As virtual worlds become as prevalent in business as they are in games and socialization, we need to learn how to present ourselves as effectively as possible in this medium. Since first impressions count in virtual teams just as much as they do in face-to-face teams, we need to take our virtual appearance more seriously. In the case of these immersive environments, appearance is based on our avatars.

How do we create avatars that are more than just placeholders? Which avatar features contribute most to the quality and richness of the conversation?

Eye gaze

While 3-D avatars can generate motion and activity, it doesn’t seem to be enough. Just because an avatar looks and moves like a person, it doesn’t mean that the quality of communication mimics face-to-face interactions. Avatars still can’t use subtle body language in the way humans do. But adding even something as mundane as head and eye motion, combined as “gaze”, can make a huge difference.

This was demonstrated in a study conducted in University College London. The research compared an avatar whose gaze was based on the conversation’s turn-taking (informed-gaze) and an avatar whose animations were unrelated to the conversation (random-gaze). They also compared these two types of avatars to other media, such as live video and audio-only conversations.

According to the study, even the inclusion of a relevant, expressive gaze created a significant improvement in the perceived quality of the conversation. When comparing to the participants’ sense of involvement, informed-gaze avatars barely had a significant difference from communicating via video.

What’s even more surprising is that the random-gaze avatar had no significant improvement over pure audio. This implies that a mere 3-D presence doesn’t automatically mean that the communication quality and richness improves. To be truly useful and engaging, avatars must exhibit behaviors that are relevant to the conversation — even if it’s something as simple as eye gaze.

Gesture and manners

Taking a step beyond eye gaze, it appears that other non-verbal manners, and our responses to them, persist in virtual worlds.

In a study from Stanford University, researchers observed how interacting avatars used interpersonal distance and eye gaze in Second Life. Based on their observations, non-verbal norms were still present, even if controlling them meant moving a mouse and keyboard rather than our own eyes and legs. The study, which focused on gender norms, showed that male-male pairs, like their face-to-face counterparts, maintained less eye contact and were further apart than female-female pairs. Also, when the “physical” distance between avatars was decreased, the avatars compensated by avoiding eye contact — just like people would in the offline world.

But it’s not just gender norms that persist in virtual environments. Cultural norms are still exhibited, even when the technology allows us interaction with people from different cultures. An experiment from Augsburg University in Germany showed that cultural speech nuances such as timing and pauses affected a viewer’s preference for an avatar. Their results showed that people preferred avatars that exhibited the nuances from their own culture. Perhaps this means that even if we are meeting other people in a virtual environment, we should still take cultural factors into account when we’re communicating.

How important are these cues? Quoting from a paper on the use of avatars in collaboration (PDF):

The ability or inability to maintain an “appropriate” interpersonal distance or the ability or inability to control one’s viewpoint so other avatars may be seen, among other things, will affect the feeling of being there together. [...] Being in an environment where people feel connected is more likely to enhance development of trust and reduction of conflict, which in turn lead to more effective collaboration.

(Source: “Avatars, Text, and Miscommunication: The Impact of Communication Richness on Global Virtual Team Collaboration”, Columbia University)

Looking back at all the research, it’s a lot to take in. Doesn’t it seem cumbersome to have avatars that allow you to control all of these tiny factors? After all, in real life we barely even think about these non-verbal cues.

The answer is simple: it should be automated in our avatars’ programming, just as it is in our own minds and bodies. The more these virtual environments have an intuitive interface, and the more these communication nuances are automated, the more natural it will be for most people to successfully use their virtual world avatars for collaboration.

How do you create and control avatars?

Photo courtesy Flickr user cloud2013

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The breakdown of virtual activities outlined in the survey include training (42 percent); customer engagement (36 percent); internal collaboration (34 percent); lead generation (29 percent); and networking (8 percent). Nearly half of the respondents predict an increase in “hybrid” corporate events within two years.

Marketing and customer outreach aside, how can organizations with remote teams looking for more effective ways to train new team members and collaborate make use of virtual environments? I’ve previously outlined how my virtual team collaborates, including the use of the virtual world Second Life for both meetings and socializing. Yes, Second Life is still in use, only now without the hype. Some virtual work-related activities that take place in Second Life include:

1. Team meetings. Many organizations take advantage of the sense of “presence” in virtual worlds to conduct effective virtual team meetings. Examples include a vibrant nonprofit community run by TechSoup (Nonprofit Commons); corporate meeting places for executive teams and shareholders, such as the Air France-KLM space; and small virtual teams bringing together global team members for “face-to-face” exchanges, such as Conversify’s quarterly meetings which are held in Second Life. Communications can take place easily with Second Life’s audio and IM chat features  as well as the ability to display multimedia presentation materials. You can explore tools to import Google Docs and other applications as well as live streaming by visiting the I-Zone Virtual Collaboration Environment (VCE) in Second Life. Don’t have a Second Life meeting space built yet? There are many available ready-built options including the Ginny Business Center and the Alpine Executive Center (where you can also ski virtually when your meeting is done).
2. Collaboration sessions. Whether you interact with your team in existing collaborative virtual spaces such as those created by Orange22 Design Lab LLC or you start from scratch and provide your team with the tools to create and build an environment together, virtual worlds can boost those “a-ha!” moments by providing the ability to push past the limitations of the real world. Providing a sandbox in a virtual world can deliver truly “out-of-the-box” thinking by your team.
3. Training and learning events. Learning in a virtual environment can take the form of formal classes in classroom or auditorium settings or even simulation environments such as SuperBuy, an mock retail store environment that provides new employee orientation training by letting them engage in immersive role-playing activities related to their job. Virtual university campuses abound, including University of Texas and San Diego State University. Companies such as Bevill Edge provide virtual training services via SpotOn3D‘s Biz Grid (you can view a video about their services).
4. Hybrid virtual and “real world” events. Many major conferences have added virtual components to real world events, including the women’s bloggers conference BlogHer. The online versions of these events usually consist of panel discussions and keynotes streaming into Second Life from the real world event, or concurrent live events taking place solely in Second Life, or both. Companies such as Virtualis offer ready-to-go conference and convention environments for virtual events.

