Virtual Coworkers With or Without Headaches

My friend Suzy Miller is doing a blog post about Second Life as a way to do business. When she made the mistake of asking me about it, the basics of this post appeared in a facebook message. Maybe I can get her to ask questions more often.

Suzy said: Thanks Susan. I think you are right. It is about representing you business as a human being (not a corporate identity) and being useful.  How do you see 2nd Life as a way of doing just that?

I think of it pretty simply I guess. I see Second Life as a way to interact with people in a 3-d way rather than  with the limits of a 2d screen.

I have a sense of being with them in SL when I'm in a meeting. We're "sitting" there around a table or a couple chairs. And I have to add that even if we're typing in an old timeish chat on the screen (for those who don't like or use the Second Life "voice" function) we have the feel of being in the same space.

It far surpasses any video conferencing I've ever seen done & others (including people from Dell, IBM, Intel etc) are saying the same.

But slowly I'm deciding that I _really_ don't want to be the person that convinces anyone about this. It's like having an argument in which I have no sense of benefit when I "win".

So these days if I can help enable someone to try SL by getting them set up with an acceptable avatar to do business meetings with & give them some suggestions about meetings events to attend so they get the experience, I'm in. Otherwise I'm too grumpy about it by the end to feel any sense of having done something worthwhile.

In other words, I want to be helpful but not at the expense of my own good humor. You can't smack your head into a brick wall just to prove a point, at least I can't without ending up with a nice headache that follows me around like pigpen's dust cloud.

With the CSI episode tonight comes the ESC designed OnRez viewer for Second Life which in my experience makes trying SL more like an adventure and not a chore. It's fast and attractive.

Let's hope this is what puts SL more accessible to everyone, not just those able to withstand the frustration factor. I could use the energy some virtual associates could bring to the table and having them try Second Life with the Sheep's new viewer has the potential to ease the journey.

Crossing my fingers.

Comments

[Susan Reynolds]

I'm smiling because you've obviously got that infectious Second Life vision :-) The answer is if you're already used to what you're using (you are just signing in through Linden Labs standard viewer I'd guess) by all means stick with that!

I'd encourage you to do what you're enjoying. Go to art openings or meetings or dances or whatever makes you feel good. Personally I needed about a month to just wander around by myself before I did much other than walking into walls. You can see my photos at http://tynanclary.tumblr.com/

To clarify, I actually like the onRez viewer because for people that are brand new it's straightforward and doesn't throw stuff like a "build" buttons at you when you're barely walking around. It may confuse you to learn where new buttons are though, so unless you want to try it and see if you like it, just enjoy what you're doing.

[Sydney Chase]

Hi Susan,
I just read this article. I am really really new to second life less that two weeks old..: ) I am loving it loving it immensely...I just went to check out the OnRez link you have in your blog, right now I am just not ready to interact with CSI they seemed way too advanced for me...though it all does look interesting. I was wondering though if it makes sense for me to download the Onrez program? does it work better than the regular SL screen I already am using...Okay just really confused as to what it all is and means and how will it make my SL experience better thanks.

Love and Light
Sydney