Pixel Labs and the “Book”

Imagine a device that would make reading a book within Second Life quicker, or perform Google searches and other things from the Internet within SL? A new virtual tablet called the "book" allows you to do these and more. We take a look at this handy tool and the people behind them: Pixel Labs.

For more, go to Extra Extra

BREAKING NEWS: Second Life Sold by Linden Labs to Chinese Corporation

(**Update** - April Fool ;-) )

Today in a stunning development, Linden Lab announced they had sold Second Life to China’s Baidu Corporation. In a brief printed statement released to the press, CEO Mark Kingdom stated the deal was reached after several weeks of secret negotiations.

Baidu Inc. is a major communications company in China, owning the top search engine there. It made a profit of over $600 million in 2007. It made the news recently as the company most likely to profit from Google’s troubles with the Chinese government.

On it’s blog, Mark Linden stated, “Letting Second Life go was not an easy decision. But Linden Labs has always prided itself on being on the forefront on the development of the technologies of virtual worlds. With Second Life becoming increasingly complex, we came to the conclusion we could not continue to both continue to be so and run our grand experiment. While we shall continue to improve Second Life, it will be through business deals with Baidu as new technologies become available.”

Baidu also had a statement on the Linden blog, “We welcome Second Life into Baidu ... As we have helped bring the Internet to China, so we hope to guide the virtual residents into a righteous harmonious band. ... We should remind that our company operates under a set of rules that require reverence and respect to the wise and honored statesmen of our government. Those whom run about in virtual reality in their boxers using their words as fists with no regard for the respect of their betters are asked to cease such behavior so we will not need to take actions all will regret.”

One of the Lindens supposedly stated that following the sale, Linden Lab will be cooperating with Facebook to make a sequel to the "Farmvile" game, but this is unconfirmed.

Details are still coming in about what is clearly a turning point in Second Life.

To go to the Linden blog post and comments, Click Here.

SL Enterprise Sounds Very Promising

It has been great news for Second Life when, on November 4, Linden Lab announced that they would bring a SL Enterprise product. This product that will replicate the virtual world behind a firewall will be comparable, for corporations, to having an internal Internet system without granting access to the outside world.

This is great news and an inevitable step that LL had to take to build its credibility in the business world. A 3D environment such as SL brings incredible potential for companies to organize meetings and other collaboration activities between people who work in different countries or even continents, at a fraction of the cost.

Let's make a quick comparison: you pay the $55,000 entry price to set up 8 regions with the possibility of having 800 users, 700 of them online at the same time. Add some costs to maintain the system available and you have a pretty decent "live meeting" solution. To this you can add the possibility of storing documentation and scripted learning tools that allow employees to learn and perfect their skills, without having to organize classes.

The price may be hefty for small and medium-sized businesses. The product that LL offers in beta clearly is targeting larger corporations.

The comparison with live videoconferencing systems is still funny to make. A telepresence solution from Cisco to hold meetings for 18 people will cost… $340,000. For companies, such telepresence solutions have already been cost cutters.

Although different in nature, you can compare both products and see that what you would sacrifice in real-life visual experience by using SL Enterprise, you would save. That's without even considering the potential for interaction other than plain conferencing.

This also makes me think that SL may do with virtual worlds what the Internet did with online activity. If businesses adopt SL Enterprise quickly, it will be hard for a competitor to displace SL as a "virtual world with a firewall" solution.

This Enterprise product is promising because using it with the security of a firewall will make 3D more tempting to organizations. Let's hope LL customizes it for other needs, too.

Outrageous Merchandising Ideas Considered at Linden Lab

If you are considered a merchant by Linden Lab, you may have had the terrible surprise of filling a Second Life Merchant Survey sent to you by Pink Linden this week.

While Pink says "none of these concepts are currently on our development roadmap, they’re just hypothetical scenarios that we’d appreciate your thoughts on", there is room to worry.

Let me give you a quick run-down on the ideas thrown around.

