marketing How the Covid-19 work from home situation could help SL...

[Fauve Aeon]

On 3/15/2020 at 2:18 PM, Bradford Mint said:

It really needs to be accessible in a web browser, very limited in scope and frankly, by the time you've done all that and made it conference ready, it's just NOT SL at all.

It’s something that Could be explored that way, and maybe not too many reasons why it shouldn’t be? Who’s to say that what has defined SL up until now needs to continue to define it for new people or really any people who might want something different. Things change without us even wanting them to so while the virus is it really not something to ‘take advantage of “ there’s really no reason not to try out some new things while we’re all in our in our isolation either. I was thinking more along the lines of more photo challenges, and some impromptu meet ups where people actually speak in voice, Some inventory cleaning parties maybe… but that’s pretty much tailored to my own current likes in second life. I mostly post on this avatar here but ‘Fauve’ is not so much visible doing inworld activity these days. 😉 for a few various reasons.

I’m all for thinking outside the box in 2020 in second life, i’m trying some new things myself now that I know that Sansar is well and truly gone. It beats sitting around complaining about what’s wrong with SL,  that’s for sure. (Not that you were @Bradford Mint but we all know that there are some people who are notorious for it) But also  “it’s just not second life at all “ is pretty subjective. SL could be new and different things for new users. I really think that with so many activities and social gatherings in second life,  people have gotten actually into quite a rut. Not everyone of course, there are new things if you look for them… But by and large a whole lot of the same old same old in clubs and social gatherings. It doesn’t have to be that way unless you want it to be.

I think it would be fun to have a conference room with all of our avatars and be able to speak and listen as well as watch slides and use media and even be able to record the sessions. There are uses for that. there’s also room for some novelty here and there. (And no I don’t mean freenises on the heads of newbs, Beth can have all of those with my complements. 🤣😂)  I like the meetings that different employees of the lab host inside the world, and I like the format of the Lab Gab sessions too. There’s really no reason why those 2 formats and more couldn’t be applicable for many of us, but few of us actually use them in that way, even after all this time. just some things that I’ve been kind of thinking about lately.

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Beth Macbain said:

Can you imagine 6.7 noobs wandering around with freenises screaming "U DO SEXY??" to everyone they see?!

[Conifer Dada]

On 3/13/2020 at 3:57 PM, Lindal Kidd said:

Some companies thought SL might be used in this way, back about twelve or thirteen years ago.  But they discovered that no communication in SL was "company private".  LL logs all text chat and IMs (at the time, we didn't have Voice).   So they went back to text, voice, and video conferencing for remote meetings.

Re privacy . . .

It occurred to me that notecards can be a pretty secure means of communication. If two residents are known to each other in RL and agree in RL to communicate any sensitive information via their SL accounts using notecards, nobody is ever likely to find out. In theory LL might have the means of checking notecards, I don't know. But the chances of anyone ever checking an individual's notecards is infinitesimal.

Anyway that's really an aside, I just want to wish everyone well and hope we all stay safe. We're all having the same worries about coronavirus wherever we are.

Edited March 17, 2020 by Conifer Dada

[Hunny Bunny]

Reality check, most businesses are more likely to use Skype or some other form of video conferencing. The only business Covid-19 is helping if you can call it that are those that make the products that people are fighting over at the local grocery and once people are finished hoarding their TP and hand sanitizer they'll realize they won't have to buy any for years so, it's really a short term gain. If people do come to SL it's going to be to escape RL but IMO are more likely to be playing the multitude of other games, watching TV shows and keeping up with the latest news.

[Fauve Aeon]

53 minutes ago, MichaMoz said:

Reality check, most businesses are more likely to use Skype or some other form of video conferencing.

Teams replaced Skype as the MS enterprise solution in Office 365 as of Q2 of *last year*, I think I only know one freelancer who still uses Skype. Support for Skype for Business Online will end in July 2021, and Skype for Business Server 2019 will receive extended support through October 14, 2025. Also MS did partner with XBox to offer a free year subscription in 2013,
“those who purchased an Office 365 Home Premium or University subscription before September 28, 2013 would receive a free one-year Xbox Live Gold subscription“

...nothing stopping SL from possibly pursuing something similar, especially if they pursue any kind of partially rebranded enterprise solution and that would give them one reason to partition content more on the grid if that’s one of the directions they choose to go, screening for both adult content and more efficiently optimized content, whatever. Could be anything really and once they’re fully in the cloud I think that will be even easier to implement. Clearly with the bringing back the education discounts they’ve got something in mind beyond just regular subscriptions and personal hobby users.

Ebbe said most of this year will be focused on the cloud migration project, so I’m thinking it will be Q1-2 of 2021 before we see what they are cooking up beyond the migration in any of their major areas, but I’m sure some plans are incubating now and I’d really be surprised if one of those didn’t include some kind of enterprise solution and some sort of grid partitioning. 🥚 🐣 🐥 🐓 🍗 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Fauve Aeon

[Zzevir]

I don't know how it can help. But what I know is that my wife is starting to work from home tomorrow and that's mean no more "alone time" for me. I can sleep in the spare room when I finish my night shifts. And she also going to nick my console screen to work. 

[Bradford Mint]

38 minutes ago, Fauve Aeon said:

...nothing stopping SL from possibly pursuing something similar, especially if they pursue any kind of partially rebranded enterprise solution and that would give them one reason to partition content more on the grid if that’s one of the directions they choose to go

Other than they'd just become another "me too" in a market of existing, established incumbents.

