Why real life businesses are and should be looking at Second Life.
Dell, IBM, Circuit City, Intel, Sun, Sony, what do they know that you don’t? By their sheer size the answer is and must be “a lot.” What do they know that’s br…

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As I see it, what I’ve long admired about you Gwyn, is can look at the big picture, AND the tiny details inside. Both the forest and the trees. That’s shockingly rare: how many other intelligently-written blogs have a photo of their writer winking playfully at you? I dare say, yours is the only one I’ve come across thus far (and I’ve been looking hard!). While such a detail may seem trivial to some, for the truely observant, it’s part of a larger canvas, one aspect being the living-on of nimated GIFs despite their crash-and-burn during the web-design hype of the mid-to-late-90s. ‘Course, in some respects, it was succeeded by Flash (which is effectively nigh ubiquitous). Both of these technologies have been through sound thrashings, only to find not just devotees, but widespread adoption on the other side.

I realize some of that parallel is tenuous as compared to Second Life, but what instantly comes to mind is a term you used on Tateru Nino’s blog when commenting: “clever visionaries”. For ah, it’s not just enough to have a lucid eye on the future: one must also be smart, progressive, evolutionary about change. Bold stalwarts of one particular generation have been rendered obsolete or looked like “old codgers” in the next. We also know even the soundest of geniuses make embarassing flops: Leonardo da Vinci and his proposed medicinal usage of beaver testicles, for example.

There are a couple books I think you’d be soundly fascinated in reading, Gwyn, if you haven’t already. They are:

* The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – describes Mavens, Connectors, and Salesmen who have a signifcant role in influencing widescale social epidemics. It also has some connections to retention.

* Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin + Heidi Toffler – intriguing prognostications on the rise of a knowledge-based economy. Among relevant terms like “prosumer” (CONTENT IS KING!) and “obsoledge” (obsolete knowledge), it charts forth not a utopian, but a very hopeful and exciting view of the future.

Both these tomes wrestle heavily with the power of context: that is, something which is right today, may not be tomorrow, and circumstances, as well as social behavior, very much dictate a “perception is reality” line of dominos falling, not unlike mass hysteria where the actual causes are nowhere to be found. A popular example: yawning is contagious. A skeptic friend of mine joked, “Well then, so’s stupidity!” And I shot back: “Then, shouldn’t intelligence be, too?”

So, back to the “clever visionaries” — more people should use this as a meme. Perhaps it could be a fun game unto its own. Or when you write your book, include that as a chapter heading. Please?

When I first heard of Philip Rosedale, I thought of old skool-CEOs sniffling and getting up and arms because he didn’t wear a formal suit. Nor did he drive a classy car — he tends to find them wasteful (SOURCE: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/giftguide/index.html ) — but rather, a motorcycle. It’s no wonder he’s often described as a rockstar! At the same time, when thinking of rock music, I consider how what was “hip” in the 50s, as fashion is cyclical, has come back several times, now to be looked at as a curiosity by today’s youth. Kinda like the 56K Modem Emulator: http://www.lazylaces.com/56Kmodem/

I can only hope that when predictions are made which turn out to be foolish down the line, they’re looked at with mirthful laughter (e.g., those “Surfing the World Wide Web” videos of the 90s), not scorn. It’s the great folly of humanity to equate improbable with impossible.

All this, really, is reminiscent of the many, many times a great many “pundits” proclaimed Apple Computer was dead. Over and over again. How Macs would continue to shrink in marketshare and eventually evaporate like, say, Amiga or Atari personal computers. They didn’t. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t, but history continues on. Today, it’s unthinkable anyone would buy Microsoft or Google. But who knows? A few decades from now, some juggernaut, perhaps a Chinese megacorp not unlike those cast forth in vivacious cyberpunk novels, would do the trick. (I’m being intentionally ludicrous here, to work the imagination muscles.)

I don’t think many really knew that Apple would become such a force in the music industry with its iPod. The clues weren’t obscure; they were there all along. We have a trail of history, reading back through Steve Jobs’ interview and his long love of music. Obvious advances like how he wanted the Mac to have superior sound. These insights were perhaps lateral, but available for the taking, the interpreting, for just about anyone who paid close observation.

