Second Life Information :: Doing Business in Second Life

A complete capture of the conversation BMW hosted, along with a few photos, over at the SL Business Communicators blog.

Munich Express from BMW came to BMW World (BMW New World 143, 119, 23) to interact with about thirty SL residents. BMW sees Second Life as an interesting feedback tool, and a platform for marketing and R&D.

I am personally disappointed in BMW's position with regards to hydrogen, where Munich admitted that yes, its perhaps 10 years away, all the stakeholders still need to come together to make it happen, and they haven't worked out how they will actually manufacture hydrogen. Meanwhile, bridge technologies such as plug-in hybrids are sorely under-represented.

All in all, an interesting hang. Despite the guy in the green mohawk with a rather obtrusive male member. I think he got bored.

Check out Irie Vibes (Miata 191, 137, 26) for a chill irie vibe. Touch the floor and your avatar starts getting down. Meet a friend and slow dance, or go freestyle.

I was invited to an upcoming presentation at BMW's SL pad - check me out on a hydrogen car promoting BMW Clean Energy. Hopefully, I'll be able to report back that there are clean, green renewable technologies coming in the next 10 months, not 10 years.

Giff Constable, a veep at The Electric Sheep Company, wrote a year-end review for Second Life. Among many interesting observations, traffic and concurrent users are way up, while US-based users are dropping as a percentage of the whole:

...if you just look at concurrent users, a year ago max concurrent users was around 5 thousand. Today it is around 20 thousand, a 300% growth rate, although still a fairly small pond. An important part of this story is the international expansion of SL: in the spring, 75% of users were from North America. That number is now around 45%, and sign-ups are about 50-50 North America vs. International.

Giff does a great job documenting the major events of the year, including traffic milestones, RL corporate launches, media coverage, grey goo attacks and all the major business players in Second Life. Check it out.

It was time for some new threads. I was tired of my standard issue jeans and the blue long-sleeve shirt. I needed something a little more professional. So I searched Second Life for a number of terms - "men formal", "formalwear", "men suit" and more until I found the House of Zen (Hinode Shima 176, 104, 25), which actually has a number of locations.

I was greeted by Sasy Scarborough, who took my vague ideas and led me to a store that had some rather stylish threads for men. She tried a number of outfits on her avatar, so I could see what they looked like. At first I was adamant about no neckties, but relented when I saw the slick color-on-same-color tie/shirt combos.

I was feeling Blue and Gold (bring a UCLA alum and all), and we ended up selecting a suit with blue slacks, a two-jacket combo that included a blue one and a rust shirt/tie. "Very swish" said Sasy.

But I wasn't done - nope, I had to have shoes to match. I was sent to FNKY (Cake 120, 39, 24) for the black leather dress shoes. They look pretty nice on the wall, but on me they look like slippers. I changed my socks to rust with some cotton texture, and i think i'm making a fashion statement that's a bit on the edge. Of course, a rainbow furry just walked by, so there you go.

My last stop was to Calla (Plush Kappa 215, 70, 23), where I got some free hair. My natty light brown dreads felt a little out of place, what with the suit and all.

Summary: I spent an hour of time and L$1500 (about US$6) to receive a Second Life Extreme Makeover. Thanks, Sasy!

Hi.

In Second Life, my name is Greater Goode. In the real world (aka First Life; RL), I live in Ojai, CA and own Tribal Core, a company that provides internet strategy and web marketing services.

On behalf of a few clients interested in Second Life, I am researching business, marketing, educational and non-profit opportunities and having fun doing it. See you in SL!