1- Second Life-Certified Vending Machines

This would create a unified store management, provide premium merchant support and a guarantee for deliveries. Features would include automatic listing on XStreet SL's Web platform and metrics to see how business is performing. The catch? A surcharge of 10 or 15% on all sales.

2- Listing and Promotional Program

For a 5 to 10 US dollars fee for each item listed, Linden Lab will cross-promote your virtual goods on XStreetSL and Premium Classified Listings.

3- Merchant Marketing Program

To spur growth, Linden Lab thinks out loud about bringing new tools such as branding systems, customized store systems such as a Web storefront, and automatic consideration for large scale promotions. Other tools such as tracking purchases in real-time would also be offered.

The price? 10 to 100 US dollars per month, depending on sales volume.

4- I kept the most outrageous for the last point: The Mall of Second Life.

Land would be offered for "free" to merchants. LL would offer promotions along with it… while taking a 30% surcharge on their sales.

What should we make of all this? Linden Lab is CRAVING for your sales money. It wants, with programs such as the Mall of Second Life, to create a real-life income tax on each of your sales.

With fixed land costs, any increase in sales means more revenue and profits for your business. If you use any or all of these potential initiatives, you basically hand Linden Lab a larger chunk of your revenues rather than fixed costs. With the costly listings, you also take much bigger risks by increasing your startup costs, even before you make a sale.

These ideas are also dangerous for small stores. Imagine that there are enough big merchants that make this transition because the costs mean almost nothing to them. It would make those merchandising programs central to shopping in Second Life.

Being a merchant in SL has meant working a whole lot for little money for a large majority of business owners. Many are gaining managing experience but are not getting large amounts for it. Now, if LL manages to implement the measures and make them inevitable, merchants will stand to lose… again.

Slapt.Me the alternative to Xstreet?

Since the Lindens bought Xstreet I have heard many whispers and many people unhappy with the monopoly that it has created for the Lindens and now, with the new rules, many more will be looking for that alternative.
Let me introduce Slapt.Me run by residents that have actually listened to what the customers want and tried to create it for you.
Constanza Amsterdam, Lord Sullivan, Kosta Cela and Bykoff Sontse, long term SL residents launched the Xstreet alternative in April and, although still having a few teething troubles when I tried it out, I found it as easy to set up as Xstreet but very different.
Slapt.Me offers featured listings and split profit enhancement, which works on percentage instead of prices. You will also find its own Forums where you can read what others have thought of it and place your own suggestions. There is also a WIKI to help you understand the site although as an XStreet merchant I found it very easy to set up.
You can request a terminal to put on your own land and there is also a place where you can store your first Slapt.me box for free if you do not own any land.
Is this a viable alternative to Xstreet? The speed at which its growing says just maybe it is.
Visit for yourselves and feel free to leave your comments and experience below.
Dana Vanmoer

Cisco Live 2009

Knowledge is power.
This familiar adage has never been truer than it is today: in difficult economic times, it is knowledge that sets individuals and organizations apart. Knowledge is the differentiator that enables survival during the economic downturn and positions you for success when the economy rebounds.
Late Tuesday afternoon/evening I had the pleasure from a dear friend to be invited an event a first of its kind I had the pleasure of coming across in Second Life. The event was held at the Cisco Live Sim.
The name 'Cisco' is a company is real life company ( California based) one of the leaders in the information tech fields worldwide.
Cisco Live 2009 is a real life event that current runs from 6/27-7/2 this year being held in San Francisco Califonia. In addition to the real life events ongoing at the conference this year alongside the conference a virtual world aspect was introduced and brought into Second Life. After speaking with Tawni Ciscosystem, who works in the marketing department, here are some key points that have been introduced this year to the Cisco Live 2009 event.
The keynote speeches during the day are currently being streamed into Second Life to the Cisco Live Sim, there are various tech sessions held within Second Life with for various programmers and engineers and system admin specialists during the business day with various events to relax at the end of the work day.
If you work in the IT field you have the option to attend the conference in person In San Fran or the option to take part via Second Life Cisco Live 2009.
This event gives an employee a chance to make friends and enhance their skills, share and exchange information addressing problems that may arise in a real world setting.
For a major fortune 100 company to embrace Second Life as a business platform is a very creative move on their part, dont be surprised when you see more and business start to take roots and grow within Second Life.
If you have any knowledge of computers and networking and various equipment the name Cisco should ring a bell to you.

