Linden Lab has an extensive history of launching their marketing and advertising campaigns for Second Life to mixed reviews, and their most recent attempts have been no different.

Back in 2009, Linden Lab launched a new campaign on the Second Life website featuring the following ad:

At the time it was launched, I considered this ad to be a major upgrade from the stale, low quality past promotions and I was thrilled that it finally showcased a visually stunning Second Life experience, but others argued that the experience painted by this video was unrealistic and featured impossible instantaneous shopping experiences and interactions without gestures or animations.  Regardless, I have since then comfortably sent individuals who were completely unfamiliar with Second Life to the SecondLife.com website and/or shared this ad with them in order to give them a general view of SL.  That is until last week.

Last week, I noticed Linden Lab had started revamping the SecondLife.com website with new photos and ads.  Apparently, according to Sl.com, Second Life is about vampires.

To be fair, the website also showcases the new Linden Realms game and another female avatar, but the first thing you see is this vampire ad.

I didn’t complain when Linden Lab came out with it’s vampire based Google AdSense campaign as I’m sure it’s a popular theme and I wouldn’t even mind them using it as a secondary display on the webiste, but featuring it alone as the dominant first thing you see on SecondLife.com is sending a distorted and incorrect message about Second Life.

In addition, the image (as well as the other main images you can scroll through) is of poor quality.   Not only are the images not visually stunning, but they fall far short of what Second Life alone (without retouching) can achieve.  The images also feature avatars in stiff, rigid, and unnatural poses with blank stares that are too lifeless and dead for the vampire to pull off.   These images are not at all reflective of the potential of the Second Life platform (as-is) which is capable of producing brilliant, emotion evoking, photorealistic images with striking lighting, shadows, and depth of field, yet they are what potential users will first encounter.

Along with these new web images, Linden Lab has newly debuted the below machinima campaign.

This campaign is much closer to portraying a wider picture of SL, but it is still a far stretch from what Second Life is visually capable of producing.  However, while the biggest complaints about the video are that it misrepresents Second Life, the complaints refer again to things like the animated interactions and not the visual quality.

With Second Life constantly being compared graphically to popular games I would think that Linden Lab would want to show Second Life in the best light, right?

So then, why is Linden Lab underselling Second Life and why does the community want it to?

As my guests and I mentioned on last week’s MetaReality Podcast, many of the advertisements put out by the leading game developers (for games that Second Life is often compared to) aren’t exactly unretouched screen captures.

Take for example this “The Sims 3” ad below:

Last time I played “The Sims 3” it didn’t look anything like that.  The avatars weren’t nearly as realistic or cleanly modeled and I certainly don’t remember that street view.  Maybe it’s just that one ad.  Here’s another ad for “The Sims 3”:

Wow! In “The Sims 3,” I can “create EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED?”   It even, in a way, sounds like it could be an ad for Second Life even though it is much more limited and predefined than Second Life.

Maybe “The Sims” is a bad example.  At this point, everyone knows what “The Sims” is like, right?  Check out this ad for one of the hottest games this year, “Skyrim.”

Whoa, I knew Skyrim had amazing graphics, but real human actors and live action!  Why doesn’t my version of Skyrim look anything like this?

Advertising is an industry that has been built on selling a vision or dream rather than just a product.  While my “Sims 3” and “Skyrim” game play experiences weren’t really anything like their ads, I enjoyed them for what they were and generally understood that before purchasing them.  On the other hand, my Second Life experience may not be exactly like the ad because not everything is so easy or instantaneous, but I honestly find my Second Life experience to be better than its ad.

The ad can’t explain that when I’m in Second Life, I enjoy fashion and shopping even though it’s not instantaneous, and that even though I don’t really experience seamless animations I am so immersed in the moment that a *high-five* or *cheers* in chat feels the same.  The ad doesn’t quite portray the endless possibilities.. in my case, it doesn’t begin to cover the businesses I’ve built, the organizations I’ve helped, the issues I’ve brought awareness to, the once in a lifetime experiences I’ve had,  the friendships I’ve made, etc.  The ad doesn’t tell you that you too can discover the explainable magic of Second Life.

