LL's Main Aim?

I didn't check out the link but if it says Phase 3: Profit then it's probably right.

*peeks at it* Yes, businesses (aka big corporations) are the main aim for LL. I just wish they'd tell the rest of us so we can bugger off.

I've always believed that LL's main aim is a serious platform and not a pleasure passtime as SL mostly is now. I also think this is where some SL users get it wrong by expecting SL to continue being something different than what LL is aiming at, and complaining when LL makes decisions that are not necessarily in keeping with a pleasure passtime. Imo, LL has a different aim than the vast majority of users have.

I disagree. A serioius platform is quite different to attracting big business into SL. The web is a serious platform - for everything - not just business and not just pleasure. That's the sort of serious platform that I believe LL is aiming at.

How does that work ??

the users want one thing
LL wants to sell something different
the users dont want that
they go to where they can get what they want
SL has no users
the companies they brought in have no customers.

Hmmmm.

Not quite like that

Where else is there to go? To an OpenSim grid? OpenSim was spawned because of SL, so it the 3-D general purpose platform is continuing to develope. It won't be long before suitable protocols are hammered out that allow inter-grid useage, and then the platform is *well* on the way to being useable by business and pleasure users alike - just like the web is now.

It's easy to imagine that SL is LL's aim, but I don;t believe it is. From what I read when I started, SL isn't the aim at all. It's just the means of making the aim a reality. I.e. we're necessary guinea pigs as LL developes what they are aiming at. I'm not suggesting that LL will close SL down when they've reached their goal. I see SL as being LL's part of the overall platform that they are developing, and not the platform itself.

LL wants all the users so we can be "monetized" - not that that is a bad thing. But it needs to promote SL with businesses that have a natural synergy with SL's strengths. But at the same time, LL needs to grow its capacity to handle people - the 40 agent limit on mainland or even the 100 agent limit on islands is not enough eyes for large businesses that want to use SL as a vehicle for advertising. Even so, businesses need to take a more creative approach to SL and be willing to make the time investment to keep bringing people back, to stay relevant.

It has been attracting this type of work for a good bit of time. That how I arrived, after learning about SL and how to use it for education and business.

SL does make a good case for 3D enabled meetings using voice and text chat. Given the number of creative content developers who create terrific 3D buildings, furniture, business or business casual clothes, multimedia presentation centers, etc...this is exactly what SL is all about. Residents buy content created by SL content creators to outfit their SL offices, buildings, and homes. I was in Splash Aquatics earlier this week and walked through an underwater tube to get to a room. The water outside the tube was teaming with SL sea life. When the person interviewed in the BBC clip described a noob's reaction attending a meeting in a conference room underwater - and how cool it was to see something beyond just RL urban window views, I immediately connected with the BBC clip. Some of our clients would love this type of conference room. Speaking of which, I have been looking for floor cushions/pillows to use when a conference area has all the sofa and chair seating taken. When I attended an SL marketing event led by JoJogirl Bailey this week, I found the perfect cushion. So again, people working in SL with clients from across their country or overseas using SL content to create their 3D world...isn't this what SL is all about? I think this is a great clip and will help show people SL is an excellent place to do business **and** have a lot of fun doing it. It sure beats something like gotomeeting. And I just love the British sense of humor...commuting is barbaric. I just love my days when I don't have the 90 minute commute each way to my former high tech office located 20 miles away. Now if I could only work out of a RL 17th century cottage as the SL resident interviewed in the BBC clip is doing....perhaps in SL

My two cents...

That is my point, at present LL are taking million of dollars from its user base each year, Businesses alone will not pay that amount as there will never be that many who can use SL as a viable marketing tool.
If the main user base moves to the new open grid worlds and merely visits SL to use its business part, then LL will not make enough money to remain open.

LL HAVE to realise that they need to run the two things side by side, and work to keep the people who are already here, not drive us off by their uncaring "customer care" attitude.

I agree with that, and I think they do realise what you said. I just think they are sometimes very bad at doing it.

but they have... well their CEO at least.

I think LL is missing a key element that would be benificial to large companies and that is the ability to transfer data files. Why not buy iTunes while browsing a virtual record store. Hangout at a Barns & Nobles and pick up a new eBook. Buy and sell, blueprints, floor plans, game mods, software ... all these things can be done now but it is always a kloodge and requires outside work to the point that SL is more of a hinderence than it's worth.

Yes, rather than trying to bring the 2d web inside SL, LL needs to extend the capability of the 3d web that SL is supposed to be to the point where it doesn't *need* the 2d web. except for auxilary data storage.

There's really nothing that can be done in Second Life that can't be done via the internet. If Linden Lab unlock a door that offers something extra, then they will be going places.

I'm talking from the perspective of business meetings.

LL doesn't want Second Life to be seen as Sad World - the place where the ugly people go to get virtually laid. I suspect most residents don't want that either.

So we all should back LL in their efforts to make SL appear to be sophisticated and useful. Even though it isn't

Since SL is an application and service that runs over the Internet, that's trivially true.

I think we'll see over time more of a parting of the ways regarding the second life world we all enjoy and the second life grid project aimed at business. They can be mutually exclusive of each other.

Have you seen the pictures on the home page recently?

you mean cut off their best PR?
you can bet they love the attention when the grid jumps another 10 to 20k in residents logged in in the matter of a couple of days..

sure they would love to see something else be the reason but you can bet that has been the sweet spot since the opening of free accounts..

SEX SCANDAL HITS SL!!! wtf is SL? omg look at that!!! two seconds later a bufferfly flaps it's wings causing a dirty thought to 80,000 people...
I must investigate this strange new porn..........i mean place!!!

yeah, it's embarrassing. they should put the home page in a brown paper bag.

Well like I've said already, many people do like SL for the virtual romance. But LL has to be careful not to overdo it or people (even LL) may become ashamed of SL and reject it.

How many people openly discuss SL with RL friends? I reckon that number has dropped dramatically since the early days of SL. and that'll be because of the bad press SL is getting. I'm guessing LL is aware of this and it could explain the recent blogs entries.

Big companies greed is infinite.
They will use ANYthing available to try to push their stupid products...

It really does not matter what it is, if it is SOMEthing that your conscious or subconscious or senses can detect, you can bet your sweet ass that the big companies are going to be there wanting you to buy their product.
In movies, in music, radio, TV, print, web, Real life, Second Life Imaginary life After life...

So the fact that they push their products in SL is NOTHING.
I have seen RL products in SL, like coca-cola machines, NIKE shoes [hideous even in SL]
and probably a few others...


Big companies are a pain, and if I have to see them in Second Life, I would just assume meet them in Second Death as well.

the sex industry in sl has gotten pretty bad..it would be nice to see it get people here for lots of other reasons than to cyborgt or open clubs and stuff them with bots because they think there is money in it..
some of the art made in sl and some of the builds are what i wish would really get the attention..creators and yes you too can learn to let your imagination loose..
that would be so much nicer..

We run a RL adult profile website and since bringing it into SL we have seen our memberships rise, sex sells and although LL may not like it there will always be more takers for the sex angle than those that want to use it for other things, look at the early days of the internet, it was adult sites that pushed innovations online.

Im sure at some point it will settle as the internet did and mainstream will become more the norm. But a good sex story in the press as has been said does more for memberships than anything else ever will