New Media Reflections

The West Australian Police Department has taken a very interesting and progressive step to recruit new police officers. They have set up a place in Second Life. See article here.

I have always thought SL was best for simulations, demonstrations and meetings. I hadn’t considered the idea of recruitment, although companies like Kelly Services have been in SL for a while.

The WA Police equate the costs to a 2-3 days of television advertising. Their thought was that they would be working with new media, but would also reach the millions of people who show up in virtual worlds. They are paying someone to manage all this for them. I think if they spend some time learning the various aspects of working in a virtual world, they could save alot more money even by managing it themselves.

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I don’t think of HP as a particularly modern or progressive company. No reason really, just an image that has developed over time. I perceive them as reliable, dependable and producing high quality products. But I would never have classified them as a company likely to succeed with Web 2.0 marketing; that is marketing in a “viral” way having interactive participation comprising the majority of the campaign.

After reading an article from Venture Beat Digital Media I was completely surprised at the simplicity, complete cooperation and win-win results derived from giving away 31 of their underselling Dragon model computers to “influential” bloggers (I wasn’t one of them), who were to give them away to their readers. This apparently generated a storm of interest and subsequently, purchases bringing a high level of sales, not just for the previously underselling model, but for the other HP machines too. In exchange, the bloggers got alot of publicity, and generated alot of cross-linking and I’m sure increased readership. To me, the most amazing part, was that, aside from giving away 31 computers, it didn’t cost HP a dime.

This represents the best of how modern social media can be used for marketing purposes, and I’m glad that HP did well with that. It demonstrated a good knowledge of the medium of blogging and led the way in demonstrating how a respectable and responsible marketing campaign can be conducted.

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OK, so am I the only one who doesn’t get this? What is this a commercial for? Bill gates is getting chummy with Jerry? It’s a commercial about nothing. Even though Jerrry’s show was touted to be a show about nothing, it was indeed about everything from relationships to desires and how we choose to live our lives. It seems Jerry might have finally succeeded in creating something that was about nothing. If this was supposed to be a Microsoft PC commercial I think they should fire a bunch of people and hire me. Actually they should hire the people who do Apple’s commericals.

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Social networking sites are relatively new to us. I think we don’t yet know how we want to utilize them. Originally Facebook was just a social network for college students, then it opened up to anyone. For the most part it is a social space with friends finding each other there and communicating, playing games and showing photographs.

I’ve noticed a trend toward using the space for affinity groups. This changes the use from just friendly/social to more of a forum. This can apparently lead to some unfriendly activity. Just recently my cousin deleted my fiance from his facebook friends because of her political views. They are at very opposite ends politically. His site looks like Obama headquarters and hers is heavily McCain. This was very hurtful to her. It is in fact a rejection. Nobody likes to be rejected. Unfortunately it leaves the impression that Obama supporters won’t consider, look at, or tolerate opposing points of view, and will impose censorship. I’m sure that’s not correct, but look at what can happen from a simple affinity group difference of opinion.

Using your facebook page as a political forum is fine, why not? But does this mean we can forget about the social aspects and ramifications surrounding our use of it? I know potitics and respect don’t ususally live together, but perhaps in our future use of places like Facebook, we can remember to still be friendly and agree to disagree.

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Here you see my Second Life Avatar, Kram Sidran. He has been my virtual presence in there for two years now. Today is his Rez Day, which in SL is the equivalent of a birthday, or the day your avatar was created. It’s been quite an adventure, and hard to believe that someone like me with an active creative mind can still be involved in Second Life and not be bored. On the contrary, I continue to find it engaging. I’m still learning new skills, have become quite adept at creating new things, and still have a nice social network, including some friends I have had there for almost the whole time. I even met my real life girlfriend, or her avatar, in SL, and we have been in a RL relationship for a year now.

Now, I realize this brings up many questions and accusations such as “get a life”, but I do have a rather nice one thank you, and a second one in addition. I enjoy sharing my experiences and thoughts about having a second life, and where this is all heading. Feel free to comment and start an exchange of ideas.

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The Canadian Border Guards are now being trained for conducting border crossing interviews in the virtual world of Second Life. Having been involved with Second Life for a while, I have always thought that simulations would be one of its greatest uses. Apparently such simulations are working for the border guards. As stated in an article in New World Notes there has been a 28% improvement in test scores since practicing their skills in Second Life. The earlier scores averaged around 58%, and the scores after utilizing SL were about 86%.

I know there has also been emergency response training in SL, and some dental training. I hope others see the value in risk-free simulations where a variety of scenarios can be played out, promoting education and skills.

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Today saw the launch of Google’s web Browser know as Chrome. As if Google isn’t pervasive enough… Well, I’m not complaining, really. After all, most of what I do on the web starts with Google. I even have a personal Google homepage and Gmail. I’m not impressed with Gmail at all; in fact I much prefer Yahoo. I’m also not impressed with Lively, which is a childish introduction for social networking. Google Earth is quite impressive though. So, I’m curious what Google is intending with entering the Browser market. I think most of us are using Internet Explorer or Firefox, with a few Opera fans out there. I have seen some impressive mashing tools such as Flock and Ubiquity. I wonder if that is the route Google plans to take. Well, I’ve downloaded it and will see what it does. Stay tuned…

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