Second Life

• There’s Still Life in Second Life

  Wed. May. 07, 2008
  by Laura P. Thomas, Global eCommerce

  On April 26, I had the privilege to speak at the vBusiness Expo in Second Life. The goal of the event was to provide a forum for discussion of virtual business and education issues actually within a virtual environment. No travel necessary. No hotel expenses or per diems. Just easy access to experts for anyone interested in using virtual environments as a platform for business.

  I use the term experts not really to refer to myself, but to all the Ph.D.s, analysts and corporate directors that filled the list of speakers. Corporate representatives included: Senior Director of eBusiness for Kelley Services David Fenech; IBM’s Global Director for 3D Internet and Virtual Business Sandra Kearney; and, Fiona Gallagher who works in the global brand and advertising group of Sun Microsystems. I found myself sandwiched in the program listing of speakers between Larry Johnson, Ph.D. who is chief executive officer of the New Media Consortium and Mark Bell a Ph.D. student in the Indiana University Telecommunications department. These great academic minds were joined by Chris Collins an IT Analyst at the UCit Instructional & Research Computing department at the University of Cincinnati (better known to many of us in Second Life as Fleep Tuque) and Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins a Ph.D. candidate at Ball State University, Muncie Indiana. There were also representatives from the non-profit sector like Barry Joseph of Global Kids, and a bevy of lawyers to talk about legal issues involving virtual worlds such as intellectual property.

  I tout the diverse group of speakers and panelist because I think it illustrates the breadth of opportunities that exist in virtual world environments. From business to education to philanthropy, everyone can benefit from the ability to cross geographies and bring people together in an immersive environment. This type of conference is a great way to illustrate that.

  Virtual TV magazine "LIFE 4-U" reported on the event (including a couple of shots of myself/Pyrrha Dell during my talk). And, here’s a still shot to give you an idea of what the event looked like:

  

  If you’re interested in my own presentation about what Dell has done in Second Life, what we’ve learned and where we are looking to go, you can view the slides online. In addition, Caleb Booker is working to post audio recordings and slides from all the presenters online soon. I’ll update this post with a link as soon as I get it.

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• Real Life and Second Life Come Together Via the Twitterverse

  Tue. Jan. 15, 2008
  by Laura P. Thomas, Global eCommerce
  While the flurry of activity that is the Consumer Electronics Show has passed, there are still some great stories to come out of it. I was there for two entire hours myself, thanks to a "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" type of experience getting to Vegas. Although, instead of an obnoxious guy hanging with me, I had my Twitter friends.

  The point of my visit was to set up a mixed reality event between Second Life and Real Life to launch our new Crystal monitor. Crystal is a product for the creative, style-conscious person and SL residents are builders, designers and style mavens; so, where better to take this experience?

  I turned again to the great team at Involve to bring Crystal into virtual reality, and they've created a true functioning SL version that is available for one more week at Dell Island. As Aleister Kronos noted, it has the "nice touch" of being able to set the texture for the screen.

  Well, weather and other unfortunate issues conspired to keep me stuck in the Phoenix airport during the time I was supposed to be setting up the computers and streaming video from the Dell Lounge booth at CES. I was twittering about my frustrations (you could find it all archived on http://www.twitter.com/lpt there) when a fellow metaverse evangelist, Peter Haik at Metaversatility saw my distress. He was at CES and asked if there was anything he could do to help. Well, to make the long story a little shorter, he dropped by the Dell booth and ensured that everything was ready to go, so that I was able to simply slide in at the last minute and unveil the virtual Crystal. Thanks very much, Peter!

  Yes, I did finally make it to Vegas (as seen in this photo), and as Dan Zehr of the Austin American-Statesman noted once the people in Vegas got to mingle with the people in Second Life, things got really interesting.

  I had the opportunity to meet Paul Jackson of Forrester in RL, and we continued discussions we have had previously via the phone about the viability of Second Life and the future opportunity of virtual worlds. He's recently published a new report titled "Getting Real Work Done In Virtual Worlds." I highly recommend it as a good read for anyone interested in this arena.

  After CES closed for the evening, Peter (who had stayed to assist throughout the event) and I watched my LSU Tigers win the BCS national championship (couldn't help but brag) and chatted about exciting things happening in other areas of virtual world development such as Metaplace and Multiverse.

  All-in-all, I left CES inspired by the "village" of Twitter as a support system and jazzed about the continued opportunities in virtual worlds. As Gartner predicts, by 2011, 80% of people will have a "second life" even if it's not in Second Life...

