Managing the Gray – Positive Advice That Everyone Can Use to Succeed

Second Life has been having some major problems with griefers over the weekend. This has caused them to take the grid offline a couple of times.

I wil give them major kudos for keeping the community up to date through the Second Life Blog. It’s the first place I go whenever I have a question on the status of things. Few companies do this as well.

It is a bit challenging though when you are trying to conduct buiness that requires you to be in world, but the world is offline. It’s a new challenge that we are all trying to figure out how best to react to. Meetings get canceled, but do you reschedule in world or do you go back to traditional means.

We all know about “black Wednesdays” and how you never plan an event of any importance on a Wednesday because this is when Linden has scheduled down time for upgrades.

Now though as I plan some major events in Second Life I wonder if like in real life we often have rain dates do we now need back up dates for SL Events? What are your thoughts?

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Yesterday I had the chance to be given a sneak peek at Penguin UK’s first steps in Second Life using Neil Stephenson’s Snow Crash as the vehicle.

My first reaction was “is this it?”

Knowing the book I was expecting a lot more then just a HUD that would pop up pages of the book I could flip through or listen to some audio.

What I did like from a business perspective is that right there in the HUD I can click on a link to buy the book through a special page set up just for Second Life visitors. That is smart because it’ll let them know if the HUD is driving book sales or not.

After reading their press release I feel a bit better about all this because what they are trying to do is bring themselves and their library into Second Life. They hint at a virtual bookshelf of all their publications which I’m looking forward to seeing and hopefully adding to my office. If they do it right, I hope they make it so that new titles can be auto updated to it so that the bookshelf can grow with new titles.

A special thanks to Jeremy Neumann (in the pictufor giving me the sneak preview.  I said to him that I was expecting something more and I loved his answer which was basically “hard to do more when all of Second Life really IS what Snow Crash was.” He is right, but it would be neat to see some custom avatars or even a small build dedicated to the book.

Kudos to yet another business dipping their toes in the virtual waters. From the sounds of it Penguin Publishing will be jumping in full blown.

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I read this morning on the NMC Campus Observer about a new video built to promote both Second Life and PR company Text 100’s opening shop there.

If you are trying to give someone an introduction to Second Life there are two great videos that I would now point people to.

1. NMC’s “Seriously Engaging”
2. Text 100’s “PR Video”

Either of these give a very good peek in world without having to have someone go in themselves.

Trust me that there is nothing better then having someone try out Second Life to really get the feel for it, but a video is easier for a room full of people or when you just don’t have the time to learn the interface and give it a full whirl.

I’m getting a lot of calls and e-mails asking me if I’ll come into companies and give them a tour. I’m very happy to play Second Life Consultant for anyone out there. Just drop me a line.

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It would figure that on the day I was part of a group to buy a new island Linden Labs would shut down the land store they control to sell large parcels of land in Second Life.

I’m a bit worried about what this means. I’m going to remain positive though and assume that they need to just pause a moment while they bring in new hardware so that they can support the growing demand. It’s growing at such a rapid rate. If this goes on more then a few weeks though I’ll begin to worry. *grin*
I’m not going to be a doom and gloom and say that they’ve grown to fast and are going to fall. I don’t believe that for one minute. I do hope that along with this new hardware is some additional support staff to handle the downtime issues that have been happening.

Of course now this means that land that already exists is going to be going for premium prices. I’ve actually got a plot of land I’ve had for sale for about a week now. It’s here if you want to check it out.

Last night I was sitting in the Hummingbird Cafe listening to a live concert when I got a notice from my messenger at my office from someone saying hi. They said there was two of them there so I jumped over. Great to meet two brand new people. One came directly from listening to this show. The other said they had heard of me through For Immediate Release. The power of CAPOW continues.

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I get asked this question all the time and the honest answer is that I don’t know. *grin* Sure, I find lots of them and explore whenever possible, but I don’t create landmarks everwhere to return later. That’s part of the fun of exploring.

But, I got thinking about this and wanted a way to share places of interest with other people. Some I might work with. Others just might be friends looking for new places to visit.

Thanks to a cool new tool called BlogHUD this is going to be easy to do.

