A Contrast In Approach? IBM and Philips Design In SecondLife
Submitted by Taran on Fri, 12/01/2006 - 00:56
I'm catching up on a lot of reading again, and I came across some posts on IBM's event in SecondLife more than 12 hours ago (reading stacks up fast, you know). ShineyKatie was live blogging, apparently, which is a difficult thing to do - posting tidbits quickly, stuff gets dropped and other stuff becomes highlighted. It's the nature of the beast.
A few things leapt out. In this post, aside from the 1.6 million user mistake which is insanely common, I got this:
.... Their view is that using it in this way makes the event more of a collaborative experience, and IBM users have begun to see this as a more sociable way of IMing other staff, having internal meetings as well as meeting non-IBM people in a social capacity.
So - there are two kinds of people in the world. There are IBM folks and there are.... them. That could be a speed blogging thing, so I just made a comment on it and moved on - a little amused.
Then I read this post:
...After a few IBM staff members were put off SL thanks to too many normal punters approaching them with offers of virtual intimacy, IBM now has its own personal orientation trail away from the prying eyes of the public. Which leaves me thinking "ooo, get you"...
...IBM's ambitions seem to be more about system tools and making services available to SL users and customers...
OK, so the 'get you' comment demonstrates exactly what I'm thinking at this point. IBM folks don't believe in virtual intimacy, so that USB attachment some people are yearning for probably won't come from Big Blue. Fair enough. Still, despite how sexy IBM's avatars may be... I don't think everyone in SL wants to have a fling with them. It seems to me that IBM people stay mostly on their own island. That relates easily to what Digital Femme and I have bounced around. But they want to provide SL users with services? I suppose I could get punny with that and write:
'IBM is interested in servicing SL users but isn't interested in being serviced'.
That sort of sums up what I got from the live blogging. So far, that's really what I'm getting from IBM - but it's sort of like when I was trying to buy the developerWorks CDs in Trinidad and Tobago back when they first came out... I was told that since Trinidad and Tobago didn't have enough developers (?!?!), they didn't have any locally and weren't about to order any (yes, really). Small wonder I haven't followed developerWorks... I didn't matter then, why should I now?
Now, after all that IBM reading... I catch up to Philips Design coming into SecondLife:
...In addition to exploring this virtual world to gain insights into potential opportunities, Philips Design will have a space on Second Life where virtual concepts can be tested and residents can participate in co-design projects. In this way, Second Life users can have a greater say in the kind of colors, ergonomics, functionality and other features of products they may wish to buy in this virtual world. This will allow Philips Design to find new ways of relating to end users. Having such direct feedback can significantly enrich the design process and lead to innovative and surprising end results. This fits with the Philips Design philosophy that design should be based around people and grounded in research. It also corresponds to Philips Design's firm belief that the future of design lies in the co-creation of products...
Of course, press releases don't mean as much as the way things actually happen - but can anyone see why I'm more interested in seeing what Philips Design is going to do rather than what IBM is doing? That whole 'working together' thing?
Now - to be fair - IBM has worked with the community as far as Linux and Open Source. We'll decapitate the folks responsible for the lack of developerWorks CDs when I was interested and move on, though forgiven is not forgotten. IBM has always seemed to have an 'us and them' approach, even within the last decade when it has demonstrated growing (commercial and strategic) interest in community products. I'm neutral about Philips.
All things being equal, Philips has said it would work with the community, IBM seems to say, 'We don't like you but we'll sell you stuff'. But if you peer behind both of them, it's the same thing. Maybe Philips will prove to be true, and IBM will not be as insular in the future. Not my problem. That's their problem. They own that. I gain nothing if they fail or succeed; if they succeed I might have more stuff to spend money on that may or may not be of value to me.
You just can't fake community. It's in the rulebook that came with the memo. You didn't get the memo?
It must not have made it to your island.
I think you're being too harsh
If IBM people are in-world in order to develop new products and services, it is not fair to expect them to do it in public sandboxes. Given that simply flying over the mainland or walking through a shopping mall will bring up images that in most large US corporations will get you reprimanded and sent to sensitivity training, it is hardly surprising that IBM'ers and other corporate SL users prefer to stay in an environment under their control.
I also don't believe IBM is trying to develop applications and services for current SL residents - the market is way too small to be interesting. I think they're working on products for their current or future customers, using Second Life as a differentiator. The result will be new SL residents, using the environment as a business tool, *not* as a place to hang out with other residents.
Am I being too harsh?
I didn't say anything about public sandboxes. The point is that I believe that they see themselves as separate from the community, and maybe the community sees them the same way. Is that what IBM consciously wants to do? If it is, I wouldn't understand why.
'Servicing and not willing to be serviced holds true'. It's not about sandboxes, that's only one very small aspect of community.
Whatever they are working on, until it becomes interesting for me - doesn't interest me. The CICS thing gave me pause, and the $100 million got everyone's attention.
In the larger world, that SCO's stuff is getting tossed is good news, and I congratulate IBM. But does the sakoku policy work in SecondLife? Time will tell, but it's not giving me warm fuzzies. Of course, I'm not in the loop - but I'm betting a lot of people aren't in the loop.
I Did Run into one IBMer at NBC
The eightbar crowd was out - or some new folks for eightbar, whatever - and one IBM guy. So I chatted with him for a bit, but he had to head back to the 'motherland'. He teleported out, then back a bit later, then... poof. Gone again. Along with the eightbar folks.
I said hi, but... was ignored, it seemed. I suspect that they were on voice, or whatever - still, it's polite that when people say hi one at least says 'hello' back.
Or maybe I'm being too harsh.
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