Living Simply

A favorite blog is Zen Habits. It's author, Leo Babauta, advocates what he calls the 'minimalist life', i.e. no stuff to clutter your environment, your mind, or your life. Yesterday's post, by guest Barrie Davenport, looked at the problem this raises. Most of us love our stuff. Some of us, me included, love to shop and get *more* stuff, especially shoes.

I agree that we can have too much stuff. I also believe, however, that some of the things we acquire add significant value and often meaning to our lives (probably not shoes, except maybe hiking boots). They lend beauty. They remind us of special people or moments. They make tasks easier or more pleasant.

The problem isn't having things. It's having too many of the wrong things.

Davenport includes a list to think about when tempted to buy something new, or when looking to get rid of that clutter of stuff. Keep something when...

• It brings beauty into your life and stirs your soul.
• It supports a passion or hobby.
• It helps bring family and friends together in a creative, meaningful way.
• It educates and enlightens.
• It makes life profoundly simpler so that you can pursue more meaningful things.
• It helps someone who is sick or incapacitated.
• It is useful and necessary for day-to-day life.
• It’s part of a meaningful tradition or a reminder of a special event.

Lamp: James Floor Lamp: Caryn Kinzig and Susan Kinzig: Mixed-Media Floor Lamp - Artful Home

Virtual Worlds: Rest Stop or Destination

Yesterday I gave a talk as part of the MetaMeets 2010 conference. I was supposed to be there, but my flight was cancelled when volcanic ash caused the closure of Irish airspace, so I ended up speaking via LiveStream. Although there were some technical challenges (no audio on my end!) I was glad I was able to participate. It's the first time I've spoken about virtual worlds since leaving Linden Lab in February, 2009, and I enjoyed the opportunity to think about how things have changed, or haven't changed.

Following is the complete text of my talk. I'd love to hear what you think about the potential and future of virtual worlds like Second Life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My name is Robin Harper – in Second Life I’m known as Taliesin Protagonist.

Some of you may also know me as Robin Linden. I spent 7 years at Linden Lab and came to know some of you very well.

This conference is geared toward exploring Myths, particularly those about virtual worlds.

And since I was originally meant to kick off the discussion, I’ve started with the big question: are virtual worlds dying (again)?

Or are at least limited in growth potential as a business and consumer experience? I'm not ready to say if this is a myth, but certainly there seems to be a big shift underway.

Tateru Nino, Massively correspondent, and creator of the blog Dwell On It tracks Second Life stats. After huge growth in 2006 following a change to the registration process, Second Life has stabilized around 1 million past-60-day unique users.

Contrast this with Facebook, which has grown in a few short years to over 400million users, with a share of visits each week equal to Google and where over 50% of users log-in each day.

So I'd like to explore today, and during these two days’ conversation, whether virtual worlds can ultimately become a destination or if they were just a pleasant roadstop on the way to something else?

Some questions to think about: What will impact the choices that people make? If SL is the leader among virtual worlds, and growth is so elusive, will virtual worlds be able to get beyond relatively stagnant population into the mainstream? Would everyone flock to SL if only it was easier to get in? to use?

What does mainstream really mean?

Ordinary people. Lots of them.

A brief digression. Many of you may be familiar with The Chasm Model – Geoffrey Moore – that draws from the difference between early adopter and mainstream user psychology.

Where one is intrigued by new technologies the other is interested in technology because it solves a problem. They are referred to as pragmatics for this reason.

So the first consideration, if in fact mainstream adoption is the goal, is how to grow beyond the early adopter market. If problem solving is the key, what problem is being solved by virtual environments?

Let’s start with the role technology is playing in affecting mainstream use. In other words, the first question to ask about mainstream reluctance is whether it is an accessibility problem?

At the beginning, way back in 2002, hardware requirements were a big challenge. For the most part it was only artists, gamers and technologists who had the computing power to run Second Life. Today despite improvements in graphics processing and nearly universal broadband penetration, accessibility remains an enormous challenge, and is getting more difficult with the increased use of laptops and notebooks, and now the iPad.

The Lab is addressing the accessibility challenge, launching a new viewer, integrating the web into the new user experience, focusing on improving the initial orientation, and improving search functionality.

These are all good things, but in my view, not sufficient for mainstream acceptance. Technology can help, but it's not enough.