So I ask again:

Why is Linden Lab underselling Second Life and why does the community want it to?

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The above picture was taken by Jeff Lowe.  The caption reads, “The SL Name Tag simply displays your real name and whatever affiliation you choose as text above the tag. Seems simplistic, but it’s really handy to have a quick visual reference to an avatar’s physical world identity.”

Second Life users have long wanted a way to change their avatar name in a way that did not destroy the history and links associated with it.  In attempt to solve this “identity crisis”,  at the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC) amongst a slew a new features, Linden Lab announced that users would be getting Display Names.

What are Display Names

Display Names will allow Second Life users the ability to choose two names: a unique user name that cannot be changed and an optional Display Name that you can periodically change and that can be set to almost anything that you would like, whether it be an avatar name, your real name, a pseudonym, gamer tag, or even a description.  The change also means that new users will no longer be forced to choose from a limited set of last names (for current users, your existing Second Life avatar name will become your unique user name).

Torley Linden created the below video in order to expand on that what you can do with this new feature and why it’s so important:

Overall, Display Names offer increased freedom to express identity while still providing the ability for users to retain anonymity if they choose.  It sounds good on paper, but many long term users (also know as residents) are not happy with how it is being deployed.  In fact, the announcement seems to be causing more disappointment and concern, than enthusiasm.

What’s Wrong with Display Names

Some of the reasons I have been hearing are:

• It’s the end of an era.  Creative avatar names like Am Radio, TheDiva Rockin, GoSpeed Racer, and Space Dinosaur will most likely become John and Jane Smith.
• It adds a new level of confusion for new residents (as if there wasn’t enough to confuse them already)
• It’s too easy to “grief” someone using Display Names.
• It makes it difficult to report abuse, identify avatars, or find chat logs.

While all of these are valid reasons, with some scrutiny they are mostly inconsequential.

• I agree, it is sad to see the end of the last names lists.  We have come to know a lot about avatars by their last names and have grown found of them and the creative avatars they spawned, but if Second Life wants to move into the future, many potential users were lost at this part of the signup process and simply will not tolerate being forced to choose a limited name.  Virtually every other platform allows you to choose your own name.
• I don’t see Display Names adding a new level of confusion to new users.  In fact, as I stated above, a think it removes one and makes the sign up process that much easier.  Display Names are most likely not something that new users will even be aware of until after they have a better understanding of the platform and the more basic features of SL.
• I think abuse of Display Names will be more annoying than it will actually cause any real problems.  While they might fool someone at first, they won’t end up being any more effective then any of the other ways to speak as someone, etc
• The same thing goes for other methods of identifying avatars.   It might be a little confusing at first, but it is not any different from a friend changing their display name on something like Skype and having to resort to their user name to locate them.

The Real Problem

My concerns are not the result of the uneasiness that often accompanies change in SL, but my belief that we are comparing apples and oranges.  To me, my disappointment was not based on the details of how Display Names are being implemented, as much as that they are being implemented.

Users didn’t ask for a way to display a nickname, they asked for a way to CHANGE their avatar’s name.

It’s the difference between correction tape and an eraser.

While I am excited for this new level of expression, I still consider this a missed opportunity for Second Life/Linden Lab and I hope in the future there will be a better way to link our online presences, if we so choose.

This morning, tech enthusiast, blogger, and social media superstar, Robert Scoble (aka the Scobleizer) sent the Second Life community and Twitter world into a frenzy with his post, “Is Second Life about to enter its ‘second life?’” He begins by rehashing the usual “failings” of Second Life.   Yet, even after all his experiences with Second Life, he still got why the initial flow of corporations left SL completely wrong.  However, what followed was more interesting… He announced that tomorrow everything is going to change.

