Iâ??ve been floating around Second Life for a few days now. Not often, but enough to check things out. (Here I am sitting atop the scoreboard of the yet-to-be-built-in-real-life Yankee Stadium II. Very cool.)
More importantly, Iâ??ve been reading up. The debate going on now is all about SLâ??s economy. This post by Randolph Harrison (discovered via the MIT Adlab) has ignited quite a heated discussion. Hereâ??s a quote, which comes after an interesting presentation of specific economic problems within SL:
â??As we scratched our heads trying to figure out if there werenâ??t a more clever way of disguising our trades, or perhaps creating our own in-game banks and exchanges in order to arbitrage the other direction, it suddenly dawned upon me. This game was just a pyramid scheme.â?
Scroll down to the comments and follow the conversation. There are many people who defend SLâ??s economy, using numbers thatâ??ll make you salivate. All convincing arguments for SL not being a pyramid scheme at all.
All this, though, has made me wonder what the true value of participating in SL is. Based on what Iâ??ve seen, heard and read, I really think it comes down to connections. For example:
â?¢ Crayonville hosting Coffee with Crayon every Thursday morning or the Podcast Conference I joined (albeit for a very brief visit) the other night.
â?¢ Reuters hosting regular conferences at their in-world Press Center.
â?¢ Sweden opening an embassy.
â?¢ Regular marketing conferences.
â?¢ In-world product launches, like Vista.
What do all these examples have in common? Theyâ??re all events driven to bring people together, get them talking, meeting and interacting. And theyâ??re all events that you wouldnâ??t otherwise have the opportunity to attend if they were taking place in the real world.
Ask yourself these questions as you venture through SL:
â?¢ How many people have you met?
â?¢ How many of these people could you turn to for advice and help?
â?¢ How many people have turned to you for the same?
If thereâ??s an ROI to be calculated, maybe itâ??s in the value SL gives you in the real world, through relationships you may never have formed otherwise. Much like your blog, LinkedIn and other social networking services do for you.
Sure you can make whatever coin you like in-world, but, like all other social media, I see the true value coming from the connections youâ??re making, and the business credibility youâ??ll gain as a result.
Related stuff:
â?¢ Edward Castronova argues against the ponzi scheme whitepaper.
â?¢ Valleywag comments on the Harrison post.
â?¢ Second Life Insider comments on the Valleywag post.
P.S. I would really love a tour of SL by a real insider. Any volunteers?