Along these lines Daniel Terdiman asked recently - where is the innovation? He was looking for a technical answer, I think. Something that would cause more people to engage in virtual worlds in numbers like they’ve engaged in social games.

But is it really about technical innovation?

Raph Koster said in his response to Daniel that, "The innovation lies in making something that matters to ordinary people." And Raph speaks from experience. Metaplace the virtual world had roughly 19,000 active users when it closed early in 2010.

Metaplace then introduced "Island Life" on the Facebook platform, and eclipsed that number in the first week. " Island Life" now boasts over seven hundred thousand users. Same art, similar perspective, tried and true game format.

So I think the next question we need to ask is what can we learn from Facebook?

First, real life connections matter, and are the starting point for the growth of community. And it’s not just about reconnecting with old friends or remote relatives. Facebook, along with other social networks, has changed "the evolution of first impressions". It’s possible now to ease into a new relationship – to find common ground and manage the pace of the experience. In fact, to begin to develop a relationship online, before taking it offline.

In a virtual world, on the other hand, the cover is deeper, the immersion sometimes frightens, fantasy often obscures the reality, and it takes a long time to build enough trust for virtual relationships to spill over into real life.

Second, Facebook does a good job of discoverability, and being able to find people and come together around common interests is a primary driver of engagement in the social network.

We all know it can be a challenge to find people of like mind, or places of interest, in a virtual space. It takes perseverance and a willingness to explore in an unfamiliar environment. Early adopters by nature are far more willing to do this type of exploring than the pragmatic mainstream user.

Third, Facebook requires a minimal time commitment. Even if you log in daily, 10 minutes lets you catch up with friends and family, comment or just indicate some shared understanding with “Like”. The fact that the connection is asynchronous doesn’t matter. Asynchronicity facilitates the connection -- a meaningful way to stay in touch or reconnect.

Virtual worlds are compelling, fully realized environmental experiences. It’s pretty hard to have any sort of meaningful experience in 10 minutes.

Finally, Facebook is about sharing, especially images, music, events, and games. Everything in Facebook is designed with sharing in mind.

HBS recently ran an article about how people are using Facebook, and, "The biggest discovery: pictures. 'People just love to look at pictures,' says [Mikolaj] Piskorski. 'That's the killer app of all online social networks. Seventy percent of all actions are related to viewing pictures or viewing other people's profiles.'"

It should be no surprise then, that among the first things to be built in Second Life were galleries, where people posted their pictures and artwork, and that musical gatherings continue to be one of the most popular activities. Sharing is the killer app.

So based on this quick assessment, my hypothesis is that the next level of social engagement and community are most likely to spur the growth of virtual environments within the pragmatic mainstream, because unlike Facebook a virtual space can open new opportunities for human interaction. This is because unlike Facebook virtual environments provide persistence, presence and place.

Virtual environments can

• redefine the Great Good Place – the special gathering place outside of work and home where people can come to relax and share
• expand boundaries, allowing for experiences generally unavailable within the real world
• enable cultural sharing
• create new ways to think about oneself in the context of 'community'

For this to happen, however, here’s a starter list of considerations that I think are critical, and which are being contemplated to some degree already. In combination with accessibility and ease of use, these conditions move us much closer to sufficiency.

1. Acknowledge the importance of real names and make them easy to use and search
2. Set expectations among new users for understanding immersion. It’s kind of like a space lock – slow adaptation to a new environment.
3. Use education, art and work as drivers. Although there are extraordinary educational projects in place, beautiful artworks and some corporate use, supporting the expansion of these use cases to legitimatize virtual worlds should be a high priority.
4. And finally, help people find purpose – through communities of interest, connections to real world friends and families, and the ability to share lives.

What is it that Second Life can take from the relative success that Metaplace has had in moving from the “virtual world” space to the “Facebook” space?

First, that access to a target audience predisposed to computer communities is a huge help in finding potential users with a higher propensity for trial and adoption.

Second, is the lower technical hurdle to adoption. Second Life has not evolved into a less onerous technical spec as the most popular hardware platforms have moved toward more portable, lower high-end graphics requirements. Second Life still cannot even run reliably on MacBook’s, let alone Apple’s popular handheld units.

And finally, is motivation of the user, the purpose. Changing from a virtual world, generally open-ended usage model to one that was game-driven provided a handle for entry to Metaplace’s "Island Life". The enormous success that Facebook games have enjoyed is evidence that game-play is still a critical component of adoption of computer-based social spaces.

