There aren’t many success stories of RL companies coming into Second Life and “getting it”. One of the very few ones that did were Orange – they came into the metaverse with an open mind and studied the people and the culture.
What they did was engage the SL community and contribute through the arts and music scene a key feature of the grid. They didn’t try to dominate the scene, but instead they paid attention to what people were doing, and enhanced it by putting on shows, working with ventures like Koinup and inviting residents to give classes.
In the two years they maintained a presence in Second Life, they weren’t a company which put down a bunch of sims and then wondered why nobody came to them. They became a part of the community, and this is the key to a real life corporate identity in Second Life.
The culture of the community has shaped in a way that most people on the grid don’t gravitate towards corporate sims anymore, a result of which is that they become ghost towns. There’s little point in owning a sim which nobody visits, and when they came into SL in late 2007, Orange saw that a lot of RL companies were leaving the grid for this reason. The hype of Second Life was starting to die down and media coverage was becoming negative. But in this, Orange began a project to see what they could learn from virtual worlds.
This report is due out shortly and should provide an interesting analysis of the grid and its corporate advantages. As I’ve consulted for some RL companies who have failed to “get it” when it comes to Second Life (although I’ve worked for many who have finally gotten it after a lot of discussion!), I hope Orange provide something which future corporate forays can learn from.
For now though, it’s going to be a sad farewell to the small team of people who made the Orange Island project such a great addition to Second Life.
The closing party will be on Tuesday 29th September, at 11:00 AM SLT on Orange Island’s Lower Plaza Auditorium. I’ll definitely be popping by to hear the concept and thoughts behind the sim, what they learnt and what’s next.
But for now, so long and thanks for all those goldfish.
Raul Crimson on September 27, 2009
It’s really a sad thing, as you “got it” and made a really good work. Thanks to all the Orange Island team!!!
Natty Foggarty on September 27, 2009
Wow. This is a very very cool post Prad. It is very pleasant to see that you understand and support our position on this project.
Too bad we did’nt meet before. I guess we will on Tuesday ^^
Diva Regina on September 27, 2009
Sorry to see this happen. Some great things happened on Orange.
Prokofy Neva on September 27, 2009
Prad, if Orange Island were a success story, *it would not be leaving*. You can’t jump over that cold, hard, fact.
It’s leaving because it failed at something, and they aren’t telling us what it is. Maybe it’s as simple as not MAKING BANK as Tom Hale of Linden Lab calls it, like the land baron kids do in SL.
If you don’t MAKE BANK, i.e. make a profit for your company you can measure somehow, you can’t have a success.
That is, you can lull yourself along telling yourselves stories (and having your metaversal solutions providers tell you stories and tell your story for you) about how it’s all part of “having a conversation” or “learning about social media tools” or some other blather. But at the end of the day, if you can’t sell your widget measurably, some suit somewhere in your company is going to pull the plug on your hippie cost center.
Prad Prathivi on September 28, 2009
My understanding was the primary objective was to gain an understanding of virtual worlds. If they wanted profit, they would have aggressively sold products. It’s a fair point though – I can’t see how any profit was made in the process, and it’ll be interesting to read this report to see if that is a factor in there.
No real life company is going to bother with Second Life if it doesn’t provide them with some means of profit at the end of it, be it directly or indirectly.
That said, after so many RL companies have come and gone from Second Life, I think Orange have been one of the closest to understanding this market.
Troy McConaghy on September 28, 2009
Imaginary story of similar strangeness:
“Amazon.com has spent the last 15 years learning about the ‘Information Superhighway’ and it has been a great success! Now that the project is complete (on schedule), all our websites will be shut down.”
Kriss Lehmann on September 28, 2009
I was involved at the beginning of Orange Island and Orange Island 2, and at that time (as I understood it) the goal was brand recognition through involvement with the community, a concept that many other corporations had not grasped as they made their exit. Success doesn’t always mean an *initial* monetary gain or overnight recognition. I will be very interested to read the final report as well. What we can learn from Orange is as easily applicable to businesses already in Second Life (like my own) and other who are interested in what it takes to thrive on a virtual platform.
Gwyneth Llewelyn on September 28, 2009
Real life projects have a beginning and an end. They suit a purpose, and they have a timeline. Again, I think we’re spoiled by believing that some things are “universal” and will last forever. Typical examples are “companies have offices”, “company reps have visit cards” and “companies set up websites”. We expect those to last forever.
But we forget that most things in the corporate world are transitory (well, ultimately, everything is
). An ad that announces a product will only stay up as long as the product is for sale — when the product is retired from the market, the ad campaign, no matter how wonderful it was, disappears as well. GM doesn’t announce the Ford T any longer! Similarly, we sometimes go to a trade show, a conference, a temporary exhibit and go “wow, I wish this could stay here forever!” because we have this idea that something that was so great should be expected to last forever.
But, in reality, projects come and go. It’s their nature. They don’t stay mindlessly around forever just because they’re “great”. They suit a purpose, and when that purpose is accomplished, they are finished.
I’m obviously sorry to see Orange Island go, but I fully understand your point.
Thanks to Orange for staying around for two years; I wish them success to their next endeavour, whatever it might be, and whatever form it shall take.