Friday, December 28, 2007

What is it about Second Life...?

While the bloom is off the rose with Second Life, it is far from gone. In order to understand the power of Second Life, you need to see my 15-year-old son. He spends hours on Second Life, talking live with friends. They prowl through this virtual world and meet people from all over the country…and the world. And, most importantly, they collaborate and learn from one another. They build castles and buildings and vehicles. They have fun making each others’ avatars dance and do other crazy things. They learn as a group, continuously honing their 3D modeling and scripting skills. I see a major trend here in collaborative creativity and collaborative learning. Creative and training professionals would be well advised to keep a close watch on SL and other emerging virtual worlds.

Mass Creativity

Crowdsourcing…a way to tap the creativity of the masses. Will it make us better creatively, or worse? Some would argue that by enabling anyone to participate in the creative business we will be compromising the industry. Probably true in the short run. But typically this evens out and once the novelty of everyone being a creative wears off the best work bubbles up. Personally, I feel the more people participating in creative endeavors, the better. We need to raise the overall creativity of everyone in business today. It’s only through exercise that we’ll improve. Meanwhile, I enjoy visiting iStockPhoto and imagining that I’m a photographer...

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

The Realistic Visionary

I like to think of myself as visionary yet realistic. Being in the ad agency business I’ve attended my fair share of meetings where ideas were discussed, all while everyone in the room knew the client didn’t have the means to do it. While I value the power of blue sky brainstorming, I’m not sure of the value of coming away with a laundry list of ideas that can never be implemented.

That having been said, never underestimate the power of using those ideas as a springboard to a great strategy or creative concept. This seems to be the part that we frequently never get to. At some point we need to look at the ideas and apply the filter of “now, what can we do with these ideas to solve X, knowing our constraints.” We need to consider the tactical issues. Do we have the budget? Can we do it ourselves? Can we hire it out? All while not letting the complexity of execution bog us down.

It’s a challenge, but blue sky ideas tempered with a dose of reality can net far more concrete results. It’s interesting how often the best ideas in an ideation session come about when everyone is sick of brainstorming the topic.

Friday, February 23, 2007

What is it about Second Life?

Second Life is getting a lot of press. Marketers are experimenting in Second Life. With its relatively small population, why are companies putting so much time, effort and money into Second Life? Many industry pundits are beginning to ask this question.

In order to really understand the power of Second Life, you need to see my 14-year-old son. He spends hours on Second Life, talking to friends. They chat live with one another using Xfire and spend hours roaming Second Life. They build staffs, wings, tip jars. And throw fireballs and cast spells. They cause each others’ avatars to dance and do other crazy things. They prowl through this virtual world and meet people from all over the country…and the world. They talk, they interact and they socialize.

So, why is it that the industry sees the power in My Space, yet seems mystified by Second Life? It’s the ultimate in social networking. William Gibson fans see it as the first iteration of his famous online world. So, get with it. Get in there. Get a Second Life. And if you can figure out how to make my avatar stop dancing, please let me know.