Koz Farina has developed this tool that you wear in Second Life. Anytime I find something of interest that I want to blog about I just type a command and my blog entry and it posts it to Cleon Goff’s BlogHUD. Not only does it post what I typed up, but it embeds a SLurl on the fly and integrates with the map so that you can easily visit. On top of this it’s even got a feed if you want it.

It’s still in BETA and I haven’t been using it as much as I should, but now I will be much more often. This combined with things like my SL Stats watch and the social networking is emerging.

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I FINALLY got into Second Life tonight. It was far from easy and many people still haven’t been able to get in. Further reason never to host an event or anything else of importance on Wednesday since that is when Linden Labs does their upgrades and as with any technology, things don’t always go well. *grin*

Once I got in I went looking for people to add. I figured there would be a “add friend’ or “request friendship” on someone’s profile but I was wrong.

You actually have to go to your friends list and then there is a Add Friend button.

I’m dissapointed that there is not any form of message you can send when requesting friendship. It means I’m going to get a lot of friendship requests from only an Avatar name and I’mnot going to have a clue who they are. That’s just annoying and hopefully will be something the Lindens will take a look at.

But, I’m psyched it’s added. It’s a great feature for sure.

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According to the release notes for the SL 1.12.1 they have finally added a feature I’ve wanted and complained about since getting into Second Life.

Residents can be invited to your Friends list, even while they are offline or far away.

This is huge because one thing that was a pain was that in order to be added as a contact/friend of someone both of you had to be in world at the exact same time and get together. This is a pain because you needed to manually check every time to see if they were online or not and that isn’t fun for everyone.

Yes, this has the potential for Spamming, but I hope it works just like Skype where I get a message and decide what to do. Hopefully they will also allow you to enter a message to the person in case they have no idea who the real life version of the avatar name is.

I’m happy. I’d be happier if this upgrade didn’t have the grid still down so that I can try it out!

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Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a big fan of Second Life.

But, over the weekend I became extremely frustrated with something that I’m shocked is so difficult.

I have a plot of land that I’ve wanted to have a custom residence built on for quite sometime. This is not the SecondLifeOffice.com place that people have been to, but rather a new place. I randomly crossed paths in world with some builders and we reached an agreement that in the end took longer and did not fit the plot as well as we both thought it would. No bad feelings, they did a great job with the build, but it just didn’t fit everything in the end.

So, I’m looking for builders in Second Life. That should be farily easy right? Nope!

Yes, there are builder groups and such, but Spamming them is not going to win any friends. I was shocked when I searched the web and came up mostly empty. Linden Labs has a great directory of developers, but there is no way that is the complete list. Plus, most of these are companies and the truth is I don’t have the $$$ to hire a full blown company to do a build for me.

If you are an independennt second life builder looking to gain some experience and have a showcase piece in your portfolio please contact me. Warning that it’s a large plot basically on a cliff so it has some unique challenges to it, but I think that makes for a fun design.

And trying something new here Podshow PDN {podshow-ADMIN}

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Jeff over at the Amazon Web Services Blog has screenshots and commentary on his first shopping experience inside of Second Life with an integrated Amazon.com store.
I have not had the opportunity to check it out for myself, but just reading the account made me smile. Sure, it’s baby steps towards what can ultimately done, but it’s a huge first step.

I’m looking forward to the day that I can have magazines or books sitting on my coffee table or desk and individuals could click on it and buy it right there. Either with real world money or Lindens. THAT is going to be a cool day.

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I’m in Idaho at the moment and the big Second Life Community Convention is going on in San Francisco which I’m extremely bummed I’m missing.

But, I read a post from Giff at Electric Sheep with some very intersting new stats:

• SL sees around 150,000 hours of usage a day
• 4 million lines of script code are written every week
• 50% of new avatars beings created are from non-US countries

I love that this shows the growing global nature of Second Life and the fact of how much usage is going on every day. I’d love to see some stats on when the most active hours of the day are. I’m curious because my experience has been that starting around 11 pm EST things start getting busy every night, but that could just be the circles I travel in. I don’t know.