Taryn Gartner reporting from CISCO live in secondife

Schadenfreude, hotshots!

What a striking contrast. If you look for keywords such as "financial", "bank" and "stock exchange", you now have a hard time finding many interesting results. Barely two years ago, a large number of "companies" were competing for a market of financial services and stock exchange listings.

I cannot resist schadenfreude (a German word that means "unexpected delight at somebody else's misfortunes") when seeing how most of the hotshots who drove that industry are gone from SL or at least quiet.

Let me say this up front: I do understand that the investors among you are disappointed with the many failures you witnessed and probably lost money in. And you are right. On the other hand, I am rather happy reality brought the "moguls" back to Earth.

I won't name names here but there was a time when I got in touch with a few of them. With one, I had a deal to display art for sale at his place. The whole time, the best attitude I saw was one of light arrogance instead of consideration as an equal human being.

Another one gave interviews to the SL media, telling them how he racked up millions of Linden dollars per month in revenue, but was crossed by the first guy mentioned above. Another one simply took his stock exchange and ran with it, without leaving anything to the people who trusted him.

Today, the rare players who are surviving, such as the Ancapistan Capital Exchange, have been serious and well-grounded.

While we shouldn't shed a tear for the people who cannot run ventures in SL anymore, it is sad that they took an industry down with them. When Linden Lab banned interest payments, any honest and conservative banking model went down with it. So did credibility of SL financiers when the World Stock Exchange vanished.

At the heart of the problem you find privacy. Of course, individuals who use SL need to be protected but for investment to be worth more than a leap of faith, real disclosure of information is needed. This is what many failed ventures used as a shield to take money without being accountable to the market. Real trust will be earned by those who disclose.

I leave the final word to the founder of Ginko, a "bank" that crumbled because of a bank run in 2007. His post on the ACE forums is delicious if you can read with a smirk.

Landcutting will be too timid

No matter what Linden Lab makes of its landcutting, I can already tell you that the move will be too timid. No matter what the policy is, there is something important to add in order for Second Life to have a comprehensive property rights system in place.

The missing key element will now be zoning on the Mainland. SL needs to have a policy that separates commercial zones from residential ones, on whole sims. It is too important an issue to avoid it, at least for the longer term.

I see two major advantages if zoning ever becomes a reality.

The first one is obvious for home owners: having more uniform sims where clubs and stores are not located a few meters away from a nice house. Not only would sims be less noisy, but the design of the sims would naturally fit better with their purpose. A great inspiration for this should be private estates. Hundreds of estates are cleverly designed and divided. Even a sim filled with small squares of beach beats the current disorganization that prevails on Mainland.

I also see another motivation to implement zoning, and that's smoother exploration for users. Right now, flying around sims is an almost fruitless activity. You can stumble on the nicest and oddest locations at the same time. Some sims are totally deprived of interesting places to discover. Now, a nice commercial sim (such as Shoes) will allow you to find interesting stores, but Mainland suffers from a lack of those. Please, don't tell me that malls fulfill that need.

When will LL adopt such zoning policy to make our second lives better? Better sooner than later.

Of course, I welcome the idea that landcutting will be limited. It will help regulate land prices. This is a better deal for land buyers. It will also favor the real estate businesses that are serious about striking deals on nice pieces of land.

Don't underestimate the importance of property rights in Second Life when you read this. In any world, real or virtual, proper management of property is the most important role that regulators can play, security aside. It is the most basic, most crucial form of organization in civilization. If property is a mess, the quality of life goes down.

The swallowing of Xstreet and OnRez, a bittersweet move

So, Linden Lab has finally seen the light about the advantages of World Wide Web integration with Second Life as a complement for information and transactions. Buying Xstreet and OnRez definitely is in their interest.

