When doing a presentation in Second Life:

• Don’t assume people will get the slides downloading on to the presentation screen as fast as you are.
• Don’t assume that they have their configuration such that the pictures render with the same amount of detail
• Don’t assume they have mouseview activated and have the presentation screen filling the entire HUD
• Don’t present with a standard Real Life MS-PowerPoint presentation layout. The screen can be small and fussy at best. Avoid text altogether if you can.
• Don’t assume everyone has audio in SL. Or that if they do they know how to configure it. If audio is essential for the presentation then make that clear in any SL or RL invite you issue. But be prepared to coach newbie SL avatars on how to configure audio.
• Allow for people without audio or slow internet connections. Be prepared to Issue a notecard with all the speaker transcript and references at the end of the session.
• Have someone as a shouter that shouts out the presentation, usually via cut and pasting from a notecard into the chat dialog.
• Don’t have computers with separate microphones and speakers setup in the same room as you will get double, triple or even four times the echo of the talk. Even headsets can’t overcome this problem.
• Test the speakers audio setup before the presentation.
• Seating, don’t use the RL arrangement of seating like a normal layout, or set them far apart. Make sure they very close together in almost a tiered traditional speaking pit of amphitheater arrangement, or even like a large cube with the speaker at one end. You will be suprised the number of avatars you can get in small space.
• Record the session in SL via tool such as Rogue Amoeba’s Audio hijack.
• Think about loading the seats with a script to send the avatars a notecard of the speakers transcript, pictures or any other object required.
• If you have promoted the event in the RL expect a good number of newbie SL avatars, allow for this.
• Be prepared to have a lot of avatars present (40-50) and remind people of techniques in decrease any lag time in Second Like.
• Position your avatar or camera so you can see the screen and the audience.

Well that’s it do you have any pointers for presenting a talk or workshop in Second Life?

Technorati Tags: second+life, presentation, talk, tips, social+networking

I have discussed Second Life previously. It’s the imersive 3D world by Linden Labs. It’s the type of online application that doesn’t really sit anywhere that can be categorised. With Second Life, I find you tend to visit, gain interest then leave, maybe you come back from time to time, maybe you don’t. Second Life does tend to have a high attrition rate (up to 85%).

Coming back

Recently I have revisited Second Life, mainly prompted via several factors, one being a determination to reset my avatar after a nasty griefing incident and the other because of the start up of the SIM for the The Podcast Network HQ. This time with my return to Second Life was with good size group of RL friends and associates (Cameron Reilly, Duncan Riley, Michael Newby, Sarah Issacson, Nathanael Boehm, Bronwen Clune, Kathryn Greenhill, Sue Waters, Linda Gehard, Richard Giles, John Johnston, Sue Hickton, Nick Hodge, Adam Purcell, Cait and a heap more) this does to a degree change the focus of Second Life as it becomes a real social gathering.

This got me thinking, what does Second Life want to be, seriously. It’s not just a social networking site, well in fact it does this poorly, it’s very hard to find people even if you know their avatar unless they are on you friends list or your share of common group interest. It’s an online store, but only for interests within Second Life. It’s a sex shop, but again only for Second Life. So in a way Second Life is all these things and none, its very anally focused on its own walled garden. It doesn’t seem to fit the open SNS we are all looking for.

Things are Changing

However it’s been branching out into becoming an educational facility; with various educational institutions setting up with extensive resources in Second Life. With the advent of the introduction of audio in August it is now possible to have twenty or so people conversing at once. This has an interesting implication for the conducting of remote meetings, meetups or just gatherings of like minded people. And so the tech sectors of business are now exploring Second Life as a central virtual meeting place as Duncan Riley points out.

It has been interesting to watch the effect that instant social networking sites (SNS) such as twitter are having on the uptake of Second Life. This is especially true with regard to TPN island in Second Life. People announce on twitter they are in Second Life at TPN island, and usually a group of people on twitter will follow them into Second Life, some for the first time.

Still too hard

Now it is this uptake of usually technical savvy newbies into Second Life that is of interest. It is the interface of Second Life with it’s complex menu structure, HUD controls and general lack of easy reference to the keyboard shortcuts; would be nice to have them in SL. that can make Second Life an hard tool to master even for a the technical savvy. Now if the tech-gurus of the common man are having problems in the first few sessions, how can it be expected that the average person can hope to cope in Second Life, as Amy Gahran explains.