Second Life isn’t the only virtual environment, of course. There is also OpenSimulator, an open source multi-platform, multi-user 3D application server, and SpotOn3D. Or you can explore the specialized virtual meeting and events platforms offered by companies such as Unisfair, VenueGen and newer player Kitely. While the upsides to holding virtual meetings, trainings and events include lower travel costs, there can also be challenges such as connectivity issues and lack of attention. Respondents in the Unisfair survey cited the ability to multitask as a plus to attending virtual events (58 percent) so you do run the risk of inattention from attendees. But in our current world of overly accessible social networks on mobile devices, even real world interactions face that challenge.

How are you integrating virtual worlds and platforms into your business, particularly interactions with your virtual team?

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I rebranded my virtual consultancy with my long-time friend Monique Elwell to create Conversify. We shared the goal of creating a business that was entirely virtual and that would allow everyone who joined us the flexibility, mobility and better work/life balance we wanted. She and I were based thousands of miles apart when we joined forces, in Denver and Alaska respectively. More recently, we brought on a third business partner, Steven Jackson from Boston, and have built a team that spans the U.S., with a U.K. presence as well.

Here’s what I learned from the members of our virtual team. Note that most of our agency’s team members came from more traditional work environments.

1. Develop clear communications processes. Social media strategist Nik Hewitt emphasizes that one thing that helps our team work well together is that we spent a lot of time developing clear and detailed work processes so we could be consistent and efficient. “We share ideas and discuss them, and a nominated person writes down the salient points based on the knowledge of the team,” Hewitt explains. “Then this information is collated and edited by one team member then passed to another team member for comprehensive expansion.” At each stage of our communications process, we notify each person when it is their turn to participate and give clear deadlines along with scheduled reminders so everyone knows what is expected from whom and when. Attention to a detailed process leads to more consistency and accountability.
2. Shared calendaring is key. According to Haley Kilgour, senior account manager, virtual team members have to be more efficient with their time because of the need to schedule specific meetings with one another to discuss issues or make decisions. Even a quick 15 minute chat requires coordinating schedules across time zones to ensure you can “meet” with someone else. We use Google Apps and heavily rely on Google Calendar; we can see the availability of all team members at all times. Plus we can specify our individual work hours that are based on a core set of hours when we are all available at the same time. Those critical mutual time slots are the sweet spot for getting the whole team together for real-time collaboration.
3. Make use of time zones. “When we have something that is due on Monday, I feel like I have two Mondays in which to do it,” says Karen Woodward, social media manager, referring to the fact that Hewitt, who is based in the U.K., can begin working on something on a Monday during his work hours and then Woodward and social media specialist Shelli Martineau can pick up where he left off during their workday in Pacific Time. This elongates the team’s productivity and can be a bonus during critical communications periods, providing our clients with 24/7 social media monitoring and management.
4. Instant messaging can trump email. Email can be a big challenge for virtual teams especially when team members begin to over-rely on it and everyone can gets buried in emails. Email can also be ineffective if you fail to specify in each email sent to multiple team members exactly who needs to take action, says Elwell, Conversify’s CEO. “If you send an email to five people and say ‘check this out,’ everyone will assume at least one of the others will, and no one will check it out.” Sometimes, instant messaging can be far more targeted and effective. Woodward says that IM has has become her virtual version of “popping my head over the cubicle wall.” But IM can also present a more immediate messaging overload, especially since we usually have both GTalk and Skype running. Sometimes you just have to turn them off to get work done.
5. Don’t knock virtual worlds. With several Second Life enthusiasts on our team from the beginning, we decided to bring the rest of our team members “inworld” for both a weekly “watercooler” social as well as quarterly “state of the company” meetings. Kilgour admits that at first she was opposed to meeting in Second Life, but eventually she came to enjoy it. “There’s something to be said for having a visual representation of a meeting that makes me feel more connected,” she says, adding that the format appeals to her visual nature.

Hewitt says that virtual team members need to make an effort to get to know one another. “We take time to just chat, one-to-one and in teams. We just chew the fat sometimes on Skype as though we’re (sitting) next to each other. I pretty much talk to to everyone personally once a week just to catch-up.”

The team also holds meetings for joint creativity such as their “Production Playtime” where they exchange ideas. Martineau, in particular, appreciates “Production Playtime” noting that it’s an opportunity for the team to jointly explore new tools and networks that may be beneficial to clients. “This is how we all got hooked on Get Glue and what reinvigorated our interest in Tumblr,” she adds.

Says Kilgour, getting together in person a couple times of year, if possible, is important, “Human energy can still be missing in virtual settings.” Another caveat for working virtually is to acknowledge that working from home isn’t for everyone and requires self-discipline, the ability to stay focused and being able to avoid distractions.

What does your virtual team use — and do — to work well together?

Top image: Photo by Mike Kilgour, Second Life screenshot by Nik Hewitt

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The book is divided into sections on blogging; Twitter and microblogging; social networking; media sharing; social news and bookmarking; ratings and reviews; forums; and virtual worlds. In each section, Zarrella provides very short descriptions of leading web sites in the particular category, together with quick discussions of how they work, and how businesses could benefit from using them.

The book’s author dedicates it to his grandparents, which is appropriate, since this is the sort of book that I’d give to someone older and less computer-savvy. It sometimes gets a little technical for this audience, but the writing style is clear and friendly.

The book feels like a bit of a departure for O’Reilly Media (who kindly provided the book to me). I tend to think of O’Reilly as publishers of dense software and programming manuals. I was amused to note that the book is listed in O’Reilly’s catalog as “First Edition.” The book will need updating frequently if it’s to stay relevant — some of the screenshots are already out of date.

“The Social Media Marketing Book” is a little book. At 239 8″ x 6″ pages (in paperback or as an e-book), with lots of illustrations and white space, the content is frankly limited. But it’s well-organized, easy to understand, inviting to flip through,and approachable. I doubt that many WWD readers will learn anything new from this book, but it might be useful for lending to clients, family and friends.

