Final Business Presentations: Body Inc.

Body Inc.


The Body Inc. group consisted of Zach Guido, Raffaele Parisi, Justin Blais, Rebecca Kutner, and Karen Whigham. Their idea of a Second Life tatoo parlor is very interesting. Their avatars were dressed to impress and their presentation went really well.

Second Hope: LOOK ALIVE!!!

While they did produce a great presentation, it looks like some members of Second Hope need a posture lesson. Your trying to sell a business, LOOK ALIVE!!!!!!!

Final Business Presentations: Second Hope

Second Hope



The Second Hope group consisted of Ryan Bean, Bryan Savoie, Kathryn Honikel, and Kathleen Jackura.

The Second Hope group showed off a very nice presentation set up. Before entering the presentation, you teleport up to this room (above). Second Hope gave a great presentation and I look forward to seeing how the business pans out.

Interesting screenshot

During one of the business presentations today, I came upon a great screen shot opportunity. One of our visitors, an actual Second Life investor, seemed very interested in what she was sitting next to. Check out her reaction.

Final Business Presentations: Total Assessment Group

TAG: Total Assessment Group

The TAG group consisted of the following members: Anne Pelkey, Brad Fuller, and Peter Inthirakoth.

The TAG business team created a very unique presentation area with 9 screens. Their presentation was well thought out and was very good considering the small amount of people in the group.

Matthew Anthony with one of his virtual turtles!

Matthew Anthony: Second Life Terraformer and former RIT student

-Matthew Anthony with his newest project on his shoulder, virtual turtle pets

-Matthew Anthony presenting in the RIT Island Amphitheater

In class today, we sat in the RIT Island Amphitheater in Second Life to listen to Matthew Anthony. He gave a very interesting talk about his experiences in Second Life. Matthew makes his living by selling virtual goods and services within Second Life. He has been part of a lot of projects and is currently working on new projects. For one of his Co-ops at RIT, he worked with different companies helping them integrate into Second Life and other virtual worlds. He has worked with companies like Warner Bros. and Budweiser. Also, Anthony was a part of constructing over half of the RIT island. He helped create the Amphitheater that we sat in for his presentation. His latest project is selling virtual pet turtles. These turtles have been marketed through social media and just word of mouth. These turtles are a work in process and the features of these will continue to grow. The great thing about them is you can breed them to keep making new colors. From this venture, Matthew is able to live comfortably in New York City (not the cheapest place to live!) These turtles have been a really big hit in the Second Life community. Listening to a success story like this makes me believe that making a living in Second Life is possible!

Sparkz Matchmaking business plan in the works

As the end of the RIT quarter nears, we at Sparkz Matchmaking are beginning to work hard at finishing our preliminary business plan. The plan is going to demonstrate our great idea for a Second Life dating service. I am looking forward to seeing this all on paper, because I think we have great ideas for the business. We still have many things to sort out, such as business models and revenue models. Also, we still need to discuss marketing campaigning ideas. I am also really excited about our mascot, Sparkz Violet. I think we can use her to do many great things to promote our service. The plan is due in less than two weeks, and we will present the plan at that time. I like our group because we are all excited to do this project. Over the next 10-14 days, we will be hard at work in the RIT library. Enough blogging, its time to write a business plan!

Branding myself 'inworld'

While I have established many web based branding outlets, I have yet to bring these to avatars inside of Second Life. With my personal branding board, avatars can learn a lot more about Matthew Ixito. My personal branding board links avatars directly to my twitter page and this very blog. Eventually the board will link avatars to the Sparkz Matchmaking blog that is still being planned out. The links are not working yet, mostly because I still do not understand how to work with scripts inside of Second Life(or anywhere for that matter). My overall goal for this 'inworld' personal branding strategy is to earn a good reputation amongst fellow avatars. Through social media outlets such as facebook I have built up a good reputation amongst my peers. Now I am attempting to build that same reputation inside of Second Life. I believe that through exciting tweets and blogposts I can earn other avatars trust. If they trust me, then they may begin to trust anything I am affiliated in. This can bring great rewards for Sparkz Matchmaking. We are selling relationship, so why not develop a good relationship with the Second Life community. Virtual dating is a touchy subject, and I believe trust is the most important factor in becoming a successful dating service. For now, fellow avatars can follow me on twitter and here on blogspot through my personal board 'inworld.' Above is a picture of my board. Feel free to check it out for real(or virtually depending how you think) inside of Second Life at the RIT island.

Sparkz Logo & Sparkz Violet

Continuing our Second Life dating service venture, we have created a logo as well as an avatar to represent out business. Sparkz Violet, who takes on the name o our service, was virtually born on Friday, January 22. We plan big things for her, and hopefully she will be very recognizable in the Second Life dating community!

Team!!!

Today in class we presented and listened to other teams presentations. All of the presentations were about the progress of each business. There will be more to come in another blog post, plus screenshots of each presentation. As for now, this is a screenshot of the great Sparkz Matchmaking team listening to another groups presentation.