Anyway, one thing happened that I find very interesting: it continued to grow in users, time spent on the site, and dollars spent in it.

On Friday I sat down with Mark to find out why.

First, the users remained very evangelistic. Second, corporations like IBM found other uses for its islands and kept investing (they now use these islands for training and replacements of expensive conferences). Third, the technology has been steadily improving. Fourth, the company has found new ways to bring new users in and make the experience easier to get into.

But he admitted that they had been pretty quiet and avoided doing more PR work until just recently.

Why is that changing this week? You’ll see why tomorrow morning at about 11 a.m. on building43.

But to tease a bit, I find that their new direction, the first part of which you’ll see tomorrow in the video I did with Mark, is interesting and represents a new life for Second Life and its host Linden Labs.

Of course there was an immediate reaction from the Second Life community across Twitter.

Much of the talk centered around whether Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon would be discussing the new Second Life viewer affectionately called “Viewer 2.0” by the community.

Regardless.. this is an announcement that you will not want to miss!

So tune in Tomorrow Tuesday February 22, 2010 at 11 a.m. on building43.

Recently, the PBS program, “Frontline,” featured a 90-minute documentary entitled “Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier” which examined what it means to live, work, socialize, in a digital world.  I first heard about the documentary from media theorist, writer, and digital native Douglas Rushkoff during his recent appearance on the virtual talk show, Metanomics.  On the show, Rushkoff discussed his most recent book Life, Inc. and the Digital Nation documentary which he wrote with the film’s producer and director Rachel Dretzin.  I was excited as he described how segments of the film came together, stating ”It’s not us telling America, ‘This is who you are.  You are in a digital nation.’  It was more kind of our digital nation telling us who they are, feeding us the stories that they wanted to see covered.”  (watch the full Metanomics episode here)

Unfortunately, when I tuned in I was saddened, disappointed, and frustrated. It’s not that the piece wasn’t interesting or well done, it was just smothered with this overwhelming feeling of inevitable doom.  I wasn’t the only one who felt this way.  Professor Robert Bloomfield who optimistically hosted Rushkoff’s aforementioned appearance on Metanomics just a few days before the show aired, now wrote on the show’s blog, “The emotional thrust of the piece is clearly that life on the virtual frontier is frightening, dysfunctional, and spells the end of all that is good and wholesome.”

I could easily write pages on how I think this documentary asked the wrong questions, how I think a similar program probably aired decades ago with an identical warning about television, how many of us use computers all day long at work and no one calls us addicts, or how at one point I got up and yelled at a dazed mother to stop mourning over her “addicted” son and do some parenting… but I’ve seen many great blog posts discussing all these points and more.  The segment that I haven’t seen discussed enough is the segment on virtual worlds.

The virtual worlds section begins with an interview with Second Life creator Philip Rosedale.  While Rosedale does a great job sharing his visions and enthusiasm, Ruschkoff’s explanation of the fundamental question, what is Second Life, misses the mark.  Ruschkoff says,  “Second Life is an immersive 3D online universe.  You make a character called an avatar, and then you live in that worlds as that person.”   I can’t speak for all Second Life users, but for me, my avatar is not a character.  I also don’t “live” in Second Life, but when I am in-world, I don’t “live as that person.”  My avatar is simply an extension of myself, a 3D representation of me.

