This month's Online Community Expert interview is with Robin Harper, VP Marketing and Community Development for Linden Lab, creator of the virtual world Second Life. Like many of you, I have experimented with Second Life over the last couple of years and have been left wanting something a bit more engaging. I gave Second Life a second look when I heard that Linden had added voice chat, and after seeing orgs like TechSoup (see Susan Tenby's interview from December) getting real value out of in world meetings. I reached out to Robin, and she was kind enough to spend some time with me answering questions from the perspective of a"second look at Second Life".

Q: Could you start with some basic stats about Second Life?

A: There were 921,554 unique people logged-in to Second Life last month (January 2008), who spent over 28 million hours. 45% of that use was women, 55% men. The world now consists of 16,816 regions, for a total size of 426 square miles (San Francisco is 49 square miles). There were nearly 18 million L$transactions among Residents, with average daily volume on the LindeX currency exchange of US$265,528. The top five countries (by use) with populations in Second Life are the United States, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and France. For more information, please see http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php.


Q: There was a tremendous amount of media coverage about Second Life in late 06 and early 07, which seemed to result in a bit of a backlash after a few high profile marketing experiments (American Apparel) ended badly. How did the attention effect your thinking about product direction and the core value of Second Life?

A: There are always up and down cycles in the media, and as Second Life went through an enormous growth phase, the press responded very positively to the wide range of social and entrepreneurial activity. Eventually they were bound to focus on one or two projects that were less than successful. The important thing to keep in mind is that sometimes a lack of success has as more to do with the project design than with Second Life, and that sometimes projects end because they're finished, not because they failed.

We continue to believe that Second Life offers the best and most flexible platform for development of 3D, immersive experiences. To help ensure the success of large scale projects we are working closely with the over 300 companies that have grown up in Second Life and are now providing consulting and content development services to their corporate and educational customers. We're helping them define best practices for successful projects, and making sure they have access to the tools and support they need.


Q: Is there a place for in world marketing of real world brands?

A: We've seen many well-recognized brands engage in successful projects within Second Life. Scion and Intel, Adidas, Reebok, Pontiac, Reuters... the list goes on. One of our Residents made a video about it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=tEGHJuCbGdo. I think the thing to remember is that the most successful projects are those whose creators realize that this is not a medium in the traditional sense -- it's not about reach and frequency, or impressions. The value of marketing within Second Life comes from having the opportunity to involve potential and current customers in an experience that they can help to design. From this you can learn an awful lot about their perceptions of your brand and products that is far richer than any focus group.


Q: Who do you consider the key audiences for Second Life, and what are the key points of value for these audiences?

A: Second Life has become a development platform which attracts a wide range of people with an unlimited number of ideas. In the consumer arena there are people from around the world who are starting businesses ranging from the unexpected (magic wands!) to the more traditional (apparel and home furnishings). For them Second Life offers new opportunities for entrepreneurship relative to the real world -- the difference being that their customer base is global and their costs are comparatively low. On the social side people attend concerts and the theatre, throw parties, go skiing and ice skating. The benefits of online community are well-known to the readers of this newsletter -- a removal of geographic constraints and an opportunity to make new friends you'd otherwise never meet. And you don't have to pay for lift tickets.

In addition to the consumer aspect of Second Life, corporations are finding it a place to hold meetings with global employees and customers, to build prototypes, to create showrooms. Educators simulate everything from 3D molecular structure to game design. The value lies in the simulation and design capabilities coupled with the ability to bring together groups of people from nearly anywhere in the world.

Q: What are the new features or services that get the folks at Linden excited? What is on the horizon?

A: We're in the process of building new search features into the Second Life world, making it easier to find things to do or the essentials of virtual life, from shoes to French lessons. We think the simple fact of web-based indexing will make Second Life more accessible to a broader base of users. On the graphics side our new Windlight technology is opening up capabilities for environmental effects that are simply beautiful. Second Life Residents have been experimenting with atmospheric enhancement to add mood to their builds and are showing off the results on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=windlight&w=all.

We see nothing but potential on the horizon as the world continues to grow and diversify. Of course there are challenges brought on by the intersection of real world and virtual, but in the end we believe there is a net gain in the creation of new economic and social value.