual environments will soon dominate and that the majority of active Internet users and leading enterprises will find value in virtual worlds.

What Australian companies need to understand is that Second Life is a global micro-economy – and that there has never been one before. It may take time, but this is going to change the way companies relate to their customers, and change the way people relate to brands.

Second Life provides companies with an opportunity to be at the leading edge of technology and marketing. It’s no longer good enough to be a follower - the emergence of the Internet has demonstrated that you can be left behind. To make it in the 21st century global economy, you need to be a leader, and that means embracing new technologies like Second Life.

Many companies are using their Second Life presences for reasons that are unknown even to them. They have witnessed the hype surrounding virtual worlds and Web 2.0, and they don’t want to miss the boat. And yet, they have signed up without a clear understanding of why or how Second Life can help them build their businesses.

AIIA want to be different in this regard. We feel there is a lot of potential in Second Life, in just the same way the Internet showed potential when it was launched. Second Life is basically where the world wide web was in the mid nineties. It was fun and exciting at first but there wasn’t really that much to do. It took years for the technology and community to develop. This is where I see Second Life heading and this is why I want AIIA to be a part of it.

One of my favourite websites, the Way Back Machine, stores website archives. You can view your favourite website and marvel at how primitive it was back two, five or even ten years ago. More than that, it’s tangible evidence of the Internet evolution.

The hype surrounding Second Life can sometimes be a bit over the top. The media attention it has received, together with the long list of corporations that have built islands and virtual offices, has given it a fad like aura to many skeptics who may have expected too much to soon from an embryonic technology.

Many businesses are using it purely as a marketing tool – which is why they are failing to realise a strong ROI. But Second Life is more than just another marketing channel. AIIA, for example, has used it to host events and panel discussions about critical issues facing our industry, and we have future plans to use it as a collaborative tool to connect Australian ICT businesses. IBM has used its island to train new employees and hold in-house meetings and conferences.
Second Life has so much potential beyond that of promoting a product to a target market and I think we will start to see this as companies get more creative with their Second Life spaces.
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DELL WOLFENSPARGER (USA)

SPECIALTIES
Interactive Design Software Development Business Development Web Development Video 3D Apple Product Expert Public Speaker Video Editor Second Life Developer
Dell Wolfensparger - Portfolio
A slideshow of several projects managed, directed & created.

Second Life Avatar Name: Dell Wilberg

Second Life Projects:
Co-publisher, Art Director and webmaster of the first dedicated Second Life magazine (slatenight.com.) to focus on Arts and Entertainment within the popular 3D social networking platform.

Builder of Fallingwater one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous houses.

Creative and Technical Director of Venezia a fantasy city based on the real life Venice, Italy.

Interactive Media:
Bob Dylan: Produced Bob Dylan's first EPK (Electronic Press Kit).

Ingram Micro Canada: Lead speaker nationwide multimedia tour sponsored by Sony, Mitsubishi, Nec and Toshiba.

Creative and Technical Director of the Forest Ackerman Museum of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. One of the first Virtual museums where the user could walk through and interact with the exhibits... this 4.2 gigabyte project contained 12,000 words of text, 6,500 photographs and 6 hours of 3D animations, video, and audio.

Dell feels he has achieved official geek status by driving a hybrid car and owning an iPhone. He is currently reading Joel Garreau's book "Radical Evolution", thinking about making a blog for his dog, and working on a panoramic camera for use in Second Life.

Official Website: http://www.ngdealmakers.com/