The Groundswell in SecondLife

As a part of our Enterprise 2.0 class project, we will be creating a “Groundswell Exploratorium” which will be designed to highlight each chapter of Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s book “Groundswell.”  The idea is to generate interest in the book by highlighting the chapter contents visually in SL.  I will be covering chapter one, and helping out anyone who is unfamiliar with SL.

I have been fooling around with creating some samples for display stands.  My idea is that if we have something to look at, even if we go with something else, the class dialogue will be more structured and we can move quickly into an implementation phase.  Here’s what I’ve been up to:

a neon sign. cool right?

Concept model for chapter displays

This is a concept for the foreword area (the yellow cube rotates).

This object contains a script which generates notecards for detailed info

Josh

Pegasus!

Here’s me and my one-man-rodeo-in-the-sky!  AWESOME!

The only thing cooler than a rodeo in the sky is a rodeo in the sky while wearing MrJoshua's All-Purpose Adventure Helmet. In fact...

Oh yeah. That's more like it. ADVENTURE!

 

If your Pegasus bails out on you: No biggie.  MrJoshua’s All-Purpose Adventure Helmet is equipped with a parachute*!

Oh SNAP!

*Parachutes not available in all areas.

MrJoshua’s All-Purpose Adventure Helmet!

Sometimes you just want to be noticed.  This is true in SecondLife and in FirstLife.  Unfortunately for all of us, MrJoshua’s All-Purpose Adventure Helmet* is only available in the former.  It does not slice nor dice; it does not make fries of any sort; it will not clean your bathroom grout.  What MrJoshua’s All-Purpose Adventure Helmet accomplishes is making you the coolest and most adventurous person in the room.  TOP THAT!

Here are some great shots of MrJoshua wearing MrJoshua’s All-Purpose Adventure Helmet in various locations to illustrate how awesome and adventurous it makes you.  For a limited time, these sweet babies are available for L$0 (FREE BABY! – But you have to explain to MrJoshua how to give stuff to people…he’s such a rookie!).

Watching sunsets is way more adventurous with MrJoshua's All-Purpose Adventure Helmet !

Have you ever hung out with an octopus? Yeah, I didn't think so. But you would do it all the time if you had MrJoshua's All-Purpose Adventure Helmet.

Does it get any more adventurous than this? With MrJoshua's All-Purpose Adventure Helmet, you will easily top all of your friends' stories. Get yours TODAY!

 

*MrJoshua’s All-Purpose Adventure Helmet not available in all areas.

MrJoshua Gets A Makeover (or Four!)

MrJoshua Republic has gotten a makeover.  My Second Life avatar now has four distinct personalities (none of which are the original).  Now that I am equipped with four avatars, I am better prepared to address any situation with style and grace.  Since a picture is worth 1000 words, I will now let the photos do the talking.  Meet Cowboy MrJoshua, CubbyKid MrJoshua, Koolade MrJoshua, and TeddyBear MrJoshua:

Cowboy MrJoshua

Cowboy MrJoshua Bullride!

ChubbyKid Josh is Fearless!

Koolade Josh Doesn't Like Competition!

TeddyBear MrJoshua thinks whacking Moles is cruel!

 

The Koolade and TeddyBear avatars were FREE.  I got them at “* ALL FREE @ MC MONEy  ! *”
ChubbyKid MrJoshua is wearing a Ghostbusters T-Shirt that was FREE.  I got it in a 10-pack of T-Shirts at “SARAH NERD’s Freebie Paradise”

MrJoshua’s cowboy duds were not (all) free.  The pants, hat, and bandana were part of the “Bandit” package at “– TheZoo Adventurer Outift — MS, Mechozilla (225, 197, 42)” -L$200.  The cowboy shirt was purchased at a store adjacent to the “Texas Rose” dance hall and saloon – L$100.  The gunbelts were purchased (i cannot recall where) for L$100.  The boots, were purchased at J’s Western Wear and were $L350 (but SO worth it!  They make the outfit).  Total cost to be an awesome cowboy: L$750.  Representing Texas in SL: PRICELESS.

Dell in Second Life.

Robin and I hung out together in Second Life the other day.  One of the places we went was Dell Island.  It appears to be a fairly well designed island with features like a Museum (the movie didn’t work), A virtual version of Michael Dell’s dormitory, an amphitheater, and more.  Much of the island appeared to be aimed at informing consumers about Dell, and several of the objects we interacted with contained embedded links to websites outside of Second Life.  I’m not sure how useful the island was for Dell’s business, since it was essentially vacant, but I suppose it makes sense to have a presence in virtual worlds from the start.  

Here’s me on Dell Island:

 

MrJoshua on Dell Island!

Second Life – A visit to ITWorld

ITWorld – a cyber-wonderland created for use by UH students and faculty (among other universities) in Second Life.  Here’s a great shot of me hanging out in ITWorld:

 

My Avatar, MrJoshua Republic, hanging out in ITWorld.

 

Eventually, Robin joined me in ITWorld.  I’ll let you judge how appropriate her behavior was…

 

Chilling on the sofa in ITWorld is fun!

 

 

 My avatar actually aged prematurely due to strain from taking 18 semester hours.  Before, he was much more handsome and had beautiful red hair.  I’m attaching a classic shot from ITWorld in Dr. Carl Scott’s consulting class when we were all treated to a visit from KoolAid!  AWESOME!!

KoolAid crashes Dr. Scott's class.

Good Times!

Google Business Model & Finances

Let’s start with the finances, since it’s so unreal:

As of December 31, 2008, Google posted annual revenues of nearly $21.8 billion.  They had a net income of $4.2 billion and boasted nearly $16 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

So, how are they making all of this money?  Well, 97% of it came from advertising (66% on websites and 31% on Google Network Sites) and the remaining 3% came from licensing & “other.” 

Check out their financial statements here.  Mind blowing!

The Business Model turns out to be fairly simple: Google makes tons of money selling advertisements.  Their customers are any companies who want to purchase ad-space.  Their product…well, according to Mike Elgan, it’s YOU!  Since Google doesn’t typically charge anything for all of the cool gadgets they put out, we (consumers) and not their target customers.  Elgan asks “When’s the last time you paid Google for anything?”

By getting consumers hooked on innovative, free, and let’s not forget privacy invasive technology, Google has captured an enormous pool of consumers which it can sell to anyone looking to buy up ad space.  Little by little, Google has eroded our inhibitions about “in your face” marketing.  Once upon a time, Internet users would have been shocked to see ads about sexual dysfunction pop up on their private web searches or emails.  Certainly, users would have been very cautious about telling the Internet-at-large their precise geographic whereabouts.  But the times are changing, and Google is ringing the bell.