Almost as bad as the explanation, is the machinima footage of the virtual world.  There are multiple clips of Ruschkoff’s avatar hopping around in different poorly build locations as he tries to fly.   These are followed by numerous clips of avatars dancing in various locations, and then more dancing, and after that, still more dancing.  In another clip, you see several well known and high profile avatars, like Pooky Amsterdam,  standing around drinking.  Pooky is the avatar behind two of Second Life’s biggest live television shows as part of her award winning production company, PookyMedia.  Yet, despite this, there is no high quality machinima, no footage of these shows.. just dancing and drinking and more dancing.  It’s simply inexcusable to me, that they could “document” virtual worlds without showing ANY quality content or machinima.  I’ve heard several people argue that they might not have had the knowledge, nor the funding to hire professionals.  I’m currently working on a project for the University of Southern California in collaboration with PBS Frontline, and we would not even dream of producing anything but the highest quality content and machinima.  The paradoxical part about all of this is that the Frontline program is funded by the MacArthur Foundation, who also funds some of the most amazing projects and discussions in Second Life.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Ruschkoff joins the list of uniformed reporters who covered the “failures” of Second Life stating, “For awhile, companies like Coke and Calvin Klein, thinking Second Life would be the next big thing, opened virtual outposts there.   It didn’t work.  Marketing real goods in virtual worlds never really took off.”  The BBC also published a similar uninformed and angled story (just about four months ago) employing the same premise and even using identical images of the closed virtual American Apparel store.  In a response to the BBC, Wagner James Au stated, “It’s astounding any credible media outlet would cite the experiences of American Apparel and Reuters’ ill-fated SL bureau of two-three years ago as if they were relevant to Second Life as it is now.”  While those failures are completely irrelevant, they are also not failures of Second Life, but of the delusive developers who relished in all the money companies were impetuously throwing into Second Life, while they created them big superfluous virtual ghost towns.  How Second Life can be used successfully by brands is a whole other blog post, but it is being done more and more all the time now when organizations take the time to understand the platform and the communities that exist there, instead of simply just building the virtual equivalent of a billboard.

Just when I thought the piece couldn’t be any more off base, Ruschoff dares to ask, “Do virtual worlds really bring us together with others, or do they just make being utterly alone a little more bearable?”  Again, I can’t speak for everyone, but I use Second Life often as my company works in-world almost as much as we do outside of Second Life.  It has nothing to do with feeling lonely.  I am surrounded by people in the real world and in the virtual world.  I don’t go in-world because I am lonely, I go there because I get to experience so many amazing things I would never have had the opportunity to do otherwise (like the time I met Yoko Ono in-world) and because I love helping organizations harness the power of these worlds so that together we can create those opportunities for others.

Despite the documentary’s tone of impending doom, Ruschoff closes the film by stating that you can still count him “among the believers.”  While I doubt that resonated with very many viewers after just being subjected to 90 minutes of fear mongering, I was glad to see that he hadn’t actually changed his mind about technology.  With that in mind, I extend to him an invitation to come back to Second Life, leave the sensationalism behind, and for lack of better words.. take a second look.

Though I disagreed with much of this documentary, it was still very though provoking.  It raises many questions which generate important conversations about technology and the future.  I encourage all of you to take the time to watch it in full and come back and share your thoughts.

The biggest news coming out of the Second Life Community Convention this year was delivered by Linden Lab Chief Product Officer Tom Hale, aka T. Linden, who announced a dramatic user experience roadmap and gave a tour of several of its features including a new SL viewer and website.

The new SL viewer, which will debut later this year, was designed with user experience in mind. The navigation is a updated so that you can easily go “back” and forth between previous locations and easily use SLURLs as locations. The most used features of the viewer are clustered into a single drawer that opens to a right hand panel and then can be shut when you are not using it, in order to unclutter the display. It promises “no more panel proliferation”.

Also coming by the end of this quarter is a vastly improved Second Life website with a machinima to entice visitors, an interactive keyword searchable map, and an improved XStreet SL shopping experience. They also updated the registration process and provided new users with a PDF quick start guide. The user dashboard is also updated as well and will eventually be your social networking homepage.

Another feature that was previewed was Mesh Support. Since this is a more complicated feature, we have had our Chief Creative Officer breakdown this feature, and you can read about it here.

Lastly, over the course of next year interactive web media files displayable in SL will be introduced. These will be in the form of collaboratively documents like being able to work on a Google Doc with other avatars, and in additional Flash-based media applications like YouTube. A “LL Media” API plug-in for media is also expected to allow for developers to create their own media plugins as well.

