That has been a long time. Working on conferences takes times and needs concentration. So blogging & tweetting was a little too much.

I had the chance to be invited for MakeMyWorlds, by Eric Seuillet from La Fabrique du Futur, to participate at a round table The revolution of management through virtual worlds at the Imagina Festival in Monaco.


It was a great opportunity to introduce Second Life Enterprise and remind the audience what is the power of immersive internet, and how companies could transform their basic intranet in something we could also called immersive intranet.


As I developed it in earlier posts here, and especially in the last one,  it is all about persistency, 3D and interactivity. It is the convergence of at least those 3 elements that will allow the user to experiment real immersion.


I had not any chance yet to get any videos from them but hopefully the slides here will help...

Imagina Round Table MakeMyWorlds

View more presentations from Helene Zuili.

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Oh boy! That was a nice break! Not a work break, but this kind of break we all need once in a while just to gather our ideas, clean the place from all those things you drag with you from a while and you can’t never achieve because you are too busy, too full of things to do here and there, take care about the one you love and who always complained that you are never free for a diner, a theater, a concert… just an instant of life to share.

So my time has come to wish all of you a great new year 2010, health and happiness. I wish you to keep your joie de vivre –joy of life- no matter what, because this is what keeps us going on every morning, this great energy of life that is so precious, so fundamental. And I wish you love too, for love is that unique dimension which add perspective to our lives, love without which everything is flat like a 2D cartoon!

Health, Joy and Love, this is my 3D wishes for this New Year ;) And peace of course…
I mean it, deeply, sincerely, may this year bring all of you the best, wherever you are in the world.

For weeks, I have wondered if I could write those predictions for virtual worlds, since everyone does, at least professionals. No client ask, but professional just feel obliged to say « hey, those are my predictions for the next year! ». And on the top of it, a lot of them wrote predictions for the next decade… But how many Jules Verne, how many George Orwell, hmmm

My idea of consulting, especially in my field, new medias and immersive Internet, is that you should be able to anticipate. Anticipation is the key of a concept, a product that meets desires and needs of an audience. The more the production of your product is delayed, the more anticipation is a necessity if you don’t want its release to be already old fashion when it reaches its market.

But anticipation should be the result of a strong analysis, based on a deep understanding of the past, the history, a deep feeling of the present, what’s in the air, and a wide watchfulness not only about technology but sociology and above… One can have flair, but is it enough in those days when all is going so fast, when transversality and globalism are the main keys that can modify at any instant the course of the time. In fact, I would think "trends" is more appropriate than "predictions"...

So, let’s go back now to so called “virtual worlds”.

Past

What is past for virtual worlds? Is it an addition of the past of virtual reality plus the past of video games? Or would it be the past of humanity pursuing its old dream of ubiquity, of being in different places at the same time, of belonging to different realities thru the quest for a perfect medium?

The dream of an ultimate medium driven by the ancient desire of physical transcendence associated to the search of the essential copy, has crossed the centuries until we entered into Second Life… until this very moment… until now.

Present

Which reality do we talk about when we speak about virtual worlds? Persistency? Real time? 3D? Or do we talk about this great ability we have to go back and forth to cross and leave the membrane, this magic circle that separe the physical world from the synthetic world?

When I logged in, at the beginning of my Second Life,  I used to think about Matrix (guess now Avatar would be THE reference !), because when I am inworld, my brain is totally there, with all my senses. It is not just a question of screen and mouse; it is its capacity to take me in, to set me in the state of “flow”. And when we are in the flow, we lose perception of location and time. We may reach that flow on the Internet, when a website is ergonomic, when the user experience is well done. But virtual worlds are much more immersive because they offer our brain representations and archetypes which are totally familiar, natural.

We do not see a synthetic world on our devices: we are in the world. We do not look at an avatar that we love, we see the person behind it, we feel his soul and hear his heart. All our perceptions are changed, and this is why people outside do not understand until they give themselves the opportunities to immerse, thru games, thru education, or work.

Second Life and virtual worlds, as they are now in early 2010, reflect the state of technology: quicker processors, better graphic cards, large servers and broader bands. We do not realize it because we are part of it, but slowly our experience get closer to the real thing, which is virtual reality. It is not yet there, we still can’t really teleport, smell a mimosa, or feel the skin. But we are on the way, and this is why so many people are afraid of it. The membrane gets more porous every day.

