Over the past week there has been some industry rumblings and general interest in Virtual World metrics, the way we measure all manner of data from basic subscriber figures, through economic indicators and technical specifications. As a result, the Metaverse Market Index has been proposed, and is busy appointing advisors and seeking funding for the Non-profit organizations phase 1 development.
Professor Robert Bloomfield of Cornell's Johnson School of management recently wrote about what the MMI is, and what is is not.
On the goals of the MMI, Bloomfield says:
The key goal of MMI is to create reliable, meaningful and consistent information about three aspects of virtual worlds: the size and engagement of its user base; the vibrancy of its economy; and the key aspects of its technology. The first two goals should help people who are making decisions to invest in virtual worlds in the absence of inter-operability; the third should help platform developers move toward inter-operability.
He also says that the MMI is seeking funding, lot's of funding, from stake holders in the Virtual Worlds space that do not develop worlds. The need to be independent from the various worlds platforms is an important part of the projects future success.
It's also important to note what the project is not. On that topic, he says:
We will also need to make sure people understand what we are not trying to do. We are not trying to impose our own definitions of what is and is not a virtual world. Raph Koster's post , along with its comments, make clear why doing so would be a mistake. Our plan is to view the metaverse very broadly-
Bloomfield will be attending the upcoming Virtual Worlds 2007 conference on behalf of the MMI and will be available to speak with companies, developers and interested members of the Virtual Worlds community next week.
Join the conversation .
Nick and Robert, I applaud your brave decision to develop a measuring stick, it is badly needed. Achieving credibility inside and outside the industry are necessary to the success of this project. Obviously true independence and financial transparency of sponsors are crucial in achieving this credibility. Its an exciting time and I wish you luck in an important but difficult endeavour.
A group of 460+ Virtual Worlds professionals have already gathered prior to the upcoming conference and are discussing some of the issues you intend to explore, come over and join the conversation.
Thanks Joi
I've pointed out that the Internet itself doesn't have a ready taxonomy. That is, sure, you can say there are "adult" sites or there is gov, org, and com, but there is nothing like the Dewey Decimal System for books. And perhaps that's normal, given the free-flowing nature of the Internet. I would hope that sort of flexibility would be kept in analyzing virtual worlds. I realize that soon, my toaster and somebody's garage door opener will be "the Metaverse" but there are worlds, and there are worlds...
I would also hope that the categorizing would not only serve investors and industry analysts but consumers.
The issue of the subscription numbers of course was already heavily parsed when Clay Shirkey lambasted Linden Lab for their inflated numbers. And to LL's credit, they've now supplied a lot more information on their economic statistics page (still often overlooked by journalists) on the "real numbers". (I continue to view the only real number as "number of people who spent more than one Linden dollar in world: 302,054 in September, for example.
A challenge will be how to get at the social and political (and influence value and spending capacity) of the very different populations that use these worlds. For example, a World of Warcraft could have 10,000 14 year old boys spending $15 a month and skill-grinding for 40 hours a week and maybe selling some game-gold on the side, who might be targeted with an ad, hypothetically, for some hip-hop CD. Second Life could have 100 35-year-old professors who log on only once a week to teach a class, or to attend a Metanomics meeting but who buy an island or hire a programmer to script something, and are targeted with car ads. Obviously, these demographics have very different purchasing power and social influence, despite their widely different hours on line or even the revenue from their subscription as it is reflected purely in "inworld" terms.
Demographics is the one thing that virtual worlds can give us that a website can't (at least not always). That alone makes them an incredibly powerful marketing tool over and above the 2D web.
A very needed and desirable concept.. would definitely be interested in being an advisor on audio feature sets of virtual world platforms
Thanks Dizzy, i'll talk to you inworld, that'd be really appreciated