UPDATE - Tom has details on the “LL Media” API plug-in and how you can get the code up on the official blog.

Related Posts:

• Second Life Launches its New Website
• SLCC 2009 Wrap-Up
• Everything You Need To Know About Second Life Viewer 2.0 (Beta)
• CNBC Segment on Business & Social Media Highlights LinkedIn, Second Life, and More
• The Future of Mesh: Key Points from SLCC’s Mesh Panel
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]]> http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/second-life-2-0-tom-hale-presents-the-new-second-life-viewer-website-and-interactive-web-media-at-slcc/feed 10 http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/lindens-updates-xstreet-guidelines-and-bans-unauthorized-sale-of-real-world-replicas http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/lindens-updates-xstreet-guidelines-and-bans-unauthorized-sale-of-real-world-replicas#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:01:09 +0000 Gianna Borgnine http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/?p=302

Starting on September 14, 2009 virtual items that are in violation of real world copyrights or that infringe on brand owners’ intellectual property will no longer be for sale on Second Life’s ecommerce site, XStreet SL.

In line with their other recent changes, Linden Lab employee Pink Linden announced the new XStreet SL listing guidelines prohibiting the sale of unauthorized virtual replicas of real world products and brands including unauthorized clothing, furniture, jewelry, car designs, use of trademarks or logos, avatars based on copyrighted characters or celebrities, and more.

This move comes after Linden was recently sued by Taser International Inc. for trademark-infringement due to products with ‘Taser’ in their description/names being sold on XStreet SL and in an SL roleplay area.

While the new guidelines are not unexpected, and they will most likely will apply to in-world sales as well, they still leave some unanswered questions and bring some interesting debate. Wagner James Au (aka Hamlet) over at New World Notes points out that “In the real world, you can still buy an unauthorized Barack Obama mask for Halloween. Not so in Second Life very soon.”

In my opinion, brands should be taking advantage of these opportunities especially within the roleplay communities such as Dune, which was recently asked to shut down. There is obviously interest and market within these communities where they could be setting up official representations. Brands are missing a huge chance to engage and tell their stories, where the economy is thriving despite the recession. Now is the time to fill the void that these new guidelines create.

Related Posts:

• Realistic Sculpted Valentine’s Day Gift Pack (for Second Life)
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]]> http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/lindens-updates-xstreet-guidelines-and-bans-unauthorized-sale-of-real-world-replicas/feed 3 http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/cnbc-segment-on-business-social-media-highlights-linkedin-second-life-and-more http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/cnbc-segment-on-business-social-media-highlights-linkedin-second-life-and-more#comments Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:05:49 +0000 Gianna Borgnine http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/?p=266 Reporter Julia Boorstin recently covered a segment on CNBC called “Social Climbing.” The segment discussed social media and it’s importance for business relationships in the future. The report covered networks and platforms such as Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and the virtual world of Second Life.

Here is one of those segments:

Boorstin also reported more on SL back in February when she covered virtual conferencing and provided a closer look at IBM’s cost-saving use of Second Life.

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• Second Life 2.0: Tom Hale Presents the New Second Life Viewer, Website, and Interactive Web Media at SLCC
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]]> http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/cnbc-segment-on-business-social-media-highlights-linkedin-second-life-and-more/feed 0 http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/linden-lab-presents-a-new-professional-face-to-virtual-worlds http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/linden-lab-presents-a-new-professional-face-to-virtual-worlds#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:51:56 +0000 Gianna Borgnine http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/?p=261

Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, debuted a new portal for organizations to serve as a more professional face for the virtual world. The new “Work” sub-domain continues the company’s slow, but steady revamp. The site features case studies of enterprises successfully using Second Life and offers a free tour of the Second Life environment.

