Sex, Pranks and Reality - Forbes.com
This is a good article, but I think the author misses the point somewhat. In fact, I am pretty sure she inadvertently plagiarized a bunch of articles that were written in 1994-1995 about the then-newborn World Wide Web. Is "being is Second Life" worthwhile for companies per se? No, not any more than using electricity within ones business is a competitive differentiator. As with the Web (or any other medium/business platform), the platform itself is not the point - it is what you do with it. VirtualAloft got shuttered because it had nothing to offer. Nissan Island, on the other hand, provides a place to drive your virtual car (which is actually somewhat worthwhile if you like that sort of thing.) IBM provides product seminars and demonstrations. Numerous universities have virtual classrooms. These are real business endeavors, not merely cool billboards.
...And You Press This Button To Fly
Steve McGookin has a much different take on the commercial possibilities of virtual worlds. He seems to imply that things like winged avatars and idealized body types will eventually go the way of cute signature lines, effusive smileys, and "kewl" email addresses (when is the last time you got a business card that had "cutie507@aol.com" printed on it?)
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
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