LIVEdigitally

It’s pretty easy: Become a consultant/studio who provides services that get First Life companies onto Second Life.

I say this because it’s about the only way I see to actually be profitable off the site/game/world.  The guys at Linden Labs (the company behind Second Life, or SL as they call it) are possibly the best hype-masters I’ve ever seen.  For example, today their partner Universal Pictures issued a press release with the title “‘Smokin’ Aces: Second Life Assassin’ Game Proves an Unprecedented Hit in Virtual World.” Unprecedented Hit, eh?  There isn’t a single stat of any kind in the release text – no usage, performance, subscribers, etc.  Nothing.

I’ve watched two main themes emerge on SL in the past two weeks:

1. “Tech leaders” think Second Life could be a “gold mine” (discussion: BlackRimGlasses, CNNMoney)
2. Second Life is a pyramid scheme (discussion: ValleyWag, Capitalism 2.0, Duncan Riley)

I also enjoyed Mathew Ingram’s and Webomatica’s thoughts on SL and these issues. All stats below come from one of these or the above sources.

Now I don’t know if it’s a game or a world, and I don’t much care.  I know I believe the ~100,000 users number more than I do the 2,000,000 users number.  But fundamentally it doesn’t matter to me.  When clients come to me to ask my opinion on SL, I just don’t want them spending money on it today. When I see companies like ShowTime launch a show property in SL (congrats to Akela, a former LD blogger!), I don’t understand how they cost-justify it.

Today, like it or not, SL is a small number of people enjoying their free reign in a fantasy world.  They are, for the most part, very technically savvy. There’s a lot of gaming, gambling, and sex in SL.  When I read there’s a Second Life millionnaire, I want to see that person actually cash out before I get excited.  I’ve seen virtual press conferences and read about someone finding a job there.  That’s nice.

The bottom line is there are few users and it’s a very narrow niche.  Furthermore, in order to get in as a big company, you have to be willing to invest a lot of money, since it requires a very specific skill-set.  While some might say “sounds like 1995 and the Web all over again” I point out one quick difference: when new users try Second Life, most do not return.  The same was simply not the case 12 years ago. 

So, want to take advantage of the Second Life “gold mine”?  Jump on the bandwagon and ride the gravy train as long as you can.  That is, until the pyramid begins to crumble…

When I first started my Geek Dinners last fall, I figured they’d be quaint affairs, with 4 or 5 people getting together to pseudo-geek out, chat about tech trends and whatnot.  Little did I expect last night’s crew of 20 guys & gals (yes, actual gals – plural even!) to come enjoy the finest in Italian Haute Cuisine – Buca di Beppo.

As usual, here’s a list of our merry crew (from left to right):

• Thomas Hawk – photographer, photowalker, and blogger extraordinaire
• Jason Whitt – venture capitalist with VantagePoint Ventures
• Scott Cronce – CTO of Electronic Arts
• Melanie Westlake – the queen of Yahoo! Mobile
• Jeremy Toeman – him?
• Lisa Whelan – business development consultant and social media blogger
• Andrew Kippen – “technology scout” for the French Trade Commission
• Daniel Riveong – technology marketing expert at e-Storm
• Davis Freeberg – prolific digital media blogger and photographer
• Esther Lim – VP, Client Services and Interactive Strategy for e-Storm
• Mehrshad Mansouri – still unemployed
• Cindy Wang – Technical Yahoo! for mobile Web applications
• Joel Sacks (or at least his eyes and forehead) – account exec for CNet
• Sam Levin – influencer marketing expert
• Kristopher Tate – founder of Zooomr
• Guy Horowitz – venture capitalist with Gemini Ventures
• Brian Meckler – product manager at Sling Media
• Jeff Allen – reformed VC, now founder of a new stealthy startup
• Heidi Pollock – another Technical Yahoo! (thus making it Yahoo 3, Google 0 for Geek Dinners)

Dinner was a lot of fun, we even had a little “musical chairs” moment where we shuffled the whole seating arrangement to confuse the waitress help get more people meeting each other.  I overheard and participated in discussions on topics ranging from CES (not much new, lots of bigger/smaller products, with more convergence) to truly converged mobile devices (not gonna happen) to Second Life (wherein I pronounced my desire to start a SL Mob that goes around graffiting things, then charging for “protection”).

We also had a little “around-the-table” on the iPhone, with the simple question of: will you buy it in the first 30 days?  13 said no (primary reasons: no keyboard and locked-down with Cingular service), but 6 said yes (although one was technically a freebie).  While that might be the minority, that’s clearly a good indication of how much excitement Apple has generated so far. 

Lastly, I had a few gadgets from CES that I showed the group, and here were the quick reactions:

• Cell phone call light-up bracelet – didn’t really work
• Netgear travel router – nice idea, but too big compared to Airport Express
• Ethereal’s high-end HDMI cable – don’t spend a lot of money on cables!
• Shure SE420 and E500PTH headphones – tremendous waves of jealousy
• CameraBright – nead idea, might not work well enough
• The Tornado file transfer USB tool – great concept, a little big
• quik-pod solo camera “tripod” – awesome, huge round of applause

I also did a giveaway with a variety of products from the show (and some chocolate), to the people with The Most Video Game Consoles (10), The First Cell Phone Owner (1992), The First GPS Owner (2002), The Most Computers in their Home (12), and the First Portable Computer Owner (I don’t recall the year, but it was a while ago).

Thanks again for coming everyone, please don’t hesitate to add any comments for any highlights I may have forgotten!