Linden Labs Offers Solution Providers

Crap Mariner called to public attention that Linden Labs sent a form letter to Eshi Otawara rejecting her application to become a solution provider.  That set me thinking about solution providers.   I remember when I first heard about the Linden Labs Solution Providers.

I couldn't believe it!

Linden Labs had solutions?  Why weren't they using them?  Well, it turned out that the solutions were not for Linden Lab's problems.  (You noticed?)  The solutions were for business clients of Linden Labs.  Acually, they weren't really solutions anyway.  They were just business services, like consulting.  Being a retired consultant myself, I began to think what would happen if consultants were to turn their attention to the problem that we just noticed at Linden Lab

Oh yes, Linden Labs does have a problem.  A customer relations problem.  They have Eshi mad at them.  They have Crap Mariner mad at them -- and talking about it in his blog.  They have a lot of Eshi's friends mad at them (and Eshi has a lot of friends).    They will probably have several other bloggers commenting on their customer relations problem.  And recalling other instances of their boorish customer relations. I could tell you one about elros Tuominen -- he used to be an active artist in SL until some Linden introduced him to Linden-style customer relatiions.  But I am not mad at them  I am not even dissappointed.  

I said to myself, "Don't be mad at them.  They're doing the best they can."
And myself answered, "I know.  That's what worries me."

If I were a solution provider for them

This event shows that Linden Labs has two problems:

• Standard business problem: Inept load management
• Modern social network problem (more interesting)

Social Network Problem

Second Life is a network of social networks.   This feature is the potential basis for prodict differentiation that could defend them against rivals.  I wrote about this earlier.   Here is another network concept:

Node: (social network) An entity connected to (and part of)  a social network.  The level of influence of a node increases with the number of connections.  People with high influence may be called trend setters, community leaders, and the like. 

When you run a business dependent on social networks, you want to pay special attention to the influntial nodes.  You want to know who they are and you want to get them communicating on your side if you can.  Here are some simple measures of influnence (note the similarity to Google's methods for assessing the importance of pages gathered in search). 

• How many people on the person's friends list?
• How many people could the person contact by sending groups notices?
• What is the influence reach of the person, taking into account the influence range of all the operson's contacts (one degree of separation)?
• How many people read the person's blog?
• How often is the person mentioned in SL-related blogs and how many people see those mentions? 

To find the people with high influence, you would simply find those people with high scores on those items. 

How could Linden Labs use the information about influence to avoid events like the Eshi incident?    Your first reaction is:  "Eshi  is a prominent artist.  Don't they know that?" 

"They" at Linden Lab are not all the same.  Torley Linden would probably recognise Eshi or elros Tuominen in the e-mail inbox.  But the person handling the e-mail to the "Solution Providers" inbox may be more interested in fast turnaround than in art.  Actually, form letters are usually a sign of inadequate staffing combined with quality assessment directed toward fast turnaround.  (Form letters are the fastest way to empty your inbox and get to your coffee break.)    

It looks as if Linden Lab does not know it's customers. Some Lindens do know the customers, but that knowledge has probably not been translated into institutional memory.  Management concept: 

Instititional memory:  Institutional memory is a collective set of facts, concepts, experiences and know-how held by a group of people. As it transcends the individual, it requires the ongoing transmission of these memories between members of this group. Elements of institutional memory may be found in corporations, professional groups, government bodies, religious groups, academic collaborations.

The way you would connect an institutional memory to an inbox is to create an filter with a list of people considered to be active influencers.   The list could be built up from the data that I mentioned before or from lists produced by experienced personnel at Linden Labs.  In any case it would go to all LL people and constitute an institutional memory of people Linden Labs recognizes as people to listen to. 

Is there a chance that LL will create an institutional memory?  I doubt it. That's the problem with giving recommendations about memory.  People forget it. 

Entertainment in Second Life

The Music Scene

Cookie Farm

Our Saturday night celebration at Cookie Farm is turning into a regular.  Maybe not every week, but most weeks.  We will need more performers before we can go to solid weekly.

Arabella Steadham  made a Flicker group. Home Cooked Blues and Bluegrass.  She invites other people who enjoy our Home Cooked Music (anywhere in SL) to contribute their own pix.

Music Production in Second Life® Primer - Version 1-3

This Primer introduces music professionals to the use of the Second Life® virtual world platform for interactive music performance, promotion, production, and distribution.

Video

Brad Mactavish sent out this casting call last week.  He also submitted his pilot script to our Playreading Workshop. Below is his casting call.

The Bloodline is a new short machinima series that is now being created entirely in Second Life.  It is about two brothers, Shawn and Demitrius Dawson who are vampires. Shawn is seeking out the truth and Demitrius is carrying a dark secret.

What could this dark secret be?  How will Shawn find the truth he is seeking?

There are five main characters in this machinima and there is room for ten to fifteen extras. If you are on SecondLife and would like to participate in any way, please contact me, Brad Mactavish. I will be glad to send you information.

Auditions will be held on an individual basis. Meaning I will work around your schedule. Please drop me a note card with your information and what times and days you will be online so I can meet with you.  If you are looking for a speaking main role please be ready to use voice in game so I can hear what you sound like.

The main cast members will recieve 1000L per episode and extras will receive 600L per episode.