“The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper, and a thousand times more powerful, and about a hundred times smaller...

[Than the one computer at MIT in 1965]”

Ray Kurzweil

What does this mean for the Future of Communications and Virtual Environments?

What does this mean for the Future of Communications and Virtual Environments?

It means that we may need to rethink how we do things in the future...

25% of Search Results for the Worlds Top 20 Brands...

are links to

User Generated Content

78% of Consumers trust peer recommendations...

Only 14% trust advertisements...

In the world of Social Media, you can not treat your customers like a number.

Their numbers can quickly make or break you.

What do those Users have

to say about You?

In 2009 a US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face to face instruction...

Layola Marymount University | SecondLife

Some studies also show that WIKIPEDIA...

is more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica...

There are over

200,000,000 Blogs...

And this is what they look like...

“You can't buy attention any more. Having a huge budget doesn't mean anything in social media...

The old media paradigm was PAY TO PLAY.

Now you get back what you authentically put in.

You've got to be willing to PLAY TO PLAY.”

- Alex Bogusky, Co-Chairman, CP&B

That's why companies like , when first entering into virtual

environments, threw their Huge Marketing Muscle into costly and vastly elaborate venues like this...

When all they needed was this

71% plan to increase investments in social media by an average of 40% because:

Low Cost Marketing

Getting Traction

We HAVE to do it!

But this presentation isn't about

300,000 + Businesses have a Facebook Presence

54% of Fortune 100 companies have a Twitter Presence

This presentation is about how social media will integrate into the virtual environment in new and unexpected ways.

It is about how the introduction of Shared Media with Viewer 2.0 has changed how we will utilize

Customer SupportPublishing

PresentationsGraphics

ApplicationsVideoMusic

Social MediaGaming

StorefrontsMarketingEducation

Communication

Everything...

But just as we've taken the time to learn about where the future is taking us... we also must understand where the past has advised us.

The Future of Communications and Virtual Environments still have a long way to go in order to catch up to the wisdom and understanding of those that came before us...

500 Internal Server Error

The prior slide is a fresh reminder of what happened recently concerning the entire Second Life Grid, XstreetSL, Support Portals, and even the main Second Life Website.

Tens of thousands of users were suddenly, and without warning, ejected from the virtual environment.

Transactions came to a halt.

Movement was severely restricted for those that managed to remain logged in.

Intellectual Property in virtual inventories suddenly disappeared.

An economy estimated to be worth US$567 million came to a

standstill in a matter of minutes.

That's not to say we should PANIC and walk away...

To the contrary... virtual environments and social media have so much to offer that the risks inherent with this growth are far outweighed by the benefits we gain from striving to make it better.

Unfortunately, many today who can make the biggest impact fail to see the potential and instead refuse to have anything to do with Viewer 2.0

“I've heard nothing but bad things about Viewer 2.0 – and since most of my readers use Emerald, I have no reason to look into potential uses for shared media until there are enough people using it to justify my involvement.”

Frolic MillsBest of SecondLife Magazine

It's better to embrace new technology and find innovative ways to put it to use for your benefit than to wait until everyone else is doing it.

This is what makes the best in this industry what they are.

They can spot potential well ahead of the masses, and they are the first to adopt it. In the future of communications, you can't afford to wait.

Those who hesitate miss the opportunity to command the future.

The future is Ubiquitous Communications.

It's the end of the walled garden mentality.

It's when you send a tweet from Second Life, and it shows up on the web.

It's when the rest of the world replies to that tweet and you see it in-world.

It's when your message is everywhere, reaching everyone, regardless of where, how or who.

It's when the virtual world and the real world combine in real time, and you see a global audience, regardless of the medium used.

The future is not measured in hours, days, weeks or years...

It's measured in seconds.

The Future is Now.

“The first area to investigate involves the elimination of the centralized backend. The backend is a communications and processing bottleneck that will not withstand growth above too large a

size. While we can support tens of thousands of users with this model, it is not really feasible to support millions. Making the system fully distributed, however, requires solving a number of difficult problems. The most significant of these is the prevention of cheating.”

Lessons Learned From Lucasfilm's Habitat - 1990

We still have a long way to go before we see a proper system in place to facilitate a full Metaverse.

Second Life is not currently capable of being that system, but with our help and support, it will be.

This is why we bring this presentation to you, utilizing shared media via a product we have designed specifically to support this paradigm shift.

We support the future, and ask that you join us in making that future the best that it possibly can be.

Revolution, now in tablet form