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• Dell in SL: One Year Later

  Tue. Nov. 20, 2007
  by Laura P. Thomas, Global eCommerce

  As I landed on that title for my presentation at Metaverse07 this coming Monday, I thought it would be an appropriate one for an update here, too.  Yes, it’s been almost exactly one year since Dell Island launched to the public in the virtual world of Second Life.  To some it might seem like the lyrics of a Grateful Dead song would be an appropriate description for it, but I would have to disagree – it’s really not been as strange as it might sound.

   

  True, we’ve had a dolphin attend an Earth Day event, we’ve built an XPS 710 you can walk inside and trees that can grow as fast as you want them.  We’ve had dragons dance on a giant ark to music played by a frog and a cat.  But, we’ve also had residents of Latin America in-world asking questions and getting them answered by Michael Dell while his live webcast from NYC streamed into our StudioDell theatre.  And, connecting it all is the one not-so-strange thread of people coming together, meeting on a personal level and engaging in real conversations.

   

  To further those conversations, in July we began keeping customer service “office hours” during weekdays.  Not everyone thought this was such a great idea.  But, to myself and Todd Dell, who volunteers to staff those hours in addition to his regular job duties, it was all about offering one more way for our customers to connect with us.  It’s that same desire that is now bringing a new member to the Dell family in Second Life – Esperto Dell. 

   

  Esperto (as his name implies), is one of our technical support experts who wants nothing more than to assist customers in new and exciting ways.  He will be spending his evenings at our SL coffee shop from 7-9:00 p.m. SLT, Monday – Friday, so that he can answer your questions and provide tech support.  While his name may be Italian, he actually remembers only a little of what his grandmother taught him of that language; however, he can converse in Spanish, as well as English.  His time spent in SL is not about replacing any of the traditional methods our customers have for support, but rather providing one more avenue for you to connect with real people here at Dell.

   

  At the recent Social Media Club Workshop, well-blogged by Geoff Livingston, one of the speakers asked the audience if a corporation can be sincere.  My answer (totally my own opinion) was that while a “corporation” cannot be sincere, the people within it can.  Esperto and Todd are sincere in their desire to explore the possibilities of virtual worlds and engage in real conversations with our customers and potential customers.  I hope you’ll take advantage of the opportunity and visit them, if for no other reason than to get to know more of us here at Dell on that personal level.

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• Customer Service in Second Life

  Mon. Jul. 23, 2007
  by Laura P. Thomas, Global eCommerce

  It's been too long since I've blogged here and I hope that people don't think that's because we've joined the companies quoted in a recent Forbes article (registration required) saying they were pulling out of Second Life.  GigaOM has a good post that debunks many of the business myths perpetuated in that and other recent articles. 

  I've actually been kept busy with 2D activity-leading an initiative to look at potential new designs for the home page of Dell.com.  But, that's a future story to come.  As I recently told an L.A. Times reporter who chose to leave all of my comments out of her article, we remain pleased with our entry into the metaverse through SL and we plan to continue building our community there and learning from our first foray into virtual worlds.  There has been a drop in the daily traffic to our space over the past few months, but in all honesty, we haven't given people a whole lot of new and interesting reasons to visit.  As I noted in a response to a ZDNet blogger, though, we still see a lot of opportunity to connect with people through this platform.  

  We did do a Rock the Ark party, and streamed in a video from our Inspiron launch event.  And, we recently streamed Michael Dell's Small Business Town Hall into SL, and he even took a question from the group watching there during his live Q&A session. And, we've built out a StudioDell Theater where you can watch videos from our Webby-award-winning StudioDell site.  But, as we hear from Grace McDunnough and Linda Zimmer, it takes more than those sort of things to make this environment work.  We need more ways for you to interact with us there.

  So, as further evidence of our continued exploration in 3D interactions, I'm excited to introduce a new member of the Dell family in SL -Todd Dell.  Todd is part of our Online Community Outreach team and he is about to begin keeping office hours on Dell Island to provide assistance to residents who visit our virtual space.  From directing you to the new StudioDell theater, to helping you with Dell customer service and tech support issues. Todd is based in the U.S., but will have the contacts inside of Dell to get assistance for customers in other parts of the world.

  Beginning August 6, Todd will be hanging out in our new coffee shop, The Buzz and Bean, in Dell City Monday - Friday, 5 - 6am SLT and 12 - 2pm SLT. Based on traffic and demand, we may adjust those hours in the future.  Yes, I know avatars can't drink coffee, but we thought the comfortable atmosphere of a coffee shop might be a relaxing place to chat about whatever is on your mind.  Although advice for your live life isn't exactly the sort of questions Todd hopes to be able to answer for you.  Do drop by with your Dell-related inquiries though!