Now, what should we make of it? There is a fairly large number of issues raised by this. Forget the basic questions such as the timing of integration. There are more important things at stake.

The first one is clear: technological integration and the merger of accounts with the Second Life grid will make business simpler. No need to sign up for an account on a different site and to manage it separately in order to have a Web presence. Doing away with the time wasted to deal with a non-integrated platform could mean less hassle for merchants.

If LL handles this properly, there also is great potential to overhaul the clunky Web presentation in Xstreet and slap better options for Web storefronts. The example of more refined OnRez storefronts should be a good source of inspiration. More flexibility could even make this better. Also, Xstreet's terrible search engine could also be upgraded or replaced for better shopping experience.

As you can see, Linden Lab has a golden opportunity to provide much-needed change. If they aim for greatness and make their e-commerce platform amazing, this might even eliminate the need for external Web sites that many of us currently have.

On the other hand, better integration with the grid can come with a huge tradeoff. Will the new Web platform inherit Second Life's stability problems? Even if you couldn't make a purchase at Xstreet when the grid was down, you could at least surf there in “just looking” mode.

What about culture? There were a few differences between management of SL and Xstreet. If Linden Lab has angered many of us with a variety of bad decisions in the past, Xstreet has been more user-friendly. Will mismanagement show its ugly head on the integrated Xstreet?

Another large question is money.

With the buyout, Linden Lab has conflicting fee policies. At the moment, doing a transaction in Second Life costs nothing but holding land is the main source of spending. In Xstreet, you pay 5 Linden dollars for each 100 of sales. Will LL abolish the Web fees to make business easier, leave it as is, or increase them? The first solution would be the only right one. We already pay enough money on tier and accounts for mainland owners, shouldn't we given a break at some point?

If LL abolishes the currency exchange on Xstreet, it will be a bittersweet move, too. Its PayPal mass pay was much appreciated for instant money transfers. At the same time, a savvy user can squeeze more net money out selling Linden dollars on the official Lindex. Trying to find a matching buying order at specific rates on Xstreet can take much more time... if it happens.

My last note is a bit cynical: did Linden Lab have defensive motives when acquiring Xstreet? When its bosses rebranded SL Exchange into Xstreet, they stated that this was an occasion for them to look beyond SL, should other virtual worlds become more interesting or complementary in the future. Was this buyout a way to make sure that we are all tied to Linden Lab?

That's food for thought, my friends.

YellowLanes.net relaunched

YellowLanes.net relaunched

YellowLanes.NET is the (unofficial) Yellow Pages for Second Life® and was founded on May, 2007. On the 15th December 2008, the new YellowLanes version 2 was launched.

On YellowLanes you can find websites, businesses, shopping places, services and beautiful places from Second Life and if you are looking for a job, you can find one. You can teleport from YellowLanes directly to Second Life®! At the moment, we have 300 activated entries and about thousand accounts. Each entry can have:

• a logo
• a description (in English and German)
• some keywords
• Link to online markets (e. g. SLX, Onrez..)
• Up to four Screenshots of each location
• A SLURL
• link to website
• a voting
  

The entries are sorted default by the actual voting, so you will first see the best SLURLs / websites!

For residents:

You can also manage your favourite entries. And if you found a SLURL, which is for example not actual, in our directory you can report it and we will pay you 50 L$! Please write a short report description. This is not the only way to making money with our website: With our affiliate system you get for every attracted customer a 20 % commission.

For business owners

You can add your entry for free. 2 screenshots, SLURL or website, description or logo is free for each entry. You don’t have any limits, which mean that you can create how many entries as you want. If you want more advertise on YellowLanes.NET, you can buy advertising space (banners) or he can buy a subscription. Also you can setup a voting station in Second Life, where users can vote for his entry each day once. You can order the entry while you create the entry. The voting station will automatically send after activating your entry.

If you have any question about the project, please contact us at our support page.

