The rush to Second Life is like the internet in the mid-1990s

A nicely designed room with floating pods to sit in, seemed a lot more imaginative than CNET's facility where I previously attended a conference. This one was a meeting of Web Montag, a crowd of people (initially brought together by Tim Bonnemann but is now self organising) who share an interest in everything web; they  meet in cities across Germany, Silicon Valley and Second Life.

Sebastian Küpers of Pixelpark talked us through his presentation slides outlining Second Life demographics, economy and a few case studies: Nissan, Adidas, Reuters and others I had heard about before. But it was news to me when he mentioned PA Consulting Group, where I used to work as a management consultant.

PA took its time establishing a web presence in the 1990s: Several local offices had published their own websites before a global site was launched. For those of us advising clients about opportunities of the internet, not having a corporate website was a bit of a moot point.

In contrast, PA is amongst the first professional services companies to establish a presence in a virtual world. The architecture is light and airy while borrowing distinctive themes from the firm's HQ building, located in London's Buckingham Palace Road. Communicating with PA consultants' avatars present, I learned that the facility was designed by Rivers Run Red, a London-based brand consultancy whose Second Life clients include the BBC, Adidas and Disney. An official launch is planned for 29 November 2006.

Companies buy space in Second Life in order to market their brand (Dell, Adidas, countless others), be seen as innovative (Reuters and others), reach out to their alumni or other communities (IBM) or as a novel internal teleconferencing and social tool (Reuters). A few have set out to experiment with products or environments that are difficult to replicate in "real life".

It all reminds me of the beginnings on the web. Some of us will remember the fascination with typing some complicated url into an early browser only to see an image of a coffee pot in a lab in Cambridge. Soon after, companies scrambled to create websites: Little more than outtakes from their annual reports. But after countless experiments and a financial bubble, we have a web that we could not imagine living without today. Let the experiment continue.

Tags: Second Life virtual worlds web 2.0 webmontag PA Consulting Group marketing brand innovation

Comments

[MEL]

I wonder when, and if companies would allow employees to access Second Life as there may be business benefits.

[Lars Plougmann]

I could imagine it would take some time for many firms to open up for access to Second Life. First there is the firewall then the client software. It is probably going to be similar to the fight to allow instant messaging.