For those of us, like myself, that work in virtual worlds helping businesses, educational institutions, and non-profits harness the power of these 3D worlds, this site is a breathe of fresh air. While the tides are changing everyday, historically it has been difficult to present to organizations the true potential of these virtual worlds. This site not only brings a fresh, clean design sense, but it also clearly highlights some of the uses and benefits of the platform in way that is organized and easy to follow. It is a welcomed leap from the former portal, the SLGrid, which was cluttered and disorganized.

If Linden Lab continues this kind of progression to other areas such as the client user interface, and launches a much needed marketing campaign, I believe it might fulfill its claim that “2009 is a Breakout Year for Virtual Collaboration.” I am very excited to see what future fresh views they have in store for us.

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• Playboy May Develop Its Own Virtual World
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]]> http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/linden-lab-presents-a-new-professional-face-to-virtual-worlds/feed 0 http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/obama-administrations-deputy-cto-beth-noveck-takes-questions-from-second-life http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/obama-administrations-deputy-cto-beth-noveck-takes-questions-from-second-life#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:38:39 +0000 Gianna Borgnine http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/?p=198

White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Beth Noveck, recently participated in a mixed reality event to promote her new book, Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful. The event began with Noveck presenting on how technology and citizen participation can help the government become more effective at solving the complex social and economic problems we face today as described in the book. Noveck then attempted to highlight this by taking questions, not only from those in the audience in New York, but also from avatars in the virtual world of Second Life.

Noveck herself is no stranger to Second Life. NWN’s Wagner James Au calls her, “one of the first academics to use SL as an educational platform.” Her virtual avatar, Lawlita Fassbinder, was created in the early years of SL in 2004. He also notes that she is the very first to count the White House as her office address. There she has been working hard on open government and using social media tools to try and get citizens talking about public policy. She discussed some of the work she has been doing with New York Times journalist, Saul Hansell last month.

During the event, while answering a question from Second Life avatar Tara Yates about synchronous vs. asynchronous, Noveck said this of Second Life,

“To the Second Life community, there is an opportunity for people to be talking about and looking at the role that virtual worlds can play in helping to create jobs, do simulations and job trainings.  It’s so desperately needed.  And we’d love to hear from (them).  It’s the kind of thing that.. can only take place if people work together in real time esstenially building job training facilites and simulations that can be used for job trainings and education and other social uses.  So, I think it’s not a matter of just what’s available at the desk of folks who are in the EPA or in the White House, it really is what we can do with these social tools to solve the challenges that we’re all facing that are not simply a government issue.”

Noveck also called for a movement towards a “culture of engagement” stating that,

“The most important things is when we can demonstrate that it’s possible to people who have not been accustomed to collerbrating and taking advice and looking outside their institutional boundaries for help.  When we start to do that, it creates a culture shift that I think all boats rise on.”

In closing, Noveck stated her believe is that technology is important for accountability and continued open policy by saying that,

“It’s one thing to have a stated policy like the Freedom of Information Act that says the default rule will be that all government information will be open and proactively made available.  It’s another thing to have a data.gov platform and to have that data up there, and to have a dashboard which shows you how much data is up there, and who’s releasing it, and who’s putting it out.  That picture is worth a powerful thousand plus words…..  If the number of data sets on data.gov stays fixed and doesn’t go up over the next year, people will begin to notice that…  The hope is once you create these things in practice, and make them visible and begin to create a culture that expects it…  it’s going to be very hard to put back in the bottle.  The technology is really the thing that’s helping us to do that, so it is hopefully the ability to do more of that and to change the way these institutions work towards being more colleraborative and more open will hopefully be, I’d like to think, the great technological challenge of the next ten years.”

As we noted in an earlier post, the Obama administration has been actively seeking out, researching, and testing virtual worlds for these types of opportunities.

The event received much positive feedback, with the audience feeling like the level of engagement was impressive. It will be interesting to see how the US government moves forward within virtual worlds.