Offer for SL-newspaper readers

It's the time of year for giving and we at sl-newspaper are no different. For the month of December if you wish to become a sponsor, or renew your sponsorship with us, you could SAVE 10%

You can find our pricelist HERE

We advertise in a totally different way from most in that we actually provide you with webspace, a page for you to show your products and services, with links to any and all your inworld locations, plus press releases and articles when you have something new to promote.
Not only that remember our advertising packages are for 3 months!

Contact Dana Vanmoer or James T Juno for more information

Linden Lab rated 'unsatisfactory' with Better Business Bureau

The Better Business Bureau gives consumers and companies an idea of a companies performance in areas of customer complaints and resolutions of said issues.
Companies can pay a subscription to become BBB accreditted:

'If a business has been accredited by BBB, it means BBB has determined that the business meets BBB accreditation standards, which include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints. BBB Accredited Businesses pay a fee for accreditation review/monitoring and for support of BBB services to the public.'

Linden lab are NOT accreditted, this does not stop the BB from rating them though and the results are interesting:
In the last 36 months BBB have processed 40 complaints about Linden Lab from consumers of these 40 complaints 28 were in the last year!

'Customer Experience
Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the BBB due to unanswered complaints. The company has resolved some complaints presented by the BBB, however, the BBB did not receive a response to other complaints.'

The complaints against Linden Lab range from advertising issues, billing/collection issues to service and refund/exchange issues

'BBB Reliability Reports are provided solely to assist you in exercising your own best judgment. Information in this BBB Reliability Report is believed reliable, but not guaranteed as to accuracy.'

"Basically buyer beware!"

Sources: BBB, ACE-exchange.com

Finally, common sense is coming back!

Did you ever go over a long period of darkness and gloom to see the end of the tunnel? I believe that Second Life just did this.

Over the months, developments around the grid and Linden Lab finally bring hope that Second Life has a brighter future.

After much waffling, LL has finally understood the importance of not rolling out new land gratuitously, without considering the interests of established users who already own it on the various continents. Supporting the prices is a welcome idea, especially after the destructive introduction of new continents, European sales tax and the wiping of many SL real estate dealers. A serious land strategy is the only way to make sure that those of us who build around here will stay around for the long haul. It is a key for growth and strategic positioning of this 3D world.

My favorite change is a measure that should have been introduced from the start: zoning. LL intends to introduce and actively enforce residential and commercial zones in the future, which only makes sense. It is incredible to think that you can set up a house and see a strip club appearing on neighbouring land on the next day. Having zones will make Mainland ownership more attractive for current estate owners.

Seriousness to manage the business and enhance customer service are also starting to pay off. The efforts of M and Katt Linden are encouraging. Choosing a real CEO to replace Philip Rosedale was an important move on the part of Linden Lab since great founders and engineers are not always the most skilled managers. Having a communications manager like Katt Linden, who takes the time to listen to the community, also is reassuring.

Disastrous management and communications have done much harm to SL in the last 18 months. It is not too late to reverse the trend but LL cannot afford to waste much time since competitors are surely know that 3D worlds will be important in the future. SL has to keep its stranglehold on the market leader position if it is to survive.

Anyone who has been around the grid of late has noticed that it is becoming much more stable. The unplanned outages have been spectacularly reduced and the planned ones have been very reasonable. This is another key factor to the survival of SL.

A few questions remain, however. How will LL handle finance in the future? Can you have a virtual world without better policy on finance and banking? Is the land supply control only temporary?There is enough land set for sale on the grid to think that holding back on new land should be considered for a long time to come.

More importantly, however: how will Second Life become friendlier to newcomers? We have yet to see decisive moves to make SL more accessible for newbies. In the last months, the growth in time spent online has been attributed mainly to "veteran" users. If SL self-destructs one day, we may look at this issue as the straw that broke the camel's back.

Are we less human here?

Time to get on my soapbox again. I am getting more and more irritated with people's behavior when they are shopping around. People seem to think that for a handful of Lindens, shop owners should drop on their knees and do just anything they want.

Let's look at a few issues that boil down to respect.