As Marshall Mc Luhan said, media is the message, and virtual worlds like Second Life are mediums which allow us to extend ourselves above physical frontiers, push our possibilities, our limits exactly like newspaper, radio or television did it. And this medium changes us. We are now ready for more.


Close Future

More, in a close future means a few different things.


More means easier: easy interfaces, ergonomic and customizable to each one according to its brain preferences.

More means more realistic (if we want it): more realistic avatars with face expressions and smoother body movements.

More means more interactivity with other applications, social, transactional, operational.

More means, that slowly slowly we forget about virtual worlds to talk about immersive internet, immersive platform which gives us more power to interact with others on private or professional matters. On this ground, I would think that virtual worlds will change name to slowly be called something close to internet 3D….

Sure, it is difficult to separate virtual worlds from the evolution of technology and of our societies.
Convergence leads the debate on a technological point of view and 3D seems to be in the center as a must for a user experience. The success of Avatar is not only due to the story itself but also to a conception that relies on 3D. 3D representation invading all other medias will changes the whole perception of the human being exactly as it did in the Renaissance times with the intrusion of perspective in painting.

The first effect of this change should be that getting use to 3D mass medias with television and movies, will slowly make people unsatisfied with online 2D conversations or representations.

Best example is to compare a browser based 2D exhibition and an exhibition in Second Life… The example of Linden Lab Solution Providers conference was a great demonstration and I will give more details of it in my next post.

The second effect, more subtil, is that watching ourselves thru 3D will reinforce hyper-ego and offer social and global movement, a gentle way to gather in real time in 3D environments as decors for brainstorming, conferencing, live-showing, etc…

Many gurus will find a way to extend their consulting offering by organizing virtual consultations or conferences in a more sophisticated personal atmosphere. Big corporate companies in need of strategies for crisis communication will invest virtual media centers where they can react in real time in a more emotional way than just press releases.

So to end with those predictions which do not want to look as predictions, what about Second Life is 2010 ?

New viewer 2.0 with the Media-API and the html-on-a-prim (expected first term)
New generation of avatars with the possibility to name them as you want
New social widgets linked to the major social platforms we all know…
New secured transactional features to make payment directly linked to a real life logistic (not linked to the internet but directly linked to the server)
Import of 3D Mesh Objects Into Second Life
New offer on land with higher speed servers for special event or businesses needing more resources
More internal meetings and the organization by Linden Lab of a mass event
Main partnerships announced with the official launch of Second Life Enterprise
An improvement of the general image of Second Life in Europe and in the world
We’ll be passing the 100 000 accounts online simultaneously on a regular basis….

Waiting for those changes which will open Second Life to other great minds like you all, once again a very happy new year 2010! 


P.S. Want to read more predictions ? And please, feel free to give your predictions ...:)


Mark Kingdon - M Linden
Daniel Voyager
Dusan Writer
New Worlds Notes
Gwins Home

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France is the most visited country in the world. About 80 millions tourists from all over the world are coming every year and Paris is the most visited city with about 16 millions people. And I have to admit, it is a fantastic country to travel, and it is true that Paris is a beautiful city too ! I have been living here for 30 years now, often left but always returned ! That is maybe why, the first region I created on Second Life was the famous Champs Elysees where I could try to give a taste of one of most visited avenue in Paris !

Right now, it is snowing big flakes, the conversations here are about how to avoid Paris to be a museum city with no life except tourists ... Night life is going away to Berlin or London, energy is in New York or Tel Aviv, fantasy is in Roma or Barcelona... and Parisian start to be jealous ! French people, if you don't know them, have a great tendancy to grouse, to complain about changes, and others but more of all themselves and about everything... I am not very sure why it is that way, but I had the chance to travel a lot around the world, and this is always something I felt as a painful thing about the people here. Maybe it has something to do about deep and old identity that find it difficult to coop with this new global way of life, maybe it is a strong sense of analysis we cultivate since we are children at school, maybe it is just a trait of personnality, ethnic, historic...

When you live in France, you do not realize so much the chance you have to live here. The country has "a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges of the Alps in the south-east, the Massif Central in the south-central and Pyrenees in the south-west". You can cross the country from north to south, or east to west in a day and you' ll see so many different landscapes and will meet so many different types of people, there is no chances for you not to find something you really like, or maybe fall in love with.

