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IT gets dragged kicking and screaming into Second Life
13 comments- IT TOPICS:Development, Emerging Technology, Personal Technology
What's the deal with Second Life? More than 1.3 million people have joined the virtual world, which allows users to interact and experiment in a real-time 3D universe. A virtual economy has sprung up, based on the trade or outright purcase of 3D real-estate and other objects. All sorts of organizations are holding meetings in Second Life, and PR companies are creating marketing campaigns there. Second Life is the darling of several mainstream media organizations, most notably BusinessWeek, which regularly covers the corporate and financial activities taking place there.
Until recently, IT professionals could safely dismiss Second Life and virtual worlds as a quirky offshoot of the gaming world to play with during the off-hours, or another overhyped Internet technology that has no role in the day-to-day business of running IT.
Not anymore. There was a watershed event earlier this week that, if it develops into a trend, will force many IT folks to learn how to conduct meetings and get information in virtual spaces.
The event relates to a Sun Microsystems announcement: The open-sourcing of the Java programming language. Part of the Sun publicity effort involved a developer Q&A, which many software companies use to reassure and inform developers about newly announced software or programming tools. However, this developer Q&A took place in Second Life, without any corresponding real life component. According to one account (which included screenshots of the Q&A), just 20 or 30 people attended. Moreover, there were some technical snafus:
Some 1st Life problem arouse, mainly with micros, while in SL there was probably a lack of infos on how to deal with technical stuff such as listening to the conference, that is stopping the background video that was screened before the whole thing started.
Another observer, who was kind enough to provide a transcript of the Q&A, noted some of the other quirky goings-on, including Tim Bray (Sun's Director of Web Technologies) slumped over a table and an impromptu break dance performance.
While being able to ask questions directly to senior Java designers at a small gathering is a great opportunity, dealing with technical snafus and bizarre distractions certainly isn't. Larry Dignan ripped into Sun's virtual Q&A, calling it a "gimmick" and a "productivity drain":
Memo to Sun: Stop trying to be so damn trendy. Taking Java open source is a big development, but then you muck it up with having a developer Q&A in Second Life. No parallel Webcast. No conference call dial-in. No alternate means to drop in. Ask yourself the following: Would any of your peers (grown-up IT companies) have held an earnings call only in Second Life? How about a merger? New development platform? Didn't think so. ... How about those CIOs you're trying so desperately to sell "solutions" to? Maybe they wanted to tune in. Guarantee you that they didn't have the wherewithal to fiddle with Second Life.
While I did not attempt to join Sun's Q&A, I have explored Second Life. Or, should I say, tried to explore Second Life. I found the UI to be complicated, and the client software to be jerky. Getting the hang of moving around required a bit of a learning curve, even for someone who has played first-person shooters and The Sims before. So it's not surprising that so few people showed up at Sun's virtual Q&A. There is no way any developer, CIO, or reporter could be reasonably expected to attend Sun's virtual Q&A unless they invested a few hours beforehand getting up to speed on the interface.
And this virtual event will be soon followed by others. Big tech players are jumping on the Second Life bandwagon. Dell is setting up a virtual store in Second Life. IBM chief executive Sam Palmisano not only has two Second Life avatars, but also has big business plans centered on Second Life, says BusinessWeek:
IBM foresees a sizable business in providing the software, computers, and chips that power 3-D worlds, and in advising clients on how to take advantage of them to market or sell products. At a real-life town hall meeting for 8,000 employees in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Palmisano will announce just before his virtual escapade that IBM is setting up a new organization to pursue the business. It's one of a handful of initiatives he'll lay out that emerged from an online "innovation jam" the company held for worldwide employees and business partners in September. All told, Big Blue plans to spend $100 million on these projects.
When there's a lot of gushing Second Life coverage from BusinessWeek (and a few other media outlets) that downplays the many problems with virtual worlds, one has to wonder who's driving this trend. It doesn't take long to figure it out: The PR agencies, who seem to be latching onto Second Life as the Next Big Thing.
I don't dispute that 3D simulations can play an important role in education, or providing a forum for productive interactions. One day, when members of the video game generation form the bulk of the workforce, virtual spaces will be a common meeting place for training sessions, classes, and other gatherings.
But right now, the rush to Second Life in the IT industry is taking place for the wrong reasons. Virtual technology and IT workers are just not ready. People, not PR, should indicate that they want virtual meetings -- and they should never be forced to jump through a series of technological hoops in order to get the information that they need.
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