Text 100 opens office in Second Life!

Apologies for being silent for a while, but we have been busy preparing a new peer-to-peer media platform for Text 100 and our clients. Now is the time to break the silence: I am excited to announce that we created an office in the virtual world of Second Life that will be opened to the public the week of August 21st. PR Week is reporting about it today (Update 8/8: now accessible without subscription. Thanks Keith).

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Second Life, it is a rapidly growing virtual, 3-D world in which people can interact, create, educate, play, and work in entirely new ways. Since Business Week dedicated a title story to the phenomenon of Second Life, many of you will know that it has already become a commercial platform where people now trade virtual goods in the amount of over US $ 5 m a month.

Second Life has also got the attention of influential bloggers. Shortly after Robert Scoble joined Second Life back in March, he felt that you could even view it as an operating system and advised Microsoft to pay close attention to it. Cory Doctorow, one of the authors of the popular blog boingboing and science fiction writer, raised the attention for Second Life when he used it for a virtual booksigning event in July last year.

Within the community of PR bloggers Steve Rubel and Shel Holtz in particular deserve credit for  commenting early and regulary on the potential Second Life can have for communications. Last but not least, our very own Aedhmar Hynes flagged the potential of Second Life to the Arthur Page Society back in April and also blogged about it.

We view virtual worlds like Second Life as the next stage in the evolution of peer-to-peer media like blogs, wikis, social networks and other online forums. People are using all of them to connect about things they are interested in and create the content they are passionate about. However, Second Life is adding a new dimension to it, because it provides an immersive 3-D environment that makes it more illustrative and inspiring than other platforms.

As a result, we think it offers interesting new possibilities for education, innovation, collaboration and marketing. E.g. we will use our Second Life office for internal trainings where we can make our best trainers better available globally. Using the three dimensions of the virtual world we can also enrich any kind of online meetings for our clients. E.g. they will be able to use our office to hold press conferences. Or they could use it to solicit feedback on a new product design from users. Or they could pull a global work group together to hold a workshop in an inspiring environment that could be entirely customised for the topic being discussed. The possibilities are virtually (!) limitless.

The Text 100 Second Life office has three sections: welcome center, amphitheater, and information center, and visitors are able to fly between the different areas. Screens throughout the office will be used for slide shows or video streams. The information center will also showcase Text 100 client work, news, and office contact information.

Of course, we also look at virtual worlds with a good sense of reality. While Second Life is growing really fast, it is still early days. Like with all communications platforms, we will always have to check how it can support our clients' business, before we propose an engagement to them. However, we have rarely met someone who wasn't excited about its opportunities once they have seen it.

We will come out with more news on our virtual office in the upcoming weeks, as we externally launch it to both real life and Second Life publics. Watch this space!

Georg Kolb

Technorati tags: Second Life, Text 100, PR

Comments

[Adrianne Kern]

So does this mean we could become the 'preferred virtual supplier' to anyone holding a launch or PR event in Second Life!?

[Georg Kolb]

Only if supported by virtual procurement departments :-) Seriously, many things could happen and like is the case with all innovations, you cannot predict everything. But one thing is sure: this 3-D version of social networking presents opportunities that are worth exploring. We know from other social networks like MySpace how people enjoy to communicate and create content. Exciting things should happen (and are already happening) when you provide them with tools like in Second Life. The business world should be aware of these growing new publics and develop relationships with them where it makes sense for their business. That's what we are here for. Georg

[Jameson Bull]

Do you have the coordinates of the SL office? I wanna do a fly-around!

Jameson Bull (Rusty Sonic in SL)

[Georg Kolb]

I have to ask you for a bit more patience, Rusty. As we said in our announcements, we are currently using our office only internally, but will open to the public in the next few weeks. So, stay tuned for the upcoming news. Your interest is much appreciated! Georg.

[Brad Kasell]

Hi Georg - I assume the Text100 Second Life office is open now? Are you able to provide the location within SL? I'm relatively new to SL, but would be very interested to see what you guys are doing.

Cheers, Brad

[Georg Kolb]

Sorry to be a bit slow with my response, Brad, I am currently moving house in my first life. You can find the SLURL of our office on this page:
http://www.text100.com/virtualworlds.asp
There is still some work to be done, but you will certainly get a sense of the concept. Enjoy, Georg

[Jim Caruso]

I'm glad that others see a potential for mixing of virtual with physical worlds for commercial purposes. I wonder why you guys did it first, given that Linden Labs' PR firm seems to be flashpointpr.com. I do think that you need to provide an experience for your visitor that is superior to visiting your Web site (which would be faster and easier than teleporting and viewing Web pages hung on the virtual walls). As you attract audiences to this virtual office, what can they do? (That's an issue I have with SL, anyway.) Will you have to "hire" a virtual receptionist, tour guide, sales, or HR? If you visit Linden Labs' virtual office, it has more interactivity and information. I believe in re-purposing content when appropriate, but don't enjoy reading Web pages hung on the wall. I do wish you well on the virtual business.

[Georg Kolb]

Thanks for your comment, Jim, and sorry for the delay of my response. I was out of the office moving house. Anyway, your point is well made and we will give that further thought. That said, the interactivity will always rather come from events we hold there than from permanent features.
Best,
Georg