How do you explain social media to clients?

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According to the new GigaOM Pro report “Virtual Worlds for the Enterprise Market” by Kris Tuttle and Steve Waite of Research 2.0 (subscription required), business use of virtual worlds is a growing market — one that we shouldn’t ignore. Some of the main takeaways from the report that matter to those of us working on the web include:

• Develop a plan. Companies should develop a plan for use of enterprise, private 3-D virtual world environments for both internal and external use.
• Technology continues to evolve. The “in world” experiences of these new virtual environments will be leaps and bounds ahead of that currently offered by Second Life.
• Don’t underestimate the market. The market for enterprise 3-D worlds may seem small today, but according to the report, it’s doubling year over year, with estimated annual revenues of $8-10 billion in 2015.

So how can you make sure that you’re prepared for the virtual worlds of the future? Here are nine skills we can all learn from regular engagement in Second Life that can be applied to any business use of 3-D virtual world environments.

1. Maneuvering. On your first day in a virtual world, you may feel like a stranger in a strange land. Unless you are well-versed with video games, chances are moving your avatar around will be frustrating and inefficient. Using Second Life on a regular basis for an extended period of time can help you get your “virtual world legs.”
2. Interacting. When you encounter others in a virtual world, even knowing when and how to approach them and address them can be awkward and downright intimidating. Participating in Second Life social events can help you learn the how to interact with both strangers and colleagues using your virtual self.
3. Communicating. Because Second Life supports both text and voice communications, you have more than one way to communicate with others. Knowing how to communicate clearly and thoroughly in both ways gives you an advantage. Plus knowing how to use gestures to your advantage can make a big difference in how others respond to you.
4. Presenting. By making presentations in Second Life, you learn how to add a new dimension to your presentations. You may currently know how to give a virtual presentation with a software such as GoToMeeting or DimDim, however, what do you do if you also have an avatar — a 3-D virtual representation of yourself — in the mix? And what about the ability to create “larger than life” presentation environments where your audience can walk through to get a richer experience? Presenting in Second Life helps you master these additional features to help make a more interactive and immersive presentation. From basic team or board meetings to more involved presentations, 3-D environments gives a whole new meaning to “being there.”
5. Teaching. Universities around the world make extensive use of Second Life, offering classes and even campus social events and interactions, taking full advantage of the 3-D environment to augment their “real world” offerings. Businesses and professionals can take advantage of this environment to offer seminars, workshops, panel discussions and full conferences — either standalone, or as an extension of a “real world” event.
6. Collaborating. Any enterprise or virtual team can benefit from the collaborative environments one can create in 3-D worlds. In Second Life, companies don’t only have meetings but also participate in team-building exercises, go on virtual retreats and hold social events to create stronger bonds between team members.
7. Branding. Companies can build their brands in 3-D environments such as Second Life — knowing how to do it well is a useful skill. Individuals can also build their brands via their 3-D avatars. Even in Second Life, you can purchase your own name (as long as it isn’t already taken) and use the environment as another social network in your social media toolkit. See my post “Second Life is Social Media.”
8. Promoting. Learning to market in a 3-D space is a challenge but enhances your marketing skills in exciting new ways.Finding ways to actually reach people in meaningful and engaging ways in a virtual world can help foster fresh ideas.
9. Building. Because every resident has the ability to build, even a non-artist or non-architect can gain skills to make objects, create art and construct buildings, spaces and environments that push the envelope of what is possible in the “real world.” This kind of creativity — especially in the hands of more linear thinkers — is a great source of inspiration and innovation. And another aspect of “building” in Second Life and other 3-D environments that should not be overlooked is the art of building community and organizing people.

How are you using 3-D virtual world environments for business?

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To be clear, Second Life is social media. If you break down the key features of social media, you will see that Second Life stacks up very well against other popular tools. Here are some of the reasons why you’d be remiss to leave Second Life off a well-rounded, integrated social media marketing plan.

1. Conversation. We all talk about social media being about the conversation. In most social networks, that conversation comes in the form of forums, email or IM. Second Life includes an IM feature, but it also has voice chat, rendering it far more of a conversation enabler than Facebook or MySpace.

2. Community. Second Life contains a deeply connected and immersive community. Instead of your community existing as flat avatars or icons next to your name on a threaded message board, your Second Life community exists within 3-D spaces where your avatar can move about, gather with other avatars, even shake hands with them. You can attend and organize events. You can build gathering places and spaces from a treehouse, to an auditorium in the clouds, to an underwater conference room. Your avatar — and by extension, you — can actually be somewhere when interacting with your online community.

3. Groups. Facebook has groups, MySpace has groups. These are really just glorified forums or message boards where people congregate and converse by leaving messages. You might be able to broadcast a message to the group. You can promote things to the group, if appropriate. Second Life also has groups where you can broadcast notices, send IMs to group members who are online at the same time you are, and you can even hold voting for issues.

4. Events. Facebook Events are just listings of real-life events. Sure you can have web-based online events — via something like GoToMeeting or Calliflower or BlogTalk Radio — and use text or audio or images or a combination. But regular social networks can produce nothing like the events taking place in Second Life. Whether you attend a concert or a fundraiser, a comedy show or an educational workshop, a panel or a movie screening, an event in Second Life is the epitome of interactivity with images, sound, voice, movement, actions and reactions. If you can’t really be there in the real world, you can participate in an event and practically “be there” by accessing it via Second Life.

5. Advertising. There are many advertising methods available in Second Life as well as the ability to give away or sell goods and services. Advertising can be as simple and static as a billboard (although you can make billboards clickable, so that they give out notecards or lead to a web site). You can sponsor events and have signage on display like you would at a real-world event. You can purchase a booth at an expo within Second Life. You can even purchase ads on Second Life television networks such as Treet.tv.