Lots of new faces in Second Life. LOTS of them corporations and name brands that you know. Toyota’s Scion is the latest one and there will be many more.

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In a sort of “why did it take so long” moment I just read over on 3pointD that a sim is being built for the book Snow Crash.

If you are not familiar with the book, let’s just say that it predicted things like SL and coined the term Metaverse. I’m not a fanboy or anything, but it’s a great read and as pointed out in the post you’ve got to remember that this book was written before graphical web browsers as we know them even existed.

Eric is going to love this news.

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I’m back from vacation and was psyched to see the NFL back on television last night.

It got me thinking about some very simple things that sports teams are missing out on and that would not be that hard for them to embrace in the new media space. If a sports team actually wants some help implementing anything I mention on the show, drop me an e-mail and lets chat.

Links from the show:

• The Elusive Fan
• Mrs. B’s Patriot World Podcast
• Miami Herald’s Dolphins Podcast
• The Engaging Brand audio comment
• iTunes

The comment line is always open at 206-309-4729 and so are the doors/lawn over at SecondLifeOffice.com.

[Update: Transcript for this episode now available]

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This past weekend the American Cancer Society held a virtual Relay for Life inside of Second Life.

Those doubters in the crowd will scoff at this as a stupid idea. Avatars running around tracks set up through 12 different sims, each with a different global theme and familiar landmarks from around the world. Pink cars being auctioned off and special t-shirts for sale. Sounds pretty silly to some of you?

How does $40,000 US Dollars raised doing this silliness sound to you?

This makes me amazingly happy. Any way that people can find to raise money for a good cause excites me. I think it is very important for people to give back and take part in charity events. I know I donated several thousand Linden Dollars to this in various ways. I should have given more.

Congrats to everyone who helped make this happen. MANY hours were spent putting together the courses, designing unique items and setting everything up. And who wins? Everyone. Especially the American Cancer Society.

And be sure to check out this video someone did of the course. It’s quite impressive what people put together.

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I love it when friends forward me posts like this one. It may not be a duck, but it’s certainly not getting it either. I’m sick of reading crap like this.

Every day I have discussions with people about “what is Second Life.” It’s not an easy conversation. I don’t think it was meant to be. Remember back in 1996 trying to explain to people what the web was? I remember tons of conversations with people as I showed them a web browser and they shook their heads going “this will never catch on. There is no point.”

Listen up all the doubters who shun all things new and unknown. You are the same people who say Podcasting is a fad. That Blogging will never catch on. That Second Life is pointless.

If that is truly what you believe then keep on believing so. It’ll mean more success for the people who get it. The people who realize that Second Life is NOT about marketing. Bingo! It’s about a community of people doing their own thing. It’s a big old gathering in a virtual space where professors are teaching classes, musicians are building followings, organizations are raising funds to find a cure for cancer and a whole bunch of people are pixel bumping. (that’s something I still don’t get the appeal of *grin*)

As with any place in the world that people gather there is an opportunity to market to them. That’s marketing 101 for anyone who cares to think about it for a minute. The problem is that it’s not the same as the markets that people are use to. It’s not a magazine so print ads don’t work. It’s not radio (thankfully) so the 30 second spot is dead and won’t fly here. But, guess what, avatars do fly….perhaps there is something there? Think about it.

I love reading articles like this because it reminds me that there are so many people locked inside their boxes while I’m out crushing mine and trying to think of new ways to approach and succeed in this new space.

Is Second Life the golden goose for marketers? Is it the eagle that is going to swoop down and carry us all up to higher success rates? Beats the hell out of me. But, your right, it’s not a duck.

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I was hanging out at my Second Life Office when people started showing up and IMing me. Before I knew it we had a small group of listeners and we started talking about a variety of topics.

What is fun about Second Life is that we never even went inside. We just sort of mingled around, got shown some artwork, watched my daughter rock out on the video wall and then ride around on the roof of a car.

But, the whole time we were engaging in new media and discussing lots of topics. Let’s see you do all that in an old school chat room!

More formal meetups will be scheduled soon. The new house is almost done and then we’ll have a good old house warming party and invite everyone on over. Can’t wait.