[Hunny Bunny]

37 minutes ago, Fauve Aeon said:

Teams replaced Skype

You can call it whatever you want but I did say "or some other form of video conferencing". I used Skype as a reference because most people know what it is. Arguably far more than know what SL is.

41 minutes ago, Fauve Aeon said:

Clearly with the bringing back the education discounts they’ve got something in mind beyond just regular subscriptions and personal hobby users.

This is more likely the Lab's way or reaching out at a time of crisis to assist educators by offering a platform while everyone is "social distancing". While some may stay after the current crisis is abated it's unlikely they will remain once things normalize.

[Bradford Mint]

1 minute ago, MichaMoz said:

This is more likely the Lab's way or reaching out at a time of crisis to assist educators by offering a platform while everyone is "social distancing". While some may stay after the current crisis is abated it's unlikely they will remain once things normalize.

Possibly but they're missing the mark.  It's not about the cost to education or anyone else, it's about the requirements of the platform upon which to run the client and the user interface to achieve three main presentation tasks, those being slide presentation, whiteboard and screen share.  Without those, it's a dead duck for at least 99.67% of the intended customer base, more so when up against incumbents where the only requirement is a browser, or mobile app which can do all of the above tasks with ease.

Does a  lecturer comprise a virtual avatar professor without any decent established common method of presentation tool?  Nah, i'll go with a video feed thanks

[Fauve Aeon]

2 minutes ago, Bradford Mint said:

Other than they'd just become another "me too" in a market of existing, established incumbents.

And since when has that ever stopped anyone before?😉 Paying remote part time marketing personnel to spin new marketing campaigns is probably quite a bit cheaper than paying tech developers to develop new platforms and features, so it makes economic sense to maximize and leverage the current technology in as many new ways as they can. They’re going to roll premium plus for hobby users, they rebooted the Linden homes project , they’re revisiting the education discounts again, so for me and makes sense to expect some kind of enterprise option for businesses to be coming along as well. I haven’t watch the marketing team guesting on lab gab yet, so there may be some clues in there since they said they were going to talk about some already targeted directions of their future advertising.

Of course I’m just speculating here, not trying to come off as someone speaking with any kind of authority whatsoever, I’m just a curious person… but I can’t help but think the Lab is going to look at leveraging their existing resources in as many new ways as they can once they finish the cloud migration, try to maximize usage of what they already have for a while (2020 &2021) rather than more deployment of costly and fully brand new things like Sansar, I think the recent staff downsizing points to that too. 

Unless they realize some new revenue streams, what doesn’t change stays the same. They did a revamp with the Linden homes for a second try and it actually caught on this time, the not in the way that they intended (the new users)… But it did bump many existing members into one or more premium accounts even after a price increase and who would have predicted the huge renewed interest in the whole Linden homes project, to the tune of a big new continent with very few vacancies even many months later. 

[Fauve Aeon]

16 minutes ago, MichaMoz said:

This is more likely the Lab's way or reaching out at a time of crisis to assist educators by offering a platform while everyone is "social distancing". While some may stay after the current crisis is abated it's unlikely they will remain once things normalize.

I’m guessing that they already had something like this in the pipeline and the timing is just coincidental? Who knows? 

[Bradford Mint]

8 minutes ago, Fauve Aeon said:

And since when has that ever stopped anyone before?😉 Paying remote part time marketing personnel to spin new marketing campaigns is probably quite a bit cheaper than paying tech developers to develop new platforms and features, so it makes economic sense to maximize and leverage the current technology in as many new ways as they can.

Yes, they can try and I predict that if that's the plan, they will fail to gain traction, that's all.  It's just too niche with such vastly different requirements to execute, delivering next to none of the standard requirements that the market has already demonstrated are what the customer base need.

Where it probably would work perfectly would be to create a virtual environment for a virtual meeting room for inconclusive talks between vacuous UK government and the EU.  Nothing productive would happen and no tools will have been harmed in the process.

[Fauve Aeon]

10 minutes ago, Bradford Mint said:

Where it probably would work perfectly would be to create a virtual environment for a virtual meeting room for inconclusive talks between vacuous UK government and the EU.  Nothing productive would happen and no tools will have been harmed in the process.

😂😂
Where’s the lie? 
 

so what do you think if anything that the lab has to offer on the business front, anything at all? I’m really just kind of curious,  it may indeed be nothing much successful but it’s still fun to speculate.

[Bradford Mint]

I don't believe they have anything for corporates.  Maybe people who work collaboratively in a small organisation who don't mind playing "dress up" first and have no need to share anything such as presentation content.  Beyond that I struggle to find any fit.

[Lindal Kidd]

5 hours ago, Conifer Dada said:

Re privacy . . .

It occurred to me that notecards can be a pretty secure means of communication. If two residents are known to each other in RL and agree in RL to communicate any sensitive information via their SL accounts using notecards, nobody is ever likely to find out. In theory LL might have the means of checking notecards, I don't know. But the chances of anyone ever checking an individual's notecards is infinitesimal.

Anyway that's really an aside, I just want to wish everyone well and hope we all stay safe. We're all having the same worries about coronavirus wherever we are.

Quite so!  But using a company VPN is much more convenient.

[Bradford Mint]

9 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Quite so!  But using a company VPN is much more convenient.

and retaining potentially sensitive information within the corporate domain, much less likely to take a spanking from GDPR (depending on the nature of the data in question).  The last thing that organisations need is data exfiltration via non approved methods.