The downsides of Second Life are few, although they can be substantial, including:

1. Accessibility. Not everyone can access Second Life for reasons ranging from computer capabilities to bandwidth issues. It is not for the weak tech setup.

2. Learning curve. Second Life is also not for the faint of heart. You have to love staring into a computer screen, have an uncanny facility with your keyboard, mouse and/or track pad, and be willing to put in time to learn how to stop bumping into walls.

3. Crashing. The technology is still evolving. While I still believe Second Life is the best virtual world out there with the most flexibility, freedom and possibilities out of all those I’ve tried to date, I also feel the pain of crashing mid-event or being unable to access an event I’m managing because of a technical failure on the server side.

4. Ownership. Linden Lab owns Second Life. If Linden Lab goes under, we lose everything we’ve created. We will be shut out of “our” Second Life.

Despite the downsides,  many marketers are making a mistake by not at least experimenting with Second Life. Even pure experimentation in Second Life sets you up with a new skillset — moving, building, marketing and selling in a 3-D space — that will come in handy as technologies continue to evolve. In the same way that it is shortsighted not to at least try Twitter in order to understand this “newfangled” communications tool that has influenced new styles of communications, it is shortsighted not to get an avatar, download the Second Life software, and explore.

And if you need a friendly tour guide, look up my avatar: Cybergrrl Oh. She is always happy to help!

What are your thoughts on Second Life as social media?

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Here he talks about why he uses Paint.net and Plurk.

What’s Your Favorite Web App, Wagner James Au? from WebWorkerDaily on Vimeo.

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Yesterday, a couple of new tools were announced that made me stop and reconsider how much of that potential is actually being capitalized upon, how soon the virtual world’s appeal might broaden, and what that might mean for working on the web. The services in question are a Virtual Conference Centre and Real Time Research, joint venture projects by Second Life development vets Rivers Run Red and consulting group Futuresource.

Virtual conferencing and meetings are gaining popularity as companies look for ways to cut costs, and travel budgets are a prime target for cutting excess. I’m fine with conference calls, and they’re a necessary part of internet commuting, but I’ve yet to try a virtual world-based meeting. For me, the 3D character avatar still belongs to the province of video games, so I’m resistant to the idea of bringing business into the equation.

Perhaps that’s the point, though, when we’re talking about a virtual convention centre. Part of the appeal of attending conventions is the appeal of the socializing that goes on outside of business. And as an independent contractor, I don’t often find my travel expenses comped, so I could definitely see myself agreeing to be a guest speaker or a panel member at a Second Life convention that I would not attend in the real world. It would allow you to build your personal brand in places and to audiences you wouldn’t otherwise reach, which is always a good thing.

Real Time Research, the second service to be launched, presents a more interesting and innovative use of the Second Life world. It is intended to provide a way for companies to test and receive feedback on new products and design in real time. Second Life is a great environment for this sort of thing because it allows a wide (or selective) audience quick, easy, and reliable access to 3D product models.

This sort of real-time feedback environment could allow small firms and even independent designers to get the benefit of focus groups without the cost, which is generally prohibitive for those of us working on this end of the spectrum. The problem might be attracting users from useful demographics to give you feedback, or to take the activity seriously at all. In-world incentives could help to remedy that problem, as could services that allow Second Life users to sign up to become part of an active testing pool.

The tools may not in and of themselves necessarily represent firsts for virtual world applications, but the fact that they’re being sold to enterprise users through a third-party vendor is. It means that at least some companies are beginning to market Second Life collaboration SaaS solutions the same way many others did when Web 2.0 started really taking off.

It’s definitely an option I’ll float to clients looking for these types of tools, especially if they’re open to innovative or non-traditional approaches. My only worry is that users unfamiliar with Second Life might require a separate orientation for both the virtual world, and the tool itself, and might find the environment distracting to the task.

Would you recommend/use this kind of service for your or your client’s business? Do you currently use Second Life for web work, or can you see yourself doing so in the future? From a developer’s standpoint, what do you think about the viability of Second Life as market to sell these kinds of applications? Is there enough interest to justify the effort?

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So how do you host simultaneous online/virtual events? Very carefully, of course, but here are a few tips to help you straddle both worlds and pull off both events without a hitch.

1. Get Virtual Help

Before you delve into virtual world event planning, make sure you have established a talented team who are active in the virtual world, but also who you know and trust. I work mostly with people who I have met not only virtually but also in the real world, because there is an added accountability aspect to contacts you’ve met face to face. That said, I also have worked extensively with folks who I only know through the virtual world – in this case, Second Life. I don’t even know their real names and pay them either with Linden (Second Life’s currency) or on PayPal. My virtual world team includes designer Liadona Rau (whom I met in person after we had met in Second Life), multimedia developer KrisBott Gears (who used to work for me at Cybergrrl, Inc. in real life back in the 90s), and designer Chepooka Laval (whom I work with in real life in Alaska and whom I encouraged to get “inworld”).

2. Know the Lay of the Land

Not only am I personally familiar with the ins and outs of Second Life, just from rolling up my sleeves and trying things out, but I also co-own a virtual island so have a sandbox in which to develop things. This also means that I have a location to hold events when clients don’t have their own land. Because I’m so familiar with the potential of Second Life, the minute I’m approached to do a virtual event to complement a live event, I immediately know at least a dozen things that we can and should do for the Second Life version.

3. Think 3-D and Interactive

While it is a given that there should be branded and information-oriented posters at your virtual world event, you can easily go beyond the flat billboard-style signage. For my virtual events, some of the posters are also “notecard givers”,  meaning that avatars can obtain a notecard with background information about the company, organization or event, just by clicking on them. Other posters immediately launch a browser window, which opens on the web site of the party host. Notecard givers can also be set up to automatically email you the name of each avatar clicking on your object to receive items.

