Second Life - Proximity
September 4, 2008 in: News
A concept that I’ve had a number of discussions with Arn and Andy Lippman about is real estate proximity. Second Life has done a great job of creating a world that enables virtual proximity - not just the core concept of avatar proximity, but in real estate.
In Second Life, it is possible to create a store front immediately next to another of similar or possibly competitive products for example. This is very powerful. It comes with many of the challenges and benefits of real estate in the real world - land value can fluctuate depending on your proximity to other attractions etc.
It’s important to consider because it is very different from the web - we do not surf the web in a sequential order based on IP address or based on alphabetical order - we surf hyperlinks. Each individual domain is completely standalone - there is no real proximity in the sense of Second Life.
Proximity can be created through hyperlinks (for example, this blog creates proximity to others with blog roll etc.) but that proximity is minor compared to Second Life. The flip side of course is that you don’t ever have to worry about your domain www.abc.com losing value because www.abd.com just moved in and hasn’t cut their lawn in weeks.
A few comments posted in response to Chris Anderson’s blog also bring to light some other challenges of proximity, a common theme these days regarding virtual worlds and just how ‘empty’ they can seem. However, I am very confident that many of these challenges will dissapear (and quickly) as popularity and adoption continues to grow.
In the mean time, I would love to hear your thoughts on proximity…
- Andy Lippman about is real estate proximity. Second Life has done a great job of creating a world that enables virtual proximity - not just the core concept of avatar proximity, but in real estate." title="LinkedIn">
September 4th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
For what it’s worth, proximity of the kind you mention was a bigger issue in Second Life before point-to-point teleporting was last implemented (the current method). Prior to that, avatars were forced to use “telehubs” which were limited and scattered across the virtual landscape - with the associated real world congestion/real estate value issues, but also with additional connectivity issues (e.g. how to keep people in the telehub area: overload the data stream so they couldn’t move away and were thus forced to wait as advertising slowly “rezzed” into view). If you’re unfamiliar with the conflag that erupted after Linden Lab’s announced changes, you might find it worth your time to read some old blog posts/comments.
Anyway, one thing I’ve not seen mentioned on this issue in most enterprise solutions deals with one of the simplest facets of proximity: can avatars shake hands? It might seem of little concern/benefit, but I’d venture quite a few virtual world regulars could get fairly animated discussing its importance. The widespread adoption of the “hug” animation in Second Life is a good example of how important personal proximity/interactivity is to those using 3D virtual environments.
September 4th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Totally agree - teleporting makes real-estate proximity far less of an issue, although the challenge of empty seeming large spaces is still, well, a challenge. I think the heat map of activity also really helps.
You bring up another excellent theme - shaking hands… I am definitely on the page that shaking hands (if done properly) in a virtual environment could potentially play an important role - it certainly does in the real world, and I don’t think the physical contact is necessarily as important as the very act itself. I’ll talk to Andy to get his thoughts on this topic posted.
October 9th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
The virtual handshake is an interesting concept and could have stronger connotations than the real thing. People shake hands not only to introduce one another (which in a virtual environment could be associated with the exchange of meta data), but also to signal agreement (The proverbial “Lets shake on it”) in a virtual environment the act of “shaking on it” could be recorded as an event signalling agreement which could have legal merit through the exchange of digital signatures associated with a media stream of a conversation or interatction that just took place.
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