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Ok, now that I’m spending more and more time in Second Life I figured I’d post some helpful little lessons on basic etiquette in Second Life (SLetiquette?) as there has been some things happening that have been bugging me. As well some personal notes on things going on in world for me.

Plus, since there are lots of newbies coming in and I haven’t seen anything like this I figured I’d start the conversation. Hopefully others will add to it in the comments and we can get a good old fashion conversation brewing.

• Because Second Life is not a game, just because I’m “in world” does not mean that I can socialize the second I arrive. Patience is important.
• If you IM me when not in world, I get it e-mailed to me and will usually respond because I think it’s great that I can do this. But, don’t freak out when you can’t find me in world because of this. *grin*
• If we are friends in world you can find out where I am at any time and teleport there, but this is very bad form. Always drop an IM before just showing up. It’s the polite thing to do and you never know what you might be popping into the middle of. I had someone pop into the middle of a meeting the other night. Doh!
• Many people conduct meetings in world. Just tonight I was on the phone with someone while they showed me around some places. I had someone arrive to chat with me and I politely told them I was busy and couldn’t chat and they got it and said “talk to you soon” and I appreciate that. Please keep in mind that business is happening in SL. People are doing work and sometimes can’t just socialize.
• Linden Labs has not yet added a way to become friends with people unless you are both in world at the same time. I have a habit of jumping in, becoming a friend and jumping out. This sometimes leads to people seeing me, IMing me and then wondering why I left so quick. Now you know why.
• My current office in world (new one still being built) is just that an office. If the doors are open, come on in. If they are shut then perhaps there is a reason. Chill outside on the hammock or watch the movie of the week. I’ll be back soon.
• Second Life is all about community and thus chatting and just saying hi to people is highly encouraged. Just keep in mind that they might be shopping, building or just passing through and can’t chat at the moment. If they don’t say hi back don’t pester. But, also don’t get scared off from saying hello to the next person.
• Snapshots are great, but in case you don’t know, every time you do a sound goes off an your avatar will show that they are taking a picture to everyone. Most times this is cool, but it’s quite possible that the situation might not be appropriate. Just think before you snap.

As I said this is just a starting point in the hope that it’ll kick off some more comments here on the Blog so that we can all pool our knowledge and experiences.

See you in SL!

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Back in the studio finally to record a show. 206-309-4729 for audio comments or questions.

Today, I spent most of the show answering the question from a listener about my thoughts on marketing to avatars and people in Second Life. It’s a different then what most people are thinking and I hope they start realizing that.

I also spoke about opportunities I think could be both very effective and cost effective. As I’ve said before if you need some Second Life consulting just let me know. I would be happy to help you.

Finally, I briefly described the concept of The Long Tail and told everyone that they must buy the new book from Chris Anderson. I consider it must reading.

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Tonight the show is about one thing. Second Life.

I’ve been in too many meetings and conversations where it quickly becomes apparent that people either don’t know enough or they think the wrong things about Second Life and I wanted to clear it all up with what I hope is a good overview of what Second Life is and isn’t.

Virtual worlds and new media go together like the infamous chocolate and peanut butter. Sure, right now everyone might not see the connection, but we will all look back someday and shake our heads at the doubters.

This picture is one of the meetings that I mention on the show where like minded individuals gathered at my house to discuss marketing. Doesn’t it look more fun then the same old boring chat room?

One thing that I completely forgot to mention on the show is to thank Eric Rice for introducing me to this and for being completely forward thinking. That guy continues to tap new corners of this world and pushing forward to help out everyone. Not only is he a great guy, but damn is he fun to watch. And I mean that in a completely business manner.

If this introduction to Second Life isn’t enough and you want to discuss further I’m only an e-mail away.

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This weekend I had the privilege and the honor to be guest hosting Across the Sound with Joseph Jaffe.

We talked about a WHOLE bunch of different topics. We hit on music, the evolution of podcasting and of course some interesting winners and losers of the week.

Thank you Joseph for allowing me to come on the show and reach out to your listeners. I’ve been a fan and a listener of the show for a long time so I’m still smiling from this opportunity.

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