Second Life should be viewed not as a game, but as a platform for content developers.
Ok. Microsoft should not be viewed as a software developer but as a platform maker for content developers. That means given the current market position of Microsoft, there is no need for PDF or ODF. IBM should close their doors.
Cluetrain: If you develop content for a closed platform that does not have a standard means to export content, you or your customer are dumb.
The word is "dumb". Look it up if you don't get that meaning.
The virtual worlds industry sells the only content type that has few standards for import and export of content and for the most part, ignores the ones that exist. To develop for such platforms as Second Life, the smart developer doesn't use the platform tools, they use alternatives such as Maya or the Vivaty editor that can save into different formats.
So the description of Second Life as a 'content development platform' is not a red herring: it is misleading and anyone who buys it is 'dumb'.
Or works for IBM. The fellow who talked IBM into this scam is now being appointed to work for Obama. What a thrill...
1 comment:
Len,
Thank you for taking the time to read the interview and comment on it in your blog.
Let me clarify my statement:
Businesses interested in virtual world solutions already recognize the value of the heightened sense of immersion made possible by avatars controlled by geographically dispersed people being in the same space and time. They value the serendipitous conversation and back channel engagement this makes possible before, during and after a meeting/conference, something that traditionally has only been possible in real life meetings.
The problems with real life meetings however, are that they involve costly and polluting travel. Furthermore, in the case of short duration meetings between people of different cultures, who speak different primary languages, there is often a communication gap due to confidence issues. Both of these problems are mitigated by engagement in a virtual space mediated through an avatar.
Unfortunately, at this time, there is no satisfactory, fully realized, virtual world product that can deliver this experience without involving complicated installs, firewall manipulations and awkward interfaces that don't capitalize on a users existing computing skills. There are however many promising "trailheads" which will, hopefully, in 2009 yield a killer app.
I hope that this is a clearer explanation of my earlier, admittedly hurried, statement.
Your blog contains much interesting information, I will be looking it over in the coming days.
All the best!
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