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• Small Business Town Hall with Michael Dell on July 10

  Tue. Jul. 03, 2007
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  On Tuesday, July 10, at 12:00 p.m. EDT, Michael Dell will hold a small business customer town hall at the Reuters Building in Times Square. This is an opportunity for hundreds of small businesses from around the world to join a live audience to participate in an hour-long discussion on technology issues unique to your business.

  If you are a small business with fewer than 25 employees and want to join us, please visit the registration link here.

  Part of the town hall will be a Q&A session where participants can ask Michael his thoughts on how they can use technology to make the most of their business. He'll be there to share news about upcoming Dell products and services, discuss things like technology trends and thier impact on small businesses, and to talk about how we'll continue efforts to make IT easier to manage and more affordable to small businesses.

  Beyond that, Dell Group members can watch the live webcast in Second Life at the StudioDell Theater. We will take questions from SL and share them with with Michael, along with questions he receives from the live audience and other webcast viewers. If you'd like to get your questions in the queue early, just IM them to Pyrrha Dell. 

  More to come next week.

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• Come Rock the Ark in Second Life

  Sat. Jun. 09, 2007
  by Laura P. Thomas, Global eCommerce

  You may or may not have noticed a new banner in the rotation of the Dell.com home page this week that mentions the upcoming movie Evan Almighty.  I'd encourage you to check out the page  it links to because it's much more than just a simple product placement announcement.  Dell and Universal Studios share many of the same views on environmental responsibility and are coming together through this movie to make it easy for you to get involved, as well. 

  
  Evan Almighty is the first major motion picture comedy to zero out its footprint, and some great video about how they did it is available at www.evanalmighty.com. In addition, at www.getonboardnow.org, they have created the Almighty Forest—a place where you can plant a virtual and real tree with just a $5 donation.  The Almighty Forest is a partnership with The Conservation Fund, which is also a partner in Dell's own Plant a Tree for Me program.

  
  By now, you may be wondering why I'm the one talking about all this, since I usually post here about Second Life.  Well the reason is that I wanted to tell you about the Evan Almighty premiere event in Second Life at Dell Island!

  
  This Sunday, June 10, while the movie premiere is happening in Real Life in Los Angeles, we'll be throwing a Rock the Ark party in Second Life with unique, behind-the-scenes footage of the film, along with the music of Frogg Marlowe and Jaycatt Neko!  In the spirit of the movie, where God directs Evan to build an ark, we're encouraging everyone to attend two-by-two as their favorite animal (non-anthropomorphic residents are certainly welcome, too!) 

   

  Join us there from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. SLT!  Not a resident yet?  Visit our introductory Second Life page to learn more.

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• Deepening Our Roots in Second Life

  Fri. Apr. 20, 2007
  by Laura P. Thomas, Global eCommerce

  Recently, the VP of Marketing at HP blogged about why they are not in Second Life, and I think the title of his post says a lot about our differences in approaching this medium - "Top 10 Reasons as to why I still need to be convinced about marketing on Second Life".
  

  If someone is just there to market to me—throw up some billboards and leave—then as a resident of Second Life myself, I'm not that interested in them being there either.

  However, if you're approaching the world as an involved resident, then it's about more than marketing and it has more meaning. Dell entered Second Life to explore new ways we can extend our direct relationship with customers, and to learn new ways to interact with virtual communities so we will be prepared for the 3D Internet.

  Because we wanted to add to this fast-growing community, not just market to it, I'm excited today to announce the expansion of Dell's Plant a Tree for Me program in Second Life. This blog post from Tod Arbogast explains the program in more detail. On our main island in Second Life, we have now ripped out some old industrial-style architecture and replaced it with green park space. There Second Life residents can relax and not only enjoy the scenery, but also take a little bit of it back home with them. Free virtual saplings of the Red Oaks growing there are available for all Second Life residents.

  Now, while trees themselves are nothing new to SL, I think we've added some pretty neat features to this one:
  

  • Instead of just one texture for the tree, the tree will change appearance as it grows larger - from sprout to sapling to young tree, to full tree
  • You can select the maximum height of the tree to grow, and you can choose one of a few time-frames for the tree to grow: 10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, or 10 weeks
  • If you reposition the tree while it's growing, it won't mess up the growth process
  • You can re-grow the tree after it's completely grown or even in the middle of the growth process
    
  • Each tree carries with it a link back to our Plant a Tree for Me page on Dell.com, where we hope residents will take the opportunity to participate and offset a bit of their carbon emissions in the real world.

