Second Life will become even more important in 2007 as it has become in 2006 - I just predicted it in my last post. Here's one example - I have some pretty innovative ideas for my one Architectural House Plan client but I have to admit - many of my best ideas have already happened.
My Cost to Build Search Engine must have been on Better Homes and Garden's drawing board when I thought of the idea - and my idea for Architectural Island - where an Architect (ie: my client) has recreations of their most popular (and eventually - all their stock house plans) in Second Life has been done already by Crescendo Design .
I visited Crescendo Design's office in Second Life tonight to see how it was implemented - and while I did not run into anyone - my idea is totally correct - what I see for my architect is not only viable - it's here now and totally the right direction. Gee..and I thought I was original …think again. OK, I'll settle for being right and forward thinking.
A house in Second Life, recreated, is much superior to CAD Virtual Reality Movie; some architects have this on their sites, including Mascord.com - but you can't really "Live" in a virtual reality CAD movie - even if the recreations look more "finished' than a house Second Life.
Here's a YouTube Movie of what Jon and Kandy Brouchoud have done in Second Life.
I don't know if the Brouchoud's have sold more house plans because of their work in Second Life - I would imagine they have.
In my opinion, most stock house plans are viewed as a commodity - you have to find one you want to build (if you even want to bother building - given the current housing market - it might be easier to just buy an existing new home on the cheap than build your own) because it has the features you want. It's hard to wade though - that's why many architects don't do that well with online sales of stock house plans (I know this for a fact - I've pulled data on 3 or 4 top architects and this is one of my specialities in SEO/SEM).
The bar is always being lifted - it has to be - people's expectations change. Right now, there's only 2 million residents of Second Life - next year I predict there will be 7 million by year end (that's going to make life very tough for Linden Labs - keeping Second Life up…..will be a major task - one they will be all to happy to do - as they will rake it in - all the money they'll make on Second Life).
Even if a customer comes to an architects site and has never been on Second Life - the possiblility of viewing and moving in a plan they will consider - will research - will often induce them to try it - to install Second Life and go on and take a look.
Yes, there needs to be good metrics to track all of this activity on an island - but the if the houses are built in Second Life - people will come. I predict, more people will buy a plan they can interact with, and learn about in Second Life - than if they did not have that opportunity.
Incidently -
it appears AutoCad drawings can be exported into Second Life and built there (I did some research tonight on it - but it appears to also be something fairly new - maybe still full of bugs - I don't know). By the way, House plan are send as CAD files on disk (as well as printouts) - it's not too hard to see where this all is going.
What the Brouchoud's did with
Crescendo Design is exactly the right thing - this is the future -
this is now. However most of the architects I have worked with (several now) have shown themselves to be conserative by nature - most are not as ready yet for what the Bouchoud's have done (which is good for the Brouchouds - by the time the light goes on for many Architects minds - Crescendo Design will be way ahead - they already are.
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