4. Think Promo Items (Freebies)

Nothing makes an avatar happier than receiving free gifts. I learned early on how to make t-shirts in Second Life and have a side virtual business making branded, promotional t-shirts for events, companies and organizations. For a recent event I held on Athena Island (the one I co-own) for Quaker Oatmeal, I turned to a virtual friend, MincedMedia Clip, to make an enormous virtual steaming bowl of oatmeal, complete with a spoon. To top it off, if an avatar clicked on the big bowl, they received an individual, small bowl of oatmeal with a virtual spoon that had an “eat” animation in it to animate the avatar scooping out oatmeal and eating it.

5. Show the Virtual Event in Real Life

At the Quaker Oatmeal live event, we had several laptops logged into Second Life, and some of us participated both in the real world and the virtual event at the same time. We were able to let others who were not familiar with Second Life look over our shoulders to demonstrate what was happening. At a previous event for Rasmuson Foundation in Anchorage, Alaska, the simultaneous Second Life event was projected onto a big screen in a performing arts center theatre. Having the virtual world component during a real-world event can build excitement and leave a lasting impression on the attendees.

6. Stay on Message Virtually

Because the Second Life aspect of a real world event can easily become the “main attraction,” make sure what you do virtually is in line with what is happening in the real world. Make sure the messaging is clear, the branding consistent, and the discussion relevant. It is too easy to get sidetracked in a virtual world, however, having “hosts” at events can keep the conversations running smoothly and key messages communicated frequently.

7. Hire Security

While your real world event probably doesn’t need a security detail, in Second Life, for example, security at events is smart. It is so easy to build and create objects in Second Life, and it is just as easy for a troublemaker – or “griefer” – to do the same at your event. There are folks in Second Life who make good Linden as security guards. Give them the permissions they need to boot out (eject) any pesky griefers and to remove obnoxious objects from your land. Before I started hiring security, I had several great events disrupted by griefers,  but now that I have them, not a single event has been attacked.

8. Spread the Virtual Word

Holding an event in Second Life doesn’t only enhance the real world event itself, but it also enhances the promotions and buzz factor of your event. There is an entire strata of Second Life bloggers, Second Life Facebookers, Second Lifers on MySpace, Twitter, Plurk, and more. Almost everyone who blogs their Second Life does so exclusively, so they will only write about things they experience or hear about inworld. When you provide interesting events in Second Life that add value to the world and provide value to the avatar, chances are you’ll get a good deal of extra ink and mentions in the social mediasphere because of your Second Life initiatives.

Overall, holding a virtual event at the same time as a real world event takes careful coordination and strategic attention to detail. Don’t skimp on your Second Life event or treat it as an afterthought. Virtual world events are valuable to, and attended by, people from  all over the world. You can expand your reach quickly and exponentially when you hold a virtual world event.

Have you organized real world/virtual world events? What has worked for you? What hasn’t?

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So how have these connectivity challenges and unexpected expenses affected my web work? And how am I compensating for these…developments?

1. Images

There is no way around uploading and downloading images. With all of the blogging I do, images are key to my work, and although I could link to images using a URL instead of embedding them, it is less reliable so I’ll stick with uploading. Luckily, for the most part, the image sizes aren’t over a MB each, however, when they are, I find that it is too much effort to size them so upload them anyway.

When it comes to images, they are the lowest on the totem pole of bandwidth chompers, so I’m not changing much in this area. If I’m down to my last MBs of bandwidth allowance before the end of any month, I may suck it up and start sizing images although the benefits will be minimal.

Verdict? Not giving up the pics.

2. Audio

I’ve been podcasting professionally and have to upload or email an MP3 regularly to my producer. I also need to upload my own podcasts to LibSyn although I’ve been a bit remiss with that lately since it is usually about Second Life (see “Second Life” header below). The pro-podcasting show MP3 is between 5-6 MB per segment.

Was able to email the files the other day which is a plus. Must do this 1-2 times weekly. So that is 4-8 files or up to 48 MB per month.

Verdict? Got to do audio.

3. Video

The first week I arrived here, a DVD also arrived for me. It contained a 330 MB television commercial for a client. My charge was to use mDialog’s mLoader to compress it and upload it onto mDialog, then convert the compressed file using QuickTime into a .mov file and upload to YouTube.

mDialog’s uploading app is slick, and it was doing a great job compressing the video, but alas, the file was still too large for my connection. Maybe I could have waited a few hours, however, I was also worried about frittering away so much of my bandwidth allowance on a single file.

When it comes to my own blogs, video is something I don’t want to give up. I may have to suck it up and pay an extra $30 for a Gig overage just to keep my personal videos on my blogs. Yet I must be careful to limit myself to just a Gig over per month or my monthly Internet expenses will get out of control.

Verdict? Farm out heavy video uploads to my contractors in more bandwidth-rich places. Suck up any extra expense for uploading my own videos.

4. Video and Audio Skype

Besides video chatting with my folks who are in Florida, I am video chatting and audio Skype-ing with colleagues. And recently, I attended a Tweetup in Anchorage via video Skype.

At first, I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to get clear audio, much less video. But other than the very occasional buggy sound or picture, my overall Skype experience from rural places has been pretty impressive.

Verdict? Skype rules for rural connectivity!

5. Second Life

Ever since I heard I was moving to Tok, I began researching to see what Internet access solutions would be available to me, I’ve panicked about my Second Life activities. Would I have to give them up? I shuddered to think, especially when my Second Life Web-based machinima TV show – REAL BIZ in SL – was starting to take off. In fact, we had the entire month of January booked in advance with guests from around the world (companies and nonprofits using Second Life).

I finally had my show manager push back all the guests until February when I knew (or hoped) I’d be in Anchorage rather than risk getting to Tok and finding out my avatar wouldn’t budge.

The other day, I finally tried to log into Second Life, expecting it to be a futile effort. I got in. I was also able to get onto Skype audio at the same time.

I made a note before logging in of my bandwidth usage to see what I was in for. Turns out a little over half an hour on Second Life with Skype is almost comparable to several hours on video Skype. Each ate up about half a Gig. If I limit my video Skyping or Second Lifing to 2x a month, that means 1-2 Gigs of my 10 Gig allottment gone.

Verdict? Be strategic and frugal, definitely not bandwidth happy, but don’t totally give up Second Life.