For Second Life to become resurgent and again become a destination, it is going to have to get to the people most willing to give it a try --- go to where the people are by tapping into Facebook; it is going to need to substantially lower the technical barrier to entry --- go to where the hardware is; and it is going to have to find a way to bring purpose to users beyond the educational, art and corporate spheres where it has clear application --- go to where users' existing social networks are and make the community real.

Will virtual worlds ever become mainstream? Can they survive if they don’t? Will education, art and work lead the way? I don’t know the answers, but I’d love to hear what you all think.

MetaMeets 2010: Slides

Here is a link to my prezi for MetaMeets 2010. I'll post my speech shortly.

Do you think of your house as an investment?

We love our house. We have no interest in leaving it. And yet most of our net worth is tied up in the house. The current project I'm working on (www.lifetuner.org) has made me very aware of the amount of money needed for retirement. I'm not sure where all that money is supposed to come from, if not from the house.

I saw this post today from Seth Godin about what happens when you fall in love with your biggest investment -- irrational behavior. Uh oh.

Pentatonic Scales

Last month I heard the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir sing a hauntingly beautiful pentatonic 'chance' piece. There's something about the underlying tones that is both reassuringly predictable but still open to exploration and creative construction.

Today I saw this video featuring Bobbie McFerrin bringing a pentatonic scale to life for an audience at the World Science Festival. Enjoy.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.

Richard Bartle's Embedded World

I went to check out Richard Bartle's embedded Metaplace world and found a really fun puzzle game. While certainly not a virtual world in the 3D, immersive, walk around with avatars sense, this example shows the breadth of options it's possible to explore with Metaplace.

ThisMoment

I'm experimenting with This Moment, a new photo and video sharing tool. Here's my first "moment". I'm disappointed that the embed window doesn't auto-fit to the space. I can't figure out how to make the pics show in full, instead of part-way through the photo.

Magic

The other day my friend JM told me about Ocarina and I downloaded it to my iPhone. Now I'm sitting and listening to people in Hawaii playing Christmas carols. A little while ago I listened to LonelyOne experimenting in New York somewhere. And Whyn in Hawaii is playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

I've been a believer in online community for a long time. Meeting people and making new friends from all over the world is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job at Linden Lab. But I'm astounded at the magic of hearing a melody being played in Indonesia and imagining that person sending their little tune around the world to me.

This shouldn't be

It shouldn't be possible that a highly organized group, faith-based no less, can raise money and help to pass a ballot initiative in another state. And yet it's becoming clear that the passage of California's Prop.8 defining marriage as between a man and a woman, was made largely possible by the organized efforts of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City.

I was heartened to see that I'm not the only one who feels this way; that members of the Mormon Church also recognize the role their church leaders played in passing a ballot proposition that so blatently denies same sex couples the opportunity to build a family.

This comment was posted in response to Judith Warner's latest blog entry.

I am so sorry that so many people in California (and elsewhere) believed the lies and distortions paid for and distributed by the people and organizations pushing for Prop 8’s passage. I was heartsick to find the names of friends and relatives on the Mormon “big donor” list. The “No on 8″ campaign seemed completely blindsided by the influx of money from outside California. Now there are demonstrations, now there is energy, but too late.

Throughout this entire sorry spectacle, I still have not heard one cogent, logical, sensible argument about how gay marriage would hurt my marriage or anyone else’s marriage.

The courts will have to overturn Prop 8 on the grounds that it violates gays’ fundamental rights. Overturning it will enrage the pro-Prop 8 groups, who will mount yet another costly campaign. For Prop 8 alone, the latest figures only with respect to Mormon participation show that 59,000 families donated some $77 million — the lion’s share. Now Mormons are unhappy that their chapels and temples are protest sites. They expected that the targets of their Salt Lake leaders’ policies would quietly accept having their rights taken away?

As a final thought, directed to my Mormon family and friends: the LDS church’s 13th Article of Faith states, “We believe in being honest, true, … benevolent, and in doing good to all men….” How is printing, disseminating, emailing, and telephoning messages filled with fear-based untruths and distortions being “honest and true”? How is taking away other people’s rights being “benevolent and … doing good to all men”?