  To celebrate this new space, we are throwing a party on Earth Day, April 22, at Dell Island. Residents are invited to come hear SL musicians Edward Lowell and Dimi Van Ludwig perform from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. SLT (Second Life Time, which is the same as U.S. Pacific Time). Come listen, dance, visit and get your own tree sapling to plant in Second Life! Oh, and you can get there via this direct link, or by selecting Second Life in the country selector of Dell.com, or going straight to dell.com/secondlife, or through our new dell.com/conversations page.

  Update: Here's a StudioDell video that explains how the Plant a Tree For Me program works.

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• Does Vista Run Second Life?

  Wed. Feb. 21, 2007
  by Laura P. Thomas, Global eCommerce

  Not to make this blog be "All-Vista-All-The-Time", but I wanted to chime in about some issues that have surfaced around running Second Life on Vista systems.

  I first heard that there might be a problem when the Second Life Insider reported that one of their readers received video card error messages when trying to run Second Life after installing Vista. It appears that some people can run SL on Vista just fine, but some cannot. Further digging into the topic indicates that success depends on your video card and whether or not it supports OpenGL. If you are a Second Life resident moving to Vista, you may want to look into updating the drivers for your video card.

  Systems Dell ships today with Vista and nVidia graphics solutions have the native 3D rendering support required for Second Life. Including the XPS 710 desktops and XPS 1710 notebooks that you can configure within Second Life for purchase in real life. ATI's OpenGL ICD has just recently been made available, so while it may not be shipping installed on Dell systems today, we have added the ATI drivers with OpenGL ICD support to our Drivers & Downloads site.

  Now it appears that help is on the way from Linden Lab, as well. Steve Linden blogs that changes coming with the First Look Viewer will enable Linden to debug problems with running Second Life under Windows Vista. No exact ETA on that, but it's reassuring to know they're working on it.

   

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• Making a Virtual Connection

  Thu. Feb. 08, 2007
  by Laura P. Thomas, Global eCommerce

  I was recently reminded of one of the two things that makes Second Life such an interesting place—the ability to interact with people from around the globe while feeling like you are in the same place, and the power of SL Groups to bring people together.
  
  Thanks to Linda Zimmer, aka ZnetLady Isbell, and her creation of the Second Life Business Communciators Group, I was recently able to meet Munich Express, also known as Achim Muellers, Head of Brand Relations and Cooperations at BMW, at BMW's SL island for a discussion with several other group members.  Munich was kind enough to chat with us about what BMW has built in SL and what plans they have for the site.  Here's a snapshot of the gathering: BMW and Dell share a similar goal of finding new ways to interact with our customers and other Second Life residents.

  
  
  We've been percolating a few ideas of our own for ways to make Dell Island more interactive.  It may not be visible yet, but some new additions are on the way.  Possibilities we've been looking at include a way for SL residents to participate in our new Plant a Tree for Me program and a store for Electronics and Accessories.  But, I'm sure there are plenty of other ideas out there, too.  If you'd like to toss yours into the hat, please do so here.  I can't promise you that we'll be able to implement them all, but maybe we can do some of them.
  
  And, next time you're in Second Life, take a moment to search the Groups section to see what interesting people it can help you meet.  When you find a Group that interests you, highlight the name in the result list and click "Join".  There's a Dell Group there, of course, through which we'll be able to communicate our upcoming additions once they're ready for you to check out!

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• Webcast of Michael's Keynote @ CES 2007

  Mon. Jan. 08, 2007
  by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger

  Michael Dell will give a keynote speech in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday, January 9 beginning at 9 a.m. PST (11 a.m. CST). In his keynote, he'll describe how customer imagination is the key ingredient to innovation. He'll also discuss technology trends that will continue to impact consumers and will introduce several new products and services.

  Anyone interested in viewing the webcast can tune in at www.dell.com/ces2007news or at www.studiodell.com.

  Michael’s keynote will also be simulcast in-world at Second Life on Dell Island.

  • Those of you that already have a Second Life resident can teleport directly to the auditorium floating above Dell Island.
  • If you do not have a Second Life account or avatar yet, please visit www.dell.com/secondlife for details on how to proceed.

  Beginning tomorrow, I'll provide updated details on Dell products and happenings at this year's CES. 

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