Strider Villota discusses SL applications

Strider Villota is my friend from Education Island. Since he has lectured to business people in SL, I was eager to hear his opinion about the thoughts I wrote in “what did Rosedale really say”. I knew he had a lot of great insight in how SL is actually perceived today so I had to ask for an interview for the blog and he was very kind to go for it, so here it is!

QS: Welcome to my blog Strider. It’s a privilege to have you here!

SV: Thank you very much, Quintessential. I am very happy to be part of your blog. Though, according to some of the studies in your happiness articles, it is not my being here that makes me happy. I guess it is in my DNA… but I digress. I enjoy the variety of topics explored in your blog and I am honored that you asked for my opinion on SL.

QS: You have been following SL for quite a while and even lecturing here to information management professionals. What is your feeling, is SL still a hot topic or do you see the interest fading or changing now?

SV: I think the interest is changing, but it depends on the group. In general, I believe SL has followed the classic Gartner Hype Cycle (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle). In this model, the interest in a new technology climbs until it reaches a point of “inflated expectations”, disappointment follows and the hype decreases until it reaches a “trough of disillusionment”, and then the hype increase again through a gradual “slope of enlighten.” Judging by the recent press as mentioned in your earlier article, I think we are probably close to the trough of disillusionment.

QS: You have lectured both to industry CIOs (Chief Information Officers) as well as to University information system administrators. Were there any differences in their interest in SL, and if there was, why?

SV: Yes, I have talked about SL with industry CIOs and other high level managers in IS, as well as people associated with universities. From my experience, there has always been a different level of interest between the groups. In a presentation I made in 2007, I had both groups in the audience. SL was receiving a lot of press at the time. The university administrators were very enthusiastic about the possibilities. They asked many questions about using SL for recruiting students, teaching, alumni relations, and creating a social network among students. During the presentation, my colleague passed me a note to pay attention to the industry representatives. When I focused on this group, I found that they were extremely bored. Through my questioning, I discovered that they found little or no value in SL. They could not see how to attract customers with SL (in fact, they didn’t think universities could either), saw some minor possibilities for training, and felt there were much better 3D modelling tools to illustrate their products on their web sites. The industry representatives were also concerned about adult content in SL.

QS: What do you think were the initial expectations about SL in professional use? Do you think
SL has lived up to those expectations so far?

SV: While some companies have experimented in SL, most of the companies I talked with (with a few exceptions) were never interested. The few that were interested saw it as a possible vehicle for training. Some, though, were just experimenting with such things as virtual offices. I don’t know that the expectations were ever that high in the first place. A few years ago when companies had budgets to experiment, some would try new things like SL to see if they could discover a use. Judging by the number of companies that have left SL, I think most companies have not really found a use. In addition, although there are some interesting stories about university use, on the whole it has not really taken off in that market either.

QS: How do you see the future, how could SL offer the best value as an extension to RL business communications?

SV: Wow, this is a tough question. I think it probably depends on the industry. In general, I have difficulty seeing where SL might be a leading platform to support RL business communication. Usually, voice, text, charts, and tables are fine to support business communication. Where video is important, Skype or similar products that are not based on avatars would work better. The SL world allows activity in addition to communication. I think its unique feature is that it supports virtual physical interaction. That is why universities see it as a possible place for teaching and some businesses see possibilities for training. I’ve talked with some businesses that are interested in developing better robots in SL. I think they are interested in this because it would support controlled training exercises. I think there might also be some opportunities in SL for companies to offer activities like virtual social gatherings for customer groups. They could sponsor a band and a dance, for example, as a way to promote customer relations (this might be a bit farfetched). On the other hand, people at Philosophy House seem to like to sit around and talk. So, you never know how the desires of different groups may evolve.

QS: What about the technology? Do you think SL software supports the HW used in PCs (like graphics cards) efficiently or do you see room for development?

SV: One of the biggest problems I face with SL is that it runs best on only certain graphics cards. The Intel cards that come with many laptops these days are not supported. Although the laptops can sometimes run SL, SL frequently runs poorly (e.g., grind to a halt when there are many avatars or sculpted prims in the area). Consequently, it is difficult to hold a class or develop a training exercise when most of your students have laptops that do not run SL at least moderately well. Most students are only thinking about running word processing, presentation, and web browsing software when they buy their laptops…not SL.

QS: SL has several groups talking about metaverse, which I believe means the interoperability between different virtual worlds (besides SL I know of Open sim at least). There is even a discipline called metanomics! Do you think there exists any actual use of metaverse applications yet? What could be the benefits in the long run?