6. Bandwidth Paranoia

Every time I get a particularly large file attached to an email now, I look at it with a sinking feeling. “How much is that going to cost me?” is the first thing that runs through my head. And “Do I really need that file?” follows shortly after. I have to admit I’ve stopped downloading funny photos and videos from friends already.

For business, I respond to anyone sending me something that seems large and ask them to send it my my assistant or a colleague for viewing, vetting, optimizing, sizing or distributing in any way. I’m preparing everyone on my team with their new role as “Large File Handler” as needed.

Verdict? Paranoia will save me money.

Once I get my next bill, I’ll know if I have to be even more stringent with my big file policies and processes. When I saw my first DSL bill at $258, I almost choked. That was the last month of December along with the entire month of January paid in advance.

I’m just a high-speed gal in a slow-speed world. You just do what you gotta do.

What are you paying for connectivity? And could you still do your job without it?

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One of the companies exploring wikitecture is Studio Wikitecture, creator of an open-source, 3-D Wiki plug-in for Second Life in partnership with i3dnow that facilitates the creation of a “wiki-tree” to design objects such as building models.

In June, the company’s entry placed third in an international competition hosted by Architecture for Humanity on the Open Architecture Network. The company demonstrated their application by bringing together dozens of web workers from around the world to collaboratively design and build a 3-D model of a medical center in rural Nepal.

The wiki-tree functions like a 3-D rendered wiki so instead of seeing a line-by-line edit, you see each iteration of a 3-dimensional model but also “branches” and “leaves” representing the different versions and direction of the changes. Collaborators can build onto the existing model, vote on modifications, revert to a previous version, and contribute to the design process from anywhere in the world.

You can view a video that shows how the wiki-tree functions within Second Life as well as a time-lapse video showing the design as it evolved

While Wikitecture for real-world design is an amazing advancement in collaborative architectural development, the process and tools seem well-suited for working with others to create builds for Web-based and online 3-D gaming and virtual world projects.

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Times is worth looking at, though, if you’re trying to gently introduce someone new to a few RSS feeds.

He’s talking about me, I thought, as I read that line. He knows my secret. And now you will know it, too.

I am terrified of RSS feed readers.

You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. I have no problem saving feeds to my reader of choice – Google Reader – but have no idea how to get started with actually reading any of them. And using Google Reader is nothing more than a knee jerk choice based on using several other Google applications and finding them to be useful. But actually reading something in Google Reader?

(Cue the horror movie music – you know, the one that plays when the mutant serial killer is coming up behind the heroine.)

Reading RSS feeds should be an integral part of my daily work. In fact, reading about the latest industry news and industry pundit opinions is key to what I do – advising clients about their Internet strategies and writing about the latest and most useful Web tools. Instead of opening up my readers, however, I plow through a morass of emails across several email accounts, hoping to uncover a gem and never quite making a dent in my email inbox.

So today, I opened Google Reader with great trepidation. I note that I have 1000+ items that are unread. I break out into a sweat. Then I begin to browse. Then read.

Here is what I’ve learned so far about reading my RSS feeds…

1. I can browse the new feeds. On Google Reader’s homepage, I get a brief summary of all the new items in my feed subscriptions. The ones featured today included Hold This Thought (feed) – podcasts by one of my clients, scribbit (feed) – a mommy blogger in Alaska and Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media (feed). Two of those are definitely relevant to the work I do. This isn’t so hard to do after all. I can skim and only click into the ones that capture my interest.

2. I have created sensible folders or categories. I figured out how to create folders early on to organize the many feeds I subscribe to but do not read. Currently, my categories are:

- Alaska – Only one feed here – scribbit. Moved it to Women Bloggers.
- Interesting Cool – Only one feed here – ChangeThis (feed). Need to figure out where to put this…or delete it.
- Marketing PR – Four feeds.
- Podcasts – My client’s feed is the only one here.
- Second Life – Twelve feeds, some of which should move to Virtual Worlds.
- Social Media – Seven feeds. They all look excellent.
- Techie Techie – Four feeds. Could really help me with my WWD posts.
- Time Wasting Entertainment – Two feeds – Gawker (feed) and Valleywag (feed). They just sit there, tempting me.
- Virtual Worlds – One feed – a repeat of a feed in Second Life folder. Unsubscribed from one of them.
- Women Bloggers – Three feeds. Wondering if they should be categorized in another way

3. I’m not a Power Feed Reader, but that’s okay. I’ve been looking at the 1000+ items number at the top of my reader but the truth is, I really have only subscribed to about 36 feeds, one of which I deleted today because it was a duplicate and another that I’m wondering if I need to subscribe to it at all.

I’m a lightweight when it comes to RSS feeds but that’s okay. I’m sure that once I get the hang of reading feeds through my reader, I’ll start down the slippery slope of feed addiction. But knowing that my fear of feeds may have been mostly unfounded is embarrassing but also a relief.

4. I should tighten my feed focus. Looking at my category list, I do see room for improvement. Delete Alaska. Delete Time Wasting Entertainment. Redistribute Women Bloggers feeds in order to delete that category. Merge Second Life and Virtual Worlds.

If I only could read 3 categories – Social Media, Second Life, and Techie Techie – I’d be reading the bulk of my feeds and be laser focused on reading that directly informs my work.

5. I need to eavesdrop more on friends. I haven’t thought about it before, but I should be taking a peek at what items my friends are sharing, particularly those in my industry. Just like I benefit from seeing what my Twitter friends in my industry are reading, poking around other people’s feeds could pull up some gems that I might not dig up otherwise.

Case in point – found a link to a great blog post by Seth Godin. Ah, Seth Godin – I should be subscribed to his blog feed.

6. I must use the Subscribe button with care. I have a subscribe button on my browser tool bar to easily add a new feed to my reader. However, I must not be trigger happy with that button. I need to make a point of browsing through a blog beyond the single post that I find interesting to make sure it is worth adding to my feed. I do happen to know that Seth Godin’s blog (feed) is great, and I’m remiss for not having subscribed sooner.