In much the same way with Second Life, when there are articles about this online world, when there are conversations with Lindens (disclaimer: I work for Linden Lab and I’m happy), the same clues are present.

Never forget the power of a childhood dream.

Refreshing read.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As I see it, what I’ve long admired about you Gwyn, is can look at the big picture, AND the tiny details inside. Both the forest and the trees. That’s shockingly rare: how many other intelligently-written blogs have a photo of their writer winking playfully at you? I dare say, yours is the only one I’ve come across thus far (and I’ve been looking hard!). While such a detail may seem trivial to some, for the truely observant, it’s part of a larger canvas, one aspect being the living-on of nimated GIFs despite their crash-and-burn during the web-design hype of the mid-to-late-90s. ‘Course, in some respects, it was succeeded by Flash (which is effectively nigh ubiquitous). Both of these technologies have been through sound thrashings, only to find not just devotees, but widespread adoption on the other side.

I realize some of that parallel is tenuous as compared to Second Life, but what instantly comes to mind is a term you used on Tateru Nino’s blog when commenting: “clever visionaries”. For ah, it’s not just enough to have a lucid eye on the future: one must also be smart, progressive, evolutionary about change. Bold stalwarts of one particular generation have been rendered obsolete or looked like “old codgers” in the next. We also know even the soundest of geniuses make embarassing flops: Leonardo da Vinci and his proposed medicinal usage of beaver testicles, for example.

There are a couple books I think you’d be soundly fascinated in reading, Gwyn, if you haven’t already. They are:

* The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – describes Mavens, Connectors, and Salesmen who have a signifcant role in influencing widescale social epidemics. It also has some connections to retention.

* Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin + Heidi Toffler – intriguing prognostications on the rise of a knowledge-based economy. Among relevant terms like “prosumer” (CONTENT IS KING!) and “obsoledge” (obsolete knowledge), it charts forth not a utopian, but a very hopeful and exciting view of the future.

Both these tomes wrestle heavily with the power of context: that is, something which is right today, may not be tomorrow, and circumstances, as well as social behavior, very much dictate a “perception is reality” line of dominos falling, not unlike mass hysteria where the actual causes are nowhere to be found. A popular example: yawning is contagious. A skeptic friend of mine joked, “Well then, so’s stupidity!” And I shot back: “Then, shouldn’t intelligence be, too?”

So, back to the “clever visionaries” — more people should use this as a meme. Perhaps it could be a fun game unto its own. Or when you write your book, include that as a chapter heading. Please?

When I first heard of Philip Rosedale, I thought of old skool-CEOs sniffling and getting up and arms because he didn’t wear a formal suit. Nor did he drive a classy car — he tends to find them wasteful (SOURCE: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/giftguide/index.html ) — but rather, a motorcycle. It’s no wonder he’s often described as a rockstar! At the same time, when thinking of rock music, I consider how what was “hip” in the 50s, as fashion is cyclical, has come back several times, now to be looked at as a curiosity by today’s youth. Kinda like the 56K Modem Emulator: http://www.lazylaces.com/56Kmodem/

I can only hope that when predictions are made which turn out to be foolish down the line, they’re looked at with mirthful laughter (e.g., those “Surfing the World Wide Web” videos of the 90s), not scorn. It’s the great folly of humanity to equate improbable with impossible.

All this, really, is reminiscent of the many, many times a great many “pundits” proclaimed Apple Computer was dead. Over and over again. How Macs would continue to shrink in marketshare and eventually evaporate like, say, Amiga or Atari personal computers. They didn’t. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t, but history continues on. Today, it’s unthinkable anyone would buy Microsoft or Google. But who knows? A few decades from now, some juggernaut, perhaps a Chinese megacorp not unlike those cast forth in vivacious cyberpunk novels, would do the trick. (I’m being intentionally ludicrous here, to work the imagination muscles.)

I don’t think many really knew that Apple would become such a force in the music industry with its iPod. The clues weren’t obscure; they were there all along. We have a trail of history, reading back through Steve Jobs’ interview and his long love of music. Obvious advances like how he wanted the Mac to have superior sound. These insights were perhaps lateral, but available for the taking, the interpreting, for just about anyone who paid close observation.

In much the same way with Second Life, when there are articles about this online world, when there are conversations with Lindens (disclaimer: I work for Linden Lab and I’m happy), the same clues are present.