The first would be the "upgrades for life" scheme. Too many stores offer free upgrades to their products to make sure that customers buy them, even for major new versions. This creates entitlement. Whenever someone flies around the grid to shop, they feel that once they cough up L$500, they should get future versions for free.

This is an insult to content creators who take a lot of time to create products with skills that most SL users do not have. How many freebies do people think they are entitled to when they spent only a couple of dollars on something that took hours or days to create?

Then, there is a problem with too many shoppers who expect services-based business owners to be available for them at all times. In a photo studio, such people need their picture taken "right f---ing" now and won't take an appointment for tomorrow as an acceptable answer. We, people who do photography, should stand in for 12 hours in case they show up, and be ready to spend an hour to shoot with them. Then, we should deliver the pics the same day, at L$500 for a package of several pictures, of course. Otherwise, we are too expensive and not available enough to meet their demand.

One more problem that nags me is how shop owners are treated. If a content creator is around and trying to help you, it might be polite to thank them for their time before teleporting elsewhere. I find it to be the understatement of the day when saying that politeness never is a problem!

This brings me to ask you, dear readers, a question. Why do people lack respect towards others around this grid? Would they treat anyone like that in RL? Would they ask them to work hours on retail or artistic creations for $2 when we know that teens flip burgers at McDonald's for more money? How much would they appreciate it if they faced the same behavior themselves?

Do expectations have to be deprived of realism because there are avatars and a virtual world between people? Are we less human in here?

Introducing Redd OConnell....................

Redd is well known within the financial and business community of SL and has accepted the challenge of the weekly business roundup while Connie is on sabatical.
As well as running Verve Financial Services, the first truly full service investment management and business consulting firm in Second Life,

you will be able to keep up to date with Redd in our FINANCE section ..........

Weekly Business Review - 20 Jan 08

20 January 2008

“Compound interest is the most powerful force in the Universe.” – Albert Einstein

Linden Labs' moves to dismiss concerns that their sudden action to ban the payment of interest would have anything other than a salutary effect on the SL economy featured a truly stunning demonstration of the Art of the Spin by Patch Linden and a shameless misrepresentation of their economic data to “prove” themselves right. Meanwhile SL banks and businesses continued to ask themselves, in the immortal words of Fleetwood Mac, “Is it over now? Do you know how, to pick up the pieces and go on?”

"How to get a second life" - writer interview

After having posted a 3 pieces from the book (links here, here and here) last month, it was time to have a sit down with the author of the book and ask him some questions. James and I welcomed Mr. Madddyyy Schnook in our headquarters and we had a fun and informative talk.




Dixie: Your rez-day is January 1st, 2006. Did you start Second Life on a boring new-years day or did you choose that date for a reason?

Mr. Schnook: It was a new years resolution to change my job and I had actually been in SL in 2005, so I had flu and re-rezzed while on antibiotics on that date. It was a name change from one name to a fresh one...

Dixie: Do you remember your first days in Second Life? How did that go?

Mr. Schnook: The usual opening a club, being so in awe of just what could be done with a little thought and determination. And seeing beyond the sex and gambling.

JamesT: How did you come up with your first name? Whats with the triple letters?

Mr. Schnook: My name goes all the way back to 1985. I used to work on ships in the merchant navy. I went with the currrent trend of blonde streaks and Miami Vice jacket and went to see Maddonna on a world tour. When I got back on board ship I got called Madonna, shortened to Maddy.

Dixie: But this interview is not about your first life, I guess. You have become an SL celebrity by writing how-to books, called SL Guides. When did you discover that there was a need for those?

Mr. Schnook: That was in 2005, in August to be precise. I stumbled across a very basic notecard explaing how to make a t-shirt and wanted to learn to make clothes. I managed to learn how to make multilayerd womens clothes and i had a club with my own mall. I showed a few women the notecard I had made from my own memory and it went from there.

JamesT: Those first notecards are collectors items now :)

Dixie: How many SL Guides are there now? Are you still expanding the SL Guides series? And what are they about?

