Interesting article..
It's something that has always slightly perplexed me about SL - what do you actually *do* when you're there? It's always been a profoundly lonely experience when I've been on. I instead waste my 3D virtual time on www.there.com <http://www.there.com> - there are actually *people* here and they like talking, which is more than can be said of most of the inhabitants of SL....
Second Life is very obviously at the beginning of the hype curve: widespread takeup is absolutely minimal. When was the last time you didn't get confused looks or at best "oh yeah, I heard you could, like, go online as a virtual person or something" when in non-geek company?
Figures about SL are usually criticised in that counts of usage figures are not often actual active accounts: instead the vast majority of accounts are people like me who dipped in once to lose their SL virginity and have only rarely been back. Valleywag claims that 5 out of 6 people who registered ditched the experience in the first month:
http://valleywag.com/tech/overcounts/second-lifes-absentee-population-236318.php <http://valleywag.com/tech/overcounts/second-lifes-absentee-population-236318.php>
Having said that I don't think we should necessarily *not* do SL provided the investment and time is minimal but - as per everything else - there should be a reason. See
http://electronicmuseum.wordpress.com/2007/05/12/second-life-dangerously-sexy-in-an-80s-way/
Multiverse (www.multiverse.net <http://www.multiverse.net> ) are doing some things to watch in this space, especially if up-front investment is low: Again, see my blog for background:
http://electronicmuseum.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/multiversening-for-3d-worlds/ <http://electronicmuseum.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/multiversening-for-3d-worlds/>
Cheers
Mike
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________________________________
From: Museums Computer Group on behalf of Nick Poole
Sent: Tue 07/08/2007 15:00
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Second Life - where has everybody gone?
Dear All,
Further to recent posts to the list, I thought you might be interested in
the recent Wired article on the general lack of population in Second Life
('How Madison Avenue is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life' -August
2007) - http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-08/ff_sheep
The point of the article is essentially that a significant number of
blue-chip corporations have invested considerable time, money and effort in
the creation of Second Life 'locations' only to find that the market - the
actual number of real, persistent and habitual users - is considerably
smaller than the headline statistics (number of avatars created) imply.
None of this means that putting a museum in SL isn't necessarily a good
idea, but it does illustrate the point that perhaps, given that we have but
a limited resource to spend on this stuff, we should wait until the market
has matured a little before we jump in with both feet.
Nick
Nick Poole
Chief Executive
MDA
The Spectrum Building
The Michael Young Centre
Purbeck Road
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CB2 2PD
Tel 01223 415 760
www.mda.org.uk
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www.culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk
MDA (Europe) Ltd. Registered company number 13000565.
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