Related Posts:

• The Obama Team Officially Gets a Second Life
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• Why Virtual Worlds (like Second Life) Have More Value Than Twitter & Facebook
• My Challenge to Frontline’s Digital National
• Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge
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]]> http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/obama-administrations-deputy-cto-beth-noveck-takes-questions-from-second-life/feed 0 http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/the-obama-team-officially-gets-a-second-life http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/the-obama-team-officially-gets-a-second-life#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:59:51 +0000 Gianna Borgnine http://changingworldsbuildingdreams.com/?p=154

Since even before entering the White House, the Obama administration has used a multitude of social networking and communications tools, such as Twitter, YouTube, and of course, blogs in order to better interact with the public.

The administration has been slowly starting to add virtual worlds to this list.

Last week, when President Obama spoke to a live audience in Ghana, his address was streamed to audiences in the virtual worlds of Second Life and Metaplace. After the speech there was a virtual discussion, led by a panel featuring Kenton Keith, the former ambassador to Qatar, and African historian Professor Tim Burke. Guests were also treated to the musical stylings of Derrick Ashong, also known as DNA, who rose to YouTube fame during the presidential campaign.

This event was announced by CBS News and organized as an official White House event by the U.S. State Department. It was documented by award winning journalist and machinimographer Bernhard Drax (aka Draxtor Despres in SL). We at Sand Castle Studios were privileged to be able to work on this project with Drax. You can see some of our photos from the event and behind the scenes, here.

The event was meant to facilitate discussion and offer an opportunity for everyone to take part, not only in the event itself, but also in the message. In the machinima, the avatar of William May, Director of Innovative Engagement Worldwide for the U.S. State Department explains further how they used these new technologies to establish reach. Underneath all of this, the event was also sort of a test run to see how this mix of virtual worlds and social media might be used and how effective they would be.

The mix obviously blended quite well, because it was one of the most tweeted, facebooked, and SMS discussed events since Obama took office and quickly became viral even topping the trending topic list on Twitter.

The impact of the event didn’t stop there though. Excerpts from Drax’s machinima were presented yesterday in Washington, D.C. by Scott Sechser (AKA Scott Linden in SL) in front of military and civil members of the administration. Present for the presentation, was White House deputy Chief Technology Officer, Beth Noveck.

Novek has since announced that she will be hosting her own virtual event in Second Life this coming Monday, July 20th. The event features a simulcast of Noveck presenting her new book, WIKI GOVERNMENT: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful. Following the presentation, Noveck will take these kinds of virtual events one step further, by allowing questions not only from participants there in person, but also from those viewing the presentation in Second Life!

No one knows yet what the future holds for the Obama adminstration and virtual worlds, but what we are sure of, is that they are actively seeking out, researching, and testing these opportunities.

It will be interesting to see the Second Life community’s response to these types of progressions from the US government. Already there has been some criticism from the “residents” of Second Life about these events. Avatar Crap Mariner voiced his disapproval in a blog post entitled, “Obama wasn’t in Second Life and Metaplace… just the manipulation machine that put him in office.” Writer Tateru Nino who has written for some of the most prestigious and well-read blog sites about virtual worlds including Second Life Insider, Massively, and New World Notes said, “Anyone can stream a video. We could have a famous political figure every week… Showing a video of a President in your house doesn’t mean that the President was there.”

What these residents seem to be missing is that we all should have an invested interest in the US government or any government for that matter using these types of platforms as a means to connect to the public.

Virtual worlds like Second Life offer a prime opportunity to engage using two-way channels of communication and by providing a collaborative environment in which people can come together on all levels, to form innovative solutions that can actually make a difference.

At this time, many organizations are not aware of the power of virtual worlds and like all new platforms it will take time for them to be completely adopted by the mainstream. During this time, organizations will begin to dabble in these platforms. You can not expect them to dive head first into something that is completely unfamiliar to them. In order to ensure continued growth, we must encourage, not criticize, their efforts in order foster these relationships which eventually will lead to the full on engagement that we are seeking.

These beginning steps by the Obama administration give us hope that soon we may all actually be able to take part and have our voices heard in an open government that is a true reflection of democracy.

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