Mr. Schnook: I have over 65 and i have just started expanding them 3 days ago. We have one on advanced texturing, advanced photography, skins, and we have another 200 planned for release this year.

Dixie: Did you write all of the SL Guides yourself, or did you have any co-writers?

Mr. Schnook: i wrote all but 2. 'Business in sl extended edition' and 'snow family' were written by someone else.

Dixie: Let's talk about your RL book, or paper book, called 'How to get a Second Life'. On the cover it says 'Build a successful business and social network inworld'. There already are plenty of 'how to' books about SL, which also cover this topic. What makes your book unique?

Mr. Schnook: imagine a jouney through sl. Day one is you signing up to SL. The last day is your business in place and all your knowledge in place. That's the book from page one to end... The rest is up to you.

Dixie: So the book is more than 1 thing. A beginner's guide to start with, but also about more serious matters, like branding and having a successful business. What part of that has the upper hand, you would say, and why?

Mr. Schnook: It's different because it's not a user guide. It takes you through building, scripting socialising but more importantly it gives you my knowledge of branding and marketing. It's more heavily biased towards marketing and brand recognition in SL. How many times have you seen a fantastic product, and its got some dumb blonde sitting on it without good advertising. I have seen the holodeck 2 years ago and the guy had zero knowledge on how to sell it... He got left behind.

JamesT: Whats the most stupid thing you did in your newbee years?

Mr. Schnook: 'Click here for free lindens', and ended up with a chicken on my head. In a sandbox. Actually, I think i still got that chicken.

JamesT: You have become a celebrity in SL, through the SL Guides and now with a paper book. How does this affect your Second Life experience?

Mr. Schnook: Unfortunately I live in my selfmade prison cell. I go nowhere now or even talk to anyone except close friends. So I wouldn't know about being a celeb, lol.

Dixie: In your book you say that RL branding and marketing also applies to SL. You did marketing etc in RL. Does that help you out a lot? What do you think is the biggest difference between RL marketing and SL marketing?

Mr. Schnook: Knowing your market in sl... There is not really any big difference, although not being to big to be seen as corporate is my main concern... the Anshe effect.

Dixie: You have said that you constantly try to look forward at least 3 months and anticipate on any changes in Second Life. How do you do that?

Mr. Schnook: Also being low profile. I look at what is going on daily. I visit about 15 blogs, newspapers and sites and have friends who I talk to... and I have a nose for business.

Dixie: What are upcoming changes that you are anticipating already?

Mr. Schnook: Windlight is the main one and new viewers and new grids. I have land in a new off-world grid, which hopefully will connect to SL someday. It's good to be a breast of new technology. Like when prims go, importing meshes from 3dmax etc. Meshes are also already used in most 3d shooter games.

Dixie: What is the hottest type of business right now in SL, would you say?

Mr. Schnook: Still has to be fashion and skins. Land trade is a very small minority I think, specially with land bots, were as fashion and skins is more wide spread and accessible. Land prices are driven up because the land barrons keep buying off each other .. lol ..

Dixie: In your opinion, what is the biggest mistake people make when they start or run a business in SL?

Mr. Schnook: thinking they will make lots of money in a short time and expecting to stick a badly done picture of a pair of jeans on a box in a white box in a mall and expecting to make money.

Dixie: So people who are in sl business for the longer period will do better, you think? People who are in it for the long run?

Mr. Schnook: the long run and those who plan what they do. If you plan and market correctly then you will succeed in sl, but to do that takesd time, because it takes time to get to know SL.

JamesT: Did you ever fall in love in SL? or have loving feelings in SL?

Mr. Schnook: lol. Maybe. Not the sex thing, never understood that bit.

Dixie: Over a year ago, you were ready to quit your day job and earn a living with Second Life. This is probably the dream of many people who are SL addicts. Was that an easy decision to make?

Mr. Schnook: Not really, no. But I had to do it. I was totally fed up with my RL job, I was good but it was hard. So I had enough to see me through a 3 month trial shot at it. And it worked.

Dixie: Now some other practical questions, if you don't mind. What viewer do you currently use most of the time?