But just because one post is amazing, doesn’t always mean that the blogger is consistent or that they regularly blog on topics that are relevant to my work.

Well, I’m feeling a lot less overwhelmed. I will make a plan to read a few items in the feeds in my top three categories – Social Media, Second Life, and Techie Techie – over coffee tomorrow morning while my husband reads the paper. I’ll let you know how it goes.

How do you categorize, manage and read your RSS feeds?

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Here are some of my thoughts on rules of online communities:

1. You can’t own a community. A lot of people who start and build communities immediately assume ownership. They get lawyers to craft a Terms of Service that says that they own everything posted within a community. They set the rules in stone and police the community. While I understand why companies want to “protect their assets,” ultimately, online communities can be fickle and rebellious. They do not want to be owned. Trying to turn a community into a commodity is ultimately a recipe for failure.

2. Communities aren’t free. On the flip side, I think people who want to be a part of an online community must be cognizant of the fact that anyone hosting the platform for a community to be built has some kind of interest in seeing that community grow. Some people start a community that they wish existed and want to be in. Other selfless types start online community for the good of the people. (Beware of supposed selfless types). Still others have commercial interests in mind for the community (advertising, sponsorship). As long as the purpose of the community is clear, everyone has a choice if they want to participate or not. Nothing comes for free.

3. Every community needs leadership. I know some people will debate me on this point but I don’t think a community can survive without some person in a leadership role. They don’t have to be “boss,” they don’t have to be “dictator,” however, there is usually one person who initiates a community and is the driving force behind that community. The community leadership could consist of several people, but leading by committee can bog down a community’s growth. At the end of the day, the buck must stop with someone.

4. A community dies if it is all about you. Often a community grows around a single person but that is really more “Cult of Personality” if the community continues to revolve around that person. Many blogs are activated by Cult of Personality. Successful bloggers nurture their comments sections so those who comment get the spotlight as well. Online communities may need a leader but they should not be reliant solely on a single person to survive. When that person goes, what happens to the community?

5. At some point, organic communities need roots. I’m still blown away by the power of the Internet to aggregate clusters of like-minded people. When those people keep coming back to continue the conversation from organic seeds, that is phenomenal. However, at some point, structure needs to be put into place to make sure the community is scalable if growing the community is desirable. Without some kind of structure, a community eventually implodes.

6. Community building is not all about the tools. But the right tools do help. These days, the right community building tools seem to be social networking features (friends), blogs or microblogging features, and even SMS features so the community conversation gets carried onto your mobile device. Bells and whistles don’t make an online community, but as people get used to using new networking and communications, they’ll come to expect them in the platform where they choose to start a community

But enough of rules. Here are some of the tools I use every day or that I’m trying out to build community online for my work.

1. Ning.com – I love the ease with which I can build what I call “private-label” social networks. NIng groups seem richer than Facebook or MySpace groups. They have a central group page but they provide blogging and social networking tools for each member of the group so they can build their own presence and brand. I’ve recently started groups as diverse as Survivors of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning (SoCaMP), Alaska Women in Business and Athena Isle Writers (who meet in Second Life.)

2. Facebook Groups – I’m still on the fence about Facebook Groups. They seem less “participatory,” and I find I have much more success using Facebook Events to reach my groups. Still, I’m checking them out, getting a feel for them. By contrast, I’m not using MySpace Groups at all. I initially found them to be too spammy so have avoided them ever since.

3. Plaxo Groups - I’m also on the fence about Plaxo Groups but nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say. Like Facebook, I’m not finding that people are very active in their Plaxo Groups, but for more professional groups, Plaxo could work out.

4. LinkedIn Groups – I’ve just created a new group – Athena Isle Women – to help women succeed in Second Life. It is still pending approval, but I’m thinking this may trump Plaxo Groups for best forum and tools for a women’s professional online networking group.

5. Second Life - There are many limitations to the Second Life “Groups,” namely that you can only belong to 25 – including the ones you join and the ones you create and the way groups are configured is not conducive to communications between members unless those members are online (using Group IM). Still, Second Life can’t be beat for virtual face-to-face meetings of community members. There is something so much more immediate and “real” when you are in a virtual space with other people’s avatars than when you are IMing or posting to a message board. No replacement for in-the-flesh meet ups, but sometimes the next best thing.

Almost every social networking style site gives you the ability to create a group. Many are very niche so instead of being for “professionals” as LinkedIn would be or for “the general public” as Facebook might be, they are much more targeted. I belong to some of these more niche sites as a member such as Maya’s Mom for mothers to WorkitMom for working women who happen to be moms. But I haven’t yet created groups on these sites even though the community building tools exist.

Bottom line: Online community building is about the people first, the shared interests or experiences next, and the tools are the means of bringing people together in new ways.

What tools are you using to build online communities?

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Part of my online work has migrated over into the virtual world Second Life. Yes, I said work, and no, Second Life is not a game. I actually run several businesses in SL as we residents call it, as Cybergrrl Oh, entrepreneur, producer and host. Some of the businesses in the virtual world are adjuncts to what I do in my First Life, others are completely unrelated and probably things I could never do in “real life.” However, when you’re a freelancer, you take the revenues wherever you can get it!

If you’ve ever wanted to know what a day in the life of a serial Second Life entrepreneur looks like, here’s your chance.

All times are in SLT (Second Life Time) or PST based on the time zone where Bay Area company and Second Life creator Linden Lab is located. I have to constantly do a time check because I’m doing business in another time zone.

8:30am SLT – Post to Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Facebook and Plaxo through HelloTxt.com about my Monday event for Second Life Marketers Club. One of my “businesses” is forming and hosting Second Life groups or clubs on my tiny parcel of land, Athena Isle. I bring in experts and authors to speak to the public groups I manage – Second Life Women’s Club, Second Life Entrepreneurs Club, Second Life Marketers Club, Second Life Writers Club and Moms in Second Life. The business: Event hosting. The revenue model: Sponsorships and advertising from companies wanting to reach the members of my highly targeted groups.