People are used to the usual web based paradigm of the form, even the drop down menu navigation systems from desktop applications. But then you bring in an element of game play, which they may or may not be familiar with and you start to cross the boundaries. Social networking sites like Facebook have now started to move into the main stream, with everyday people outside of the early adopters getting onboard. Signing up is not hard, it’s just a form a on the web, interaction with Facebook again just forms and a few buttons in the traditional web based interface paradigm that we are used to.

In Second Life however; you sign up on at web site, okay that’s fine. Then you download software (road block one), then you install the software (maybe road block two). Next you login and create the avatar and go through orientation island (road block three). Then you are left to fend for yourself, get bored or just not see the point of it all (road block four). This is especially true if you login to Second Life when the western world in the northern hemisphere is asleep; it can be like a ghost town with just tumbleweeds. Now I have not even started on the confusing menu and the other interface aspects.

Consider you next door neighbor who is not computer savvy on Second Life. Then consider is Second Life ready for the masses, will it every be ready? Maybe it needs to just have a simple signup. The how about considering maybe it needs a mobile interface, A 3D-world SNS for the mobile phone as Daniel Terdiman suggests.

What do you think is Second Life ready for the big time or is it just an early adopter toy?

Technorati Tags: second+life, SL, TPN, The+Podcast+Network, social+networking, SNS

Yesterday was BarCamp time here in Perth. It brought together not only the usual web industry technical people but also those from the education, interactive media, librarians and students. This was good melting pot of people within related industries which allowed for a full program at the end of the day.

Didn’t get to some of the talks in the morning which is a shame, I missed Scott Barnes‘ Silverlight presentation as we planned for our Web Business Panel. Also missed the Explaining Web 2.0 to “noobs” session, mainly due to the room not being conducive to people sneaking into the room late.

Interesting point we had a 50% female/male speaker ratio, mainly I feel due to the promotion of the event in areas outside of the technical end of the Web Industry.

Brief Introduction to Expression Engine

This was Steven Hambleton first presentation, very ad-hoc, but with a little crowd prompting Steve presented a nice overview of Expression Engine. It was good to see this medium level CMS getting a little bit of promotion over the usual Open Source offerings.

The WordPress Loop

When I was debating what to do for BarCamp a few weeks back I decided on taking about the extreme edge of customising the WordPress Loop and maybe putting some example together with some mashup goodness. But the evening before BarCamp I decided to cut the technical content. Hopefully people didn’t find it too boring and lame. It appeared to go over well. Even if I did make a few presentation errors (again!). But people if you think it sucked please tell me.

Introduction to Ruby on Rails

Matt Didcoe and Myles Eftos presented an Introduction to Ruby on Rails. This was just what I was looking for Myles and Matt where frank and honest with the strong and week points of Ruby. It was a refreshing presentation on the RoR topic. It did however make me bump RoR up the to do list; yeah I have been slack sleeping and not using that time to learn all about RoR.

Setting up a Web Business

Yeap time to step up for part two of the Starting a Web Business. Frankly we did a average job on this, but it wasn’t as topic focused as it could have been. Mind you this could have been a whole day workshop. One downside doing three presentations in the day was a little over the top. It does drag you away from the presentations you want to see, like the Geek Ergonomics by Kay Smoljak.

Silicon Beach

Bronwen Clune and Richard Giles led a round-table discussion on “Does Perth have what it takes for Web 2.0“. This was a very educated and frank discussion, which a great deal of in-depth material being put on the table. This session was very passionate, and as expected went overtime. A lot of good ideas did come out of this session. In someways it would have been good as a morning workshop.

Other Aspects

Apology to Kathryn, I missed the Second Life presentation. I do reget this, but I’m really hopeless with timetables and schedules at these type of events.

It was really good to get F2F with a number of people such as Sue Waters from TAFE and Kate Raynes-Goldie (PHD Student at Curtin University) , Tiang Cheng, Kate Quin and Constance Wiebrands.

A lot of people worked tirelessly at the BarCamp, none more so than Myles Eftos. Other such as Simone Van Hattem and Pascal Wijnberg looking after the food, Chris Quinn for the photos and Drew Robinson and Stuart Greenhill for the video really need to be thanked (Ed: thanks Simone for the update). Then there is Jordon Brock; single handy Jordon tamed the beans from the gods and produced the most amazing coffee for all, hats off to you Jordan.