Unfortunately, as I know all too well from my own several decades of devoted participation, Mormons place obedience to their leaders over listening to their own hearts and consciences, and over thinking for themselves. And as with civil rights for blacks, and the ERA for women, the Mormon church once again finds itself on the wrong side of history and morality.

— mofembot in France

Tears of Joy

Five days later, and the excitement and joy hasn't abated.

There are a few times in my life that I remember as defining historical events, where it was evident that something momentous was happening which would change us all. Some were frightening or sad -- the assassinations and riots in the 60's, the end of the VietNam war and Nixon's resignation, and more recently the horror of 9/11.

But the last event of such significance that was so filled with hope was the fall of the Berlin wall almost 20 years ago.

On Tuesday night something changed. Everywhere crowds of people were in the streets, dancing and cheering, with tears running down their faces. Can anyone remember seeing hundreds of people shouting with joy in front of the White House in any election in the past? Five days later we still have economic challenges, climate change fears and an abysmal health care system. And yet there's something different.

Six days ago we wondered if it would ever be possible for us to overcome the enormous problems we face, and what sort of world would be left to our grandchildren.

Today we are realizing that our grandchildren will know a world that has the potential to be so much better simply because we have allowed ourselves to walk away from prejudice and divisive stereotypes. Today I feel a renewed sense of possibility. And all because of one remarkable man who has managed to convince millions that things can be better with the simple words "Yes we can".

In London and wondering about America

Traveling again, and I'm finally having time to catch up with reading. Just saw this over on Cory's blog. When I see these videos, or others of McCain/Palin rallies inciting mob hatred, I just shudder. If anything happens to Obama, regardless of the election outcome, these two politicians will have some serious soul searching to do.

And the world really is flat

When I first heard that Iceland was facing bankruptcy and trying to borrow money from Russia I was confused. Isn't Iceland the country with the showcase energy policy and one of the highest standards of living in Europe, if not the world?

Thomas Freidman offers a solid explanation today, and shows once again that we are all connected and getting more so every day.

BART Sightings

Something unusual is happening on BART.

Last week, at the end of a very long day, I joined the crowd on the dusty platform waiting for the train to take me home. Standing near the elevator, which makes a convenient marker mid-platform, I stared down the tunnel to see if any light was shining. As I strained to see into the dark, I became aware of an odd sort of bouncing and twirling movement to my side, with an accompanying tapping sound.

Turning to see more clearly, yet trying not to be conspicuous in my staring, I saw a young woman. Under most circumstances she would be unremarkable. Wavy, dark hair, a non-descript outfit, an aged backpack. Eyes closed and listening to a tune in her head, she was in the midst of performing an Irish jig. Arms rigid by her side, feet moving in the intricate patterns of the jig, she danced to the unheard music.

I was certain she would stop quickly, because it was obvious that the other commuters on the platform, like me, found this impromptu dance a bit unusual. Maybe it was the pack on her back, flopping up and down and looking pretty uncomfortable. Maybe it was just the incongruity of the lively dance on the platform, the absence of music loud against the crowd noise. But she danced on, oblivious to the stares of the passers-by. Then a train came, the doors opened, and she was gone.

I didn't think of it again until this morning. My train pulled into one of the above-ground stations and there, on the platform, dressed in a pale skirt with tailored jacket, was a young woman jumping rope. Without a rope. I watched her jump in a steady rhythm until the train pulled away and I couldn't see her any longer.

I'm not sure what to make of these sightings. I guess it could be boredom, or the pent-up energy that comes from sitting behind a desk all day. I wonder if it's come to this, that the only time to exercise is while waiting for a train?! Or nice to think, maybe it was joy.

Working for Quality of Life

A friend of mine recently admonished me to remember that we "work for our quality of life". This thought has stayed with me since he said it because I find that it's hard to believe. It seems true in principle, and certainly it's true aspirationally. But, is this aphorism really true?

Those of us who work very long hours often have to find quality of life in the work itself. It's not a trade-off -- work hard and then reap the reward later. Instead, work becomes life. And when the work fails to reward, or if it involves struggle or worry, there is no quality of life. Even when not engaged in working, there's the nagging, gnawing feeling at the edge of consciousness that all is not well.

I find that when work fails to reward I have to work twice as hard to set things aside and enjoy the peace and beauty of the day. Instead of working for quality of life, I'm fighting for a few moments of tranquility.