SV: I have not followed the discussion on metaverse applications, so my answer will be somewhat general. Normally, in IT interoperability is a good thing. One reason the web became so successful is that the user could jump from site to site regardless of the web server used and the information being displayed. If you needed a different browser for different web servers or different types of information, the web would be very difficult to use. Following that line of thought, it would be very convenient to easily jump from one virtual world to another. Ideally, you could do this with the same avatar and have some of the same features (inventory) of that avatar also work in the other world. In this case, different companies might create different specialized worlds. Some worlds could be geared toward gaming and others geared towards RL real estate, for example. Of course, SL may like it if it is all done through them, but different companies may evolve the technology in different directions.

QS: I understood you were slightly sceptical about my argument that anonymity would be one of the main benefits in SL communications (at least for people working in private companies). Could you tell what do you think would be the main benefit for NOT being anonymous in SL? If your avi just represents your RL self on-to-one, why would SL be preferential to an existing RL on-line communication system like Adobe connect Pro, or Skype even

SV: First, I think you do have a valid argument about anonymity. Even within a company, a discussion where participants are anonymous could generate more effective brainstorming. There are technologies that support that now, though, so you don’t necessarily need SL for that. My point on the anonymity feature of SL is that it seems to be counter to the way the world is moving. Teenagers, young adults, and even older adults seem to want the opposite of anonymity. That is, though cell phones, Twitter, and Facebook, people like to share information about their real life self. From a practical standpoint, as a teacher I would prefer to see my students’ real names in SL. As another example, if you were to hold an alumni event in SL, it would be much more fun to spot a RL friend by their RL name. I think SL does not offer an advantage over Skype of Adobe connect when the focus is primarily a business meeting. However, I don’t believe that you can hug a friend, dance, ski, or enjoy a virtual drink together while watching the same TV show on these other platforms.

QS: You mentioned to me about an idea connecting SL to RL social networking systems like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. How would that work in practise? What would be the benefit?
SV: Seamless integration, on the technology side, may be somewhat difficult to implement. So, skimming over the technical problems, let’s just focus on the functionality. It is possible that the future Internet will be a highly connected social network. That is, it will be easy for an individual user or a group to move from one Internet application to another with ease. In a way, SL is at its infancy at doing this. Currently, you can jump from a website to a SL location through a SLurl and it is easy to jump from SL to a website. However, the transition is not very smooth. It takes awhile for SL or the browser to open. You can also play YouTube videos (thanks for showing me that, by the way), through a SL TV. Based on this idea, it would seem like a natural step for friends visiting in Facebook, for example, to quickly move to SL, Skype, or a virtual game. Imagine visiting a friend’s Facebook page, reading about their recent life, and maybe even chatting with them through IM. Then you click a button and travel to their SL apartment where you can also see family pictures and, if they are in world, you visit with them, give them a hug, and perhaps play a 3D game. You could crudely do this now through a SLurl, but good integration would make it even easier. Perhaps a mini SL window would open inside of Facebook or the Facebook page could be wallpaper on the SL apartment. Of course, SL would not be the only thing connected. If you wanted to see the RL person and just converse, the click of a different button would give the friend a Skype call.

QS. Interesting ideas! But based on your experiences and the feedback you have received by lecturing to business information management professionals, how do you think SL itself will evolve?

SV: It seems that technology predictions are frequently wrong. So, I’m not confident in my answer at all. One possibility is that SL will continue to cater to those really seeking a second life, where anonymity is important. SL may have enough of a user base to continue to be a viable fairly small player on the Internet, in the scheme of things. Another possibility is that Linden Labs could start to segment their market. One segment would cater to the social networking arena. In this arena, anonymity would not be a sales feature. A second segment would cater to business training. LL would develop features in SL that make it easy to develop teamwork exercises, etc. A third segment could focus on professional level 3D models. These are just ideas. The advantage of the segments is that LL could experiment a bit to see if any of the ideas take off.

QS: Strider, what do you personally expect to get out of SL professionally in the future?

SV: Gosh, I don’t have high expectations for myself. I originally entered SL because I thought my students would be more interested in animated simulated worlds then the boring text based simulations that are used in higher education. For example, you might be able to teach entrepreneurship in SL by constructing a SL business. As another example, you could potentially teach project management by building something in SL, developing a schedule and budget, and then hiring SL firms to do the job. I’m still hopeful to do that someday if I can find the time.

QS That was great, thank you Strider!

It’s been a great spring for me in SL. And with the top class contributor’s I have managed to persuade to participate in this blog, I can start to be actually really proud of it!

Q