Week 6: Session 1: Class INWORLD!

Today was a very exciting day for our class. For the fist time, Neil conducted a full class session in Second Life on the RIT Island. Aside from a few technical difficulties, everything went smoothly. The session concerned the importance of blogging. (What a great topic to talk about on a blog) We went through a brief history of blogging and how blogging has slowly become monetized. Blogging is very important to a virtual terraformer, as much of the Second Life world blogs as well. Gaining followers is a great way to gain attention to your business. Updated frequently gives customers a reason to constantly check the blog. There is a certain thrill involved when you see frequent updates from a blog that you are very interested in. We plan to start a business blog for our dating service. We want to make sure that we have just as strong of a presence on the Internet as we do in Second Life. Many(probably all) of our potential customer use web browsers, follow blogs, follow micro-blogs, and participate in several other forms of social media. Twitter is a great way to spread the word. Since I started to add #secondlife at the end of each of my tweets, I have gain a few "avatar" followers. The twitter accounts have pictures of avatars rather than real people. These must be the true "second lifers" because they sport their avatars outside of Second Life as well. Unfortunately we were not able to record todays session due to permissions on the RIT island. However there are some screenshots, and I have inserted one of them into this post. As we continue to learn Second Life, our next challenging task will be to report on the status of our business and our business plan inside of Second Life. We plan to do this next Monday, 1/25/10. There will be a post that covers the events of that presentation soon after Mondays session.

Exploring a Second Life Island: Lucky Designs

Just exploring some interesting second life islands. Lucky designs is really cool, its an island with a store of give away items. Most of the items you get are by winning a game, hence the name "lucky designs." There are also items to buy. I won speakers at the guess whats in the box stand!

More Pics From PhatLand

(Right) The walk in, the greeter was is in the white.

(UP) The entrance to Phat Cats dance Club.

(Left) A couple dancing. Hes wearing a tuxedo while shes wearing a wedding dress.

PhatLand

This weeks blog analyzes a community in Second Life. While doing some research, I came upon a list of the most popular islands on Second Life. I decided to visit an island called PhatLand. While the island offers a bunch of things, the main attraction is the dance club. I walked around the island for a little bit, not really noticing anything special, and except for the occasional person, there was no real traffic in terms of avatars. That is, of course, until I entered the Phat Cats Club. I dont think I was dressed properly. The club featured a long spiral staircase entrance. It took about 15-20 seconds just to find my way into the grand entrance. While entering, there was a greeter who welcomed every avatar into the club personally. An interesting thing I noticed was that for returning avatars, the greeter made sure to say that they are happy you are back with us. Not only do they welcome you, they somehow remember you. This happened quite a few times, so it was not a fluke. The club was mostly dancing and socializing. I observed many couples, dressed in full suits/dresses. The scene looked like it was a wedding. I began talking to some people, but all the responses I got were invitations to dance. It seemed like this was a place to find somebody else to interact with. Whether it be talking or "virtual" contact, the avatars here were looking for a partner above anything else. The whole place was well decorated. This seemed to be a very high end club. I was wearing a black t-shirt with jeans, probably not the proper attire. While you may not identify this as an actual community, I got the sense that the avatars here were frequent visitors. Almost like everybody knew everybody. Comments such as "Hey (x name), nice to see you again!" were common.

Our first In-World meeting

During class on 1/6, we had our first meeting in SL to discuss possible process to test the idea of our business

Week 3

In this weeks sessions, our team talked a lot about possible business models and possible business's. The trick was to identify which model would work best in Second Life. This was difficult for us because we are so new to SL. We developed a matrix that we used to filter out our business ideas. We met as a team on friday before christmas break, and in this meeting we completed the matrix and decided on a business. We chose to open an auction hall in SL. Charging users to post an item and possibly charging commission is a way for us to make a little money. I am excited to start this venture. I know it will be challenging because we are entering a very new business space, but I think it will be a very good experience. Over the break I plan to work on the first term paper, and look foward to working on the SL business with my teammates.

More screenshots from class

CNN's I-Report Island. A small conference area that I decided would be a nice screen shot.

CNN's I-Report Island. Me and Colt Gearbox(Joe) checking out the I-Report booth.

The Business Office!!

As promised, a pic of our office space. Its very bland, no logos or other cool stuff yet. But our front window is a waterfall, thats cool enough for now.

Week 2: Session 4: Guest Speaker

Using second life is getting a little easier. We are beginning to personalize our space in the business park.

For most of this session, we sat through a powerpoint presentation of how to create your own second life business. There are 2 main points that I got from the presentation. Location is key, and the bloggers run SL. I came away with other valuable info, but I think those two points are the most important. The girl presenting had a running SL business in the past. She sold virtual shoes. I don't think I'm going to be selling virtual shoes, but I guess what she did is the same for any product. The business needs to be on a populated island, next to a place of business that has a lot of traffic. The more traffic you get, the higher the sales. You need to keep updating new products, and you always need to run a blog. These things keep interest across the SL world. I'm not saying its easy, but I think with a little bit of work it can be done. How much money you make? Im not sure.

