Tienen razón tanto Putting people first (el blog de Experientia), en Second thoughts on Second Life, como Wagner James Au, en Debunking 5 Business Myths about Second Life, cuando se refieren a la exageración que supone la explosión de comentarios, artículos y márketing negativo sobre Second Life que ha aparecido en las últimas semanas. Pero una parte de esas críticas tienen bastante fundamento, tal como discutía hace poco en ... Y los avatares abandonaron Second Life y Avatares fuera de Second Life ... el vídeo.
En el otro lado de la balanza se encuentran los aspectos positivos, potenciales o ya reales. Yo identificaba su utilidad en eventos y especialmente como entorno de aprendizaje así como su potencial para el márketing. Wagner James Au, que durante varos años trabajó para Linden Lab como periodista “empotrado” en SL, proporciona datos para rebatir 5 grandes mitos con que se identifica SL: 1) su tamaño es intermedio (aprox. 500,000 usuarios activos), 2) la tasa de visitas a los sitios comerciales es similar a la que obtienen los banners en la web, 3) la mayor parte de los ingresos de Linden Lab (generados por al venta de “islas”) no proceden de sitios publicitarios, 4) los sabotajes a sitios corporativos no son tan frecuentes ni graves como aparece habitualmente a los medios, y 5) la proporción de avatares dedicados a actividades sexuales es, según diferentes estimaciones, de un máximo de un 6% y un 18% de los sitios muestran contenido “para adultos”, cifras que posiblemente sean similares o inferiores a las del resto de Internet.
El artículo de Putting people first, identifica los usos no evidentes de SL como aquellas aplicaciones emergentes que pueden representar el mayor valor innovador de este mundo virtual. El mayor interés estaría en su utilización como un entorno experimental donde ensayar o “prototipar” nuevos paradigmas de interacción y comunicación. En este contexto existen 4 aplicaciones de gran interés:
1. Prototyping of new participatory communication paradigms often involving very targeted and selected communities. A lot of lectures take place in Second Life. In fact, more than 300 universities, including Harvard and Duke, use Second Life as an educational tool. Some educators conduct entire distance-learning courses there; others supplement classes. Also big companies such as IBM and Intel use these graphics-rich sites to conduct meetings among far-flung employees and to show customers graphical representations of ideas and products. IBM went even as far to take the unusual step of establishing official guidelines for its more than 5,000 employees who inhabit “Second Life” and other online universes… Even something simple as chat is an entirely different experience on Second Life, with the other person’s presence is no longer communicated through an MSN-style presence icon with a small photograph or drawing but instead through a full three-dimensional moving avatar.
2. Prototyping of new interaction paradigms. Researchers at MIT are building realistic training simulators in Second Life, often controlled through a Wiimote. Some are even creating simulations for companies, such as a medical-devices firm, a global-energy company focused on power-plant training, and a pest-control firm — all looking to reduce training costs. In the words of one researcher, “the ability to easily integrate a wide range of psychomotor activities with simulations running on standard computer platforms will change the ways people interact with computers.”
3. Experimentation in an unconventional digital environment. These virtual worlds may be primitive still, but if we think of it, we are already living in an enriched world where our interactions with companies and banks, institutions and universities, cities and public services, are no longer just based on a physical communication paradigm. Instead they have become highly mediated by technologies. This will continue to grow. Our interactions will not only become more mobile but also more involving, more three-dimensional, and more experiential...
4. Virtual laboratories to understand human behaviour. Also researchers are exploring Second Life and other virtual worlds. A recent article in the journal Science addresses how researchers are getting insights into real life by studying what people do in virtual worlds, suggesting that virtual worlds could help scientists studying ideas of government and even concepts of self, while other researchers are looking at how behaviour peculiar to online worlds differs from that in real life…