If you want to have a taste of this, take a look to some regions of Second Life. Recently I visited Jura and Alsace, and I really thought that was a nice way to discover the country. Jura is close to Switzerland and belongs to a region named Franche-Comté,  you can have an idea of its architecture, industry and landscape there. Alsace is close to Germany, and has a great reputation for its Christmas Markets. You can even order delicatessen directly from Second Life to your hometown !

Those two places may give you an idea of the whole potential for tourism business to "demonstrate" in 3D into Second Life, a sensation that only 3D can give to be in  "there". It is not only about architecture, tourism or culture, but also about economic since you are also able to put in perspective the main sectors of activities from the region, its enterprises or its commerce. Talking about commerce, it is also so easy to link from virtual goods to an e-commerce platform online and allow people to discover and to buy. And it is also a great way to know the people, to go above the cliches and to really enter into relationships as a trempolino to real life meetings.

As we say in french, to try it is to adopt it !

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Image via Wikipedia

I just came back from James Cameron's 3D movie Avatar which was a really great experience. For almost 3 hours, I just forgot the time, my mind was not anymore in cold snowy Paris, but in Pandora, where you could see the slow move of Jake Sully to his long tall blue semi-lion man avatar. I wish I could also have jump into that jungle and fly on those strange birds.

Great 3D movie with hundreds of people stuck on their chair and applauses at the end. Sophisticated media, simple message and the idea that soon, someday close to us, our Second Life will also be as real as the world of Pandora for Jake. I know for some this may sound as a nightmare, but for some of us, - and I belong-, this will be a small revolution....

How did we arrive in Second Life ? What was the main reason . How did we end up to incarnate our avatar, what was the drive, when was the exact moment ?

For some, it might be easy to say, but others more shy or modest, it would be more difficult to explain. For some coming from video game univers, it was a natural prolongation. For others, manipulating the keyboard took a month before they could get handle movements properly.

Reasons to get and to stay into Second Life  are all individual choices. Maybe SL was an answer to loneliness, tough and modern, maybe just an inside solitude that nothing could kill before. Maybe it was a way to keep active, brain & engine. Maybe it was an overdose of television, bars and light relationships. Maybe it was sickness, handicap, difficulty to move but will to share and socialize. Or unemployement,  or opportunities. Or maybe just curiosity, fantasy, creativity. And maybe for some, it was a little bit of everything.

Whatever was the reason to get in, there was an instant, short, fleeting, an immaterial flash, where we and our avatar became the same person. The avatar was not anymore a puppet on the screen, but the person behind it, mind, soul and body. We even did not realize it, we were just in the mental flow, no more idea of time and space, just inside this 3D world that was so hard to leave.

This is called immersion, brain immersion, and that makes all the difference.
Because when the avatar becomes a part of us, and that we can evoluate in a 3D environment,  then all the doors open to leave a stream of emotion going from inside the screen to outside the screen. That helps us to get interested by others, their culture, their mood, their life. That is why we can spend hours building a house or decorate it. That is how we can make real friends and relationships. That is also how we can learn more easily, or share a conference together, or understand concepts better.  

When emotionnal doors are open, what happens to our avatar also affects us. It can be good, like a friend of mine who suddenly discovered she had no more vertigo in her real life after using parachutes a few times in Second Life. It can also be sad, like when suddenly you learn that someone you used to talk to everyday, had a mortal accident in a trip on the Himalaya Mountains.


Yes, our avatar changes us, that is a fact. 

People who never were in virtual worlds can laugh about avatars and maybe they do it because they dont get it. They understand you need a pen to write, or a screen to watch a movie.
But they dont get the idea, you may need an avatar to enter in another dimension, and eventually spend the vacations you can't afford in real, go to bars, laugh and dance, meet people, share time and mental energy with them, architect a palace you would never be able to afford, become the Madonna of the international virtual stage from you small village in Arkansas. But apart from the fun, your avatar in a 3D world, is a way to feel the abstract space, to see yourself in an environment that flat design or internet lists & catalogs are unable to provide.  For business people, an avatar will allow you to travel during the same day in many regions of the world, hold meetings and media conferences, exhibit your goods and products, recruit specialists, visit prototypes...

Your avatar is all about putting your dream in action, and at the end, you never know how this action will impact your person in the physical world.

People do not understand it mostly because they are afraid of it. Afraid that you would lose all contact with your reality. It is a risk for some, but for how long ? As Jake Sully, you do not feed your body with pixels...