Sure somethings could be improved, but that’s what life is all about, learning and changing.

As expected it went on well into the evening thanks to Microsoft and Scott Barnes. Reports are a really good time was had by all at the post BarCamp dinner.

People are already discussing the next BarCampPerth. If you didn’t come along you missed a really good day. Don’t forget it was free. Lots of geeky shared information, no pressure, just a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

Technorati Tags: Perth, BarCamp, BarCampPerth, BarCampPerth07, Second+Life, web+business, Ruby+on+Rails, RoR, WordPress

What is Second Life, (for those not in the know) it’s an Internet-based virtual world developed by Linden Labs, it’s based around a free downloaded client application. But you know that Second Life all over the mainstream media.

Later in 2005 I looked back into Second Life, okay better scripting, easier to build things (in relative terms), and at least the client worked most of the time. Some residents had setup business in Second Life. Most of the time it was focused around sex or gambling. I know it’s generalising, but how different is this to the real web. The sex (porn) industry and online gambling have led the technological adoption in this area, so why not Second Life too. But again my First Life called, and Second Life remained an unused icon on the desktop.

Fast forward to the present day, recently Kathryn Greenhill has tempted me back into Second Life.

Yeap things have changed. Major real world enterpises have now set themselves up in Second Life, buying up entire islands to promote their real world products. But the real point of interest is the introduction of small business outside of the sex and gambling industries. There is even a community based wiki for Second Life, and there are tutorials all over the blogosphere on Second Life scripting, building, avatar construction, making money, the works. The volume of information on Second Life is just amazing, it really has ramped up over the last year or so, a  good comparison point is the reviews from Tony Walsh.

Even Gartner is getting on board, predicting:

80 Percent of Active Internet Users Will Have A “Second Life” in the Virtual World by the End of 2011.

Has Second Life finally got it together?

Well yes and no. Sure you arrive and there are always a few residents around in certain central hubs of activity (estimated at 100,000 active users, with a churn rate of 85%). Yes there are lot of things to look at and buy now in Second Life, there are even educational institutions moving into Second Life. And there is the darker element of Second Life, the gangs of thugs vandalising and harassing other residents. Like all online communities you gets the thugs, the trolls, it happened in MOOs and MUDs so why not Second Life, good thing is you can just logoff, and leave.

But still where are all the other residents. You arrive and besides a few residents milling around that’s it. It’s hard, very hard to find other residents with like interests; even with the interest groups feature.

Second Life really needs to extend the social networking aspect into it’s functionality of resident/user findability. Now it may be present, but it’s not blatantly obvious to me. So if I don’t know, how does a complete newbie find other residents with like interests. I can understand why it’s got a 85% churn rate. New residents would just wander around, can’t find anyone to really relate to and hence you leave, bored.

I believe for Second Life to really take off it has to move out of the technical literate user and it the world of the general gamer or non technical user. It should be as easy to use Second Life as it is the use MySpace or a generic first person shooter console game. Currently Second Life seems to be stuck in the Technosphere. Sure the exposure in the general media will help, but it really depends on how easy the client software is to use for the general user. Presently it just seems to take too much effort to do anything (it has got better than it used to be), even the simple things are hard to do. But I’m being unfair here, if you look at it side by side it’s in fact easier to do things in Second Life. But usability wise the main stumbling block seems to be the mouse click circular menu system.

Has Gartner got it right? They have pointed out that the smaller businesses will succeed over the enterprises simply because they are adding value, they understand that behind each avatar there is a real person. There is going to have to be a shift in functionality and ease of use for virtual worlds before we come close to the Gartner predictions. And then there is the issue of bandwidth. Virtual worlds like this can really only be accessed on high speed boardband. Okay if you are in an area with this type of connectivity.

Is Second Life worth the effort from a social networking view point. Or is it just a trendy geeky community and likely to remain so into the future, despite the recent media attention? Is Second Life just a MUD with window dressing? Or am I just missing something and not getting it, maybe spending too much time in my First Life?

Technorati Tags: secondlife, linden, virtualworlds, SL, socialnetworking, networking