Wrote about this month's Wired Article - Lonely Planet Wired Magazine article on Second Life that produced a lot of Buzz about Second Life - much of it negative.
But when you contrast it with stories like Banks find footholds in Second Life by Shel Holtz (based on the International Herald Tribune article on Banking Matters: Real-life lessons about customers learned in virtual worlds) Positive Outcomes are happening for companies that are willing to experiment - to really experiment, like ABN AMRO. For example, one outcome of a Second Life experiment is creating "emotional bonds" with your customers and employees:
"…Creating an emotional bond with the customer is a goal for any retailer. Banks have historically been among the least successful at doing so. ABN AMRO - currently the subject of a takeover battle - opened a virtual European branch office six months ago and then created a Young Professional Island where highly educated people ages 25 to 35 can meet. The bank wants to offer them services like training for job interviews and assistance in buying a first house.
The difference, when compared with conventional seminars, is that the avatars (online bodily representations, like Marty Dench) can be walked through the process, leading to a much deeper understanding than just looking at a piece of paper or listening to a slide show.
Plus, the young professionals can easily do all this from home in the evening, notes Bas van Ulden, new business development manager at ABN AMRO."
"….Ourvirtualholland was the sixth-most visited site among real-life companies in a virtual world. But Wichert van Engelen, director for innovation at the bank's retail arm, said the result had to be put into perspective.
"It was morale-boosting that this was more than Microsoft or Coca-Cola. But it was 700 persons a week - not that impressive in actual numbers," he said."
Most of the Islands aren't getting much more than 700 visitors a week, some are getting considerably less - but I would not call them failures because the islands aren't mobbed. It's just unclear how profit will work - but that doesnt mean there's not profit or value to be had by having an island in Second Life.
IBM is learning a lot by it's experiences in Second Life (here's the SURL of the Virtual Business Center).
One thing we're all grappling with is a lack of process - There's no Process model of a successfully run business in Second Life - everyone appears to be "winging it" - there is no real model yet for successfully setting up and running islands - no real methodology to manage content creation and rotation - no work group management, and until recently, no real metrics either.
Now, we have Code4Software's V-Tracker, which I'd describe (my words - as Google Analytics for Second Life, a Virtual World Metrics Capture and Analysis Platform) and a couple of other entrants to come on the market later this year - my feeling is there will be much more compelling results next year, as companies who have islands will be in a much better position to measure the results and define meaningful metrics.
Also, Shel Holtz mentions that by 2012, the Internet, itself, will have much in common with Second Life and other 3D Virtual Worlds -
"..That’s a particularly important concept as many observers agree that the World Wide Web itself will assume three-dimensional properties like those that characterize Second Life within the next five or 10 years. I’d rather make my mistakes now, when only 30,000 to 40,000 people can see them, than in 2012 when my screw-ups will be exposed to the entire global online population.
So, companies that go into Second Life and other 3D Virtual Worlds to experiment with what works and doesn't work (and not to sell a lot of Coke Bottles which is really kinda a stupid idea when you think about it) will be well positioned in the future.