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Except if you have been sick and away from any traditionnal or new medias the last 2 month, or out on another planet, you certainly have heard about UN Copenhagen Summit on Climatic Changes which is being held until Dec 18th.

There are many ways to participate to this conference, if you are not invited at the Summit ! You can of course do it the traditionnal way, which means waiting for hearing the news on TV. But if you want to be more active and get the feeling to participate, you can either share and interact on the website OneClimate which distribute a live stream from Copenhagen 24/7 thru Justin TV, either join the Virtual Expo in Second Life at OneClimate Island where you will get to participate to real conferences and meet interesting people who have been using Second Life and virtual worlds as a platform to prove their concept for a greener world. That is one of the most interesting aspect of virtual worlds and this is the best moment to get the idea !

This means you'll have the opportunity to ask questions of the policymakers and campaigners shaping the most important climate negotiations of our time.  You can also watch films & get information, based on the five elements, covering the Arctic, rainforests, wind turbines & typhoons, volcanoes, peak oil, virtual allotments and Australian wetlands.  

You'll find all details of the program and places in SL here.

If you have any questions about this great event and want to relay or know more, you can contact Paolo Rousselot in SL aka Peter Lundquist.

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Zwei Putzfrauen im Bürogebäude. Sagt die eine: "Ich mache jetzt Diät".
Darauf die andere: "Gut, dann mache ich die Fenster".

Warum müssen wir über so etwas lachen (komm, gib es zu, du hast wenigstens geschmunzelt)? Keine Ahnung, und im Grunde auch völlig unwichtig, ich benutze das Stilmittel des Witzes nur als Einstieg in diesen Beitrag.

Aber mal ehrlich, das Jahr neigt sich dem Ende und spätestens nach Sylvester sind sie wieder da, all die guten Vorsätze. Immer gerne genommen, der Vorsatz, im neuen Jahr abzuspecken. Deutlich abzuspecken, versteht sich. Und endlich kann ich diesen Blog einmal dazu benutzen, wirklich hilfreich zur Seite zu stehen. Mit meinen beiden Tipps. Tipp 1: 15 Kilo abnehmen in 5 Minuten – die Bein-ab-Diät!! Funktioniert immer und dauert vor allem nicht so lange. (Übrigens: Vorsicht, funktioniert genau zweimal, dann ist Schluss mit dieser Art von Diät!)

Auf Tipp 2 bin ich gerade eben gestoßen: Abnehmen in Second Life. Was?! Ist der jetzt total irre geworden? Ist er nicht. Kürzlich hat in unserer virtuellen Lieblingswelt Kaliforniens beliebtestes Fitnesstudio eröffnet: Club One. Auf einer kompletten Insel kann der gemeine Resident Sport treiben, relaxen, Pfunde verlieren und was weiß ich noch alles. Dass das kein Gag ist und man es in Kalifornien offensichtlich verdammt ernst meint damit, sieht man nicht zuletzt daran, dass Club One jetzt ganz aktuell ein spezielles Programm aufgesetzt hat, für das der elitäre Club Leute sucht, die mitmachen. Und zwar in Second Life ... also virtuell. Genauer gesagt, Fitness OS (Ohne Schwitzen).

Ok, wenn wir uns alle wieder beruhigt und hingesetzt haben, dann lasst mich erklären, warum das tatsächlich funktionieren kann: Wer schon mal eine Diät gemacht hat (und wer hat das nicht, außer mir?), der weiß, dass die meisten Diäten an sich selbst scheitern, sprich an den Leuten, die sie machen. Der biologische Prozess des Abnehmens ist nicht das Problem, das Problem ist die Frustration, die Motivation, kurz: die Emotion. Und genau da setzt dieses virtuelle Pfunde-verlieren an. In angenehmer Umgebung treibt man Sport, schwitzt, saunt, schwimmt und dieses virtuelle Verhalten überträgt sich sozusagen automatisch auf das Verhalten im realen Leben. Wer einmal virtuell 2 km am Morgen durch das eiskalte Schwimmbecken gekrault ist, dem sollten lächerliche 200 m Freistil im Schwimmbad um die Ecke keine mentalen Probleme mehr bereiten. Na, das denk ich doch auch.

Wer's immer noch nicht glaubt, der schaue hier:



Anmeldungen übrigens direkt in Second Life. Das wollte ich nur noch erwähnen. Nur für den Fall, versteht sich ...