8:35am – Log into Second Life. I recently rebuilt the Athena Isle Clubhouse where the groups meet every week, so I spend about half an hour moving objects such as promotional posters and events calendars into place. I also have a shop called Athena Wares and the Athena Gallery of women’s art on my isle. I spend some time editing the terrain under the new clubhouse so there aren’t holes in the ground. I’m a bit clumsy at building and landscaping, and these are things I’d never do in real life, but in Second Life, they come with the territory of owning land unless you can afford to hire other people to do it for you. The business: Providing meeting space for groups, display space in the gallery and vendor space in the shop. The revenue model: Rent for space.

9:00am – Promote the day’s event on Eventful.com, a Web-based events calendar that accepts Second Life events. Then I write and submit a press release to Free-Press-Release.com. I’m still logged into Second Life, and I can hear the wind chimes and water fountains on my isle in the background. The business: Event marketing – something I’m also doing for other Second Life events. The revenue model: Consulting fees from clients.

10:00am – Update the Athena Isle calendar of events on a notecard in Second Life and replace the old calendars in several objects on the isle that automatically give notecards when an avatar clicks on it (called a Notecard Giver). When it comes to promoting my Second Life events on my isle, I can’t live without my Notecard Givers and URL scripts that lead people to my Second Life club blogs when they click on the related promo poster.

11:00am – Print out the run sheet for my Second Life television show REAL BIZ in SL on SLCN.tv. I feature a different real life company or nonprofit organization each week with a 20 minute tour of their island in Second Life and a 5 minute sit down interview discussing the business side of their Second Life initiative. Second Life is still running in the background, and I’m fielding IMs from SL friends and acquaintances including a PR person, a music columnist, a photographer, a reporter and a stay-at-home mom who just stops by to say hi. The business: Second Life television production. The revenue model: Advertising and sponsorship.

12:00pm – Rush to put up a new sign that directs people to the roof of the clubhouse for our meeting. Welcome my guest speaker and send her up to the roof for a quick photo shoot with the photographer who I’ve hired to be the official Athena Isle photographer to help me document my events. I’ll pay her in Linden (the Second Life currency) and in gift certificates to great Second Life clothing stores. Fly up to the roof and usher everyone to sit at the MystiTable by Mystical Cookie, an ingenious piece of furniture that appears to have one chair but a new one appears as soon as someone sits in the empty one. It seats up to 40 people which is all my isle can handle so it is the perfect piece of equipment. I start the live text chat and let my guest take over. Today’s guest is Pebbles Hanya (her avatar name) or Mary Ellen Gordon of MarketTruths.com, a Second Life research firm, giving a talk titled “Are People in Virtual Worlds Normal?” The event is hosted by my group Second Life Marketers Club.

12:30pm - I suddenly realize that I forgot to make the club meeting an hour earlier so ask my photographer to moderate and save a transcript, then leave the meeting quietly by teleporting to the island or “sim” (for simulation) owned by Splitsville, a real world bowling alley and nightclub venue. Call into the bridge line, and lead the production crew on a quick walk through of the sim with the sim’s developer, Dire Logo (his avatar name).

1:10pm – Start the show. We film live and usually do the entire show without stopping, but this time, my producer stops me so they can redo the shots of me (my avatar) and Dire Lobo bowling. I improvise dialog while maneuvering my avatar on the screen and am thrilled that I’m able to bowl a strike on the second take. This is all in Second Life, mind you. I’m still sitting at my desk in my basement home office.

1:45pm – Wrap the show and film a quick commercial that will be uploaded to YouTube to promote the archive of the Splitsville show. Have a discussion with my executive producer about a Second Life music show I’ll be producing that starts in April.

2:00pm - Teleport back to Athena Isle. Upload graphic files of tshirt designs that I created in PhotoShop Elements into Second Life then construct three tshirts for a nonprofit organization called Wings of Hope. One of the other things I do in Second Life that I could never do in real life is design tshirts, both promotional ones and my own line called Cybergrrl Teez. I’m doing these three shirts pro-bono. The business: Promotional tshirts, tshirt designs and tshirt shop. The revenue model: Linden from items sold inworld (that can be converted to dollars) and dollars from items sold on CafePress.com (Second Life Swag).

3:00pm – Put some finishing touches on promo posters for the next day’s event. Greet people who arrive at Athena Isle to explore. In real life, the babysitter is leaving for the day so I log out and get to my First Life work before my baby wakes from her nap.

Some people struggle to balance life and work. I’m struggling to balance, First Life, Second Life and my work in both of those lives. But such is life when you’re a serial entrepreneur in a virtual world.

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They may have a funny name, but PBWiki has gained considerable traction in the collaborative web space.  Mostly popular in the education and non-profit web site market, PBWiki has generated more than half a million wikis.  Now with the re-launch of Jotspot as Google Sites, PBWiki is releasing new features and capabilities to make itself a more business-friendly wiki engine.

The first new feature most people will notice is the new and improved user interface.  The administration interface received a new look and feel along with improvements in speed and performance.  Additionally, the PBWiki team made it easier to brand and customize your PBwiki by allowing users more control over the design of their website.  You can easily upload your company logo and if you want, PBWiki will create a color scheme for your website based on your uploaded logo.

In addition to the fresh new UI, PBWiki 2.0 new features are also focused on security.  Now you can create folders and organize your web assets by directory.  PBwiki has built in folder level security, allowing site administrators to grant users granular security to each folder.  If site administrators want to get even more detailed, individual pages can have security set on them as well.  Finally, PBWiki 2.0 allows for individual logins for site editors.

If you are looking for a collaborative website and like the idea of using a wiki, PBWiki deserves a look.  They’ve always been a drop-dead easy site to use and now have some new features that make them a more attractive website tool.

To check out the new 2.0 features,  head over to PBWiki, create a new wiki, and chose “2.0 Beta” as your wiki type.  Alternatively, you can see some of the new features at their demo wiki site.

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