Met with the team on Thursday morning. Completed the slide assignment, got us thinking about some good stuff. I hope that out of the 5 of us, that we can come up with a great business idea.

Research Links!!! Click and Learn!

After doing some research, I have some links that may be of interest to all the terraformers out there. Click at your pleasure....

Virtual World Business- A blog/website dedicated to virtual worlds and their business opportunities

Second Life Demographics-Some recent SL demographics (courtesy of virtualworldbusiness.com)

Second Life Users-A graphic showing info on SL users (courtesy of virtualworldbusiness.com)

How to make money in Second Life- An interview of Linden Labs CFO on how to make money in SL

How to make money in Second Life(2)- Another article about making money in SL, this one from chickjunk.com

Tech Crunch- Tech website, frequent articles about technology

Week 2: Session 3: Teaming Up

During this session Neil put the class into four different teams. These are going to the teams that work for the next 10 weeks to put together a second life business plan. On the RIT island we selected a room in the business park and made it our own. This is going to be the place that we plan for the business. Pictures will come once the office is finalized. We still need a team name, and our idea is that we will name ourselves once we have selected our business idea. Thats the next step. Week 2 is still part of the adjusting phase, and I think that will continue for at least another few weeks. Second Life is totally different for all of and like all things we will only get better with time and practice. However, we should not only use this time to learn as much about second life as possible. Maybe more importantly, this time should be used to plan and brainstorm a business that will give us the best chance to make money. The group will meet at the end of the week, in which we begin to plan out how we will make this business. This session included a quick but extensive review of different marketing concepts. Neil then introduced the class to his 5 question problem solving method. This is going to be the method in which we create our business plans. All of the plans will include concepts, research, and business ideas that fall into the following questions:

1. Where are we now?

2. Where do we want to be?

3. How may we get there?

4. Which ways best?

5. How do we ensure safe arrival?

Using this method worked very well in internet marketing with Neil, so I trust that it will be the best way to complete this task. We learned that we will have a guest speaker next class. Apparently its a former RIT student that has created, maintained, and been successful at a business in Second Life. Im am looking forward to hearing her story, mostly because I think I can learn a lot from it.

Twin Towers in Second Life-Check out the memorial this person made in his NYC island

Second Life Business Ideas

How can one make money in second life? What type of business's can be made? Check out some ideas in this ARTICLE

THE TEAM!!!!

Teammates:
Sarah Kamiguwa
Terrance Qarnac
Colt Gearbox
Becca Zoilin
Matthew Ixito-ME!!

The class has been put into teams. Although we don't have a name yet, we are getting along very well in Second Life.

Hugh Hefner of Second Life!

This guys made over a million bucks selling "sex" on Second Life. Go figure, sex is the most popular industry in Second Life.

Week 1: Session 2: Second Life Seminar

And so begins the virtual life of Matthew Ixito. In today’s session, we finally got onto Second Life. We learned how to create and change your avatar and a small introduction on how to create new objects in second life. Most if not all of the work done in Second Life will be on the RIT Island. The island is full of things that will help us terraformers. There is the entire library database accessible on the island, there is a sandbox to create new objects, and there is even an amphitheater for Professor H. to conduct a virtual class. This whole program is new to me and all of the members of the class, so this session served as a Second Life tutorial. A couple of former RIT students who have started Second Life business’s gave the class a detailed explanation of many of the tools in Second Life. Many of the students, including myself, were focused on appearance. A couple of us even went to malls in the Second Life world and got free clothes. So students had different outfits such as a tuxedo. I have to say that this was very interesting and fun. Making yourself in a virtual world is a new concept to all of us and many students stayed extra time to work out a few things. I still would like to change a little bit of my appearance, and I’m sure I will along the way. Still no actual “commercializing” yet, and still no business teams formed. Looking forward to next week’s classes to begin to form our businesses!

Week 1: Session 1: The First Class

Coming into this class, I had no idea what to expect other than we will be using Second Life. Professor Hair went over the course with us and laid out what assignments we will be required to complete. However, we did not go over the components of the assignments so I still do not know how I will “commercialize a virtual world.” That doesn’t mean that I’m not excited, and it seems like Professor H. is even more excited for us. This class is brand new, one of a kind, and a class that has gained the attention of much of the business school. Even outside medias have recognized this innovative experience for RIT students. Every session is just about two hours long, and other than going over the syllabus, there was not much to be done in session one. The entire basis of the class is using the program Second Life, but in this session we did not go on to Second Life. A combination of research papers, business plans, and personal online branding will be the criteria by which the students are judged. Learning a lot about Internet marketing last quarter with Professor H. will surely give me a leg up in Commercializing Virtual Worlds. I fully expect this class to give me the same priceless learning experience that came from Internet marketing.