What I take away from this is how important it is to do work that you love, and when that changes, it's time to reconsider options in order to put life back into balance, with quality and perspective.

So that's what it's all about

Sometimes I learn things in the most circuitous ways. I've read Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende, and even Yann Martel, but it took George Bush deciding to mimic Ronald Reagan and buying a "ranch" in Crawford, Texas for me to finally understand.

"Magical realism demonstrates that the most ostensibly mundane objects, examined closely enough, begin to assume phantasmagorical qualities." The literary technique known as 'magical realism' adds dimension and insight to how we think about the world around us. Something I'm going to learn more about.

The Art of Possibility

I recently attended the Virtual World Conference 2008 in New York City. It's been five years since the first State of Play conference in 2003, where it was all about big ideas. The possibility space for virtual worlds seemed enormous, and the challenge was all in how to build the structure and law to support this society with so much potential.

OK, maybe that was pretty idealistic.

But this most recent conference was largely a sad statement about what can happen when people start to channel their imaginations into commercial realities. Instead of thinking about how to shape and protect the civil rights of avatars the legal track was keynoted by "The Top 10 Things a Brand Should Know About Virtual Worlds". And the gentle folks from Mattel asserted that in fact a virtual world is a plaything.

"We fundamentally believe that virtual worlds are no different from CD-ROM games and are no different from toys," said Scothon. "It is a toy. It just doesn't come in plastic."

I continue to believe that there is genuine potential in the virtual world experience to change the way that we work, think, and connect around the globe. The art of possibility needs to be expanded and explored. We should be focused on understanding how this new way of coming together will allow us to build a global community with all the opportunity that suggests. Instead, the industry gets together and the focus is on building narrow experiences whose only purpose is "brand extension".

How disappointing.

History Will Not Judge?

Anthony LaFauce is worrying that all the ideas and thoughts expressed in millions of blog posts and tweets will be lost to the future because of the impermanence of digital media. An interesting idea, although I believe those ideas worth saving are generally saved in a variety of ways, many much more permanent than a tweet.

And yesterday I listened to a podcast where the question was whether personal virtue can make a difference in global warming. One theory says no; the earth will go on regardless of our efforts, and possibly without us, and new life will come about to replace us and those species we take down with us. The natural order of things. I have a feeling this is true, although I suspect if everyone were to agree the result could be a hopeless sort of thinking that there's no point in trying.

The interesting thing about both these existential questions is the self-centered nature of them. What if my ideas disappear? What if my society/my culture/my species disappears? I tend to think the more relevant concern and far more difficult behavior is learning to make the best unselfish choices you can, day to day, moment to moment.

Strangely Evaporated

I first heard these words in the context of a dream.

A woman (me, not me) was with her friend in the midst of a snow storm. The friend died, peacefully. The woman looked at her and thought, she doesn't look like herself. She looks strangely evaporated.

It reminded me of my father when he died. He didn't look asleep. He looked...absent. Strangely evaporated.

Boys will be boys?

A couple of weeks ago a story appeared in Wired Magazine about a group of people who specialize in organized attacks on digital worlds, known as griefing. This group has been very active in targeting individuals and groups who they believe are easy victims. They do this under the guise of "because we can", and celebrate a culture of lawlessness and hate that if done in the real world would at best be considered vandalism, and at worst vicious gang attacks on peoples' persons and property.

When considered objectively, what these people are doing is interfering with the ability of a company to offer a service to their customers. By forcing people to leave their virtual land, crashing servers, and filling areas with hate-filled content they cross a line which would never be tolerated in the real world. Many would say that it's up to the world administrator rather than real world police to deal with these people. The recourse that the company has is to cancel accounts, but in an age of digital deviance, this action is a temporary solution at best.

I don't think we can wait to agree on roles and responsibilities for deciding what the consequences should be for this sort of behavior. Whether it is prosecuted as denial of service attacks, instigating viruses in software, or even disturbing the peace, there needs to be a recognition that these people are behaving in a way that negatively impacts the rights of both the virtual world providers and their customers.

Checklists

There was a story in the New Yorker recently by Atul Gawande, a physician who has been studying the value of using checklists for critical procedures in ICUs. He's discovered that the simple act of requiring doctors to follow checklists, with nurses making sure each step is taken, has resulted in dramatic decreases in the ICU death rate.

I'm going to make sure that any hospital I check into uses checklists.