Tag: technology

Study on Second Life and Corporate Innovation

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Together with Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, my research team is conducting a study on corporate innovation as reflected by companies’ participation in the virtual world Second Life.  In particular, we are interested in why corporations engage in cutting-edge innovations such as Second Life, despite the risks involved, and the benefits that are received through such ventures.  If your company has conducted any activities in Second Life, we would like to invite you to participate in a survey that constitutes part of the research project.  The survey will take only 10-15 minutes to complete, and we would be pleased to share the results of our research with you after the project’s completion in the form of an executive summary.  Please note that although Linden Lab has been working with us on facilitating the data collection process, we are not working with any commercial interests, and we will not share any data that can be tracked back to individuals or firms unless you first provide written permission to do so.

If you are interested in participating, please click on this survey link to launch the survey.  If you have any questions about the project, please feel free to contact us through the Contact Yuping form or via email to wjudge@odu.edu.  Thank you!

Best Practices — Cisco Learning Network

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Starting with this entry, I am adding a new feature called “Best Practices” to my blog. Entries in this category will discuss in a succinct way some of the best business and marketing strategies in the current market. These discussions are meant to help both practitioners learn from others and to offer business educators current examples to use in the classroom. Today, I would like to talk about the Cisco Learning Network.

What is it?

This is a social learning network by Cisco. It allows IT professionals to share professional knowledge, network with others, and learn new professional skills. Read the CCNA blog to get more background information about the network.

Why is it a good idea?

The Cisco Learning Network is a good idea because it creates values for both its customers and Cisco itself in a clever way.

Benefits for customers (i.e., IT professionals):

(1) More targeted social/professional networking than generic sites such as LinkedIn;

(2) An opportunity for self-promotion to peers and to the source (i.e., Cisco);

(3) An opportunity to learn from the source.

Benefits for Cisco:

(1) In a helpful kind of way, Cisco Learning Network builds brand awareness and loyalty among IT professionals, who are Cisco’s target market;

(2) The Network creates an IT talent pool and helps identify influential IT professionals. Cisco can then draw from this talent pool at time of need, which is essential in the relatively tight IT market.

Rethinking Second Life Demographics

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When a technology innovation appears on the horizon, one would stereotypically expect that the younger generation will sign on to it faster than older adults. This was the same expectation I had with Second Life. Like many people, I thought of Second Life as a playground for mostly Gen Y’s and the occasional Gen X’s. As I am about to reach 33, I thought I would be “old” in SL. But my two recent encounters in SL made me rethink this issue.

The two avatars that I encountered in these situations were both in their mid-fifties. They were very adept at creating their own images and environments within Second Life, much better than a newbie like me is able to. Entering into the interaction, I never intended to find out about their real-life age, but it somehow just came out during the conversation. Both avatars were very kind and helpful, both were happy with their real life, and both expressed a newly found youthfulness in Second Life, as if they were taken back to that time when they were much younger.

These conversations made me rethink the value of SL to different age groups and the real-life demographics of SL participants. If we were to look at three generations of people: the baby boomers and above, the Gen X, and the Gen Y and younger groups, it is actually not that difficult to see the appeal of SL to the first group. As the idea of living a second life allows someone to create an ideal self that s/he cannot fulfill in real life, Second Life allows the older generation to either relive or recreate their life. Now that most of their kids have grown up, they also have much more time to enjoy the virtual world, once they master the technology needed to use it. For Gen Xers like me, in contrast, we are so busy dealing with our real-life responsibilities at home or at work that it is hard to find the time to truly escape to the wonderland. The even younger text-messaging generation may have more time but may not have the patience for the amount of time it takes for 3D worlds to load and function.

Of course, these thoughts came from only two recent encounters, and they are very likely to be biased. I do not have concrete data to support my argument. Digging around on the Internet only landed me on an older set of statistics on Second Life’s real-life demographics in early 2006, which showed a median age of 36. But I truly believe in the power of Second Life for the older generation. The sweeping Internet revolution has already brought this generation to be more on par with the rest of the population in terms of technology use, and it has prepared them for the even newer 3D Web. Once the technology barrier has been removed, these virtual worlds could mean great additions to their life that cannot be found anywhere else in real world. This may explain the findings I posted in a previous blog on how SL enhances individuals’ happiness in real life.