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What is the common point between Second Life 2008 and Second Life 2009 ? Or let's figure the question as one of those wine lovers friends, and since we are almost at the end of the year, can we assert the Second Life 2009 vintage is one that will show a definite break between the old Second Life and something that we do not know yet but which is on the way.

So much changes everyday announced on the Second Life blog, new website, adult policy, new policy for the newcomers, new premium accounts, new rules for merchants, new enterprise program, new viewer in perspective and so much more is showing a deep change and it is hard to believe Linden Lab is not onboard to announce some main change.

I am not reading the cards but I really would like to be in one of that movie where you could read the newspaper of december 2010, then come back and use that news to achieve the best position for the future.

Today I was having a closer look to Blue Mars strategy with content partners, reading about the lauching of NearLondon , listening to people talking about Eve, downloading pdf about web.Alive and finally ended by watching James Cameron talking about his movie Avatar which I am looking forward to see next wednesday with my nephews !

I celebrated my 3rd rezz day a few days ago. At the time I entered SL, blogging was the hot thing. My Space was this music thing, Facebook was a joke, microblogging was not even existing, Apple was talking about the iPod Phone and Second Life was wowwww. So much is going on with web 2.0 and time passing, we dont realize how we have ingest that change, how all that has changed us, but also shaped a whole generation coming in the ring and for whom Second Life looks not so wowwwwww.

I love Second Life and the way we were. I am working as an evangelist for 3 years, and integrated it in my personal and professionnal life but let's face it. Change we need & change the community needs to accept.

I remember Philip Rosedale in Chicago saying " we know virtual worlds are here to stay and grow. We just don't know if Second Life will be the one..." and disappear in the boiling flow of technology as Netscape did in its time. And because I want Second Life "to be the one" (dont know why really, but this is how it is), I think we all should work to accept and manage this change and the opportunities it offers each of us.

More than this, I think nothing will really change for those who dont want to change. Second Life is just opening to other users, other needs and wishes, other type of consumers, and why would it not ? Why would we want to keep the old Second Life the way it was like a jealous lover who would ask you not to ever change ! And for this move, all of those changes make sense :
- a new viewer to simplify the first hour experience for those who are not video game oriented
- a new premium account with land and basic house to enhance that experience
- a new enterprise product to feet corporate needs
- an adult policy to run away from usual scandals that pollute the image of the world
- a change of Xstreet to enhance the shopping experience and maybe avoid crazy dumping
- Second Life Answers with Resident Help Network like the aardvark model
- an energetic solutions providers program to chart quality and extend "a B2B sales force" (affiliation program ?)
- a reorganization of the P.R. program to reinstall the real image of SL

I am sure I forget a lot of announces but what I feel for sure is that the change behind all this is leading to a swift in the economic model. More income, sure, but also more money to finance more technology and therefore more services.

More technology also means different versions of the viewer and maybe a lite SL browser based, real time, acting as a twitter inworld. Means also integration of 3D meshes, and interoperability with other social medias.

And to get back to the image of Second Life, this change would take us to a really new Second Life, a Second Life 2.0 that would certainly needs a change of name. Is a suffix enough to identify what is your Second Life, entertainment, enterprise or education ? Or is Second Life already a brand of the past that needs a total fixing with a new name ? Is Second Life ready for a change of name ? What do You think ?

My opinion is that name must be relevant to the user you are talking to, and I am sceptical on the fact that a radical change of name would carry the idea of a total new change without losing the benefits of 6 years experience and work. Except if SL would be totally integrate by a larger company, what is the point ? A suffix would be a good start so each consumer will associate it to its own interest. The first talks we had with corporates mentionning a new product called Second Life Enterprise are showing us a slight change of attitude and a positive concern.

Whatever will be chosen, wherever leads those changes, we may all agree Second Life has definitely opened the way and changed the life of millions of people all over the world, introducing the era of 3D web real time... Let's continue, let it be the one, let's move on and share !


"Life 2.0" documentary teaser from Jason Spingarn-Koff on Vimeo.
This feature length documentary follows a group of people whose lives are dramatically transformed by a virtual world, Second Life - reshaping relationships, identities, and ultimately the very notion of reality.
Premiering at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival

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• Virtual world workers need avatar dress code policy (blogherald.com)
• Dusan Writer Blog
  

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