Mr. Schnook: I use the official SL viwer but as old as I can. And sleek.

Dixie: Is your book based on a specific viewer, or even computer? (Windows, Linux, Mac)

Mr. Schnook: Mac and Windows, and it mentions alternative viewers.

Dixie: One of those alternative viewers is linked to the CSI:NY thing. What do you think about the whole CSI business? Where did they go wrong?

Mr. Schnook: I think the concept was fantastic, one of my fave shows, being in the UK it was not aired here so I watched it online. But they abandonded the concept to quick. It was not maintained if you know what I mean, a shame really. By the way, I love the Die Hard 4 film set. Another good sim. Static but a good example of what SL can be. Like being inside a movie.

Dixie: Allright, last question. You already had a lot of publicity on your book. RL and SL. If it hits off, which it very probably will, will you be writing more books about Second Life? Or do you have any other plans?

Mr. Schnook: Hmmmmm ... I wanted the book to be more technical than it was, and it originally was. But it never ended up being that way in the end. So if I was to do another book, then it would be a far more technical book.


Again, James and I would like to thank Mr. Schnook very much for this opportunity. We both are great fans of the SL Guides series and are looking forward to seeing more of his work.

This book is published by Fusion Press and is available through Amazon.com and Visionpaperbacks.co.uk.

Chat logs have been used with permission from Mr. Schnook.
SLurl to SL Guides main shop: click here.

Weekly Business Review - 13 Jan 08

14 January 2008

Well, I am back after a SL-inspired hardware upgrade that is still not finished and has kept me outworld for the last two weeks. And what a two weeks it’s been as Linden Lab took the next step toward converting “our world, our imagination” into their own virtual version of a communist society by outlawing that cornerstone of capitalism, evil bankers. Or maybe it was just bad publicity they are banning? Read on and decide for yourself.

24 Dec 07 Market Week - SL Financial Indicators

24 December 2007

"And so this is Christmas.
And what have you done?
Another year over.
A new one just begun."

-John Lennon, Yoko Ono

Giving a Clue to the Clueless

I could only snicker when I read this piece from Wired titled How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life. It gives some credibility to the idea that its writers are better at buzzwords and superficial looks at technology than actual depth.

The poor man paints a broad, negative and mostly superficial picture of Second Life, without having a clue of its inner workings. He says it is empty with nothing to do and that big brands such as American Apparel and Coca-Cola are failing here. Let's help him to understand a few facts.

The grid is not empty. Sure, the total number of users is inflated, only active users should be counted. That's one thing. But anyone who took a bit of time to discover SL knows better than a feeling of emptiness (in human presence) and of nothing to do. In RL, people come and go from home to other places. A place that's empty right now will perhaps be packed in an hour. It applies to SL.

If the guy took the time to learn anything, he would have known that it is possible to build, create, dance, broadcast, meet people, etc.

The point where he fails the most is about business success. He takes the example of a few multinationals such as Coca-Cola and says that they are not getting traffic. That's for sure. I remember going to the sims of American Apparel, Adidas and Armani to find them empty... but also BAD.

Companies that throw money at a sim in SL often think that being present with their flagship products will help them succeed. They do not realize that they often do not adapt them well, such as designing a quality texture to replicate the quality of their clothing. Make me choose between a bad replica of an American top and a gorgeous, well-crafted one at Mischief and I'll buy the latter.

And then, RL brands fail at promoting their activities in ways that are easy to reach within Second Life.
I found the Adidas sim by typing the sim name. My numerous searches in the search engine failed miserably. They didn't even care to buy a L$50 classified, which would have been easy enough to find! How can you attract customers if you do nothing to reach them?

In short, brand power does nothing if you don't have product quality and do not learn how to fetch people. Did Coca-Cola and Adidas build their RL brands by sitting on their butts and waiting for people to come to them? Of course not. Why would they expect it to work in SL? Nonsense.

If companies want a presence, they have to find meaningful activities to make their sims compelling and market their efforts.

Is that too hard to understand?