Faculty Seminar on

Virtual Worlds
Episode 2 - Second Life - 2/12/08
cory ondrejka - cory.ondrejka@gmail.com
a quick review
 online versus virtual
community versus world
 millions of reasons
Online Game Online Communities Online Worlds

crapload

many

lots

a few
 some rules of thumb for
world-wide numbers:

Virtual worlds: 20 million

MMOs: 50 million
Social networks: 100 million

(with lots of overlap)

gold in dem darn (virtual) hills
amateur versus expert
 don’t make me use
the baby seal slide again
(because I will)
 participation
Web Wikipedia Sims Open Source
Mainstream Media Second Life

65.00

48.75

32.50

16.25

0
any questions lurking?
it’s story time!
the second life story
good thing we’re in la
8 years so far
which isn’t that long
as mitch likes to point out
(who’s been through this)
think about the pc
think about the pc
think about the pc

1976
think about the pc

1976
think about the pc

1976

1990
15 years
so we’re only half way
(maybe 2/3)
but, like all exponentials...
but, like all exponentials...
but, like all exponentials...

vaguely interesting
but, like all exponentials...
very
interesting

vaguely interesting
plus, sl gives plenty of material
second life’s growth
Population Money
second life’s growth
Population Money
2000
compression

2000
 compression

2000

grid
computing
 compression

2000

grid
cellular
computing
automata
 “the rig”
compression

2000

grid
cellular
computing
automata
“the forest”
2000 scorecard:

no users
no exchange
5 employees
2000 scorecard:

no users people signed up

no exchange users trading L$ and US$
Linden Lab employees
5 employees
second life’s growth
Population Money
second life’s growth
Population Money
2001
building

2001
building

2001

avatars
second life was about people
even the most beautiful place
was not as interesting as people
scripting, too
2001 scorecard:

no users
no exchange
10 employees
second life’s growth
Population Money
second life’s growth
Population Money
2002
2002 was a very good year
2002 was about people!
2002 was about people!
2002 was about people!

Alpha!
and people meant...
 creation
community
collaboration
virtually no screen
shots from this era
2002 scorecard:

145(!) users
no exchange
20 employees
second life’s growth
Population Money
second life’s growth
Population Money
2003
remember 2002?
 creation
community
collaboration
2003 had more people
 creation
community
collaboration
 however, since
communities
are not scale free...
 creation
community
collaboration
often drove...
 cheating
combat
boundaries
do good fences
make
good neighbors?
the jessie wall
the jessie wall
the jessie wall
this story only survives because
of
james au
embedded in a virtual world
how to preserve the ephemeral?
Second Life launched on
June 23, 2003
June 23rd is now a
holiday
in Second Life
Second Life launched with
less than
400
users
and didn’t grow much
evolve or else
we asked for help
we asked for help
we asked for help
we asked for help
 “it’s stupid to ask
people to build a
world
and to not let them
own it!”
oops
so we studied
macro economics

so we studied
macro economics

creative destruction

so we studied
macro economics

creative destruction

so we studied

“mystery of capital”
 and evolved both the
intellectual property approach
and
the business model
intellectual property
 intellectual property

Yochai says “$#@%?@!!”

business model
enables two broad lines of study
 ip rules
in the information economy
 entrepreneurship
in the information economy
2003 scorecard:

2743 users
no exchange
25 employees
second life’s growth
Population Money
second life’s growth
Population Money
2004
entrepreneurship
entrepreneurship
branding
breaking the magic circle
really breaking
2004 was about the
individual
using second life
 2004 scorecard:

18,876 users
$5,000/mo exchange
40 employees
second life’s growth
Population Money
second life’s growth
Population Money
2005
three things happened in 2005
Second Life became free
as in beer
educators discovered SL
in a big way
particularly via
GLS and
Serious Games
and sl started growing
businesses
followed
the people
but just a little
though virtually no
real-world brands

(yet)
government
and music
tringo
broadcasting identity
2005 was a year of building
 2005 scorecard:

123,438 users
$500,000/mo exchange
60 employees
second life’s growth
Population Money
second life’s growth
Population Money
2006
the knee in the curve
the year of “firsts”
auto company
hotel chain
clothing company
concert
cc concert
fashion magazines
news organization
harvard class
millionaire
where did this all come from?
despite popular perception
it was
NOT
the Linden
uber marketing machine
I wish we had that much power
distributed entrepreneurs
plus everyone else
gladwell would be proud
 gartner, too

2006
 2006 scorecard:

3,000,000 users
$5,000,000/mo exchange
100 employees
second life’s growth
Population Money
second life’s growth
Population Money
and then things got
exciting
2007
freedom!
(as in speech)
second life client
open sourced
big business arrived
these guys got acquired/funded
csi:ny
fortune 500 bingo
 mix of training,
marketing, collaboration
 lots of questions:
efficacy of training?
impact of trust?
brands and community
and how does voice mix in?
over the top
 made more complicated by
the rest of the world arriving
 and by increasing
regulatory interest
 gambling
adult activities
banking
all of cyberlaw’s shortcomings
plus the metaphor
and lack of standards
what does user mean?
 2007 scorecard:

11,000,000 users
$8,000,000/mo exchange
220 employees
second life’s growth
Population Money
second life’s growth
Population Money
2008
rebounding
hundred of sl developers
employing
thousands of people
from all over the world
sl growth increasing again
5% weekly concurrency growth
emmy-tastic
so, what’s next?
 Second Life’s
progression has been
 community
collaboration
identity
education
entrepreneurship
marketing
business
media
innovation
so I’d like to propose diving
deeper into:
 innovation
behavior (with Dmitri’s help)
education
legal and regulatory issues
the big unanswered questions
stop talking now
cory.ondrejka@gmail.com
http://ondrejka.net