Never forget the power of a childhood dream.

Refreshing read.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As I see it, what I’ve long admired about you Gwyn, is can look at the big picture, AND the tiny details inside. Both the forest and the trees. That’s shockingly rare: how many other intelligently-written blogs have a photo of their writer winking playfully at you? I dare say, yours is the only one I’ve come across thus far (and I’ve been looking hard!). While such a detail may seem trivial to some, for the truely observant, it’s part of a larger canvas, one aspect being the living-on of nimated GIFs despite their crash-and-burn during the web-design hype of the mid-to-late-90s. ‘Course, in some respects, it was succeeded by Flash (which is effectively nigh ubiquitous). Both of these technologies have been through sound thrashings, only to find not just devotees, but widespread adoption on the other side.

I realize some of that parallel is tenuous as compared to Second Life, but what instantly comes to mind is a term you used on Tateru Nino’s blog when commenting: “clever visionaries”. For ah, it’s not just enough to have a lucid eye on the future: one must also be smart, progressive, evolutionary about change. Bold stalwarts of one particular generation have been rendered obsolete or looked like “old codgers” in the next. We also know even the soundest of geniuses make embarassing flops: Leonardo da Vinci and his proposed medicinal usage of beaver testicles, for example.

There are a couple books I think you’d be soundly fascinated in reading, Gwyn, if you haven’t already. They are:

* The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – describes Mavens, Connectors, and Salesmen who have a signifcant role in influencing widescale social epidemics. It also has some connections to retention.

* Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin + Heidi Toffler – intriguing prognostications on the rise of a knowledge-based economy. Among relevant terms like “prosumer” (CONTENT IS KING!) and “obsoledge” (obsolete knowledge), it charts forth not a utopian, but a very hopeful and exciting view of the future.

Both these tomes wrestle heavily with the power of context: that is, something which is right today, may not be tomorrow, and circumstances, as well as social behavior, very much dictate a “perception is reality” line of dominos falling, not unlike mass hysteria where the actual causes are nowhere to be found. A popular example: yawning is contagious. A skeptic friend of mine joked, “Well then, so’s stupidity!” And I shot back: “Then, shouldn’t intelligence be, too?”

So, back to the “clever visionaries” — more people should use this as a meme. Perhaps it could be a fun game unto its own. Or when you write your book, include that as a chapter heading. Please?

When I first heard of Philip Rosedale, I thought of old skool-CEOs sniffling and getting up and arms because he didn’t wear a formal suit. Nor did he drive a classy car — he tends to find them wasteful (SOURCE: http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz2/giftguide/index.html ) — but rather, a motorcycle. It’s no wonder he’s often described as a rockstar! At the same time, when thinking of rock music, I consider how what was “hip” in the 50s, as fashion is cyclical, has come back several times, now to be looked at as a curiosity by today’s youth. Kinda like the 56K Modem Emulator: http://www.lazylaces.com/56Kmodem/

I can only hope that when predictions are made which turn out to be foolish down the line, they’re looked at with mirthful laughter (e.g., those “Surfing the World Wide Web” videos of the 90s), not scorn. It’s the great folly of humanity to equate improbable with impossible.

All this, really, is reminiscent of the many, many times a great many “pundits” proclaimed Apple Computer was dead. Over and over again. How Macs would continue to shrink in marketshare and eventually evaporate like, say, Amiga or Atari personal computers. They didn’t. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t, but history continues on. Today, it’s unthinkable anyone would buy Microsoft or Google. But who knows? A few decades from now, some juggernaut, perhaps a Chinese megacorp not unlike those cast forth in vivacious cyberpunk novels, would do the trick. (I’m being intentionally ludicrous here, to work the imagination muscles.)

I don’t think many really knew that Apple would become such a force in the music industry with its iPod. The clues weren’t obscure; they were there all along. We have a trail of history, reading back through Steve Jobs’ interview and his long love of music. Obvious advances like how he wanted the Mac to have superior sound. These insights were perhaps lateral, but available for the taking, the interpreting, for just about anyone who paid close observation.

In much the same way with Second Life, when there are articles about this online world, when there are conversations with Lindens (disclaimer: I work for Linden Lab and I’m happy), the same clues are present.

Never forget the power of a childhood dream.

Refreshing read.