Two very different takes on Second Life

They say there are two sides to every story. This time I’d like to share two very different takes on Second Life and the need to immediately drop what you’re doing and grab an SL account.

First, the “Ignore this at your peril” from business communicator Neville Hobson in his recent post, Second Life: All you need is an open mind:

I make no secret that I firmly believe virtual communities like Second Life present significant opportunities for companies and other organizations in myriad ways.

Once you understand more about what’s possible and balance it with
what’s not yet possible, you will be able to make sounder judgments on whether a
place like Second Life is for you and your organization.

Either way, it’s a place you need to pay attention to…

For a take closer to my view, there’s Walt Crawford, the man who needs no introduction to the library community, with his asbestos lined blog entry, Where your patrons are–or are they?:

Best estimates are that slightly less than half of SL avatars are from within the U.S. So that’s half a million, using the most optimistic numbers, or more likely around 250,000.Out of a population of over 300 million.

In other words, one-sixth of one percent of your users, using optimistic numbers.

By any reasonable standard, your users are not in Second Life. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be. Just means that “that’s where our patrons are” is a poor excuse to prioritize SL activity over much of anything else. “That’s where our
patrons might be eventually, and we’d like to understand it”–that’s a decent reason if you have spare time and no competing priorities.

I experimented with Second Life for awhile and may do so again. I think it makes sense for business people and communicators like Neville to explore this channel, especially given its upscale demographic. I respect the work of librarians and others who are exploring this medium and its implications. But I’m convinced by the math of Walt and others that most of us don’t have to join Second Life Right Now. Especially when MySpace, Flickr, wikis and so many other social networking sites with tens of millions of users await.

Plus, if you’re not sure which train to jump on, ask your users. Do a survey and find where your community’s users are. If you do, drop me a line or leave a comment.